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Sunnyside Elementary School
On Nov. 28, there were 49 students who participated in the Sunnyside Sneakers program. It was a cool and crisp morning. This week’s winners included: Sophia Yeatman, from Mrs. O’Leary’s first-grade, and Hannah Kosek, from Mrs. Newman’s second-grade.
Arts Alive kick-off assembly is set for 2:45 p.m. Friday Dec. 7 in the large gym at Sunnyside. Please watch for the Arts Alive Performing Arts letter and registration form to come home in backpacks. The deadline to return entry forms is Thursday Dec. 20.
St. John's Lutheran Elementary School
We will again be caroling for area residents throughout the community. For a schedule, contact the school office.
Little Blessings Preschool
Preschoolers will celebrate Jesus' birth during the 10:30 a.m. worship service Sunday Dec. 2.
Students are doing a great job counting two digit numbers. Let them try it at home. They are talking about recycling, pollution and conservation in science classes.
Grades 1, 2
Penman of the Week is Emma Bohme. Busy Bees are Dru Blanchette, Nicholas Mahoney, Lydia Mason, Amber Nelson, Kaylee Roper, Tamisha Swarthout and Nina Augustine.
Grades 3, 4, 5
Students are reading “Charlotte's Web.” They are also learning about the colonists’ rights under British rule.
Grades 6, 7, 8
Students are learning about baby development during pregnancy. Students began literature circles on a fantasy novel. They chose from the following: “Redwall,” “The Hobbit,” “The Wind in the Willows,” “The Dark is Rising” and “Summerland.”
Information on the math fair coming in January was attached to Wednesday's newsletter.
Colvill Family Center
Colvill Kids Mixed Ages
Miss Lila’s classes are learning about mittens and animals this week. They will read “The Mitten” by Jan Brett, sew (lace) paper mittens together with yarn, decorate animals and retell “The Mitten.”
Colvill Kids 3’s
Miss Katie’s classes will read “Froggy Gets Dressed” by Jonathan London. They will learn some positional words using frog puppets. They also will sort winter and summer clothing and make a frog using bubble wrap.
Colvill Kids 4’s
Miss Catie’s classes will read “Bear Snores On” by Karma Wilson. They are learning the letter "Rr" with Reggie Rooster and making a book. Reminder: Parents are invited to join us to make gingerbread houses Dec. 13 or 14.
Spanish Enrichment 101
The next session of classes begins Jan. 8 and runs through April 11. This class is for 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children and includes instruction in both English and Spanish. Call Colvill at 651-385-8000 for more information and to register.
Red Cottage Montessori
Children are learning a new way to use cotton swaps and white glue to glue paper. They are making collages using paper they cut. They have mastered a stone-passing song that uses their percussion skills to keep the beat to pass stones to their neighbors.
Extended-day children have enjoyed finding a new waterfall near Hay Creek. Many children are working on “sight words” that are commonly found in their early reader books. They are playing many games with these words to memorize them as most do not sound like they are spelled. Research has been done on worms and polar bears this week by two children.
Students are looking forward to celebrating the holiday season by researching and exploring the holidays and traditions in December of many faiths. This makes our world a closer place.
His Kids Preschool
Sandy's students have discovered dinosaurs in the building. Children had footprints to follow to the classroom and dug in the sand table to find other dinosaurs. Students learned dinosaurs’ names in a match game while learning other dinosaur facts. The story "Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? Can I Please?" by Lois G. Grambling was enjoyed by the students.
3-4 Discovery Preschool
Shari and Melody's class is working on the letter "Dd" for dinosaurs. They are finding dinosaur bones in the play dough and talking about how long ago dinosaurs lived. Big brown dinosaurs were cut out and hung in the classroom. The story "How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon" by Jane Yole was read. Second step this week focused on frustration and how to calm them down when they do something hard like cutting with a scissors.
Under the Rainbow
Laurie had her class do some fun activities the week for Thanksgiving. They read "How Do You Catch A Turkey" and "Five Little Turkeys," and they talked about what turkeys wish we would eat. The children reviewed some turkey facts, did a feather count and made a Thanksgiving dinner for dramatic play. For art, they made a thankful turkey print.
Mary Ann’s class read a lot of books. They consisted of "A Plump and Perky Turkey," "Five Silly Turkeys" and "Thanksgiving Mice." We are still learning about our fall colors, the number 2, the letter Tt and circles. Our Spanish words for the week were turkey and two. We played a fun game of hide the turkey outside and for art exploration we put feathers on our turkeys.
Karmen and her class had "The Turkey Train" by Steve Metzger as book of the week. The children engaged in some group activities learning their colors, and letter recognition. For art, the children made turkey handprints and pilgrim water colors. Spanish words were blue and six. | <urn:uuid:65112e95-a597-4ece-a01b-ea2f09df77ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.republican-eagle.com/event/article/id/85147/group/News/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957164 | 1,247 | 1.585938 | 2 |
St. Benedict's Cemetery
This cemetery is located 0.1 mile north of the intersection of 67th and Ivy roads. From the intersection of Highway 2 and 66th road, turn onto 66th road, then turn the left on Ivy road until you reach the intersection of 67/Ivy. Turn left and go 0.1 mile. The cemetery is on the east side of the road.
"St. Benedict Church is the oldest parish in the Diocese of Lincoln, and its building is the oldest brick church in Nebraska. Records also suggest that St. Benedict Parish is the oldest active Roman Catholic parish in the state. St. Benedict church sits atop Nebraska City's Kearney Hill. The following story of St. Benedict Cemetery is taken from Faith & Work, a publication compiled to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of St. Benedict parish in 2006.
'St. Benedict Cemetery sits atop a Missouri River bluff approximately 2 miles southeast of the church. Trees shade the eastern slope, which faces the river. The western slope, which faces corn and soybean fields, catches the full day's sun. The older gravestones at the southern end of the cemetery bear inscriptions in German. As time passed, and the plots spread northward, English inscriptions took precedence.
The first two acres of land for the cemetery were donated in 1861 by Joseph Sand Sr. after the death of his second wife, Marianna Bach Sand. Hers is the first grave recorded. In addition, Sand later moved the remains of his first wife, Maria, and her first husband, Franz Happel, from Missouri to Nebraska City. The oldest section of the cemetery, where they lay, accommodates 600 graves in 200 plots.
In 1931, Joseph Sand Jr. donated another parcel of land to the cemetery that accommodated 996 graves in 332 plots. This donation brought the cemetery to its current size of 4.5 acres. The cemetery has always been a major concern for the parish regardless of good or bad economic times. Because so many current members are fifth and sixth generation descendants of the founding families, they donate time, labor and money to assure that gravesites are maintained and secure. A cemetery board has overseen these activities for most of the parish's history.' The recently completed Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is directly north and easily viewed from St. Benedict Cemetery." (1)
Burial Listing: A complete listing of burials can be found in the 'St. Benedict's Catholic Cemetery' document listed on the left side of this page. *(Last updated: 18 Nov 2011 by Mary Hanke)
Point of Contact:
St. Benedict's Catholic Church
411 5th Rue Street
Nebraska City, NE 68410
(1) Sand, Deanna, and Pat Waters. Faith & Work, 150 Years In the Life of St. Bendict Parish. [Nebraska City, Neb.], 2006. Print. | <urn:uuid:f60e7b28-5a49-4a25-8ea5-f75bbca6a5c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ocgs.homestead.com/SaintBenedicts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954628 | 592 | 2.203125 | 2 |
March 25, 2011 | 38 comments
March 17, 2011 | 85 comments
March 17, 2011 | 9 comments
March 16, 2011 | 8 comments
March 15, 2011 | 8 comments
Scroll through any part of the Democrats’ $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill and it won’t be long before you stumble upon an item that will have you scratching your head. I had a moment like that yesterday, when I reached page 11, and found a $35 million appropriation to the Secretary of Agriculture, “For necessary expenses of the Secretary to carry out demonstration projects to increase access to healthy foods through retail outlets.”
The allocation, it turns out, is part of a larger $400 million effort by the federal government, partnering the Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Treasury, to attempt to make more fresh produce and healthy grocery stores available to underserved areas, dubbed “food deserts,” where fast food is the often the main option. The effort has been tied together with Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity crusade.
Under the program, the federal government helps provide financing to businesses (such as farmers and grocery stores). Here’s how the Obama administration described the Department of Agriculture’s role in a February press release:
USDA’s proposed funding level of $50 million will support more than $150 million in public and private investments in the form of loans, grants, promotion, and other programs that can provide financial and technical assistance to enhance access to healthy foods in under-served communities, expand demand and retail outlets for farm products, and increase the availability of locally and regionally produced foods. USDA has a solid track record of supporting successful farmers markets, and has also invested in grocery stores and creating agricultural supply chains for them, such as in the People’s Grocery project in Oakland, CA.
If you check out the People’s Grocery website, you’ll find that its slogan is, “Healthy Food For Everyone.” As described in its “About Us” page, this means: “We believe everyone should have access to healthy food, regardless of income. We call this ‘food justice’ - the belief that healthy food is a human right.”
There are a number of things worth commenting on here. First and foremost, why should it be the role of government to subsidize private businesses to expand into these markets? Liberals could argue that the lack of healthy options in certain areas — not individual choices — are leading to rising obesity, which in turn leads to higher health care costs, which in turn leads to more government spending. But this is yet another reason to oppose national health care and another example of how big government begets bigger government — the more the government is involved in health care, the more people’s nutrition is in the interest of government, and the easier it is to justify programs such as these.
Yet even if you were to say that this is something worthwhile — which I would not say — why do we need to be spending this money at a time of massive deficits, and why is this part of a spending bill we’re told is an absolute emergency to pass by Saturday to keep the government open?
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy? | <urn:uuid:e62b3cfb-1d8b-44e6-b4af-4db2b5c6e029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spectator.org/blog/2010/12/16/the-omnibus-and-food-justice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954783 | 771 | 1.75 | 2 |
in reply to
Re^6: invoking umask command in perl
in thread invoking umask command in perl
By altering a copy, you won't change the original. The perl program gets its environment and bits and settings from the invoking process, and that one (e.g. a root shell) won't change its mind just because perl is twiddling its own copy of the big picture. There are tricks to swap copy and original, but these involve changing system files. And even so, if you change things behind the back of the program which invoked perl, it just won't notice. For an effective and persistent change of umask usually a new process chain is necessary, starting with login(1). | <urn:uuid:e948bed6-61a3-473b-a4df-45b3ce0d3d41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=907700 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920897 | 145 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Environmental Remediation and Facility Service Company Agrees to Pay $50,000 to Disaster Relief Workers
In the Fall of 2008, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, LVI recruited individuals from the Lawrence area, with a promise of work, and transported them by bus to Houston, TX. Upon arriving in Houston, work was not available for a majority of the individuals, and after spending approximately a week in Houston, they were transported by bus back to Massachusetts.
In October 2008, the Attorney General's Office began investigating LVI on behalf of workers who had not received payment from the company after spending approximately a week in Houston. After being contacted by the Attorney General's Office, LVI cooperated fully with the investigation. Although LVI believed that no additional monies were owed to any individuals, LVI has agreed to pay up to $50,000 to 159 eligible individuals.
The Attorney General's Office is responsible for enforcing the laws regulating the payment of wages laws, overtime and misclassification of employees in the Commonwealth. Workers who believe they have not been paid all their wages, including earned vacation pay wage or that their rights have been violated are strongly urged to call the Attorney General's Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465. More information about the wage and hour laws is also available in multiple languages at the Attorney General's Workplace Rights website: www.massworkrights.com.
The matter was settled by Assistant Attorney General Joanne Goldstein, Chief of the Attorney General's Fair Labor Division, and investigated by Deputy Chief of Investigations Greg Reutlinger and Investigator Elizabete Valadao, both of Attorney General Coakley's Fair Labor Division. | <urn:uuid:1098085e-5fd4-4739-b80b-3b48c5e35e1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2009/environmental-remediation-and-facility-service.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971793 | 343 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to supporters as he makes a campaign stop Thursday, Mar. 8, 2012 at the Port of Pascagoula in Pascagoula, Miss. Romney has expanded the conversation about Americans who do not owe federal income tax. (Press-Register, G.M. Andrews)
Many federal income tax filers in Alabama will end up not owing money to the Internal Revenue Service. But most of those filers will pay other taxes.
Using the same tool that estimated the federal income tax burden for certain types of filers in Alabama, other taxes paid can be estimated, as well.
For example, a single person with no children who earns $11,588 will owe less than 10 cents in federal income tax. But that individual could still contribute up to 14.4 percent of their income in other taxes, particularly if they live in Birmingham.
That includes roughly $483 in payroll taxes, to pay for Social Security and Medicare; $364 in Alabama income tax; and an additional $116 in local income tax paid to the city. Those totals combined represent 8.3 percent of this hypothetical earner's income.
This individual would also pay sales tax on all local consumption. In Birmingham, the local sales tax is 10 percent. If we assume this individual spends one third of his income on rent (not charged sales tax), and puts 3.7 percent of his income in savings (the average savings rate across the U.S. as of August), he will have spent roughly $6,821 on local consumption, with $682 of that going toward sales tax.
If the earner does not put aside any savings, sales taxes paid increase to $708. Combined with payroll taxes and state and local income taxes, that is a total tax bill of $1,672, or 14.4 percent of total income.
Here are the dollar totals and percentages of income paid in payroll, state, and local taxes, for earners making the maximum amount possible in each family situation without owing federal income tax.
- Single, no children: $1,646, 14.2 percent of income
- Single, one child: $4,805, 15.2 percent of income
- Single, two children: $6,072, 15.3 percent of income
- Single, three children: $7,187, 15.4 percent of income
- Married, no children: $2,706, 13.9 percent of income
- Married, one child: $5,746, 14.8 percent of income
- Married, two children: $7,012, 15.0 percent of income
- Married, three children: $8,563, 15.1 percent of income
Note: Figures assume resident spends one third of monthly income on rent; puts aside 3.7 percent of income toward savings (national average); and lives in Birmingham (one percent local income tax, 10 percent sales tax). | <urn:uuid:9e95742a-7ccc-4f4a-a629-fede9b925463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2012/10/alabamas_47_percent_what_taxes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933715 | 609 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Conservation & Management
The following summary is extracted from the following publication: click on the image to download a pdf.
John D. Stevens, Colin A. Simpfendorfer and Malcolm Francis
The Southwest Pacific, Australasia and Oceania region encompasses Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and numerous Pacific Island states. Its western boundary is 130ºW and the eastern boundary is 70ºE, although for the purposes of this chapter, we report only on information from between 160ºW (to the Cook Islands) and 100ºE (approximately the western boundary of the Australia Fishing Zone). Within these boundaries are substantial areas of open ocean in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, also exploited by nations from outside the region, especially for tunas and billfish. Habitats range from tropical to temperate and polar. Much of the data on fishery catches are taken from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) landings statistics, together with data produced by individual nations. The region includes parts of FAO Areas 51, 57, 58, 71 and 81. It also officially includes the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, but the difficulties of separating fishery statistics for a single country within the same ocean has resulted in the whole of Indonesia being included in the Northwest Pacific region for the purposes of this report.
Landings of sharks within the region are not as large as in some of the neighbouring regions. However, the commercial shark fisheries within two of the nations – Australia and New Zealand – are among the most researched, managed and documented in the world. Recreational fisheries that take elasmobranchs are also well developed. As such there is a wealth of information and data available for these countries that are reflected, at least in part, in the length of the sections discussing these countries in this report. Elasmobranch fisheries and landings are more poorly documented in other nations of the region.
Management and conservation
Australian and New Zealand shark populations are among the best researched and managed in the world. There are established research and monitoring programmes in all fisheries, with stock assessments produced regularly and used in the setting of management measures. Several of the fisheries in these countries are managed using Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) and/or effort controls. The research and management of fisheries in other nations in this region is limited. Australia is one of the few nations which has a Shark Assessment Report (SAR) (Rose and SAG 2001) and a National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (NPOA) (SAG and Lack 2004) under the guidelines of the FAO International Plan of Action for Sharks (IPOA-Sharks), see Fowler and Cavanagh (this volume).
Elasmobranch species within the region that are currently considered to have high conservation needs include sawfishes (all Pristidae spp.), river sharks (all Glyphis spp.) the Maugean skate Dipturus sp. and the grey nurse shark (or sand tiger) Carcharias taurus. At the time of writing Australia had listed six species of elasmobranchs under their Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) (Table 7.9). New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Island States do not have special conservation regulations for any species of elasmobranch. | <urn:uuid:ed674cac-d4d1-40ba-bdcd-68563924cc3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iucnssg.org/index.php/conservation_australiaoceania | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930882 | 686 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The folks who dubbed the swine flu piglet a pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO), just won’t let up.
“It is too early to say whether there has yet been a peak in infections in the northern hemisphere,” Reuters paraphrased the WHO as saying, “and it will be some weeks before there is a downward trend in the numbers of those catching the virus.”
Wrong across the board for both Canada and the U.S.
In the U.S., flu deaths and hospitalizations have declined for the third straight week according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Regarding Canada specifically, the WHO claims "influenza activity remains similar but [the] number of hospitalizations and deaths is increasing." But Health Canada's FluWatch website, updated weekly, begs to differ."All influenza indicators declined," according to FluWatch of November 27. Just what part of "all" doesn't the WHO understand?
Specifically, the web site states, "The number of deaths decreased slightly this week as well as the number of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and number of hospitalizations."
Logically, if U.S. and Canadian deaths, ICU admissions, and hospitalizations are all down and if you need to get infected with the flu before you can sicken or die from it, then it's hardly "too early" to say whether there's "been a peak of infections" is it?
As it happens though, both the U.S. and Canada have plenty of direct measurements of swine flu infection for the WHO to ignore. In the U.S., the number of swine flu infections that laboratories have detected has been dropping for four straight weeks and is 83 percent off its peak; in Canada, positive specimens are half what they were two weeks ago.
In the U.S., states with "geographically widespread influenza activity" has gone from 48 to just 32, while in Canada, the number of regions "reporting widespread or localized influenza activity" has declined for two weeks in a row says FluWatch. The vast majority of the country now has only "sporadic activity," including half of Ontario and almost all of Quebec. Further the "overall number of influenza outbreaks" in Canadian schools and hospitals has fallen by over half in the last two weeks.
Yet somehow in all this the WHO doesn't perceive a "downward trend." Is it disregarding data in favor of feeling chicken entrails?
While we're at it, whatever became of the WHO's "pandemic" anyway? Until swine flu trotted in, pandemics were far deadlier than the yearly outbreaks of seasonal flu. Since seasonal flu ordinarily strikes all parts of the world, what other distinguishing feature should a flu pandemic have other than severity.
Yet swine flu, according to CDC estimates, is killing Americans at a rate a third to a 12th that of seasonal flu. And that estimate is almost certainly too high. French and Japanese figures, for example, are far lower as are those collected by New York City.
Every year 2,000 to 8,000 Canadians die of flu according to Health Canada. Swine flu, conversely, in the almost eight months since the outbreak began, has killed merely 138. Worldwide, WHO figures show fewer swine flu deaths in eight months than die of seasonal flu every two weeks.
The WHO has been dishonest about swine flu from the very beginning. It's used its phony pandemic to cover up its five-year scarefest over an avian flu pandemic that never came, to feed at the trough of greater power and a fatter budget, and even to call for redistribution of international wealth on the basis of values "like community, solidarity, equity and social justice," in the words of its director.
There's no reason for the WHO now to suddenly use that ubiquitous hand disinfectant and come clean. | <urn:uuid:fadc7792-d270-45ed-a578-72594bda8a07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fumento.com/swineflu/fluscare.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963512 | 812 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Unfortunately, we live in a world where those who are vulnerable are at risk for being taken advantage of – young and old.
It’s not right, so today we, along with thousands of providers, doctors, home health agencies, and advocacy groups around the world are saying enough is enough.
Elder Abuse isn’t always an easy thing to see.
What is elder abuse?
Elder abuse refers to the intentional or neglectful acts of a caregiver, family member, friend, or other individual that lead to, or may lead to, harm of a senior citizen. The various forms of elder abuse include: physical abuse, neglect, emotional or psychological abuse, verbal abuse and threats, financial abuse and exploitation, sexual abuse, and abandonment. In some states, self-neglect is also considered elder abuse. The most common form of abuse is financial exploitation, with physical abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse following.
- Physical Abuse: Any threat to or action that physically injures an older adult.
- Emotional/Psychological Abuse: Verbal attacks, threats, isolation, or belittling acts that cause or could cause mental anguish, pain, or distress to a senior. Studies have shown verbal abuse is extremely damaging, taking an even greater toll on the mental health of women 50-79 than physical abuse.
- Sexual Abuse: Sexual contact that is forced, tricked, threatened, or otherwise coerced upon a vulnerable elder. Sexual contact with an elder who is unable to grant consent (for example an individual with advanced Alzheimer’s) is also considered sexual abuse.
- Exploitation: The illegal use of an older adult’s funds or property for the benefits of someone besides the older adult. This includes theft, fraud, and use of influence over the senior to gain control over an older person’s money or property.
- Neglect: A caregiver’s failure or refusal to provide for a vulnerable elders safety, physical, or emotional needs.
- Abandonment: Desertion of a frail or vulnerable elder by anyone who previously assumed a duty of care.
- Self-Neglect: An inability to perform tasks relating to self care, which leads to, or may lead to, harm or endangerment.
How big is the problem?
It is uncertain how often elder abuse occurs because relatively few instances, only one in six, are reported. If you exclude cases of self-neglect, the problem of underreporting becomes even more apparent, as research indicates that only one in fourteen cases of elder abuse (not including self-neglect cases) are reported to the authorities.
It is estimated that more than one in ten elders may experience some form of abuse. The large discrepancy in the cases of elder abuse that occur and those that are actually reported means that most victims are not getting the help they need.
How serious is the problem?
The personal losses related to elder abuse can be devastating and include the loss of independence, home, life savings, health, dignity, security, and death. Studies show that even victims of mild elder abuse suffer devastating consequences. Victims of mild elder abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation are at a 300% increased risk of dying in the 3 years after mistreatment compared to their non-abused contemporaries.
What are the warning signs of abuse?
Abuse is not always evident. Any change in personality or behavior should be noted and investigated further. The following are indicators (provided by the Administration on Aging) that an elder may have been abused:
- Bruises, pressure marks, broken bones, abrasions, and burns may be an indication of physical abuse, neglect, or mistreatment.
- Unexplained withdrawal from normal activities, a sudden change in alertness, and unusual depression may be indicators of emotional abuse.
- Bruises around the breasts or genital area can occur from sexual abuse.
- Sudden changes in financial situations may be the result of exploitation.
- Bedsores, unattended medical needs, poor hygiene, and unusual weight loss are indicators of possible neglect.
- Behavior such as belittling, threats, and other uses of power and control by spouses are indicators of verbal or emotional abuse.
- Strained or tense relationships, frequent arguments between the caregiver and elderly person are also signs.
So what can you do?
Report any cases or suspected cases of abuse to adult protective services or
law enforcement. You can find your state agency on ALFA’s website at alfa.org/states.
- Look for potential warning signs. Make a point of talking to the older adults in your life and make note of any shifts in personality or behavior that may signal abuse.
- Volunteer. There are many local opportunities to become involved in programs that provide assistance and support for seniors.
- Participate in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Help to raise awareness by talking about the issue.
For more information on Edler Abuse Awareness Day, please visit http://www.alfa.org/alfa/Elder_Abuse.asp | <urn:uuid:cc6d5837-0b9f-4826-b9dc-e45b65efe5e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://welcomehomehealthcare.wordpress.com/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929912 | 1,051 | 3.09375 | 3 |
The YT poster says this loud jet sound started at 9 am this morning and as of 2:40 pm the noise was still going on. He describes the roar as sounding like a whole bunch of jet engines. Yet another example of the ubiquitous sky roaring that is happening everywhere. The odd thing about these jet noises is that geographically they don’t seem to have anything in common. There is of course the famous Florida roar. Florida seems to be a place that has its share of strange sounds.
The witness says he called the small local airport to ask if they had a constant stream of jets taking off. The person at the airport said that it wasn’t coming from them and they did not hear it. They told him that they had received many calls asking the same thing. He says that as the day went on the roar became more random, stopping and suddenly starting again over time.
Below is a video of actual jet noise. This sounds nothing like a real jet. The real jet creates a Doppler effect.
Characteristics of the mystery roars tend to be:
- low frequency
- no Doppler effect and not directional
- lasts for many hours
- happens at roughly the same time each day when recurring
- starts and stops suddenly.
These sounds are definitely NOT jets.
Take a look at a similar incident in Colorado from a few days ago.
This sound occurred in Joinville, Brazil. When I heard this I thought that it had to be fake and I am still not sure. It sounds like someone dragging metal on concrete. So I dismissed it as a hoax.
So why am I posting it? Well, a few minutes later I found another “strange sound” video and was SHOCKED that they both had similar sounds.
This one was in Auckland City, New Zealand. This was heard throughout the whole city and they claim it had happened several times before they could get their camera. In the Brazilian one be sure to pay attention to the disturbing sound AFTER the clanging metallic sound.
The scraping metal sounds always occur around high rises. A poster on another Brazilian video had a theory. ”I don’t know but I believe it is an interference pattern formed by two, possibly more resonant frequencies (likely radio frequencies) crossing one another forming harmonic nodes. The two frequencies are slightly out of synch so the ship horn sound fades in and out. The reason it is happening around high-rises is that they act like gigantic tuning forks.”
Hmmmm, the tuning fork theory is certainly an interesting one. Certainly vibrations being caused by “something” might cause metal and concrete to vibrate resulting in these metallic scraping sounds. What do you think?
Strange Sounds in the Sky is now one month old. The blog is a growing library of videos (mostly Youtube) that document sky noises being heard around the world.
I’ve posted many strange sky sound phenomena videos and made a few connections between some of them.
We have categorized different types of sounds including sounds by type and sounds by location. The vast majority are jet-like roaring.
I’m unable to find videos posted in non-english languages. Sometimes these videos are reposted in english and I’m able to locate them.
Something is definitely going on out there. I wonder however if these occurrences have always happened. The information age allows us to share our experiences through various social media. Many of us carry phone cameras with us almost all the time allowing us to captures events as they happen. We can share with the entire world a few minutes later just by uploading to Youtube or other such services.
This one is notable and if it’s true it is significant. The witness described the sound as rumbling or thunder that swooshes across the sky from north to south. I have never heard thunder do that! They also state that in between the rumbling a mechanical humming could be heard. The noise lasted 40 minutes.
Loud roar in Pueblo West, Colorado. This lasted about an hour.
UPDATE 10/27: This post now has 35,000 hits in a few days! Why? It seems no more significant than any of the other sky events.
This one is strange because it sounds sort of like a roar but with other weird sounds mixed in.
This was recorded today and was posted in three parts on her YT channel. This roaring started back in early September and occurs every day. She has been periodically posting videos of this sound. She says that today the sound lasted 6 hours.
Update: I asked her if it was louder now. This is her response: “Yes, very much, every day. Louder and longer and I could hear some screeching or something today that I haven’t heard before.”
Here we go again, this time in
Virginia North Carolina. In the latest videos the sky roaring seems to be getting louder. The poster claims it’s coming from the woods but he doesn’t seem to realize it’s actually coming from the sky. There is nothing behind his house and he claims the closest thing to him is a park that’s 20 acres away. He says it sounds like whirring of a machine of some sort. But it sounds more like exactly what we have been hearing all over the world lately.
I have to admit I get a bit more concerned every time I post this stuff.
Recorded September 25th, 2011 on a lake west of Alexandria, Minnesota.
My take: According to the description this noise lasted 4 minutes and ended with a flash. The sound was accompanied by vibrations that rattled an aluminum boat nearby. You can hear the steady low-frequency rumbling very clearly. It becomes louder before the flash and then seems to diminish slowly after. There is a quick flash focused in one spot within the clouds. This event was also experienced by a person on the other side of the lake. I did a little research on Alexandria. Three weeks Four months prior to this occurrence a rare earthquake struck the same area. I would suspect that the two are related. Could the rumbling be related to seismic activity. Flashes of light are said to sometimes happen before an earthquake.
Magnitude 2.5 Earthquake Strikes Near Alexandria, Minn.: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com
Captured in Denmark.
My take: This is certainly not a sound that relates to the other strange sounds being heard around the world. It almost seems like groaning. Given that it hasn’t been recorded elsewhere and that it doesn’t really sound like it’s coming from the sky, I would consider this suspect. Still, I think it’s worth cataloging because perhaps we will encounter another video with a similar noise. I will create a new category called “Groaning Sounds”.
Wow. I’ve now found a video of the sound in another part of Denmark recorded around the same day. Viborg is 12 miles from Nivaa Denmark!
These are exactly the kind of connections I’m hoping to discover by cataloging these events.
This confirms the validity of the video above. The sound is farther away but it’s definitely the same noise.
And here it is again except in Northern Norway. The exact location wasn’t given. | <urn:uuid:14d16831-8299-4401-8254-9c89488a6a5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://strangesoundsinthesky.com/2011/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973173 | 1,522 | 2.578125 | 3 |
They were designed to create electrical impulses in damaged tissue, or route weak nervous signals around nonfunctional tissue. Although they were very sophisticated devices, it could take several days and even weeks to master their use and even then, patients rarely recovered one hundred percent of their mobility.
The Zalkonian named John Doe used motor assist bands during his rehabilitation in late 2366. He had much success with the bands due to his extraordinary physiology. (TNG: "Transfigurations") Lieutenant Worf also used the bands following his spinal injury in 2368, but he had little patience for learning how to use them. He contemplated suicide before turning to the risky genitronic replicator as treatment. (TNG: "Ethics") | <urn:uuid:4adcc65f-df23-469e-bba3-ed25e1c6e5b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Motor_assist_band | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988806 | 147 | 2.5625 | 3 |
On Individual Cups
ON THE USE OF INDIVIDUAL CUPS
The use of individual cups for the Distribution of our Lord's Sacred Blood during the Holy Supper is a late nineteenth century innovation introduced by those within the Reformed branch of Christendom for hygienic concerns. When this practice was first seriously considered by the LCMS in the mid-twentieth century, many of our pastors and theologians spoke out against it, citing many legitmate reasons why we should avoid adopting this practice. Unfortunately, over time, their voices were drowned out by popular demand and this practice has slowly become widely accepted in our synod.
This is unfortunate, because the chalice (common cup) is the traditional vessel used to distribute the Lord's Blood, for it more closely follows His mandate and best symbolizes the communion (common unity, or one-ness) we share at His altar. This is not about the validity of the Sacrament, for it is the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ that makes the Sacrament the Sacrament. He says, "This is My Body," and it is. He says, "This is My Blood," and it is. Thus, His Blood is Present, Distributed, and Received, regardless of the vessel(s) used. But, it does not follow from this that how we distribute the Sacrament, including which vessel(s) we use, is unimportant. We could consecrate trays of individual cups and then have them passed around the pews so that congregants could remain comfortably seated while receiving the Sacrament, but that doesn't mean we should do so. When discussing practices like this, what we're talking about is what is best, and when it comes to Distributing our Lord's Sacred Blood, the best (not the only) practice for those who believe, teach, and confess that what we receive in the Holy Sacrament is the very Blood of our Lord is the use of the chalice (common cup). Even our current Altar Guild Manual - LSB Edition agrees with this, noting that the preferred (best) practice is the use of the chalice. It goes on to state that, if individual cups must be used, they should be glass and not plastic, throw-away cups, recognizing that the vessel(s) we use should be reverent and dignified, given that we're dealing here with the very Blood of our Lord Jesus.
Here at Peace, the use of individual cups was introduced in the mid-1980s when there were still many unknowns concerning the AIDS virus, which was at its height. Indeed, Peace was among a great many LCMS congregations that introduced the use of individual cups at that time. While the practice of using individual cups was already found in congregations scattered throughout the LCMS, it was at this time that the practice really became widespread. One can certainly understand the concerns many had back then, but those concerns proved to be unfounded, as it was learned that you cannot contract the AIDS virus simply by drinking after someone (it is not transmitted via saliva). Still, the practice of using individual cups stuck in many places, including here at Peace. Once a practice like this is introduced, even after the reason for introducing it proves unwarranted, it often becomes entrenched. Soon, other reasons, which have nothing to do with the original reason for the practice's introduction, are created to justify the continuation of the practice. Such is life in the Church Militant. But, this does not mean that reforming such practices is impossible. It can be done. It may take lots of time and tons of patience and years of catechesis (teaching), but it can be done.
At Peace, we began reforming our Communion practice back in 2006. This was done gradually and was accompanied by deliberate catechesis and a plethora of open discussion. The only thing we changed initially was the way in which our altar guild handled the used, plastic individual cups after the Divine Service. Rather than throwing them away as they had been doing, they were taught and trained to cleanse them in a reverent manner before discarding them, since they contained remnants of our Lord's Blood in them. Then, we spent over a year and a half discussing how we could reform our practice further to improve upon the reverence our Lord's Sacred Blood most surely deserves. Eventually, in the fall of 2007, we arrived upon a practice that had us using a pouring chalice and making the switch from plastic individual cups to individual glasses. The individual glasses were filled from the pouring chalice after the Consecration, so that all who received from the individual glasses were technically receiving from the same chalice from which the majority drank. The individual glasses were placed right back into the tray by those who received from them (previous to our reform, those who partook from the plastic individual cups would take them away from the altar and place them in a basket that was located in the front pew). After all had received, whatever remained was consumed by the pastor at the altar and the vessels, including the individual glasses that had been used, were reverently cleansed at the same time. Thus, we retained the use of individual glasses, but greatly improved upon our practice in using them.
The practice described above remained in effect for five years. Over time, those who received from the individual glasses began making the switch to the chalice on their own until, in the fall of 2012, there were none who remained using them. It was then that we became a chalice-only congregation again, finally returning to the practice that existed in our congregation for its first twenty-five years of existence, and that had existed in the whole church catholic until the late nineteenth century. An added blessing to this was our ability to gift another congregation with the pouring chalice we had used in our reform, so that they could improve upon their practice, as we had done. We were also able to gift still another congregation with our individual glasses, so that they could make the switch from using plastic to glass as an initial reform to their Communion practice. Finally, we were able to purchase a beautiful new chalice from which all the saints at Peace are blessed to receive our Lord's Sacred Blood for the forgiveness of their sins and strengthening of their faith. The Lord is good! He does all things well.
For more information on this topic, the following papers are provided for your perusal and study: | <urn:uuid:fc6c02a6-4cf0-4e76-b5cd-988169c46b35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peacealma.org/on_individual_cups | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982527 | 1,322 | 2.25 | 2 |
(Welcome Parents Magazine Guests!) Everyone knows that on Chanukkah (Hanukkah or Hanuka- however you want to spell it!) you eat oily foods. The oily foods most connected with Chanukkah are potato latkes (pancakes) and sufganiot (donuts.) This tutorial will show a very simple latke pattern.
- Felt or other fabric
- stuffing (I used old worn out tshirt material)
1. Cutting: Latkes are not a particular shape, they are sort of round, but not exactly so cut two identical roundish shapes by folding over or layering your fabric of choice. As you can see, mine was brown felt. I cut my felt in an irregular oval/rectangular shape with scallopy edges.
2.Filling: I decided to top-stitch this latke but you could also stitch on the reverse side leaving an opening, reverse the latke to the correct side and then fill it. For a top stitching scenario, it is necessary to layer your filling between your two pieces. My filling was old t-shirts cut into rectangles smaller than the length and breadth of the latke.
3. Stitching- I stitched from the outside in in a circular pattern but one could start from the center and move outwards or write “latke” or any pattern.
I chose brown felt and pink thread for this latke (see top photo of the latke in the frying pan,) but one could also reuse old t-shirts and use fabric markers or whatever material and thread of interest.
I am making a sufgania (donut) for my daughter with t-shirt material using a pom pom as the jelly filling. She has been asking me to finish it, a few times a day and I only started it yesterday. The latke has been a big hit with her (she even brought it for “show and tell”) and I have also been asked to make some more latkes (for someones besides my daughter.) I think I’ll ask the chug (class) if they’d like to make them too. I forgot to bring it up last week but not to worry they’re doing fun projects. | <urn:uuid:b8b8c0b1-33b4-46e8-8902-5079283dfebd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://birkatchaverim.com/wordpress/craft/felt-food-latkes-tutorial/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953795 | 471 | 2.21875 | 2 |
About MeHi. I'm Mike Kane, a Philadelphia guy investing in early stage venture companies. I co-founded Pour Richards as a way to bring interesting people together to talk about ideas. This saved me the enormous trouble of having to be interesting myself.
Category Archives: Political Theory
Idea**: In the next five years in the US, democracy itself will come into question. Argument: Democracy requires four things to support the central concept that every vote be treated equally. Each of these four premises has individually been questioned, … Continue reading
The recent controversy about the timing of the president’s job speech brings to mind Plato’s theory of knowledge versus mere opinion. Continue reading
In a republic, elections are especially important as the way in which competing interest groups have a venue and a voice. But there are some divisions that elections and political debate cannot bridge. In those cases, government has used two tools to remedy the divide: reform of conditions, such as labor laws, and expansion of rights, such as in civil rights gains. But the current divide between those who benefit from the public sector and those who fund it is an especially challenging divide, because these two tools, rights and reform, are not available to the government since each side in the debate has claimed one of those tools for itself. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:e1e80379-ea22-4933-a8af-bbe862a7489e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pourrichard.com/category/political-theory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960981 | 267 | 1.75 | 2 |
Lucrecia Martel is one of the most distinctive auteurs to be associated with the “New Argentine Cinema”, an umbrella term used to describe the films of young directors who began to work in the aftermath of the financial meltdown of their country towards the end of the ’90s. In spite of Argentina’s economic difficulties, a generous system of state funding (fostered by the National Institute for Film Arts [INCAA] and often aided by North American and European money) has contributed to the sustained output of this new generation. Their films have garnered numerous nominations and prizes on the international festival circuit and received a considerable amount of critical attention. Martel, a key figure in this context, does not consider that this generation can be described as a “movement”, as they do not share a common programme or manifesto, and make films that are very different in terms of aesthetics, technique and themes (1). In tone and approach their work is a departure from the films of the previous generation, which much more directly and openly dealt with the damage inflicted by the military dictatorship that ruled the country until the mid-1980s. However, many of them, Martel included, working within an art house, low budget and experimental mold, focus on contemporary environments and milieus. Through their subtle portrayals of character psychology and relationships, they also provide a window on Argentine social mores and existential difficulties.
La Niña Santa (The Holy Girl) is the middle film in the Salta trilogy, preceded by La Cienaga (The Swamp, 2001) and followed by La Mujer sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman, 2008). Salta is the northern region of Argentina where Martel grew up – a Catholic, conservative area towards which Martel has conflicting feelings (2). Besides their location and use of female protagonists, these three films share a focus on a stagnant and ineffective middle class, elliptical and ambiguous narrative structure that does away with introductions and conclusions, recurrent symbolism, dense and suggestive soundtracks, a predominant use of a static camera, and very close and crowded compositions. Martel has said that the films are loosely autobiographical, or rather, “memory” films, in which she elaborates on aspects of her own childhood and adolescence growing up in similar environments. La Niña Santa is set in the Hotel Termas which she visited with her family as a child. Martel has also talked extensively about her lost Catholic faith and her problems with traditional family structures (3).
Martel’s work has been described as “minimalist”, a term often disappointing and lacklustre when applied to cinema. It certainly does not do justice to her complex characterisations, her use of dialogue and spaces, and her extraordinary sound design. In her films Martel explores the constraints and demands that religion, family and class impose on individuals, and the moral and ethical muddles that ensued. This materialises most clearly in her claustrophobic, disorientating, and layered mise en scène.
La Niña Santa is set in a large hotel where a convention of ear specialists is taking place. The hotel is owned by Helena (Mercedes Morán) and Freddy (Alejandro Urdapilleta), mother and uncle of the girl in the title, although it is the team of employees supervised by head housekeeper, Mirta (Marta Lubos), who make things function. The film begins with a group of school girls listening to their catechism teacher singing a religious song which contains the question that will drive part of the plot: “What is it, God, you want from me?” Amalia (María Alche), the teenage protagonist, and her friend Josefina (Julieta Zylberberg), try to make sense of the contradictory pleas in the lyrics: “Give me wealth or poverty, consolation or despair, heaven or hell”. The singer is overwhelmed by emotion, and cries. The girls are taken aback by her tears. An unclear and mysterious photograph is being circulated amongst the girls. There is whispered gossip about the teacher’s passionate kisses with a man other than her boyfriend. Muffled voices from the outside reach the room. This opening sequence introduces some of the film’s key themes: the potentially warped links between the spiritual and the physical, the ambiguous meanings of images, words and gestures, the adolescent negotiation of new bodily urges, and the concomitant confusion that arises – one that stays with many of the adult characters.
At the heart of the film is the portrayal of Amalia’s sexual awakening, juxtaposed not only with her intense Catholic indoctrination but also with a range of unorthodox sexual behaviours and encounters involving all of the main characters: Dr Jano (Carlos Belloso), the doctor who becomes the object of desire of both mother and daughter; Amalia’s best friend Josefina; Amalia’s mother and uncle; other doctors participating in the convention. Sexual tension abounds in the rarefied environment of the hotel; characters are often thrown into uncomfortable intimacy in the many bedrooms. Martel casts a critical eye on family and class relationships and there is plenty of simmering tension between parents, children, spouses, servants and hotel guests. Amalia eventually decides that her divine mission will be to “save” Dr Jano, but as the opening song suggests, the alternative – damnation – might be the outcome of her crusade.
The world of the senses – particularly hearing – is foregrounded in Martel’s film. This soundscape includes an astonishing array of noises, human voices (both on- and off-screen), and some music. The Theremin, an electronic instrument that is controlled by physical movement but isn’t touched, is part of a crucial scene and a suitable choice in a film where sound is both so important and so strange, intensifying mundane events such as waking up in bed. There even seem to be buzzing insects in most rooms. The spoken word is often misheard or misunderstood. Amalia’s mother suffers from tinnitus, an ear condition that produces buzzing in one’s ears; during a hearing test she mishears “beso” (I kiss) as “rezo” (I pray).
In spite of the claustrophobia and unease of The Holy Girl, there are frequent flashes of humour in the film. For example, there is a reversal of horror movie convention by having a ghost-like girl haunt the man: Dr Jano is scared of Amalia who slides behind curtains and enters rooms at night. Helena’s narcissistic dance in front of a mirror is interrupted by Mirta, who wants to pour vinegar on the kids’ heads to kill their lice. A naked young man falls off a window and stumbles into a family living room full of school children, interrupting their homework hour. A maid seems to be employed full time to spray the rooms with air freshener. Or is she killing flies? As with a lot in this film, it is open to interpretation.
- See Chris Wisniewski, “When Worlds Collide: An Interview with Lucrecia Martel”, Reverse Shot no. 25, 2009: http://www.reverseshot.com/article/interview_lucrecia_martel.
- See Demetrios Matheou’s interview with Martel in “Vanishing Point”, Sight and Sound vol. 20, no. 3, March 2010, pp. 28-32.
- See the quotations from Martel cited in Joanna Page, Crisis and Capitalism in Contemporary Argentine Films, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, p. 191; and also the DVD interview, “La familia es una enfermedad”.
La Niña Santa/The Holy Girl (2004 Argentina 106 mins)
Prod Co: Lita Stantic Producciones/La Pasionaria SRL/R & C Produzioni/El Deseo SA Prod: Lita Stantic Dir: Lucrecia Martel Scr: Lucrecia Martel, with contributions by Juan Carlos Domenech Phot: Felix Monti Ed: Santiago Ricci Art Dir: Graciela Oderigo Mus: Andres Gerszenzon
Cast: María Alche, Mercedes Morán, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, Julieta Zylberberg, Marta Lubos | <urn:uuid:12775d86-3165-4008-95e3-a0a9a9313234> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sensesofcinema.com/2011/cteq/la-nina-santa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933252 | 1,777 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Scramble for ND Senate Candidate in Minot DistrictBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Republican incumbent didn't file the paperwork required to get on the ballot. Democrats couldn't find anyone willing to run.
By: Dale Wetzel, Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Republican incumbent didn't file the paperwork required to get on the ballot. Democrats couldn't find anyone willing to run.
The result? A legislative district in north Minot will go into the June primary election without a state Senate candidate, and there's an outside chance that neither party will elect anyone in November.
"It was just a comedy of errors," Republican state Sen. Karen Krebsbach said Tuesday.
Krebsbach and District 40's House Republican incumbents, Matt Klein and Robert Frantsvog, did not submit personal financial disclosure statements to Ward County's auditor ahead of the filing deadline earlier this month. Their filings also lacked sworn statements, which are required by state law, attesting that the three candidates wanted to be on the ballot.
Krebsbach said there was a misunderstanding about whether the needed paperwork had been turned in.
The district's Democrats thought they had a Senate candidate lined up, but the person withdrew at the last minute, said Louis Pinkerton, a Democratic state House candidate in District 40.
Pinkerton and Sue Olafson, of Minot, will be listed on the primary ballot as the Democratic candidates for the district's two House seats. The two Republican spots on the ballot, which normally would be filled by Klein and Frantsvog, will be blank.
"It's kind of surprising how much trouble there is this time around" in recruiting candidates, Pinkerton said Tuesday.
Secretary of State Al Jaeger said Krebsbach, Klein and Frantsvog may still qualify for the November ballot if each can get at least 143 write-in votes — 1 percent of the district's population — in the June primary. Democrats can use the same provision to put their own Senate candidate on the November ballot, he said.
If neither party can inspire the needed number of write-in votes, candidates would still have the option of petitioning to get on the November ballot as independents, without any party identification, Jaeger said.
Krebsbach said she, Klein and Frantsvog would be distributing information about write-in procedures in the run-up to the June 12 vote.
"If we don't have that many friends in our district that are willing to go a little extra for us at this time, I don't think we'd have much success in the general election," Krebsbach said. "It isn't an insurmountable amount."
Both Republicans and Democrats have a handful of vacant spots on their fall legislative tickets, which have 25 state Senate seats and 50 House seats up for election. The balloting is not expected to shift the balance of power in either the House or Senate, where Republicans hold two-thirds majorities.
Republicans have no Senate candidates in District 20, which includes Traill County and chunks of Cass and Grand Forks counties in eastern North Dakota's Red River Valley, or in District 26, which includes Sargent County and parts of three rural neighboring counties in North Dakota's southeastern corner. Both districts have Democratic incumbents.
Democrats also have no candidate to challenge incumbent Republican state Sen. Jerry Klein in District 14, which includes Kidder, Wells, Sheridan and Pierce counties and the western half of Benson County in central North Dakota.
Election filings show that Democrats have six House candidate vacancies in four districts, while Republicans have five in four districts.
North Dakota has 47 legislative districts, each of which is represented by a senator and two House members. Typically, the general election features single Republican and Democratic candidates competing for each Senate seat, and two GOP and two Democratic hopefuls fighting for the district's two House seats. The top two finishers in each House race are elected.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:f76ff99b-7cfe-46a1-a41c-2efd8b84ac81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/13355/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96509 | 831 | 1.695313 | 2 |
BERLIN — With the fall of the communist GDR and its infamous Stasi only 21 years behind it, the German capital is grappling with news that city police may have obtained and combed through millions of connections worth of cell phone data since 2009.
The German watchdog portal netzpolitik.org announced Thursday it had obtained documents proving police obtained mass amounts of cellular data following a series of car burnings in the Berlin borough of Friedrichshain.
“Berlin Police and the city’s Public Attorney’s Office requested and received the ‘collection and transmission of all traffic and connection data’ of a particular municipal district at the end of 2009,” the report from netzpolitik.org said, complete with a link to the document and map of the affected area.
The news has elicited heavy criticism from members of the city’s Green Party, lawyers and data privacy advocates alike, who suspect the findings confirm what they have long feared - that a controversial data retention law may be too subject to interpretation.
Details of the Berlin case were sought by netzpolitik.org after the discovery of a similar affair which had taken place in Dresden. The data retained includes information about who, when, how long and with whom a person phoned, although no actual contents of the conversation are saved, the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel reported.
The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled in March 2010 that the data retention law enabled a violation of constitutional rights, after which telecommunications companies were to longer required to retain data, the daily said. Privacy experts suspect, however, that the practice is still in place via a legal “gray zone” on the matter.
Sönke Hilbrans, Vice Head of the German Association for Data Protection, told Der Tagesspiegel that he doubts legislators intended for the mass analysis of cellular data - which can involve thousands of cell phone numbers - to be used as a standard investigative tool.
“From a technical point of view there practical objections to the investigative method,” the lawyer said. “The effectiveness of cellular data analysis is typically extremely limited.”
As Hilbrans pointed out, police obtained little helpful information from the data analysis they ran, Der Tagesspiegel confirmed.
“A cellular query can affect thousands of bystanders, depending on how the search is divided up,” Hilbrans told the paper, adding that anyone who lives, works or moves in the area surrounding a crime scene could be subject to data collection.
“So it doesn’t just feel like you could be monitored at any time. Thousands of cellular connections make up a powerful data set, meaning that the feeling isn’t so far from the truth.”
The Green Party convened this weekend, saying it plans to press the Berlin Senate to “explain gaps, disclose all details of what happened, and to ensure that in the future, a disproportionate amount of cellular phone data not be collected, analyzed or stored again,” Der Tagesspiegel said.
Photo: Flickr/Jon Smith | <urn:uuid:e8e00056-b8af-4d72-86b2-77d294e51850> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global-observer/in-berlin-cell-phone-privacy-woes-surface/3132 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920855 | 637 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The recent mass killings by mentally unstable individuals with high-powered weapons have forced everyone, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), to open up a dialogue about how to put an end to it.
Some, such as NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, propose that we have armed guards and teachers in every school. Not that long ago this would have been laughable. Now Utah is already training its teachers to arm themselves for self-defense.
Others advocate limiting semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines. Liberals favor this, but face staunch opposition from conservatives who believe that any ground given up moves them to the total gun ban approach found in Great Britain, which wouldn’t even let some of its own Olympic team practice.
But many Americans are simply “voting with their credit cards.” Rifles are flying off the rack at gun stores, while 30-round magazines are on back-order all over the Internet.
Insuring the way
One way to end this arms race, suggests the British-based magazine The Economist, is mandatory insurance: Gun owners would have to buy liability insurance against the threat that their guns would do damage.
It’s easy to understand because it’s like auto insurance. Faster and more dangerous cars carry higher insurance premiums, as do drivers with a plethora of speeding tickets and accidents. Owners of firearms deemed more dangerous would pay more to insure them.
The owner of a single-shot .22 caliber rifle would pay a significantly lower rate than the owner of a Bushmaster military-style rifle. Similarly an older person with no record would pay the minimum to protect their home, while a younger individual with a record of driving under the influence (DUI) and/or domestic violence might pay a premium, even if there was no conviction. Multiple guns, like multiple cars, would require you to pay more.
Taxation with representation
Advocates of this plan say the burgeoning cost of gun insurance would force gun owners with multiple high-powered weapons to either sell or turn in their firearms. It would likely prove to be less confrontational than a Congressional battle like the one being fought over the budget deficit. It accomplishes the same purpose and thwarts bringing up Second Amendment rights.
Stating the obvious
But here are the caveats:
- There are 300 million guns in this country, many of which are unregistered. Gun owners would have to register their firearms to insure them, a proposal which is becoming more unlikely since a New York newspaper published the names and addresses of registered gun owners, making them potential targets for criminals who want their weapons.
- Each state would have to pass its own laws requiring gun insurance, since the federal government can’t usurp the state-run insurance industry. States such as Texas would probably never pass such laws, thus creating the same situation of unequal laws now in effect regarding gun registration and concealed carry.
- Many people won’t voluntarily insure their guns unless they see a potential liability. We insure our homes because we’re afraid someone may trip and fall on our doorstep and possibly sue.
Theoretically you would also be liable if someone borrows or steals your gun and uses it to commit a crime. However, courts have been reluctant to uphold such lawsuits. Cities which have attempted to sue gun makers for the damage their products do have been, so-to-speak, shot down. The courts have continually ruled that there is no product liability if something does what it is intended to do. And there’s no denying that guns do kill.
The Economist points out that the NRA itself offers liability coverage. But when I checked the NRA’s insurance website it showed that the liability is only offered in certain circumstances such as self-defense, which is why the cost is only $165 a year for $100,000 of insurance. The NRA is basically talking about legal costs, which, for homeowners attacked in their own residences and who fight back, is usually minimal. Most people who are attacked within their own home are never charged and sometimes even praised.
So it appears that the answer is that there is no good answer, and especially no answer which would satisfy both sides. Above all, no insurance company wants to be branded as the one that insured the guns involved in a massacre. | <urn:uuid:9ac74dbc-8278-454a-bf3c-31d005aaecf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.insure.com/2013/01/02/would-firearms-insurance-kill-gun-sales/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977926 | 880 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Is there polytheism in the Bible?
Polytheism is a term meaning the worship or belief in more than one god. In the ancient days, humanity used gods as a means of explaining their lives. Today we have science and observe cause and effect relationships, but before this existed people had no information on the stars, the sea, the rivers, the sun, etc.
For example, agriculture was, and continues to be, a major industry. The very life of an economy was dependent on the fertility of the land. Weather had a great effect on this; consequently, many in the ancient world devised the god, Baal, to oversee weather patterns and fertility rites. Baal was commonly worshipped throughout the Old Testament.
Some suggest God was cruel to the worshippers of Baal, Molech, and their pagan gods. We should keep in mind God's rationale. Molech, for example was an ancient fire god. The worshippers of Molech would lay their children in fire pits, where the children would pass through the fire to Molech. Furthermore, child sacrifice was not restricted to Molech. The notion of child sacrifice causes us to recoil in horror. Imagine how much more offensive this action would be to the heavenly Father of that child.
. . . "Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal - something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind" (Jeremiah 19:3-5).
These idols were not gods; they were merely ideas. Worship is defined as a reverent love or devotion. An idol is anything that replaces, or is worshiped along with God, as God. Polytheism is a sin. As Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." It could be said that our society is based upon the accumulation of wealth; as a consequence, some worship both God and money. This is an example of polytheism.
We should not ignore its serious consequences of polytheism. We are created for God, not for our own desires. The question is whether or not you wish to serve the one true and living God, or do you wish to travel down another path?
Learn More about God!
Learn about Polytheism!
Like this information? Help us by sharing it with others using the social media buttons below. | <urn:uuid:2808d2ef-c966-4767-b19b-4dd3116bd3b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allabouthistory.org/polytheism-in-the-bible-faq.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968907 | 624 | 2.546875 | 3 |
- by Nicholas Burns and Stephen Kinzer
In this Wednesday, March 14, 2012 file photo, Maj. Matt O'Donnell of Glenelg, Md. turns away from rotor wash as Osprey aircraft carrying the delegation of U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta leaves from Forward Operating Base Shukvani, Afghanistan. (Scott Olson/AP)
With the Iraq War recently ended, the Afghanistan War winding down, and a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program raising the prospect of a third U.S. military intervention in the Middle East this century, what should the next president do?
Veteran Middle East observers Nicholas Burns and Stephen Kinzer weigh in.
Nicholas Burns is professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He served 27 years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was under secretary of state for political affairs from 2005 to 2008.
The next president will face the most daunting set of foreign policy challenges since World War II. Because the United States remains — economically, politically, militarily and culturally — the most powerful nation on earth, it must continue to be willing to lead in confronting those challenges. We must avoid the temptations at either extreme to act unilaterally or alternatively, to retreat into isolationism.
Iran is, in my view, the number one national security concern the U.S. faces in 2013. A nuclear-armed Iran that continues as the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world is a grave danger not only to the U.S. but to Israel and our Arab allies in the Middle East.
However it makes no sense to go to war without first making every attempt at direct negotiations aimed at stopping Iran short of a nuclear weapon. The U. S. and Iranian governments have not had a sustained, strategic discussion for 32 years. I would advise the president to pursue diplomacy in 2013 while preserving the right to use force to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a last resort. We should also close ranks with Israel and achieve a common strategy with the Israeli government.
In Afghanistan, it is critical to continue negotiating an end to the war with the Afghan and Pakistani governments, the Taliban and other interested parties towards a cessation of hostilities. While most of the U.S. forces will depart in 2014, we will need to preserve a modest force to combat al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Our goal should be to support the continuation of the Afghan government and no return of the Taliban.
The Arab Revolutions that began in Tunisia and Egypt 20 months ago represent the beginning of a process that could continue transforming the Middle East for a generation. There is no single formula for how the U.S. should respond as this process unfolds. However, we — and the world — will be best served if we remain engaged, work closely with our allies to support reform-minded governments and those who advocate peaceful, democratic change. We need to continue to oppose violent extremism and must reinforce security for our embassies and consulates in the region.
Stephen Kinzer is professor of international relations at Boston University. A long-time foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe and The New York Times, his most recent book is “Reset: Iran, Turkey and America’s Future.”
U.S. military intervention around the world has unanticipated consequences and almost always ends badly. We see this clearly in the Middle East.
The U.S. and Iran have the most dysfunctional international relationship in the world. Had we not overthrown the democratically elected, constitutional government of Iran in 1953, and then spent 24 years propping up a brutal dictator, we might at least have diplomatic relations with the nation that sits in the heart of the Middle East.
In Afghanistan, our “original sin” was arming and training jihadis to fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Without our efforts then, the Taliban as we know them today would not exist.
Last year’s overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has resulted in the destabilization of neighboring Mali, as elite ethnic Touareg fighters from the Libyan Army fled with their heavy weapons from the new U.S.-backed regime. Now al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has established control over a broad swath of northern Mali — an area the size of Texas.
Long-term, the greatest foreign policy challenges the U.S. faces are in East Asia. But currently, because such so much of our military and diplomatic resources are tied down in the Middle East, we are unable to look forward and devote sufficient attention to the rest of Asia.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, the next president will have to resist the temptation to get militarily sucked back into the problems those countries will inevitably suffer through in their post-war periods. The president will also have to resist the initial tendency to drift from the increasingly brutal economic sanctions imposed on Iran to outright warfare with that country. Precisely because we are so powerful, the U.S. desperately needs a more humble attitude as we consider how and whether to intervene around the world.
- WATCH video of these lectures — plus a Q & A with Nicholas Burns and Stephen Kinzer — here.
A special series by Cognoscenti and the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs at Northeastern University.
- 10/2/12 Larry Summers and Greg Mankiw: Taxes And Spending
- 10/2/12 Thomas Kochan and John Kwoka: Economic Recovery
- 10/10/12 Barry Bluestone and Katharine Bradbury: Income Inequality And Social Mobility
- 10/17/12 Graham Allison and Juliette Kayyem: National And Homeland Security
- 10/24/12 Nicholas Burns and Stephen Kinzer: Foreign Policy
- 10/31/12 Michael Dukakis and Wendy Parmet: The Future Of ‘Obamacare’
- 11/8/12 David Seltz, James Roosevelt, Regina Herzlinger and Stephen D’Amato: Health Care Cost Containment
- 11/21/12 Edward Powell, Jon Feinman and Edward Davis: Gun Violence In Cities
- 12/5/12 Paul Toner, Jim Stergios and Tassy Warren: K-12 Education And Early Childhood Development
- 12/12/12 Eva Millona, Jeff Jacoby and Robert Hedlund: Immigration Reform
- 12/19/12 Deval Patrick and Michael Dukakis: Leveraging The Power Of The Oval Office
More about the Open Classroom:
The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the writer and do not in any way reflect the views of WBUR management or its employees. | <urn:uuid:8b7cc2d2-914d-49f2-9d15-98a6347ff8a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cognoscenti.wbur.org/2012/10/24/advice-foreign-policy-burns-kinzer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92173 | 1,371 | 1.945313 | 2 |
A 191-mile tributary of the Alabama River, the Cahaba includes a stretch of free-flowing river that's 140 miles long —the longest stretch of its kind in the state of Alabama and one of the longest in the Southeast. What's more, it shelters more fish species per mile than any other river in the country. There are 13 species of snails in the Cahaba that are found nowhere else in the world, Nijhuis writes, and "several years ago, a Georgia botanist named Jim Allison identified eight previously unknown flower species along the river, an almost unheard-of haul in contemporary North America."
Although the Cahaba River has retained a remarkable number of its native species, there have also been devastating losses: "Because of water pollution and other stresses such as sediment from erosion, almost a quarter of its original complement of mussel species has disappeared, and snails and fish are thought to have experienced similar declines."
In fact, Nijhuis reports, "Alabama now leads the lower 48 in extinctions, due mostly to disappearances among its freshwater fauna: the Coosa River, which runs alongside the Cahaba a few dozen miles to the east, lost 34 species of snails—half its entire inventory—in the 50 years between 1914 and 1964. This is considered by many experts to be the largest recent extinction event of any kind in the United States."
In its current condition, particularly after the 2006 demolition of the Marvel Slab dam and road crossing, the Cahaba is both a museum of rare Southeastern river species and a laboratory for their recovery.
Not surprisingly, photographs by Beth Maynor Young accompany Nijhuis's story. Young has been photographing the Cahaba River for more than 20 years. From 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday, July 24, she will be signing copies of her new book Headwaters: A Journey on Alabama Rivers at Maralyn Wilson Gallery in Forest Park.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine | <urn:uuid:f07f85bb-39c5-49c9-9285-bfba48a0f1db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bhamweekly.com/birmingham/article-983-the-cahaba-current.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956318 | 412 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Map 2: Bentonville Battlefield.
This map shows the fighting on March 19, 1865, the first day of the Battle of Bentonville. The arrows indicate movement of troops. The solid lines indicate the different positions where troops were stationed to fight.
Questions for Map 2
1. How close did the fighting come to the Harper House?
2. Why might the Harper House have been chosen as the field hospital over the other homes and structures in the map during the Battle of Bentonville?
3. How do you think the injured were evacuated from the battleground?
* The map on this screen has a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), and therefore will print poorly. You can obtain a high quality version of Map 2, but be aware that the file may take as much as 30 seconds to load with a 28.8K modem. | <urn:uuid:80d847af-1868-4ac0-a1b3-61edf05e3771> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cr.nps.gov/nR/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/69bentonville/69locate2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958547 | 177 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Gila County simple Jobless Rate chart
Gila County remains mired in a downturn that stubbornly refuses to turn around, with unemployment stuck at 9.6 percent — a full 2.3 percent above nearby Maricopa County.
On the other hand, at least we’re not struggling with Apache County’s 18 percent or Yuma County’s 31 percent.
The frustrating July numbers came as the state imposed new requirements that the unemployed document their long, futile search for work — triggering long lines at many unemployment offices.
Last year, the Arizona Legislature opted out of a mostly federally funded program to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed out of work, ensuring that tens of thousands of residents would lose their benefits.
Unfortunately, the steady declines in the state’s unemployment rate at that time has stalled, leaving levels stubbornly high month after month — especially in rural areas like Rim Country.
Some 2,183 Gila County residents were registered for unemployment last month. Estimates suggest that a nearly equal number are just barely getting by in part-time jobs or have given up the search.
The Arizona economy overall has improved markedly in the last year and now ranks as one of the 10 fastest-growing states in the country. However, much of that recovery has come in Maricopa County, where the rate in July dropped to 7.3 percent.
Statewide, the rate rose slightly to 8.3 percent — mirroring the national figure.
A year ago, the state’s unemployment rate stood at 9.6 percent compared to a U.S. rate of 9.1 percent.
The Arizona economy normally sheds jobs in July. The decline in July this year was only about half the normal loss, according to an analysis released by the Arizona Department of Administration.
The big losses once again came in the government sector — especially schools. Many school districts in Arizona laid off employees as they struggled to cope with another year of cutbacks. Government shed 16,000 jobs in July, mostly in local school districts.
The biggest gains by sector came in financial activities, manufacturing and construction.
The Leisure and Hospitality Industry — crucial to Rim County’s economy — lost 5,700 jobs statewide — a 2 percent decline.
Gila County mostly just marked time for another month.
The county has 22,634 people in the civilian labor force, 2,183 looking for work. Those numbers have barely changed since January, when Gila County had 21,882 people in the workforce and 2,295 people looking for work.
In January, the unemployment rate stood at 10.5 percent.
The plight of the long-term unemployed remained the most devastating — and vexing aspects of the picture for yet another month.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that some 5.2 million Americans have been looking for work for at least 27 weeks, which puts them in the “long-term unemployed” category. That constitutes about 41 percent of the 12.8 million Americans looking for work.
In most past periods of high unemployment, people cycle in and out of the work force. The growth of a group who can’t find work month after month as they exhaust all their resources makes this downturn particularly damaging for many people.
Although the economy generated an extra 163,000 jobs in July, that just managed to absorb new people moving into the workforce — resulting in a slight rise despite the job gains.
The national jobs report noted that some 8.2 million workers are working part time, although they want to work full time. Another 2.5 million want jobs, but have given up actively looking for work. | <urn:uuid:4b4ab19a-0e64-4010-990b-36ecdd586c4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2012/aug/28/gila-county-jobless-rate-stuck-96-percent/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956212 | 757 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Posted by: Jaideep Khanduja
Project data, project management, Software Project
Data collected for any purpose is useless in three cases – one, if it is not collected in standardized form, two, if it is being collected just for the sake of collection thereby not doing any analysis and three, if no thought process is gone on analyzed data to improve the situation.
In all the three conditions, the purpose is not being catered to. But let us understand that different organizations in terms of data collection fall in different categories as mentioned above.
The organization falling in first category are just collecting data blindly without any serious thoughts gone into the process. The second category organizations are a little better than the first condition because the data being collected is in organized or structured form but no analysis is being conducted on that data. But in case the organization wakes up and plans to do some analysis – atleast they will have the base data in proper shape.
The third category organizations go upto analysis part but do not draw out sensible conclusions to improve the situation.
But sooner or later all organizations need to fall in the fourth category – that comprises of:
1. Collection of data in proper form | <urn:uuid:f747a6ad-8181-4549-86fd-7cfdb56384f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/quality-assurance/project-management-and-project-data/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92534 | 244 | 2.078125 | 2 |
THE CONCERT FEAST TO THE KING OF JORDAN
At his first visit to Turkey the Emir of Jordan Mr. Abdullah had been the
guest of Atatürk. One day Muhiddin Üstündağ informed me the Emir was willing to
listen to Turkish music and Atatürk ordered to have him listen to a selection of
works of Turkish music and I have been appointed in this respect.
Me and my best friends Munir Nurettin Selçuk, Reşat Erer, Refik Fersan,
Fahire Fersan, Vecihe Daryal, Cevdet Kozanoğlu and some other young friends went
to the villa in Florya.
The Emir had finished his formal visits and said farewell to Atatürk. He
would remain in Turkey to have a rest and for some private visits before leaving
to go back to Jordan. We started play the “Fasıl” (concert program all in the
same makam) shortly before lunchtime.
The expression of the emir’s face changed and he dropped the fork and spoon
from his hands at the first minute of the concert and stopped us. Then he said
in fluent Turkish.
- Sirs, we can not eat while listening to such beautiful music.
As you may understand, it we were touched by the Emir’s noble gesture. The
tears running down from cheeks to his beard are always in my mind. | <urn:uuid:b5b7288f-a3c3-48ca-977e-03f6e00b9416> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tourism.gov.tr/EN,31575/the-concert-feast-for-the-king-of-jordan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963695 | 320 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Tiana Notice wrote this poem on Aug. 24, 2008, when she found out that her then-boyfriend, James Carter Jr., had been in jail for an offense stemming from a previous relationship, said her father, Alvin Notice. Alvin Notice read the poem in court Friday.
Can’t say I didn’t see it coming.
I prolonged the process long enough
Sometimes you want to give a man
the benefit of the doubt.
To prove he is who he says he is.
I was disappointed.
For all the words were lies
and his actions spoke louder.
Let his emptiness comfort him at night.
Like them cement walls he became accustomed to.
Let the words of foolish single men around him fill him
with the knowledge to move forward.
May he spend the rest of his nights knowing that I had the final say. | <urn:uuid:b113825d-acba-4f6b-86b8-8df0fa4ec2d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courant.com/community/plainville/hc-poem-by-tiana-notice-20120113,0,3459716.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986581 | 180 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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NEW YORK STATE -- An anti-abuse advocate and survivor is pushing to pass her law in all 50 states in an effort to fight child sex abuse.
Erin Merryn says starting when she was six, she was sexually abused by a neighbor, then again at age 11 by an older cousin. Merryn says she didn't tell anyone until she was 13.
She says she learned in school not to take candy from strangers and to stay away from drugs and alcohol but nothing about inappropriate touching. She now wants New York State to pass a law to require child sexual abuse education.
Merryn, an anti-abuse advocate and victim of child sex abuse said, “No one was educating me on safe touch, unsafe touch. Safe secrets, unsafe secrets. I was taught the eight ways on how to say no to drugs but where were the eight ways on how to get away. They never came. So, I stayed silent."
If passed, New York would be the fourth state to adopt “Erin Merryn's Law". | <urn:uuid:14c896d3-cff1-4223-b196-63d9b68c6fa7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/582488/erin-merryn-s-law/?ap=1&MP4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978193 | 242 | 2.125 | 2 |
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who lingers or loiters; a procrastinator.
- n. One who or that which causes delay; one who hinders or obstructs.
- n. One who delays.
- n. A substance that is used to slow the rate of combustion of a solid rocket fuel so as to make it more controllable
- v. To remove layers; to strip away levels.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who delays; one who lingers.
- n. a person who delays; to put off until later or cause to be late
- Combination of de- + layer. (Wiktionary)
“Among other findings:•Women with a college degree are experiencing what the bureau calls a "delayer boom" — they're having babies at later ages than other women and having fewer children overall.”
“Obama has taken a very similar stance as Bush when it comes to the UN by demanding China and India participate and he has acted as a "delayer" when it comes to climate policy.”
“He said he's confident that recent changes in the leadership team and efforts to "delayer the organization" will improve its performance.”
“May 01, 2009 at 11: 58 PM try startup delayer to set some of the non-essential programs to start up later.”
“Although lesser dictionaries give it the abbreviated meaning of ‘delayer or procrastinator,’ the Oxford English Dictionary will inform that it was once more commonly used to mean ‘one who delays past the appropriate time for departure.’”
“Mischel found that while the low delayer stared at the marshmallow until he could resist it no longer, high delayers distracted themselves, often playing with toys or singing while waiting for the researcher to return.”
“Pielke Jr. is a special form of denialist according to environmental activists such as Joe Romm of Climate Progress, who calls him a delayer, one who does not deny climate change but collects arguments for delaying any action.”
“SCHAFF: The team will actually be there with heavy rescue equipment to be able to de-layer these buildings as the dogs and some of the other devices that help locate the victims will be found, they will be delayer these buildings and extricate the victims.”
“The latest fad, it seems, amid the denier/skeptic/delayer community is to resurrect the old "Co2 = Life" with emphasizing that Co2 is plant life.”
“An example of Holdren's abuse of science was his decision to join with others in a 11-page Scientific American "attack" on climate delayer Bjorn Lomborg's serial truthiness and abuse of statistics.”
‘delayer’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Looking for tweets for delayer. | <urn:uuid:bbdb72ff-292f-48e3-b17b-66ff89cc9259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/delayer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945001 | 631 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Everything you need to understand or teach View by Marvin Bell.
Sag Harbor, mentioned in the first line of View, is a town at the end of Long Island, New York, not far from where Bell grew up. It has a long history as a seaport, primarily for whaling vessels, with European settlers arriving in the late 1600s. The village is a well-known tourist destination. In the beginning lines of this poem, the speaker presents a character (referred to as you) who is interested, like many tourists, in a view of the water. The narrator explains that the trees that come between you and the harbor are not actually blocking the view, because they are made of water themselves. In fact, both the leaves of the trees and the air are said to be composed mainly of water. Even the distance, as the bird flies or the squirrel scampers, is identified as something composed of water.
In the eighth... View more of the View Summary | <urn:uuid:f76ba3d8-4603-4b15-8b6d-f4159a90587a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/View/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979169 | 201 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The Bascom puts a twist on art, craft exhibitsWritten by Quintin Ellison
Hearing The Bascom being called a world-class facility might seem a stretch until you pay a firsthand visit to the six building, six-acre campus in Highlands. Then, however, the words seem entirely appropriate and scaled to reality.
The Bascom is a center for the visual arts created in 2009. The nonprofit doesn’t have a large private collection of works; the center instead focuses on providing top-notch exhibitions primarily garnered from across the Southeast. Six exhibitions were held last year. These included shows featuring glass artist Richard Ritter, painter and printmaker Frank Stella and ceramics maker Ben Owen.
The advantage to artists showing in this well-heeled, upscale Highlands market is huge: The Owen’s show, featuring the Seagrove potter’s signature pieces, almost completely sold out, The Bascom’s Ezra Gardiner said.
That kind of track record helps The Bascom lure a caliber of artists few other similar-sized facilities can boast of attracting.
Some of the highlights this year include an exhibition of paintings by Art Rosenbaum and the large-scale, kinetic sculpture of suspended ceramic discs that are mounted and hung from the ceiling by artist Tim Curtis. There also will be an exhibit titled “Her Impressions” featuring paintings by women during the Impressionism movement using works on loan from a number of Southeast museums and institutions.
There’s one important point about The Bascom that people working at the center are eager to make. The center takes great pride in putting what Executive Director Jane Jerry calls “The Bascom twist” on exhibits while they are displayed here.
“You can only do that with a small institution like this,” said Jerry, who has led The Bascom for about a year.
What does “The Bascom twist” entail? For his part, Gardiner described the twist as “putting a spin on it” by showing artists’ pieces in a manner that is unique and design rich — from the manner in which the pieces are placed and lighted for viewing to drawing on the attributes of the facility itself. Most of the shows are curated in-house by staff, and during the summertime are displayed for eight-week periods at a time. Big exhibitions are in the main gallery, smaller ones in a loft gallery upstairs from the primary viewing area.
Much of “The Bascom twist” is truly the setting of the facility itself: you enter the center through an 87-foot by 14-foot, 53-ton covered bridge transplanted to WNC from New Hampshire.
Once on campus, the main building is 27,500 square feet of museum-quality space made of hand-hewn, post-and-beam barn pieces accentuated with modern stone and glass. Even the floors are unstained white pine re-purposed from several historic barns. There also is a studio barn, a rebuilt rough-hewn barn complete with studio spaces for pottery and three-dimensional arts instruction.
So much of “the twist” is the fact that the paintings, ceramics, metal work and glass pieces are shown in a backdrop that is truly unique.
Understanding the community
Setting up and running The Bascom probably wouldn’t be possible in WNC outside of a venue such as Highlands, where the residents are affluent and visibly supportive of the arts. In addition to The Bascom, this is a community that can boast of the Highlands Playhouse, the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music concerts, the American Museum of Cut and Engraved Glass and the Instant Theater Company, featuring improvisation.
“Highlands and the whole plateau area is different from other communities,” Jerry said. “I’m so new, it has taken me a while to understand the profile of donors and funding sources here.”
The Bascom, in becoming The Bascom, has successfully tapped more than 800 sources — corporations and foundations but mainly individual — in paying about $9 million of the $13 million in its construction campaign. Fundraising continues for this new facility, and for a separate educational and exhibitions program endowment.
Jerry said The Bascom, in comparison to most galleries and art centers featuring the caliber of artist being exhibited here, is so small “we just haven’t had a lot of government support — mainly individual.”
The Bascom has a mortgage on the property that the nonprofit is in process of paying off. And with a board of directors totally committed to offering free admission to the arts, fundraising is key to the facility’s current and future wellbeing.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat the idea that this isn’t an ongoing challenge. We are raising money all of the time,” said Jerry, adding that fundraising “is the job” for any manager of a nonprofit.
Jerry was most recently the project-planning director for Exploration Station, the Republic of Ireland’s first interactive science center. Prior to her stint in Ireland, Jerry was the president and CEO of Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Nashville, Tenn. She’s no stranger to fundraising challenges: During her tenure at Cheekwood, Jerry led a capital campaign that resulted in an $18.5 million investment in the garden and facilities, and the Cheekwood Museum of Art attained accreditation by the American Association of Museums.
The Bascom has three main benefit events: a wine festival in May; a garden festival in July; and an art, design and craft show in October. It also has an extensive membership of 946 people, plus 300 or so volunteers who provide a veritable army of help to the 10 paid staff members.
Jerry said that she has spent this first year trying to be “a really good listener, and to understand The Bascom and its place in this community. And to work as hard as I can to begin to define a vision for the future that is a reflection of what this community wants.”
One thing the community clearly wants is a tangible connection with The Bascom. Outreach programs make that connection, plus appeal to donors, Jerry said. Among the upcoming programs this spring is a partnership with the Highlands Literacy Council’s after-school art program. This focuses on sea life and will result in an “Underwater” exhibit being installed in the fall.
The Bascom also partners with the local food pantry and with other groups as part of its outreach programs, plus provides scholarship money and free family memberships to the facility.
The Bascom history
The Bascom exists because of artist Watson Barratt, a part-time Highlands resident who died in 1962, who wanted to establish a permanent gallery in his seasonal home to display works by regional artists. His bequest made exhibition space at the Hudson Library in Highlands possible starting in 1983. The then Hudson Library building incorporated proceeds from the estate and included a dedicated space for the Bascom-Louise Gallery.
In 1999 the two entities separated. The art center attained nonprofit status, formed a board of directors, wrote bylaws and hired staff. In 2009, The Bascom moved to its new campus.
Source: The Bascom
At The Bascom
• “Chick’s: It’s All Gone to the Birds,” March 31-June 17.
• Alex Matisse: “Ometto,” May 12-Oct. 1.
• “Green Art:” May 17-July 8.
• “Her Impressions:” June 23-Sept. 16.
• “Bascom Members Challenge, Couples:” Aug. 18-Oct. 14.
• Art Rosenbaum: “Voices,” Sept. 1-Nov. 10.
• American Craft Today: Sept. 22-Dec. 29.
• “Giving Trees:” Nov. 17-Jan. 1.
www.thebascom.org for additional details. Admission is free. | <urn:uuid:5f31fd13-0477-4841-8179-c16fe8fa6f4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smokymountainnews.com/outdoors/item/6576-the-bascom-puts-a-twist-on-art-craft-exhibits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957521 | 1,695 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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The secret to the sensor's light weight is a Dupont polymer containing only 13 to 15 percent glass fiber by weight. Glass fibers make a part heavier because they have more than double the specific gravity of typical engineering plastics. They can also interfere with the RF signals the sensor uses to transmit data from inside the tire. DuPont Zytel HTN54G15HSL is used for the sensor's support cradle and housing body component. The housing body's cover is molded from Zytel 71G13HS1L nylon.
The SmarTire system consists of two parts: a wireless sensor/transmitter that mounts inside each of the tires via a stainless steel strap that goes around the wheel rim and a receiver/LCD unit that goes in the vehicle. The sensor monitors the air temperature and pressure continuously. When the vehicle starts rolling, a centrifugal switch activates the sensor, which wirelessly transmits the initial tire information to the receiver inside the vehicle. The sensor reads the data every 12 sec and transmits the tire pressure and temperature nominally every 4 min. If the tire pressure increases or decreases by 3 psi, the sensor transmits the significant change immediately. When tire pressure gets too low or tire temperature gets too high, a bright red LED light and an audible alert gets activated.
Based in British Columbia, Canada, SmarTire supplies tire pressure monitoring systems for passenger cars, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles.
CONTACT:Randy Halischuk, SmarTire Tel: 604-276-9884; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org://rbi.ims.ca/3858-500 | <urn:uuid:ca66c942-1f2e-45c6-832d-5e8376fb07a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=216982 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905034 | 495 | 2.34375 | 2 |
When you're standing in line and someone gets in line ahead of you, what do you call it? I grew up in western PA and most often heard it referred to as cutting in line. Less frequently, I heard jumping the line.
When we moved to WI, I learned the term here is budging. I heard it all the time when I worked at the local elementary school. "He budged!" "No budging!"
The first couple of times I heard it, I honestly had no idea what was meant. Is this another case of Wisconsin Weirdness or do people budge elsewhere?
"Cutting" is the most common term where I grew up (Southern California, Seattle area, then southwestern New Mexico). Somewhere in there I also encountered separate names for someone already in line letting someone else cut in front of them ("ups") or behind them ("backs"); in some situations neither was allowed, while in others you might be allowed to give someone "backs" but not "ups".
I just had an epiphany on this subject! A Usenet group I read on the subject of English usage is discussing queuing behavior, even where there's no physical queue (people apparently just know who's ahead of them and when it's their turn to go next), and I recalled a complaint in a Monty Python routine about rude people "barging at the queues".
Would it be completely out of line to guess that "budging" started as some Wisconsonian's mishearing of the word "barging" as pronounced by a British person? | <urn:uuid:2b6b3dbb-c843-4302-b73b-87766fa77ed0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/topics/cut-jump-budge/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96481 | 323 | 2.109375 | 2 |
OTTAWA — The federal department charged with overseeing cyber-security has warned its workers to think twice before sending a BlackBerry message, suggesting that the device believed to be the most secure in the world is more vulnerable than users may believe.
The one-page policy memo from Public Safety Canada, updated in mid-January, attempts to dissuade government BlackBerry users from sending a PIN-to-PIN message largely because it could be read by any BlackBerry user, anywhere in the world. The messages are “the most vulnerable method of communicating on a BlackBerry,” a Public Safety Canada presentation says.
The documents, released to Postmedia News under the access to information act, say PIN-to-PIN messaging isn’t “suitable for exchanging sensitive messages” because protected or classified information could be inadvertently leaked, or a mobile user could inadvertently download malware or viruses that would compromise their phone.
Almost two-thirds of federal government mobile users in Canada prefer to use the BlackBerry, with the remaining one-third using either Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Android. The concentration of BlackBerry users is even more pronounced among federal politicians, with most cabinet ministers opting to use the BlackBerry. Even NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair has said he carries an extra BlackBerry battery to keep his mobile device from dying during the day.
Political staffers use the device as well, regularly sending PIN-to-PIN messages and emails as government business has progressively migrated to mobile devices.
“Although PIN-to-PIN messages are encrypted, they key used is a global cryptographic ‘key’ that is common to every BlackBerry device all over the world,” the memo reads. “Any BlackBerry device can potentially decrypt all PIN-to-PIN messages sent by any other BlackBerry device.”
The PIN, or Personal Identification Number, is an electronic address given to a particular device. When a user turns in the device, the PIN stays with the device and doesn’t follow the user to a new BlackBerry. Any BlackBerry the government decides to reuse therefore “may expose information to compromise,” the memo reads, because messages may be sent to the wrong person.
There is also the threat that sending messages outside government firewalls and security filters could lead to a user opening a virus attached with a PIN message.
“PIN-to-PIN messaging bypasses all corporate e-mail security filters, and thus users may become vulnerable to viruses and malware code as well as spam messages if their PIN becomes known to unauthorized third parties,” the memo warns.
The document is one among others released to Postmedia News, all of which continually press the point that protecting information must be a priority for the department. It also shows how far the department goes in tracking sensitive information on portable data devices, with devices colour-coded so workers know what types of sensitive, protected or secret information are on devices and can follow protocols for wiping information from devices, or destroying them entirely.
A security briefing for new staff underlines the point that classified information should always be locked in a container approved by the RCMP, and that guards patrolling departmental buildings who find protected or classified documents out in the open or unlocked will place the records in a locked safe overnight and issue an infraction notice to the employee.
The rules at Public Safety Canada are similar to those for other departments, including Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, which is continuing to investigate two major data breaches, each almost four months old. In those breaches, personal information about more than 588,000 Canadians was lost, information categorized as “protected B” – so labelled because its loss could be cause “serious injury” to an individual.
Public Safety Canada’s records and activities are “among (the) most sensitive in government,” according to a security presentation, and the “potential for controversy is high.” A bullet point on one of the presentation slides says that “public confidence in the minister and (department) depends to a great extent on how well information is protected at all levels.”
Among the security suggestions in the presentation is this about mobile devices: “Cellular telephones/BlackBerrys/PDAs are not secure and are frequently monitored by amateurs and professionals alike.” The very next bullet point says that PIN-to-PIN messaging “is the most vulnerable method of communicating on a BlackBerry” because “messages can be easily intercepted.”
According to figures obtained by Postmedia News, in a one-year span, the number of government-issued BlackBerrys increased by 14.5 per cent, to almost 90,000 in August 2012 from 78,000 in September 2011. The cost to government to use those devices domestically is more than $2 million per month. | <urn:uuid:0c87583c-4b15-4823-a969-a567391e9eaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.leaderpost.com/news/national/BlackBerry+secure+believed+memo+warns+federal+workers/8019236/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938721 | 988 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging technique that uses radioactive substances injected into patients to provide images of the body using specialized scanners. These PET images provide information about the function and metabolism of the body's organs, in contrast to computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which show the body's anatomy and structure. PET is used mainly to study patients with cancer, heart disease, and neuropsychiatric diseases.
PET at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a large, state-of-the-art facility. It has three medical cyclotrons and ten hot cells to produce positron-labeled radiopharmaceuticals as well as four PET scanners. There is a large dedicated team of physicians, scientists, cyclotron engineers, radiochemists, radiopharmacists, and nuclear medicine technologists staffing the Department. Patients from several NIH Institutes receive PET scans in the Department through a large number of clinical research protocols.
PET is a research facility for the NIH intramural research program. All PET activities and services support intramural research.
Our challenge is to utilize resources efficiently and to encourage maximum involvement and professional development while exceeding the expectations of our investigators and their patients; our staff; and the public.
Search our Clinical Studies to participate in a PET clinical trial. | <urn:uuid:c0133e70-ffe2-4950-b986-78abb8344726> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/pet/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920354 | 272 | 2.640625 | 3 |
As part of a renewed pro-life strategy to challenge Roe v. Wade, lawmakers in seven states are working toward legislation to grant constitutional rights to human embryos.
Five states, including Maryland, North Dakota, Montana, South Carolina and Alabama, have recently introduced "personhood" bills. The bills affirm the right to life for pre-borns from the moment of conception. For some states, the bill also declares the word "persons" as applying to all human life, irrespective to biological development.
The Montana Senate held a hearing on the personhood bill on Thursday.
On Wednesday, North Dakota representatives passed H.R. 1572 with a vote of 51-41. The measure now goes to the ND Senate for review.
Rep. Dan Ruby, who sponsored the N.D. measure, said the legislation did not automatically ban abortion, reported the Associated Press.
The ND bill states: "For purposes of interpretation of the constitution and laws of North Dakota, it is the intent of the legislative assembly that an individual, a person, when the context indicates that a reference to an individual is intended, or a human being includes any organism with the genome of homo sapiens."
Grassroots support helped to pass the bill, according Personhood USA, a grassroots Christian organization, which reported that thousands of pro-life advocates called legislators in support of the measure.
"North Dakotans have gotten used to cold temperatures like -44 degrees, but they haven't gotten used to child-killing," commented Cal Zastrow of Personhood USA, who helped organize grassroots support for the bill.
In Oregon, pro-life advocates have also begun a petition drive to place a person amendment before voters in 2010. A similar effort is expected to be launched in Mississippi in coming weeks.
Last year, Colorado became the first state to vote on a personhood amendment. The proposed measure, which defined a fertilized egg as a person in the state, was defeated during the November election.
According to Personhood USA, these efforts aim to fill the "Blackmun Hole" in Roe v. Wade. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in the 1973 Supreme Court decision that if it were established that the pre-born is a person, the argument for abortion collapses.
"Personhood efforts raise the standard of what it is to be pro-life. We expect that as the understanding that all humans are people spreads, the injustice of abortion will end," said Keith Mason of Personhood USA.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League, has said the personhood movement marks a monumental shift in pro-life legislation of the past 20 years.
"It strikes at the root of the culture of death and discusses life issues in their true context - as the foundation of all civil rights issues," she said earlier this month. | <urn:uuid:51e89f97-387d-425a-aad1-b0f23930a28a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/7-states-seek-personhood-rights-for-pre-born-37088/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948296 | 576 | 2.125 | 2 |
The 7 Worst Types of Gifts Ever
When it comes to shopping for gifts, you’d think that most of us would pretty much have it down to a science by now. After all, it’s something that pretty much all of us are required to do, and we’ve bought gifts for holidays and birthdays for almost our whole lives.
Sadly, many people couldn’t find a decent gift with both hands and a flashlight. Most of us suck at getting gifts, so much so that the more logical beings among us often suggest that we should do away with gift-giving altogether and simply use the money to buy things for ourselves, that we are more likely to use and appreciate anyway. But if you’re intent on continuing your gift-giving lifestyle, you might want to at least try and avoid these seven gift-giving gaffes.
There’s nothing that says “joyful holiday season” quite like being told by your friends or relatives that they think you’re fat. Even if that’s not how they meant this kind of a gift to be interpreted, they really should realize how it’s ultimately going to appear.
It’s kind of a shame, really. With an obesity rate in the US that’s hovering around 70%, it’s likely that you know quite a few people who could possibly be in better shape. You want to help them! You want them to lead long, healthy, and prosperous lives! You want to make sure they’re around for plenty more holidays to come! Yeah, well, next time you go for a run, invite them along. Don’t burden them with the baggage of thinking that the entire world is staring at them and wishing they’d lose weight.
You probably know better than to get someone a venomous reptile or insect or a chainsaw for a gift. First of all, you don’t want to get involved in any sort of legal disputes when your gift inevitably backfires and leads to injury and/or death. Second, you don’t want to have to hear the following for the rest of your life: “Don’t accept gifts from Gary! He’s the reason that Ann sawed her hand off after the office party last year!”
The problem is, gifts that might accidentally kill the recipient can come in harder-to-spot packages than you’d think. For example, nut allergies have become somewhat of an epidemic in recent years (if the banning of an entire dining hall at our school from peanuts is the norm, at least). And if you’ve ever read the Darwin Awards, then you know that people can find remarkably odd ways to kill or injure themselves. For some people all it takes is a few balloons and a lawn chair. It basically means that you have to reconsider everything, even something as innocuous as a pillow, in an entirely different light.
If we could ask one thing of the creators of new and innovative technology, it would be that they please make their devices as compatible as possible with the things that we already own. Is that really too much to ask?
Unfortunately, the creators of new technologies are often kind of jerks; they think that in order to be innovative, their device needs to be as different as possible, and so they do things like inventing new types of power-cord adapters and data-transfer technologies. Do we really need eight different types of cell phone charging plugs? Of course not! But that won’t stop designers from making themselves feel special by inconveniencing the rest of us.
This becomes a problem during gift-giving occasions because you might assume that your friend has one type of technology, when they don’t, in fact. If they use Rhapsody for all of their music needs, buying them a gift card to iTunes is not only useless, it’s kind of offensive – basically like saying that you know how to do technology better. This kind of faux pas can also occur when you get memorabilia from the wrong sports or political team.
If you’re anything like us, you spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the puppies and kittens in the pet store window. You know that your life is far too busy to bring a pet into, but maybe if you bought one for a friend you could have all the benefits without all of the responsibility…
Stop. Right. There. Giving a person the gift of responsibility for another life is like clamping one of those old-timey ball and chains onto that person’s leg and throwing away the key. It’s just not a cool thing to do. Sure, the person might squeal and love you for the first thirty seconds, longer if he or she has very little concept of future consequences. But the first time the pet pees on the rug, the honeymoon will be over.
Even something as innocuous as a potted plant should be given after careful consideration, if at all. Some people actually feel really badly about killing plants, and it’s easy to do. A good rule of thumb is that a gift should not require that the recipient change their lifestyle in dramatic ways to accommodate it.
Sure, the idea of giving gift after gift month after month for the same one-time cost can be enticing. More is seen as a good thing, so twelve gifts are definitely better than one, right? And those gift baskets simply look so appetizing in the pictures!
The first bad thing about this gift type is that you won’t have anything to hand over at the gift-giving occasion. No amount of “wait until your gift finally arrives, you’ll be blown away!” can make up for arriving at an event empty-handed.
The second bad thing is that this is another responsibility-laden gift. If the person doesn’t like it, they get the pleasure of looking forward to its arrival every month with dread. And if they can’t use/consume your gift by the expiration date, there’s even more guilt, month after month. See if you can remain friends through that sort of torment!
We’ve all been there before. The minutes are ticking down to the gift-giving occasion, and try as we might we simply can’t think of an appropriate gift to get.
And then suddenly, our gaze lights on the “perfect,” “unique” gift. In reality, it’s the exact opposite of perfect, and there are a million others just like it, but our addled brains simply refuse to acknowledge these facts. The item in question might be a paperweight shaped like Mount Kilimanjaro, a black light USB cord, or even glow-in-the-dark boxers. Two things are for sure. One, the recipient would have never, ever, chosen this thing for him or herself, not because you’ve somehow managed to stumble on that one thing he or she really wanted without knowing it, but because it is absolutely useless in a normal person’s real life. And two, you will think that it’s a good gift for approximately fifteen minutes after buying it, after which you’ll slowly descend into a haze of buyer’s remorse and introspection into what formative life events turned you into such a terrible gift-giver.
When someone declares interest in a hobby, be it fly fishing, Ultimate Frisbee, kite boarding, or anything else that’s even remotely outside of the norm, other people automatically assume that the hobby will provide a source of excellent gift-giving opportunities for years to come. “I know, so-and-so is into basket weaving,” they’ll think. “I’ll get them something to do with that!”
The problem with this type of gift is that someone who is into a hobby is automatically 100 times more qualified to buy gear for that hobby than anyone who is not. Pretty much every hobby you can think of has highly specialized accessories that go along with it, at a variety of different price points. And you can guarantee that within this plethora of items, only one or two will be what any given participant actually wants, and chances are they own those items already.
Even if your friend or relative is just starting out with a hobby, tailoring your gifts to it isn’t a good idea. Most hobbies don’t stick, and once they give up the hobby, they’ll have the items lying around and making them feel guilty until they decide to regift it… right back to you.
Have experience with horror gifts of your own? Post about it in the comments below! | <urn:uuid:7299ef26-f31b-4f37-9015-e6e50bd4896a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weirdworm.com/the-7-worst-types-of-gifts-ever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962087 | 1,826 | 1.5 | 2 |
Or you don't know what god means to him?
that’s irrelevant, he learned his language in the same way as the rest of us did ~ from our families and cultures, this is a simple fact. Unless you can prove otherwise? We could read the influences on the brain if there was something actual occurring other that that, my guess is that you could never find an example of god literally teaching someone language, he certainly didn’t for me an most others so why would he choose only a few individuals and why not teach them all the same language, does he not want them to get on.Hawthorn_Ent
The reverence of the natural world is supposed to be the very core of druidry and that can stand true whether the druid is Christian or Pagan. If that is remembered then peace and respect come easy.
Well Christianity is somewhat at odds with nature [beasts etc], more than that I would say druidry is universal and Christianity is exclusive and specific.
A conspiracy theory; William Blake’s greatest work was reportedly pagan, and yet it went missing and is forever lost. My suspicions are that Christians only wanted the works they accepted to survive. Equally, most works by the great ancient Greek philosophers mention ‘god’ [?] many times, its even in the Egyptian book of the dead many times [both were pagan]. The Christians attempt to convert everything from our culture [festivals etc] and other pagan cultures to how they want them to be perceived.
Do you really think there are no agenda’s going on? Even the very thing of believing in another religion and trying to bring it into ours is itself an agenda. I wouldn’t have accepted it into Buddhism when I was a Buddhist, even though we generally got on very will with Christians, so can druidry not afford itself the same distinction.
It seems you and DJ have a chip on your shoulder concerning Christians. I know and respect your opinions but still must you be so judgemental and disrespectful? I know that druidry was originally pagan in ancient times. But things do change, even if it is to your disapproval.
I am a progressive and a contemporary druid, I neither think the ancient gods nor the monotheistic god are effectual in the world, hence I look to what the ancient druids saw behind the veil [ceugant and the awens] for an impersonalised and non-anthropomorphic perspective.
Let us not make circular arguments, people on both sides are guilty of disrespect.
It seems that wherever religions intermingle there is always strife. It is a major cause of war. People just cant set aside their differences. One would think druids could.....
Very true, so what’s the answer? We could say that respect for each other would be enough, alas it is not. If e.g. Islamic culture insists there should be Shariah law, and celtic culture says women should be free and equal [or at least modern secular culture does], then there will be conflicts of interest. What we have to do is gradually remove false philosophies like Shariah law [for reasons stated previously], or 'our god is better than your god' etc, then eventually people can just be people!FoxPhantom
I thought druids can, since I remember about them having a strong sense to know when to fight, or when peace is needed.
that’s an excellent point!DJ Droood
I just don't see how someone carrying a bag of dogma from their religion into druidry keeps it dogma-free
Haha nice one!
the truth is naked.
once it is written it is lost.
what is life; life is not a question.
genius is the result of the entire product of man.
death cannot be experienced.
life is not brought to us in slices of unrealised perfection, we get the whole cake. | <urn:uuid:46409709-ab46-45ef-a557-6ec5d4793665> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.druidry.org/board/dhp/viewtopic.php?p=399650 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965057 | 813 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The American Government has, in recent years, taken a proactive stance towards saving energy. Along with encouraging energy conservation in the commercial and industrial sectors of the economy, Congress has passed a series of laws that reward energy conservation in the residential market, particularly aimed at home owners. While many people rightly feel that these steps should have been taken many years ago, it's much better late than never, and taking advantage of these incentives is not only good for the environment and the world, it can also be a serious benefit to your bank account.
The current Federal law that continues many of the consumer tax incentives originally introduced in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This bill extends the tax credits for energy-efficient existing homes for 2009 and 2010, and includes a couple of new categories to be covered by tax incentives. The measure covers purchases starting January 1, 2009, and continues through December 31, 2010.
Consumers who live in an existing home and who purchase and install products which are approved for inclusion in the program, such as energy-efficient windows, insulation, doors, roofs, and HVAC equipment, can receive a tax credit for 30% of the cost of the equipment and installation, up to a limit of $1,500, for these improvements. Tax credits are now also being offered on energy-efficient biomass fuel stoves, a new class of energy efficient equipment eligible for a consumer tax credit of $300. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 also clarifies the efficiency standard for water heaters.
Additionally, the Act rewards consumers who install solar water heating and energy generation systems, small wind powered energy systems, geothermal heat pumps, and residential fuel-cell and micro turbine power generation systems with a 30% tax credit for systems placed in service before December 31, 2016; the $1,500 tax credit cap no longer applies to these technologies, which can be quite costly. These alternative power generating systems are also very heavily subsidized by States such as Colorado, Texas, New Jersey, Oregon, New York, and a few others, making the installation of these systems much more affordable. For instance, the State of New Jersey and participating utilities will contribute up to $16,000 towards the cost of a rooftop solar power generating system. This represents about 60% of the cost of the system, which is estimated to save $800 to $1,500 annually in electricity. There is also a provision for selling excess generated electricity back to the utility, making the payback on the homeowner's investment occur even faster.
Many of the eligible products that qualify for use in home improvement projects that can generate tax credits are certified under the Federal Government's Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, which can also qualify in some States for sales tax exemptions as well as manufacturer's rebates. | <urn:uuid:dd2b6734-aaef-460b-9fd9-c1cd42c529b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.networx.com/article/energy-tax-credits | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962845 | 587 | 2.640625 | 3 |
If you’re a Lego fan and want to know more about the company’s origins, 80 years ago this year, you could do a lot worse than to watch this amazing short film they’ve put out to celebrate the anniversary.
It’s got a very ‘Pixary’ feel to it, though it doesn’t actually seem to have been made by them – it’s only 15 minutes and it’s VERY safe for work. Go on, have a watch – I promise you’ll enjoy it!
And since we’re talking Lego, here’s the definitive answer to that old argument between us Brits and the Americans – namely, should you call them “Lego” or “Legos”. The answer was provided by an interview Gizmodo did with Lego a few years back:
“Lego” is an adjective and is not meant to be a standalone name. It should always be Lego bricks, Lego building, Lego products, etc.
So there you have it! Anyway, back to the film… | <urn:uuid:9c21518b-e199-423a-a4ce-8d27ff10d4c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.henrysblog.co.uk/2012/08/fatherhood%C2%B2-the-lego-story-15-minutes-of-lego-brilliance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95493 | 235 | 1.679688 | 2 |
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - People in the Northeast stocked up on food and supplies and road crews readied salt and sand Thursday as the region braced for a major winter storm that could bring up to 2 feet of snow to places that haven't seen significant accumulations in more than a year.
The National Weather Service said most of southern New England could see anywhere from 18-24 inches between Friday and Saturday, and some other forecasts cautioned that totals could be even higher. Suffolk County in New York was under a blizzard watch, as were parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
New York City was expecting between 4 and 6 inches of snow. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said plows and 250,000 tons of salt were being put on standby to start clearing the streets.
"We hope forecasts are exaggerating the amount of snow, but you never can tell," he said, adding that if bad weather has to happen, it's better to have it on a weekend.
Meteorologist William Babcock with the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass., says it's looking like it is going to be a very powerful storm. If everything falls the way it has the potential to it could be among the top 10 snowstorms in New England history.
The storm would hit just after the 35th anniversary of the historic blizzard of 1978, which paralyzed the region with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane force winds from Feb. 5-7. The last major snowstorm in southern New England was the Halloween storm in 2011, which knocked out power to many with heavy, wet snow.
The snow was to start this morning, with the heaviest amounts dumped on the region that night and into Saturday.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick was receiving regular updates but had not made any decisions about the state's workforce, a spokeswoman said.
On that day, Patrick advised state employees to leave work no later than 11:30 a.m., and private businesses were encouraged to dismiss their employees early as well. Many people, however, apparently waited longer to get on the road and by then, snow was falling at a rate of 1 1/2 inches an hour with virtual white-out conditions. The resulting traffic gridlock made it impossible for plows to clear the roads. | <urn:uuid:866d7cbb-ea25-4035-893e-b5395fd692bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/News/201302070120 | 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 | 0.980027 | 469 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Obama In Israel For First Trip As President [VIDEO]
President Barack Obama is declaring common cause with Israel, highlighting the bonds between the United States and its Mideast ally. He says he has made Israel the first stop of the first trip of his second term to restate his commitment to Israel’s security.
Obama arrived Wednesday in Tel Aviv, joking to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he was “getting away from Congress.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomed Obama, declaring that “A world without America’s leadership, without her moral voice, would be a darker world. A world without your friendship, would invite aggression against Israel.”
Obama called the U.S. Israel’s “strongest ally and your greatest friend.”
In a veiled reference to tensions and regime changes in the region, he added: “The winds of change bring both promise and peril.”
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved) | <urn:uuid:49fd26bc-b821-4b26-aaf6-1adb08c80764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nj1015.com/obama-in-israel-for-first-trip-as-president-video/ | 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 | 0.956687 | 208 | 1.78125 | 2 |
A new study by Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, associate professor and director of the University of California-San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, indicates that birth control pills only account for about 1% of estrogen in the drinking water supply.
There have been concerns that the estrogen contained in birth control pills causes environmental health concerns such as intersex fish, fish showing female traits such as egg production. But this new study sheds new light on the source of estrogen in water. Woodruff and her colleagues analyzed the source of estrogen in drinking water, and discovered that it is mostly coming from sources such as livestock waste, soy and dairy foods, and other pharmaceuticals, but not birth control pills. This study contradicts the idea that estrogen absorbed by the body from birth control pills is excreted in urine and eventually makes its way into the water supply. Instead, this research indicates that most of the hormone is removed during processing at waste water treatment plants.
The effect on humans of hormones in water is controversial. Woodruff’s research focused on the source of estrogen in our drinking water supply and not the effects of the hormones on humans. She mentioned that estrogen in water, no matter where it is coming from, can be contributing to human health problems such as breast cancer, early puberty and other reproductive issues. However, Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think-tank based in Washington, D.C., says that there is no significant scientific evidence supporting the idea that estrogen in water causes human health problems.
No matter what the effect of extra estrogen in our environment, this study reveals that birth control pills are not a significant source of the hormone in our drinking water.
Birth Control Buzz is a service company that provides birth control prices, types of birth control(prescription required), health administrative services, and birth control statistics predominantly to US patients seeking to purchase pharmaceuticals on-line. For more information, call 1-866-868-8850 or visit http://www.birthcontrolbuzz.com/. | <urn:uuid:40adb118-3fa7-46b4-946d-903c693d4143> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birthcontrolbuzz.com/blog/category/birth-control-pill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935564 | 425 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Shared bylines are common enough. But what about a story with the names of 15 reporters and more than a dozen news organizations attached to it?
Last month, Education Week, the Education Writers Association, and nonprofit news organization The Hechinger Report jointly produced a lengthy story that had a single byline — Alyson Klein’s — but listed 14 other reporters from 12 additional news organizations as contributors. Check it out:
This article was produced by Education Week, The Hechinger Report, and the Education Writers Association. Additional reporting was contributed by Liz Bowie and Erica Green of the Baltimore Sun, Sarah Karp of Catalyst Chicago, Antoinette Konz of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Jennifer Brown of The Denver Post, Lori Higgins of the Detroit Free Press, Nancy Mitchell of Education News Colorado, Rachel Cromidas and Philissa Cramer of GothamSchools, Scott Elliott of The Indianapolis Star, Paul Takahashi of the Las Vegas Sun, Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel, Jennifer Jordan of The Providence Journal, and Brian Rosenthal of The Seattle Times.
This is the second such collaboration between Ed Week, EWA, and Hechinger. Education is a beat that’s national — with federal policies and research — but intensely local, with thousands of school boards making decisions at a community level. So the idea is to have local and national reporters join forces to cover a major education story that’s playing out in different areas of the country, and at various levels of government. Ed Week produced an overview story with a national angle, then local partners — who helped feed state-based information for that national story — could reprint all or part of it in their regional publications. In this case, the assignment was to track the local use of $3 billion in federal School Improvement Grant stimulus money.
While Ed Week handled much of the writing and editing, EWA executive director Caroline Hendrie says it made sense for her organization to serve as the link to reporters participating from newsrooms around the country. “We work with reporters and editors across the country — these are our members and they’re already actively engaged with us,” Hendrie told me.
Davin McHenry, web producer and news editor at The Hechinger Report, says he handled project logistics like enforcing deadlines and “making sure the project was on track, getting information out to everyone.”
It may be true, as Hendrie told me, that we as journalists are “better together.” But it’s also true that a project of this scope presents a host of challenges. Here are some of the things Hendrie, McHenry, and Ed Week assistant managing editor Mark Bomster say they learned along the way, and the advice they’d give others who are considering a similar undertaking.
McHenry: Our main thrust up to this point has been collaborating with newspapers, and providing them with content. We’re kind of that midpoint between the Education Writers Association and Ed Week…At the same time, we know how to provide high-level news content that’s accepted by the largest and most stringent news orgazantions.
Hendrie: It was very much a three-way collaboration from the beginning, with the idea that we would work to define clear roles for each of the organizations. That meshed well with our different but somewhat complimentary audiences and activities.
Bomster: You have to be sure you actually have the will and resources to follow through with it. Then you have to find a subject that will really resonate, and still hold up given such a long reporting and planning cycle…It has to be something that’s sort of a perennial topic, but also at the same time newsworthy, and something that hasn’t been plumbed as deeply as you might think.
Hendrie: It makes total sense for us to take the lead on the recruitment…Our community is comprised both of the national reporters and editors and local. We have news outlets of every stripe in all media — not just print, not just online, not just radio, not just TV, but all of those things. To the extent that we can pool our resources, we’ll all produce better information for the public.
Bomster: It’s kind of unusual because those of us who are news editors and reporters tend to be such control freaks. We had to cede a certain amount of that control. The way that it really turned out, we each decided we were going to play our positions.
McHenry: The first time around, we went out and recruited as many papers as we could in one big fell swoop…We asked them to dedicate a reporter for a week, maybe two weeks, to investigate the topic. I think at our high-water mark, I want to say we had 50 news outlets that had initially signed on. But what we ran into was, a lot of these places, they had eyes bigger than their stomachs and very quickly that number started dwindling. [The fix this time around, McHenry said, was to allow time-strapped news organizations to help with certain stages of the project, without feeling bad about not being able to commit from start to finish.]
Hendrie: Always be aware of just how overtaxed journalists are today in the modern newsroom. One lesson that we’re learning is always to simplify, and find more streamlined ways to communicate. People are so pressed for time and pulled in so many directions…Put extra time into thinking how you’re messaging.
Bomster: This model puts a big premium on collaborative work. We all maximize our resources, and there’s a lot of leverage you can get out of that with just a couple of organizations who are in tune about coverage philosophy and expertise.
Hendrie: So much of education policy and practice happens at the state and the local level, but there’s huge commonalities and, more and more, the national and federal impact is increasing. So it’s very important that education journalists compare notes, learn from each other, help one another know what’s going on in other communities because there is so much — the overall context varies, certainly, but there are threads running through that are the same everywhere.
Photo by Twix used under a Creative Commons license. | <urn:uuid:79a670b0-98ab-4923-b2fc-a0c39699b31e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/05/a-lesson-in-collaboration-how-15-news-orgs-worked-together-to-tell-a-single-education-story/?readnext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962256 | 1,311 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Orthodox Jews pray at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem in 1905.
The Muslims – not the Islamists – mean to take over every Jewish site in Jewish Israel. And the United Nations means to assist them.
The Palestinian Authority has recently issued a new and particularly brazen report in which it declares that the Kotel (Western Wall), the outer wall of the Jewish Temple complex which was first built by the Jewish King Solomon in 960 BCE, destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, rebuilt again by Jews in 515 BCE – more than a millennium before the rise of Islam – is not really a Jewish site.
It is now, purportedly, a Muslim holy site.
The report states: “Jews did not worship at the Wailing Wall at any time until the Balfour Declaration of 1917…nor can any Muslim, or Arab, or Palestinian give up a single stone or piece of dust from the Wailing Wall or other holy places because that would be a concession on the Temple Mount.” Not only is this claim part of crass Islamic revisionist history – the Muslims are fast destroying the archeological evidence as well.
Just a minute. There is a well-known photo of religious Jewish men and women seen praying at the Kotel in 1905 – before the Balfour Declaration. And, there are two thousand years of stories told by both Jewish and non-Jewish travelers who visited Jerusalem either to pray at the Kotel or to visit the site where they saw Jews at prayer in that exact spot.
However, afraid that propaganda and Big Lies might not be enough, beginning in 1999, the Waqf (the Islamic religious authority) took away 400 truckloads of precious archeological evidence from the Temple Mount – evidence which would further establish that there has been a long-time Jewish presence here.
But, in the land of the one-eyed, like 1967 Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who gave the Arab Waqf control over the Temple Mount (a step he would surely regret if he were alive today), a truly sighted person is King. To me, there is a pattern here, as clear to me as my own right hand, as clear as the stars above on a crisp, clean Jerusalem night.
The Muslims (not the Islamists, but the Muslims) mean to take over every Jewish site in Jewish Israel. And the United Nations means to assist them.
Long before a sovereign Jewish state ever existed, Muslims massacred the Jews of Hevron in 1929. Surviving Jews returned, but were then forced to flee again during the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939. This burial chamber of our Jewish ancestors is a cave whose purchase is carefully and exhaustively reported in the fifth parasha (portion) of the Torah. According to Jewish religious sources, this purchase took place in approximately 1677 BCE.
Please remember: In 1929, when the Muslims massacred the Jews of Hevron, there were no Jewish “settlements” in “occupied Palestinian land.” There was no Muslim “Palestine” and no sovereign Jewish state. In 1996, under the Wye Accords, Jewish Israel surrendered most Jewish access to this Cave to the Waqf.
Today, Jews can pray there in an outer, small chamber only under heavy guard and only a few times a year in the main prayer chamber. Muslims took the lion’s share of the main prayer hall because, as they claim, Abraham is also their forefather.
As half-siblings however, Muslims have not been as close to Jews as Yishmael once was to his half-brother Yitzchak. Yishmael was the son of a pagan Egyptian mother, Hagar, and an Iraqi-born father, Abraham); Yitzchak, was the son of the same father but of another mother, Sarah. If Abraham is truly the father of Muslims, too – then his Muslim descendants have surely shamed him.
On October 8, 2000, Muslims destroyed Joseph’s Tomb and martyred Rabbi Hillel Lieberman as he tried to rescue a Torah scroll from the burning building. Please understand that the Biblical Joseph was a highly assimilated Jew and beloved Grand Vizier to the Egyptian Pharaoh.
However, Joseph saved the Jews as well as the Egyptians from a famine, and his sons comprise two of the twelve Jewish tribes. Nevertheless, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared the Tomb a Muslim holy site only. He explicitly said that Joseph himself was a Muslim.
If Joseph is a Muslim, so are my blessed Jewish grandparents and parents.
Muslims did not stop here. | <urn:uuid:831237e8-cdea-4d38-b4e7-3a97ad3fcf30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frontpagemag.com/2010/phyllis-chesler/al-kotel-al-ma%E2%80%99aravi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966846 | 948 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Next time you belly up to a craps game, try holding the sevens down facing the table and saying a prayer to Lady Physics instead of Lady Luck.
A group of scientists from the Technical University of Lodz in Poland and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland have created a three-dimensional model to describe a die roll. In a paper forthcoming in the journal Chaos, they describe how it is possible to predict the outcome of a dice roll.
"Generally, it is assumed that when we toss a coin, throw a die or run a roulette ball this condition is fulfilled and all predictions have to be based on the laws of large numbers," the authors write. "In practice, the only thing one can tell with a given degree of certainty, is the average outcome after a large number of experiments."
But, the researchers say, the dynamics of a coin, die or roulette ball can actually be described by equations of motion.
All you need to know are some of the initial conditions before the toss is made: how viscous the air is, what the friction of the table is, and a figure representing the acceleration of gravity -- which until Richard Branson opens a low-orbit casino will pretty much always be 9.8 meters per second squared. Add a bit of chaos theory, and voila!
Lead author Marcin Kapitaniak and his colleagues created a 3-D model of a die throw -- using some rather complex mathematical equations -- and compared theory to reality, using a high-speed camera to take video of actual die throws.
In their model, the researchers found that the die tends to land on the face that was lowest at the beginning of the throw. They also found that a bouncing die is much more difficult to predict which way it will roll than one that lands on a soft surface.
But before you rush out to catch that flight to Vegas or Monaco, a bit of caution. Translating theory into a sure-fire strategy for beating the house is a difficult prospect since the math may be perfect, but your aim probably isn't.
"Theoretically the die throw is predictable, but the accuracy required for determining the initial position is so high that practically it approximates a random process," Kapitaniak said in a statement Wednesday. However, "only a good magician can throw the die in the way to obtain the desired result."
SOURCE: Kapitaniak et al. "The three-dimensional dynamics of the die throw." Chaos in-press.
To contact the editor, e-mail: | <urn:uuid:ba482ef3-6d6e-4eb5-8494-8af6beb008ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/383658/20120913/die-dice-predict-physics.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936698 | 521 | 2.75 | 3 |
The U.S. Green Building Council now has a set of alternative compliance paths for commercial projects being done outside North America. The Global Alternative Compliance Paths apply to the 2009 version of the rating system. USGBC says the new paths provide more flexibility for projects around the world "and ensure a common language for all green buildings."
The use of LEED around the world is growing rapidly. In 2012 projects outside the U.S. made up over 50% by floor area of LEED registrations. The USGBC says it is certifying 18,000 square metres of commercial building space each day, comprising more than 49,000 projects in 135 countries.
A new green building standard being proposed by ASHRAE, the U.S. Green Building Council and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) will make building commissioning mandatory. ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2011, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, covers the site, water and energy use, indoor environmental quality and the building’s impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources.
Currently the standard implies that when a building area is less than 5,000 square feet it is considered to have simple building systems, and thus requires a reduced level of commissioning effort, referred to as "Acceptance Testing." However, according to Jeff Ross-Bain, a member of the Standard 189.1 committee, because many buildings less than 5,000 square feet can be complex, under the proposed changes, building commissioning per Section 10.3.1.2 would become mandatory for all buildings.
The proposed addendum is open for public review until November 18. To comment on the proposed changes or for more information, click here. | <urn:uuid:9078669b-2735-4e67-b5be-f0680536e9b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/news/green-building-tech-updates/1001805206/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937584 | 369 | 2.75 | 3 |
Source: Wide Angle: "Back to School"
Many of the children of Brazil’s favelas (slums) find a safe haven and second home at school. School enrollment is increasing, but the quality of education still remains substandard. In this video from Wide Angle, meet Jefferson, a child of the Rochinca favela who is one of the few students in his second grade class who can read and write.
South America Map (Image)
Brazil Map (Image)
Jefferson, in Brazil, faces many urban challenges on his way to and from school. For him, school is a refuge, providing food as well as creative forms of learning. In school Jefferson is one of the few children who can already read and is helping others. His opportunities are far greater than his mother's, but the family struggles to make a living and buy the necessities of life, in spite of a small grant (the "Bolsa Familia") from the state that depends on Jefferson staying in school.
Many Americans assume that free public education is a fact of life, but that is not true for over 100 million children around the world. The 20th Century saw a growing divide as more and more industrialized countries embraced state-supported education, and non-industrialized countries did not. In the non-industrialized countries, education remained bound by traditional practices or was available only to the wealthy.
To address this problem 1,100 participants from 164 countries met in Senegal in April of 2000 to adopt the Dakar Framework for Action, a re-affirmation of the 1990 World Declaration on Education for All. One of the commitments made in the Dakar Framework was to ensure that "by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality."
While the Dakar Framework states that education is a human right, the reality for children around the world is very different. Education is often restricted by gender and/or income. In some places there is a shortage of qualified teachers. Some children around the world must cope with diseases like HIV/AIDS within their families, schools, and communities. Lastly, there can be a conflict between traditional values and the push toward education.
Securing government and community support for education has not been simple. Looked at historically, education has been a challenge that spans ages. Confined to the secular or religious elite for millennia, it was only at the beginning of the 19th Century that Napoleon introduced the concept of free public education, to foster loyalty to the central government. Enlightenment thinkers and their heirs stressed the importance of education as a foundation for representative government. Later, industrialization created the need for basic literacy for factory workers. At the dawning of the 21st century, quality free public education has now been achieved for the industrialized world. The challenge remains to bring it equally to all the world's children.
To put a human face to the global crisis in access to education, Wide Angle filmed seven children around the world as they began school in 2003. This effort resulted in the documentary "Time for School." The film crew returned to visit them again in 2006, making a second documentary, "Back to School."
ELIANE SOARES School is a second home for the kids; for some it's a first. Here they can count on learning and affection. It's a refuge for them, so they can feel connected to a moment of peace and pleasure. On the first day of school, this little boy, Jefferson, looked at me, a new teacher, a little scared and shy.
ELIANE SOARES Smell this.
ELIANE SOARES The name of this sense is... Olfactory!
NARRATOR Jefferson's class is learning to read through a curriculum about the human body. He is in Brazil's equivalent of second grade and is maturing into a focused student.
ELIANE SOARES Generally the kids are very hyper and never stop. But Jefferson is different. He sits in his little spot and waits for my orders.
ELIANE SOARES Use your finger and put some on your tongue. Is it sweet, salty or bitter?
JEFFERSON NARCISO It's salt.
ELIANE SOARES Is he sensing this only with his mouth? Using his...
ELIANE SOARES What I find interesting is that he already knows how to read. Generally this doesn't happen. Most of the kids aren't reading fluently.
JEFFERSON NARCISO Put a "g" there.
STUDENT This is a "g"?
JEFFERSON NARCISO No, that's an "o".
NARRATOR Brazil's school enrollment over the last decade has been a great success, but quality of education has not. While nearly every child is now in primary school, fewer than five percent of them can read properly by the fourth grade.
LESLIE NARCISO He always obeys the teacher and they like him very much. The only complaint is that he eats a lot.
NARRATOR When Jefferson's mother was growing up, there were fewer opportunities for families like hers.
LESLIE NARCISO I studied until the fourth grade. My mother didn't have the means to take care of us and to give us what we needed, so I stopped my studies and went to work.
NARRATOR Leslie and Ivan take occasional odd jobs, which they supplement by making bracelets for tourists. This has become something of a cottage industry for the family.
LESLIE NARCISO The money we get, we use to buy Christmas outfits -- shoes and things like that.
Academic standards correlations on Teachers' Domain use the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) database of state and national standards, provided to NSDL projects courtesy of JES & Co.
We assign reference terms to each statement within a standards document and to each media resource, and correlations are based upon matches of these terms for a given grade band. If a particular standards document of interest to you is not displayed yet, it most likely has not yet been processed by ASN or by Teachers' Domain. We will be adding social studies and arts correlations over the coming year, and also will be increasing the specificity of alignment. | <urn:uuid:c0c5a297-a623-404b-b69a-b64affe9bf6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/wa08.socst.world.glob.haven/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965569 | 1,301 | 3.296875 | 3 |
The State of Poverty in America
We have two basic poverty problems in the United States. One is the prevalence of low-wage work. The other concerns those who have almost no work.
The two overlap.
Most people who are poor work as much as they can and go in and out of poverty. Fewer people have little or no work on a continuing basis, but they are in much worse straits and tend to stay poor from one generation to the next.
The numbers in both categories are stunning.
Low-wage work encompasses people with incomes below twice the poverty line—not poor but struggling all the time to make ends meet. They now total 103 million, which means that fully one-third of the population has an income below what would be $36,000 for a family of three.
In the bottom tier are 20.5 million people—6.7 percent of the population—who are in deep poverty, with an income less than half the poverty line (below $9,000 for a family of three). Some 6 million people out of those 20.5 million have no income at all other than food stamps.
These dire facts tempt one to believe that there may be some truth to President Ronald Reagan’s often-quoted declaration that “we fought a war against poverty and poverty won.” But that is not the case. Our public policies have been remarkably successful. Starting with the Social Security Act of 1935, continuing with the burst of activity in the 1960s, and on from there, we have made great progress.
We enacted Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and many health indicators for low-income people improved. We enacted food stamps, and the near-starvation conditions we saw in some parts of the country were ameliorated. We enacted the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, and the incomes of low-wage workers with children were lifted. We enacted Pell grants, and millions of people could afford college who otherwise couldn’t possibly attend. We enacted Supplemental Security Income and thereby raised the income floor for elderly and disabled people whose earnings from work didn’t provide enough Social Security. There is much more—housing vouchers, Head Start, child-care assistance, and legal services for the poor, to name a few. The Obama administration and Congress added 16 million people to Medicaid in the Affordable Care Act, appropriated billions to improve the education of low-income children, and spent an impressive amount on the least well-off in the Recovery Act.
All in all, our various public policies kept a remarkable 40 million people from falling into poverty in 2010—about half because of Social Security and half due to the other programs just mentioned. To assert that we fought a war against poverty and poverty won because there is still poverty is like saying that the Clean Air and Clean Water acts failed because there is still pollution.
Nonetheless, the level of poverty in the nation changed little between 1970 and 2000 and is much worse now. It was at 11.1 percent in 1973—the lowest level achieved since we began measuring—and after going up sharply during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush years, went back down during the 1990s to 11.3 percent in 2000, as President Bill Clinton left office.
Why didn’t it fall further? The economics have been working against us for four decades, exacerbated by trends in family composition. Well--paying industrial jobs disappeared to other countries and to automation. The economy grew, but the fruits of the growth went exclusively to those at the top. Other jobs replaced the ones lost, but most of the new jobs paid much less. The wage of the median-paying job barely grew—by one measure going up only about 7 percent over the 38 years from 1973 to 2011. Half the jobs in the country now pay less than $33,000 a year, and a quarter pay less than the poverty line of $22,000 for a family of four. We have become a low-wage economy to a far greater extent than we realize.
Households with only one wage-earner—typically those headed by single mothers—have found it extremely difficult to support a family. The share of families with children headed by single mothers rose from 12.8 percent in 1970 to 26.2 percent in 2010 (and from 37.1 percent in 1971 to 52.8 percent in 2010 among African Americans). In 2010, 46.9 percent of children under 18 living in households headed by a single mother were poor.
The percentage of people in deep poverty has doubled since 1976. A major reason for this rise is the near death of cash assistance for families with children. Welfare has shrunk from 14 million recipients (too many, in my view) before the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families law (TANF) was enacted in 1996 to 4.2 million today, just 1.5 percent of the population. At last count, Wyoming had 607 people on TANF, or just 2.7 percent of its poor children. Twenty-six states have less than 20 percent of their poor children on TANF. The proportion of poor families with children receiving welfare has shrunk from 68 percent before TANF was enacted to 27 percent today.
What’s the agenda going forward? The heart of it is creating jobs that yield a living income. Restoring prosperity, ensuring that the economy functions at or near full employment, is our most powerful anti-poverty weapon. We need more, though—a vital union sector and a higher minimum wage, for two. We also need work supports—health care, child care, and help with the cost of housing and postsecondary education. These are all income equivalents—all policies that will contribute to bringing everyone closer to having a living income.
There’s a gigantic problem here, however: We look to be headed to a future of too many low-wage jobs. Wages in China, India, and other emerging economies may be rising, but we can’t foresee any substantial increase in the prevailing wage for many millions of American jobs. That means we better start talking about wage supplements that are much bigger than the Earned Income Tax Credit. We need a dose of reality about the future of the American paycheck.
The second big problem is the crisis—and it is a crisis—posed by the 20 million people at the bottom of the economy. We have a huge hole in our safety net. In many states, TANF and food stamps combined don’t even get people to half of the poverty line, and a substantial majority of poor families don’t receive TANF at all.
Even worse, we have destroyed the safety net for the poorest children in the country. Seven million women and children are among the 20.5 million in deep poverty. One in four children in a household headed by a single mother is in deep poverty. We have to restore the safety net for the poorest of the poor.
Getting serious about investing in our children—from prenatal care and early-childhood assistance on through education at all levels—is also essential if we are to achieve a future without such calamitous levels of poverty. In addition, we must confront the destruction being wrought by the criminal-justice system. These are poverty issues and race issues as well. The schools and the justice system present the civil-rights challenges of this century.
Combining all of the problems in vicious interaction is the question of place—the issues that arise from having too many poor people concentrated in one area, whether in the inner city, Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, or on Indian reservations. Such places are home to a minority of the poor, but they include a hugely disproportionate share of intergenerational and persistent poverty. Our most serious policy failing over the past four-plus decades has been our neglect of this concentrated poverty. We have held our own in other respects, but we have lost ground here.
Finally, we need to be much more forthright about how much all of this has to do with race and gender. It is always important to emphasize that white people make up the largest number of the poor, to counter the stereotype that the face of poverty is one of color. At the same time, though, we must face more squarely that African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are all poor at almost three times the rate of whites and ask why that continues to be true. We need as a nation to be more honest about who it is that suffers most from terrible schools and the way we lock people up. Poverty most definitely cuts across racial lines, but it doesn’t cut evenly.
There’s a lot to do.
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Who's Still Hiring? The Federal Government!
You may have noticed that I'm talking more and more about federal jobs these days in workshops and in appointments. I strongly encourage students to consider this industry...there are many, many benefits to working for the federal government, and its not just the job security. Fed jobs pay well, you can work all over the United States -- or the world! -- and promotions can be timely!
Check out the below links to view three articles for some more information on this industry niche and how to get a career position...
WHO IS HIRING? Insider Advice on Winning a Job A Federal Government Job
Most employers decreased the number of new college graduates they planned to hire between August and October. Only government as a sector saw a significant increase in hiring expectations, while manufacturing and professional services remain essentially flat during this period of economic turmoil. (Source: Job Outlook 2009)
This month on JobWeb, author Lily Whiteman offers an insider’s guide to:
Why a Federal Job Is a Terrific Deal
Whiteman, a senior science writer at the National Science Foundation, has worked in six federal agencies, including the White House Conference on Aging and the President's National Partnership for Reinventing Government. She is the author of How to Land a Top-Paying Federal Job.
by Lily Whiteman
1. THINK LIKE A HIRING MANAGER: Most job applications (in the private sector as well as in the public sector) are skimmed fast by harried hiring managers—not read word-for-word, as if they were suspenseful John Grisham novels. So instead of aiming for a specific application length, craft your application for a fast, easy read by describing your most impressive, relevant credentials as concisely as possible, and by positioning your most relevant credentials as close to the beginning of your application as possible.
In your resume, format the names of your employers, your job titles, and degrees to stand out even to skimmers. Confine your description of each of your previous jobs to quick-read, achievement-oriented bullets. And break up your answers to essay questions by writing in short paragraphs and by using bullets and headings.
2. CONVEY ZEST: Most applicants believe that applications for federal jobs should read as dryly and bureaucratically as the tax code. Wrong! A job application that exudes life will wake up hiring managers, stand out from the pack, and help prove that you are an energetic go-getter who requires minimal supervision. (Look ma, no cattle prodder!) So mention in your application and interview why you are passionate about your field and/or target job.
3. PROVE THAT YOU’RE A PROBLEM-SOLVER: Brandish your problem-solving mettle by citing specific examples of your academic and work achievements in your job applications and interviews: your projects, papers, presentations, contributions to campus organizations, and leadership positions. In particular, emphasize the academic and professional activities that demonstrate your ability to solve the substantive issues addressed by your target job.
Crown your achievements with descriptions of the positive feedback you received, such as high grades, grade point average, honors, individual and team awards, promotions, assignments to special teams, and special requests made by professors or employers for your services. Also cite written and oral praise from professors, trainees, supervisors, managers, colleagues, clients, and customers.
4. ANSWER EVERY QUESTION: In most cases, an application for a federal job that fails to answer all questions will be rejected. So be sure to answer every question on each application—including every essay question (commonly known as KSAs).
5. ACE ESSAY QUESTIONS: Answer essay questions with a bulleted list of your relevant academic and professional credentials and/or descriptions of your success stories that parallel the demands of your target job. An effective success story:
* identifies your goal,
* the actions you took to achieve your goal,
* your results and why they were important, and
* the positive feedback you earned by achieving your results.
6. USE QUALITY CONTROLS: Most job applications are tarnished by typos, grammatical errors, and other careless errors. Error-free applications stand out from the pack. So don’t keyboard your application directly into an online application system that probably doesn’t have a spell-checker. Instead, create save, spell-check, and print your application in a word processing file. Then, review and edit it several times. Finally, solicit feedback on your application from friends or colleagues. Once your application is error-free, cut and paste it into the online application.
7. PASS THE 30-SECOND TEST: Show your application to a friend or colleague and ask him/her to identify your best credentials in 30 seconds or less. If he or she can’t do so, reformat and phrase your best credentials to stand out more.
8. MAKE DEADLINES: The window of opportunity for submitting most online applications slams shut at midnight Eastern Standard Time of the job’s closing date. This means that to be considered, each of your applications must be received—not just started—by midnight of its closing date.
9. SAVE COPIES: Save a copy of each of your job applications so that you will be able to recycle appropriate sections into applications for similar jobs. Also, note that announcements for openings are usually pulled from the Internet on their closing dates. So save all job announcements that you answer so that you will: 1) have the contact information of the agency contact person for the opening; and 2) be able to review the descriptions of your target jobs before your interviews.
10. FIX PROBLEM APPLICATIONS: What should you do if, after you click the “submit” button on an online application, you realize that your application contains a mistake or omits important information? (Oh, that sinking feeling!) Here’s the fix: Submit another application for the job before it closes. In most cases, your latest submission will override a previously submitted application as long as your target job is still open.
11. DO THE READING: Hiring managers look for applicants who show “fire in the belly” and are knowledgeable about their agencies--not applicants who act like “if it’s Tuesday, it must be the Transportation Department.” So before each interview, learn about your target agency by reviewing its web site (particularly its latest press releases), and by reading news articles about it. Incorporate your knowledge of your target agency into your answers to interview questions.
12. PREDICT LIKELY QUESTIONS: Federal hiring managers rely heavily on common interview questions. Therefore, you can identify likely interview questions by “Googling” for lists of common interview questions. Also, ask your trusted advisers to help you anticipate likely questions. Build your answers to these likely questions around specific examples of your successes.
13. PRACTICE FOR INTERVIEWS: Just like politicians prepare and practice their answers to likely debate questions before their day of reckoning, you should prepare and practice your answers to likely interview questions before your day of reckoning. (Remember: if you wing your interviews without preparing for them, you will set yourself up to crash and burn.) Then, role-play your interview with as many of your trusted advisers as possible, and encourage them to give you honest feedback.
14. SAY THANKS: Immediately after you get home from your interview—before you change out of your uncomfortable interview outfit—write a thank-you letter to your interviewer. Your letter should confirm your interest in the position, cite several ways that you would contribute to the organization, and mention several impressive characteristics of the position/organization that were covered in the interview. Repeatedly proofread your letter, and then send it overnight delivery. (Yes, a thank-you letter that arrives right away will score higher than one that arrives even one day later.)
15. NEGOTIATE SALARIES: Don’t buy into the myth that federal salaries are non-negotiable. One of the best kept federal jobs secrets is that salaries and other benefits—such as access to student loan repayment programs that are worth up to $60,000—are frequently negotiable. So whenever you receive an offer, ask: “Is this offer negotiable?” And justify why your stellar credentials warrant a salary that is higher than was originally offered by your target organization.
Posted by kkowatch at February 23, 2009 03:31 PM | <urn:uuid:9957413f-8c2a-4297-8e8d-d2443412af73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/sicareers/archives/2009/02/whos_still_hiri.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940612 | 1,784 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A collection of inspirational wisdom, sayings and quotes on the subject of life and adventure.
Shirley McLaine once said: "I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself ... and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part."
If we are truly spiritual beings having a human experience, then we can take it that our spiritual self is here to 'experience' as much as we can through the human vehicle - this includes to laugh, to love and to be loved, to give of ourselves, to receive, to experience life through our emotions - yes, even pain, because without pain and hardship we cannot have an understanding of love and happiness.
If we shrink from certain experiences just to feel 'safe', then we are not 'living buy only merely 'existing' and we miss out on the experience of 'being alive' and are not truly living at all. So, if life is an adventure, then let's be bold and go out and actually LIVE! Happy travelling!
We're the bridge across forever,
arching above the sea,
adventuring for our pleasure,
living mysteries for the fun of it,
choosing disasters, triumphs, challenges, impossible odds,
testing ourselves over and again,
learning love and love and LOVE!
Can miles truly separate us from friends?
If you want to be with Rae, aren't you already there?
Don't be dismayed at good-byes.
A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.
And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes,
is certain for those who are friends.
The brave man seeks not popular applause,
Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause;
Unsham'd, though foil'd, he does the best he can,
Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
Bravery is the capacity to perform properly
even when scared half to death.
There is a destiny that makes us brothers -
None goes his way alone;
All that which we send into the lives of others,
Comes back onto our own.
I am not afraid of storms,
for I am learning to sail my ship.
The purpose of life, after all,
is to live it,
to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and without fear
for newer and richer experience.
Courage is the price that Life exacts
for granting peace.
When we do the best that we can,
we never know what miracle is wrought
in our life, or in the life of another.
The time is always right
to do what is right.
We need to remember that we are all created creative
and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.
is the highest kite we can fly.
Arriving at one goal
is the starting point to another.
What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.
Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.
is either a daring adventure or nothing.
Twenty years from now,
you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do,
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
I do the very best I know how -
the very best I can;
and I mean to keep on doing it until the end.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world;
indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Life shrinks or expands
in proportion to one's courage.
The human spirit is stronger
than anything that can happen to it.
You have not lived a perfect day,
even though you have earned your money,
unless you have done something for someone
who will never be able to repay you. | <urn:uuid:9f2ed098-5c83-4eac-a9ab-1b7e6d020a92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sapphyr.net/smallgems/quotes-life-adventure.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94485 | 837 | 1.90625 | 2 |
International Education in The Netherlands (Internationaal Georiënteerd Onderwijs, or IGO) is education in English within the Dutch educational programme, intended for specific ‘international’ target groups.
First and foremost, International Education aims to meet the needs and wishes of the Dutch and international business communities and their employees, and to provide fitting education for children with a Dutch or foreign nationality, who, after a stay in The Netherlands, will leave the country again and will then attend English language education. International Education is also meant for children who have settled permanently or temporarily in The Netherlands after a stay abroad.
The principle aim is to provide these children with such education that they are prepared optimally for either the transition to English language education abroad or a possible transition to full Dutch education. An additional aim is to provide them with adequate knowledge of the Dutch language to enable them (either temporarily or permanently) to participate in Dutch society.
Parents of the pupils of the International departments come from all walks of life; but most of them come from the business community, the diplomatic service, or are connected with scientific institutions.
International Education in The Netherlands is offered in special departments affiliated to regular Dutch schools for Primary Education and Secondary Education.
These departments are separately funded by the government. The school present themselves as the Dutch International Primary/Secondary Schools.
As far as Secondary Education is concerned, International Education provides the opportunity for students to attain internationally recognised qualifications. Thus, this type of education is not synonymous with ‘bilingual education’. English in International departments is mainly the language of instruction. The use of English is not an aim in itself (as it is in bilingual education), but rather the means of educating specific groups for internationally recognised qualifications. | <urn:uuid:5a51eadc-c5f1-4a24-8f36-a3839e20760f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dutchinternationalschools.nl/in-general.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954342 | 360 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A temporary surcharge on high-income taxpayers made an unexpected debut at the Capitol Tuesday as leaders of the House DFL majority unveiled their broad-brush plan for balancing the 2014-15 state budget. They propose to employ that tool, last seen in Minnesota in 1982, to erase the remaining $854 million owed to the state's schools from the budget-balancing "shifts" of 2009-11.
The surcharge House DFLers envision would fall only on "the very wealthiest Minnesotans" and would be designed to automatically end, or "blink off," when the school debt is fully repaid. That could occur as soon as eight months from now if the next state budget forecast shows a sufficient surplus. Current law commits mid-biennium surpluses to school debt repayment.
Partisan skepticism greeted the notion of a blinking tax. "Nothing is more permanent than a temporary tax," said House GOP minority leader Kurt Daudt.
But history says otherwise. The 1982 surcharge, which started at 5 percent and grew to 10 percent as the state faced recurring deficits, blinked off in early 1984 as the economy rebounded and the state's finances stabilized. Unlike the new idea, that surcharge applied to all income tax payers at the same percentage level.
The surcharge hasn't blinked back on since. But the Republican governor who initially allowed it to become law without his signature was already recommending another blinking surcharge in September 2008 as a way to cope with the rapidly unfolding Great Recession. His words at the Humphrey Institute that day weren't heeded. In retrospect, they seem prescient and wise:
"Don't wait until we're completely out of recession to increase taxes. People start thinking you can get along without that money. That's not good. The state has a responsibility to carry out the work society has given it. The longer you delay, the more damage you do to that work." | <urn:uuid:10f3bb02-eda6-46f5-b4e6-670d9a564ed0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.startribune.com/opinion/199036751.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960222 | 394 | 1.921875 | 2 |
New research by the Department of Labour shows more employers are using the 90-day trial period to reduce the risk of taking on new employees.
The research is based on the findings of a national survey of around 2000 employers plus qualitative interviews with 53 employers from the retail, hospitality, agriculture, forestry and fishing, and manufacturing industries.
“Our latest research shows that 60% of hiring employers are now using the trial periods, and even more intend to use it in the future,” Department of Labour research centre manager Vasantha Krishnan says.
Since 1 April 2011, an amendment to the Employment Relations Act 2000 allows all businesses to hire new employees on a trial period of up to 90 calendar days. Prior to this, employers with fewer than 20 employees were able to use the provision from 1 March 2009.
The research found:
• There has been an increase in the number of hiring employers using the trial period from 49% in 2010 to 60% in the latest survey. There is not a significant difference between the level of use in SMEs and larger employers.
• Trial periods have improved employment opportunities – 41% of employers in the national survey said they would not have hired their most recent employee without a trial period.
• Eighty percent of employers in the survey reported they had continued employing staff once the trial period had ended. This is similar to the level found in the 2010 evaluation of trial periods in SMEs.
• Youth and long-term unemployed are benefitting. Respondents to the qualitative interviews said trial periods were one of the key government initiatives that had improved their willingness to hire applicants from these groups – due to reduction of risk.
• Employers use trial periods to address risk when hiring, for example: to check an employee’s ability for the job before making a commitment to employ permanently (66%); to employ someone with the skills required, but where the business is unsure about their ‘fit’ with the workplace (35%); to avoid incurring costs if staff are unsuitable for the job (13%).
• Some employers use trial periods to test the viability of a position (rather than person) within the business. This is more likely in SMEs (30%), compared with 17% for larger employers.
Under the amendment to the Employment Relations Act, an employee, if dismissed within the 90 days’ trial period, is unable to raise a personal grievance for reasons of unjustified dismissal, but still has the right to protections against discrimination, sexual and racial harassment, duress or unjustified action by the employer. Employees are still able to access mediation, and the principle of good faith still applies to the relationship.
back to the newsletter | <urn:uuid:8535cf62-1f8e-4bb4-9562-b5503cfab94d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.management.co.nz/executiveupdate.asp?eID=406 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960195 | 545 | 1.929688 | 2 |
What did Milton Friedman ever do to Ginia Bellafante?
Occasional television critic Bellafante often lets her liberal politics (and historical ignorance ) fly while reviewing PBS documentaries, including her Wednesday review of the four-part series "The Ascent of Money," hosted by the popularizinghistorian Niall Ferguson. Bellafante doesn't approve of Ferguson's free-market leanings and gets in her second jab at the late Nobel Prize economist:
One of Mr. Ferguson's hallmarks is the statement made ex cathedra, delivered as if no counterargument could exist to upend it. In thrall to the Chicago School's free-market philosophy, he blames the welfare state in Britain and much of the Western world in the 1970s for the stagflation of the time. The state-supported system had removed the incentives to entrepreneurship without which the capitalist economy cannot function, he declares - "the carrot of serious money for those who strive, the stick of hardship for those who are idle." In this version of history the energy crisis, monetary policy and other factors played little role in the development of debilitating inflation and slow growth.
In Chile he indulges in a similar whitewashing, tracing the origins of the country's impressive economic expansion during the '80s and '90s almost entirely to its privatization of retirement accounts in 1981, a system criticized in recent years for high management fees and low participation rates. The reforms came about through collaboration between the dictatorAugusto PinochetandMilton Friedmanand his conservative economist acolytes. Mr. Ferguson's relativism leaves him with little to condemn in the union.
He also glosses over, for instance, the fact that in 2005 - before the global financial crisis - unemployment in Chile stood at 8.6 percent, with the figure nearly three times higher among people under 24. And while the poverty rate has plummeted, the gap in social equality (as measured by factors like gains in education and family income) remains wide.
More vigilant academics driven by finding nuance - those whose names are not attached to DVDs available on Netflix - are typically repelled by the brash assertion the medium of television often requires. Mr. Ferguson isn't; he thrives on it, comporting himself as someone unambivalently enjoying his celebrity. Where others might cower ultimately, he calls wardrobe.
Yes, all those "nuanced" Marxist academics!
Bellafante has a long-standing grudge against Milton Friedman, thelegendary free-market economist. In a January 2007 review of another PBS documentary, a favorable oneon Friedman, she actually criticized Friedman for opposing the military draft, an issue with universal liberal appeal.
Though Mr. Friedman's free-choice doctrine contributed to ending the draft in the 1970s, the film takes virtually no note of the cultural and political climate in which he was making his opinions known. Nor does it address one result of the draft's elimination: a military not well represented by affluent men and women who have many choices, but dominated by comparatively disadvantaged ones with far fewer options." | <urn:uuid:b4e11914-d1df-493e-8dcd-32982314b9ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrc.org/print/articles/what-did-milton-friedman-ever-do-ginia-bellafante | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960714 | 627 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Offering perspective on today's issues
Angelina Jolie's announcement Tuesday that she underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her chance of developing breast cancer is drawing attention to a decision that everyday women have weighed.
Sadly, hundreds of thousands of young women ignore a ticking time bomb called triple negative breast cancer, and they don't even know it.
MERRILLVILLE | Medical professionals, health care practitioners and the public are invited to a free seminar and online webinar Wednesday on the history and future of breast cancer diagnostics, hosted by a company in the Purdue Research Park of Northwest Indiana.
The technology behind three-dimensional breast imaging, in addition to standard digital mammography, has led to better diagnostic accuracy and reduced false positive recall rates, according to a recent study published by Radiology, a journal from the Radiological Society of North America.
Fashion designers sometimes get to wear their hearts on their sleeves, making their personal connection to charitable causes part of their public lives.
Seven years ago at age 53, graphic artist Kay Hartmann battled breast cancer and won—but her research about the disease has left her with troubling questions. Now the associate professor in art and design at Chicago’s Columbia College has poured her frustration into a collection of graphic d…
Women from the Luna Chix run team gather Wednesday night at Universal Sole in Chicago's Lakeview community for their last run of the season.
CHICAGO | One national group with a base in Chicago fights to keep women cancer-free and active. Luna Chix Chicago gives women team support for mountain biking, triathlon training, cycling and running as a way to promote cancer-free good health.
In October 2010, The New York Times quoted the American Medical Association as warning women that hormone replacement therapy drugs were likely to cause advanced and deadly breast cancer. The article, however, failed to reveal that HRT drugs contain one-sixth the dose of the same drugs that …
One of Chicago's top goals in the fight against breast cancer is to eliminate ethnic and racial disparities in detecting and treating the disease. Black women are 50 percent likelier to die of breast cancer due to lack of screening and, often, lack of insurance, according to the Chicago Depa…
MERRILLVILLE | More than 2,500 area residents made their mark in the race to cure breast cancer by raising more than $200,000 during Sunday’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk at Hidden Lake Park.
MUNSTER | Tucked in a discreet corner of Bunny's Beaute Salon, not far from the rows of hair dryer helmets for the roller-set crowd, is a pink salon chair where dozens of women and men have sat and cried.
MERRILLVILLE | Methodist Hospitals on Tuesday unveiled its latest facility expansion, a breast care center designed with a spa-like feel that offers modern technology.
LOWELL | When Nan Parente was diagnosed with breast cancer more than four years ago, she began a journey that turned her into cancer survivor who is now on a mission to help others on that same journey.
When Kay Hartmann was diagnosed with breast cancer, first she was frightened. Then she got angry.
Fashionable new accessories from the Kohl's Cares ELLE collection include fun scarves. All sales support the fight against breast cancer with 100 percent of the net profit donated. Available through the end of October, the collection is available at the 40 Kohl's stores in Wisconsin stores a…
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Should Indiana require ignition interlock devices to be installed upon conviction for drunken driving?
- LIVE: RailCats morning game vs. Wichita13 hours ago
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- PREP BASEBALL: Roosevelt forfeits sectional game before postseason beginsMay 21, 2013 8:36 am
- FIRST PITCH: Opening day, Michelle FieldsMay 16, 2013 7:30 pm | <urn:uuid:9290a0ed-701c-4494-8fca-8189eb34cbea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwitimes.com/search/?k=%22breast%20cancer%22&t=&l=20&d=&d1=&d2=&f=html&s=start_time&sd=desc&sHeading=Breast%20Cancer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937 | 932 | 2.03125 | 2 |
July 9, 2009
"It is truly an entrepreneurial kind of system, where there is no coercion in the system. And it is based on market forces, if you will. If they like us, they will join us and stay with us; if they do not, they do not have to. I think that is the most important thing."
-Deputy Education Secretary Madeleine Kunin, Discussing competition between the government-run Direct Loan program and private lending programs that President Obama now wants to abolish, Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee hearing, March 30, 1995
As Congress debates health reform, many Democrats insist upon the creation of a so-called "public option" as an ingredient of any reform-and President Obama recently reiterated that view. Supporters of such a government-run health plan argue that it could compete on a "level playing field" with private health coverage in a way that brings down costs However, a history of federal involvement in student lending shows that a "level playing field" between the private sector and the government soon leads to a desire for government domination:
- The Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), first established as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965, has provided higher education funding for tens of millions of Americans. Since its creation, the FFELP program has disbursed more than 200 million loans to college students totaling nearly $800 billion.
- In 1993, a Democrat Congress passed, and President Clinton signed into law, legislation permanently establishing the Direct Loan program-a government-run system that Democrats intended to take over the entire student loan marketplace. When Republicans regained control of Congress in 1994, the Clinton Administration shifted its focus from abolishing FFELP entirely towards the promotion of a purportedly "level playing field" between private lenders and the government-run Direct Lending program.
- When Democrats regained control of Congress in 2006, FFELP was overwhelmingly popular with schools and students. Department of Education data demonstrate that during the 2006-07 school year, more than four times as many schools participated in FFELP than the government-run program, and private lenders originated more than 80 percent of all student loan volume.
- However, Democrats such as Ted Kennedy complained that private lenders were paid overly generous subsidies such that the government-run Direct Loan program was not "free to compete on a level playing field." As a result, Democrats in Congress passed legislation creating new benefits for borrowers in the Direct Loan program-in order to tilt the playing field in favor of the government-run program.
- Having taken tens of billions from private student lending to tilt the "level playing field" in favor of the government-run program, Democrats began to turn their attention towards abolishing FFELP outright. In October 2007, then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview that "I want the FFELP programs to compete with the Direct Loan program on a level playing field." Within weeks, she reversed her position, joining her fellow Democrat presidential candidates to convert the student loan program into an entirely government-run system.
- Likewise, Sen. Kennedy also flip-flopped, no longer calling for the "level playing field" between private lenders and the government-run program he wrote about in early 2007, but the total eradication of the private market for student lending and a monopoly for the government-run plan.
- Even as he continues to advocate for a government-run health plan to compete on a purportedly "level playing field" with private insurance, President Obama has included as a major agenda item the abolition of the FFELP program, and conversion of all federal student loans into a government-run system-abandoning the supposedly "level playing field" created over a decade ago.
"We are not taking a free enterprise system and federalizing it. We are in fact improving the entrepreneurial and competitive possibilities...because people are going to have to compete for the business...They are going to have to compete on the basis of price and the basis of quality."
-Deputy Education Secretary Madeleine Kunin, discussing creation of government-run Direct Loan program, House Education and Labor Committee hearing, June 10, 1993
Many Members may therefore question the authenticity of statements that a so-called "public option" in health care would not result in later actions to abolish private health insurance altogether. Members may also question how the President can propose to establish a government-run health plan on a "level playing field" with private coverage-while simultaneously moving to abolish private student lending together, shifting that "level playing field" entirely in favor of the government. Particularly given the public comments by one leading Democrat that a government-run health plan "will put the private insurance industry out of business," some Members may question when-and under what pretext-Democrats that successfully enact a "public option" will move to abolish private health coverage altogether.
For additional information, contact:
The House Republican Conference Policy Office | <urn:uuid:3ffcb85d-588e-4b28-bb4f-636e3ddad2a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gop.gov/policy-news/09/07/09/beware-democrats-bearing-gifts-the | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960362 | 1,007 | 2.671875 | 3 |
With CU help, people with Parkinson’s disease reclaim their voice
By Clint Talbott
Bob Travis opens his mouth and says “aaaaaaaaah.” His voice sounds normal to him, the same one he used in professional life. But his voice as heard on a video recording is soft, slightly more than audible.
Bob has Parkinson’s disease, and, like about 90 percent of those struggling with the condition, he has trouble being heard. Literally.
So he has come to the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Science at the University of Colorado for speech therapy. In jest, he said he’d come because his wife needed a hearing aid. In truth, though, he had noticed his vocal power fading.
In a video recording made at the onset of his treatment, therapist Jennifer Lewon asks Bob why he is there. “To improve my voice,” he says. He’d noticed his voice getting softer about a year prior, but he thought it might be a cold. Later, he realized he was wrong.
A month after the initial therapy session, Bob appeared in a post-treatment video. Again asked to say “aaaaaah,” his voice veritably booms, loud and robust. He recognizes this himself. Of his wife, he says, “She no longer needs a hearing aid.”
Bob has just finished speech therapy developed by Lorraine Ramig, CU professor of speech, language and hearing science. He has passed with “flying colors,” therapist Lewon says.
Like many clients who undergo the four-week program, he feels less isolated, more visible, better able to participate in everyday activities, like answering the telephone or joining a dinner conversation.
As many as 1 million people in the United States have Parkinson’s, the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation estimates. In addition to the problems they experience with movement and stiffness, about 90 percent have voice problems, Ramig says. But only a very few receive vocal therapy that has been proved to be effective.
“As a faculty member, it’s wonderful, thrilling and all of that to do the science, but what’s also exciting is seeing the application of discovery in real patients,” Ramig observes. “It’s so satisfying to work with a patient and see the effect, the confidence they gain.”
Ramig recalls one client who returned home after treatment, using the voice he’d learned how to reclaim. His wife said, “That’s the voice I fell in love with.”
As Ramig explains it, people with Parkinson’s have a diminished sense of how loudly they speak. If they think they are attaining a normal volume, they may be hard to hear. But if they think they are shouting, they are probably speaking in conversational tones.
In a post-treatment interview, Bob is asked if it feels that he is shouting. “I’m yelling, but to you it should sound normal.”
Lewon, the clinician, adds: “It’s my very favorite program to work on with speech pathology because of the significant changes.”
The roots of the treatment, called Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, date to 1983, when a colleague asked Ramig for help with speech therapy for Parkinson’s patients. She was introduced to the family of Silverman, who was living in Arizona. Their wish: “if we could only hear and understand her.”
Ramig and a student from CU-Boulder set out to develop a treatment protocol, but the prevailing opinion was not on their side. “When we began, neurologists said speech therapy doesn’t work, and it didn’t.”
But Ramig and her collaborator focused on a high-effort vocal-exercise program—an hour a day in treatment sessions plus homework—that proved to be effective. Multiple studies since then have confirmed LSVT® LOUD (now a registered trademark of LSVT Global Inc.) to be effective. Today LSVT LOUD is being delivered by LSVT certified clinicians in more than 40 countries.
The essence of the treatment is to get patients to use that “loud” voice as their own voice, and to cue them to know that the voice they think is loud is the right voice, Ramig says.
She notes that the development of LSVT LOUD is unusual. “Usually, you have basic research that portends changes in treatment. This works in the opposite direction.” Ramig and her colleagues have highly effective treatments and are now working to understand why they are so effective.
Meanwhile, one-on-one treatment is time- and labor-intensive. Ramig notes that there are not enough speech clinicians to help all those who need it. “It would take 90,000 years of available speech therapists just to treat the existing patients,” she notes.
Together with two other speech and hearing scientists (including Cynthia Fox, a CU-Boulder graduate), Ramig founded LSVT Global Inc., a company that aims to bring LSVT LOUD to a broader range of patients via technology.
With funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, LSVT Global is developing software that could be used in conjunction with clinicians.
“Our vision is 24/7 global access,” Ramig notes.
Ramig, who is also a senior scientist at the National Center for Voice and Speech and an adjunct professor at New York City’s Columbia University Teacher’s College, and her colleagues have also collaborated in the development LSVT BIG physical/occupational treatment as well as an LSVT HYBRID, combined speech/physical therapy for people with Parkinson disease.
“It has been a thrilling adventure, and at the heart of it all is helping patients communicate. There is nothing better! I just wish I had 90 more years to make it happen! A few million dollars’ investment would shrink that goal to only a few years to accomplish the goal!”
Ramig has been notified that she will receive the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Honors of the Association award at the group’s November meeting. As the association notes, the awards recognize “distinguished contributions to the discipline of communication sciences and disorders and are the highest honors the association can bestow.”
Gail Ramsberger, chair and associate professor of CU’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, describes the honor as “an amazing tribute to Lori’s work.”
For more information on LSVT, see www.lsvtglobal.com. | <urn:uuid:7d4a6c4f-48c2-41a3-8d94-72cfb8e9c00e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2010/06/with-cu-help-people-with-parkinsons-disease-reclaim-their-voice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968899 | 1,419 | 2.1875 | 2 |
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|Scholarships||HOPE||Pell||Net Price Calculator||Student Loans|
**Important update to Pell Grant for 2012-2013**
The most recent federal budget has made significant changes to the Pell Grant program. These include:
- Students must have a GED or high school diploma to be eligible in all cases
- The AGI threshold for automatic zero EFC has been lowered from $30,000 to $23,000 and the effective EFC for Pell eligibility has been reduced to 4995
- The lifetime eligibility for Pell has been reduced from 18 fulltime semester to 12. This change is retroactive, meaning that any students who have surpassed this mark will lose Pell eligibility.
For more detailed information, students can visit here. The financial aid office will also communicate with students regarding their eligibility. As always, financial aid information is up to date and available on BannerWeb.
PELL GRANT PAYMENT INFORMATION 2011-12 Award Year
- Know if you're Pell Grant eligible based on your Student Aid Report (SAR)
- Know if you're in an eligible program of study (see below)
- Know if you're registered for courses in your eligible program of study
- Know your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC), and
Know your Enrollment Status (total hours for semester – see below)
- AM I PELL GRANT ELIGIBLE?
- IS MY PROGRAM OF STUDY PELL GRANT ELIGIBLE?
- ARE MY COURSES IN MY ELIGIBLE PROGRAM OF STUDY?
- WHAT IS MY EFC?
Calculate the amount of your semester Federal Pell Grant award amounts by using this award schedule and information from your paper or electronic Student Aid Report (SAR). If you don't have your SAR, you may access your SAR information online and download a copy at: www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/studentaccess.jsp. You will need your Federal PIN to view and download your SAR.
All associate degrees and diploma programs at the College are Pell Grant eligible. However, currently only a few certificate programs are Pell Grant eligible. Please contact the Financial Aid Office for a currently
Students who are accepted as 'Developmental' are not considered by the US DOE to be in an eligible program of study. Please contact the Financial Aid Office for a current list of Pell eligible TCCs.
View your semester's schedule and select your program of study in the online ATC Catalog at http://www.athenstech.edu/Catalog/#P. The Pell Grant will not payout for courses not listed in the ATC Catalog's curriculum. If you are in a 'pre-health' certificate for a competitive health program, you need to go by the certificate's curriculum.
USING THE CHART BELOW
To use this chart, you need to know your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and your enrollment status. If you need information on how to calculate your correct enrollment status, view your online Banner account. Your EFC can be found on your SAR.
1. Locate your EFC on your paper or electronic SAR.
2. On the Pell Grant Award Schedule, look at the left-hand column labeled "EFC" and find the range of numbers containing your particular EFC.
3. Look at the columns to the right labeled with the 4 different enrollment statuses. The appropriate PELL Grant award amounts for every EFC are printed for each enrollment status (number of Credit hours you have registered for this semester). After adding your total Credit hours for the semester, find the column for your enrollment status and move across the same row as your EFC until you find the award amount for your particular enrollment status.
PELL GRANT CHECK DATES
Go to http://www.athenstech.edu/StudentAffairs/financialaid/ to view the current semester’s Pell check dates.
WITHDRAWALS AND OVERPAYMENTS
Federal regulations specify that you must attend at least 60% of the semester before you become eligible for 100% of your federal student aid awards for that term. If you withdraw from all your classes before you have completed at least 60% of the semester, the College must determine what portion of your federal awards you are entitled to receive according to an attendance formula prescribed in federal regulations. If you have received, or the College has received on your behalf, more federal student aid funds than the formula allows, you will have to repay any award amount to which you were not entitled. If you fail to repay any award amount to which you were not entitled, you risk losing your eligibility for future federal aid payments. The dates listed below mark the point in each term when you have earned 100% of your semester awards:
|2012-13 100% Completion Dates| | <urn:uuid:32cfa6eb-1818-4277-8ab2-0d0826dc7486> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://athenstech.edu/StudentAffairs/FinancialAid/pell.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913266 | 1,023 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The University of Alberta Orchesis Modern Dance Program has been in existence for over 40 years. Its history is written into the bodies, minds, and spirits of all its participants and continues to be written in the spaces of the rehearsal studios and Myer Horowitz Theatre.
In 1918, Margaret H'Doubler, a professor of physical education at the University of Wisconsin, established the first dance degree program at a U.S. university. To Professor H'Doubler, dance was a vital force in the total development of the individual. She called her group Orchesis, which implied the combined sciences of movement and gesture. Her idea of dance was to foster social improvement, physical well-being, and artistic enrichment, and to realize the Greek ideal of balance between the intellectual, the physical, and the spiritual. By the late 1960s, over 200 Orchesis groups had been established at universities across North America.
Dorothy Harris, a disciple of H'Doubler, graduate of the University of Wisconsin, and professor of dance in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, founded the U of A Orchesis group in 1964. She initiated a wave of creative dance in the mid–60s that has taken on a life of its own in the present vibrant dance community. For Harris, Orchesis encompassed all of the ideals of her mentor, and, most importantly, Orchesis provided students with "a chance to dance" in a performance context. Together with fellow dance professor Joyce Boorman, Harris aimed to stimulate an appreciation and understanding of creative dance in the larger community. It began with the Introductory Modern Dance class, a required third-year course for women and the only creative dance activity in Edmonton at the time.
The first Orchesis performance was a lecture demonstration in the West Gymnasium in 1965. It was a free event to introduce and explain this "strange" mode of dance to the curious audience. The audience reaction was favourable and Orchesis gained strength.
The University of Alberta Orchesis and the University of Calgary Dance Club presented joint programs in 1969 and 1970, entitled Dance Montage in Calgary, and Dance Motif in Edmonton. In 1973, Orchesis partnered with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra and the Centennial Singers to produce "Can We Get There by Candlelight", a Christmas program.
By 1977, Orchesis had returned to the magic of the theatre environment with Dance Motif, whose primary objectives are to enhance the learning experience and provide performance opportunities for students. The performance also strives to educate audiences about dance, and to make dance visible in the campus community.
The 1988 performance at the Calgary Olympics is a highlight in Orchesis's history. Orchesis performed in the Olympic Arts Festival Danscene, held at the University of Calgary. In conjunction with the Festival, the University of Calgary Dance Department hosted Canada's first national conference for post-secondary dance programs, Danscene: University and Colleges.
In recent years, Orchesis has taken its dances to Camrose, Red Deer, and Fort McMurray; participated in dance conferences; and held orientation performances on campus. Orchesis continues today with Dance Motif within the University of Alberta community. Orchesis has established itself as a collaborative effort between academic staff and students with the ongoing support of the Students' Union and the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. Orchesis draws its membership from students, staff, alumni, and other members of the community.
The University of Alberta Orchesis Modern Dance Club has thrived for over 40 years due to the belief and commitment to dance of its directors, Dorothy Harris, Joyce Boorman, Marsha Padfield, Ruth Bartman, Cathy Black, and Tamara Bliss.
This history is adapted from an article by Karrie Darichuk, who has been a part of Orchesis for over fifteen years. The original article appeared in the 35th anniversary Dance Motif program. | <urn:uuid:669351fe-c132-44fd-95cc-2e58bcb0dabb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101214180338/http:/www.ualbertacentennial.ca/organization/campus/orchesis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948848 | 818 | 1.703125 | 2 |
1. I like running.
2. My body feels better when I run. My blood pressure is lower, I have fewer general aches, everything just works better.
3. Running is good for my cardiovascular system and reduces my risk of having a heart attack or stroke. This is important because my father had a fatal heart attack at 65. My mom and brother have cholesterol problems and my maternal grandfather died from heart problems. My own history of preeclampsia doubles my risk of heart attack and stroke by itself. The odds against having a heart attack are not great unless I do as much as I can to keep my heart healthy.
4. I feel great after I run.
5. I am happier in general when I run regularly.
6. Races are fun.
Clearly, running is a good thing for me. So, why is it so hard to get my tush out of the chair and out the door? | <urn:uuid:84706075-9390-4a04-b2b2-5213bed6a239> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://myabundantsparetime.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-know-these-things-are-true.html?showComment=1325680143983 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966203 | 192 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Advancing the themes that led to his re-election victory, President Obama billed himself as, above all, a relentless advocate of the middle class in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, and urged congressional Republicans to work with him rather than consistently oppose his initiatives.
Obama's hour-long speech came on a day that illustrated how volatile the domestic and world situations can be, and how a president's agenda can be dramatically altered by circumstances, no matter what he intends. Among Tuesday's news events were reports of a new North Korean nuclear test, a manhunt to capture a rogue cop in California, and speculation about a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who announced that he is resigning because of bad health. The Obama administration also announced that the president will halve the current U.S. force in Afghanistan--pulling out 34,000 troops--within the next year.
Echoing President John F. Kennedy's embrace of generational change, Obama portrayed the main challenge of his second term as a battle between the status quo and his desire to complete the nation's "unfinished business" in a variety of areas, from strengthening the economy and creating jobs to overhauling the immigration laws and,in his most impassioned plea of the evening, controlling the sale of guns.
"It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of American's economic growth--a rising, thriving middle class," Obama told a joint session of Congress. "It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country--the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you love."
Obama also said, "It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation."
He said, " It's not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth."
Obama urged Congress to enact measures to combat climate change but, in a stark warning, declared that, "If Congress won't act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy."
Obama's speech also included these ideas, most of which he has proposed before and which amount to something of a liberal manifesto:
--Urging congressional passage of a deficit-reduction package that includes both tax increases and spending cuts.
--Calling for tax reform "that helps small businesses," increases taxes on billionaires, and lowers rates on businesses that create jobs in the United States.
--Increasing federal investments in education, manufacturing, and infrastructure such as bridges and roads.
--Calling for a ban on military-style assault weapons and urging support for universal background checks for would-be gun purchasers.
--Backing an immigration-law overhaul that would create a "path to citizenship" for millions of illegal immigrants.
--Increasing federal investment in science and "innovation."
--Endorsing a raise in the federal minimum wage.
--Proposing to reduce the world's nuclear arsenal, including a pledge to reduce the number of nuclear weapons deployed by the United States.
--Plannings to begin negotiations on a free trade agreement with the European Union.
--Pledging to work with other countries to fight terrorism.
Obama closed his address with an emotional appeal for gun control. Referring to the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. in December, he said gun control has become an urgent priority "because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."
Ken Walsh covers the White House and politics for U.S. News. He writes the daily blog, "Ken Walsh's Washington," for usnews.com, and is the author of "The Presidency" column for the U.S. News Weekly. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org and followed on Facebook and Twitter. | <urn:uuid:64d9fe67-8817-4f5d-998e-cdc25a4844a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/Ken-Walshs-Washington/2013/02/12/obama-sketches-a-broad-agenda-in-state-of-the-union?s_cid=related-links:TOP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959845 | 896 | 1.695313 | 2 |
March 3, 2008
"Why did the Air Force choose a less efficient aircraft that is harder to maneuver?" That's the question cominf from Kansas Senator Pat Roberts on Monday.
The tanker decision may be crashing with lawmakers like him, but 'hard to maneuver' beats 'hard to maintain' for those who fly the current tankers.
"We're just glad to get the new capability and we're glad to see this advance," says Col. Jim Vechery, Wing Commander with the 22nd Air Refuling Wing.
He says the current KC-135's need replaced. Now lawmakers are concerned the planes the Air Force chose as the next generation may not fit at current air bases.
"A-330 is going to require larger hangers that that have to be built and it requires the extension of runways that have to be built," says Congressman Todd Tiahrt.
Here's how the current KC-135 compares with Boeing's KC-767 and the Airbus KC-45, as it will be known. The KC-135 is relatively small in comparison. Only about 136 feet long and 130 feet wide.
The proposed Boeing plane is about 22 feet longer and 25 feet wider. And according to Congressman Tiahrt, still able to land on most Air Force runways and fit in existing hangers.
Airbus's plane dwarfs the KC-135. It's stretches 56 feet longer and the increase in wing span alone is near the size of two school busses.
The air force is expected to release a list in the next few weeks of all the air bases and airports that won't have to make adjustments for the bigger planes. It's unclear if McConnell will be on that list but Congressman Tiahrt says he's very anxious to see who is.
He also wants to know how much the changes will cost, and if the Air Force knew about them before awarding the contract to Airbus.
"They're saying they factored that in when they made the decision but I want documentation."
The state of Kansas waited for the decision to be made, now it'll wait for answers explaining it.
Copyright © 2013, KWCH-TV | <urn:uuid:143c2535-6993-43bf-a2cd-bec71f96ec1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/news/aviationwatch/kwch-newtankersmaybetoobigfo-7960497,0,2283712,print.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960885 | 446 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Science: One Finger on the Hand of Humanity
Although the Dalai Lama is passionate about science, he believes there are limits to what we can learn from it.
BY: An excerpt by the Dalai Lama
I have spent many years reflecting on the remarkable advances of science. Within the short space of my own lifetime, the impact of science and technology on humanity has been tremendous. Although my own interest in science began with curiosity about a world, foreign to me at that time, governed by technology, it was not very long before the colossal significance of science for humanity as a whole dawned on me--especially after I came into exile in 1959. There is almost no area of human life today that is not touched by the effects of science and technology. Yet are we clear about the place of science in the totality of human life--what exactly it should do and by what it should be governed? This last point is critical because unless the direction of science is guided by a consciously ethical motivation, especially compassion, its effects may fail to bring benefit. They may indeed cause great harm.
Seeing the tremendous importance of science and recognizing its inevitable dominance in the modern world fundamentally changed my attitude to it from curiosity to a kind of urgent engagement. In Buddhism the highest spiritual ideal is to cultivate compassion for all sentient beings and to work for their welfare to the greatest possible extent. From my earliest childhood I have been conditioned to cherish this ideal and attempt to fulfill it in my every action. So I wanted to understand science because it gave me a new area to explore in my personal quest to understand the nature of reality. I also wanted to learn about it because I recognized in it a compelling way to communicate insights gleaned from my own spiritual tradition. So, for me, the need to engage with this powerful force in our world has become a kind of spiritual injunction as well. The central question--central for the survival and well-being of our world--is how we can make the wonderful developments of science into something that offers altruistic and compassionate service for the needs of humanity and the other sentient beings with whom we share this earth.
Do ethics have a place in science? I believe they do. First of all, like any instrument, science can be put to good use or bad. It is the state of mind of the person wielding the instrument that determines to what end it will be put. Second, scientific discoveries affect the way we understand the world and our place in it. This has consequences for our behavior. For example, the mechanistic understanding of the world led to the Industrial Revolution, in which the exploitation of nature became the standard practice. There is, however, a general assumption that ethics are relevant to only the application of science, not the actual pursuit of science. In this model the scientist as an individual and the community of scientists in general occupy a morally neutral position, with no responsibility for the fruits of what they have discovered. But many important scientific discoveries, and particularly the technological innovations they lead to, create new conditions and open up new possibilities which give rise to new ethical and spiritual challenges. We cannot simply absolve the scientific enterprise and individual scientists from responsibility for contributing to the emergence of a new reality.
Perhaps the most important point is to ensure that science never becomes divorced from the basic human feeling of empathy with our fellow beings. Just as one's fingers can function only in relation to the palm, so scientists must remain aware of their connection to society at large. Science is vitally important, but it is only one finger of the hand of humanity, and its greatest potential can be actualized only so long as we are careful to remember this. Otherwise, we risk losing our sense of priorities. Humanity may end up serving the interests of scientific progress rather than the other way around. Science and technology are powerful tools, but we must decide how best to use them. What matters above all is the motivation that governs the use of science and technology, in which ideally heart and mind are united. | <urn:uuid:e1864e12-3221-4832-b544-422c03c3617c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Buddhism/2005/10/Science-One-Finger-On-The-Hand-Of-Humanity.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949682 | 805 | 2.671875 | 3 |
To enable a petrol engine to accelerate, the mixture must be enriched. This is also the case with vehicles having a regulated catalytic converter. The acceleration equipment has the job of injecting additional fuel for as long as the accelerator pedal is pressed.
In most operational areas, the carburetor functions through vacuum, only when accelerating, do most carburetors, by means of a piston-pump - on the right beside the choke funnel- (top picture) inject additional fuel. The pump is operated by linkage-rods coming from the accelerator pedal (arrow). Thereby, the internal piston first of all takes up the whole stroke, and through it's spring, passes this on to the larger piston. Gravitational ball-valves in the intake- and injection channels prevent a flow-back. In the picture below, the injection occurs through a membrane pump.
In the partial load area, up to about 2/3 of the throttle, most carburetors inject some fuel every time the pedal is pressed. This is why, when driving at an even pace, the pedal should be kept still. 01/11
Should you spot any errors on this page, please click here ... | <urn:uuid:d9d9961d-2814-4c23-abcb-b2faeaeb3476> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kfz-tech.de/Engl/VBeschleunigung.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936447 | 243 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Photo: Michael Kalus(Flickr)
The controversy over state air pollution permits to expand British Petroleum’s refinery in Whiting, Indiana is coming to an end. A precedent-setting settlement has been signed that will cut emissions from the highly-polluting tar sands oil project and provide stronger air quality protections for Northwest Indiana residents.
State and federal agencies and several environmental and community groups claim BP’s air permits did not accurately reflect the pollution realities of the Whiting refinery’s expansion.
The settlement calls for $400-million in added pollution control and monitoring equipment to deal with increased emissions associated with BP‘s shift to tar sands oil.
It also puts in place air monitors that will help with a better understanding of emissions from refineries that process heavy crude oil. | <urn:uuid:ee96aeb8-0790-472a-9e90-f1ba61626530> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/settlement-reached-bp-tar-sands-controversy-30720/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933087 | 162 | 2.296875 | 2 |
To the Editor:
Tax cuts aren’t the mantra for economic recovery. So said David Stockman, budget director under President Ronald Reagan.
He called the tax cuts and the economic recovery at that time coincidental, not causal, and blamed adherence to this Republican mantra for the irresponsible culture of living beyond one’s means which led to the recent crises.
Stockman predicts bankruptcy for the U.S. economy within two years if the controversial Bush tax cuts are not revoked and drastic budget cuts enforced.
Money given back to the privileged gets fueled into the big international corporations as investments. On the other hand, the extension of unemployment benefits will create money flow directly into local markets, being spent right here and now. Local employers will be encouraged by better revenue to hire more help, thus reducing unemployment lines in the future.
In 1985, when Reagan instituted his tax cut, trickle-down economy, 5 percent of the wealthiest had a net worth of $8 trillion. In 2007, the top 5 percent have a net worth of $40 trillion. If these 5 percent and those who earn over $250,000 continue to get tax cuts, it weakens the middle class. Do we want to become a Third World country with no solid middle class? A polarized society of a few extremely affluent with a majority of poor people?
If inflation becomes a factor,
working poor will be crushed
To the Editor:
The Austrian economists of the 20th century often stated that governments cannot choose between recession and depression, only between depression and greater depression. It’s unfortunate that our government has chosen a greater depression.
The witchcraft that is going on at the Federal Reserve is going to ensure that we have the worst possible outcome. How is it that this bank has the power to lend trillions of dollars to other central banks around the world? Why can they create money and buy government debt with that printed money? The Federal Reserve is like the fourth branch of government — the most powerful branch. Ben Bernanke is more powerful than the president. Very few people question his power.
Bernanke says that we need more inflation to support job growth. He thinks
printing money will create jobs and spur economic activity. Note that the countries with the highest inflation usually have the highest unemployment rates, but for some reason he thinks the outcome of higher inflation will be different for us.
Do we really need to pay $3, $4 or $5 a gallon for gas? Do we really need higher food costs? Gas at $4 a gallon takes on a whole different dimension with 10 percent unemployment.
As those on Wall Street cheer easy money from the Fed, those living on Main Street and the working poor are going to be crushed by rising prices.
Tax cuts for the rich
a guarantee for prosperity?
To the Editor:
For the last several years, some of our best minds have been tackling the troubling problems of recession, job losses, the housing crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After stimulus packages and bank bailouts, we have had less than stellar results.
Millions of dollars have been spent on think tanks and commissions to study the looming crises. Suggested solutions include cutting Medicare and Medicaid services, increasing the Social Security retirement age, investing in infrastructure development and green jobs.
Lurking behind Curtain No. 3 is the “eureka” solution to all our problems: tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. So let us cut deeply and hasten the dawning day of millions of new jobs, affordable health care and prosperity for all.
R. Oscar Lofters
Who will benefit from
tax cuts for the rich? The rich
To the Editor:
The Bush tax cuts, passed by a GOP Congress, added $1.3 trillion to the government deficit. It was the largest unfunded piece of legislation in U.S. history. It was supposed to produce jobs. Instead it led to an enormous hemorrhaging of jobs by the end of the Bush administration. Now the GOP is proposing to make these job cuts permanent.
Who will benefit from this tax cut legislation? The top 1 percent, who own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans. Wall Street executives, whose bonuses are more obscene than before the bailout, will benefit the most. It will continue to starve the government of trillions in income. The benefits to small businesses are a pittance, yet the GOP says this permanent tax cut will benefit small business.
Stop drinking the FOX News/GOP Kool-Aid. Giving tax cuts to the wealthy only help the wealthy, not you or me. | <urn:uuid:53dc80b8-f399-435e-8bbf-410c7304007f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/12/readers_sound_off_about_tax_cu.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946125 | 940 | 2.3125 | 2 |
The Kodak Pony 135 is a viewfinder camera made in 1955. It uses 35mm film and has a fixed focal length. Its a nice camera that can do multiple exposures and long exposures! This camera may be a Lomographers dream, or it may be a problem for people for certain reasons. Learn more about this camera and its functions after the jump.
I recieved my Kodak Pony as a Chrismas gift from a friend of mine. once i got it i immediately loaded it with a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 speed film and tried it out. Once i got the shots back i was blown away, the Kodak Aniston lens was nice and sharp, but still had an antique look to it because of the glass used back then.
This is very much a manual camera, there is no light meter or Auto-Exposure function, you have to set the focus, aperture and the shutterspeed, as well as cock the shutter (as it is uncoupled from the frame advance) but this is handy if you wish to do multiple exposures. The shutter speeds are Bulb, 1/25, 1/50/ 1/100 and 1/300, and the aperture settings are 3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, and 22—these are marked with a guide for the lighting conditions for you to use them in. Focus ranges from 2.5 feet to infinity, and has an aperture scale so scale focusing is easy to understand. To wind this camera you have to first release a catch using a small lever on the back of the camera and then turn the advance knob, it was confusing at first but once I started shooting more it became almost second nature.
Here are some of the shots you can make with this camera:
Now, on to the Pros and Cons of this camera:
1) It is lightweight but durable due to its bakelite and metal contruction.
2) Its lens is sharp and contrasty, and brings out colors nicely.
3) It is small and easy to throw in to a bag or even a coat pocket.
4) It has a nice range of shutter speeds and aperture controls (though this could be viewed as a bad thing for people who don’t like to think too much when they are shooting).
5) it has a cable release thread and a tripod mount, making long exposures and self portraits a breeze!
1) The viewfinder is not very good and should only be used for making sure you have a good angle for your shot.
2) The release lever system is awkward for first time users of this camera.
3) having to adjust the settings could be seen as annoying for people accustomed to shooting with cameras like the LC-A or other auto exposure cameras.
4) Most of these cameras will have dust/fungus in the lenses (unless you get lucky and find a seller who has cleaned it thoroughly).
And thats the end of my review! In conclusion, the Kodak Pony is good for those who are looking to get a camera with all manual controls, but still want to have access to multiples exposures and a compact package. Check eBay or local thrift stores for this camera, it would make a good addition to every Lomographer’s collection! | <urn:uuid:e9b2e2f7-bb77-4f63-9a4f-44201b9eca51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lomography.com/magazine/reviews/2012/03/02/saddle-up-with-the-kodak-pony-135 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961932 | 680 | 1.78125 | 2 |
NEWS AT SEI
This article was originally published in News at SEI on: March 1, 2006
For more than a century, since the “discovery” of the 80-20 principle by the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, scholars and practitioners alike have preached the merits of applying this principle in business. The popular thesis, as applied to software development, is that 80% of property X involves only 20% of property Y. For example, “80% of the defects are found in 20% of the code,” or “80% of the value is found in 20% of the features.” The implication of such results seems clear: Focus your efforts on the high-payoff. But the reality is less simple.
Unfortunately 80-20 rules are almost always retrospective: You can only confidently apply them after the system has been developed and you have collected data from your experiences. As Butler Lampson has written, “it is normal for 80% of the time to be spent in 20% of the code, but a priori analysis or intuition usually can’t find the 20% with any certainty” [Lampson 93]. Thus the real use of the 80-20 principle has been as a way to find out about all the opportunities you missed.
There have been several practical impediments to making strategic, up-front use of an 80-20 rule in software development:
- How can you determine in advance where the 20% is?
- What confidence is there that your currentproblem follows the same 80-20 pattern?
- Does the expected benefit for the 80% outweigh the cost for focusing on the related 20% that (in theory) will deliver it?
- What is the specific strategy (i.e. what problems to solve, using which techniques, and in what order) that will cause you to focus on the 20% in question?
While 80-20 rules have indeed found wonderful tactical application—for example, IBM’s classic OS 360 performance optimization—and have made reasonable strategic rules for business management, the above problems have made a disciplined approach to strategically managing software development elusive.
Clearly we would prefer to practice strategic software engineering, where we use methods that explicitly optimize expected value with respect to cost. Software architecture, in fact, provides a sound foundation from which to practice a strategic approach to software engineering. Consider the question of architecture flexibility; for example: How much flexibility should you build into a software architecture?
If you build in too much, your architecture, although highly flexible and easy to modify, will likely take a long time to create and suffer runtime performance problems. This is because flexibility is typically achieved by separating functions from each other with layers of abstraction, and these layers incur a runtime performance penalty. If you don’t build in enough flexibility, your architecture will be rigid, with lots of hard-wired dependencies or, worse still, will be a “spaghetti” architecture in which everything is tangled together with everything else—then you will likely have a quick time to market, but you might suffer in the long run when you need to modify the architecture.
Port and Huang have suggested that while there is no “right” amount of architecture flexibility, you can choose the amount you want and engineer your system to achieve this amount [Port 03]. In effect, you are choosing to optimize the expected value from your architecture (choosing the 20%) rather than blindly building the architecture and hoping that the 20% that you focused on is the correct 20%. In this case you would choose the amount of architecture flexibility based on the percentage of features that you anticipated would need to be modified.
At the Software Engineering Institute, we have created a number of methods that promote strategic thinking for software architecture. This is appropriate, since an architecture is, by design, strategic: it is meant to be the carrier of the earliest, most fundamental, and, hence, hardest-to-change design decisions. The Quality Attribute Workshop (QAW) helps a group of stakeholders elicit and refine the most important quality attribute scenarios that will shape an architecture, thus helping with problem 1 above, “How can you determine in advance where the 20% is?” The 20% will be centered around your highest priority functions and quality attribute scenarios.
The Attribute-Driven Design method aids in attacking problem 4: “What is the specific strategy … that will cause you to focus on the 20% in question?” The ADD method provides an explicit strategy for turning the high-priority quality attributes and functions into an explicit architecture that meets those requirements. And the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) and the Cost-Benefit Analysis Method (CBAM) help to address problems 2 and 3: “What confidence is there that your currentproblem follows the same 80-20 pattern?” and “Does the expected benefit for the 80% outweigh the cost for focusing on the related 20% that … will deliver it?” ATAM checks the elicited scenarios with a broad group of system stakeholders and checks the mapping of scenarios onto an architecture to understand how well the proposed solution fits the problem. And CBAM helps model and predict the expected benefit that particular architectural strategies will achieve.
More recently we have been investigating the use of real options theory from economics to aid in understanding the costs and benefits of architectural flexibility. We will report on this work in an upcoming installment of The Architect.
Butler Lampson, “Hints for Computer System Design,” Operating Systems Review, 15(5), Oct. 1983, 33-48.
Dan Port, LiGuo Huang, “Strategic Architecture Flexibility,” Proceedings of 19th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM'03), 2003.
About the Author
Rick Kazman is a senior member of the technical staff at the SEI, where he is a technical lead in the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Initiative. He is also an adjunct professor at the Universities of Waterloo and Toronto. His primary research interests within software engineering are software architecture, design tools, and software visualization. He is the author of more than 50 papers and co-author of several books, including a book recently published by Addison-Wesley titled Software Architecture in Practice. Kazman received a BA and MMath from the University of Waterloo, an MA from York University, and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University.
The views expressed in this article are the author's only and do not represent directly or imply any official position or view of the Software Engineering Institute or Carnegie Mellon University. This article is intended to stimulate further discussion about this topic. | <urn:uuid:48c46f32-f76f-4a79-897d-59ad2dad927e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/architect200603.cfm?RL=library&WT.ac=RLlibrary | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941934 | 1,368 | 1.9375 | 2 |
LONDON – Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars.
Polish officials worried that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria in the southern city of Krakow.
So far, President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has canceled. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to go forward as planned but there was no denying the ash cloud was moving south and east.
The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe.
"The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow."
The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday — twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports compared to 300 on a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.
The International Air Transport Association said the volcano was costing the industry at least $200 million a day.
In France, airports in Paris and about 20 other locations in northern France will remain closed until at least midday Saturday.
Belgium extended its flight restrictions until late Saturday morning.
Switzerland, Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary closed their airspace, and Poland expanded its no-fly zone to most of the country, excluding Krakow.
Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge and has a history of devastating eruptions. One of the worst was the 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano, which spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands. | <urn:uuid:bbe913d8-de6f-47de-b6cf-2294190a9287> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yardflex.com/2010/04/flight-disrupti.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972552 | 443 | 2 | 2 |
Come to the weekly meetings of the Genealogy Club of Humboldt State University and learn the tools that will help you learn more about your forebears. If your parents or grandparents were foreign born, we’ll discover together just how to go about researching Czechoslovakian, Colombian or Hong Kong records. If you have early American roots, find out who fought in the Civil War or the American Revolution. Learn how to obtain military pension records, cemetery records, marriage, birth and death records. Discover what information can be gleaned from wills, tax lists, deeds and land bounty records. What can you expect to find at county archives and historical societies? Who has already done genealogical research on your family?
About the Club
The Genealogy Club of Humboldt State University was founded during the Spring 2012 semester. Attend our meetings and help form the foundation of the club’s future. You will not only discover your family’s legacy but you will further develop your own personal legacy.
Founding officers are
President: Michael Cooley
Vice-President: Clare Pope
Treasurer: Robyn Hall
Secretary: Alex Fine
Faculty Advisor: Professor Guy Aronoff
Any student, any community member having an interest in genealogy or family history may join!
How to Join
Show up to a meeting, put your email address on a sign-up sheet or email us! | <urn:uuid:2cc788f4-f27a-4593-b510-2520bb87f298> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://humboldt.edu/clubs/club_sites/genealogy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934506 | 293 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Google Launches Maps for iOS; Enjoys Benefits of the Eric Cartman Theory
Umm…the Eric Cartman theory?
Yeah, well remember that episode of “South Park” where Cartman buys a failing amusement park with his inheritance so he can have it all to himself? Eventually the operating costs force him to re-open it, and as a result, the time spent telling people they couldn’t come in made them want it even more, and the place became a huge success.
It’s a well reasoned theory that is now being enjoyed by Google, as they recently released the long awaited Google Maps app that has now shot to the top of the free apps download list, after less than 24 hours on the market. Of course the reason that people were so anxious to jump on the app is because it wasn’t available to them when the iPhone 5 first came out, as Apple tried to gain a leg up on the competition resulting in the hilarious failure known as Apple Maps.
That’s not to say that the app isn’t impressive. It is. But it’s also the exact same Google Maps we’ve known and loved for some time now, with a few little niceties thrown in for Apple users. But, oh my does it feel special this time. It’s like how you can take breathing for granted even if it is vital, but when it’s that first breath after being submerged underwater, it’s an incomparable joy.
It’s also pretty embarrassing for Apple. The question is, what do they do now? Had Apple Maps been a success right out of the gate, they could have really converted their users to the native feature and stole some serious momentum from a big rival. Instead, they now just have to watch as a stunning amount of users immediately abandon it, while Apple must continue to work hard to not only catch up with Google Maps, but somehow surpass it, lest they end up with a monumentally embarrassing failure on their resume.
The early success of Google Maps on iOS isn’t an immediate monumental victory for Google, or a resounding defeat for Apple. It is, however, for Apple, the first touchdown surrendered in a football game. While it doesn’t necessarily determine the outcome, they must still watch as another team celebrates in their territory.
And that’s got to hurt.
Posted in: News
Tags: Apple, apple maps, articles, Blogs, Cartmanland, Eric Cartman, Gadgets, google, google maps, Google Maps release, google releases maps for iPhone 5, headlines, iOS 6, iOS Apps, iOS map apps, iPhone 5, most downloaded iOS apps, News, South Park, Technology, top free apps
Everything You Wanted to Know About the iPhone 5 But Were Too Afraid to Ask
With the first reviews pouring in today for everyone’s soon to be most bragged about toy, the iPhone 5, it’s time to take a step back and look at everything we know about the new iPhone, to date.
It’s thinner (the thinnest smartphone in the world according to Apple), it’s taller (a half an inch taller to be exact), it comes in black and white (though that doesn’t matter according to the late Michael Jackson), and of course it’s pretty sleek. Apple has had more than enough time in this business to know what works and what doesn’t and they aren’t messing with the formula now. The iPhone 5 looks like an iPhone, just better.
For the most part, all of the usual upgrades apply. The sound is better, the video is clearer, and everything is supposed to be faster. Of particular note, though, are the new 4G capabilities and Siri functions. The 4G is supposedly as quick as you need it to be, Siri is better than ever, and can perform an array of new tricks from pulling up apps on request, to providing sports scores. Also, the camera is supposed to work better in lowlight, and the battery life is cited as working up to 12-14 hours in some cases with normal usage, which would mean a great improvement over the previous models. However, if you’re looking for the real new feature of the iPhone 5, you have to turn to the new iO6.
The biggest upgrade to i06 is the new Apple Maps features which opposes the popular Google Maps program. Reviews aren’t particularly flattering for the new app, as reviewers cite trouble using it practically in urban environments ,along with being generally behind Google Maps, but with things like Yelp integration, and Siri enabled GPS, a few updates could put the system on the right track. Otherwise, the new operating system is offering up increased Facebook functionality, Facetime compatibility, and a great all in one travelling app called Passbook that also works with some of your payment methods to help create a virtual wallet. Nice.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: News
Tags: accessories, adapter, apple maps, Apps, att, black or white, Blogs, CNET, data plans, ellen degeneres, facebook, features, Gadgets, google maps, headphones, iO6, iPhone 5, john elerick, lightning connector, michael jackson, new york times, News, parodies, passbook, previews, price, Reviews, round up, samsung, siri, sprint, Technology, the chive, The Guardian, verdict, verizon | <urn:uuid:e9786aa5-cd1d-4f55-8c08-d96e87155889> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gadgetteaser.com/tag/apple-maps/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942875 | 1,152 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Our Oceans Are Dying--And Obama Wants to Let Shell Drill for More Oil in Arctic Waters
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When you go to the mountains, you go to the mountains. When it’s the desert, it’s the desert. When it’s the ocean, though, we generally say that we’re going “to the beach.” Land is our element, not the waters of our world, and that is an unmistakable advantage for any oil company that wants to drill in pristine waters.
Take Shell Oil. Recently, the company’s drill ship, Noble Discoverer, went adrift and almost grounded in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. That should be considered an omen for a distinctly star-crossed venture to come. Unfortunately, few of us are paying the slightest attention.
Shell is getting ready to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean, an ecosystem staggeringly rich in life of every sort, and while it’s not yet quite a done deal, the prospect should certainly focus our minds. But first, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the mind-boggling richness of the life still in our oceans.
Last month began with a once-in-a-lifetime sighting in Monterey Bay, California, startlingly close to shore, of blue whales. Those gigantic mammals can measure up to 100 feet, head-to-tail, and weigh nearly 200 tons -- the largest animal by weight ever to have lived on this planet. Yes, even heavier than dinosaurs. The biggest dinosaur, Amphicoelias fragillimus, is estimated to have weighed 122 tons, while the largest blue whale came in at a whopping 195 tons.
The recent Monterey Bay sighting is being called “the most phenomenal showing of th[os]e endangered mammals in recent history.” On July 5 alone, Monterey Bay Whale Watch reported sightings of “12 blue whales, 40 humpback whales, 400 Risso's dolphins, 300 northern right whale dolphins, 250 Pacific white-sided dolphins, and two minke whales."
"Everywhere you go you just see blows" -- that is, the blues spouting -- Nancy Black, owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. It seems that the abundance of krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures the whales feed on, attracted about 100 of the blues. Until the beginning of the 20th century, they were abundant with an estimated population of more than 200,000 living in the Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean alone. Then they were hunted nearly to extinction. Today, only about 10,000 of them are believed to exist.
Dog Day Afternoon in the Arctic
If you follow the Pacific coastline from Monterey all the way north, sooner or later you’ll arrive at Kivalina along the Chukchi Sea coast in the Alaskan Arctic. Keep going along that coastline even further north and you’ll pass by Point Hope, Point Lay, Wainright, and finally Barrow -- the northernmost town in the United States.
At Barrow, you’ll be at the confluence of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the Arctic Ocean. Now, head east along the Beaufort Sea coast to Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik, both Iñupiat communities. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are remarkably rich in krill, and home to the endangered bowhead whale. It may not be quite as large as the blue, but head-to-tail it can still measure an impressive enough 66 feet and weigh up to 75 tons, and it has one special attribute: It is believed to be the longest-lived mammal on the planet.
Like blues, bowheads were also abundant -- an estimated population of 30,000 well into the mid-19th century. Then commercial whalers began hunting them big time, driving them nearly extinct in less than 50 years. Today, about 10,000 bowhead whales live in the Arctic Ocean. Blues and bowheads could be considered the elders of the sea. | <urn:uuid:9b52e190-7ae6-4a66-9d2a-0efb6137ebb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/environment/our-oceans-are-dying-and-obama-wants-let-shell-drill-more-oil-arctic-waters | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931879 | 881 | 2.6875 | 3 |
This video comes to us from DJ Chill Will,the world's first solar-powered DJ. This video is a fun overview of how we DJ off of the wonderful energy from the sun.
DJ Chill Will (based out of Orlando, FL, USA) is the first DJ to spin his sets from solar power. In late 2011, DJ Chill Will started experimenting with solar powered inverters to run his equipment. He soon found an epic portable solution by combining brainpower with Terry Hershner. Terry is the owner of Off the Grid, an energy self-sufficient house that is powered by solar and wind. | <urn:uuid:de1fccc3-0ef8-4a3f-94a4-2aa6098113b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.celsias.com/article/let-sun-shine-solar-powered-music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961977 | 122 | 1.695313 | 2 |
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, worries about unemployment have tripled over the past year. Here are a few more tips from the NFCC to help you plan ahead for potential unemployment.
- Address any current medical issues and research medical insurance options. If you’re been delaying having that tooth filled or your annual checkup, be sure to take advantage of insurance coverage while you still have it. The loss of medical insurance can be devastating. If you’re married, you may be able to be covered by your spouse’s insurance, but knowing this in advance will make the transition easier. Also inquire about COBRA. This is a costly option, but is better than going without health insurance.
- Track your spending. The only way you can know where your hard-earned money is going is to write down every cent you spend. Do this for at least 30 days. The goal is to discover any leaks and plug them so that you can begin socking money away for the time when you may not have it.
- Have adequate savings. Americans should ask themselves how they paid for their last emergency. If it was with a credit card, that’s a red flag. Begin putting at least 10 percent of each paycheck into a savings account. If you receive any windfall money, pretend it never happened and deposit it into your savings account.
- Create a budget. Budget is not a four-letter word. If it helps, call it a spending plan. The point is to be in charge of your money, not the other way around. After you’ve tracked your spending, you’ll be able to assign dollar amounts to each spending category. This results in using your money to your best advantage
- Involve your family. Make all financial decisions family decisions, and your likelihood of success will increase dramatically. Talk about everything from the bills to the budget. The home is a great place to teach your children about financial issues, including the inevitable problems. Remembering when Mom and Dad worked through the hard times will be a nice cushion when it’s their turn.
If you need financial help, find an NFCC Member Agency closest to you by dialing (800) 388-2227, or go online to www.DebtAdvice.org. For assistance in Spanish, dial (800) 682-9832. | <urn:uuid:196f0c91-a533-4027-89e9-d9fb64a8220e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://financialeducation.nfcc.org/2011/06/27/preparing-for-possible-unemployment-part-two/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945959 | 491 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Education, School, and Academic Online Surveys
How Students, Teachers and Administrators Make the Grade
Whether you need to understand the factors that shape faculty satisfaction, or feedback from students on a new course offering, an online survey can reveal data that will improve programs, processes, and overall achievement. Parents, students, teachers, professors, and administrators can all benefit from professional education surveys.
How Can Educational Professionals Use Online Educational Surveys?
From faculty effectiveness to athletic programs to attitudes of parents and students, there are many ways teachers, faculty, and administrators can use online surveys to understand how your educational system measures up. Here are a few ideas.
- Assess family/school relationships. Principals, superintendents, and school boards can use surveys to learn more about the aspects of family/school relationships that drive student outcomes. SurveyMonkey partnered with the Harvard School of Education to create a survey that fills this very need. Learn more about this K-12 Parent Survey, and take a look at our parental support template.
- Educational outcomes. Not only are student surveys a great way for learners to reflect on their learning, but they’re also an effective way to measure student achievement. Sending out a student survey can help educators improve programs and address deficiencies, while students can gain valuable insights on their learning processes.
- Public school survey. Parents, staff, and in many cases, students, participate in public school surveys. From funding, to safety, communications, school board performance, and more, considers using the public school survey template to get valuable insights into the health of your school district.
- Preschool parent survey. Do parents feel their young learners' needs are being met? Is their child's preschool experience is positive; does their child feel welcome; is the preschool staff's experience and training adequate? These questions are likely to show up in a preschool survey.
- School climate survey. How high does your school score on motivating your child? Does your school value diversity? Do teachers respect your child? Do administrators at your child’s school create a healthy and supportive learning environment? Find these questions and more by checking out the school climate survey template. Is the school academically challenging for students?
- Evaluate online learning programs. As new technologies emerge, what tools do students need to succeed in the web-based classroom? What factors are vital to effective course design and high quality instruction in an online setting? What, if anything, do students feel they miss out on by not attending class in an on-ground or brick-and-mortar classroom? Send out an online survey to find out.
- University student satisfaction. What essential components make up student satisfaction? Some questions could include: How effective is the teaching within your major/outside your major at this university? How helpful is your academic advisor? How easy is it to get what you need from the university library system? Use our university student satisfaction template to get the answers you need.
- Course evaluation feedback. Did the course support your students’ educational goals? You might want to assess learners’ opinions on instructor performance (expertise, delivery, ability to address varying levels of ability), course material (textbooks, course readers, interactive presentations), and resource/tool effectiveness (online forums, course management software).
- Student survey. Collect feedback from students themselves. Do students feel that they are respected and treated fairly? Are teachers, coaches, nurses, and other staff supportive? Are classmates kind and well-mannered? Does bullying exist in their school? Take a look at our student bullying survey as well as our high school sports survey for examples.
- Teacher surveys. Take a closer look at how staff and teachers view their workplace. Are teachers in your elementary school happy with their working conditions, colleagues, processes, and facilities? Send a teacher questionnaire to get feedback from the staff.
- Curriculum planning, special trips, school performances. Teachers could use a survey for curriculum planning, course evaluations, or to gauge interest in special topics. They could also send out an online survey to coordinate field trips, fundraisers, school performances, events and more. Which parents can help with chaperoning and carpooling? Are others interested in yard duty?
- Faculty satisfaction. . What do talented and diverse faculty members look for? What are the building blocks of a rich and diverse community of scholarship, according to your faculty? What current challenges does faculty face in your college or university? Get started with a faculty satisfaction survey template.
SurveyMonkey Educational Survey Samples and Templates
- University Student Satisfaction Template
Gather information from university students with this 10-question student satisfaction survey template. It includes questions about the quality of teaching, ease of registration, campus safety, and the convenience and availability of facilities.
- Public School Survey Template
This public school survey template gets insights from parents and others about the public school systems in their area. It includes questions about perceptions of the school district, volunteering availability, and how the school system can be improved.
- Harvard Graduate School of Education Pre K-12 Parent Survey Template
A robust, 80-question survey, this template focuses on parents’ thoughts, feelings, and impressions around their experience with their child’s school. It includes questions about the parents’ roles and beliefs, the child’s interactions at school, perceptions of the school environment, and demographics.
- Bullying Survey Template
Get insight into bullying at your school with this quick, 10-question bullying survey template. It includes questions about the types, severity, and frequency of bullying that can occur at public or private schools.
- High School Sports Student Feedback Template
This one-page high school sports feedback template asks student athletes about their experiences with teachers, parents, and coaches in relation to their sports participation.
- University Faculty Satisfaction Survey Template
Use this faculty satisfaction survey template to ask university faculty about the leadership, interactions, administration, and general job satisfaction at their university. It’s a quick, 10-question survey.
- University Student Graduation Template
Hear from students about their experience at the university with this 10-question student graduation template. You’ll get insight about expected graduation dates, as well as overall impressions on the teaching quality, facilities, and future goals.
3 Tips for Getting Started
- Keep it short and focused. Make sure each question brings you closer to your goal. Be mindful of survey takers’ time, and word the questions clearly. A good rule of thumb is your survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete.
- Pre-test your survey. It’s a good idea to pre-test your survey with a few members of your intended audience. You might uncover inconsistencies or unexpected question interpretations.
- Keep rating scale questions consistent. If you’re using rating scales, use the same points system throughout your survey. If 1 means “extremely satisfied” and 5 means “extremely dissatisfied,” maintain this scale for all questions.
Looking for More Survey Types and Survey Examples?
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SurveyMonkey PRO plans enhance your ability to gather & interpret information with advanced analytics and more. | <urn:uuid:b401e162-3df7-41e2-a706-84d2b7bf3eff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/education-surveys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921521 | 1,749 | 3.125 | 3 |
Exhibit Captures Spring’s Vibrant Energy
Chihuly blows glass into staggering works of art
It is generally unacceptable for people to lie on their backs in the middle of a museum gallery, but in one room at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), adults and children alike covered the floor and gazed up at the vibrant, sparkling ceiling above them. “The lighting is much better down here,” one patron told her friends excitedly, and they all quickly dropped to the floor to delight in the whirl of colors above.
Dale Chihuly is used to creating such exhilaration. Chihuly, an artist who has been creating sculptures out of molten glass for over 40 years, is being featured in an exhibit at the MFA from April 10 to August 7. His creations possess a vivid energy and exuberance that aptly coincide with the awakening of spring.
The exhibit, called “Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass,” displays 12 original instillations designed specifically for the MFA. The intricate works were created by the artist and his team and evoke themes of nature and motion. “I would want my work to appear like it came from nature, so that if someone found it on a beach or in the forest, they might think it belonged there,” said Chihuly in the caption of one of his pieces. Unlike the work of many other glass artists, Chihuly’s creations possess an asymmetry that adds to their organic quality.
Chihuly uses the technique of glass blowing, in which molten glass is transformed through the use of centrifugal force and instruments such as blowpipes. The form originated as early as the last century B.C., and was used to make bowls, bottles, and glasses. In the ’60s, a group of artists, including Chihuly, saw beyond the practicality of the method and started to view glass blowing as an art form. After working at a glass-blowing factory in Venice in the late ’60s, he developed into one of the leaders of the avant-garde glass-blowing movement by creating flowing and colorful environments inspired by ice landscapes and forests. He has since displayed his work in over 200 museum collections worldwide.
The artist’s new exhibit at the MFA features 12 colorful installations, some of which are among the largest he has ever created. “There’s a lot more dimension in his works now,” said Richard Pearson, an MFA patron who viewed Chiluly’s exhibits in the ’80s. The most staggering of the new installments is “Lime Green Icicle Tower,” a soaring 42-foot work that resembles a gargantuan plant. Each ‘leaf’ on the tower has a slightly different hue, shape, and size, all of which give the structure a distinctive texture. Chihuly built the tower specifically for the courtyard, and it reflects impressively off the glass walls that surround it.
The exhibit’s dark lighting further accentuates the vibrancy of the glasswork. While the compositions are stunning on their own, Chihuly effectively employs juxtaposition to enhance the exoticism of his work. “Ikebana Boat” features a dull, wooden boat filled with lively and twisting figures. Chihuly’s “Tabac Baskets” and archaic Native American baskets sit side by side, the former echoing the intricacies and simple beauty of the latter. In the Persian Ceiling Room, a series of seashell and floral figures sit on a glass ceiling above. The reflections of light off the glass forms give the room a dreamy, underwater quality. “You feel like you’re at the bottom of the sea,” said patron Jane Tuckerman.
Despite the ease with which the sculptures currently fill the museum’s space, installing the project was a monumental task. Chihuly’s team brought 775 boxes of material into the museum and set them up over the span of three weeks, and engineers had to make sure that the museum could hold such enormous and delicate structures. Chihuly was careful to tailor his works to the rooms in which they would be displayed. “Chihuly designed the traffic flow through the rooms, and there’s a really nice rhythm to the exhibit,” said MFA senior curator Gerald W. R. Ward ’71.
While Chihuly’s works have been critically acclaimed for their complexity and innovation, they also produce an immediate emotional reaction. “The sense of movement makes his work joyful,” said Lynda Umbro, another MFA patron. “It makes me happy.” Ward agreed. “After a long winter, [Chihuly’s sculptures] are a taste of spring. They lift your spirits.” | <urn:uuid:bef4d8d3-343f-4be7-837e-42957ed4b1aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/4/11/Chihuly-Blown-Glass-MFA/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973031 | 1,019 | 2.390625 | 2 |
What should you know about Canada and VPN services? In Canada, you are not guaranteed access to any website you want, though this country does offer more freedom than some other countries. Ever since the late 1990s the Canadian government has been discussing ways to control, and if necessary, censor websites that have questionable content. Sites that have online pornography and hate speech were singled out, though sites that had “Canadian content” were also mentioned as worthy of concern. Nevertheless, a few years later the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) determined that it would not regulate new media services on the Internet.
Nevertheless, more on the issue has been reported in the 2000 era. In 2006, several of Canada’s top ISPs got together and announced a Project Cleanfeed Canada, which was a joint effort to block Canadian access to alleged child pornography sites. Technically, this was not a Canadian governmental action, but it was a business decision that merited the government’s approval, according to reports. While government doesn’t ban legal adult material, some service providers might, as Canadian laws are often organized by province and not the federal government. Canada VPN service allows for free surfing of the Internet, and this may comfort some, who may be unaware that ISPs record logs of surfing activity without VPN protection.
In 2011, another precedent was set with the issue of defamation, as the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that objectively linking to potentially defamatory material was classified as defamatory. While all of this does seem promising, there are new threats on the horizon. Certain Canadian government conservatives want to give police officers greater powers over eavesdropping on Canadian residents in cyberspace. This conservative side of the government also wants ISPs to cooperate on such snooping if requested.
Whether this new law goes into effect anytime soon remains to be seen. Nevertheless, though Canada does offer a measure of Internet freedom, remember that local laws always apply. A recent case of controversy was that of Ernst Zündel, who was investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission for questionable website content.
True, Canada VPN service won’t be as liberating as say, surfing the Internet while living in China. However, free surfing is not the only advantage to using a Canadian VPN. You can also benefit from such services if you live in or travel to Canada frequently, since you can access servers that are nearer to you for better surfing of Chinese, American and British sites. For more information talk to a VPN provider on this matter.
- One-on-One with IPVanish Team – 3 Apr
- Censorship in Kazakhstan and Russia in 2012 – 30 Mar
- Win One of 3 Free Premium VPN Accounts from IPVanish – 22 Mar
- Interview with CactusVPN Team – 19 Mar
- Get VPN Protection for Free: 10 Free VPN Accounts from CactusVPN – 9 Mar
- Free VPN: Can It Be Trusted? – 5 Mar
- VPN on Android: The Need and Some Perspective – 28 Feb
- Interview with Private Internet Access – 25 Feb
- ibVPN Announces 5 Free Premium VPN Accounts Up for Grabs – 19 Feb
- Internet Censorship in 2012 – 15 Feb
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03 April 2013 | 0 Comments
The great people at IPVanish accepted to answer a few questions about their comp30 March 2013 | 0 Comments
Kazakhstan and Russia both have regimes in place that seek to control the Intern22 March 2013 | 3 Comments
Wouldn’t it be great if you could surf online without ever giving a thought to | <urn:uuid:547b2351-5510-4d55-a4a3-a37bde489517> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vpnservices.net/canada-vpn/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959553 | 735 | 2.265625 | 2 |
| TAKEMUSU AIKIDO ASSOCIATION
Jan. 7, 2002
What Is Aikido?
Aikido was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969). As an accomplished martial arts practitioner and instructor he continually sought new directions for his own personal training and development. This lead to his creation of a new martial art, aikibujutsu, in 1923. The name Aikido has been used since 1941.
The name Aikido consists of three Japanese Characters (Kanji): AI, to unite; KI, spirit; DO, way or path. The last character is significant in that it implies a path, or philosophy that one follows in one's life. This delineates Aikido from jutsu or systems of techniques.
As a Japanese martial art consisting of throws and joint techniques it is similar to jiujutsu. However, the Founder felt that his system was unique in that it united mind, body, and spirit of the practitioner in such a way to overcome an opponent without resorting to a clash of arms. Employing movement principles and concepts that are special to Aikido practices, he used old traditions to develop the art to become a dynamic part of modern society.
Japan has a long tradition of martial arts, which were historically taught only to a select few. After 1945 the devastation and suffering of the war caused the Founder to reflect on the purpose of the martial arts, and Aikido was opened to the public. He strongly felt that "Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat the enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family."
At this time Aikido is enthusiastically practiced by approximately 1.5 million people throughout the world.
What Is Takemusu Aikido?
The Founder considered Takemusu Aikido to be the highest form of Aikido. Takemusu contains two Japanese characters: Take (Bu) = Martial, and Musu = To be born. These two characters combine to refer to martial movement spontaneously created, without active thought, resulting in a pure Aikido technique.
He felt that one's training went through four major periods of development: Basic Technique, Flexible Technique, Flowing Technique, and finally Takemusu Aiki. He considered this final form of Aikido to be attainable by anyone through practice. | <urn:uuid:bb9f0e59-a41f-410c-bf88-1d8156307374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.takemusu.org/taa_aikido.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955342 | 495 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Bachelor of Arts: Music
Music is a vital part of the college atmosphere Concordia University Chicago. As a student, you can find your place in music at Concordia whether you are taking courses in music, participating in ensembles or enjoying music as a listener. Because of the strong emphasis on music, the size and quality of our programs, faculty, facilities and ensembles exceed those of many other universities of comparable size.We place music in high regard, whether in academic study, participation in ensembles, or enjoyment as a listener. Because of this emphasis, the quality of our programs, faculty and ensembles exceeds those of many other universities of comparable size.
The bachelor of arts degree in music is a broad-based liberal arts degree. Students who study music also gain exposure to various disciplines in the arts and sciences. Students can emphasize other areas in the humanities or take a minor area or another major. Some students will take courses in business or administration to round out their programs.
Nearly all core subjects are taught and ensembles conducted by regular full-time faculty. Our music faculty is recognized and highly respected in their fields of expertise. Many of our applied faculty members perform regularly in organizations such as Chicago Symphony Chorus, Lyric Opera Chorus, Chicago Sinfonietta, Illinois Philharmonic, Elmhurst Symphony, and Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest. Our faculty takes a personal interest in your education and musicianship.
Concordia offers two specialized certificates that can be part of your music major: a certificate in parish music (DPM) and a certificate of piano pedagogy.
General Course Information
Both a music major and music minor include academic courses, applied study and ensemble participation. Academic courses encompass the core areas of music theory and aural skills, music history, literature and conducting. All music majors study a primary instrument or voice, and many study a second instrument as well.
Applied study is available in every instrument and voice. Our ensembles include both choral and instrumental groups. The liberal arts major is a 48.5 hour program, while the minor requires 21 semester hours. At the end of the program, students choose to perform a recital, present a recital of their compositions or write a research paper on a topic of their interest.
For information about required courses and course descriptions, visit on online catalog.
The Music Department is housed in Kretzmann Hall, the fine arts building. Kretzmann has two large rehearsal rooms, for choral and for band and orchestra; studios for instrumental and voice teaching; many practice rooms; five pipe organs; and 35 pianos. Kretzmann also houses a computer lab for music study and composition, and an electronic piano lab for keyboard classes.
CUC’s choral groups are Kapelle, Schola Cantorum, Laudate (women’s choir) and Männerchor (men’s choir). Our instrumental groups include Wind Symphony, Chamber Orchestra, University Handbell Choirs, University Band, Jazz Band, Cougar Band and Résonaz.
Our close proximity to Chicago provides you with many opportunities including student tickets to Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera and many other performance venues. We also offer a field experience semester with the manager of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. | <urn:uuid:c955ed18-7179-419d-b1d4-ff2759b7749f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cuchicago.edu/academics/colleges/college-of-arts/music/music-degree-programs/music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922053 | 686 | 2 | 2 |
Eye of the Dragon
This is a side view of the eye of a male Somatochlora albicincta, photographed by Truman Sherk, who received his PhD degree from a dissertation about the anatomy and development of dragonfly eyes, a study still unique in odonatology. There are over 12,000 ommatidia (simple eyes) in this compound eye. If you don't believe me, count them!
This same photo is also in Dragonflies: Behavior and Ecology of Odonata, by Philip S. Corbet (Cornell University Press, 1999). You can learn much more about dragonfly vision there. | <urn:uuid:8f867974-a791-43a2-b9f8-2862ee08c285> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pugetsound.edu/academics/academic-resources/slater-museum/biodiversity-resources/dragonflies/image-collection/eye-of-the-dragon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937422 | 133 | 2.5 | 2 |
This summary of the book of Haggai provides information about the title, author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the Book of Haggai.
Haggai (1:1) was a prophet who, along with Zechariah, encouraged the returned exiles to rebuild the temple (see Ezr 5:1-2; 6:14). Haggai means "festal," which may indicate that the prophet was born during one of the three pilgrimage feasts (Unleavened Bread, Pentecost or Weeks, and Tabernacles; cf. Dt 16:16). Based on 2:3 (see note there) Haggai may have witnessed the destruction of Solomon's temple. If so, he must have been in his 70s during his ministry.
In 538 b.c. the conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus king of Persia, issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple (see Ezr 1:2-4; 6:3-5). Led by Zerubbabel (but see note on Ezr 1:8, "Sheshbazzar"), about 50,000 Jews journeyed home and began work on the temple. About two years later (536) they completed the foundation amid great rejoicing (Ezr 3:8-11). Their success aroused the Samaritans and other neighbors who feared the political and religious implications of a rebuilt temple in a thriving Jewish state. They therefore opposed the project vigorously and managed to halt work until 520, after Darius the Great became king of Persia in 522 (Ezr 4:1-5,24).
Darius was interested in the religions of his empire, and Haggai and Zechariah began to preach in his second year, 520 b.c. (see 1:1; Zec 1:1). The Jews were more to blame for their inactivity than their opponents, and Haggai tried to arouse them from their lethargy. When the governor of Trans-Euphrates and other officials tried to interfere with the rebuilding efforts, Darius fully supported the Jews (Ezr 5:3-6; 6:6-12). In 516 the temple was finished and dedicated (Ezr 6:15-18).
Haggai's messages are among the most carefully and precisely dated in the entire OT. They were given during a four-month period in 520 b.c., the second year of King Darius. The first message was delivered on the first day of the sixth month (Aug. 29), the last on the 24th day of the ninth month (Dec. 18). See notes on 1:1; 2:1,10; see also Introduction to Zechariah: Dates.
Apart from Obadiah, Haggai is the shortest book in the OT, but its teachings are none the less significant. Haggai clearly shows the consequences of disobedience (1:6,11; 2:16-17) and obedience (2:7-9,19). When the people give priority to God and his house, they are blessed rather than cursed (cf. Lk 12:31 and note). Obedience brings the encouragement and strength of the Spirit of God (2:4-5).
In ch. 2 God gives great encouragement to those laboring under difficult conditions to rebuild his temple by assuring them that the future glory of the modest temple they are able to build will be greater than that of the temple Solomon had built in the time of Israel's greatest wealth and power. The Jews in Judah may now be a much reduced community and under the hegemony of a powerful world empire, but the Lord will shake up the present world order and assert his claim to all the world's wealth so that the glory of his future temple will be without rival. "The desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory" (see 2:6-7 and notes).
Like Malachi, Haggai uses a number of questions to highlight key issues (see 1:4,9; 2:3,19). He also makes effective use of repetition: "Give careful thought" occurs in 1:5,7; 2:15,18, and "I am with you" in 1:13; 2:4. "I will shake the heavens and the earth" is found in 2:6,21. The major sections of the book are marked off by the date on which the word of the Lord came "through" (or "to") Haggai (1:1; 2:1,10,20).
Several times the prophet appears to reflect other passages of Scripture (compare 1:6 with Dt 28:38-39 and 2:17 with Dt 28:22). The threefold use of "Be strong" in 2:4 (see note there) echoes the encouragement given in Jos 1:6-7,9,18. (For chiasm see Outline below.)
It is also possible to outline the book in a chiastic a-b / b-a pattern:
Similar chiastic patterns exist in the subunits within these larger units.
From the NIV Study Bible, Introductions to the Books of the Bible, Haggai
Copyright 2002 © Zondervan. All rights reserved. Used with permission. | <urn:uuid:62346212-cc2e-492f-9ea3-eb2f70fd05cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblestudytools.com/nas/haggai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951069 | 1,128 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Secretary-General on Rio: The Secretary-General today highlighted the achievements made in Rio last week, stressing that they represent a global movement of change:
“Let me be clear. Rio+20 was a success,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a General Assembly meeting on the outcome of the Conference. “In Rio, we saw the further evolution of an undeniable global movement for change.” In his remarks, Mr. Ban highlighted several parts of the Rio+20 outcome document, entitled ‘The Future We Want,’ which he hailed as “an important victory for multilateralism after months of difficult negotiations.”
Through the document, the UN chief said, countries renewed their political commitment to sustainable development, agreed to establish a set of SDGs (sustainable development goals) and established a high-level political forum on sustainable development.
Transitional Plan for Syria: Russia and other key powers have signaled support for U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for a political transition leading to the establishment of a national unity government, Foreign Policy reports. But no final agreement has been concluded yet.
Mr. Annan will host a meeting in Geneva this Saturday of key foreign ministers, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian FM Lavrov, to seek endorsement for his latest transitional plan and increase pressure on the Syrian government and the opposition to accept it.
Mr Annan’s plan — which has not yet been made public — would call on the key players in Syria and their foreign supporters to end the violence and create an “environment of calm and peace that will allow a transition,” according to a U.N.-based diplomat. If those conditions are met, Annan would lead a mediation effort aimed at forging a national unity government comprised members of the Syrian government and individuals drawn from the disparate opposition.
Syrian refugees: UN humanitarian agencies and their partners today appealed for $193 million to help the growing number of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. In the past three months, humanitarian agencies have registered an average of over 500 Syrian refugees per day.
According to UNHCR, more than 96,000 Syrians are either registered or being assisted in neighboring countries, with numbers doubling since March. Around 75 per cent of the refugees are women and children, most of whom are entirely dependent on life-saving humanitarian assistance,” said Mr. Moumtzis, who is UNHCR’s Regional Coordinator for Syrian Refugees.
To date, the appeal is only 26 per cent funded. The UN agencies taking part include UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, and WFP.
Iran: Three independent United Nations human rights experts have condemned the recent execution of four members of the Ahwazi Arab minority in Iran after a reportedly unfair trial, and called on the Government to halt the use of the death penalty.
“Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns remain about due process and fairness of trials in cases involving the death penalty in Iran,” said the three UN Special Rapporteurs – Ahmed Shaheed, Christof Heyns and Juan E. Méndez – who deal with Iran, summary executions and torture, respectively.
Rule of Law: The UN’s top lawyer emphasized that international law is crucial to the implementation of the ‘responsibility to protect’ principle, often referred to as R2P, and the prevention of atrocities.
“R2P represents an important commitment by the international community to protect populations from egregious crimes,” the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Patricia O’Brien, said at a roundtable discussion on the R2P concept at the 55th annual meeting of the Russian Association of International Law in Moscow.
“The international community has a responsibility to help States meet those obligations, or to step in when States manifestly fail to do so […] These obligations are anchored in international law, and reflect obligations of humanity,” she added. | <urn:uuid:b6d7be9c-20b5-4dd9-9b66-4530602f456b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.undispatch.com/secretary-general-on-rio-syria-transitional-plan-syrian-refugees-iran-and-more | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939588 | 824 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: March 9, 2009
Publication Date: August 15, 2010
Citation: Bryla, D.R., Machado, R., Shireman, A.D. 2010. Effects of method and level of nitrogen fertilizer application on soil pH, electrical conductivity, and availability of ammonium and nitrate in blueberry. Acta Horticulturae. 868:95-101.
Interpretive Summary: Most blueberry fields are irrigated by sprinklers or drip. While both are effective for commercial production, one major advantage of drip is the capability to apply water-soluble fertilizers during irrigation. This procedure, otherwise known as fertigation, can apply fertilizer very uniformly throughout a field and directly to the roots in small amounts as needed. Liquid fertilizer is usually injected from April to mid August with fertigation. Granular fertilizer, on the other hand, is commonly used with sprinklers and is usually applied in two or three large doses each spring. We did a study to compare fertigation to granular fertilizer application and determined the effects of each practice on N availability in a newly planted field of highbush blueberry. We found that N application by either method reduced soil pH, but granular fertilizer resulted in large peaks in soil ammonium concentrations after each application and much higher salt concentrations than liquid fertilizer applied gradually by fertigation. Higher salts damaged the roots of the young plants and reduced overall growth. Granular fertilizer also resulted in higher soil nitrate concentrations than fertigation, and since nitrate is not readily used by blueberry, more of it may be leached from the soil during rainy winter months.
Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) require low soil pH and prefer N primarily as ammonium for optimum production. Nitrogen fertilizer methods and rates were evaluated in a new field of ‘Bluecrop’ blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) to determine their effects on soil pH and availability of ammonium and nitrate in soil solution. Treatments included four application methods (split fertigation, continuous fertigation, and two non-fertigated controls) and four rates of N application (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg/ha N). Fertigation treatments were irrigated by drip and injected with liquid urea fertilizer; split fertigation was applied as a triple-split from April to June while continuous fertigation was applied weekly from leaf emergence to approximately 2 months prior to the end of the growing season. Non-fertigated controls were fertilized with a triple-split of granular ammonium sulfate and irrigated by drip or microsprays. Soil pH was usually lower with microsprays than with drip, even when no N fertilizer was applied; however, soil pH was also reduced with higher N applications and, in fact, was similar between continuous fertigation and granular fertilizer (microspray) treatments when 150 kg/ha N was added. Nitrogen application with granular fertilizer, whether irrigated by microspray or drip, maintained much higher ammonium concentrations than continuous or split fertigation but often increased electrical conductivity (salinity) of the soil solution (ECw) to >2 dS/m. By comparison, ECw was always <1.5 dS/m with either fertigation method. Granular N application coupled with microsprays also resulted in higher nitrate concentrations than any other treatment, which may lead to more N leaching since the ability of blueberry to acquire nitrate-N is limited. | <urn:uuid:99a03a81-f8f2-4b76-b3e0-4a129cedd313> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=231725 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963921 | 744 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 4-8-2 locomotive has four leading wheels (generally arranged in a leading truck), eight coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels (often but not always in a trailing truck). This type of steam locomotive is also known as the Mountain type.
Other equivalent classifications are:
UIC classification: 2'D1' (also known as German classification and Italian classification)
French classification: 241
Bulgarian classification: 2-4-1
Turkish classification: 47
Swiss classification: 4/7
The 4-8-2 type, like the 4-6-2, originated in New Zealand. The first of 18 X class 4-8-2 De Glehn compound locomotives were designed by A. L. Beattie and built by New Zealand Railways Department's Addington Workshops in Christchurch in 1908. It was designed to haul heavy freight trains on the mountainous central section of the North Island Main Trunk Railway. It is possible that this was the source of the "Mountain" nickname that was applied to the 4-8-2 type, though it is often said the name originates from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the United States, who named the type "Mountain" after the Allegheny Mountains their first 4-8-2s were built to tackle.
One member of the pioneering X class survives and is currently located at the depot of the Feilding and District Steam Rail Society. Although the X class was the first 4-8-2 locomotive, it is perhaps not a classic example of the type. The X class' trailing truck was positioned well behind a narrow firebox which itself sat above the driving wheels, necessitating the same design compromise between driving wheel diameter and boiler/grate size as a 2-8-0 or 4-8-0 design. Later, more successful 4-8-2 designs were a progression of the classic 4-6-2 layout, which featured a wide firebox positioned above the trailing truck and behind the driving wheels, allowing for a large firebox as well as large driving wheels.
The 4-8-2 was most popular on the North American continent, where Pacifics were becoming over-burdened as passenger trains grew in length and weight. The first North American 4-8-2 locomotives were built by ALCO for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1911. ALCO combined the traction of the eight-drivered 2-8-2 "Mikado" with the excellent tracking qualities of the Pacific's four-wheel leading truck.
Although the C&O intended their new Mountains for passenger service, the type proved ideal for the new, faster freight service the railroads were introducing. Many 4-8-2s were built for dual service.
Mountain type locomotives were built for 41 American railroads; approximately 2200 were built. The largest users were the New York Central Railroad with 435 of what they named the Mohawk type (the Water Level Route had no need for "Mountains", after all!); the Pennsylvania Railroad with 224 class M1, M1a and M1b locomotives, used mostly for fast freight service; the Florida East Coast with 90 passenger locomotives; the New Haven with 70; and the Southern Railway with 58.
Britain's population of Mountains consists entirely of two 15 inch (381 mm) gauge locomotives on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, though a number of double-Mountain (4-8-2+2-8-4) Garratts were built for export.
In 1941 Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) placed order against Henschel & Sohn - Kassel (Germany) for building of 50 standard gauge (1435mm) express passenger locomotives of type 2'D1'h3S (wheel arrangement 2-4-1, simple steam expansion, superheating, 3-cylinder, fast train service), capable to haul heavy passenger trains through highly varied, often severe profiles of Bulgarian main lines with gradients up to 28‰ (1 in 35.7). First two engines delivered by the end of 1941 very quickly proved their perfect qualities as well as the correctness of the specification made by BDZ engineers, already having experience with insufficient power and some constructive problems of classes 01 (1'D1'h2S) and 02 (1'D1'h3S). Next year the mass production began, but alas, was interrupted by war restrictions introduced by German authorities, and subsequently the delivery was totally canceled. Only 10 engines were built and delivered in the end of 1942 - beginning of 1943, so the total number of the new BDZ class 03 remained 12 engines (03.01 - 03.12). After 1958 all of them gradually were converted to mixed fuel oil and coal firing, which resulted in improved steam production and facilitated service especially on mountainous lines. For about 35 years of use they showed excellent performance and minor problems (oval wearing of leading axle's inside crank). One of these machines, 03.12 (serial No. 26575) after factory repair was preserved in perfect condition in the depot of Gorna Oryahovitsa and is to be returned to operation under steam for tourist trains.
|Numbers||03.01 - 03.12|
|Builder||Henschel & Sohn - Kassel|
|Steam pressure, kg/cm2||16|
|Superheater area, m2||81.91|
|Heating area, m2||224.07|
|Grate area, m2||4.87|
|Cylinders no. x dia. x stroke, mm||3 x 500 x 700|
|Driving wheels diameter, mm||1650|
|Adhesive weight, t||69.2|
|Total weight, t||179.18|
|Total length, mm||23105|
|Total height, mm||4580|
|Tractive effort, starting, kN||221|
|Tractive effort @ 20km/h, kN||191|
|Train haulage rates, t:|
|On 10‰ (1 in 100) gradient||825|
|On 25‰ (1 in 40) gradient||390|
|Max speed, km/h||100|
The CSD introduced the 498.0 class 4-8-2 express passenger locomotive in 1938 after successful trials in the Tatra Mountains against an alternative 2-8-4 prototype. The design was further developed in 1954 into the 498.1 class. These technically sophisticated locomotives were reputedly capable of 11% thermal efficiency.
In France, these locomotives (known as the 241 type) were used on more mountainous routes as increasingly heavy loads began to overtax the capabilities of the existing 4-6-2 locomotives.
Spain saw over 200 of these locomotives, also known as a 2-4-1, in five classes.
The South African Railways (SAR/SAS) employed a wide variety of classes of locomotives with this wheel arrangement; in fact, locomotives with this wheel arrangement were the mainstay of the fleet. SAR also utilised a large number of 4-8-2+2-8-4 garratts.
Unlike other countries which utilised the 4-8-2 design for heavy passenger use, in Australia the 4-8-2 was more typically a heavy freight locomotive with small driving wheels and a very large firebox.
The 3 cylinder NSWGR D57 class of 1929 was one of the largest and most powerful locomotives ever built in Australia. With a large 65 ft² (6.03 m²) grate and 64,327 lb (29,030 kg) tractive effort , they were put to good use on the steep 1 in 40 gradients leading out of Sydney on NSW's mainlines. The design was further developed in 1950 with the smaller cylindered D58 class. However, this class proved to be less successful, suffering reliability problems attributed to the rack and pinion valve gear for the third cylinder used instead of the D57's Gresley/Holcroft valve gear.
The Western Australian Government Railways introduced two classes of 4-8-2 locomotive for freight haulage on the state's 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) network, the S class of 1943 and W class of 1951. The 4-8-2 layout allowed for the weight of these relatively powerful locomotives to be spread over a number of axles (the W class had a maximum axle load of just 10 tons) and also enabled the incorporation of a wide firebox for burning poor quality coal. | <urn:uuid:b97b4792-e56b-428e-9412-a789db2c4b09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/4-8-8-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963549 | 1,837 | 3.5 | 4 |
They are the best kept secrets of any presidential campaign—until someone overhears a whispered shout into a wrist microphone. Candidates who get Secret Service protection get to choose the code word that they'll be called—perhaps for the rest of their lives, if they're lucky.
GQ can reveal the names chosen by the top two GOPers: according to multiple campaign sources, Mitt Romney elected to call himself "Javelin." And Rick Santorum chose "Petrus."
The use of code words to refer to candidates are a throwback to the era when Secret Service and White House Communications Agency communications were not encrypted. The tradition has stuck around. The only real rule the Service has is that the word chosen be comprehensible over the radio and not be similar to someone's else's. That's why code names tend to have two or three strong syllables.
It's tempting to associate a candidate's code word with some aspect of their personality. Sometimes this is true and sometimes it is not. "Petrus" is a biblical allusion—as in St. Peter, the first pope. (The Latin name is derived from the Greek word for "rock.") Perhaps "Javelin" is a reference to the '60s muscle car made by American Motors Corporation, the company once run by George Romney.
But when reporters tried to ascribe meaning to John McCain's code name in the 2008 campaign—"Phoenix"—they were projecting. McCain had the Service chose a name for him. "Phoenix" was chosen randomly, and he liked it. His wife, Cindy, promptly chose "Parasol."
President Obama's code name was disclosed shortly after he was given Secret Service protection in 2007: "Renegade." Wife Michelle is "Renaissance." The First Daughters go by "Radiance and Rosebud." And Vice President Joe Biden chose "Celtic."
Is it irresponsible to talk about code names? Not really, says the Secret Service.
"Call signs are designated jointly by Secret Service and the military (White House Military Office) for communications purposes," said Ed Donovan, the Special Agent in Charge of the government and public affairs shop. "Given modern capabilities to secure communications through encryption, there is no longer any security relevance to protectee call signs."
Donovan would not, however, confirm the names GQ has obtained.
Read more on Death Race 2012
Follow Marc on Twitter for more updates from the campaign trail. | <urn:uuid:a9c70a4b-97cc-4703-b7c9-6804f4f41d13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/03/exclusive-gq-reveals-romneys-and-santorums-secret-service-code-names.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962092 | 500 | 1.546875 | 2 |
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[afro-nets] Half Kampala sex workers have HIV
- From: Joseph Serutoke <Serutokej@ug.afro.who.int>
- Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 10:20:24 +0300
Half Kampala sex workers have HIV
Copied as "fair use"
By Peter Nyanzi
KAMPALA - More than 47 percent of sex workers in Kampala are in-
fected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, an official in the
ministry of health has said.
The Commissioner for Community Health, Dr Sam Okware, was speak-
ing at a press conference at which the ministry released pre-
liminary results of the Uganda HIV/Aids Sero-Behavioural Survey
(UHSBS) at the ministry headquarters in Kampala yesterday.
World Health Organisation (WHO) country representative, Dr
Walker Oladapo attended. According to the survey presented by
the Minister of Health, Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, the prevalence of
HIV/Aids is highest in the urban areas at 10.7 percent compared
to 6.4 percent in the rural areas with rates among women in ur-
ban areas almost twice as high as those in rural areas.
But overall, the survey indicates that HIV infection rates have
dropped from 18 percent in 1992 to the current figure of 7 per-
cent. It also indicates that 99 percent of Ugandans have heard
of HIV/Aids and are aware of how they can protect themselves
from the disease.
"The result shows that the government programme for HIV/Aids
control is working. The ABC strategy being implemented should be
intensified at all levels," Muhwezi said. The Director General
of Health Services, Prof Francis Omaswa, was elated with the re-
sults saying, "We are making good progress."
The survey indicates, 7 percent of women and men between 15 - 59
years of age (800,000 Ugandans) are infected with HIV. It was
conducted through interviews and took blood samples from a na-
tionally representative group of over 18,000 women and men aged
15-59 years. It showed that women are more susceptible to HIV
infection than men.
Overall, 7.9 percent of women have HIV, compared to only 6 per-
cent of men. For both sexes, HIV infection levels are highest
among those in their 30s and 40s and lowest in the 15-19 year
age group were the rate is at 3.2 percent among women and 1.2
percent in men.
The survey found that more youth are waiting to have sex with
the average age at first sex amongst respondents aged between
15-24 years standing at 17.9 for women and 19.1 for men, up from
17.3 for women and 18.3 for men in the 2000 survey.
But it is in extra marital sex that men continue to beat women.
Amongst the sexually active age group of 15-49, only 18.2 per-
cent of women reported engaging in extra marital sex in the past
12 months compared to 39.4 percent for men.
Of these, 40.5 percent of women and 49.5 percent of men said
they used a condom the last time they engaged in extra marital
sex. According to the survey, prevalence rates vary in different
regions of Uganda with the lowest rate of 2.5 percent in the
West Nile region, while the highest levels are in Buganda and | <urn:uuid:c56e06b5-0858-4e93-b595-5dbd03075c4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afronets.org/archive/200505/msg00002.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936503 | 777 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Slicing into the East River, flanked by Queens and Manhattan, Roosevelt Island should be a destination. Plenty of people take the tram from Manhattan's East Side, but unless they live, work or go to school on the island, there is little else to do, except take the tram back.
Four decades ago, state planners envisioned something very different. Where there is now wild growth and a relic of a smallpox hospital on the southern end, they began work on a memorial to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Fittingly, what was then called Welfare Island -- reflecting its use as a site for rehabilitation hospitals -- was renamed for Roosevelt.
The eminent architect Louis Kahn was commissioned to design the memorial, and his concept was simple and elegant. Drawing inspiration from Roosevelt's defense of the Four Freedoms -- of speech and religion, and from want and fear -- he designed an open "room and a garden" at the bottom of the island. Trees on either side form a "V" defining a green space, and leading to a two-walled stone room at the water's edge that frames the United Nations and the rest of the skyline.
Unfortunately, the project never got much further than that. The near-bankruptcy of New York in 1975 intervened, and the memorial was given up, until now.
Jessica Lappin, who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island on the City Council, wants to give it another go. The issue, again, is money. The state, which owns the island and expects its budget to be short more than $4 billion next year, cannot commit large sums. So far, an attempt by the nonprofit Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute to pay for the memorial has raised only about $6 million of an estimated $40 million needed. And if the memorial is to be built, work will need to begin in the next few months, at the same time building starts on an adjacent 10-acre park.
There's a magic to the project. That the task is daunting makes it worthy of the man it honors, who guided the nation through the Depression, the New Deal and a world war. As for Mr. Kahn, he died in 1974, as he passed alone through New York's Penn Station. In his briefcase were renderings of the memorial, his last completed plan. | <urn:uuid:7c852fc6-906d-4301-a109-1fdf98be824e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jessicalappin.com/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpNews&htmlID=8491&htmlTypeID=3&nav=news&s=lappin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966422 | 473 | 2.375 | 2 |
Published : 2013-01-10 19:20
Updated : 2013-01-10 19:20
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will offer 3.4 billion won ($3.2 million) of funding to a research project developing eye-drop vaccines, officials said.
The fund will be given to a team led by professor Seo Kyong-ryul of Severance Hospital in Seoul for the next five years. Seo has been developing an eye-drop vaccine to prevent typhoid fever as alternative to existing vaccines injected through needles.
The state-run Korea Institute for Science and Technology and Huons, a local bio-tech firm, will also join the project to commercialize the technology, officials added. | <urn:uuid:2ee5a9de-225c-489b-b508-fdb0f405a65b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130110000869 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915478 | 147 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Undergraduate Research (UR) Grants
The goals of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund are:
- To support fundamental research in the petroleum field
- To develop the next generation of engineers and scientists through support of advanced scientific education
The Undergraduate Research (UR) grants program supports the research programs of established scientists and engineers at non-doctoral departments and provides financial support for students at those institutions to become involved in advanced research activities, in preparation for continued study in graduate school or employment.
Undergraduate Research Grants
The Undergraduate Research (UR) grants program provides funding for scientists and engineers with established programs of research at non-doctoral departments. UR grants are used to illustrate proof of principle, i.e., feasibility, and accordingly, are to be viewed as seed money for generating preliminary results that can be used to apply for continuation funding from other agencies. Applicants may have limited or no preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue.
Eligibility for a UR grant requires that a PI is in a department without a doctoral program, and that the students receiving stipends for the work to be done are undergraduates (M.S.-level students can also be supported only if one or more undergraduates are also supported from this grant). Accordingly, the research being proposed need not be high risk but it should be of publishable quality. The research opportunities afforded must be of the highest caliber, and provide a compelling educational experience for the student.
Amount: $65,000 over 3 years
Estimated number of awards: ~ 45 each year
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Nature and Scope of the Research
ACS PRF Research Grants are made to non-profit institutions for regularly appointed scientists whose research may be sponsored in accordance with the PRF Transfer Agreement:
The recipient (ACS) shall use all funds exclusively for advanced scientific education and fundamental research in the "petroleum field," which may include any field of pure science which in the judgment of (ACS) may afford a basis for subsequent research directly connected with the petroleum field.
Note that fundamental research is required as opposed to applied research or methods development. When submitting an application, you will be asked to select a
that PRF supports.
The UR grant program is designed as a source of funds for faculty members in non-doctoral departments. It supports fundamental research and advanced scientific education in the petroleum field performed by undergraduate students. M.S. students may also be supported. The principal investigator must demonstrate to the PRF Program Managers, Advisory Board members, and to the scientific or engineering community of reviewers that their proposals are designed with the participation of students as the essential feature. Poorly crafted proposals that are deemed to be “noncompetitive” will be denied without external review.
All proposals will undergo a compliance check for the following required elements:
- Completeness and correctness of the application;
- Fundamental nature of the research topic;
- Relevance to petroleum or fossil fuels; and
- Description of the impact on advanced scientific education of students.
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Generally the above criteria are automatically met by tenure-track principal investigators. If you are not tenure-track, you should attach a brief statement to your application describing your appointment and you must include a Department Chair’s letter affirming that you meet all three of the above criteria. Read more about Eligibility, Terms, and Conditionsfor UR grants.
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- Dr. Dean Dunn, Assistant Director, Geology, Geochemistry/Geophysics, telephone: 202-872-4083, email: firstname.lastname@example.org
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- Dr. Nancy Jensen, Synthetic Organic Chemistry, and Inorganic Chemistry, telephone: 202-872-6186, email: firstname.lastname@example.org
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China’s Falling Star
In China, the year is traditionally divided into periods based on the moon’s orbit around the earth and the sun’s path across the sky. This lunisolar calendar is laden with myths and celebrated by rituals that allowed Chinese to mark time and make sense of their world.
So too the modern political calendar in China. It takes shape around the mysterious workings of the Communist Party, which rotates its top leaders every decade at a Party congress, a comet-like event that awes onlookers as a portent of change and renewal. The next congress is set to take place in the fall of 2012—the eighteenth occurrence in the Party’s ninety-one-year history—and is already being associated with unusual phenomena.
The most spectacular was the eclipse of Bo Xilai in mid-March. The mercurial leader of the city-state of Chongqing—it is roughly the size of Austria, but has a population of 30 million, nearly four times as large—was forced to step down on March 15. Just a few months ago, commentators were saying that Bo was a serious candidate for the nine-member Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo, the apogee of power. Suddenly, he had vanished from the heavens. How did this happen and what does it mean?
The answer is rooted in a constellation of powerful families who helped the Communists win power in the 1940s and are trying to align their interests before the great congress begins. Bo’s father was Bo Yibo, a famous civil war general who hung on to life so long—he was ninety-eight when he died in 2007—that he was dubbed one of the “Eight Immortals.” (Traditionally, this refers to a group of Daoist gods; in modern Chinese politics it means a specific group of old men who helped shape Chinese political life from the 1980s through the early 2000s.)
Thanks to his father, the younger Bo rose rapidly in the Party: he was mayor of a prosperous city, governor of a province, and then commerce secretary. But by the time of a Party reshuffle in 2007, the elder Bo had died and Bo Xilai was shunted off to Chongqing, a lateral move at best. His consolation prize was a seat on the Politburo, making him one of the Party’s top two dozen leaders. But he still lacked a place on the much more exclusive Standing Committee, an appointment some analysts thought might occur at the congress this fall.
That all changed on March 15, when the government released a one-sentence report on its Xinhua news agency announcing that Chongqing had a new Party secretary, replacing Bo. The report did not say that he had been removed from the Politburo, although one presumes this will happen at the congress. Pekinologists noted that the report did not say that a new appointment awaited Bo—ling you ren yong, a stock phrase when a leader is to be moved to a new position. The assumption, therefore, is that Bo is finished.
* * *
The immediate cause for Bo’s fall was the antics of his police chief, Wang Lijun. Wang, who had overseen a brutal crackdown on crime at Bo’s behest, had himself become the target of a corruption investigation. In addition, he may also have investigated the death of a British man, Neil Heywood, who may have had business ties with the Bo family. Feeling that he was under some sort of unbearable pressure from Bo, Wang seems to have fled to the US consulate in the city of Chengdu, about two hundred miles away. What he hoped to accomplish there is unclear. Some speculate that he wanted to turn over dirt on his boss to the US government, but how that would help him is a mystery. Others say that Wang requested asylum, but this would have been naive since the Americans have no way to ferry him out of the country, even if they had been inclined to give refuge to a man known for his “strike hard” police methods. Still others say that by fleeing to the US consulate Wang guaranteed he would be arrested by national state security instead of police working for Bo. Perhaps most plausible is that he simply fled in panic without a clear plan. In any case, a day after he entered the consulate he left and was taken into custody.
Wang’s embarrassing behavior was likely the final blow for Bo. Senior public security officials are not supposed to flee to foreign diplomatic missions, especially not that of China’s chief rival. Since Bo had hand-picked Wang, the police chief’s implosion reflected badly on Bo. But this raises the question why the Party decided to investigate Wang in the first place. It’s a truism in China that almost any official or businessperson can be arrested for something because in a country without clear rules, breaking the law is almost inevitable. So why did they choose Wang?
The most likely answer is that targeting him was a way of getting at Bo for refusing to accept his fate five years ago. After arriving in Chongqing, Bo tried to turn it into a base for his triumphant return to Beijing this year at the Party congress as a member of the Standing Committee. To do this, he launched a sweeping package of reforms—and, departing from usual practice for Party leaders, organized a large-scale media campaign to tout his program. Bo is tall, good-looking, and probably the only Chinese leader with a touch of charisma, and other leaders likely found this publicity highly annoying.
His first step was to declare Chongqing especially corrupt, a debatable point but in any case a slap in the face for his two predecessors. One is Wang Yang, the governor of Guangdong and a likely member of the Standing Committee. The other is He Guoqiang, who is now head of the Party’s chief disciplinary commission (and the man who may well have launched the investigation into Bo’s police chief). For a couple of years, Chinese were treated to a titillating series of high-profile arrests in Chongqing of alleged crime bosses and their corrupt political patrons, all of whom presumably had flourished under Wang and He.
Then Bo rammed through a series of social and economic reforms—a reform for several of the major issues facing the country as a whole. Declining morality? He pushed a public education campaign combining traditional virtues with a revival of old-style Communist public song performances. Rural–urban divide? He made it easier for farmers to move into cities in Chongqing (currently they are discouraged from doing so) and enroll their children in city schools. Foreign investment? He courted foreign companies in a way few of his predecessors did. Public order? He bolstered the police force and increased foot patrols.
People often spoke of a “Chongqing model” of greater state control and leftist ideology. There was something to that, but Bo’s reforms actually included something for almost everyone. Some were progressive, such as helping farmers; some statist, such as huge public works programs; and others pro-business, such as courting investment. Civil libertarians were unhappy because he trampled on the law, with credible reports of torture of suspects and harassment of their lawyers; the past decade has seen a steady erosion of the rule of law and a rise of extrajudicial detention for government opponents or ethnic leaders. Amid this trend, Bo’s tactics might have been more draconian but were hardly revolutionary. More than anything, Bo was an opportunist who used these tactics to make his case for the Standing Committee.
Indeed, it was the very fact that he was offering these measures as a kind of systemic reform that was a rebuke to the central leadership. It’s a little unfair to say that Premier Wen Jiabao and Party boss Hu Jintao allowed China to stagnate during their decade in power. Since the 1990s, China has become a major player on the world stage, boasts the world’s second-largest economy, successfully hosted the Olympics, and has shown more attention to the poor by implementing rural health care and providing a subsistence-level welfare program.
But there’s a growing sense among many Chinese that their country’s government needs a new round of serious reforms similar to those that it made in the 1980s and 1990s. In China as elsewhere rising prosperity means rising expectations—especially for more transparency and openness, and less corruption. And all of this has been magnified through the country’s anarchic social media, like microblogging. Although under government control, these sites still pressure the government in ways that were rare in the past.
* * *
Bo’s policies in Chongqing highlighted these problems too openly. Even in his last press conference, a few days before his dismissal, he pointed out that China’s Gini coefficient—a generally recognized way of measuring economic disparity—was terrible and getting worse. The idea of having to deal with such a domineering person must have been abhorrent to the incoming leadership team of Xi Jinping (himself the son of another famous general) and Li Keqiang (a close associate of Premier Wen who is considered a technocrat meant to run the economy). Like all new Chinese leaders, Xi and Li will be relatively weak and will only acquire power with time; Bo would have been by far the highest-profile and most media-savvy member of the nine-man team if he had been let in.
Bo’s fate is now uncertain. When the scandal broke, observers still imagined that Bo might make a graceful exit, perhaps ending up as deputy head of a consultative conference or some other honorary position. Now, the only question is whether he or his wife will be charged with corruption. But with no reliable information, rumors dominate discourse in Beijing. Bo, it is said, has been arrested. He is being interrogated. Shots were fired at the Diaoyutai guest house. Soldiers are on the streets. The only reason any of this can be taken seriously is that the government does; discussion of Bo’s case is strictly forbidden on microblogging sites, with search terms like “coup” and “shots” blocked.
Before canning Bo, Wen justified his actions in noble terms, saying that China needed political reform, without which “such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again in China.” Bo, by implication, had failed to learn from history and was resorting to Maoist-style publicity campaigns to whip up support. A less charitable explanation is that Wen was simply being defensive about his own failure to deliver on reforms. His call for political reform is by now an annual occurrence, but he either has no power to implement it or his definition of political reform is something akin to making the current system more efficient and responsive to citizen complaints. By equating muscular reforms with Cultural Revolution–style anarchy, Wen could have been justifying his cautious approach.
Thus the Chinese political cosmos spins toward the Party congress. Since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, leaders have put a premium on stability and, contrary to many predictions, have managed to have one peaceful transition of power—the 2002 shift from Party boss Jiang Zemin and his premier, Zhu Rongji, to Hu and Wen. That shift was not easy—Jiang tried to hang on and stock the Politburo with his men, which took several years for Hu to counter. But it was peaceful and relatively smooth.
Now the Party is trying to do the same thing again, with Hu and Wen set to exit in favor of Xi and Li. They will be joined by another seven, possibly including a woman, Liu Yandong, who could be in charge of outreach to non–Communist Party groups in society. Internal security is likely to be run by Meng Jianzhu, who is deputy to the current security czar, Zhou Yongkang. An important economics slot, that of the executive vice-premier, could go to Wang Qishan, a former state banker and head of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.1
Bo’s case shows that this transition will be at least as complicated as the one a decade ago. Many of the people projected to sit on the Standing Committee are allies of Hu, not Xi, meaning that the outgoing Party chief’s influence will last a while. But Xi will be forced to deal with many of the issues that Bo tried to tackle with his reforms—his disappearance hasn’t made these problems go away.2
In this, the political and traditional calendars are in alignment. The political calendar started on March 5, when the National People’s Congress’s annual session opened with Wen reading his yearly work report, the opening pendant to his excoriation of Bo last week. March 5 was also the lunisolar calendar’s festival of jingzhe: the “Awakening of the Insects”—the time when hibernating animals awake. Given what has happened, it seemed oddly appropriate: the start of a new season and the rousing of dormant forces.
- The veteran Pekinologist Alice Miller lays out the most likely scenario in the summer 2010 issue of the Hoover Insitution’s China Leadership Monitor, available online at hoover.org.↩
See the excellent essay by Russell Leigh-Moses, “Bo Xilai is Gone. Now Can Beijing Keep its Balance?” on The Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report blog, March 20, 2012. ↩ | <urn:uuid:ca7bd162-48f5-4c1d-8435-b39b55675ae0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinafile.com/china%E2%80%99s-falling-star | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97919 | 2,828 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Dry hydrants can help rural residents in case of a fire
In rural areas, a lack of water mains and pressurized fire hydrants can sometimes impair a fire department's ability to do its job quickly and efficiently. The success of a fire department's operation hinges on the distance a truck must travel to fill-up and return to the fire. In many cases these fill-up points are often long distances from the fire and the firefighters are unable to maintain an uninterrupted water source at the scene.
According to the Virginia Department of Forestry, a dry hydrant is a non-pressurized pipe system permanently installed in existing lakes, ponds and streams that provides a suction supply of water to a fire department tank truck.
Planning for dry hydrants involves several considerations and should involve all those affected so a coordinated effort can take place. Some factors to consider are:
-- Current and future population and building trends.
-- Property values protected.
-- Potential for loss.
-- Fire history of the area protected.
-- Current water supply systems.
-- Other potential water sources.
A dry hydrant is more than a collection of "hardware." In any area without water mains and domestic fire hydrants, the dry hydrant concept can provide a simple cost-effective solution to the need for access to water sources without delay.
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Digital Mapping Services
We offer a wide range of digital mapping data for a variety of uses. Not only do we have our own copyrighted Worldwide mapping data we also offer a wide range of other mapping including Ordnance Survey map data, Collins Bartholomew map data and Philip's map data. If we don't already have the data we have experience in sourcing map data for even the most far reaching destinations, just contact our experienced team to discuss your specific requirements.
Digital map data is used in a variety of ways by our customers, some of the most popular uses include:
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Additionally we can provide customised services, for example we can display further information over the mapping such as drive times, business locations, radials etc. Please contact us for further information.
If you're looking for map data for use within a large project such as a website, GIS or mobile application project then please browse those areas on our website.
Browse the map data we have available below or contact us to talk your requirements through with our experienced mapping team.
Case Study - Mapping for Digital Agencies - Facebook L’Oreal True Match
Lovell Johns were recently approached by digital marketing agency PMA Digital to provide a mapping solution for a L’Oreal Facebook campaign.
L’Oreal were running a Facebook competition in which users of their True Match Foundation product could vote for their favourite shade. The client thought it would be interesting to see the voter locations mapped and required an eye catching map which could be updated for new entrants as the competition progressed.
Lovell Johns cleansed and geo – coded the initial batch of postcodes, then analysed their distribution across the UK using GIS software. The data was then passed to our Cartographers for creation of the mapping solution.
L’Oreal have also shown interest in using the mapping output for internal business purposes as the distribution of voters may inform their future Marketing strategies.
View more case studies in: Map Makers | <urn:uuid:58b87ef6-8fd6-4b8f-8936-ecf46ada0c9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lovelljohns.com/category.aspx?cat=Map-Data&pid=39&page=Digital-Mapping-Services- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91815 | 487 | 1.5 | 2 |
I was looking for something on the history of China, back when they first had paper money, to find out whether the business cycle arose in China at that time. Somehow I found the Futurecasts Journal of August 2011. I'm providing the link, but you don't have to use it.
The Futurecast thing starts out with an attack on Keynesian policy. It is a broad, sweeping attack, rather than a pointed one, so it's not too painful to read a little of it. And I found a prize in there:
The 8% price inflation that afflicted the Depression-ravaged economy through the first six months of 1937 after four years of New Deal monetary inflation occurred despite unemployment rates in excess of 14%. Those who criticize the monetary and budget policies that caused the 1937 relapse and its 19% unemployment rate somehow never seem to mention the 8% price inflation that forced those moves.
I don't recall ever seeing a discussion of inflation during the Great Depression. Well, I've seen one now. | <urn:uuid:f0b2845e-3bcf-4b50-a2be-f9ff0929a2ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newarthurianeconomics.blogspot.com/2011/10/like-cracker-jack.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968493 | 205 | 1.953125 | 2 |
"We are what we repeatedly do." Aristotle (384bc - 322bc) Greek philosopher, physician & scient ...
"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." Proverbs 18:2
What are you and your colleagues allowing to become a part of you?
David Foster Wallace's Kenyon College commencement speech set to video.
"Never stop because you are afraid - you are never so likely to be wrong." Fridtjof Nansen (1861-19 ...
"It is wonderful what you can do when you have to." C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish writer, scholar
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We'll help you stay focused on the good things with thoughts & ideas from Sam Parker (writer of the books & material on GiveMore.com). | <urn:uuid:3f4266f8-55f5-4e21-9a72-a410899e16cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.givemore.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933785 | 214 | 1.585938 | 2 |
You are now standing in front of what many feel is the largest building stone ever used in world history. It's part of a row of stones in the Western Wall known as the Master Course. Click the picture to see the massive scale here.
Some quick stats on the huge stone:
Length: 12.5 meters / 41 feet
Depth: 3.5-4.5 m / 11.5 ft.- 15 ft
Height: 3.5m /11.5 ft.
Weight: Over 500 metric tons.
Focus on the massiveness of this huge stone. Over 500 metric tons! What is truly amazing is that today's best cranes can only lift 250 tons.
This means, of course, that we will have to totally re-think our understanding of the technology our ancient brethren had when they built the Temples.
Realize that street level of that time was 20 ft. (6.5 meters) below where your (virtual) feet are now and bedrock is some 33 ft. (10 meters) down. How did they lift the stones of the Master Course into position?
One theory notes that the quarry was to the north of the Temple Mount and at a higher elevation. If so, the builders could have pushed the stone into place using levers and pulley systems available at that time...
Why put such massive stones so high up?
Notice that the stones underneath the Master Course are smaller. The Wall was built without any mortar or cement. The massive stones of the Master Course were used to stabilize the Wall. It was such an effective method that, throughout history, the Wall withstood disastrous earthquakes.
What are the rectangular holes in the giant stone?
Answer: Upon first discovering these rectangular holes in the Huge Stone, archaeologists were puzzled. Further excavation revealed small slabs of stone protruding from the holes, and their purpose became obvious.
Prior to the 12th century, when this area was used as cisterns, the holes were drilled into the Western Wall. The slabs protruding from the holes acted as stabilizers for the plaster lining of the cistern.
There are those who feel that the thickness of the overlaid material is such that it was part of an actual building, as opposed to simple waterproofing.
Many Jews were understandably upset upon learning that the holy Western Wall of the Temple Mount had been defaced for a building project, but that was standard behavior of each new conqueror.
Note that the Israeli government went to great lengths to respect the needs of those living above the tunnel. The structural integrity of their buildings and basements was maintained through an elaborate system of concrete and steel supports. These supports were cantilevered so none of the steel beams actually touches the Western Wall, out of respect for the sanctity of the Wall.
It is no easy task to cater to the variety of sensitivities of Jerusaams actually touches the Western Wall, out of respect for the sanctity of the Wall.
It is no easy task to cater to the variety of sensitivities of Jerusalem's inhabitants.
Why the smaller stones just above the huge stone?
Answer: The fury poured out upon the Temple by the Romans resulted in the destruction of most structures associated with the Temple Mount. Miraculously, the Western Wall, by and large, remained intact - damaged - but intact. Chisel marks found along the top of this stone are mute evidence of the Roman demolition efforts. They came this far - and then they gave up. Their attempts to topple the wall were unsuccessful. This is history. We're standing right where it happened.
When the Arabs built their mosque on the Temple Mount, they found the Western Wall in its damaged condition. Their building projects included restoring the walls of the Temple Mount. The huge stones from the top of the Western Wall were lying literally at their feet, exactly where they had fallen so many centuries before. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, many of the original stones from the Kotel were put back in their place. Some areas, such as this directly above the Huge Stone, required additional patchwork and smaller stones were added.
The huge stone, and the intact Herodian courses beneath, stand in mute testimony of the Midrash (Oral Tradition) explaining the verse King Solomon wrote in the Song of Songs 2:9 "Behold, He stands behind our wall, behind the Western Wall of the Holy Temple. Why? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that it would never be destroyed."
Shir HaShirim Raba 2:9
Note how the lighting here brings out the classic Herodian stone facing. The inset border around each stone, easily visible on the lower course here, is a trademark of Herod's style.
A quick orientation: We are facing the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. The path to our right would leads back to the Kotel Plaza. To the left and north, following the Wall, we will soon arrive at what appears to be a sealed gate into the Temple Mount... | <urn:uuid:ca61ec7e-f9b5-4b4a-bcd9-6ebe06f223e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/sem/wtt/82668502.html?s=mpw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967454 | 1,027 | 3.609375 | 4 |
The fact that Eurasian Spoonbill is breeding again in numbers in Britain is doubtless a factor in its more frequent summer appearances in the south of the country. The latest report of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, published this week in British Birds (105: 352-416), confirms that after a handful of breeding attempts by single pairs in recent years, a colony of six pairs became established in Norfolk in 2010, with other summering birds elsewhere in East Anglia, and in Kent and Sussex.
|Adult Eurasian Spoonbill at Rainham RSPB, 7 July 2012. Unusually for the species, it was awake for long periods.|
|Spoonbill and Tuftie go head-to-head in an impromptu preen-off.|
|Disturbed by a passing Carrion Crow, the bird relocated to a quiet corner of the marsh ... and went to sleep.| | <urn:uuid:8315a954-bbe9-49ac-aa5a-6aa6de20ec83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birdingetc.com/2012/07/spoonbill-returns.html | 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 | 0.946763 | 184 | 2.3125 | 2 |
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Suffolk Public Schools Board is committed to excellence in education, equality of educational opportunity, and the recognition of each student’s individuality. As students differ in their rate of physical, mental, emotional and social growth and vary in their needs and abilities, learning opportunities shall be provided which are consistent with personal development and potential. Programs shall emphasize diagnostic and prescriptive instruction, allowing an individual approach to each student’s learning style and educational needs. The educational program shall introduce each student to a variety of interests and subject areas that offer exposure to the range of opportunities available in later years. These experiences produce the basis for further education and further employment. As students demonstrate increased maturity, they assume more responsibility for their decisions regarding education.
The school environment should be responsive and conducive to learning. The physical environment facilitates and enhances the learning experiences available to each student. A responsive environment includes competent, dedicated teachers using a variety of techniques and a classroom atmosphere where students can function and develop according to their abilities. Safety, physical comfort, and appearance also are vital environmental components.
The gifted process begins when the student is referred for gifted services. Written parental permission is obtained, and a student profile is developed using multiple criteria which may include creativity tests, a teacher checklist for rating behavioral characteristics, scholastic performance, ability testing, previous placement, and a finished product from the student.
Eligibility is determined by the gifted placement committee which may consist of the building principal, classroom teachers, a guidance counselor, a resource teacher and gifted personnel. Eligibility decisions are based on a point system using a matrix reviewed at the placement committee meeting. This process is completed within 90 days of the initial referral or when the student enters the candidate pool through the general screening process. All students who are referred are screened. Referred students may be reviewed annually for eligibility.
The search for and the identification of gifted students is a continuous process. Announcements are placed using community and school media. Gifted resource teachers conduct workshops which clarify the characteristics of the gifted student. Special emphasis is placed on the recognition of potentially gifted students in underserved populations.
Referrals can be made by teachers, school administrators, parents, community members, peers, and self. The form is located on this website under forms and can also be obtained from the school guidance office.
Following the determination of eligibility, parents are notified in writing and written permission is obtained for placement.
If a student has been determined ineligible, parents are notified of the committee’s decision in writing and the right to appeal and review all testing data. An appeal form is in the forms section of the blog or can be obtained through the school guidance office. Parents are informed of an appeal timeline in the initial notification. The parents are given a date to meet with the appeal committee. The committee then meets to determine the decision based on evidence shown at the meeting and the parent is informed in writing of the decision.
The appeals committee consists of a majority of individuals not on the original identification placement committee. After the parent(s) or designee present their appeal, and the committee confers, a majority vote is needed to change the decision of the identification placement committee.
The appeal committee shall consist of:
- A principal or assistant principal
- The Deputy Superintendent or designee
- An Instructional Coordinator
- Two gifted resource teachers
- A Lead teacher
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February 4, 2013 3:25 pm
Internal bleeding on the battlefield often proves deadly for soldiers hit by bullets or shrapnel. But the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has just announced a new type of injectable foam that could save lives by molding to organs to stop hemorrhaging, Scientific American reports. If trials work out, field medics could use the foam as a way to buy time for soldiers on their way to medical facilities.
Like epoxy glue, the foam requires two different liquids to be stored separately and mixed together through an injection. When the polyurethane foam enters the abdominal cavity, the mixture expands around 30 times its original size and hardens into a solid. It acts to seal wounded tissues, which stops the bleeding. Doctors at medical facilities can remove the foamy mass and perform surgery to permanently fix the battlefield damage.
“We’ve been waiting for this,” says Donald Jenkins, trauma director at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn., and a 24-year Air Force veteran who has spent more than 700 days in combat zones, including in Afghanistan and Iraq. When asked how often he has seen soldiers suffer from abdominal hemorrhaging caused by explosives or gunshot wounds, he pauses and says, “Too many times.”
While the foam has much potential, it still needs to undergo further testing and work before it’s introduced into medics’ kits. For example, the expanding material often causes bruising, and it also heats up as it changes from a liquid to a solid to the level of a high-grade fever. Researchers also fear that pieces of the foam could break off in a patient’s body and clog up blood flow, though so far this hasn’t happened in tests with pigs.
Nevertheless, Jenkins sees some promise in this new approach to a common problem for field medics, and perhaps first-responders in remote rural areas. “If half the deaths on the battlefield are torso hemorrhaging, and you were able to save 10 percent, would the survivors say it’s worth [the risk]?” he asked. “I’d say yes.”
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Does context mean anything to the author of this article and others like him who don't bother to look beyond the surface as long as it fits their precious narrative of Rwanda decline?
If the Economist was really keen on informing readers about the true story of Victoire Ingabire they would have told us:
1. Yes - Ingabire was not in Rwanda during the genocide but her parents were. Her father enthusiastically led killings in his community and committed suicide before he could be tried. Her mother tortured and disemboweled pregnant women at the Butamwa health centre where she worked. She fled Rwanda via then Zaire and is now sitting in Ingabire’s house in Holland glowing with pride at her daughter’s hero status (i.e., among genocidaires and in some western eyes). Just a coincidence.
2. Ingabire didn’t kill anyone during the genocide but she rocked up at Kigali airport with her trusty assistant Joseph Ntawangundi who in a matter of days was recognized by as a genocide fugitive by people in the Kibungo village who remembered him as a killer of children and students at the school he taught at in Eastern Rwanda. He had fled, changed his name, joined Ingabire and was back at the scene of the crime. He admitted his crimes, asked for forgiveness and is serving a 17-year jail term. Ingabire published an apology on her website saying that he had deceived her. What a coincidence.
3. Ok – that’s all background. Doesn’t mean that Ingabire is guilty, just context. It means that she either hangs out with really vicious company or attracts/inspires seriously unsavoury characters. Either way for a country like Rwanda, it’s exactly the kind of context that makes for a very dangerous political leader.
4. Even if Ingabire had been a nun born of decent law-abiding parents and only associated out with sober, upstanding, peace-loving angels, the words that she has uttered since she started her “political” career and the evidence of her terrorism planning actions handed to Rwandan justice by various countries around the world are enough to have her jailed for life.
Given this CONTEXT – she is getting away with murder. And quite frankly, so is the Economist.
When Ingabire arrived in Kigali, no-one had heard of her. She went to the Genocide Memorial and gave a speech that was deeply offensive to survivors of the 1994 genocide, and did so in a way that is considered a crime under statute in Rwanda. She was therefore arrested. After that point, she convinced some gullible characters in the West, unfortunately the Economist included, that she is an "opposition leader". Calling oneself a political leader does not make you one. As far as anyone in Rwanda is concerned, Ingabire is a political non-entity whose name only became known after her arrest. She has no popular base of support, no identifiable political ideology and no policies aside from bringing ethnic politics back to centrestage. Rwanda has survived and prospered in the 18 years since genocide by sublimating ethnic differences in favour of a shared national identity. This has involved the passing of laws that limit the formation of parties based on ethnic lines or the public iteration of ethnic divisionism. This may make human rights lobbyists queasy, but it is has been a successful approach. Far from being the failed state it promised to be, Rwanda has emerged as a functional and growing economy and a society at peace. Some may believe ethnic divisions should be free to flourish, whatever the consequences. For a people who endured a genocide, not many see it that way.
"We just do want to reiterate what we have always claimed. Our message is that if nothing is done to install a representative leadership which in turn installs fair justice, there will be problems which will be more bloody than those of 1994. Rwandans will not stand by idly. The United Nations created a tribunal; they should take up their responsibility. What they do now is what they did when Rwanda was attacked [in 1990], that's what they did when the massacres were in full swing in 1994. The UN have their arms crossed and Rwandans might decide to get up and solve their own problems violently”. (Victoire Ingabire, Brussels, 23.11.2005)
2. About grenade terror attacks targeting busy crowds in markets and bus stations since more than 2 years, Mrs. Victoire Ingabire said on BBC Kinyarwanda-Kirundi that such acts of indiscriminate terrorism are committed as the only way to express their opposition to "dictatorship". Such an understanding for the motives of terrorists would be enough to disqualify any candidate for president anywhere in the world. Why should Rwanda tolerate politicians who say that killing anonymous citizens could be a way to free them from dictatorship?
Oh Economist, you too?!
1. HRW is not impartial and in my opinion should not be a credible source of information in the Great Lakes Region. In fact, my dream job would be to audit them and find out who actually funds them because frankly speaking, they do more damage than good and they have a bloody agenda that no one seems to question!
2. Ingabire had no political platform. I dare anyone one of you journalists that bleed over op-eds to name me a few of the things she would have changed? Economic progress? Legal reform? Health reform? Land reform? Technological progress? Getting rid of corruption? Nada!!! The incumbent President did all of that so you are right that she had no chance in heck for winning the election...so what did she do? She appealed to the one thing that has worked in the past: her ethnic group. It was insensitive on her part and also quite cunning had it worked. Had a German politician done the same, and said 'hey how come there are no memorials for the Germans who died...?' This same paper would be writing about his/her Nazi roots and sheer political suicide the said politician was committing. Even more of the issue at hand is genocide denial. You see right after that statement would have come the statement, there was a Hutu genocide (forgetting even the definition of genocide!) and then since there was a Hutu genocide and a Tutsi genocide, all is equal. Let's bury the hatchet and move on, and stop talking about the Tutsi one. And that is unacceptable and criminal according to Rwanda's laws (that were actually worked on by real lawyers with real law degrees and then passed in a real Parliament). So let me posit another logical explanation to her incarceration. She committed a crime! Rwanda's legal system may need further reform and clarification on genocide laws but I beg you to show me ONE legal system that couldn't use reform, start with the UK and US ones.
3. Rwanda didn't provide all the proof for her trial. Some of it came from the Dutch. And frankly, 8 years is a gift that makes most of us uncomfortable. She has served 2. She can get out based on other rules very soon and continue her politiking (if we can even use that word to describe her activities). She's not the Rwanda of the future but of the past. I wonder if people are so mushy over her because she's a woman. The bald head in pink seems offensive? Try the 1 million who were killed (including the very Hutu moderates and simple citizens who lost their lives). No mushy feelings from us. Let her serve her time.
Dear Reporter and the readers did you know that among the evidences that pined Ingabire to be be organising terorism activities against the people of Rwanda are documents recovered by Dutch police when they searched her house?
Among the documents used by the court include military deployment plan, weapon acquisition plan, recruitment plan etc
I[ngabare] fought the law and the ... law won! :D
"Thanks to foreign friends, who also provide roughly one-quarter of his budget, Mr Kagame won the seat. But the warm glow that used to surround him at international events is fading."
Oh, really? The same countries that screamed bloody murder about Rwanda supposedly causing all this trouble in the Congo -- these same countries actually supported Rwanda in its bid for the Security Council seat?! Are these powers that be schizophrenic?! What about the overwhelming support of all those African countries that don't provide budgetry support? Is this just a pathetic attempt to save face? Their efforts failed ... so they take credit for Rwanda's success!
I think as a citizen of planet earth, we must always allows reason and common sense to prevail over emotions over certain world-wide sensitive issues that are common to humanity. If we can't see the German leadership and people allowing some extremist inidividuals requesting for Nazi memorials for the Nazis that were killed by allied forces, why should this be legally allowed in a country like Rwanda? Because it's in Africa or? This is about genocide against Tutsis in Rwamda, and it's a crime against humanity! So please give us a break!
Justice is usually represented by a balance, a scale. You don't bring about justice by balancing wrongs and crimes by other wrongs and crimes. All "bads" need to be on the same side of the scale! The Economist is well known for striving to just do that!
Victoire Ingabire, famously and for the first time in Kagame's Rwanda, deposited flowers on foot of the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, called all Rwandans to mourn Tutsis murdered during the genocide and surround survivors with all the care and love they deserve. Then she went on to ask Rwandans to not forget the "other" victims: Hutus. We all know hundreds thousdands of hutus were killed during the genocide; some were victims of revenge killings, but also victims of coldly planned and executed massacres by RPF soldiers inside Rwanda and in neighboring Congo.
Kagame had her arrested without delay. The fear was that she was going to embolden the silent mass of peasants and hutu intellectuals into louder and louder protests against the regime. The fact that Kagame was going to jail a woman, a mother got trumped by the serious threats she represented. That's the real background. Whether or not her father or mother or brother or cousing is/could be guilty of any crime is irrelevant.
One more thing: Ingabire will go down in history as one of the most influential women of her time. One can argue that Kagame will also go down in history as one of the most influential figures in Rwanda. My humble guess is that history will be much more indulgent to her than to her jailer.
"Her crime was to question why Hutu "moderates", many of whom died too, were not mentioned alongside the Tutsi victims."
It's like if a german "politician" talking about holocaust would say: Yes, a lot of jews have been died during WWII, but why don't we talk about innocent german solders have been murdered while on duty of guarding Auschwitz, Buchenwald?
Why doesn't the Rwanda government allow any form of critism to its leadership, all notable oppostion is either killed or is incarcerated? is there genuine freedom of speech in that country? and let's not use the pretext that it's not practical due to the need of avoiding ethnic tensions!!!! There are lessons to be learnt from neighbouring Burundi in terms of reconciliation. Just to set the record straight, I dont care less about ethnicity but more about ideology, I focus on the individual.
Secondly, the RPF party, Kagame's party! It does not only control the country politically but also economically (forget the fallacy that there is an economic environment that champions free enterprise)...the term 'MAFIA' springs to mind.
I love all Rwandans but in my opinion, which everyone is entitled to and thankfully I can freely express it since I'm not residing in Rwanda currently, is that the individuals in the current leadership are cynical, greedy, blood thirsty and not serving its people as their MANDATE requires. Let's not forgtet that "They were elected to serve and not to be served!"
Folks say that the country has witnessed extraordinary economic growth which excuses the government from accusations of its heavy handed approach towards the people its meant to serve and protect. Sure enough there has been economic progress which is commendable, albeit from a very low base. Frankly, how about outside Kigali city? where else is there development? is there gross misallocation of resources taking place??? let's not forget that the majority are rural. what % of its citizens can afford the lavish lifestyle enjoyed in the city of Kigali by those in the leadership or connected to it. There are eye watering levels of wealth inequality and if this is not tackled, it will unfortunately lead to further unrest....forget the ethnic divide!
The counry needs to establish strong institutions that outlive any individual whether you see them as dictators or saviours! At this present moment all I can see are strong men with self-interests to protect, nothing else matters....that's my 2 cents!
and yes, I've been to Rwanda recently!
As revealed by Dutch Police his armed wing under FDU-INKINGI was recruiting young men from FDLR. Four FDLR officers who are Ingabire’s co-accused agree that they met Ingabire in Kinshasa. This lady is not a politician but a terrorist. Her mother, who served as a nurse disemboweled tutsi pregnant women during 1994 tutsi genocide. She grew in Hutu ideology that is why she considers herself as hutu powers leader. 8 years for Ingabire are not enough for a leader of terrorist group.
Allow to disagree at some point that Rwanda's foreign relations is declining.If we consider the recent election to the UNSC Rwanda did not vote for itself. Even those countries that the media say that they are no more friendly to Rwanda they all VOTED for Rwanda. They are great friends nothing changed
"The publication of the damaging dossier coincided with a Rwandan bid for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. Thanks to foreign friends, who also provide roughly one-quarter of his budget, Mr Kagame won the seat. But the warm glow that used to surround him at international events is fading."
Any Rwandan with a mind can really understand how arrogant these people are towards Rwandans.
Now I'd like to request those who know history better than I to tell us who initiated this donation THING!!! If it's a tool to intimidate others, a cause of insult to others; then it's no longer made for development rather for destruction. It's enough to see the kind of CONTEMPT the writer has for Rwandans and as well, a wake up call to reject this. Rwandans are not handicapped so that they can be put in contempt by anybody simply because "1/4 of our budget is financed by the so-called development partners".
I wonder why always people from the west think they know everything and right in everything! Then why do we see the crisis today? Where were your experts before this crisis? This shows clearly that you too are human beings who make mistakes. Therefore, stop fooling the world that Africans are incapable of leading themselves.
Look, the genocidaires lost fair and square. Rwanda is moving on. I'd advise you do the same and shed your recidivist tendencies.
Another example of Africa's 5th century BC society. Perhaps in another few thousand years it will get into the 20th century. So sad.
Let's expand the last comment and provide a more useful analogy. What if an ethnic German was married to an ethnic Jew and was sent to Auschwitz to die? Would a German politician who wanted to laud such a person be guilty of anti-semitism? Would a German who protected jews get plaudits unfairly? These are the kind of people we're talking about. Hutu's, like Germans, aren't a monolithic culture. Such shoddy analogies should be beneath any intelligent reader of this news magazine.
You are comparing incomparables. Or, you are setting up analogies but falling short of showing where the analogies stop. In 1994 right after the genocide, Tutsis of Rwanda were in no different a situation as the Jews of Germany or Poland. Then a certain Kagame, the so-called "liberator", went on a killing rampage that slowly converted him into a genocidaire himself, then a full-blown dictator, then a hunter/assassin of his own generals, then ... Please be mindful that you are addressing intelligent people in this forum.
Let's not kid anyone or ourselves. That's not the reason she was arrested and condemned before trial. Ingabire did not question the genocide or deny the genocide. She just asked for the right for the "other" victims to mourn their loved ones without fear, withough shame. She is not so intellectually challenged as to be a denier of the Tutsi genocide! Please re-read the transcript of her speech!
Really? Is that all the analogy your intellect allows you to write?
Am I the only one getting tired of these people solemnly professing to have the have the best interests of Rwandans at heart when clearly the opposite is the case? Their act's transparent and, frankly, it's getting tired. It's a marriage of convenience between the genocidaires and imperialists ... who are increasingly becoming difficult to distinguish from each other.
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