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TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 30, 2009 (AFP) - Honduras
declared a state of emergency in the capital Tegucigalpa Wednesday, as
the government reported a severe water shortage because of the "El
Nino" climate phenomenon.
Rafael Pineda, the minister of the presidency,
said the government would tap 10 new water wells to meet shortages experienced
by the city's 1.5 million residents.
Pineda said the drought has been caused
by "El Nino," a band of unusually warm weather over the eastern
Pacific, which in the past has been linked to numerous floods, droughts | <urn:uuid:e8fc00bb-9b05-41b3-aa8e-e21bee8e1e56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reliefweb.int/country/hnd?f[0]=field_report_date%3A%5B2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%20TO%202010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%5D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933728 | 136 | 1.984375 | 2 |
STRUCTURAL FUNDS: THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SENDS A STRONG MESSAGE ON DISABILITY TO THE MEMBERS STATES
9 May 2012 /// Preventing and eliminating barriers to accessibility for persons with disabilities should be a condition to fulfil in order to receive European money. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities should be at the core of the European Funds allocated to Members States and the European regions. It is crucial the funds are effective and ensure implementation of the UN treaty. During a workshop organised on 8 May by EDF and MEP Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), the European Parliament sent a strong messages to the Members States: the removal of crucial conditionalities is not acceptable: the future Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 will have to include persons with disabilities.
The European Parliament is now in the driver’s seat concerning the future cohesion policy: with the Treaty of Lisbon, it has become a formal co-legislator in the cohesion field. This provides the Members of Parliament with a unique opportunity to ensure that the Structural Funds meet the needs of all European citizens, including 80 million European with disabilities.
The new Regulations on the EU Structural Funds have been released by the Commission last year in times of financial cuts. The MEPs together with key actors have brought to the EDF’s workshop a strong political message supporting people with disabilities. They have focuses on four main issues:
>THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT JOINS FORCES WITH PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
MEP Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland) Chair of the committee on Regional Development
"The European Union’s institutional and financial support to persons with disabilities, as we all know, is guaranteed in the Treaties. The European Parliament has always worked in support of persons with disabilities. The Structural Funds legislative package proposed by the Commission brings about important improvements for persons with disabilities, also in light of the UN Convention. In these times of crisis, it is essential for all policy makers in Europe to understand that promoting the rights of persons with disabilities does not only mean respect of human rights and protection of the right of every European citizen. It also means offering every citizen the same opportunity to contribute to European development."
Yannis Vardakastanis, EDF President
“The EU has concluded the UN Convention. 22 of all Members States have ratified it and all of them have signed it. All of them have therefore the obligation to respect it. The Structural Funds are one of the most important proposals that will be negotiated in 2012. It must comply with the obligations deriving from the UN Convention.”
MEP Adám Kósa (EPP, Hungary) President of the Disability Intergroup
“As a Member with disability of the European Parliament, I fully support the disability movement. The Disability Intergroup totally agrees with the European Disability Forum: Members States have to include persons with disabilities to have access to EU funds. Europe should not turn back from the results of the current cohesion policy legislation but further improve the Structural Funds for persons with disabilities.”
MEP Elisabeth Schroedter (Greens, EFA) member of the Committee on Regional Development
“If the EU wants to reach the Europe 2020 targets, the cohesion policy has to be inclusive. It is important to act now. We have to make the conditionalities respect ethical provisions and promote inclusion of persons with disabilities. The partnership principle with the civil society has to be protected and even reinforced in the general and specific regulations. Organisations of persons with disabilities must be recognised as equal footing and must be involved in all the phases of the process.
MEP Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (EPP, Spain) Member of the Disability Intergroup and of the Committee on Regional Development
“The inclusion of ex ante conditionalities in the general regulation is necesary to comply with the UN Convention obligations. Their removal would have a very negative impact. The objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy won’t be reached without 80 million European with disabilities.”
MEP Constanze Angela Krehl (S&D, German) Committee on Regional Development and co-rapporteur for the Common Provision Regulation
Ms Krehl sent a message in reference to the workshop:
"Every Member States should be ready and willing to eliminate inequalities and combat discrimination. The deletion of the relevant paragraphs by the Council is therefore not acceptable and will surely be raised within the future negotiations with the Parliament”
>STRONG SUPPORT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND KEY ACTORS
Nicholas Martyn, Deputy Director-General DG REGIO DG Development and Coordination and communication of cohesion policy
“The European Commission has offered a framework with the notion of non-discrimination in the centre of the cohesion funds After the preliminary amendments of the draft regulation (i.e. ex ante conditionalities) by the Council, we rely on the European Parliament as a co legislator and on the other stakeholders to keep the original provisions in the final package”
Human rights key players at international level such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Disability Consortium of the European Foundation Center and the Center for Disability Law and Policy, Galway University came and supported the disability movement. They reminded the European Parliament about the EU obligations towards the UN. Referring to the UN convention as a whole, persons with disabilities have all the rights to live independently and contribute to the society. They also emphasised that Structural Funds must promote the community based services for persons with disabilities calling upon the European Parliament to make sure the resources are well targeted and that they benefit 80 million European citizens with disabilities.
A Legal Study of the Current Use and Future Potential of the EU Structural Funds to Contribute to the Achievement of Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (Prof. Gerard Quinn, Director of the Center for Disability Law and Policy) | <urn:uuid:f8ba334f-2705-4586-b95d-71d1ad11ba93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edf-feph.org/Page_Generale.asp?DocID=13855&thebloc=29976 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93285 | 1,235 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Khulumani's Madiba's Voices project will enable Khulumani Interactors in every province to share their monitoring of their local municipalities and their stories of successful participation in influencing the performance of local government, using mobile technology.
The project is supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation towards supporting change in political culture in South Africa towards greater participation and active citizenship.
The project will be launched shortly following a national workshop to bring together the network of Interactors, under the leadership of Xolile Madinda.
Following Khulumani's participation in COP 17 in Durban in December 2011, Khulumani members have been growing in their awareness of the threats to life on earth due to human-induced climate change. Earth Day, April 22, is an opportunity to take the message home that "As individuals we're powerless against climate change. If we act as individuals we'll lose. The only way we won't is if we join together”.
Officially Offside is the movement of young Khulumani community activists who engage in activities that link the past with the present in intergenerational dialogue and who explore the use of community spaces for activities for reflective youth expression.
The evening of 25 April 2012 at 19:00, Officially Offside hosts an event in anticipation of FREEDOM DAY at Makhaya's Lounge in FIngo VIllage, Grahamstown.
Xolile Madinda of Officially Offside explains, "Acoustic Soul is a live music event hosted at Makhaya's Place in Fingo township in Grahamstown. Officially Offside was approached to assist in in conceptualising and initiating the event, a first of its kind being hosted in this most popular night joint in Grahamstown.
South African Government Attends Open Government Partnership Steering Committee Meeting in Brazil. Khulumani joins South African Civil Society in calling on the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee currently meeting in Brazil to:
* Ensure that the South African government reports to the OGP Steering Committee on developments regarding its commitments to re-draft the Protection of State Information legislation to bring it in line with the principles embodied in the Open Government Partnership Declaration (to which it is a founding signatory); and to
* Ensure that the South African government engages with civil society in order to develop a monitoring system for its OGP commitments.
These principles are of particular concern to Khulumani Support Group which had on Friday, April 20, 2012 to raise alarms about the failures of the TRC Unit staff in the Department of Justice to honour the principles of openness, transparency and integrity in their relationship with the civil society nominees from the South African Coalition for Transitional Justice, including Khulumani Support Group, to the Technical Task Team tasked with preparing a minute for Cabinet on fulfilling reparations expectations for survivors and victims of gross human rights violations in South Africa.
"I knew about climate change before the conference. What I didn't know was what normal people like me could do to help. The fight against climate change has to start now before we destroy this earth for the future generations. | <urn:uuid:3ad8d16f-535c-47e9-9932-0dabf02b342d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.khulumani.net/active-citizens.html?start=35 | 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 | 0.947542 | 627 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Oliver’s research into her mother’s family revealed that her mother, Martha Guiterrez, arrived in the United States at age 20 from Guerrero, Mexico where she grew up. Guiterrez was raised in a large family of 12 children. Of those, six came to the United States where currently three live in California and three in Utah.
Since the age of one Oliver was raised in Fontana by her mother and her stepfather, Antonio Garcia. She has one sister and two brothers. Her extended family includes 10 younger cousins. But she never met her biological father and only learned of his existence at the age of 15. The news put her into a tailspin for awhile, she said.
Finally, when Guiterrez graduated from Henry J. Kaiser High School in Fontana last year, she and her father communicated by email. Oliver’s father had last seen his daughter when she was six months old.
For the La Sierra University class project, Oliver contacted her father’s sister, Azalia Oliver, in Los Angeles for family history information but her aunt could only provide the names of paternal grandparents and their parents who were natives of Michoacán, Mexico. Magali Oliver also decided to try to reach her father again, not only to re-establish and strengthen their relationship, but to delve further into her family’s ancestry. On his birthday she worked up the nerve to call him for a first telephone conversation. “He didn’t answer,” she said, and she didn’t leave a message. “I just go so nervous. I just have that fear of, I don’t know what to say.” However she maintains hope for future contact.
Other students recounted stories of their families’ travels between countries and ultimately to the United States and the North American continent, usually seeking better wages, educational and living opportunities. Some ended up in North America for other reasons.
In the 1800s, John Demarbiex, student Corrie Demarbiex’s great grandfather, traveled from France to Mexico to fight as a dragoon with Mexico’s Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph who was selected to lead a second Mexican monarchy. The effort was backed by France’s Napoleon III. Frank and John, two of John Demarbiex’s children, owned ranches and gold mines, including the Red Rover mine which is currently operational. Frank also fought for the Mexican monarchy as a dragoon. He eventually settled in Scottsdale, Arizona. He married a woman named Ramona and had five children. Corrie Demarbiex discovered that Frank, a lover of trotter horses, died at the age of 34 from pneumonia. He acquired the illness after getting chilled in the rain while caring for a sick horse. She also discovered various spellings of her family’s name over the years including that of Demarbiuex, John and Frank’s last name.
Jackie Palinka, of Ukrainian ancestry, discovered the ship records documenting the immigration of her paternal great-grandfather, his wife and three children from Galicia in Spain, to Canada. The farming family purchased homesteads and eventually passed the land to Palinka’s father who in turn bequeathed it to one of her uncles.
Student Julian Elliott, of Scottish and Cambodian ancestry, discovered few official records of his family’s past. In his class paper, however, he discussed the cultural richness of his life celebrating both American and Khmer New Year events in January and April, eating an abundance of American and Cambodian foods and participating in Christian and Buddhist religious services. His Christian father of Scottish heritage met his Cambodian mother by unlikely coincidence when his mother was 18. She was a refugee and spoke no English, but somehow the two managed to get along, he wrote. Elliott enjoys busy holidays with a large group of aunts, uncles and cousins. His varied background has also produced in him an openness and respect for others, he said. | <urn:uuid:00ee5b1a-e086-403d-a765-b57b90595cb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lasierra.edu/ue2013/news/2004/nov/index.php?id=7530 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980987 | 836 | 2.40625 | 2 |
The Centre provides scientific support to activities undertaken by UNEP and other organisations in the field of SCP. This support includes the development, testing, implementation and monitoring of concrete projects, especially in developing countries, which enables these countries to leapfrog to sustainable consumption and production patterns using life cycle thinking and regional perspectives as guiding principles. Feel free to explore our website, read more about us there or find all information nicely consolidated in our CSCP Information Brochure.
On April 15, 2013 thirty leading low-carbon city development experts and international representatives convened in Beijing to exchange perspectives on the future of China's urbanisation megatrend. The CSCP and Tsinghua moderators helped this leading group lay a foundation for future collaboration efforts.
What opportunities does sustainability-driven innovation offer the ICT sector? What environmental and social sustainability trends will drive the technology sector in the coming years? These are just some of the issues facing the ICT sector today. To move the industry forward with a sustainability driven growth agenda, Deutsche Telekom and the CSCP are organising a Sustainable ICT Innovation workshop.
We care for share - After the world's largest fair for IT and telecommunication, CeBIT, chose the theme 'Shareconomy' for this year's fair, everybody knows and seems to love collaborative consumption. On May 13th the Sharing Economy Conference 2013 in Berlin once again puts it in the very centre of the event.
Today the Industrial Green Tec at the Hannover Fair comes to an end. The CSCP can look back on a week full of many promising dialogues and a successful cooperation.
Guillen/Van Beers/ Rozo/Spittler (2013) | <urn:uuid:038d3875-b536-4957-b05e-dc22e62808a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scp-centre.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901012 | 340 | 1.578125 | 2 |
color="#FFFFFF" size="2">Back to National & World News Digest
Saturday, March 21, 1998Last modified at 3:19 a.m. on Saturday, March 21, 1998
Auto, gas industries debate steps to cleaner air
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pollution from automobiles is still choking cities with dirty air. But what's the next move: cleaner cars or cleaner gasoline?
Two of the country's biggest and most powerful industries are sparring over which should take the next step, each citing high costs of meeting a new round of emission reductions now being considered by the government.
The latest flash point in the inter-industry tug of war is over demands by auto manufacturers that oil refiners dramatically reduce the amount of sulfur in gasoline because, they argue, it gunks up expensive pollution-control devices being put into the new, cleaner cars.
The oil companies said Friday they are ready to make some reductions in sulfur, but want the reductions less dramatic and limited to 22 Eastern states where there are more severe air problems. That's nowhere close to what the automakers want - and what California, for example, already requires.
The car companies are calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to require California-type sulfur standards for gasoline nationwide, something the oil companies say will unfairly increase the price of gasoline even where the air is clean.
"Two industries that are both responsible for the pollution problem are pointing their fingers at one another," says Jason Mark, an environmental and transportation specialist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. rcoIn the coming months, the EPA will begin to unveil its plans for both cleaner-burning gasoline and au round of tailpipe emission reductions. These will be required to go into effect by 2004. | <urn:uuid:a92fb51f-1d9f-4ad2-9e2d-443342a18dcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lubbockonline.com/stories/98/032198/LA0604.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944068 | 352 | 2.4375 | 2 |
“One of the qualifications for being President of the United States ought to be caricaturability. Obama, the Bushes, Clinton, Reagan: All were wonderfully suited to being drawn comically. And in that respect (if not any other), Mitt Romney is more than up to the job. A couple of heavy eyebrows, a black pompadour with greying temples, and a geometric chin, and you can take the rest of the day off.” — Barry Blitt, on this week’s New Yorker cover
“I like the idea of the Olympics because it’s such an international event,” says Frank Viva à propos of his cover for this week’s New Yorker. He continues: “And I like the contrast between the acrobatic delicacy of the tiny gymnasts and the bulkiness of the gigantic weightlifters. There’s a kind of hopefulness around the Olympics—that you can fiercely compete and still be civilized.”
“In Good Health” - this week’s New Yorker cover, by Bob Staake
— “Soda Noir,” this week’s New Yorker cover by Owen Smith (read more here)
“If you had told me when I began that I would have my work on a museum wall, I would have thought, ‘What’s happened to civilization?’ ” says Daniel Clowes, the artist behind this week’s Science Fiction Issue cover, “Crashing the Gate.” A retrospective of Clowes’s work is on view at the Oakland Museum of California.
“It feels like I snuck in a museum through a side door somehow. For all the painters and sculptors I went to art school with, to slip into a museum through comics might seem very clever and dishonest.” He laughs. “But now that I’m at the top, I can only go down. it’s hard not to feel like, ‘They gave me my retirement party.’ A big career retrospective seems like a thing you should only get when you’re seventy-five or so.”
A 1944 cartoon by R. Taylor from the New Yorker archives
The more things change….
From the New Yorker archives - a 1939 cartoon by the wonderful and little-remembered cartoonist R. Taylor
From the New Yorker archives - a 1938 cartoon by the wonderful (and little-remembered) cartoonist R. Taylor, who worked at the magazine from 1935 to 1967
“I was walking my dog in the park, thinking about graduation—just that whole notion of a big crowd of people all faced with the same situation, all these graduates going out in the world now, at the same time,” says Mark Ulriksen, the artist behind “Adrift.” “And I was thinking, ‘What other kinds of big crowds do you see getting together all with the same purpose?’ Penguins. And they’re adrift, just like these kids.”
Read more on The New Yorker’s Culture Desk Blog
“Since I draw more or less like a robot, it’s good to have something human to inspire me every once in a while. While I dutifully admire the manly, punchy gags of Peter Arno and Charles Addams, the “old school” New Yorker cover artists I think most about are actually all women. Ilonka Karasz’s bucolic diorama-like vistas and the unapologetic warm sentiment of Edna Eicke stir up fond memories of childhood with a tactile power truly unusual for drawings intended only for print.” — Chris Ware, on the New Yorker covers that inspire him.
See the covers in question on the New Yorker’s culture desk blog
This week’s New Yorker Cover: “Tag Sale” by Peter de Sève | <urn:uuid:d9484b86-7cb3-4588-b325-0b51ebbbb36c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blowncovers.com/tagged/New%20Yorker | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947516 | 841 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, December 11, 2006
The yuppie flu. A hypochondriac's excuse. A drain on the Social Security disability system.
Chronic fatigue syndrome has been called a lot of things the past 20 years. Mostly, it has been a stepchild of an illness, maligned or misdiagnosed by doctors, pooh-poohed by employers and neglected by drug makers.
That is beginning to change. The federal government last month launched its first awareness campaign about CFS. The cause is bolstered with new research and millions in additional funds dedicated toward finding a cause and possible cure.
"This isn't hooey," said Dr. William Reeves, chief of the chronic viral diseases branch at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This illness ... was thought to be a bunch of upper-class, yuppie, white women who were whiners. But there is a substantial body of solid, scientific literature accumulating."
Although symptoms can vary among CFS sufferers, their illness is typically marked by aches, fatigue, memory loss and confusion, and insomnia or unsatisfying sleep.
In the parking lot of a Mercy medical building after the annual CFS support group holiday potluck, the impact of the illness was evident. As members prepared to leave, one lay prostrate in her van sound asleep, trying to muster the energy for the drive home less than 10 miles away.
Although adrenaline fuels the spirit of the group on this occasion, members describe an illness that disrupts every aspect of their lives.
"A few days ago, I felt like I had a 100-pound anvil inside me," said Suzy Parker, a former ranch hand and horse trainer from Auburn now relying on disability benefits. "We miss the mingle of a work world. This party is the highlight of my social life."
"When I wake up, I feel like I've been running a marathon," added Jennifer Cox, 29, of West Sacramento. "I feel like Jacob Marley, like I've been carrying chains all my life."
Although researchers have not pinpointed a single cause for chronic fatigue syndrome, they know that at least 1 million Americans have the illness, and that it affects men, women and to some extent children -- regardless of race, ethnicity or economic status.
"Someone who has CFS is as disabled as someone with muscular sclerosis, someone with AIDS or end-stage renal disease," said Reeves, of the CDC. "The others will die from their diseases, but those with CFS are no less disabled."
No blood test or X-ray can detect chronic fatigue, but documented changes in the brain structure, immune system, central nervous system and genetic makeup of CFS patients provide potent clues for unraveling its mysteries.
Those afflicted with CFS are relieved to see that the medical establishment is beginning to believe that their suffering -- long thought to be imagined -- is real.
"We, as people who are at the bottom of the food chain, are at their mercy," said Roseville resident Mike Riley, who has CFS. "But it's probably the most seriously the federal government has ever taken the disease."
Health officials in the United States first took interest in the condition in 1985, after a cluster of people in Lake Tahoe's Incline Village came down with a mysterious illness that featured headaches, sore throats and prolonged fatigue.
Similar outbreaks were reported, including one in Raleigh, N.C., about the same time.
"The entire North Carolina symphony came down with a flu-like illness and several members never recovered from it," said Dr. Charles Lapp, who runs the Hunter Hopkins Center in Charlotte, a CFS clinic, and sits on the federal CFS advisory committee.
Although mononucleosis was suspected, research determined that the virus that causes mononucleosis, Epstein-Barr, was not the sole cause for the patients' long illnesses.
The CDC officially named the malady "chronic fatigue syndrome" in 1988. But the name would be little help to those affected, who continue to suffer in the absence of adequate medical care and lingering skepticism.
Frustrated by the general lack of empathy, people with chronic fatigue often resort to doing their own research on the Internet, and those desperate enough seek unproven therapies.
"I've been fired by doctors," said Arlene Rubb, a 58-year-old Rocklin woman who believes her illness was triggered by an aerobics class and made worse after a car accident in 1982. "We are too hard to treat. We don't fit in a box."
A former hiker who ran a group home and worked as a bookkeeper, Rubb is now disabled. She takes nine medications, including morphine for pain and a stimulant for energy during the day. She requires oxygen while she sleeps, which she does in a reclining chair in her living room.
Rubb has lost a lot of mobility and has limited stores of energy. She can barely walk the 50 yards between her home and mailbox. She gets exhausted just talking on the telephone; her neck muscles are so weak that her head hangs down, her chin resting on her chest.
She said she could not manage without the help of her husband of nearly 30 years, Rick Rubb, and others who shuttle her to doctor appointments and pharmacies.
"It's humiliating," she said of the debilitation which, over the years, dashed her dreams of a college education and weighed on her relationships with friends and family.
"I was always a very independent person, and I have reached the height of dependence."
Like most people with CFS, Rubb suffers mentally, too.
"I always had a good memory," she said. "I never had to study in school. Now, I won't drive at certain times. I get lost sometimes, right here in Rocklin."
Dr. Frederick Herman is a Granite Bay physician whose practice welcomed many CFS sufferers before a diving accident forced him to retire his license in early 2005. He said his own battle with fibromyalgia, a related illness, helped him understand patients such as Rubb.
"Physicians are always frustrated by illnesses they can't immediately cure," he said. "If you have an ear infection, an ingrown toenail or pneumonia, you can fix that and go on. You are never trained to just treat symptoms and be a comfort to the patient."
Part of the CDC's awareness campaign aims to change that, said Reeves, with the introduction of a CFS diagnostic tool kit and a push to get medical schools to teach the subject.
The federal government also can point to a growing body of scientific evidence to help sway physicians who still doubt the illness is real.
Dr. Anthony Komaroff, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and longtime CFS researcher, cites, for example, some genetic abnormalities in people with CFS. He said he believes the illness requires a genetically vulnerable immune system which is then triggered by certain injuries or infectious agents.
"The immune system becomes engaged in a constant, months and yearslong low-grade war against this foreign infection," he said.
Reeves said the central nervous system -- the brain and spinal cord -- clearly plays a role in chronic fatigue syndrome. He said physical or emotional stress, commonly cited as a condition preceding CFS onset, activates a part of the nervous system involved in the immune system and body's use of energy.
"Do we have a rapidly increasing idea of the pathophysiology of CFS? Yes," he said. "Do we have something amenable to a curative treatment? I am hoping, but I don't have anything now."
For Arlene Rubb and others like her, that means the daily struggle will endure, and the necessary adjustments that make life bearable will continue.
"It has changed everything," she said, but as time goes by you learn how to accept it," she said. "It's the way it is." | <urn:uuid:1e9cd3e3-326a-46f5-bdb9-145d863cf666> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cfs-facts.blogspot.com/2006/12/article-in-this-morning-paper.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976562 | 1,653 | 1.75 | 2 |
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>The information from the electronic
ballast indicates that it is meant for 2 x 32W tubes. Is this OK for 2
Are the 30 Watt tubes T8 type? You'll know by the diameter. T8's are only 1"
while T12 (older type, more common until recently) are 1.5" diameter. As
long as the tubes are T8 you should be fine. Off the top of my head I think
30W tubes are 2' T12's. You might consider getting 2 20 watt T8's (also 2')
instead. I understand they give off the same amount of light. Actually if
you are using T12's when you should be using T8's you probably won't be
getting the light you should.
>Is it possible that my
connection is wrong yet the fixture works? Does electronic ballast need
starter? (mine starters are still in the fixture)
It's possible. Follow the schematic diagram on the ballast very carefully
and you should be fine. And no, electronic ballasts do not need a starter.
I found a lot of information about electronic ballasts at
hope this helps | <urn:uuid:8e33ea6e-07e5-46bd-b085-9e5a40431106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9811/msg00741.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902811 | 264 | 1.671875 | 2 |
What is cerebral palsy?
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a term used to describe a group of disorders that cause problems with using your muscles and moving your body. Someone with cerebral palsy may also have seizures, learning problems, mental retardation, or problems with hearing, seeing, or the sense of touch.
How does it occur?
Damage to the brain before or after birth can affect the parts of the brain that control movement and posture. Most often the brain damage happens before birth. Sometimes it happens during delivery or after birth. Some possible causes of the brain damage are:
- an infection during pregnancy, such as rubella (German measles)
- abnormal development of the brain before birth because of changes (mutations) in the genes) that control brain development
- Rh incompatibility (a problem with different blood types in the mother and baby)
- severe jaundice
- bleeding in the brain
- premature birth
- a lack of oxygen at some time during pregnancy or delivery
- a brain infection, severe convulsions, or a bad head injury.
Often the cause of CP is hard to figure out and may never be known. In the past, if healthcare providers could not find another cause, they concluded that babies born with cerebral palsy had it because problems during labor caused them to not get enough oxygen during birth. However, research has shown that not many babies who experience asphyxia (a lack of oxygen) during birth grow up to have cerebral palsy. Only 5 to 10% of the babies born with cerebral palsy had problems during birth, such as asphyxia.
What are the symptoms?
CP appears in the first few years of life. CP can be mild, moderate, or severe. The symptoms differ from person to person and may change over time. Some symptoms of CP are:
- stiff muscles that are hard to move
- trouble with fine motor tasks, such as writing or cutting with scissors
- trouble walking normally
- unusual posture
- poor balance or coordination
- shaking of one or more arms and legs that cannot be controlled
- writhing movements
- grimacing or drooling
- trouble with speech
- trouble controlling the bladder and bowels.
Trouble controlling body movements is sometimes called spasticity.
How is it diagnosed?
Cerebral palsy is usually diagnosed during the first 2 years of life from the medical history, symptoms, a physical exam, and observation of the child's motor skills. If a child's symptoms are mild, it can be hard for a doctor to make a reliable diagnosis before the age of 4 or 5. There is no specific test for CP. The diagnosis is often made by ruling out other possible medical problems.
To look for a cause, scans of the brain may be done, such as:
- computed tomography (CT scan), which uses X-rays and a computer to create a picture of the brain
- magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce a picture of the brain
- ultrasound, which uses sound waves to show structures of the brain.
How is it treated?
Early and ongoing treatment can lessen the effects of CP. Treatment may include therapy, counseling, medicine, equipment aids, and educational programs.
Physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy
A very important part of treatment is therapy for movement, speech, and practical tasks. This may include physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy.
Physical therapy is used for muscle training and exercising. It helps prevent weakening of the muscles from lack of use. It also helps avoid a common and serious problem called contracture. Contracture means the muscles, ligaments, and tendons become fixed in a rigid, abnormal position. Contracture can cause problems with balance and a loss of previous abilities. Contractures can become permanent without timely physical therapy, causing a permanent loss of function, for example, a loss of arm movement or finger movement.
Braces can also help, for example, by supporting joints when the muscles aren't strong enough.
Speech therapy helps improve speaking and other activities that use the mouth, such as eating, chewing, and swallowing. Special techniques and devices such as computers can help communication with others.
Occupational therapy can allow someone with CP be more self-sufficient and independent.
Counseling is helpful for family members, caretakers, and the person with CP. It can be especially helpful for recognizing stress, frustration, depression and other emotions. It is also helpful for learning methods to cope with the emotional stress.
Your healthcare provider may prescribe medicines to treat abnormal muscle movement and help control seizures. Seizures can be dangerous depending on where they occur (for example, in a swimming pool) and untreated prolonged seizures may cause more brain damage.
Eye surgery or glasses may help with crossed eyes and vision problems. A hearing aid often helps hearing problems.
Often people with CP need help with movement and transportation. This depends on how severe the motor problems are. For example, they may need walkers, wheelchairs, or gadgets that help them get into or stay in certain positions (positioning aids).
There are special tools that help people with CP feed themselves.
Sometimes surgery is done to lengthen muscles and tendons.
If your child is 3 years old or younger, ask your provider about early intervention programs (EIPs). Many states offer EIPs for young children with CP. Some states also offer special education classes for children between the ages of 3 and 5 years who have special needs.
For older children ask about special education classes and Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Find out about any special services that may be available to you. Local schools may provide physical, occupational, or speech therapy.
How long will the effects last?
Cerebral palsy cannot be cured, but usually does not get worse over time. Treatment can help teach skills that will improve everyday life and maximize independence.
How can caregivers care for or support someone with cerebral palsy?
Be sure all medicine prescribed by the healthcare provider is taken.
Do what you can to help the person with CP overcome any barriers to learning and having a full life. You can do this by working with a support team of healthcare providers, therapists, social workers, and others.
Find out about groups that can provide more information and help.
What can be done to help prevent cerebral palsy?
Some causes of cerebral palsy may be avoided by:
- Preventing head injures. Use car safety seats when a child is riding in a car and helmets during bicycle rides.
- Treating jaundice in a newborn.
- Preventing Rh incompatibility. Rh-negative women should be given RhoGAM right after every delivery, miscarriage, or induced termination of pregnancy (abortion). Pregnant Rh-negative women should receive RhoGAM after amniocentesis, after any bleeding episodes, and during the seventh month of pregnancy.
Check with your healthcare provider about other precautions to take before or during pregnancy.
Where can I get more information?
Some resources are:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Phone: (800) 352-9424
Web site: http://www.ninds.nih.gov.
United Cerebral Palsy (UCP)
Phone: (800) 872-5827
Web site: http://www.ucp.org.
You can also check with your healthcare provider, hospital, and local agencies for the handicapped for more information.
Disclaimer: This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information provided is intended to be informative and educational and is not a replacement for professional medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.
HIA File neur4305.htm Release 13/2010 | <urn:uuid:607eda3b-4e46-4edc-af1b-8e854715c76f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.corephysicians.org/news-and-health-library/health-library/neurology/neur4305/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938206 | 1,629 | 3.5 | 4 |
God, in His sovereignty, has ordained that war be a constant reality in history. We read in the scriptures that, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory lies in the hands of the Lord." The study of war reveals the providential means God has used to decide the courses of men and nations, bringing judgment to one people, and raising up salvation for another. The history of warriors and their weapons has fascinated men for centuries and the Bible itself recounts thrilling battles and the weapons that were wielded in victory and defeat. God Himself uses military hardware in reality and in metaphor, especially mentioning the sword.
There are two sets of lectures in this CD series. The first will examine weapons and warfare in the Old testament era. Little has changed in principle since then: there are still hand-held, thrown, and fired weapons, including large engines of warfare. The use of combat and weapons terminology is common in Scripture as one would expect from the only One who is known as The God of Battle. This lecture will also examine the way of war of ancient Israel and some of the other civilizations found in the centuries before the New testament.
The subsequent lectures are a trilogy of battles that occurred in three different centuries within a few miles of each other along the border of France and Belgium: The battles of Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and The Somme in 1916. Examined for each conflict are the weapons technology of the period and the warriors at the sharp end of battle, rather than the grand strategies and political outcomes. The study includes many possible types of confrontation: infantry against cavalry, infantry against infantry, infantry against artillery, cavalry against cavalry, etc., looking at how those deadly encounters resolved themselves on that day. Perfect for individual interest, or as a history curriculum supplement. | <urn:uuid:8a1fae6d-d151-456e-87ce-74209cd7d11e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.exodusbooks.com/details.aspx?id=9078 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972582 | 367 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Mac Mini Dedicated Servers
A modern 1U x86 based server is vastly over-specified for the average web hosting application. It also uses far more power and takes up far more space in a rack than it needs to, making it costly to host. The Mac Mini's small size and low power consumption makes it an ideal hosting platform. And the good news is that it even runs Linux.
Our Mac Mini Dedicated servers are located in one of our three hosting facilities, TelecityRedbus Harbour Exchange / Sovereign House (Docklands, London) or Redstone in Cambridge.
We don't have serial consoles available on Mac Minis but we have a neat bootloader that allows us to remotely reboot any Mac Mini into our Debian based recovery mode which allows complete remote control over the machine no matter how serious the mistake made by the administrator.
Our servers are available with your choice of Debian, Ubuntu, or CentOS Linux or MacOS. Other Linux distributions available on request; please contact us if you're interested in running another operating system.
Configuration and pricing
Please see our order form for details of currently available specifications, pricing, and special offers.
More disk space ?
If you're after substantially more disk space than the Mini comes with you can locate with it an external hard disk. A 2.5inch USB disk is free of charge providing it needs no external power supply. A 3.5inch powered disk attracts an extra £10 / month, £27/quarter or £100 / year.
Other specs? Host your own Mac?
We can supply differently specified Mac Minis. Please email us for a quote. Note that since such machines must usually be ordered specially, there may be a delay before provisioning; we may also make a small up-front charge (redeemable against hosting costs). We can also offer other operating systems, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, or other flavours of Linux — please contact us for more information if you're interested.
We also offer a Mac Mini co-location service, if you'd prefer to supply your own machine.
If the Mac Mini server isn't quite powerful enough for you, you'll want to look at our dedicated 1U servers with hardware RAID. Or if you're on a tight budget, a virtual dedicated server may be right for you.
Linux on Mac — does that work?
Absolutely. Linux has been running successfully on PPC-based Macs for years. The advent of Intel-based Macs has made running Linux on a Mac even more straightforward. Mythic Beasts have provided hardware to support the development of Linux drivers for the Intel Mac Mini hardware, and have developed our own custom bootloader to make the Mini even more suitable for use in a server environment.
If you want to know how we did it, have a look at our Mac Mini Howto.
If you're interested in a dedicated Mac Mini server, please go right ahead and order one now! Or, if you have any questions at all, or would like to arrange a call from our sales team, please drop us an email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Copyright © 2000-2012 Mythic Beasts Ltd. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:85f286db-c232-4ac1-a73e-d03ef6b059e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mythic-beasts.com/macmini.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924989 | 659 | 1.5 | 2 |
IP addresses are like telephone numbers: every device on the Internet needs a unique one to be connected.
The current version of the Internet Protocol (version 4) has a 32-bit address field which allows for just over 4 billion addresses. The rapid evolution of the Internet, impossible to predict almost 40 years ago when the IP protocol was designed, highlighted its limitations and led to a quick realisation that some radical changes would be needed to allow for future growth.
IP version 6 (IPv6) is the next version of the IP protocol. This became a standard in 1998 to provide an alternative to IPv4 because the address space exhaustion was already foreseen. The IPv6 address field provides 340 undecillion (1036) addresses, or put differently, 56 billion-billion-billion addresses for every person on earth. In essence, IPv6 will not just solve the current address exhaustion problem, but will prepare us for the internet of the future in which almost every device in the home has a unique IP address.
Colt recognizes the importance of upgrading its Tier-1 Pan-European backbone to IPv6 in order to support the need of ubiquitous and pervasive Internet services. For this reason, Colt moved from “research” to “development” of IPv6 in 2010. In February 2011, a successful proof-of-concept trial was run at the IPv6 World event in Paris, and a customer beta trial commenced in June of the same year. A formal launch of basic IPv6 support as a standard product feature is expected later on in 2011, with the IPv6-enablement of the full IP product and feature set continuing throughout the rest of the year and into 2012. | <urn:uuid:9242a130-d09e-4924-b8a3-e2dbcf9eb1d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colt.net/uk/en/products-services/data-networking/next-generation-networking-en.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947965 | 343 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
FELLOWSHIP: Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP)
The Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (Borlaug LEAP) is a fellowship program, funded by USAID to enhance the quality of thesis research of graduate students from developing countries who show strong promise as leaders in the field of agriculture and related disciplines. LEAP is part of the overall Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The Borlaug LEAP Fellowship supports engaging a mentor at a Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system center to support and enhance the thesis research and mentoring experience. Awards are made on a competitive basis to students who show strong scientific and leadership potential, have a well coordinated proposal between their home university, a US university mentor, and the CGIAR mentor, and whose research is related to a strong research and support project within the host country. Emphasis is placed on work that has relevance to the national development of the student's home country.
Currently there are two limited release Request for Applications (RFAs):
- Applications are requested for sub-Saharan African students conducting research on topics related to USAID's Feed the Future: Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative. The focus region is sub-Saharan Africa. All topics related to agriculture (as defined by Title XII) and food security are admissible.
- Applications are requested for developing country students conducting research in partnership with CRSPs (Collaborative Research Support Programs). The focus region is global. All topics related to agriculture (as defined by Title XII) and CRSP priorities are admissible.
Deadline: May 18, 2011
Links to this post: | <urn:uuid:84d9825c-b5b1-430c-a489-46a1948652f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.capri.cgiar.org/2011/03/fellowship-norman-e-borlaug-leadership.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923466 | 367 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Redwood Falls, Minn. — Farmers dodged a steady rain as they viewed rows and rows of farm equipment at the annual show near Redwood Falls. Whether they can buy expensive new machinery might depend on the fall election. More than most groups, farmers see a direct connection between political issues and their financial well being.
Trade is one of the biggest. Farmers worry that too many foreign products are coming into this country, taking away markets and profits. At the same time they say too many nations prevent U.S. farmers from selling in their country.
There was a major trade development last weekend. After almost a year of talks, the World Trade Organization agreed on a framework for ending farm subsidies in all of the group's 147 nations. At Farmfest, 6th District Republican Congressman Mark Kennedy said the progress is good news for U.S. farmers.
"It agrees to eliminate all trade export enhancements, of which Europe has 70 times more than we do. Since our tariffs are already low, since we have Europe and Japan subsidizing much greater than us, this is a very positive framework for America moving forward and I hope that we can continue it," Kennedy said.
Kennedy's opponent, DFLer Patty Wetterling of St. Joseph, is well known for her work on child protection issues. Her son, Jacob, was abducted 15 years ago and has never been found. At Farmfest, Wetterling told the crowd she was there mainly to listen. She wanted to know what their concerns are. She said she favored more farm based energy production, like ethanol. On several questions, like the WTO issue, she said she needed to learn more so that she could give an informed answer.
"Like any other trade issues we have to look at the detail, as you said. I would have to hire a really good person to answer this question," she said at one point.
Seventh District Congressman Collin Peterson, a Democrat was not shy about tackling the issue. He says working through the WTO is the best way to help U.S. farmers. At Farmfest he said most trade agreements have been disasters for American agriculture. Peterson said he likes the idea of ending farm subsidies, but he says the WTO agreement is only a starting point. He wonders if the framework is strong enough to support a final settlement.
"The Europeans, and I've met with them many times, I think are going to give up their export subsidies when hell freezes over. One of the reasons that sugar has got a problem is that Europeans produce way more sugar than they need, they're paid 50 percent more than our farmers. And they dump that in the world market because we let them have an export subsidy so they could do it. They created a world market for six cents a pound. There isn't anybody in the world that can produce sugar for six cents a pound," Peterson said.
Peterson's opponent in the November election is Republican David Sturrock, a college professor from Marshall. Sturrock said the best way to reach a permanent agreement on subsidies may be through hard nosed political deal-making.
"I think there may be some high powered geo-politics at the negotiating rounds. To the extent that the United States can hook up with the Japanese, the Chinese, and have common interests against the Europeans we can force them to live up to those agreements and that's a major goal. And we need to keep an eye on that," Sturrock said.
Farm issues could play a major role in several races this year. Like the 7th District, which stretches hundreds of miles along Minnesota's western border. And the 1st, which follows I-90 across southern Minnesota. Farmers hope that whoever wins, they'll work to boost the agricultural economy. | <urn:uuid:c4fa7c03-753c-4f65-8ee9-3b0483416637> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/08/04_steilm_farmfest/ | 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 | 0.97862 | 766 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Victoria Cross
One area of life where standards certainly aren't slipping
ON MARCH 18th, Pte Johnson Beharry, an armoured-vehicle driver in the British army, who was wounded last year in Iraq, became the first soldier to win the Victoria Cross (VC), the nation's top gong for gallantry, in 23 years. As an advertisement for equal opportunities, it was a masterstroke. Mr Beharry is black and grew up poor on the Caribbean island of Grenada. As a morale-booster, moreover, to an army bruised by recent scandals, including abuses against detainees in Iraq and recruits at home, the award seemed conspicuously timely. No doubt the government, struggling to shake off its critics over Iraq, was also pleased. Yet conspiracy theories are out of place.
As evidence that politics played no part in Mr Beharry's decoration, consider first his valour. As insurgency raged across southern Iraq last May, Mr Beharry's patrol was ambushed, and several of its members wounded. With his vehicle aflame, Mr Beharry drove through a barricade, then carried the wounded to safety. Less obviously, consider the history of the medal, which suggests it has become both increasingly apolitical and difficult to win.
Soldiers have always been cynical about medals, and rightly so. After the Crimean war, when the first VCs were struck, Queen Victoria herself handed out 62. In another bloody and politically-damaging fight, the Indian Mutiny, 24 were won in a single day. In the last century, the VC was the only medal for gallantry that could be given posthumously. This was partly a legacy of the first world war, when living heroes were often hard to find. Unusually, the VC has always been available to all ranks and hues—to Germans, to Gambians and, in the second world war, to Malta.
Since then, the VC has seldom been given. Mr Beharry is the first living recipient since two Australians who fought in Vietnam won it. The award's criteria have been rigidly observed. The recipient must have shown near-insane bravery when to do otherwise would have earned no rebuke. His daring must have been witnessed by three comrades—which counted against a member of the Special Air Service put up for the VC after the Falklands war by the Argentinians who killed him.
British top brass reckon that for every VC given, 25 deserving cases are overlooked. “If you're still alive, you don't deserve it,” soldiers say of the medal. Not that Mr Beharry should expect cruel jibes from a grateful army. When he has recovered from headwounds received in a second ambush in Iraq, Mr Beharry says he wants to be sent to Afghanistan. That can probably be arranged. | <urn:uuid:a3de373c-acd1-4e94-8270-f41e2c8b1cdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/3789260 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983153 | 574 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Which Is the Most Educated Country in the World?
October 2, 2012
The U.S. does not boast the most educated population according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Education at a Glance 2012 report.
4. United States
5. New Zealand
6. South Korea
7. United Kingdom
Not surprisingly, the report found a correlation between the money spent on education and that country's educated population. Not only that, unemployment was much less for the educated adults than the adults without a college degree.
But I'm surprised that Israel and Japan beat the U.S. Does that surprise you, too? Comment here .
Melissa Taylor is a freelance writer, an award-winning educational blogger at ImaginationSoup, an award-winning teacher with a M.A. in Education, and a mom of two children, ages 6 and 9. Follow Taylor on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
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Join Mom Congress on Facebook for updates on the 2012 Mom Congress conference, breaking education news, advocacy resources, and exclusive offers. | <urn:uuid:16cdf725-b9ff-4cb9-8117-6929166ae6d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parenting.com/blogs/mom-congress/melissa-taylor/which-most-educated-country-world?con=blog&loc=topnext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927094 | 239 | 2.296875 | 2 |
“Maliyah, step away from the mouse!” called Ashley Gavin, a software engineer at the MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and instructor at the Girls Who Code summer program. Maliyah Greene, the recipient of Ms. Gavin’s reprimand, reluctantly tore herself away from Photoshop to come and talk to Betabeat. We were sitting in AppNexus’s Flatiron office, watching her fellow Girls Who Code students work on virtually tagging brick walls with their names. “It’s not as hard as I thought it would be,” Ms. Greene smiled.
She is one of 20 high school girls who gave up summer vacation to learn about app development, robotics, web design and other topics at Girls Who Code, a summer computer-engineering program for girls.
Though this is its first summer in existence, Girls Who Code already boasts executives from Gilt Groupe, Twitter and General Electric on its board and has been working with AppNexus and other New York startups throughout the summer. Read More | <urn:uuid:a63d5c71-228b-491e-a869-cec17f0d8dc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://betabeat.com/tag/codenow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956357 | 216 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Education and defense would be among the biggest losers in Maine in automatic cuts to the federal budget set to take hold this week, according to a report that the White House issued Sunday as it seeks to avoid the impending economic fallout.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King have called on President Barack Obama to work with congressional leaders to reach an agreement to prevent the cuts and reduce the national debt, citing a major contributor to Maine's economy.
"Failure to avert such an outcome could have severe ramifications for our nation's shipbuilding industrial base, including Bath Iron Works in Maine, the nation's premier shipbuilder and employer of more than 5,000 workers," the senators wrote in a letter last week.
The White House compiled the numbers from federal agencies and its own budget office. The numbers reflect the impact of the cuts this year. Unless Congress acts by Friday, $85 billion in cuts are set to take effect from March to September.
As to whether states could move money around to cover shortfalls, the White House said that depends on state budget structures and the specific programs. The White House did not have a list of which states or programs might have flexibility.
According to the White House, Maine would lose:
- About $2.7 million in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 40 teacher and aide jobs at risk.
- About $2.6 million for about 30 teachers, aides and staff who help children with disabilities.
- Head Start and Early Head Start services would be eliminated for about 300 children.
- About $127,000 to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological events.
- About $330,000 to help prevent and treat substance abuse.
- About $51,000 for vaccinations, leaving 740 children without vaccines for diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, whooping cough, influenza and Hepatitis B.
- 7,000 civilian Department of Defense workers would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by around $41.7 million.
- $7.7 million cut from Army base operation funding.
- About $1.4 million to ensure clean water and air quality and to prevent pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste.
- About $496,000 for fish and wildlife protection.
- About $67,000 for law enforcement, prosecution and courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.
- About $197,000 to provide meals for seniors. | <urn:uuid:4d1efe29-03d6-49de-919b-fb7566402e7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine-nation/2013/02/24/how-budget-cuts-could-affect-maine/1325550 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940808 | 533 | 2.125 | 2 |
.5 million people need humanitarian assistance. the international medical humanitarian organization, doctors without borders, says in one city alone there are tens of thousands of people, many of them wounded, trapped by the intense fighting in deir ezzor. a coordinate we are doctors without borders joins me from luzon, switzerland. i know you weren't able to get into the city during your trip. but how close did you get and what did you see? >> well, we have been able to get to the outskirts of the city and discuss with different medical associations and medical personnel to get an idea of the situation within the city. >> what do they need? i know you guys are in every tough place in the world, you are there with the sold yes, with the fighters, with the reporters. what do they need in this particular city, deir azzour? >> inside deir azzour, they are in great need of replacing the doctor there for months now, working around the clock. and four doctors in a field hospital inside the city where they have to serve a population of between 10 and 30,000 people. and they need, of course, supply. | <urn:uuid:ba0420e9-7b98-4336-bab9-97a533f852a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.org/details/tv?time=201212&q=an%20international%20city&fq=lang:%22eng%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977276 | 239 | 1.703125 | 2 |
- Featured Stories
- Douglas County
- City of Ava
- General Interest
Another glorious Lord’s Day. We had a great Sunday School lesson, followed by special songs by Branetta McNese, their Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Lola Mayberry and Brother Gary Martin. We then went into the morning worship service. Our morning message was based on II Timothy 2:19, “The Foundation Of God Standeth Sure.” The title of the message was “An Unshaken God.” We live in a world of strife, anguish and uncertainty, but we don’t have to be uncertain. God is steadfast in all his ways, unchanging and sure, and we are safe placing our trust in Him.
Our evening started off with choir practice and then our evening worship service. The evening message was, “The We Folk of God”. To find out how it all came together, look up Hebrews 4: 15-16.
By the way, we still have a seat reserved for you, so come on, be our guest; if you come next Sunday, remember to set your clock ahead before you go to bed Saturday night, or you might be late. | <urn:uuid:a41511f7-d670-400d-b29f-ecbd96978eb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://douglascountyherald.com/2012/03/12/oak-grove-church-53/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943038 | 252 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Dipsa from the Greek meaning thirst(y) and sauros meaning lizard. The name dorsalis is presumably in reference to the its well-defined dorsal crest.
The Desert Iguana is a large, light colored lizard with a long tail. Its snout-vent length can measure almost six inches, and its tail nearly 1 1/2 times longer. It has a small, rounded head with large ear openings, and sturdy legs.
Broad dorsal bands span its light cream colored body, and eventually become rings around its tail. Narrow, longitudinal stripes overlay the dark bands, especially in the central and posterior dorsal areas. The bands and stripes occur in various shades of brown and gray. The dorsal scales are keeled, and become slightly larger down the center of the back. This forms a well-defined crest that extends along the back and diminishes down the length of the tail.
Range and Habitat
The Desert Iguana ranges from the Mojave Desert regions of east-central California and southern Nevada to western Arizona and through the desert regions of the Baja California peninsula, Sonora, and Sinaloa in Mexico.
This lizard lives in the expansive sandy flats and hummocks characteristic of the creosote woodlands of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The creosote bush provides food, shelter, and kangaroo rat burrowing sites that are readily used by Desert Iguanas to escape predation and extreme heat.
Behavior: The Desert Iguana tolerates extreme heat better than other desert lizards, and is often seen perching on prominent spots such as large rocks or sand mounds.
Diet: Desert Iguanas are considered vegetarians, but have been observed eating insects and, in captivity, will eat mealworms when offered. They're particularly attracted to yellow flowers such as those found on creosote bushes where they climb among the branches in their quest for food.
Breeding: Little is known about their reproductive cycle, though it's believed that mating occurs during April and May. Three to eight eggs are laid midsummer, and hatchlings begin to appear in September.
There have been no proposed conservation plans. Problems may exist only where their habitats have been damaged or destroyed. | <urn:uuid:842d3064-d157-4fcb-b3f0-802126258037> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sdnhm.org/archive/fieldguide/herps/dips-dor.html | 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 | 0.944332 | 457 | 3.78125 | 4 |
[en] The measurement of biomarkers that reflect cartilage breakdown is a powerful tool for investigating joint damage caused by disease or injury. Particularly in cases of osteochondrosis, synovial concentrations of these biomarkers may reveal the presence of osteoarthritic changes. Coll2-1, Coll2-1 NO2 and myeloperoxidase have recently been introduced in equine osteoarticular research but comparison between the concentrations of these markers in OCD affected and healthy joints has not been made. Therefore, this study aimed at reporting the synovial concentrations of these biomarkers in joints affected with osteochondral fragments in the tarsocrural joint compared to unaffected joints. Myeloperoxidase and Coll2-1NO2 revealed to have similar levels between affected joints and controls. However, in contrast to previous studies using C2C the present study demonstrated that synovial levels of Coll2-1 were significantly elevated in tarsocrural joints affected with osteochondrosis. Thus, Coll2-1 may be an earlier marker of cartilage degeneration than other cartilage degradation markers that have been previously used in equine medicine. | <urn:uuid:08fbfb64-6bcb-4611-a0e9-8655b94e8e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/handle/2268/103475 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943591 | 235 | 1.867188 | 2 |
The Australian author Clive Hamilton’s recently published a book-length analysis of the roots of resistance to the truth about climate change, and why this makes it harder to do anything about it. It is a pretty convincing look at the reasons for denial. But Hamilton’s sobering essay is marked by one key miscalculation, its title.
He calls it Requiem for a Species. That is a misjudgement not because it is over the top (though it is) but because, it seems, some of us quite like the idea. The extinction of Homo sapiens is a gloomy prospect, on the face of it. Yet there is plenty of evidence just now of its appeal.
The end of all things, or just of all humans, in a flaming finis, is a fictional staple with recognisable roots in myth and religion. But the titillation of extinction is not quite the same thing as apocalypse as entertainment. I have in mind stories in a rather different mood, in which the end is, usually, more gradual. The long fade allows a few protagonists to stay around and animate the story, but this is a distraction from the main interest, which is depicting what the world would be like if we went away.
This tradition of, if you like, Last Man novels (Mary Shelley’s being the first notable example) is epitomised by George R Stewart’s great science fiction tale from the 1940s, whose titles evokes just the mood I am trying to pin down: Earth Abides. Strictly, it is not about extinction, but about the removal of civilization by a disease which does for the vast majority of humanity. But what stays in the mind are the elegiac descriptions of what happens to the world with hardly any people in it, related from the point of view of the ecologist who is the main witness of what follows.
This ambiguous mood, a kind of dark euphoria to borrow a phrase from the futurist Bruce Sterling, is also found in, for instance, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, where there are some people left but it is pretty clear their days are numbered. And it animates the attention-grabbing thought experiment of Alan Weisman’s (sort of ) non-fiction book of 2007, The World Without Us. As one reviewer put it, Weisman’s book is a kind of pop-science ghost story, in which the haunted house is the Earth. The same idea was explored soon after in a two-hour documentary for the History Channel in the US, Life After People.
All these stories fascinate. And those who try and stir us to action by warning of the danger of extinction, or near-extinction – as when Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner asserts there is “no hope for humans” or James Lovelock envisages humanity reduced to “a few breeding pairs” by extreme climate change – need to consider that some may embrace the vision they want us to react against. But what, exactly, is the appeal?
The most recent depictions of Earth after human extinction tend toward the Edenic. The moral of such tales appears to be that an intelligent, upright primate that uses technology to reshape its environment is an unwelcome intrusion in a natural world that would get on much better without us.
But this contemporary twist, understandable at a time when anxiety about human-induced global change is high and we are shamefaced but mostly passive witnesses to the end of innumerable other species, is a variant of an older story. That is still modern, I think – no need to go back to Ecclesiastes, or even Mary Shelley. It begins with the Victorians, and with Charles Darwin.
There were two great blows to Victorians’ belief in progress and the pointfulness of life. One was the second law of thermodynamics, put forward by Sir William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) in 1852. Its inescapable implication was that the universe would move gradually toward “heat death”, becoming old, cold and inhospitable to life. Although this dispiriting prospect was unimaginably far off, it still set a cosmic limit to progress.
Within a decade of Thompson’s unwelcome announcement Darwin put extinction in a new light in The Origin of Species. Fossils had already shown that there were creatures roaming the Earth in the past which no longer exist. Darwin made their disappearance a cornerstone of his work. Evolution by natural selection, biology’s grand unified theory, is an essentially tragic framing of the story of life. Although Darwin himself figured evolution as progressive, on occasion, others were quick to point out that it ain’t necessarily so. At best, it is a theory of creative destruction. New species supplant old ones, and the price of their appearance is extinction. Speciation can occur simply via expansion into a new niche. But equally often success of one type is at the expense of some competitor. In time, now estimated at around ten million years on average, new species become extinct in their turn. Some go on far longer than this, but overall simply disappearing is a constant possibility.
This was not an immediate threat to human hopes, but was certainly closer to home than the heat death of the universe. Darwin’s most eloquent disciple, Thomas Huxley, put the point forcefully in his classic lecture on Evolution and Ethics in 1893. There, he described human existence as precarious in a way which combined the thermodynamic and evolutionary hazards: “nature is always tending to reclaim that which her child, man, has borrowed from her and arranged in combinations which are not those favoured by the general cosmic process.”
One of Huxley’s students, H. G. Wells, showed what this meant a few years later in his great evolutionary fable The Time Machine. The most striking scenes today are not the battles between the degenerate future Morlocks and Eloi, but the glimpses of the far future of Earth which the time traveller explores when he escapes from their era. In ten intense paragraphs Wells offers snapshots of a desolate world, populated first by monstrous crab-like creatures wading through algal slime, then flashing forward to a time when even they have vanished and all that is left on an otherwise deserted beach are lichen and liverworts and “a round thing, the size of a football perhaps, or, it may be, bigger, and tentacles trailed down from it; it seemed black against the weltering blood-red water, and it was hopping fitfully about”.
It is an unforgettable vision, dark and peculiarly enjoyable. Is that because it shows the ultimate futility of it all? Maybe. There can be relief in the idea that there will be an end to human striving. But there is also comfort in imagining things going on after us. That has led to many more such visions, whether of worlds where we are simply absent, or have been succeeded by creatures no longer recognisable as human. To take just one example, consider Kurt Vonnegut’s great Galapagos, another evolutionary fable shot through with his trademark black humour and featuring an aquatic species, descended from a remnant of humanity that escaped a global plague, happily bereft of higher intelligence.
Whatever the details, all these variations on extinction have one thing in common. They play on the thing we all have to try and imagine, hard as it may be: how the world will carry on after our own death. But they expand it to a larger vision of the future, in which there is a time after the death of our species. Good or bad, imagining human extinction partakes of a particular, bittersweet quality which needs a name – post-Darwinian tristesse seem to fit. | <urn:uuid:2c7b6362-c0a2-4ed5-9d7b-fb52db42db00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unreliablefutures.wordpress.com/tag/charles-darwin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959162 | 1,602 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Warning: It appears that a worm has hit Twitter-the tweet will say “Best Video” with a link to “http://juste.ru.” If you see this in a tweet, do not click on the link. It’s unclear exactly how the worm is spreading. But from the look of Tweets about the virus, if you click on the link, you account could be compromised and spammed.
According to reports on Twitter, users who clicked the juste.ru video link had their account compromised and passwords stolen. Further details about the virus are limited but Twitter’s official spam account was updated this morning stating that Twitter is aware of the issue and making steps to resolve the virus. The Tweet also warned users to not click the Best Video link.
This isn’t the first worm to hit Twitter. In early April, Twitter’s service was infected with a worm that appeared to have originated from the owners of the website StalkDaily. This week, Twitter was hit with a “Twittercut” worm, which also compromised users’ accounts if they clicked on a link.
UPDATE: Twitter has posted the following update to its status page stating that the site is aware of the virus:
No matter how good that “best video” looks, don’t go to any juste.ru domains. We’re aware of the situation and are working on it.
UPDATE 2: Twitter has also noted that they’ve temporarily suspended some legit accounts to clean up the spam. Again, this is just temporary for the real accounts that were spreading the worm. | <urn:uuid:01caf6e3-090b-4d72-8e13-f19fa46dce49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/30/new-twitter-virus-best-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948062 | 339 | 1.585938 | 2 |
'In Balanchine's Company: A Dancer's Memoir'
by Barbara Milberg Fisher
book review by Leland Windreich
July, 2005 -- Place
Every new book about George Balanchine adds a new and fresh perspective concerning the personality and creative processes of the great American ballet master. In telling her own story as a dancer, Barbara Fisher shows how thoroughly linked her life was to the sphere he inhabited and how important his presence was to those who worked with him.
As Barbara Milberg, the author was the daughter of a Brooklyn dentist, and her Russian-Jewish immigrant parents favored a more practical career as a physical education instructor for her. She was given piano lessons and excelled in performance; but her innate hyperactivity led her to a local ballet teacher named Miss Selma, who, on retirement in Barbara’s second year of training, suggested that the child continue her study at the School of American Ballet in Manhattan. In time she was taking nine lessons a week, ultimately becoming a charter member of Balanchine’s Ballet Society in 1946, a few months short of her fifteenth birthday.
Milberg worked in Balanchine’s company for twelve years, during which time it emerged as the New York City Ballet, toured the United States and Europe, and became one of the great ballet establishments in the world. She ultimately achieved the rank of soloist and would inherit a few plum roles. What mattered to her was the opportunity to be involved with the organization during its genesis and in an intense period of creativity. Her recall of the making of such masterpieces as “The Four Temperaments” and “Agon” (she danced in the first pas de trios at the premiere) is vivid and exacting, her own musicianship giving her another dimension for appreciation.
It was the love of music and knowledge of its literature that provided Milberg with a closeness to her mentor. Balanchine loved to talk about his favorite subjects, and she was an eager conversationalist. Confident, somewhat aggressive, she was not awed by Balanchine’s position of authority in the company. In one circumstance when the ballet was on tour in Europe and had suffered a demoralizing season in Paris, she asked Balanchine for a private audience with him, one in which she managed to convince him that what the company needed most was a pep-talk from their usually reticent director.
She tells of the generosity and consideration of the Balanchine management, who provided first-class Atlantic flights for the dancers and full staff, decent accommodations in the better hotels, and the best theatres for performances, even in times when funding was testy. On the road, the NYCB dancers rarely had to contend with one-night stands, and their wages were always paid on time. As a tourist in foreign lands, Milberg absorbed impressions of the host countries like a sponge and shares them vividly with her readers
Present at the time of tragedy when Balanchine’s fourth wife, Tanaquil Leclercq, was stricken with polio during an engagement in Denmark, the author reveals for perhaps the first time the impact felt by the entire company and the devastating effect on Balanchine. Suddenly rendered inactive as a director as he took on the exigencies of attending to his stricken wife, he was obliged to abandon his ballet family in the midst of a tour. The dedicated dancers rallied, continuing their assignment with the kind of courage that their mentor inspired.
Milberg’s career as a performer after the Balanchine years involved tours with Jerome Robbins’ Ballets U.S.A., and she accounts for her experiences in a different milieu with her usual insight and wit. From her career as a dancer she moved on to the study of English literature and is currently professor emeritus at the City College of New York.
To this day, the influence of her mentor Balanchine is omnipresent, and her appreciation of a remarkable association is evident in every page in this delightful book.
Wesleyan University Press, 2006. 211 pp. Illus. ISBN: 978-0-8195-6807-6. $24.95.
Read related stories in the press and see what others are saying. Click here. | <urn:uuid:6b4ce0ff-2ef2-424d-891e-84b2d2fdc5f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ballet-dance.com/200612/articles/Balanchine200612.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978808 | 888 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Date of this Version
Procedia in Vaccinology 5 (2011) 60 – 83; doi:10.1016/j.provac.2011.10.005
NICEATM and ICCVAM convened an international workshop to review the state of the science of human and veterinary vaccine potency and safety testing methods and to identify opportunities to advance new and improved methods that can further reduce, refine, and replace animal use. Six topics were addressed in detail by speakers and workshop participants and are reported in a series of six reports. This workshop report, the second in the series, provides recommendations for current and future use of nonanimal methods and strategies for veterinary vaccine potency testing. Workshop participants recommended that future efforts to replace animal use give priority to vaccines (1) that use large numbers of animals per test and for which many serials are produced annually, (2) that involve significant animal pain and distress during procedures, (3) for which the functional protective antigen has been identified, (4) that involve foreign animal/zoonotic organisms that are dangerous to humans, and (5) that involve pathogens that can be easily spread to wildlife populations. Vaccines identified as the highest priorities were those for rabies, Leptospira spp., Clostridium spp., Erysipelas, foreign animal diseases (FAD), poultry diseases, and fish diseases. Further research on the identification, purification, and characterization of vaccine protective antigens in veterinary vaccines was also identified as a priority. Workshop participants recommended priority research, development, and validation activities to address critical knowledge and data gaps, including opportunities to apply new science and technology. Recommendations included (1) investigations into the relative impact of various adjuvants on antigen quantification assays, (2) investigations into extraction methods that could be used for vaccines containing adjuvants that can interfere with antigen assays, and (3) review of the current status of rabies and tetanus human vaccine in vitro potency methods for their potential application to the corresponding veterinary vaccines. Workshop participants recommended enhanced international harmonization and cooperation and closer collaborations between human and veterinary researchers to expedite progress. Implementation of the workshop recommendations is expected to advance alternative in vitro methods for veterinary vaccine potency testing that will benefit animal welfare and replace animal use while ensuring continued protection of human and animal health. | <urn:uuid:8eabfd13-4e5e-4878-92f7-a12533cd999e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdaarsfacpub/1107/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913961 | 472 | 2.5 | 2 |
Capitalism and the Cultural Process
D Sudipta Kaviraj
Sudipta Kaviraj having studied at Calcutta University now teaches at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University/ Delhi. His current research spans the area of political theory', study of the Indian state, and the politics of culture. He has just completed a long study on Bankimchandra Chatto-padhyay in the context of Indian nationalism and the manuscript titled, 'The Unhappy Consciousness' is due for publication. This work, completed during his Fellowship at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi (1987-89), has been circulated in five parts in Nehru Museum's Occasional Papers Series;
the chapter titled 'Signs of Madness: The Figure ofKa-
malakanta in the V^ork of Bankimchandra Chatto-padhyay' has been published in the Journal of Arts and Ideas Nos. 17-18, June 1989.
His current work on the Indian state has been presented in parts in seminars in Leningrad, Berlin and Delhi. 'A Critiaue of the Passive Revolution', a part of the argument from this forthcoming book, has been published in the 1988 Annual Number of the Economic and Political Weekly.
Sudipta ^aviraj is also beginning work on a projected book, 'The Jjogic of Otherness in Social Theory', which will incorporate his work on Marx and Weber.
What I am going to present to you is in a rather radical state of disjointedness, and though I got some time to put it into some order I decided not to do that. A logician had once remarked that there is nothing sadder than a syllogism — because it can go only in one direction and come to only one conclusion.
There's also a second reason why this is disjointed — I want it to be part of an argument which will be put into a book on the Indian state. And I found that while making a marxi^t argument about the nature of the ruling coalition and the line of the economic crisis is simpler, the making of a marxist argument about a line of cultural crisis is analytically much more difficult. I would be delighted if you come back to it and give me comments on it, particularly those parts of the theoretical argument you consider weak.
There are two ways in which I think we can approach the question I'm trying to address. One way of putting it in a long-term frame would be to ask: acknowledge that as marxists, or liberals, when we try to understand the destiny or the trajectory of capitalism in this country, we have to go through a whole lot of myths which we are bred into. And whether we are economists or analysts of culture we see very quickly that some of these myths come apart the moment we try to apply them to India. So one way of looking at this question would be, why doesn't the trajectory of capitalism that we are familiar with get replicated here?
But there is also another way of posing the problem. In this, in spite of the desultoriness of what I am going to do, there will be three parts: in the first part I will try to make some theoretical propositions, out of which I will try to weave some sort of a model; in the second, | <urn:uuid:a6860b4e-33d4-4340-9a17-d2b72bf72e6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/artsandideas/text.html?objectid=HN681.S597_19_063.gif | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962178 | 697 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Check yourself before you wreck yourself
"The popular value of ________ creativity and autonomy as high priorities must give way to a willingness to follow certain carefully prescribed ________ practices."
Replace the first blank with the word "doctor," the second with the word "medical," and you've constructed a commonsense sentence that will garner nods of agreement. Replace the first with "teacher" and the second with "instructional," however, and you've got on your hands a 40-year-old dogfight.
The above sentence is originally found--with the words "teacher" and "instructional"--on the Direct Instruction website. One also finds out on the website "that 32 of 34 qualifying studies demonstrated a positive effect of Direct Instruction on student achievement" and that the practice, which provides teachers with scripted classroom-lessons, is effective in improving academic performance in a bevy of subjects and has a positive effect on students' social skills.
Yet, despite the reams of data showing Direct Instruction's effectiveness, the approach remains controversial, in large part because of educators who find its methods stultifying. The practice is being attacked nationally and locally. After administrators in Providence began this year using Direct Instruction in seven of the city's lowest performing elementary schools, Roger Eldridge, a dean at Rhode Island's Feinstein School of Education, told the Providence Journal that teachers would be "jumping through hoops." Others lamented that teachers would lose their ability to be creative in the classroom.
But when doctors use specific, scripted methods, nobody suggests they are "jumping through hoops" or despairs because surgeons can't be "creative" in the OR. It's worth asking: Why do we want our public-school teachers to be "creative"?
Medical training is scientifically-based and prizes results over creativity. Would that this were so in education. A 2006 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality found that, out of 72 randomly selected education schools, only 11 taught all elements of the science of reading. The report's authors wrote, "The decision about how best to teach reading is repeatedly cast as a personal one, to be decided by the aspiring teacher." Reid Lyon, former chief of child development at the National Institutes of Health, has compared such teacher-centered practices to child neglect.
It is foolish to believe that big-hearted 22-year-olds will know, intrinsically, the best way to teach reading to a class of second graders, just as it is foolish to think that newly minted doctors can on their own derive the best way for treating a particular pathology. Surely, though, veteran teachers can teach without rigid, Direct Instruction curricula? Not necessarily. A comparison to the medical profession suggests that even the most grizzled teachers (and their students) may benefit greatly from scripted procedures.
In the December 10th New Yorker, Atul Gawande writes about the intensive care units of hospitals, which specialize in saving people whose bodies have undergone seemingly untreatable damage. But it isn't easy. A study by Israeli scientists found, Gawande writes, "that the average [I.C.U.] patient required 178 individual actions per day, ranging from administering a drug to suctioning the lungs, and every one of them posed risks." And although the nurses and doctors in the study erred in just one percent of those 178 actions, in such critical situations, even the smallest mistakes can have disastrous consequences.
In 2001, Peter Provonost, a critical-care specialist at Johns Hopkins, decided to try making a basic procedural checklist for I.C.U. doctors. His first list was focused on tackling one problem, line infections, which are common in the I.C.U. and can be deadly. Provonost hypothesized that he could curtail such infections by concentrating on simple practices--washing hands, cleaning the patient's skin, etc.--that might easily be overlooked in hectic I.C.U. environments. He convinced the hospital administration to implement the checklist, and "to authorize nurses to stop doctors if they saw them skipping a step."
After a year with the checklist, "the ten-day line-infection rate went from eleven per cent to zero." In one hospital, "the checklist had prevented some 43 infections and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs."
Direct Instruction attempts to do something similar in schools--to make a checklist of sorts for reading instruction, so the basics don't go overlooked. Certainly a direct comparison between the I.C.U. and the classroom is imprecise; small errors in, say, reading instruction are of course not life-threatening.
Repeated instructional errors do come with a great cost, however, especially for the most at-risk students who don't have access to supplemental help at home and who rely on schools for nearly all their academic learning. If a scripted program can eliminate many of those errors, as Direct Instruction does, why not use it?
blog comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:f1982ee0-5dfb-476a-ba37-3646b63493a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-weekly/2007/december-20/check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962745 | 1,022 | 2.6875 | 3 |
OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) will host a public workshop May 26 in Issaquah to discuss a recent report that provides an analysis of data that could be used in determining management goals for sockeye salmon returning to Lake Washington and the Cedar River.
The workshop is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. at WDFW’s Issaquah Hatchery, 125 W Sunset Way. During the meeting, WDFW staff will discuss the report, which is based on an independent review of Lake Washington sockeye salmon populations, including the Cedar River stock.
The report provides an independent assessment of the biological characteristics of Lake Washington sockeye, including productivity and returns per spawning fish, said Jim Scott, assistant director of WDFW’s fish program.
“This information provides a starting point for discussions with tribal co-managers, our constituents and other stakeholders about future sockeye salmon management in Lake Washington,” Scott said. “We’d like to hear from anglers and others interested in Lake Washington sockeye as we look into the productivity of these fish in the watershed and how we currently manage our sockeye fisheries there.”
The report, entitled “Cedar River and Lake Washington Sockeye Salmon Biological Reference Point Estimates,” is available on WDFW’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/papers/cedar_lk_wash_sockeye/.
The recreational sockeye fishery in Lake Washington last opened in 2006, when about 470,000 sockeye returned to the watershed. Currently, a return of more than 350,000 sockeye is needed before fishery managers will consider opening a recreational fishery in the lake. | <urn:uuid:49cf2d82-ca06-4a4e-8837-1e8521265d3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/release-print/apr2310a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902664 | 365 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Bill Robison, International Expeditions’ Director of Product Development, spent the first part of 2009 in Laos and Vietnam researching locations for our new 15-day itinerary . Follow Bill’s series of updates on these fascinating countries, as well as how he’s put together a Laos and Vietnam tour that covers the spectacular natural beauty and culture of Southeast Asia.
By Bill Robison
Laos used to be called "Land of a Million Elephants"...they should call it now "Land of a Million Children!" Lao children are the happiest I’ve ever seen, and the presence of this tall Falang — the Lao people label all Westerners by their word for French — was too out of the ordinary for them to keep their distance. They smiled, chattered and laughed; then laughed, chattered and smiled some more! While the children were convinced I must have candy in my pocket, they didn’t beg and were amazed to hear me speak in a language they have seldom, if ever, heard and definitely do not understand.
The kids are picture hams, jockeying for position in front and proud to see their image on the screen once I had snapped the picture. I only wish I had a digital printer with me so I could give the kids copies of the photos. That would have been an absolute treasure to them. My presence was obviously a fun distraction and they were happy to see strangers in the village.
I was visiting an Akha village in the Luang Namtha province, when a small, wide-eyed three or four year old boy walked up to me, stared like a deer in headlights, and then started crying. I thought somehow I had offended or frightened him — these villages are usually animist and have many superstitions and rigid rules for behavior. The boy's mother came up to our guide and explained, smiling, that the boy had never seen a Westerner before and my height and the color of my skin frightened him. I could not image a place like this, so insulated from the outside world and yet so friendly and open to visitors. I knew that was an experience that must be shared with guests who travel with International Expeditions — an experience that anyone in the world would appreciate and treasure for a lifetime. So, I made village visits an integral part of our adventure to Laos.
You might also like: | <urn:uuid:b5ad6121-d103-4836-aecc-e97a68e0ce7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ietravel.com/print/309 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977518 | 489 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Post Impressionists paint movement, and color and use thick paint. one
example is Vincent Van Gogh’s in Starry Night. He painted movement and color
and used thick paint. I painted a picture and it looks like Starry Night. I used
movement and color and thick paint on my example. All you need to know to paint
a Post Impressionist painting is how to use thick paint and color and how to
create movement with brush strokes.
How to Paint a Post-Impressionistic Painting Step by Step
- Get a big piece of paper.
- Get any three colors of paint.
- Take a color of paint and paint a swirly line so it looks like moving
clouds that are being blown by the wind.
- Take another color and paint another swirly line so it looks like clouds
being blown by wind also, but smaller and on top of the other ones.
- Take another color and make a another swirly line like the others but on
- Now take some paint and make a dot the size of your thumb, from the tip up
to your nail top.
- Take another color and make a dot on top of the first one in step 6 but
the size of your index finger, from the tip up to your nail top.
- Take another color and make another dot the size of your pinkie finger
from the tip up to your nail top and put it on the dot that you did in step
- Then add more to the top color of each color and it should look like this.
- Look at yours, mine, and Van Gogh’s Starry Night, you should notice that
yours and mine do not have anything but stars and swirly lines for the
clouds. Starry Night has stars and swirly lines for clouds, houses,
buildings, and also for a mountain. That is how you paint a Post
Impressionistic painting. If you follow these simple steps your drawing
should come out pretty well. | <urn:uuid:680c46d2-96dc-42a2-a4a7-b99849b302c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/J002045F/how_to_draw_post-impressionist.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917814 | 428 | 2.796875 | 3 |
This Mini Fire Engine is designed to be learner-friendly, simple to operate and great, fun over all. It has an up-down lifting function and the vehicle is capable of rotating a full 360 degrees with sound. Children will love playing with the Fire Hose and ringing the bell inside.
Plan Toys organization is strongly committed to manufacturing safe and educational toys under environmentally-friendly conditions.
The wood used is plantation rubberwood (Hevea Brasiliensis), which is recovered from old rubber trees after they no ... more information | <urn:uuid:41232d72-969c-4c5a-aa41-b6f17c401f99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modernnursery.com/itemsDetail.cfm/PlanToysSolidDrum/0/pcid/14/cid/194/item_num/PLN-6320 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933012 | 108 | 1.5 | 2 |
Big Oil invades all of our dreams, doesn’t it? A Virginia Beach publication called Hampton Roads condemns Virginia Beach‘s expected approval of offshore drilling on the East Coast:
Despite industry claims to the contrary, oil and gas drilling promises an increased risk of environmental troubles, both in the water and onshore. If that threat turns to reality, as it has so many times in so many places, the damage to Virginia Beach’s hotel and restaurant industry would take years to overcome.
Yeah; drilling destroys the environment in a hurry. Ask any marine biologist about all the life that springs up around oil rigs. Oil production is also really ugly. Witness this development in California from the early 1960s, when technology was still very primitive:
That’s what they could do in the early 1960s, and we know more now: we can drill for oil and natural gas without messing up the environment, or hurting the tourist trade in areas that depend on it.
The editorial also suggests that “even the most optimistic estimates don’t show enough gas or oil off Virginia to make a significant change in world prices.” Which of course makes me wonder at the mindset that suggests there’s no point in developing resources, because no single project will have an effect on world prices. Except for drilling in ANWR, which there’s no point to doing because we wouldn’t see the benefits of it for about ten years. As Jay Leno remarks, “isn’t that what they were telling us ten years ago?”
I hope the people at HamptonRoads.com ride bicycles to work. If people like this have their way, we’ll all have to at some point: Soylant Green is people! | <urn:uuid:0ec4b6f5-e1db-47f2-b10c-d0dc76975d74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://littlemissattila.com/?p=13971 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963523 | 367 | 2 | 2 |
Carvel construction derives from the Portuguese word "caravela" or caravel, a ship type that was current in the 15th century. It a boat and ship building system where the planks are flush: the edges meeting and giving the shell a smooth surface instead of overlapping as in the clinker system. The planks are fastened to transverse frames, ribs, with nails or wooden pegs called trunnels (treenails). The seam between two adjacent planks is caulked by driving home fiber strands made of cotton or hemp and then covering or paying the seams with putty or hot pitch.
construction is the most difficult process and a
nightmare to inexperienced builders. Builders
have to bend individual planks according to the
curve of the hull and then nail them into the frame.
This is the way real ships are built and ship models
should be done the same.
At Model Ship Master we
even employ double plank for most of our models.
This double plank feature gives the ships the strength
to last for decades. (Solid
hull models will crack sooner of later.) We set standards in
craftsmanship and construction quality. | <urn:uuid:1df959ff-0d70-4dc0-add6-bfbcbf45c793> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modelshipmaster.com/about/plankonframe.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940501 | 245 | 2.875 | 3 |
"The Project Tutor program is very dear to my heart for a couple of different reasons, explains Ruth Calnon.
First of all, it helps to connect students who don't need a lot of additional help with resources to strengthen their skills in reading and math. That allows teachers to focus on students who really need the teacher's expertise.
Secondly, both our reading and math kits are designed around dialogue. We ask that our tutors make the learning meaningful to the students; that they try their best to connect the lessons to students' lives.
An inventory of current practices in the Boise (Idaho) School District revealed that many of its schools were deficient in the area of training for school volunteers. Project Tutor was created in 2006 to prepare community volunteers to work in the neediest schools and support reading and math skills.
Project Tutor has three goals -- to reinforce instruction, to encourage academic improvement, and to increase self-esteem. The focus is to help students dialogue about learning. Tutors are instructed in "thinking aloud" strategies, talking-through processes, and breaking down learning into a step-by-step process. There are no tests, timed readings, timed math fact sheets, or worksheets. Kits are provided with a standard lesson plan for two tutoring sessions per week, with 30 weeks of activities. The material is sequential, but each week's lessons stand alone. Students do not "make up" sessions that they may miss.
"Since we knew only a few of our tutors would be educators by profession, we decided to create a very simple template for a lesson plan that showed tutors how to structure their tutoring time," recalled Calnon. "Dr. Lora Keidel, a former reading specialist for the district, created a simple two-day lesson plan for the reading tutors to follow that incorporated the basic elements we wanted to include in each day's lesson. Andrew Rath, a Title I teacher in the district, created a day one and day two lesson plan template for the math tutors."
Day one for math begins with a fun activity based on the fourth grade math state standards, such as a graphing game. The second activity includes solving a series of math review problems, each with a different focus. Topics like place value, numeration, and money are addressed. Math tutors use whiteboards to model the steps used to solve the problems. Day two incorporates a story and scenario of problem-solving activities. Students use their whiteboards to break down the problems into a step-by-step process.
In the tutoring sessions for reading, day one starts with the reading of a story or chapter from a book. The lesson includes previewing the book, assessing the student's background knowledge of the subject and, if appropriate, setting a reading goal for the students. Reading goals can be as simple as "read the book to find out how the mystery was solved" or "read the book to see how the main character is like you." Sample questions to ask before, during, and after the reading are included in the lesson plan. The tutor's focus is to help the student enjoy and relate to the book, to talk about it, and to expand vocabulary and knowledge.
During the second lesson of reading instruction, students move on to the next chapter of the book, reread their favorite part of the story, or discuss the story previously read. Then they play a game that is based on a specific reading or language skill from the third grade language arts state standards. The games provide practice and reinforcement in understanding synonyms and antonyms, recount and recall, identifying the main idea, drawing conclusions, understanding cause and effect, and more. A new component to both reading and math lessons this year is journal writing. Math students record new "tricks" to solving problems and reading students write in response to what they have read or respond to thought-provoking questions.
"We never send a tutor into a school unprepared," observed Calnon. "We require tutors to attend our two-hour training in which we share information about the program, and provide hands-on experience in how to use the reading and math kits. We also provide additional training two more times throughout the school year, and we observe, phone, and email our tutors periodically."
Now in its fourth year, Project Tutor currently serves ten schools. Over 100 community volunteers have received training through the program, and 600 students have received their services. The volunteers work with two students at a time in two 30-minute periods and visit the school twice each week. A few additional minutes of preparation and clean-up are also required. Teachers select appropriate candidates for the program -- students who are on grade level but who are struggling to keep up. Calnon specifically asks for students who need extra time to reinforce skills and those who would benefit from the attention of an adult mentor.
"One thing that has surprised me about Project Tutor is the amazing dedication of the community volunteers we have recruited," she reports. "We had almost no volunteers in many of our neediest schools, yet our Project Tutor volunteers have been more than willing to go wherever needed. Many have even asked that we place them where they are most needed."
Project Tutor runs from October until May, so the commitment of its tutors is substantial. Many of the volunteers return year after year to offer their time. At the program's last end-of-the-year celebration, Calnon recognized ten volunteers who had been involved with Project Tutor for three years. One tutor who worked with students in math was invited by a classroom teacher to see one of her students receive a "Most Improved in Math" award at an assembly. It was a moment for all to treasure.
The designers of Project Tutor were careful to construct a program that would be self-sufficient and not add to the workload of participating classroom teachers. A designated liaison at each school -- a teacher or specialist -- handles any questions from tutors and fosters communication between the program's directors and the volunteers.
Supplemental training in December introduces tutors to a packet of holiday books, games, and learning activities. The tutors learn to play the games and teach the children so that they can keep their skills sharp over the upcoming break. Calnon knows that students are more likely to use the materials they are given if they have first encountered the items with their tutors. In May, the volunteers obtain training and packets for use over the summer. These include a calendar with daily reading, math, or writing activities for students to do each day of summer break, a reading or math workbook which helps to reinforce skills, and games and activities.
"One year we asked all of the tutees to write a letter to their tutor thanking them for the work they did together over the year," Calnon recalled. "The letters were so heartfelt and personal that many of our tutors became teary as they read." | <urn:uuid:5d3d715d-d61d-4888-be5c-e32c9bc327d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/partners/partners064.shtml | 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 | 0.971304 | 1,421 | 3.546875 | 4 |
This year, the Omidyar
Network will deploy around $100 million of capital this year,
with recipients ranging from tech entrepreneurs to a coalition
trying to protect the land rights of the poor.
The organisation was founded by Pierre Omidyar -- the man behind
eBay -- and his wife. As Managing Director Matt Bannick
explained to Wired.co.uk, it initially financed not-for-profit
projects, but Omidyar soon felt constrained. "He felt that
businesses could also drive significant social impact," -- and the
companies that have since benefitted include the creators of Second Life, Linden Lab and Digg.
The company's investments fall within five categories:
microfinance; consumer internet and mobile; entrepreneurship;
property rights; and government transparency. Bannick says that the
network is making a huge impact in this latter category. "So little
is spent on technology for
government transparency. We have committed three to five times
as much as anyone else in this area. This means it is a specific
area in which we can have a disproportionate and catalytic
The company's latest investment is New Citizen, which mobilised
more than 60,000 Ukrainians to interact with presidential
candidates, prior to the February 2010 elections.
Back in the UK and Omidyar has a success story in mySociety -- a suite of
websites that allow the public to connect with government and use
government data. To name a few -- Number10.gov.uk lets
you see the petitions that are currently gaining signatures around
the country; FixMyStreet
allows the public to report problems direct to their council; and
Mapumental, which is
currently in beta, will help you choose where to live using public
transport data to match your commuter preferences.
The Omidyar Network invested $575,000 last year in mySociety,
but, speaking to Wired.co.uk for this week's podcast, Omidyar
Investment Partner, Stephen King
says that we can expect more projects of this ilk in the
Hear King talk on the Wired.co.uk Podcast in episode 31,
publishing on 24 June, 2011. | <urn:uuid:2439eaaa-f963-405a-905b-8d0ab7fd3f8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/24/omidyar-network-government-transparency | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945645 | 474 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Prof. Meg Jacobs
This course will explore how Americans have confronted energy challenges since the end of World War II. Beginning in the 1970s, Americans worried about the supply of energy. As American production of oil declined, would the US be able to secure enough fuel to sustain their high consumption lifestyles? At the same time, Americans also began to fear the environmental side affects of energy use. Even if the US had enough fossil fuel, would its consumption be detrimental to health and safety? This class examines how Americans thought about these questions in the last half-century. We will consider the political, diplomatic, economic, cultural, and technological aspects of the energy crisis. Topics include nuclear power, suburbanization and the new car culture, the environmental movement and the challenges of clean energy, the Middle East and supply of oil, the energy crisis of the 1970s, and global warming. | <urn:uuid:15f7eaf2-92b7-4f39-81b0-a527f7504575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/history/21h-207-the-energy-crisis-past-and-present-fall-2010/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943855 | 176 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Traditional Kanaloa Tiki 16" - Hawaii Museum - Made In Hawaii
Here is a beautiful tiki measuring 16 inches, made out of solid monkey pod wood (Made in Hawaii). Kanaloa is known as the tiki of the ocean and fishing. Kanaloa is one of the four major Hawaiian tiki God.
This is a beautiful piece of art! These Tiki was carved with great attention to details. This Tiki is made out of Acacia Koa. | <urn:uuid:36f7ee34-68c8-40e4-a547-6c7d0b33b9e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tikimaster.com/product/BLA605640/Traditional-Kanaloa-Tiki-16---Bishop-Museum---Made-In-Hawaii.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918006 | 99 | 1.585938 | 2 |
General Practice, Solo & Small Firm DivisionMagazine
Volume 17, Number 7
Approaching Negotiations Playing a Cooperative Game
By Juliet L. Gee
Negotiating is defined as any instance in which two or more people are communicating with each other for the purpose of influencing the other party’s decision, according to Fisher and Ury in Getting to Yes. It is essentially a problem of exchange as the parties bargain with each other. A skilled negotiator guides the parties, with their mixed motives of cooperation and competition, toward an agreement.
Two types of negotiations are available to parties: voluntary negotiations and mandatory settlement conferences. For voluntary negotiations, you will need to open up your opposition, prepare for negotiation, and keep going when negotiations stall. And you’ll want to be able to use mandatory settlement conferences to your advantage as well. You also may face postjudgment negotiations.
Should you negotiate when the opposition appears to be saying no to negotiations? How do you get the other side to at least listen to you? How do you open them up? In commencing negotiations, there is always tension between cooperation and competition. The key to starting any negotiation is to open up the other side by empowering them to hear your demands. In part, you are empowering them to feel comfortable in rejecting your demands. If the parties start the discussion process in a tense and competitive atmosphere, it will elicit the primal instincts to fight and not cooperate.
When your opposition tells you or implies that they are not willing to negotiate, develop a strategy to change the game from an adversarial one to a cooperative attempt to solve mutual problems. Find a way to move the opposition from a defensive stance. Be conditionally open to the other side. Don’t hold grudges. Sometimes our own choice of words and the intensity of our voices will close off negotiations. Start dealing with your opposition on a positive note. If you start out by attacking, the other side will resort to self-preservation. If you start out with a cooperative attitude, you are less likely to be met with the counter force of defense.
Getting the opposition to be open to hearing you is the first and most important step in negotiating a settlement. Even if you are met with hostility, do not fall into an adversarial attitude. It is harder to negotiate when both lawyers are hostile toward each other. Simplify and prioritize your client’s issues. Develop a starting position and various fallback positions for each issue. Most important, listen to the other side.
In every negotiation, it is possible for both parties to help each other at no expense to themselves if each understands the problems of the other and tries to solve problems together. Rarely is there total disagreement on every aspect of a case. There are often at least procedural issues about which the two sides can reach an agreement. It is useful to break the negotiation into stages. Start negotiating on simple procedural matters. If you start on matters that are not at the heart of the dispute, you are more likely to have initial cooperation. It is easier to get larger concessions from a party if you get them used to giving a series of smaller concessions first. Choose issues that hold no emotional value to either party to initiate the negotiations. In this process the parties can move away from a competitive attitude toward a cooperative attitude.
The power you have to negotiate comes from knowledge of the case. The more knowledge you have of the facts and the law of your case, the more power you have to negotiate. You should also consider what would be the best alternative to a negotiated agreement, which could be a jury verdict or an arbitration award.
Lawyers should prepare for negotiations in the same way they prepare for trial. Know your case. Be aware of its strengths and weaknesses. Understand the conflict situation. Learn from your client the facts that created the conflict. Conduct an independent investigation of the facts, because your client’s perception of the facts may not always be accurate. Consider what facts you are willing to disclose to the other party and what facts you will not reveal. In business law matters, for example, some facts may constitute trade secrets. In analyzing the facts, you may also find that you need additional facts. You may need to conduct further investigation, either through formal or informal discovery.
Amass case law support. What statutes and case law do you have on your side? Is this a case of first impression? If it is a precedent-setting case, your client or the opposing party may not be interested in reaching a settlement; conversely, the parties may not want to have a legal precedent in the public record. Learn as much as possible about the parties, the lawyers, the insurers, and any other involved persons. In multiparty cases, assess where the parties have similar claims and needs and where there are differences.
Understand how the other side sees the conflict. Put yourself in their shoes. Are highly charged emotions involved? For example, is this an ongoing dispute between neighbors or spouses? Or is the dispute between an insurance carrier and the claimant? Is the insurance company negotiator afraid of "opening the floodgates" if the case settles? Consider whether you need expert help. In complex, specialized cases the parties may consider using a mediator who is an expert in the subject matter. For example, in a construction case the parties may use a mediator who is a licensed building inspector.
Separate the people from the problem. Recognize the emotional aspects of the case and try to maintain an objective stance. A highly charged emotional case may require a neutral outside mediator. Avoid getting into a battle of wills with the other party. There is a difference between reason and pressure. Negotiations in a series of repeated dealings with the other party can be used to induce interest in trust and cooperation. A strong dose of cooperative attitudes early on in the process may spill over to later phases of the negotiations so that the parties will be more willing to tackle the hard issues jointly. Make cooperation more salient than competition. Use phrases such as "Can we find a solution?" or "Can we agree?"
Find out what your client wants. What are the needs that are fueling their position? What are your client’s priorities? Ask what kind of decision by the other side would satisfy these interests.
Analyze the other side. Discover what the other side fears and try to alleviate that fear. Gain knowledge about the opposing party. Learn about their personal concerns, background, values, and so forth. Find out what the other side wants to achieve. Determine their interests and priorities. What kind of decision would they like your client to make? What is their bottom line? Sometimes, to figure out the bottom line for an institution or organization, you need to find out how it is organized. Who is the client, the board of directors? Is there a risk manager who has set the limits on the litigation? What are the costs, monetary and nonmonetary, to the other side to litigate the case? Assess the risks and gains to both parties.
Consider cultural or social differences. In some cultures, litigation is to be avoided at all costs because it is seen as a loss of honor to the parties. Try not to make assumptions. Ask questions. In some cultures, negotiations must be approached circuitously rather than directly. Words need to be chosen carefully so that neither side appears to be losing face. A misunderstanding of cultural differences can quickly end the negotiations process. In those instances, an apology will sometimes get the negotiations back on track.
Don’t deceive. Tell the truth and be who you are. There are several hazards to lying or deceiving the other party in the negotiations process. When deceptions or lies are discovered by the other party, trust between the parties is lost. In addition, the obligation to behave truthfully in negotiations is embodied in the requirements of Rule 4.2(a) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which direct the lawyer to be fair in dealing with other parties. A settlement agreement based on lies told by one party can be set aside as an agreement induced by fraud. Moreover, your reputation in the legal community can be seriously damaged if you engage in deceit in the negotiating process. Negotiations in the future with other parties may be met with distrust.
Avoid positional bargaining. In this type of negotiation, each side takes a position and argues for it. It is an inefficient technique in which parties find themselves locked into positions. Also, avoid share bargaining, which presumes a limited pie to be shared, so that if one side takes a piece of the pie, the other side has less. Positional bargaining and share bargaining limit the parties to zero-sum gains. Using an issue-oriented or principled bargaining process, the parties negotiate issues on the merits. They can look for creative solutions, and they will be more likely to reach a joint settlement. Look for options that have mutual gains. Again, break the process into steps. Finding small mutual gains and solutions can lead to larger gains in the long run.
Not all cases can be settled. In some instances the party’s concerns with precedent, reputation, prestige, and similar interests may be an overwhelming hindrance to negotiated settlement. Some cases involve issues of legal precedence that may be the goal of a party. For example, an insurance carrier may see a case as one for legal precedence on a coverage issue, or a case may involve precedence-setting civil rights issues. In these cases, however, you can still negotiate procedural matters. For example, the parties could benefit from negotiating the briefing schedule or a discovery schedule. The parties may also be amenable to negotiating the amount of damages to be paid after a ruling by either a trial court or appellate court on the issue of law.
Most courts have various settlement programs, one of which is usually a voluntary settlement program that is party-initiated. Some courts assign volunteer lawyers to attempt to mediate or settle the dispute. These can be single lawyers or panels of lawyers that act in a settlement capacity. In other instances, the parties may choose a private mediation or arbitration program.
The limitation of voluntary programs is that they usually require both parties to agree to enter into such a program. Even with such limitations, they are helpful in providing the parties with a neutral third party to mediate the dispute. A third party’s perspective of the case is especially helpful in emotionally charged cases. Sometimes all the parties need is a neutral, communicative climate to help them settle a matter. If you are before a neutral third party, don’t be afraid to ask the neutral what solutions he or she can see for the problem. That person can suggest solutions that have not been explored previously.
The other type of program is the court-initiated mandatory settlement conference, in which the court requires the parties to participate prior to trial. These conferences may take various forms: single judge conference, bench/bar panels, lawyer volunteers. The goals of a settlement conference, as far as the court is concerned, are twofold: to obtain a fair resolution of the dispute and to eliminate the case from the rolls. Before the parties meet with the mandatory settlement judge or panel, the judge needs to be educated about the facts and theories of the case.
Many courts require settlement statements from the parties. These statements are designed to educate the court as to the nature of the case, the facts, and the issues in dispute. You may also consider using the statement to put forth ideas for solutions in the dispute. Each state and each court differs with respect to requirements for settlement conference statements. Check with your local court rules to determine whether such statements are required and if so, what is required in their content. If there is no requirement for settlement conference statements, you may consider asking the settlement judge if the parties may provide such a statement. They are useful in streamlining the negotiations process and in notifying parties of the outstanding issues in the case.
Sometimes the hardest part of negotiations is putting yourself in the opening position to discuss resolution to the case. It is especially difficult if you are met with negativity or hostility. However, if you deflect the negative or hostile attitude with a neutral or positive attitude, you will find a possible route to opening the parties up to negotiations.
Juliet L. Gee is a solo practitioner in El Cerrito, California. She was a mediation attorney with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and serves as a settlement attorney for the Alameda County Superior Courts in California. | <urn:uuid:70e0898a-c339-4082-b3ed-85aeb17b439e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/gp_solo_magazine_home/gp_solo_magazine_index/octnov2000gee.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956668 | 2,555 | 2.453125 | 2 |
The return of the Jewish people from exile in the diaspora (world) is referred to as Aliyah. The word Aliyah is a derivative from the Hebrew word ‘laalot’ which means to go out or in certain regions of Israel ‘to ascend’. If the goal is to be an immigrant to the Land of Israel then please have a look at this review as there are some timely and very informative bits of information contained within. The first thing that needs to be known about Aliyah is that the immigrants who make this journey back to the Land of Israel are referred to as Oleh. This means one who goes up and makes perfect sense in a spiritual and personal aspect as the entire format of returning to the Israel is a common goal for both the citizens of the country as well as the Israeli Government. All across the world and regardless of what country you hail from if you can claim Jewish descent or have been intertwined with the Jewish faith through marriage then you are welcome to take the journey of a lifetime to the Land of Israel through Aliyah.
Trip to Homeland
In order to learn about what steps are mandatory and required for the trip of Aliyah to Israel please have a look at the below list of steps for that endeavor. While there are so many stories about the immigration routes that so many people have taken to the Homeland of Israel it is important that you understand this journey will be a very personal one indeed. The choice to return to the Land of Israel through Aliyah is one that is made by thousands of individuals each and every year and many have found success in the State of Israel.
Steps to Aliyah
• Register at your Local Jewish Aliyah Center
• Research and Learn all there is to know and all that you can get your hands on about the Immigration to the Land of Israel
• Retain and Record each and every word of each conversation and transcribe that conversation with the name and date and title of the individual whom was spoken to on a written format.
• Prepare the Family for Aliyah to the Land of Israel
Many immigration journeys start with a visit to the local Jewish Alliance Center in your home country. If the locality is not near or is not easily accessible then this can be alleviated with online access and telephone communication. There will be, however, the necessity to have a few face-to-face interviews with the representatives of the Jewish Aliyah Center and these are usually found in larger metropolitan areas such as Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, New York and other larger cities all across the United States.
For all those desire to become a new immigrant to Israel and are not originating this journey from the North American continent then please search for a list of Israel Aliyah World Centers in or around your native homeland. From North America to Australia there are Jewish Federation Centers that concentrate and specialize on Aliyah so that your trip to Israel will go as smooth as possible. Good luck and we will see you in Jerusalem. | <urn:uuid:0c6112f4-f56f-4a6f-ad4b-9dd53e449b5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.themerkaz.org/?category=24&page=322 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960406 | 604 | 2.640625 | 3 |
It’s a rare documentary that makes you want to hiss at the villain, but Bully manages it in a jaw-dropping scene in which a school’s vice-principal is trying to reconcile two fractious students. One kid glumly sticks out his hand. The other holds back until the VP browbeats him into accepting the apology.
That’s when we learn that the reluctant hand-shaker is the victim of bullying. The other kid is the perpetrator. He’s apologized before, the victim says glumly, and he always goes back to his malicious ways. The administrator makes a few conciliatory noises but clearly considers the matter settled. Somehow, she’s convinced herself that the bully and his target must share the blame.
Honestly, I wanted to smack her.
Bully, from director Lee Hirsch (Act of Honor), is a grim but important survey of the state of bullying in American schools today. And the picture isn’t pretty. Whether it’s fair to call it an epidemic is an open question, but when teenagers are committing suicide to escape unrelenting torture from their peers — and, by acts of omission, from their teachers — it’s clearly a problem.
It doesn’t take much for a kid to be singled out for abuse. Of the victims we meet in the film, one was born premature, and has a rather gawky face. Another committed the sin of being openly gay in smalltown Oklahoma. Some are just “different.” I remember, back in the late Renaissance, that some kids in my class were picked on because they were picked on.
There aren’t a lot of best practices on display in the film. What exactly are you supposed to do for a kid who complains: “I feel like I belong somewhere else.” Or worse: “I’m starting to think I don’t feel anything any more.” Fortunately, resourceful parents do what they can to stage anti-bullying rallies. Sadly, the most committed organizer is one who has already lost his son to suicide.
We also see the various coping strategies practised by the bullied. Some are extreme, such as the 14-year-old girl who pulled a gun on her tormentors, and winds up facing multiple charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault. By the time we get to her story, halfway through this heartbreaking documentary, her reaction almost seems justified.
Certainly the school administrators (or at least the ones we see on film) aren’t doing much to address the problem. Confronted by the parents of a boy who’s being bullied on his daily ride to school, the vice-principal remarks: “Buses are notoriously bad.” But then, perhaps sensing that she’s painting herself into a corner, she adds that the kids on this bus are “good as gold.”
Parents should be aware that there is some strong language in the film, much of it from the mouths of schoolchildren, which has caused Bully to receive an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. It’s a shame, because young teens could benefit from seeing the movie — and the language is nothing worse than what they’ll hear at recess anyway.
Canadian ratings boards, to their credit, have given Bully a PG. The distributor, Alliance, hosted a town-hall meeting on April 2 at the Bell Lightbox, with the event to air on MTV’s Movie Night on April 5. It’s heartening to see this kind of interest and response. Bully is a film that could actually save lives, provided the right people get a chance to see it before it’s too late.
Bully opens at the Varsity in Toronto on April 6, and in Montreal and Vancouver on April 13, with additional cities to follow. | <urn:uuid:e82a1ba3-827b-4d2c-b69f-4e7c7d82d1bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/04/04/film-review-the-bullied-talk-back-in-bully/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974157 | 820 | 1.929688 | 2 |
The URLs to find the latest OEM-provided kernel source are often burned into the frontal lobes of experienced developers, much like home phone numbers are to those who don’t build kernels. For those just starting out, however, it can be a little harder to figure out exactly where to go and what to download. There is now a comprehensive list with links to many OEM-provided kernel source code repositories.
XDA Senior Member shimp208 has been kind enough to create a thread that links to pretty much every OEM website. Namely, the part of the website where one can download—or at least find—kernel source for various devices. As shimp208 explains:
I see a lot of people asking how to start make custom kernels (This is well beyond the scope of this guide, for a great introduction check out Building Your First Kernel), or I want to port CM, AOKP, AOSP, etc. to my device. Well that great except you can’t begin to make a custom kernel or truly port CM, AOKP, AOSP, etc. without the appropriate kernel source code for your device. The following list tells you where you can find the kernel source code (Among other bits and pieces of code essential to development) for your device based on your manufacturer, as well as some other places to look for kernel sources.
Aside from kernel source, most links also contain various files that can be useful for things other than kernel building. Of course it should be noted that some OEMs won’t unfortunately release kernel source for every device. So if you check and it isn’t there, there’s a chance it hasn’t been released yet.
For more information, check out the original thread.___________________ | <urn:uuid:2c5db71d-7612-4c15-82d6-81b07cc70731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xda-developers.com/android/looking-for-oem-kernel-source/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934409 | 363 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Blue Arch Survey: Patch Democrats Say Clay Will Defeat Carnahan
The high-stakes battle between incumbent members of Congress will come to an end Tuesday. Our 'Blue Arch' Panelists also weigh in on implications for other Democrats.
When a panel of influential Democrats were asked who would win Tuesday's primary election pitting U.S. Rep. William 'Lacy' Clay and U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, a majority picked Clay to represent the party in the redrawn First Congressional District come November.
More than 50 influential Democrats were asked using an automated survey tool what they thought about a variety of questions tied to the Clay-Carnahan race among other topics.
Twenty-nine responses were collected with fifty-eight point six (58.6) percent favoring Clay, 34.5 percent backing Carnahan, and 6.9% percent having no opinion. No respondents chose Candice Britton, who is also running in the primary.
The survey also asked if the result of the Clay-Carnahan primary will have implications for Missouri Democrats in November. Thirty-one percent "Somewhat Agreed," while 24.1 percent "Somewhat Agreed". Twenty-four point one percent "Somewhat Disagreed" and 17.2 percent "Completely Disagreed," while 3.4 percent of respondents were neutral.
The survey gave participants the opportunity to explain why they felt the result of the race would have implications for the rest of the Democratic ticket. Two people who predict a Carnahan win said it could boost turnout. A respondent who chose Clay said the first district incumbent would carry the district while calling Carnahan "a maybe". Yet another panelist who chose Clay said they were concerned about party unity heading into November.
"We can't afford to have people who's candidate didn't win a primary staying home on election day," the person wrote.
Do you agree with the panel's findings? Tell us in the comment section!
About Patch Blue Arch/Red Arch Surveys
Patch political surveys are not a scientific random sample of any larger population, but rather an effort to listen to a swath of influential local Republican and Democratic activists, party leaders and elected officials in Missouri. All of these individuals have agreed to participate in the surveys, although not all responded to this week's questions. Interviews for this poll were conducted between July 30 and August 3, 2012.
Patch will be conducting Red Arch and Blue Arch surveys throughout 2012 in hopes of determining the true sentiment of conservatives, liberals and moderates on the ground in Missouri.
If you are an activist, party leader or elected official and would like to take part in a bi-weekly survey that lasts just a few minutes, please email Gregg.Palermo@patch.com.
Blue Arch Roster: Shelley Welsch (University City Mayor), Jake Zimmerman (St. Louis County Assessor), Bert Boxerman (Creve Coeur Township Committeeman), Tracy McCreery (State Representative), Jeanne Antoine (Olivette City Council), Missy Waldman (Olivette City Council), Richard Callow (PR Strategist), John Callahan (Committeeman for St. Charles County Township), Julie Biermann (Committeewoman for St. Charles County Township), Charissa Mayes (Committeewoman for St. Charles County Township), Jerry Daugherty (St. Charles County Councilman), Keith English (Florissant City Councilman/State Rep. candidate), Mary Elizabeth Dorsey (Florissant Township Committeewoman), Chuck Banks (Former Jefferson County Executive), Jo Ann Karll (DNC Convention delegate), Mary Broida (Fenton Committeewoman), Bob Usher (Voter), Tammy Vent (Rock Township Committeewoman), LaDonna Appelbaum (Convention Delegate), Timothy Green (State Senator), Gina Mitten (Richmond Heights Councilmember/State Rep. Candidate), Jill Schupp (State Representative), Jim Descher (Voter), Ken Curtis (West County Democrats Co-Chair), Steve Biggs (Meramec Township Committeeman), John Niemeyer (Meramec Township), Jim Frain (Voter), Julie Dougherty (Voter), Linda Robson (Voter), Jim McHugh (Aide to former St. Louis County Executive), Molly McHugh (St. Louis County Planning Commission), Bob Burns (Affton School Board), Mark Powell (Former Arnold Mayor), John Messmer (Former DNC alternative delegate), Karl Frank, Jr. (Former Mehlville School Board Member/Activist), Donna Seidel (activist), Tom Diehl (Former School Board Member/Activist), Jim Barrett (Activist), Harvey Ferdman (Maryland Heights Township 2nd VP), Rod Jennings (University City School Board Member), Jane Dueker (Former Assistant AG/Chief of Staff To Governor Bob Holden), Gina Walsh (State Senate Candidate), Morton Todd (St. Charles County Democratic Committee Chairman), Mary "Kate" Laughlin (Voter), Rod Hoffman (State Rep. Candidate), Beverly Cowling (Voter), Bill Stinson (State Rep.), Russ Craven (blogger), Brynn Palmer (Voter), Theresa Borchert (Voter), Jim Karll (Voter), Jeff Wagener (Former St. Louis County Councilman), Pat Dolan (St. Louis County Council), Stacey Newman (State Representative), Cheryl Hibbeler (Former St. Charles County Council Representative), Deb Lavender (State Rep. Candidate), Kevin O'Malley (Fundraiser/Alternate Convention Delegate), Susan Meredith (State Rep. candidate), Susan Montee (Lt. Governor candidate), Bob Burns (State Rep. Candidate) | <urn:uuid:7b393bbb-d1fd-4c9f-a5a6-16d148a974d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ballwin-ellisville.patch.com/articles/blue-arch-survey-patch-democrats-say-clay-will-defeat-carnahan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912135 | 1,178 | 1.546875 | 2 |
1-18-2013Friday, January 25, 2013, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
Registration and coffee at 8:30 am
Rutgers School of Law-Newark
Many immigrants in removal proceedings face the harsh prospect of being deported from the United States because they cannot afford competent attorneys. Nationally, only half of immigrants are represented, though for detained immigrants, a mere 16% have representation. The total number of detention beds in New Jersey is now around 2,350 — a 47% increase over 2011 — which means thousands of immigrants are detained every year in New Jersey.
While government-funded counsel is routine in the criminal justice system, the U.S. government does not generally fund legal representation in immigration proceedings. How can this gap in legal representation be addressed? What steps can be taken to increase the capacity of legal service providers, to promote pro bono representation, to expand legal orientation and legal representation programs, to educate the public and government officials about these challenges, and to ensure that immigrants are not victimized by unscrupulous legal advice?
This dialogue aims to identify concrete steps that can be taken to address the need for increased, quality immigration representation in New Jersey, and to bring stakeholders together to chart out some next steps for collaborative action. For more information, please see our agenda. | <urn:uuid:af5dcec0-5513-411b-9d78-106282cb12ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2013/01/18/building-justice-increasing-quality-immigration-representation-in-nj-jan-25/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932758 | 267 | 1.625 | 2 |
At least one flagrant instance of an ongoing conflict of interest in the Western Pacific Council was detailed in a 2003 prize-winning series by editor Paul Koberstein in the Cascadia Times of Portland, Oregon. The series chronicled the voting record of two business partners, Jim Cook and Sean Martin, who operate a company in Honolulu that supplies gear to commercial fishermen. For a time, Cook chaired the Western Pacific Council, and Martin is a current member. While engaged in longline fishing, Martin moved to open a turtle reserve area to the practice, even though long-lining has been known to seriously threaten four species of endangered sea turtles. (The motion passed.) Meanwhile, Cook has reportedly been fined for illegal lobster harvesting, and their company, Pacific Ocean Producers, has been fined for illegally fishing in protected waters and other violations.
While not always so obvious, the conflict- of-interest issue is embedded in council culture. During a recent meeting of the New England Council, through two and a half days of discussion and votes, not a single member requested recusal. More striking, at the March 2005 NOAA conference, Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher Jr., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmospherethe NOAA administratorsaid in a speech: I dont believe in this great conflict-of-interest issue. I dont think we have that on our fishery management councils. Its not been a problem, anyway.
But in surveys conducted to help assess the council system, many members have revealed their discomfort over conflicts of interest. They continue to cast votes on regulatory matters, perhaps because most see themselves as representatives of specific industry constituencies, such as Maine lobstermen, rather than the vague general public. Indeed, the council system encourages that attitude, notes Josh Eagle, an attorney who headed up the Stanford Fisheries Policy Proj- ect and was lead author of its critical report on the system.
The problem, say Fensom and others, goes beyond the specific conflict of any individual member. It is contrary to human experience and common sense to expect certain members to vote against the direct financial interest of the industry represented by an individual member, he said in his resignation letter from the Gulf Council. It is unfair to the council process and the individual members to place these members in such a moral, financial, and ethical conflict.
MANY CRITICS of fishery management point to another serious conflict inherent in the councils: They are responsible for both conservation and allocation decisions. The councils decide how many fish can be caught and who can catch them, says Eagle. Because larger catches are easier to divide up among competing fishery interests, the councils responsibility to allocate catches encourages them to set lax fishery limits, undermining conservation.
Two recent far-reaching reports, one by the Pew Oceans Commission in 2003 and another by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in 2004, expressed strong concern about this issue (among many others) and recommended that science should determine catch levelsthat is, how many fish can sustainably be taken from the seawhile the councils should determine how those catches are allocated. Councils currently regulate allocation through limited entry, or boat permits; by controlling effort, which entails such steps as limiting the number of fishing days at sea; or by quotas, a strict limit on how many pounds can be caught in a season. Each of these methods comes with problems. Of regulating effort, for example, New England council member Cunningham says, its as if the Bureau of Land Management were attempting to regulate the timber industry by restricting the size of the chain saws. It doesnt work. | <urn:uuid:a0e16369-fbcc-44fd-b77c-4c50f1b216f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2006/03/catch?page=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958418 | 728 | 1.953125 | 2 |
On October 6th, 2004, the Sydney University Falun Dafa Club was invited to take part in the University's Multicultural Day. Practitioners performed a demonstration of the Falun Dafa exercises and shared the story of Falun Dafa with the students.
|Falun Dafa booth||Exercise demonstration|
An eye-catching yellow banner with the Chinese words, "Falun Dafa is Good" attracted students to the food tables, where materials about Falun Dafa and its persecution in China were on display. While some practitioners catered food, such as Chinese dumplings and delicious egg tarts, others handed out fliers to students.
As students lined up to get food, each was offered a flier to read and told kindly, "Falun Dafa is an ancient meditation practise and it is being persecuted in China right now." Some students expressed their interest to learn the exercises while others expressed their sympathy toward the practitioners being persecuted.
Two Chinese girls who approached the table saw the bright banner. They read, "Falun Dafa Hao" ("Falun Dafa is Good") out loud and smiled nervously. They happily accepted booklets explaining the facts about Falun Dafa and the persecution.
A freelance news reporter from Poland also approached the practitioners. After listening to the practitioners describe the true story of Falun Dafa, she said, "This is amazing, I must find out more about it!"
Three Chinese Falun Dafa practitioners later demonstrated the five sets of exercises while a western practitioner explained the principles of Falun Gong. As the music and Teacher Li Hongzhi's instructions began, the whole area was filled with serenity.
The event was a success, and a good opportunity for Sydney University students to learn the truth about Falun Dafa.
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source. | <urn:uuid:227771b9-0157-4ab5-be48-4c3dc4b381da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/Australia_Falun_Dafa_at_the_University_of_Sydneyamp39s_Multicultural_Day-a22480.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950699 | 395 | 1.90625 | 2 |
About Emerging Green Stocks
Why Invest in Emerging Green Stocks?
Want to learn about stocks that are leading the way to a green society?
This section of our site is devoted to introducing small, emerging green stocks to potential investors and analysts. By profiling and promoting deserving, green companies that trade on the public markets, we fulfill our core mission at SustainableBusiness.com – helping green businesses grow.
These innovative, courageous companies are pushing the envelope, bringing us hugely exciting, innovative technologies that address some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems and deliver us to the promising future we all crave.
But emerging companies have a hard time getting noticed by analysts and investors alike, who tend to focus on established stocks especially in tough economic times.
Investing in these companies is a powerful way of supporting them and helping them grow, creating a positive cycle of higher stock prices – a win-win for company and investor alike. As stock prices push higher, analysts cover the stock, which encourages more people to invest. Companies are then better positioned to forge strong partnerships with leading firms, generate revenue, and grow!
The clean technology era is often compared in scale to the rise of the telecommunications industry in the early 1980s. Dubbed "mother of all markets," it is nothing less than the transformation of our society and offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in young companies that are changing the world for the better.
Many hundreds of green companies have listed on the world’s stock markets over the past decade and have grown into market leading stocks in sectors ranging from healthy living to renewable energy. Stocks like Whole Foods and United Natural in natural foods, and First Solar and Vestas in clean energy, have become household names to those educated in green investing.
Green Companies We Cover
Companies like First Solar and Vestas started out as tiny, green stocks, and grew rapidly and steadily because of their robust management, business plan and execution.
The companies profiled here have the same potential. They are undiscovered green gems ready for their moment in the sun. We vet every company and present those we believe are poised for dramatic success, but who have not yet been discovered by the investment community. These companies have strong management teams and uniquely important products or services.
SustainableBusiness.com specializes in green business worldwide, and is known throughout the field as having deep experience and understanding of green technology and green investing. We’ve produced one of the few hands on green investing newsletters, Progressive Investor, since 2002, while SustainableBusiness.com has been online since the dawn of the Internet in 1996.
During this 12+ year period, we have become a recognized and respected source of green business and green investor news and analysis, connections and networking. We maintain close relationships with the leading green investment analysts and advisors, mutual funds and ETFs around the world. And we host about 300,000 visits a month on our website.
Since we’re “deep green,” having been involved in the field way before it was cool, we don’t hype stocks. Rather, you’ll find factual information that simply focuses attention on deserving, breakthrough companies that might otherwise be overlooked.
For this service, we are partnering with Randy Lewis, CFA, MBA who provides interim CFO, strategic planning and investor relations services to green companies. An avid green investor and analyst for over 15 years, Randy is has a keen understanding of the drivers and competitive forces of emerging green industries, with the ability to effectively and succinctly communicate at all levels of the investment community.
Get your stock noticed by the green investor community. Contact us today!
Please email Randy Lewis or call him at (818) 426-3134 to get going. | <urn:uuid:032d760d-a6f6-4d9b-a4c7-7bc5f6d05f69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/progressiveinvestor.egsabout | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951393 | 767 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Antivirus software is somewhat of a necessity if you're a Windows user, but the software you choose really does matter, and one app might not be enough. Security expert Brandon Gregg believes that your best bet is a combination of Microsoft Security Essentials (our pick) and a free or open-sourced product. Here's why.
While you should never run two antivirus programs at the same time, having two on your system can be beneficial. Most antivirus software (e.g. McAffee, Norton) try to track down viruses on the web and elsewhere to identify them, then send you an update with virus definitions so your system can detect potential threats. This might seem good, but Brandon identifies two (of many) major issues with this approach to antivirus software:
Issue 1: An advance persistent threat (APT) (aka China or a talented black hat hacker or the NSA) makes a 100% custom, never seen before virus (Stuxnut anyone?) and sends it to one system (Iran?) instead of blanketing it on the internet for McAfee to stumble upon. Do you think on one targeted machine McAfee will find it and then send out a signature file for the rest of us? Probably not.
Issue 2: I can confirm McAfee (and others big boy virus companies) white list (ignore) viruses for law enforcement and other intelligence agencies (including private companies). So you could have a keylogger, Remote Access Tool or other malware on your machine that McAfee is allowing!
Instead of using major software, Brandon suggests that you use Microsoft Security Essentials as your main, always-on antivirus program, along with running a free or open-sourced product once a week. Free products, like MalwareBytes, don't necessarily suffer from bureaucracy or a corporate agenda. Neither do open-sourced products, and they also benefit from crowd sourcing. Basically, Microsoft Security Essentials is great, but you might want to add a second program to your arsenal to make sure Microsoft is doing its job.
Again, The important thing is to make sure you do not run both applications simultaneously. Antivirus programs do not usually play well together, and running two at the same time will often lead to one singling out the other as a virus, or in some cases, even cause file corruption. Plus, running two apps can really eat up system resources. Instead, run Microsoft Security Essentials regularly and run your secondary option manually—with Microsoft Security Essentials turned off—once a week. That way you can get a that extra security without mucking up your system. | <urn:uuid:6ee051cc-0dd0-4666-8191-7cab67291a3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5898756/why-you-shoulder-consider-using-more-than-one-antivirus-app?tag=viruses | 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 | 0.924958 | 533 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Find Joy When You Give
- Wednesday, October 17, 2001
How do you find the cheerfulness God says in the Bible that He loves to see when people give? Pursue the treasure God wants you to have.
Here are some ways you can discover joy when you give:
- Realize that investing your money in earthly things will provide a limited and temporary payoff at best. Possessions themselves can't satisfy you, and often end up possessing you rather than vice versa, because they demand so much time and energy to maintain. When you die, you must leave every penny of your money behind.
- Understand that investing your money in eternal ways is guaranteed to pay big dividends, because God has promised to bless gifts faithfully consecrated to Him and use them in ways that bless the givers and others.
- Acknowledge that it's God who has given you the ability to earn an income, and that all your money is ultimately His. Commit to managing that money as effectively as possible, relying on God's wisdom.
- Don't wait until you feel like giving to actually give. Start giving out of obedience - because you know it's what God wants you to do and you want to respond faithfully to God. After you begin to give, God will send you joy, and that joy will motivate you to keep giving.
- Remember God's generosity - Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and the many blessings God has poured into your life. Seek to express your thankfulness to God by giving as an act of worship, and allow His love to flow through you to others as you act in generous ways.
- Make sure that your expenditures match your values. If you truly value God's work on earth, you'll give financially to support it.
- Wholeheartedly embrace God's vision for efforts that you sense Him leading you to support. When you immerse yourself in God's plans, you'll get excited about them, and will want to help bring them to fruition.
- Get out of debt and avoid future debts so your money isn't tied up in places God doesn't want it to be, limiting your ability to serve Him. Before you buy a particular good or service, ask yourself whether it truly reflects your values, and whether you might do better if you were to spend your money in another way.
- Talk with others about how God is using your giving to help you grow, and listen to their stories of giving and how they've grown as a result. Together, celebrate God's work in your lives.
Adapted from The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving by Randy Alcorn, copyright 2001 by Eternal Perspective Ministries. Published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc., Sisters, Ore., www.multnomahbooks.com, 1-800-929-0910.
Randy Alcorn is the author of many other books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. He and his wife, Nanci, live in Oregon.
When you give money to your church or a charity, do you feel a sense of obligation, or a sense of joy, and why? If it's joy, what are some of the ways that experiencing joy helps you continue to give? Visit Live It's forum to respond, or read what others have to say. Just click on the link below.
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Listen to Your Favorite Pastors
Add Crosswalk.com content to your siteBrowse available content | <urn:uuid:8e8b97b3-e119-4c27-985b-4ddd9d6be17e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crosswalk.com/newsletters-only/live-it/find-joy-when-you-give-961322.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950683 | 728 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Grete Prytz Kittelsen's home in Norway recently got sold. The "Queen of Scandinavian Design" as she often was called, died in Sept. 2010. The house, that her former husband through 15 years, the well known architect Arne Korsmo built, is a masterpiece itself, and the house and interior has been kept in the Mid-Century style. The couple both used it as a home and a place to work. They gathered their artist friends and collegues here for seminars and exhibitions. An important inspiration came from natural light, open spaces, large windows and ceilings, and a close contact with nature around. The home in these images is quite empty, not many personal items are left, but the architecture is brilliant, and the use of teak throughout make the ambiance very vivid.
Next post: Grete Prytz Kittelsen's Life and Works
Prytz Kittelsen photographed for Vogue in 1961, in her workshop in the house
Cathrineholm, Lotus Pattern, the everyday cooking line that became design icons and collectors items | <urn:uuid:07cb94e0-b082-4098-b1be-f479f61d4d10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zyprezz.blogspot.com/2011/03/grete-prytz-kittelsens-home.html?m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976966 | 216 | 1.890625 | 2 |
DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE LAND-BASED AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS
Location: Cool and Cold Water Aquaculture Research
Title: Description of the surface water filtration and ozone treatment system at the Northeast Fishery Center
| Summerfelt, Steven - |
| Bebak, Julie |
| Fletcher, John - |
| Carta, Anthony - |
| Creaser, Duncan - |
Submitted to: American Fisheries Society Book Series
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: March 15, 2005
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Citation: Summerfelt, S.T., Bebak, J.A., Fletcher, J., Carta, A., Creaser, D. 2008. Description of the surface water filtration and ozone treatment system at the Northeast Fishery Center. In Amaral, S.V., Mathur, D., Taft, E.P., III, editors. Advances in Fisheries Bioengineering. American Fisheries Society, Symposium 61, Bethesda, MD. p. 97-121.
A water filtration and ozone disinfection system was installed at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Fishery Center in Lamar, Pennsylvania to treat a surface water supply that is used to culture sensitive and endangered fish. The treatment system first passes the surface water through drum filters operated with 60-µm sieve panels in order to exclude the majority of debris, algae, and organisms larger than the sieve openings. After microscreen filtration, two variable speed pumps are operated in parallel to supply between 400 and 2,400 L/min to the ozone treatment system. Ozone contained within an approximately 95% oxygen feed gas is transferred in to the water (at 0.5 -0.7 bar) through a downflow bubble contactor following each pump. The ozonated water is then collected and piped to a 15.1-m3 ozone contact column. The contact column provides approximately 20, 10, or 6.7 min of plug-flow contact time for water flows of 760, 1,500, or 2,270 L/min, respectively. A dissolved ozone probe at the outlet of the ozone contact chamber continuously monitors the dissolved ozone concentration discharged from the contact tank. A proportional-integral-derivative feedback control loop is used to adjust the concentration of ozone generated (and thus added) in order to maintain the dissolved ozone residual discharged from the ozone disinfecting contact tank at a preselected set point (nominally 0.2 mg/L). The water discharged from the ozone disinfecting contact tank then flows by gravity through a second 32.1-m3 contact tank, which provides additional time for the dissolved ozone to decompose. Any dissolved ozone remaining in the water exiting the second contact vessel is air-stripped, along with any large dissolved oxygen supersaturation, as the water flows by gravity through a forced-ventilated cascade column. This treated water then flows by gravity to the fish culture systems. The ozone system was evaluated during a start-up period from March through June of 2002. During this period, the ozonation and filtration system was found to consistently inactivate bacteria and exclude the majority of debris larger than the microscreen openings, even during extreme changes in surface water quality produced by storm events. Design and performance details are provided to offer insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the individual treatment processes. | <urn:uuid:2158327c-3b51-4bb3-b6e1-f1ab08b85c75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=239991 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910861 | 715 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Secant Medical Opens New Lab
Posted on February 14, 2013 @ 07:50 am
Secant Medical Inc., a Perkasie, Pa.-based biomedical textile manufacturer, has established a new laboratory to perform polymer synthesis and analytical characterization of polymers, biomaterials and fibers. The addition gives Secant a more robust set of in-house services for clients and enhances its biomaterials research and development (R&D). The lab is also located in Perkasie.
“The study of biomaterials is moving toward examining the interface between materials and biological systems. Our new lab affords us the ability to probe this interface,” said Jeremy Harris, R&D lab manager at Secant Medical.
“With this lab, Secant Medical has the tools to develop biomaterials because it gives us a deeper understanding of the interaction of biomaterials, from their composition and interaction with cell biology to how they will ultimately impact device technology,” said Peter Gabriele, director of emerging technology at Secant Medical. “Biomaterials are in themselves an emerging technology. We have to understand how they behave and perform beyond the mechanical analysis—we must understand the chemical analysis.”
The lab is open and fully operational, driven by a team of chemists, chemical engineers, microbiologists and biomaterial engineers. Executives said the facility will help create quality products through material solutions that have a more efficient turnaround time.
Secant Medical designs and manufactures biomedical textiles and other structures for medical devices. The company blends polymeric, metallic, and resorbable biomaterials to create custom, high-performance structures that are used in the cardiovascular, general surgery, neurovascular, orthopedic and regenerative medicine fields.
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The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Rodman Media. | <urn:uuid:47ca4064-fe2f-436f-ae34-141abe93a2e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mpo-mag.com/news/2013/02/14/secant_medical_opens_new_lab | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91188 | 401 | 1.632813 | 2 |
3DS Max 2012 UV questions
on 08-04-2011 01:09 PM
Hey guys, I've been using 2012 now for my bulldozer part 2, pretty happy with it. The UV'ing is great since you don't need to install UVtools 1.5 anymore. or so I thought, because 2 features I can't find the alternative for anymore:
-Ctrl-click selection converting. Like, select a ring of edges in UV's/3D view, ctrl click the poly button to convert. This because you still can't do decent rings/loops with poly's in the UV editor's 3D view.
-Scale type in! I actually really need this right now, since I'm doing a 2:1 UV layout. Normally I'd rescale the UV field, so my UV's end up all distorted (i've unwrapped them with a square setup first), then i just use the type in to scale them back out, compensating for the 50% squish. But the type in seems gone in 2012, did they just not use it?
I hope there's some 2012 expert here to help me out, I feel like it'd be stupid to install UVtools 1.5 just for this, as 90% of it's functions are in 2012 by default. | <urn:uuid:673a5a49-c27b-4b25-84d8-671951d0b3d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87400 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956058 | 270 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Researchers from Korea University are looking at alternatives to hearing aids and hearing dogs. They hope to employ automatic sound recognition—a technology similar to yet very different from automatic speech recognition, which is key to all interactive voice response, or IVR, systems.
While hearing aids can do wonders, there’s a gap in the coverage they provide. They can’t block out all the background noise, which can confuse hearing-aid wearers (not to mention the rest of us when bombarded with noise).
At the moment, the alternative to hearing aids is hearing dogs—specially trained dogs that can alert their “client” when the phone or doorbell rings, et cetera.
According to DogsfortheDeaf.org, the main purpose of hearing dogs is to give a greater awareness of surroundings for independence and safety. The dogs “are trained to make physical contact and lead their person to the source of a sound.”
The only problem with hearing dogs is that they’re, well, dogs. I’m sure the dogs themselves get a little confused in a crowd. Also, it means the hearing impaired are reliant on someone else (dog, in this case).
What the researchers at Korea University propose is a system that can take the place of a dog and enhance hearing aid use. In-Chul Yoo and Dongsuk Yook published their findings in Automatic Sound Recognition for the Hearing Impaired.
Basically, Yoo and Yook created an algorithm that identifies mechanical sounds such as the phone ringing, the doorbell, a kitchen timer.
Since these mechanical sounds have distinctive spectral peaks, we can classify the spectral bands into relevant and non-relevant groups for each registered sound…non-registered sounds which do not possess such spectral peaks can easily be rejected.
Basically, developers can program the system to identify a library of sounds, reject all others and alert the user when one of the registered sounds occurs. Like a hearing dog—minus the cold, wet nose, I guess (and the affection). | <urn:uuid:44e02caf-fd47-4dc1-9119-1f81f89633d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.plumvoice.com/blog/hearing-aids-hearing-dogs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923792 | 424 | 2.875 | 3 |
Adding to the local and national discussion on guns, Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway has released a statement in support of citizens' right to legally use firearms.
"I encourage all law abiding citizens to acquire and maintain the skills to safely carry a firearm in order to protect themselves and others," the statement reads.
Conway issued the statement under the heading 'The 2nd Amendment." The U.S Constitution's Second Amendment says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Also, it was in response to "the many emails received," the website says. The statement comes just over a month after the December 14, 2012, shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 students and six adults.
-- How do you feel about Sheriff Conway's statement? How do you feel about President Obama's stance on gun control? Share your opinions in the comments below.
"Sadly, our society contains those that will harm others when given the opportunity. An armed citizen certainly presents much less opportunity to those that would do them harm," Conway's statement concluded.
Earlier this month, President Obama proposed a series of gun-control actions in response to the Connecticut school shootings.
Also, in his inaugural address this week, Obama made a statement that some people interpret as being soft on the Second Amendment. The president said:
"Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life; it does not mean we will all define liberty in exactly the same way, or follow the same precise path to happiness. Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time – but it does require us to act in our time. For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate."
Also, the Gwinnett Daily Post has reported that Gwinnett's probate court received 8,610 applications in 2012 for firearms permits, up from 4,700 in 2011. | <urn:uuid:954104c3-9a8e-4da1-9faa-f88b1659d20c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://snellville.patch.com/articles/gwinnett-sheriff-encourages-all-law-abiding-citizens-to-acquire-firearm-skills-ac1046c5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962324 | 447 | 1.703125 | 2 |
|Individual Elements of the Chapel|
Three artists created works which complete and enrich Philip Johnson’s structure. David Cargill of Beaumont fashioned the altar, the Stations of the Cross, the statue of Our Lady, the tabernacle, the candlesticks, the stand for the paschal candle, and the processional cross. Michael Dobbins of Houston made all the wooden furniture. Michal Ploski of Poland painted the icon of Saint Basil.
Certain elements of the building and its interior deserve special consideration because of their aesthetic interest and religious importance.
The three bells placed in the top aperture of the granite walls were cast in Ohio. They are real functioning bells. What you hear is not recorded but actual sound produced by the clapper striking the bell. The bells strike every hour and once every half-hour; at noon they ring the Angelus, and there is a special peal before Masses. Christian tradition ascribes great importance to church bells. They call the faithful to worship; they mourn the dead and escort them to their final resting place; they remind us in our daily occupations of God’s presence in the world. Their regular ringing will recall and strengthen the Catholic and Christian commitment of the University of St. Thomas.
The manual and pedal electro-pneumatic organ built by Schoenstein & Co of San Francisco is a memorial to Fr. Francis E. Monaghan, CSB, a former vice president of the University and pastor of St. Anne’s Church in Houston. Though its primary function is to provide music for the liturgy, the organ possesses as much flexibility as is possible for an instrument of modest size; much of the classical organ repertoire can be also performed with tonal accuracy. The resonance of the Chapel recreates the acoustical properties of great churches; the organ was voiced with this resonance in mind. This makes the Chapel an ideal place for performing sacred music of every period and style. The organ contains more than 1000 pipes located in chambers twelve feet above the Chapel floor. The longest pipe, which is in the mirror-finish facade, is more than twenty feet long while the shortest is less than one inch in length.
In the semicircular apse behind the main altar is a wooden figure of Christ Crucified set against the background of a convex cross sculpted within the wall. The Chapel Committee decided not to combine medieval carving with contemporary wood because neither an imitation of a Gothic cross nor a contemporary version would do justice to the ancient corpus. The deep brown corpus and its faint shadow against the stark whiteness of the wall create a strong impression. This Gothic figure, carved in the fourteenth century in Central Europe, is a gift of the Menil Foundation.
The altar is built in the tradition of stone on stone from royal impala granite chosen to correspond to the black wall and to contrast with the light gray floor of the Chapel. The design on the supports symbolizes water flowing from the altar, recalling both the living water given by Christ to all who believe in Him and the blood flowing from the sacrifice of Calvary.
Six great candlesticks stand behind the altar, “with their lifting gesture reaching to Jesus the Christ Crucified above” (David Cargill). An expression of our worship, they also symbolize the angelic heavenly host with whom we unite ourselves when we pray. This is why the words “sanctus, sanctus, sanctus” (holy, holy, holy), sung by the angels in the vision of Isaiah, are inscribed around their bottom.
In a similar sense two angels are represented on the doors of the tabernacle, like flames of love, adoring Jesus Christ, sacramentally present there. The eternal light burning to the side proclaims the same truth.
Icon of St. Basil
Above the tabernacle we see the icon of St. Basil, in its color the most dramatic element of the interior. This icon represents the style developed in the Ukraine in the fifteenth century. Its prototype comes from a church in southern Poland. Unlike paintings found in Western churches, icons of Eastern Christianity are not simply the creations of individual talents and the imagination of artists. They have been called “theology in color” because for Byzantine Christians icons are both the means by which the authentic tradition of the faith is transmitted and the means by which those who pray before them somehow come into the presence of the persons depicted, such as Christ, Mary or the saints. For this reason both the content and form of icons are strictly controlled by the teaching office of the Church. In practice this means that icon painters (iconographers, “those who write icons”) always stay within the general form of a prototype accepted by the Church and venerated by the faithful. Hence to our untrained eyes they all tend to appear so much alike.
As the Church is named after St. Basil, it is only proper that his image be displayed. Because Basil is a great Bishop and Doctor of the Eastern Church, where there exists a strong tradition of depicting him, we have decided to appeal to that tradition rather than try to and obtain a contemporary Western artist’s vision of the saint. We thus commissioned Michal Ploski, an accepted and authorized iconographer, living in Poland.
In the icon St. Basil the Great is represented as a bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church. He appears in complete liturgical vestments of a Byzantine archbishop. White garment decorated with black crosses, so-called polistaurion, corresponding to the Western chasuble, was originally reserved for the bishops of only four cities, one of which was Basil’s Caesarea. Later the privilege was extended to all metropolitan archbishops.
Green material wrapped round his neck and marked with crosses, called omophorion, is the sign of the episcopal office. It symbolizes the sheep which Christ the Good Shepherd carried on his shoulder (cf. Jn 10:1-18). Hence it is the sign of the bishop as the shepherd in imitation of Jesus. A similar interpretation sees in it the symbol of the Cross which the bishop bears, following Christ.
His right hand is raised in the gesture of episcopal blessing. The fingers of his hands are arranged to represent the Greek monogram of Jesus Christ (IC XC). The two fingers joined together remind us of the two natures of Christ united in one person, while the other three recall the mystery of the Trinity. As a successor to the apostles and Doctor of the Church, Basil holds a book of the Gospels in his left hand.
On each side of the icon are four scenes from life of the saint. Consistent with the convention of iconography, they do not attempt a realistic account of his life but recall schematically its most essential moments. In the left column we see the following: 1) The birth of St. Basil (c. AD 330). His mother is resting and a nurse is bathing the baby. 2). Basil’s baptism by Bishop Dianios. He was an adult then but is represented as a child, since newly baptized were compared to new-born children. The landscape suggests that for Basil baptism was the beginning of monastic life in the desert. 3) Priestly vocation of St. Basil. Deceased Bishop Dianios rests in his coffin, and another bishop, Eusebius, in accordance with the tradition of the Eastern Church, reads the Gospel read before the body of a deceased priest. Basil takes up the cross from the body of the dead bishop, symbolizing his own vocation to the priesthood. 4) St. Basil as teacher and Doctor of the Church. This scene is unique to this icon. It was added at our request, replacing the usual scene of a miracle worked by the saint. The column on the right side depicts the following scenes: 5) St. Basil ordained a bishop (AD 370). 6) St. Basil as a protector of the poor and the sick. He is presented freeing a sick person from the power of the devil. Basil stressed the duty of his monks to nurse the sick. He had a large hospice built at the monastery. 7), 8) Funeral and burial of St. Basil. These scenes are painted in accordance with the iconographic convention of representing the death of saints.
Stations of the Cross
Why is the Chapel named after St. Basil?
Why is the Chapel at the end of the Mall?
Chapel Theology and Architectural Elements
Chapel of St. Basil Book
Meditation on the Way of the Cross is for Catholics a favored devotion for contemplating God’s love for us manifested in the passion and death of Jesus. For this chapel we have foregone the usual form of separate painted or relief panels hung on the wall. According to David Cargill, illusion of a convex image created when the light strikes the image carved in the wall “brings together the humanity and suffering of Jesus and the mystery of his sacrifice.” The fourteen traditional stations create a story-image; following it the eye is drawn in a sustained movement from the condemnation of Jesus through his passion to his burial. To remind us that the story of the Savior does not end in the tomb but in the mystery of the Resurrection, Cargill added the figure of the Risen Christ. With arms outstretched, enveloped in a flowing robe, Christ may be seen both as “ascending to the Father” (cf. John 20:17) and as the High Priest in priestly robes, embracing the whole human race for whom He died. The shroud has become the chasuble of the Eucharistic Christ, thus pointing to the mystery celebrated on the altar.
It is worth noting that the stations are drawn in perspective. Some scenes appear to move closer to the viewer than others, and some recede, creating a dynamic quality in the narrative of the Passion, as it seems to move back and forth before the viewer.
Shrine of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom
On the opposing (eastern) wall we see a shrine dedicated to Mary. The cone-shaped shrine creates a quasi-separate space which at most times is more strongly illumined from above than the rest of the Chapel. A bronze statue represents Mary in the traditional pose under the title of the Seat of Wisdom. In such representations she appears sitting in a chair resembling a royal throne or a bishop’s cathedra (the chair from which he teaches). Here she is seated on a stool suggesting the model of the Chapel. Note the tent-flap opening intimated by what might also be seen as a fold in the material covering the stool. The artist wished to avoid all suggestions of the mother and child pose so favored by baroque and later artists, which, for all its charm, frequently naturalizes the image of that Mother and that Son. Instead, the artist returned to a more ancient mode of presentation, surviving in Byzantine icons, especially of the hodigitria type, where Mary is painted as seated on the throne from which her Divine Son reigns, or as the fulfillment of what was foreshadowed in the burning bush of Moses.
Mary does not embrace the figure of the child Jesus. He sits on her knees presenting the book of the gospels. Jesus, the Word of God, extends to us the written word of God. Her hands are stretched out to us in a welcoming and inviting movement appropriate to wisdom. | <urn:uuid:c814f65a-4e7a-4c5b-92f5-fd986dce9cab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stthom.edu/Public/index.asp?page_ID=4934 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958054 | 2,370 | 2.15625 | 2 |
|Lokakarya Praktikum Lab Komunikasi di UMM IN
Entering the implementation of new curriculum of 2010, Communication Department started preparing practicum services with the new system. The department, accredited 'A' from State Accreditation Board, ended the 2005 curriculum this year. It was then necessary to arrange new mechanisms for the implementation of practicum for the next semesters.
The Chief of Communication Department Dra Frida Kususmastuti, MSI, stated that in this new curriculum, the department still had three concentrations, namely Public Relations, Journalism and Media Studies, and Audio Visual. It was not like the previous curriculum, the curriculum of 2010 was emphasizing the choice of concentrations on the practicum. And most of the lectures about the theory of each concentration remained the same. "Students who choose any concentration can follow the general course, so they will master the same theories and concepts," said Frida on the Workshop on Practical Communication Lab, Friday (12/24), at UMM Inn.
On the other hand, the head of the Communications Lab, Drs. Farid Rusman, MSi thought the concentration point on the differences practicum judged appropriate. The working world today required not only mastering theories, but also specific and depth expertise. The strength of Communication department UMM, according to Farid, was on the implementation of the practicum.
Discussing about practicum mechanisms, each concentration had three packages of practicum. Each packet consisted of the application of conceptual competence, technical skills, and managerial skills. "This is the difference between the graduate of communication department with a diploma or vocational school which emphasizes on its technical skill. UMM Communication graduates have not only technical but also managerial and conceptual skills. They will not only be a communications worker but also a professional communications," explained Frida. Meanwhile, students’ softskills were also expected to be built from students’ activities.
To prepare for the new model practicum, the lab was now inventorying the facilities and infrastructure needs of the main lab and support. Farid hoped, when the practicum time had come later, all hardware and software and manware were ready. "The results of this workshop will guide Communication Lab to prepare everything together with the department," said Farid. | <urn:uuid:f1217e9c-8443-4553-9662-3a1dccae5818> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umm.ac.id/en/umm-news-1749-kurikulum-baru-komunikasi-rancang-mekanisme-baru-praktikum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948116 | 466 | 1.617188 | 2 |
- Children's Gifts
- Patches & Pins
- Pictures, Posters & Puzzles
3.5 channel remote for up, down, left, right, forward, and backward control.
Elite Force as real as it gets, total realism.
1:18 scale plastic model aircraft by BBI. Erich Hartmann, the “Black Devil of Ukraine,” pilot’s early mount from May of 1943
The famed German World War II fighter aircraft Messerschmitt Bf 109 comes to life in this impressive and meticulously crafted replica. The Bf109 was a designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s as one of the first true modern fighters of the era. It was widely hailed at the time for such advanced features like its all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, retractable landing gear, and a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine. The Bf-109 was the workhorse of the Luftwaffe’s fighter force and remained in service until the end of WWII.
In Air E-Z Build Scale Model Kits of B-17 Super Fortress with collector’s card
In Air E-Z Build Scale Model Kits of F-14 Tomcat with collector’s card. | <urn:uuid:25f270ef-fc36-413b-89f2-b11d8b3a26a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mapsairmuseum.org/products-page/models/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914863 | 275 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Fri, 3 June 2011
Green-wood Cemetery is one of New York's oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn itself -- in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn Heights. Find out why it took an inventive city planner with a funny name, a dead New York icon, and a few errant parakeets to make this place a beautiful, richly historical place to visit today.
This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.
(Original version released Oct. 3, 2008) | <urn:uuid:e984d1cd-f823-41bf-90ef-af5420a08bf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boweryboysarchive.libsyn.com/webpage/2011/06 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95557 | 124 | 1.945313 | 2 |
JUST WHAT is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's word worth?
A year ago, Schwarzenegger worked out a deal with educators through which schools and community colleges would forgo $2 billion in tax revenues that they were entitled to under the state constitution in return for the funds being restored this year. Schwarzenegger also agreed not to tamper with Proposition 98, the initiative which voters approved in 1988 and which guarantees schools and community colleges more than 40 percent of any new state revenues.
"Education is the key to every future success for our state," Schwarzenegger announced at the time. "Prop. 98 funding will be restored as required by law and our agreement. Today, I am making that promise to our teachers and students."
Schwarzenegger also hammered out "compacts" with the University of California and the California State University system. The university systems agreed to absorb deep cuts during the current fiscal year, as well as commit to student fee increases over the next several years, in return for regular increases in state funding beginning in future years.
Schwarzenegger signed similar agreements with city and county governments and an array of water, park, transportation and other special districts. They agreed to deep budget cuts this year, in return for guarantees that in the future the state would no longer raid local treasuries in order to balance its budget.
All these agreements allowed Schwarzenegger to get through his first year in office without major fights with the Legislature or with a range of agencies and officials at all levels of state government.
But teachers have now discovered that schools will get $2 billion less this year than they had expected under the agreement. Local school districts might also be required to pick up an additional $1.1 billion in pension costs. Schwarzenegger also wants to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to weaken Prop. 98, so that schools will lose some of the funds currently guaranteed by the proposition.
Monday, in announcing his 2005-06 budget, he dodged a question on whether he had reneged on his agreement with the public schools. "I will continue to keep my promises to the people of California," he said -- without saying he would keep his promises to an array of groups he has derisively dismissed as "special interests."
He noted that schools this year will get a $2.9 billion increase over last year's allocation to cover cost-of-living adjustments and enrollment growth. But that is considerably less than they should get under Prop. 98.
Schwarzenegger did come through on the terms of his compacts with UC and
Schwarzenegger's budget once again breaks his promise to end Sacramento's bad habit of credit-card finance. His new budget relies on $4 billion in additional borrowing, $4 billion to cover previous borrowing and a bet that California's economy will keep growing.
The governor is proposing long-term structural reform to stop deficit spending, but this budget shows his unwillingness to practice what he preaches in the meantime. | <urn:uuid:a6130e86-7ff6-4ab3-9dc4-35b4fbeb658b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/Borrow-money-break-promises-2739533.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974965 | 598 | 1.773438 | 2 |
When I first started researching zines in the 1990s, one of the questions I would ask zine publishers was "What would happen if everyone did a zine in the future?" I got some thoughtful answers along with some amusing ones ("Xerox stocks would rise" and "There would be no more forests").
I thought about that question recently and realized that with the ease of epublishing, even something as simple as a post on Facebook, pretty much everyone does do a zine now. In the past, one's desire to communicate had to be pretty strong to put up with the hassles of photocopying, stapling, and mailing a zine. Now, computer technology makes it so easy to publish that almost everyone does so, though they may not be thinking of it as such. How else can we explain someone sharing with us what they had for lunch on Twitter, or telling us on Facebook that Amishmade pepperoni bread isn't quite as good as Italianmade pepperoni bread, or complaining on a blog that the Dylan Dog movie would have been better if they had actually written a script for it? Those are all things that we might have shared with friends in the past, but it's unlikely that we would have had such strong feelings about them that we would have published them in print. Today, no one seems to hold back much before clicking the post or publish button.
Some people might complain that we live in a world of too much information, but if you have a twinge of Freudian thought in you or if you love freedom of speech, then all this babble can only be regarded as fairly healthy for both individuals and society. Talking is therapeutic, after all. And, in a democracy, the best way to figure out the right things to do is to argue about them. There certainly is little repression out there anymore. And, despite the news splash mass shootings and other violent crimes make, we actually live in a less violent world, according to Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Maybe people are working out their emotions in a healthier way online. As a result, on the Internet these days, we all seem to bob around a bit in everyone's consciousness, and that's probably a good thing.
On the other hand, with so many people talking at once, is anyone listening?
Maybe those who really want to have what they say stand out might end up turning to the zine again.
Zine Review: No No No This is Not a Zine #5 - * * *No No No (This is Not a Zine) #5* by Kim R. Cody half letter / ? / try firstname.lastname@example.org Try thinking of all of the elements that combine to cre...
1 day ago | <urn:uuid:e935dcc7-2cd1-4556-9491-cebec840442c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wredfright.com/2012/08/everyones-zinester-today.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978054 | 579 | 2 | 2 |
GLOBALVIEW-CH4, 2009 is the 5th annual update of this product. Since 1999, GLOBALVIEW-CH4 has been accessed more than 4000 times by users from over 55 countries. The GLOBALVIEW-CH4 FTP server averages 32 product requests each month. This update includes 221 extended records derived from observations made by 12 laboratories from 11 countries. Data updates through 2008 (where available) have been used to derive GLOBALVIEW-CH4, 2009. The data product includes extended records from January 1, 1984 to January 1, 2009.
GLOBALVIEW-CH4 is a product of the Cooperative Atmospheric Data Integration Project. While the project is coordinated and maintained by the Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases Group of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA ESRL), it is a cooperative effort among the many organizations and institutions making high-quality atmospheric CH4 measurements.
GLOBALVIEW-CH4 is derived from measurements but contains no actual data. To facilitate use with carbon cycle modeling studies, the measurements have been processed (smoothed, interpolated, and extrapolated) resulting in extended records that are evenly incremented in time. Be aware that information contained in the actual data may be lost in this process. Users are encouraged to review the actual data in the literature, in data archives (CDIAC, WDCGG), or by contacting the participating laboratories.
GLOBALVIEW-CH4 is derived using the data extension and data integration techniques described by Masarie and Tans, . These techniques were developed using CO2 measurements from the NOAA ESRL cooperative air sampling network. Carbon dioxide measurement records from other laboratories have been extended and integrated with the NOAA ESRL measurements into GLOBALVIEW-CH4 with careful attention to both methodology and standard scales.
The impetus for the work done by the many cooperating organizations and institutions is to make atmospheric measurements of trace gas species that will facilitate a better understanding of the processes controlling their abundance. These and other measurements have been widely used to constrain atmospheric models that derive plausible source/sink scenarios. Serious obstacles to this approach are the paucity of sampling sites and the lack of temporal continuity among observations from different locations. Consequently, there is the potential for models to misinterpret these spatial and temporal gaps resulting in derived source/sink scenarios that are unduly influenced by the sampling distribution. GLOBALVIEW-CH4 is an attempt to address these issues of temporal discontinuity and data sparseness and is a tool intended for use in carbon cycle modeling. | <urn:uuid:6b6ce801-9e0d-42fc-9d7b-ed2a45c0f193> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/globalview/ch4/ch4_intro.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919763 | 526 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Easter Crafts Childrens Church
Looking for Easter crafts childrens church...look no further. This craft is easy and fun to do for children ages 5-8. Once the craft is made you can then play the Duck and Bunny game.
The Duck, Bunny Craft And Game
The picture includes the template and both sides of the craft. When you make it, the craft should be two-sided, one side will have the duck and the other, the bunny. While the children make this craft, some church members hide Easter eggs outdoors for an Easter egg hunt.
The Poem Goes Like This:
"My little yellow duck is really quite funny.
When you turn him over, he's an Easter bunny.
My little white bunny brings Easter candy.
When you turn him over, the chick is dandy."
Say the poem a few times before making the craft and again afterwards. After making the craft, take the children outside and play a variation on the Duck, Duck, Goose Game, called Duck, Duck, Bunny.
The children sit in a circle on the grass (or on small chairs if it's cold) and one child goes around the circle, touching each child on the head, saying, "Duck, duck,duck, duck..." When he/she says, "Bunny," the child touched chases the toucher and tries to catch him/her.
If the toucher makes it around the circle to the vacated space, he/she is safe. If the chaser catches the toucher, the toucher must go into the "mushpot," the center of the circle. He/she stays there while the chaser becomes the toucher and goes around the circle.
- The duck/bunny template on white paper
- Pair of scissors
- Demonstrate the craft for the children, explaining it as you do so. Then they can do it on their own.
- Color one side of the template yellow. Add an orange beak, a wing, and an eye.
- Turn the template over and rotate it so the "beak" becomes the bunny's ear.
- Add an eye, a pink ear and nose, whiskers, a mouth, a foot, and a fluffy tail.
- Say the poem and play the game.
- Before Easter Sunday, put Easter "grass" into shoe boxes and add chocolate bars and jelly beans for the children.
- After the Easter egg hunt, they put their colorful eggs into the boxes.
- Add their chick/bunny and a Jesus bookmark to the boxes to make everything easy to carry home. It's a wonderful Easter celebration!
Enjoy making this Easter Crafts Childrens Church.
Return from Easter Crafts Childrens Church to Easter Crafts
Return from Easter Crafts Childrens Church to New Kids Crafts Homepage | <urn:uuid:675076a1-4f47-4e31-885f-ccc8f9ec031e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://new-kids-crafts.com/documents/easter-crafts-childrens-church.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926145 | 590 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Simon Digs into Spring Planting at Kendall College
Urban garden roots public health, local food economy movement
Chicago—May 1, 2012—An advocate for local food producers, Lt. Governor Sheila Simon put on her gardening gloves today and joined Kendall College culinary students for the annual spring planting of their urban garden.
Simon applauded the college for incorporating locally grown food in its classrooms and restaurant for the past five years, and voiced her support for regulations expanding city farming and local food sales across the state. Illinoisans spend roughly $48 billion annually on food, but just $2 billion of that amount is on food grown in Illinois, Simon said.
“The seeds we plant today are a small part of a larger public health movement to end food deserts and grow a local food economy in Chicago and across the state,” said Simon, chair of the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council. “The connections Kendall College students make from farm to classroom to table are critical components of sustainable living.”
Kendall began its garden in 2007 as an educational initiative to teach students about the importance of locally grown food and uses its harvest in dishes served at its renowned fine-dining restaurant, The Dining Room at Kendall College. Each year, the garden produces about 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of produce, including blackberries, rhubarb, kale, and red beets.
“At Kendall College, sustainability is an integral part of our curriculum and operations,” said Kendall College President Emily Williams Knight. “We are committed to teaching today’s students, who are tomorrow’s foodservice professionals, the importance of local and sustainable food, and are proud that this will continue to have a positive impact on our local community.”
On behalf of the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council, Simon is working to increase the number of farmers markets that accept food stamp benefits known as LINK and favors creating regional food hubs that will help local producers to store, process and market items in-state. She also supported two successful measures last year that aim to increase access to locally produced foods:
- Public Act 097-0393 helped clear the way for family and community farms to enter boutique food production while maintaining public health. State law now allows “cottage food” producers to sell certain homemade goods at farmers markets. All food items must have a Food Service Sanitation Management Certificate, be accompanied by appropriate labels listing all ingredients, and identify that products are homemade, among other regulations.
- To create green jobs, combat food deserts and improve public health, Simon recommended the Chicago City Council give community gardens and urban farms the right to locate on vacant land in residential areas and allow them to operate seasonal stands to sell fresh produce to local residents. The city adopted an urban farm-friendly zoning ordinance that expanded the size of community gardens and relaxed costly parking and fencing rules.
Kendall’s urban farm is managed by City Farm, the Resource Center’s urban agriculture program, which turns fallow, vacant land into productive farmland. The college has received national recognition for its sustainability initiatives, including being named an official educational partner of the National Restaurant Association’s Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability initiative; instituting a comprehensive composting and recycling program throughout all kitchens; being named the first institution with an accredited culinary-arts program to operate Green Certified Restaurants, and receiving the first Green Award earned by any culinary-arts program globally by the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI).
About Kendall College:
Kendall College, founded in 1934, is located in Chicago, Illinois. Kendall offers undergraduate degrees in business, culinary arts, early childhood education and hospitality management to a diverse and passionate community of more than 2200 students. The curriculum combines strong academics with practical experience and international educational opportunities that help give students in business, hospitality and culinary arts programs the skills and expertise to be leaders in their professions. Kendall College was ranked the number one program in Chicago for preparing students for careers in hospitality management and culinary arts in a survey of management at Chicago’s leading hotels and Michelin Guide restaurants (ORC International - 2011 Survey). Kendall College, a member of the Laureate International Universities network, is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), www.ncahlc.org. For more information, visit www.ncahlc.org. | <urn:uuid:f615a954-9f04-4d3f-b1af-2302ac8b762c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kendall.edu/news-and-events/news-detail/simon-digs-into-spring-planting-at-kendall-college | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940186 | 912 | 1.984375 | 2 |
As data visualization has become more popular, bad infographics have started to crop up more and more frequently. Thankfully, we can always rely on Michael Paukner to make very, very good ones. Here he shows the satellites orbiting our planet.
Russia, as you might expect, has a whole lot of satellites that are no longer functioning. China is responsible for a surprisingly large amount of tiny space trash, though I'm not exactly clear on what that is. America, of course, is responsible for the largest amount of space trash.
Seeing how many broken satellites remain in orbit instantly reminded me of the scene in Wall-E in which the Earth of the future is seen enveloped in a layer of orbiting techno-trash. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. | <urn:uuid:098495da-8105-4d0d-b239-47fc176c2b01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gizmodo.com/5460493/the-earths-satellites-visualized-by-nation?tag=infographics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972091 | 158 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Men and women struggle to get on as women think too much about stuff and men don’t think enough
A good friend of mine got in touch recently and she was asking my opinion, as an ex-boyfriend of hers, whether I thought she had a strong personality as she was worried she was alienating a new group of friends by being too opinionated and offending them. It turns out she does not really like them that much and so I asked why she was so bothered and to just be herself.
I then suggested she was doing what so many women do and thinking about things far too much and that she should try and do what men are able to do and think about nothing.
“Think about nothing?” she said, “How do you do that? What does thinking about nothing look like?”
I explained that thinking about nothing is not like looking at a black screen, it is when you can look at something but not really focus or think about anything at all. She said she couldn’t do that, if she was looking at a pencil case, she would be thinking about the pencils and pens inside it or if she could see toothpaste she would be thinking about when it would be running out and having to buy a new one.
She said that she gets annoyed with her husband sometimes as it seems like he is moving in slow motion and that she can see the cogs moving in his head as he figures out how he is going to perform some basic task. She said a woman wouldn’t do that, she would keep moving and not need to stop to think.
I feel that women’s brains are constantly moving, like a CD on high speed, whereas men’s brains are more stop and start type machines. This is not to say that either is better as although women’s brains are constantly active, they are not thinking about anything useful. The great capability of the female brain is cluttered with thoughts of some mad insecurity, shoes, feelings, cushions (women have OCD – obsessive cushion disorder), decorating, dieting, worrying/moaning about friends/colleagues, accessories and the 300 million other things that occupy the female brain.
Men, on the other hand, can only focus on one task at a time and the brain can stay inactive until prompted into action by the restless female brain!
I polled my Facebook friends and the overwhelming response was no, women cannot think about nothing. Here are some of their comments:
That sounds like bliss. No idea how to do it though?
nope. That’s what men do best
But thinking about nothing is still something to think and stress about!
Hmmmmm? Let me think about it?
Eh what? Why would you say that? What is the underlying meaning of that comment?
It is this difference that causes a divide as men cannot understand why women are so highly strung and get upset by everything in life whereas women cannot understand why men are not upset by everything. Men dread being asked by women ‘What are you thinking?’ as often we are just thinking of nothing in particular but we know we cannot say that as it will be seen as being evasive, so we have to make something up.
So I guess what we need to do to make life more harmonious is to get men thinking more and women thinking less, or is that just a silly logical and rational thought, typical of a man? | <urn:uuid:a8b84962-d783-40b2-ae92-5b0f72cea85c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jakemcmillan.wordpress.com/2010/02/ | 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 | 0.990264 | 716 | 1.804688 | 2 |
I sometimes get asked how I keep up to date with various discoveries and technologies. The simple answer is: RSS feeds. What’s RSS? The short answer is, it’s a means to collect news articles and journal articles without having to visit each individual site. The long answer… is available on wikipedia.
I use Google Reader to aggregate feeds from various sites. This makes it easier to read all biotech or pharma-related news with fewer clicks. You’ll find some of my previous postings about Google Reader here.
But what happens when you have a broad set of RSS feeds and you want to extract specific information from it? For example, in my latest posting, I collected a number of recent news articles on pancreatic cancer. Normally, I would simply read the article and star it, and add a tag like “pancreatic cancer” to it so that I could find the article again. At the end of the week, I would collect the articles and provide a short write up along with the list of the latest papers added to the Mendeley group.
One way to make this process easier, is to use a free web-based workflow technology called Yahoo Pipes. Unlike tools like Taverna and Pipeline Pilot, Yahoo Pipes is a generic technology for mining anything in XML or HTML. Which makes it ideally suited for mining cancer-related articles. With Yahoo Pipes, you simply add an RSS Feed source, apply a filter, and output the results. You can even subscribe to the results as an RSS feed. So if you wanted to get a list of recent articles on breast cancer, and another set of articles on prostate cancer, you simply add the appropriate filters, and get the results. Let’s take a look…
- First, go to the Yahoo Pipes site. If you don’t have a Yahoo account, you’ll need to sign up for one.
- Click on the Create Pipe button on the left hand side of the screen. A blank workflow area will appear. The left-hand side of the screen contains a palette of widgets, including data sources that you can add to your workflow.
- Click the Sources node, and then drag the Fetch Feed node from your palette to your work area. Enter the URL for the feed that you want to mine. In my case, in order to find the URL I wanted to use, I clicked on my Google Reader folder where I aggregate all of my biotech and pharma news feeds, and selected “Folder Settings…/View details and statistics” menu item. I pasted this URL into my workflow’s Fetch Feed processor.
- Back in Yahoo Pipes, I then selected the Operators/Filter node and dragged it into my workspace. I dragged the output of the Fetch Feed processor to the input of the Filter processor.
- I added two rules to the filter so that it would show me only those articles that contain “pancreatic cancer” in the title or the description, and then connected the output to the Pipe Output processor.
- To run your workflow, simply click the Run Pipe node, and the output will appear at the bottom of your screen in the Debugger window. To subscribe to the results of your pipe as RSS, simply click the “Back to My Pipes” link in the upper right corner, hover over the name of the pipe you just made, and click View Results. You can subscribe to them on Yahoo, Google Reader, or simply get the raw RSS feed as XML or JSON. | <urn:uuid:0cfe40a9-41de-4a87-9736-179d7162b165> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aspenbio.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/mining-rss-feeds-for-cancer-news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903013 | 739 | 2.46875 | 2 |
“Because Underground Time’s prose largely lacks the delicious density of the best literary fiction in translation, it appears to target a middlebrow readership. But readers with highbrow tastes may want to make an exception to their usual literary fare on account of its social criticism.”
It has been widely observed that the economic excesses of the first decade of this century have parallels in the early decades of the previous century. Likewise Delphine de Vigan’s novel Underground Time reveals the psychological working conditions endured by 21st century corporate middle management employees and the loneliness, isolation, and anonymity of contemporary urban life in much the same way that Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed the hazardous working conditions of slaughterhouse workers and Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie portrayed sexual exploitation in urban life a century ago.
Set in Paris and a nearby suburban office park during a single spring day with flashbacks to earlier events, Underground Time follows the parallel lives of its two protagonists in alternating chapters.
Mathilde is a 40-year-old widow and mother of three sons who works in marketing for a corporation in the suburbs to which she commutes every day from Paris via the Metro and suburban rail. She has been working for her insecure, vindictive, and tyrannical boss and mentor for eight years, but since a meeting eight months earlier at which she expressed a contrary opinion in the presence of colleagues he has through a combination of bullying and banishment gradually marginalized and excluded her from the work of the department.
The psychological toll this takes on her eventually leads to a breakdown. Skeptical readers may wonder why she did not take advantage of the diminished responsibilities during those months to look for another job and why she didn’t seek psychotherapy as her mental health declined.
Thibault is a middle-aged home health emergency primary care physician whose job consists of making house calls in Paris. English language readers will infer that in France patients only go to hospital emergency rooms for trauma; for more routine conditions they phone their health plan, and a doctor is sent to them. Between these visits, which his dispatchers assign him by cell phone, he sits in traffic and looks for parking.
He starts the day by having sex and then breaking up with his girlfriend Lila, whom he loves, because he is convinced his love is not reciprocated. Yet this decisive action renders him emotionally vulnerable, and in this state of heightened sensitivity he finds it difficult to maintain the clinical distance his job requires. He wonders if he made a mistake a decade ago when he gave up a provincial practice to move to Paris.
All day Thibault checks his cell phone to see if Lila calls or texts him, and second-guesses the decision to break-up; he wonders whether she really doesn’t love him or whether she does love him but is so introverted and mentally withdrawn that she doesn’t show it. Quiet undemonstrative readers may fault him for failing to realize that as the more extroverted partner it is his job to draw Lila out of her shell, but if he’s not prepared to sign up for such a lifetime assignment he probably did the right thing in ending the relationship.
However, Ms. de Vigan gives Mathilde’s story greater weight. By the time Mathilde realizes the mistake she has made in her relationship with her boss she can no longer repair the damage.
“She didn’t know that a company could tolerate such violence, however surreptitious.
“To permit this tumour to grow exponentially in its breast, without reacting or trying to cure it.”
She wonders if “business isn’t the ultimate testing ground for morality. If business isn’t by definition a place of destruction.”
The emotional toll of her work situation affects her interactions with her teen and tween boys. “Now it’s her sons who are protecting her, and she knows that’s not good.” One of her sons gives her a World of Warfare trading card to protect her.
One of the book’s themes is the way urban transportation enforces anonymity and dehumanizes people.
“When she catches someone’s eye, she looks away. Even when it’s busy, there remains on public transport both a certain intimacy and a sense of reserve; limits imposed on the eye since they can’t be imposed on the body.
“. . . every day several thousand people’s paths criss-cross: two columns of insects, disgorged in waves on to the slippery tiled floor, a rapid two-way street whose rhythms and cadences have to be respected. Bodies brush against one another, or avoid contact or sometimes collide in a strange sort of choreography.”
Private transportation is no better. For Thibault, “after ten years behind the wheel of his white Clio, ten years of traffic jams, red lights, tunnels, one-way streets and double parking, it seems as though the city sometimes eludes him, that it has become hostile to him. It seems to him that because it is so over-crowded and because he recognises its fetid breath better than anyone, the city is waiting for its moment to vomit him up or spit him out, like a foreign body.”
The way the third person narration alternates between the two characters’ stories—in successive chapters an entire paragraph is repeated word for word except for pronoun gender changes—creates the expectation that the two protagonists will meet and perhaps fall in love. Once or twice their paths seem about to cross but they miss each other by a matter of minutes.
[SPOILER ALERT: Ms. de Vigan’s theme of the anonymity of public transport and psychological guardedness of its passengers is brought home most emphatically in the concluding chapter when Mathilde and Thibault finally come face to face in the metro but react to each other with the indifference they would show to any other stranger.]
Because Underground Time’s prose largely lacks the delicious density of the best literary fiction in translation, it appears to target a middlebrow readership. But readers with highbrow tastes may want to make an exception to their usual literary fare on account of its social criticism. George Miller’s idiomatic British translation is quite readable, though American readers will have to infer that “washing up” means dirty dishes, and “kerb” is a British alternate spelling of the noun curb. Presbyopic readers will appreciate the book’s larger than normal font. | <urn:uuid:4ac9d4b1-f14e-4727-af7e-42fa8ea0f3d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/underground-time | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963348 | 1,366 | 1.921875 | 2 |
As we wait for the dust to settle from the current global financial turmoil, it is a good time to assess the lessons to be learned from the nineties business cycle.
First, it is important to get the basic numbers right. Although the economy experienced robust growth in 1996 and 1997, on the whole this business cycle has had the slowest growth of any in the postwar period. [See Jeff Madrick, "The Treadmill Economy," TAP, September-October 1998.] Growth rates are best judged from peak to peak, taking the entirety of the business cycle into account. The average growth rate since the last business-cycle peak in 1989 has been 2.3 percent. This compares with a growth rate of 2.7 percent in the eighties cycle, 3.2 percent in the seventies cycles, and 4.4 percent in the sixties cycle. The rate of job growth has also been slower than in previous cycles. The economy added jobs at the rate of 1.6 percent annually in the nineties. This compares with rates of 1.8 percent in the eighties, 2.5 percent in the seventies, and 2.8 percent in the sixties. Neither has there been a boom in productivity growth. The 1.2 percent annual rate of productivity growth in the current cycle is only slightly higher than the 1 percent rate during the eighties, and well below the 2.5 percent annual rate racked up during the economy's golden age from 1947 to 1973. The last two years have provided good economic news, but not nearly enough to justify talk of an economic boom, at least not by any historical measure.
But while this simple recounting of the numbers should be sufficient to dispel euphoria, the American economy has nonetheless experienced a respectable rate of growth over the last decade—one that looks quite good judged against the anemic growth rates of Japan, Germany, and many other industrialized nations. The unemployment rate in the United States has fallen to the lowest level in a quarter century and is now below that of every major industrialized nation except Japan, which has always had comparatively low rates of unemployment. Although wage and income inequality has increased over the cycle, income gains in the last two years have been broadly based. Workers at all points along the income distribution have experienced genuine wage gains. In other words, even if there has not been a boom, the recent economic record provides enough good news to make it worth asking just what went right.
The great irony of the nineties cycle is that while the major engineers of the nation's economic policy were determinedly anti- Keynesian, the outcome of their policies has largely vindicated traditional Keynesian economic precepts. Both the Clinton administration and the Federal Reserve Board adopted the view that the best way to promote long-run economic growth was through deficit reduction, which in turn would lead to more private investment and a higher rate of productivity growth. They also accepted the view that the economy had a non accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) in the range of 5.8–6.5 percent. This meant that they believed that if the unemployment rate were allowed to fall below the NAIRU, then the economy would experience accelerating inflation. And that inflation would continue to accelerate until the unemployment rate was pushed back up to at least the NAIRU.
But the nineties recovery has shown that both these assumptions were wrong. Lower deficits actually did not lead to any significant increase in private investment. The share of gross domestic product (GDP) going to investment is virtually unchanged from the last business-cycle peak in 1989, even though the budget deficit has been completely eliminated and the government is now running a surplus. The unemployment rate has now been below 6 percent for four full years, and below 5 percent for more than twelve months. And yet inflation has actually decelerated over this period. True, falling oil prices and the recent rise in the dollar have helped to lower the inflation rate. But it is hard to find any evidence for accelerating inflation anywhere in the data. We can only conclude that if the NAIRU exists at all, it must lie below 4.5 percent.
While the seeming nonexistence of the NAIRU in the nineties has been noted before, the collapse of this economic doctrine is important enough to merit further discussion. Prior to the current upturn, the existence of a NAIRU within a range between 5.8 and 6.5 percent was among the most deeply held articles of faith among macroeconomists. [See "Can't We Go Faster?" TAP, September-October 1997.] Few seriously entertained the possibility that the NAIRU might not exist at all or that it might be significantly lower than the conventional wisdom implied. Consider the consequences of those attitudes. Had economic policy been guided by a dogmatic commitment to the NAIRU view, the unemployment rate never would have been allowed to fall below the bottom end of this range. The Fed eral Reserve Board would have raised interest rates enough to keep the unemployment rate above 5.8 percent, or its best guess of the NAIRU.
The costs of pursuing such a policy would have been enormous. Had the Federal Reserve prevented the unemployment rate from falling below 6 percent, 4.5 million fewer workers would have jobs than currently do. Allowing the unemployment rate to drop to its current level of 4.5 percent had a particularly dramatic impact on the job prospects for disadvantaged demographic groups. The unemployment rate for African-American adults, for example, was 10.1 percent back when the overall unemployment rate was 6 percent. At its low point in June, when the overall unemployment rate had fallen to 4.3 percent, the unemployment rate for African Amer icans hit 7.3 percent. Over this same period the unemployment rate for African-American teens dropped from 35.1 percent to 20.1 percent.
In general, the drop in the overall unemployment rate from the old supposed NAIRU level of 6 percent to the 4.3–4.5 percent range of recent months has disproportionately benefited the least-well-off segment of the population. Those with the least education and experience have seen the greatest increase in their employment rates. In addition, the low unemployment rate (along with the increases in the minimum wage) is one of the factors that have finally caused wages to start rising for those at the bottom end of the income distribution. There is no politically plausible government program that could have provided benefits as large for the poor and near poor as this drop in the unemployment rate. And the hardships that welfare reform will impose on the poor would be far worse if the unemployment rate had not been allowed to fall below the NAIRU.
It is also important to recognize the magnitude of the economic gains derived from lower unemployment relative to the potential gains from other types of economic policy. The standard estimate of the relationship between unemployment and GDP holds that a one percentage point fall in the unemployment rate is associated with a 2 percent increase in GDP. This implies that the U.S. economy has produced more than $500 billion in additional output over the last four and a half years because the unemployment rate was allowed to fall below the accepted measures of the NAIRU. By comparison, the Congressional Budget Office's estimates of the cumulative economic gains from moving to a balanced budget over this period are under $50 billion. The gains that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated the United States would receive from the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) accord are even less. Balancing the budget and the latest GATT round were touted as important economic policies, but even by their proponents' reckoning the benefits associated with these policies do not even come close to those associated with significant reductions in the unemployment rate. If we err by allowing the unemployment rate to be higher than it could be, there is no feasible way of offsetting the enormous losses that the country thus needlessly incurs.
While the Federal Reserve deserves credit for allowing the unemployment rate to fall to its current level, it is not at all clear that this was really their intention. As the unemployment rate fell into the accepted NAIRU range in early 1994, Alan Greenspan testified that he thought that the labor markets were reaching their limits and that unemployment could not fall further. He also engineered a series of interest rate hikes, raising the federal funds rate by a full three percentage points (from 3 to 6 percent) between February 1994 and February 1995. His words and actions certainly indicated that he did not want the unemployment rate to fall below what he considered to be the NAIRU. However, the resilience of the economy surprised most forecasters (myself included), and the unemployment rate continued to edge down in spite of the increase in interest rates. To Greenspan's credit, he did not raise interest rates further once it became clear that lower unemployment was not leading to accelerating inflation. As a result, the nation's workers have enjoyed two years of relative prosperity as tight labor markets have finally allowed them to benefit from the recovery.
Deficits Don't Hurt
The other Keynesian principle that seems to have been vindicated in this business cycle is the non-relationship between government deficits and private investment. The Clinton administration jettisoned its plans for promoting growth through public investment shortly after it took office, opting instead for a strategy of promoting private investment through deficit reduction. The standard economic rationale began with the assumption that lower deficits would lead to lower interest rates. Lower interest rates would in turn lead to both more private domestic investment and more net exports, and therefore more foreign investment.
But it hasn't quite turned out that way. Setting aside the recent decline in interest rates attributable to the flight to the dollar resulting from financial meltdowns around the world, the real interest rate—the nominal rate minus inflation—at the peak of this business cycle was virtually the same as it was at the peak of the last cycle, back in the big-deficit era. The real interest rate on 30-year government bonds averaged 4.9 percent in 1997. In 1989 the real interest rate on 30-year government bonds averaged 3.9 percent. There is not much of a case that lower deficits led to lower interest rates.
Nor was there much of an upturn in investment associated with deficit reduction. Much recent reporting on the economy speaks of an investment boom in this cycle. The most commonly noted measure of investment, the growth rate in "chained 1992 dollars," can give the impression that there has been an investment boom. But it turns out that most of the growth in this measure of investment is attributable to the way in which the Commerce Department measures the quality of computers. This measure shows the quality of computers improving at the rate of 40 percent a year. That means that a $2,000 computer purchased this year will be 40 percent more useful to an individual or corporation than the $2,000 computer they could have purchased in 1997. By the Commerce Department's reasoning, this quality adjustment means that the $2,000 that a firm spends on a computer this year counts as $2,800 of investment in 1992 chained dollars. In the last two years, this quality adjustment for computers has added approximately ten percentage points a year to the growth rate of investment.
A less questionable way to measure trends in investment is to compare the share of GDP that is attributable to investment at present with the peak of the last business cycle. By this measure, there is not much of a case for an investment boom. In the third quarter of 1998, nonresidential investment was 10.9 percent of GDP. This is an increase of 0.5 percent from its 10.4 percent share in 1989. However this increase was completely offset by a decline in net exports. The trade deficit rose from 1.5 percent of GDP in 1989 to 2.0 percent of GDP in the third quarter of 1998, implying a decline in net foreign investment of the same magnitude. If investment and net exports are added together (in effect the combined movement of domestic and foreign investment), the increase in the share of GDP going to investment did not change.
But if investment didn't pick up in response to deficit reduction, just what absorbed the gap in demand created by deficit reduction? The answer is consumption. The share of GDP that went to consumption rose by 2.4 percentage points from 1989 to the third quarter of 1998, almost completely offsetting the decline in the share of GDP that went to government spending. In other words, soaring consumption led this recovery, not soaring investment. That should be apparent from the sharp decline in the savings rate, which stood at less than 1 percent in the third quarter of 1998. From the perspective of national savings, this recovery saw a large increase in public savings (the shift from large budget deficits to budget surpluses) but a completely offsetting decline in private savings. National savings—the sum of public and private savings—was virtually unaffected. As it turns out, the effort to stimulate investment through deficit reduction was a failure, just as Keynes would have predicted.
The other part of the story is no less interesting. What spurred consumption and drove down savings was the enormous run-up in stock prices. The stock market rose by almost 160 percent in real terms from 1993 to its peak earlier this year. This created more than $8 trillion in new wealth. Not surprisingly, this new wealth caused stockholders to spend more and save less. It was this spending that kept the economy growing as the deficit shrank. This effect was particularly strong in the last two years, as the stock market created more than $5 trillion of additional wealth in 1996 and 1997 alone.
It is ironic that the rising stock market has led to this consumption boom. The textbook theory holds that high stock prices should lead to more investment by effectively decreasing the cost to firms of borrowing on the stock market. But the stock market has not been a major source of capital for most corporations for decades. In fact, corporations have been net lend ers, not borrowers, on the stock exchange. In 1997 they actually bought $41.2 billion more in stock shares than they issued, even as price to earnings ratios were at record highs. Stock prices clearly have very little impact on firms' investment decisions.
However, stock prices do have a significant impact on consumers' savings and consumption decisions. By creating $8 trillion in new wealth, the stock market provided a basis for a spending spree among the segment of the population that owns significant amounts of stock. (Unfortunately, this is still a very small share of the population. Less than half of households own any stock at all, including indirect ownership through 401 (k) plans. Of those that own stock, the median holding is under $20,000.) The run-up in stock prices had the same sort of stimulatory effect on consumption as if the Federal Reserve Board had printed $8 trillion and dispersed it among the population. However, in this case, the Fed didn't have to do anything; the private sector created the paper wealth. Call it stock market Keynesianism.
The Bubble Bursts
But there's a catch. If the booming stock market was the major force propelling consumption and growth, what happens when the market reverses course, as now seems to be happening? It's not a pretty picture. Unlike the case with conventional fiscal policy, there is no one at the controls when the market turns south. Consumption demand will likely fall sharply as stockholders realize that their portfolios are worth much less than they had thought. This decline in demand will be accentuated by the plunge in exports to developing nations, which are suffering from their own financial collapses. Government budget policy is likely to make matters worse, as the administration tries to run large budget surpluses to "save Social Security." (This is the same fiscal strategy recently pursued by Japan with such great success.)
With the major components of demand all moving downward, we will be fortunate to avoid a recession. If the Fed is slow to react to the downturn and the administration remains wedded to the pursuit of budget surpluses, the downturn could be quite severe. The most recent business cycle should provide renewed confidence in the power of simple Keynesian remedies to reverse a slump. But it remains to be seen whether Washington's policymakers are too dogmatic to absorb these lessons.
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Posted by Linden on March 28, 1998 at 20:38:31:
In response to testifying in behalf of yourself., written by P. Bingham on March 28, 1998 at 15:46:46
] But here is a passage from "What Jane Austen Ate & Charles Dickens Knew." end of page 137-138. This might be where you got your information from?
] "... Until 1898 the accused was not permitted to testify at all, even in his own behalf. A lwayer for the accused in felony cases was permitted no chance to question or cross-examine witnesses...."
Is this true? I believe it was the case in France (which is why Dreyfuss couldn't defend himself) but I thought in England you were expected to speak at your trial - and the jury might draw their own conclusions if you didn't.
This isn't just an academic enquiry - I'm writing a novel set in Regency times when one of the high points is the accused person's defence speech. I'd be seriously irritated if I have to scrap the scene.
- Relax, Linden! Mrs. Leigh-Perrot DID speak! Laura W 23:19:41 4/22/98 (0)
- That is very irritating isn't it? P. Bingham 20:51:58 3/28/98 (1)
- off the subject just a wee bit... The Elgin adultery trial P. Bingham 13:16:35 3/30/98 (0)
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Rules and Practices
Mission Statement: Our mission is to enable equal access to an education and University life by creating an accessible campus community where students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to fully participate in all aspects of the educational environment.
Within the guidelines set forth in this policy, Tarleton State University faculty, staff, and students are committed to providing an accessible and supportive environment for students with disabilities. Equal access for qualified students with disabilities is an obligation of the University under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Tarleton State University does not discriminate on the basis of disability against otherwise qualified individuals in any program, service or activity offered by the University. The University is committed to insuring that no qualified individual with a disability is excluded, denied services, segregated or otherwise treated differently than other individuals because of the absence of auxiliary aids or other reasonable services.
Declaration of Need
Upon admission to the University, students with disabilities must identify themselves to the Office of Student Disability Services in order to receive consideration for accommodations or services. It is the responsibility of the student to initiate contact and to provide sufficient documentation from a credentialed evaluator.
Provision of appropriate documentation is of two-fold importance: establishing that a student is a person with a disability and thereby entitled to equal access according to federal mandates AND establishing that a student has a need for accommodation in order to obtain equal access. Documentation must demonstrate that the physical or mental disability creates a substantial limitation to a major life activity. In order to be considered for accommodations, the student’s documentation must establish a current need for the requested accommodation(s). Timely documentation should be from an appropriately credentialed professional.
The Director of Student Disability Services has been appointed the authority to make decisions on behalf of the institution regarding accommodation requests by University administration. The Director may consult with an advisory committee comprised of faculty and professional staff in considering specific student requests and with the University Committee for Disability Services regarding policy, guidelines, and resources.
Requests for accommodations are made in person with the Director of Student Disability Services after the provision of appropriate documentation. Requests for accommodations may be made at any time; however, it is to the benefit of the student to contact Student Disability Services prior to the semester for which accommodations are being requested. Typically, decisions regarding accommodations will be determined within two weeks of the request. Longer consideration may be needed in certain circumstances (i.e. additional documentation needed, exploration of options with technology, etc.) Once appropriate accommodations have been identified, letters to faculty will be created that describe the accommodations the student may be requesting for his/her respective courses. It is the responsibility of the student to deliver the letters to faculty and to discuss any course specific issues at that time. Some students with testing related accommodations may take departmental exams with University Testing. Students are responsible for being familiar with and following University Testing procedures. Although Student Disability Services works closely with University Testing, University Testing has the final authority for scheduling exams. Students who believe that agreed upon accommodations are not appropriately provided should contact the Director of Student Disability Services for support in mediation. If a student is not satisfied with actions taken by Student Disability Services, s/he should follow the grievance procedure outlined in this document.
Student Disability Services and Tarleton State University recognize and respect the sensitive nature of disability related information and adhere to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in handling such information. All disability related information is collected and maintained by Student Disability Services. Documentation of disability is held in the office of the Director and is accessed only by Student Disability Services staff or by members of the advisory committee. Disability related information that is pertinent to other departments will be housed by that department and afforded the same concern for privacy (i.e. Financial Aid or Residential Living and Learning).
Reduced Course Load
Students requesting a reduced course load (less than 12 semester hours) while maintaining status as a full time student should pursue the request as described previously in this document. The Director of Student Disability Services in consultation with the advisory committee will make a determination. In order to be considered for a reduced course load, a student must provide a full scale psychological evaluation or comprehensive medical records supporting the request. Students approved for this accommodation will access all of the rights and privileges afforded any full time student at the University. However, issues may arise that are beyond the University’s scope of decision making (such as federal financial aid) that must be negotiated by the student.
A student, faculty member, or staff person has the right to file a grievance concerning allegations of failure to comply with laws, regulations, and policies set forth for students with disabilities. The following procedure should be followed in doing so:
- The student, faculty, or staff member will present, in writing, to the Director of Student Disability Services reasons why the accommodation in question does or does not compromise the essential requirements of a course or program. If the grievance is against the Director of Student Disability Services, communications should be directed to the Dean of General Studies.
- The Director of Student Disability Services will address the issue in coordination with the Student Disability Services Advisory Committee, and will provide the decision to the grieving party in writing.
- If the student, faculty member, or staff person chooses to request a review of the appeal, s/he may do so by providing a written request to Academic Affairs.
The grieving party may also, at any time, contact the Office of Civil Rights (OCR); completion of this process is not a requirement for OCR involvement. | <urn:uuid:aecbbee3-da1c-4f13-aba8-316feef9ce6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tarleton.edu/SUCCESSWEB/sds/rulesandpractices.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938054 | 1,131 | 1.875 | 2 |
Technically, all logos should have an international target because the internet is global. However, there are thousands of logos that cater only to a local market, mainly for three reasons: lack of interest to go global; budget for a professional logo designer; and inability to conceptualize their business as being international.
These are simple issues that can be addressed and resolved with the right attitude. First of all, going international should be automatic, and not even questioned because the minute a website is launched, it’s international. Second, finding the budget to hire a designer can be managed with a deal that has nothing to do with exchange of money. And third, a website is universal and global, so like it or not, it’s international.
This brings us to the question of designing an international logo. There are 8 steps to creating a logo design that appeals to a market without borders. These steps are: design concept, research, reference, conceptualization, feedback, revision, presentation, and launching.
It should also conform to logo design criteria like versatility, timelessness, simplicity, appropriateness, and recall factors. It should also be a work that can be used regardless of platform or application. This is because not everyone uses the same media and application. For instance, Asia has it own preferences, as does Europe and the United States.
One of the most important aspects of designing an international logo is being able to avoid offending anyone. With so many different cultures and ideals, it is possible to overlook one aspect of a logo design, and end up offending the very market you would be interested in targeting. For instance, a logo with sexual “suggestions” will not be taken lightly with a grain of salt in many Asian countries, especially a superpower country like China. You will alienate these countries and make it impossible for the business to get a foothold in any measure.
You can try to follow these set of principles in logo design that have been used by major international companies all across the globe.
First, avoid use of too many colors. This is distracting and a waste of logo design. A logo should be simple and memorable – but for the right reasons.
Second, no clutter means better market value. The logo design is the last place to incorporate everything about the company and its products. You don’t need to do this at all. It can come as part of a process when the product becomes associated with the logo.
Third, be as unique as possible, but make sure it is readable and recognizable. This means avoid twisting and turning your design any which way. People need to be able to relate to the logo, and if they can’t figure it out, then it has very low recall value.
Fourth, not everyone will like your logo design, so who should you listen to? Always design the logo with the client in mind. They are the ones who will approve your work, and even if your spouse or boss hates it, it is no indication of rejection. The queerest logo often find their way to the top because being unique without a hint of offensiveness sells. Of course, you should find a group of people, who objectively think your logo design is good, because if everyone is telling you your work is horrible, then there may be a need to go back to the drawing board.
Fifth, be sure to do your research on international logos. You have a lot of ground to cover, and it is possible that your design bears some similarity to an existing brand from a business halfway across the world.
Sixth, never, ever use clipart. This is logo design 101, and unacceptable for international standards.
Seventh, you need to focus on designing a timeless logo. This means it will look great as black and white, inverted, or resized. If you decide to go with existing trends, you might find the logo to be outdated in a few years. You should also never use a picture or photograph to be the logo. It’s cheap. It’s lazy, and it’s never going to work in the international arena.
Eighth, keep it simple. This means no special effects and too much details. It should also stay more on the side of conservative rather than being flashy and modern. A logo that tries to shock may be very successful in a specific community, but when you are dealing with people from all over the world, it is possible that the logo alone will either create interest or be a reason for rejecting a product.
Finally, a logo will never be perfect. Just look at Google. It constantly goes through changes and re-designs, wanted or unwanted. You can make different perspectives on your logo design which will increase your chances of having your work approved by the client. | <urn:uuid:ca1a6c18-94df-428a-9996-a9969d52d329> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freelancelogo.com/2010/10/how-to-create-an-international-logo-design/ | 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 | 0.959023 | 981 | 1.773438 | 2 |
I have spent many an April 14 working all night, rushing to finish tax returns for clients who brought their information in at the last minute. Tax professionals aren’t the only ones who go through this push—I have seen taxpayers stressing out, too, trying to get their tax returns completed by the deadline.
If tax filers avoided these six mistakes, the process of filing a tax return wouldn’t be so stressful:
Mistake # 1: Rushing to file by April 15
You do not have to file your tax return by April 15—or, in this year’s case, April 18. Six-month extensions are now automatic. You no longer have to make up some lie about why you’re not ready. Simply take a deep breath, relax, and file Form 4868 instead. (Use Form 7004 for estates, trusts, and other forms due on April 18.)
Mistake # 2: Killing yourself to make sure everything is absolutely accurate
While you are expected to file a truthful, accurate tax return, you do not have to beat yourself to death if you cannot get absolutely accurate information. The IRS will not send you to jail if you make a mistake. Find all the accurate details you can about your income and expenses. If you have lost some information that you cannot replace, make an honest effort to reconstruct the information, using reasonable estimates. Too many people put off filing their tax returns because they’re perfectionists—and end up not filing at all.
Mistake # 3: Not using a tax professional when you need one
Unusual things might have happened this year that you don’t know how to express to the IRS. Don’t prepare your tax return yourself. Working with a professional is less expensive than you imagine. And aside from handling the new situation properly, your tax pro will most likely find ways to reduce your overall tax bill. You will also be less likely to be audited. Tax professionals make fewer glaring errors—resulting in fewer audits.
Mistake #4: Not stopping to think and review
Look at your taxes with fresh eyes. Make sure nothing is entered on the wrong line or is incomplete. Are all Social Security numbers correct? Are there credits or deductions you overlooked? How much tax money can you save with an IRA? If you are self-employed, explore other retirement-funding options.
Mistake #5: Not asking questions
Don’t be afraid to look foolish. There are lots of places where you can get answers to your tax questions. If the IRS website or the IRS help line doesn’t suffice, ask your question here—or at www.taxmama.com.
Mistake #6: Not triple-checking your bank account numbers for direct deposit
The IRS is responsible for depositing your refund into the account you tell them to use. If you transpose a couple of digits, or enter the wrong number, the IRS will deposit your money to the wrong account. It can be a nightmare getting your money back—if you get it back at all.
Preparing a tax return is not easy. But it doesn’t need to be agonizing, either. Once you get into it, it can actually be fun. So play detective and find the best tax breaks you can—and don’t pay any more tax than you are legally obligated to pay.
Itemized Deduction, AMT, and Other Tax Nightmares
Do I Get a Deduction for My Gifts? Or Do I Get Punished for Being Generous?
Estate Tax Tips: A Choice for 2010
Free Tax Services: Do You Qualify?
6 Things You Can Do All Year Long to Save Money on Your Tax Bill
Equifax maintains this interactive forum for education and information purposes in order to allow individuals to share their relevant knowledge and opinions with other members and visitors. We encourage you to participate in discussions about personal finance issues and other topics of interest to this community, but please read our commenting guidelines first. Equifax reserves the right to monitor postings to the forum and comments will be published at our discretion. Do you have questions or comments about your Equifax credit report or customer-service issues regarding an Equifax product? If so, please contact Equifax directly. All opinions and information expressed or shared in blog comments are solely those of the person submitting the comments, and don't necessarily represent the views of Equifax or its management. | <urn:uuid:0b573c8a-3c18-4521-a4e1-69c41780059a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.equifax.com/tax/last-minute-tax-filing-tips-6-mistakes-every-tax-filer-should-avoid/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939514 | 915 | 1.71875 | 2 |
You’re probably familiar with the AIDS Quilt, the massive 54-ton piece of crowdsourced community art that travels the country. Made up of 46,000 three-inch-by-six-inch blocks of fabric, it’s a powerful memorial to the ravages of the AIDS epidemic.
But the quilt, being so large, doesn’t travel much. And sewing, let’s be honest, isn’t for everyone. What is for everyone? The Internet. Which is why on World AIDS Day this year ONE and (RED) launched their (2015)Quilt, an online project that approximates the original quilt--with a much lower bar to entry--and hopefully garners attention toward (RED)'s goal of ending transmission of AIDS from mother to children by 2015.
Anyone can go online and design a panel with pre-loaded designs. You can also upload your own and include pictures from Facebook. Along with your square, you’re asked if you want to commit to buying a RED product, joining ONE, or making some other commitment toward ending AIDS.
Because it’s ONE, a lot of celebrities have gotten in on the cause, and because they’re celebrities, they’ve mostly chosen to use their own images as their quilt squares. Above, you can see some of the squares regular folks designed, as well as entries from luminaries like Justin Bieber, Zach Galifianakis, and Ellen Degeneres.
The AIDS Quilt is an incredibly powerful reminder of what AIDS did to a large portion of our country. Can an online quilt--made with patches thrown together from your Facebook wall--hold the same meaning? Doubtful. But if it gets the Facebook generation involved in finishing the fight against AIDS, it might be a reasonable trade-off. | <urn:uuid:03abd4db-3ae7-4114-acd6-f15d34055bb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678910/an-aids-quilt-for-the-internet-age-plus-celebrities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948355 | 380 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Top White Papers
GraphicsMuse: Paper Tutor - A look at the Blender Tutor Guide, CD and ManualMar 06, 2000, 18:39 (2 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Michael J. Hammel)
[ Thanks to Michael J. Hammel for this link. ]
"Being just like the rest of the end user world, I put the manual aside (at that point I had only glanced through it). Instead, I jumped right into the tutorials. I'm a writer - I need to learn fast and have a firm understanding of my subject matter before I can put words to electrons. (Paper? What paper?) The Tutorial Guide had better get me going."
"I wasn't disappointed. The Guide starts off with an introduction to the visually complex Blender interface. This conglomeration of buttons and sliders is all OpenGL based - it doesn't look or act like a GTK or KDE application, but that's a good thing. For you UI aficionados out there, there is some serious overloading of UI components in the Blender interface: labels that act like sliders, direction oriented context sensitive button presses, buttons which cycle through various values based on which side of the button you press and more. The lack of familiarity makes the interface appear complex. But once you learn how consistent the interface really is, you find its exactly as it ought to be. Its an interface whose features match its functions...."
"The Guide is well designed. The early tutorials provide enough basics to get you motivated enough to move into the more detailed middle tutorials. Here you'll find help in learning more specific features. The Pawn tutorial introduces you to animation, for example, while the asteroid tutorial covers particle systems. The flow from front to back of the Guide is just as you'd expect - beginner to intermediate to advanced."
0 Talkback[s] (click to add your comment) | <urn:uuid:7c31b05f-2095-4cce-9bed-c2f445fd9b69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2000030600104NWBR | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93553 | 393 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The Players: Injustice in Perugia, a blog supporting the innocence of Amanda Knox, the young woman charged with murdering her study-abroad roommate Meredith Kercher, and fellow Knox supporters; Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, along with assorted Wikipedia users
Opening Serve: Injustice in Perugia sent an open letter to Wales, noting that Wikipedia would not allow the creation of an "Amanda Knox" article separate from "The Murder of Meredith Kercher," and that the article "in its present form is not written from a neutral point of view and bears little resemblance to what reliable sources have said about the case."
Return Volley: Wales responded by creating a discussion about the "Murder of Meredith Kercher" page, writing, "My interest is simply in making sure that this entry accurately reflects what reliable sources have said and that no reliable sources are omitted based on anyone's agenda in either direction." Thus began the Wikipedia user brawl.
What They Say The Spat's About: Knox's supporters argue that Wikipedia's coverage of the case "for the most part relies on obsolete and inaccurate British tabloid reports for its information" and omits "criticism of numerous important experts who have stated in no uncertain terms that Knox and Sollecito did not receive a fair trial." The discussion, which Wales created in response to the letter (written on the group's Blogspot blog), has already prompted responses from critics who question whether Wales is bowing to the pro-Knox agenda. One commenter, Ian Spackman, wrote: "I certainly agree that the article should reflect reliable sources. But a blog post? One on a site which perhaps less than neutrally describes itself as 'INJUSTICE IN PERUGIA: THE WRONGFUL CONVICTION OF AMANDA KNOX &RAFFAELE SOLLECITO'? Surely the kind of stuff an encyclopedia should turn up its nose at, rather than waste its time over."
What The Spat's Really About: The back and forth may have started by asking how much of the Wikipedia article is factual, but has now evolved to a question of whether Wales's response to complaints from an interest group--such as Injustice in Perugia--is warranted. "An internet petition with all of 60 signatures? Hmm, I am not seeing the compelling need for the founder to get involved here," writes Wikipedia User "John" in the discussion.
Who's Winning Now: The "Murder of Meredith Kercher" Wikipedia page has not been changed, nor has an "Amanda Knox" page been added. Still, the open discussion continues, with Wales advocating for accuracy. "A petition doesn't matter. Number of signatures doesn't matter. Getting it right is all that matters. I accept input from all kinds of sources, and we should always be willing to take another look," Wales responded to "John's" comment. Having successfully recruited Wales in their effort to publish the truth--whatever it may be--would seem to be a win for Injustice in Perugia, for now. | <urn:uuid:6999ebb4-ec6f-4eb3-8a90-613ac38ab24f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/03/amanda-knox-supporters-vs-jimmy-wales/36045/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95451 | 628 | 1.585938 | 2 |
A team sponsored by Uruguay’s Universidad de la Republica has developed a simple electronics kit that can be used to modify an XO-1 to let you draw on its screen with a wireless stylus and a thin acrylic sheet, turning it into a touchscreen. Christoph has written more about this and their related robotics work.
The methodology described in their project poster is brief and tantalizing – it looks like a most promising idea. The invention can in theory work with any screen or computer, but here they are showing how it works with an XO. Here is a closeup of a Lapix set in action:
Check out the photo and transcription of the project poster after the jump. | <urn:uuid:7a258a07-0793-4b08-a1a5-2b71199f4234> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.laptop.org/tag/udlr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944593 | 143 | 2.28125 | 2 |
In a media centered universe saturated with unsavory role models, many parents look towards reading as an alternative form of entertainment for their children. There are so many wonderful books for children to read and others less so. Reading the right books is a wonderful and safe way to open up the world to your children. In this column I present some children’s books for ages 8-12 that help to ignite a positive value system. Happy Reading!
Here are five books that deal beautifully with the theme of friendship, a prominent value in the lives of both children and adults. Friends in these books assume all different forms; an adult caretaker, a pen-pal, the most popular girl in fifth grade and the least popular one as well. But all display the truest forms of friendship; loyalty, caring and love.
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, by Bette Bao Lord: Harper Trophy
Black and White illustrations by Mark Simont
In the Year of the Dog, 4645, otherwise known as 1947, a Chinese girl’s family decides to move away from the clan in China to make a new life for themselves in New York. The girl is known as Sixth cousin or Bandit, but is knighted Shirley Temple Wong as her American moniker. Shirley attempts to navigate the world that is America while hopelessly longing for home, for her cousins and her servants, and even more desperately pining for a friend. Slowly, Shirley finds a place for herself, befriending Mabel, the scariest girl in fifth grade, taking piano lessons and acclimating to life in New York. But Shirley finds hope and consolation in the great American dream when she discovers baseball and best of all, Jackie Robinson. This book is both poignant and hilarious, dealing with themes such as belonging, friendship and loyalty. Sports fans will enjoy the bit of baseball history and all readers will be drawn to the humor and spirit doled out by Shirley.click here to purchase from Amazon.com
Dear Mr. Henshaw, by Beverly Cleary: Harper Trophy
Black and White Illustrations by Paul. O. Zelinsky
Beloved author Beverly Clearly wins kids over again in this touching Newbery award-winning book, narrated by sixth grader Leigh Botts. After Leigh’s parents divorce, Leigh lives with his mother in a ramshackle hut by the sea while his father continues hauling his rig around the country – barely remembering to call Leigh. Leigh has no friends at his new school and many emotions brewing inside of him. He finds an unlikely catharsis when he begins a correspondence with his favorite author, Mr. Henshaw. Through this friendship of letters and postcards, Leigh comes to terms with the way things are, realizing that as his mother says “Whenever I watch the waves, I always feel that no matter how bad things seem, life will go on.” Children will cheer as Leigh finally makes a friend at school and reaches an understanding with his father. A beloved canine rounds this book out to a great read. This book will appeal to any child learning to deal with change. The themes are sensitive but the language and narration coupled with the illustrations make the book very readable even for reluctant readers.click here to purchase from Amazon.com
Confessions of a Closet Catholic, by Sarah Darer Littman: Puffin Books
Justine Silver, aka Jussy wishes her family were more like her best friend Catherine Mary McAllister’s family. The only problem is that ‘Mac’s family is Catholic while Jussy’s is Jewish. Jussy decides that her parents’ distance from their own religion legitimizes her own exploration of other religions. She weighs each of the religions, deciding against them for various reasons, Hinduism, for example is ruled out because “there are a lot of gods and remembering things isn’t my strong suit. I can just see myself calling one of them by the wrong name and being sentenced to come back as a cockroach.” Eventually deciding on Catholicism, Jussy converts her closet into a secret confessional where she stows her rosary beads and her oversized teddy-bear serving as “Father Ted.” But when Jussy’s beloved Bubbe gets sick, she is saddled with guilt. Her Bubbe, a Holocaust survivor, still keeps all of the Jewish laws that her parents find so archaic and Jussy wonders if her abandonment of her faith led to Bubbe’s stroke. Jussy is led to reexamine the religion of her birth, setting upon her research with her characteristic gusto. And when Jussy encounters authentic Judaism, she discovers that the greatest friendship of all is with her very own religion.
This thoroughly enjoyable book, winner of the Sydney Taylor Award, will have young readers identifying with Jussy’s pre-adolescent angst and insecurity. It is a wonderful way to help non-religious Jewish children explore their Jewish identity through a humorous and relatable story. click here to purchase from Amazon.com
Ida B …and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World, by Katherine Hannigan: Greenwillow Books
Fourth grader Ida B would be perfectly content to go on being home schooled on her beautiful property with her brook and her orchard her whole life. But when Mama gets sick, Ida B is forced to go to school, something she thinks she can never forgive her father for. She sets herself against making friends or achieving any sort of happiness at school, entering a “black” period of her life. But when her classmate Claire moves on to Ida B’s property with her family to help Daddy pay for Mama’s medical bills, Ida B behaves in a way that even she is ashamed of. And then just when Ida B thinks things couldn’t be any darker - they start to get better. This story is told with approachable first person narration, with Ida B its quirky, funny and extraordinary heroine.click here to purchase from Amazon.com
For advanced Readers:
A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park: Yearling
Tree-Ear, an orphan boy in 12th century Korea, lives under a bridge with his dear friend Crane-Man, a man whose wisdom and love more than compensate for his physical disability. But Tree-Ear dreams of becoming a potter one day, spying on the master potters as he forages for food in their rubbish heaps. Tree-Ear can’t believe his good fortune when Min the master Potter agrees to use Tree-Ear as an apprentice, earning him a meal to share with Crane-Man each night and insight into the art he so admires. But the backbreaking labor of collecting wood and clay is not exactly what he had hoped for and the gruff manner in which Min relates to Tree-Ear is a far cry from his peaceful little life with Crane-Man. But when Min’s work is considered for a commission from the king, Tree-Ear offers to chance the long journey alone to present master Min’s pottery to the King’s emissary. Unexpected obstacles along the way force Tree-Ear to dig into untapped wells of courage within him.
This beautifully woven story of friendship, adventure and perseverance received the 2002 Newbery medal. Children who are open to expansive subject matter in their reading will greatly enjoy this book.click here to purchase from Amazon.com | <urn:uuid:ab873b51-ceff-4be7-9f8c-69149083a15b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/f/p/83871102.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957429 | 1,552 | 2.578125 | 3 |
We deconstruct the music, and look at the world that inspired it.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with its “Ode to Joy” finale, has come down through the centuries as history’s great and towering hymn to freedom, joy, brotherhood.
We roll it out as a climax, a capstone, a high marker of moments of human profundity.
But the year of its premier, 1824, in Vienna, was a time of great repression, of ultra-conservative nationalism, as old dynasties pushed back against years of Enlightenment and revolution.
This Hour, On Point: Beethoven’s Ninth, in the tide of history.
Harvey Sachs, music historian whose new book is called “The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824.” He is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. You can read an excerpt (copyright Random House 2010.)
James Conlon, music director for the Los Angeles Opera. He also serves as music director for the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and the Cincinatti May Festival. He has conducted performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. | <urn:uuid:92c45f1e-6bec-4a07-b221-f3541fc2709f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onpoint.wbur.org/2010/06/15/beethovens-ninth-symphony | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94266 | 251 | 2.28125 | 2 |
A North Atlantic right whale and her calf were spotted outside Plymouth Harbor on Saturday, the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies said — a sighting so early that one scientist called it “mind blowing.”
“I’ve been studying these waters for 27 consecutive years, and it used to be that April 15 would be when we would first see mothers with calves,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, a scientist at the center. “We did have a couple of instances of mothers coming up here really early, in late March, but January is completely unheard of.”
Pregnant right whales typically migrate to the coasts of Georgia and Florida to give birth in December or January before returning to feeding grounds like Cape Cod Bay in mid-April, Mayo said.
The whale holds special significance for the center, which in 2008 found it entangled in a rope. Crews made several attempts over three years to free the whale, nicknamed Wart, before cutting the rope with a specially designed arrow in 2011.
The center knew it was the same whale because New England Aquarium scientists identified it from aerial photos.
“She was a whale my team and I worked very hard on,” said Scott Landry, director of the center’s entanglement response team. Wart had not been seen since 2011, he said. | <urn:uuid:a7be4844-49da-4372-8c6a-327e0c352e27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/12/right-whale-spotted-with-calf-near-plymouth-harbor/lObFw8dVo997v0VLQea94H/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979194 | 283 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A couple of dear readers have sent us questions related to environmental issues in Costa Rica. Our country has considerably stepped up conservation efforts since the mid-1970s, and there is a commitment in place to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2021. Conservation and carbon neutrality are two issues that go hand-in-hand to ensure that our country remains pretty and pristine, and thus The Costa Rica Star is delighted to answer the questions below.
Carol is a real estate entrepreneur who lives in Cartago and asked us the following questions:
Do you know what government or non-government program pays you to put your primary and secondary forest into a conservation program? How does this program work? Who would you contact to become involved it the program?
Hello Carol. The program you are referring to is known as Payment for Environmental Services (PSA is the Spanish acronym), and it is part of a monetary fund called the National Fund for Forestry Financing (FONAFIFO in Spanish). This government fund is authorized by our Forestry Law 7575 financed by a number of sources, particularly from taxes on fossil fuels, which is part of the reason why gasoline and diesel are so expensive here. This fund serves a couple of purposes: it seeks to encourage environmental conservation by offering financing for different reforestation projects, and to give financial recognition and incentives to landowners who help protect green areas. This in turn helps to provide ecological, social and economic benefits to the community.
If any of the following environmental protection measures are being implemented or practiced in either primary or secondary forests, then the landowner qualifies to receive certain financial benefits from FONAFIFO:
-Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
-Protecting natural sources of water that are used for hydroelectricity.
-Protecting the ecosystem and biodiversity, and placing the protected land at the service of scientific research or sustainable tourism.
Landowners who want to register their lands in FONAFIFO must sign a five-year contract and could stand to receive about $60 per year per each hectare registered. The contract can be renewed. From a real estate investment point of view, the program not only generates income from the land, but also goes a long way in enhancing property value. Landowners should keep in mind that the conservation measures set forth by FONAFIFO aren’t overly restrictive. A nice home can be built and kept within a protected forest, as long as it abides by the terms of the contract. Just like with the Blue Ecological Flag program for our beaches, FONAFIFO makes land and real estate attractive for buyers.
The FONAFIFO program has worked quite well since its enactment in the mid-1990s. In a 2009 research study published in the scientific Ecology and Society journal, researchers from the University of Idaho and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center determined that FONAFIFO “provides evidence that environmental service payments can be effective in retaining natural forest and recruiting tree cover within biological corridors.”
To find out more about the land registration and conservation process, you can visit FONAFIFO’s web page or call any of their 8 regional offices around the country.
A dear reader named Peter asked the following: I will be staying at a hostel in Alajuela in March and I am interested in going to the crater of the Poas Volcano and its lagoon. What would be the most sustainable way to travel within Costa Rica? Can you recommend a travel or tour agency that practices sustainability?
Hello Peter. We are happy that you will be staying in the birthplace of Juan Santamaria, our National Hero, and that you will visit one of our most popular tourist attractions. We are even happier that you are interested in sustainable travel, something that fits in nicely with our goal of becoming a carbon-neutral country by the beginning of the next decade. Costa Rica thanks you for your concern.
Since you are probably staying at some of the quiet hostels around downtown Alajuela, we think that the most sustainable -and the cheapest- trip to the Poas Volcano in your case would be to carry your backpack and walk the 35 kilometers to the crater. Along the way you can buy fruit from the roadside stands and drop the seeds off into forest alongside the trails. If a local guide approaches you on the way to the summit, retain his or her services and pay accordingly. Take a digital camera with you, preferably one that is a feature of a cell phone. Engage the locals along the way, teach them something and learn something from them. If you plan on walking back, you’ll want to rest overnight; so if you’re camping out with your sleeping bag make sure to pick up any trash, although we recommend that you stay at a bed and breakfast or small hotel along the way.
Does the itinerary above sound unreasonable? It may be, but it is highly sustainable according to the definition of sustainability posited by Brazilian philosopher Leonardo Boff, which recently appeared on digital news daily El Pais, a publication that features a special section on environmental issues: “Sustainability comprises all actions destined to make all energetic, informational and biochemical aspects that make all living beings sustainable; particularly Gaia (the living Earth), the community and human life. Sustainability seeks to provide a continuum that caters to the needs of present and future generations, in a way that natural resources are conserved and that Gaia’s capacity of regeneration, reproduction and evolution are enriched.”
Leonardo Boff’s definition calls for a holistic approach to sustainability. Peter’s hypothetical trip allows him to leave a minimal carbon footprint by avoiding the burning of fossil fuels, supports the local economy, gives back to the earth, and promotes knowledge exchange and information sharing. To lessen the burden of Peter’s trip we could also recommend jumping on the local bus from Alajuela to San Pedro de Poas, thereby reducing his walking distance by more than 20 kilometers. That bus is likely to be an old Bluebird diesel school bus, something that will probably increase Peter’s carbon footprint, but at the same time he is supporting the local economy and mass transportation -two factors that contribute to sustainability. To reduce Peter’s carbon footprint further, it would be necessary to take a look at whether the bus company is doing its part to become carbon neutral.
A tour or travel operator can practice sustainability simply by aiming to become carbon neutral. There is little that an airline can do, for example, about the exhaust emissions from its aircraft, but there are other ways to offset them. This brings to mind Nature Air, a Tico airline that is engaged in several practices to achieve carbon neutrality. One of the ways Nature Air accomplishes carbon neutrality is through significant contributions to FONAFIFO, as we explained to Carol above. Reducing our carbon footprint and compensating for what we cannot reduce are good sustainable practices.
We hope you enjoy your trip to the volcano, Peter. If you take pictures, please share them with The Costa Rica Star at email@example.com.
We would like to learn from our readers about tourism operators that practice sustainability, or methods to reduce our carbon footprint as we travel. | <urn:uuid:f8b64c11-de5a-4f2c-86ca-bdf4becd4a8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.co.cr/land-conservation-and-sustainable-travel/1954/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948839 | 1,487 | 2.25 | 2 |
Download our BUMPWATCH Pregnancy Tracker. Everything there is to know week by week. FREE
Diabetes is a condition where your body is unable to regulate the amount of glucose in your blood, resulting in too much glucose (sugar) in your blood. Ordinarily your blood glucose levels are regulated by insulin, a hormone that's made in the pancreas, but occasionally the increase of particular hormones during pregnancy can stop insulin from working properly, resulting in a temporary form of diabetes called Gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes effects 3 -10% of pregnant women and those who suffer the condition have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus after pregnancy. Additionally, their children are at a higher risk of developing childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life.
Symptoms of Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes is usually discovered as a result of a routine blood sugar test that is performed on all pregnant women at 24 -26 weeks, but if you are experiencing the following symptoms, you should discuss your concerns with your doctor:
- Excessive hunger and thirst
- Excessive urination
- Extreme tiredness
- Blurry vision
- High blood pressure
- Recurrent thrush infections
Who gets Gestational diabetes?
You have an increased risk of developing Gestational diabetes if you are:
- Over 30 years of age
- From a family with history of type 2 diabetes
- Overweight or obese
- An indigenous Australian or Torres Strait Islander
- Are from one of the following ethnic groups: Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, Polynesian and Melanesian Vietnamese
- Have a previous history of Gestational diabetes
Effects of Gestational diabetes
Babies born to mothers with Gestational diabetes often have low blood sugar and/or jaundice at birth, both of which require treatment. They are also often large for their gestational age which can cause complications at birth and may require a caesarean delivery
Treatment of Gestational diabetes
Gestational diabetes is usually successfully controlled by managing your diet and moderate exercise. After diagnosis:
- You will need to consult with a nutritionist to learn how to manage your temporary condition.
- You will need to do some regular physical activity.
- You will need to monitor your blood sugar levels several times a day via a blood test
- You may be required to use insulin injections for the remainder of your pregnancy if you are unable to control your Gestational diabetes through diet alone
- Gestational diabetes usually disappears after birth
This article was written by Ella Walsh for Australia's leading pregnancy resource, Kidspot. Sources include Diabetes Australia.
Last revised: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
This article contains general information only and is not intended to replace advice from a qualified health professional. | <urn:uuid:6dc625ef-a348-4ef5-b9d6-d5fa93ee7d17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidspot.com.au/www.kidspot.com.au/familyhealth/Pregnancy-Health-Gestational-diabetes+2646+184+article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927986 | 569 | 3.296875 | 3 |
First of all, it must be accepted that the last decade of reforms, implemented with the AKP at the helm of the country, does not represent the first or only period of democratization. It is true, of course, that the AKP has launched revolutionary reforms that are unparalleled, particularly with respect to previous reforms in the history of the Turkish Republic. Yet, it should not be forgotten that if the foundations of the sociopolitical and economic infrastructure in question had not been laid with perseverance and determination starting in the 1980s, the AKP, as a component of the political superstructure, couldn't possibly have implemented those tremendous reforms. In this context, I think we should be fair enough to acknowledge the part played in the last decade of transformation by what the late President Turgut Özal did in the 1980s.
Özal had come to power hot on the heels of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup -- i.e., at a time when the military still had clout and tutelage over the political system -- and, against all odds, he patiently toiled to establish a sociopolitical and economic infrastructure on which the country's recent strides in democratization are based. Given the fact that some of the politicians Özal included in his party to make sure every political tendency in the country was represented were later found to be affiliated with Ergenekon, a clandestine organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically elected government, it has now become evident how lonely Özal was in his efforts to create this infrastructure.
Despite his solitude, Özal reinforced and strengthened the police department in terms of education, equipment and authorization and positioned it as an element of balance in the face of the Turkish military, whose past is rife with coups and interventions. Likewise, he invented various incentives to boost Anatolian capitalists against İstanbul's big corporations that tended to lend support to coups in order to maintain their exploitation of state resources. Making the Turkish currency convertible and opening the Turkish markets to competition, he paved the way for the establishment of industrial and service sectors that can compete with international corporations. Moreover, he always encouraged religious/conservative people to get organized under various civil society organizations (CSOs), which today collectively form the main impetus behind democratization, demilitarization and greater integration with the global system.
One of those that best took advantage of the suitable climate created by Özal for the flourishing of civil society was undoubtedly the Gülen-inspired Hizmet movement. Without understanding the part played by the Hizmet movement and similar socially dynamic civil society movements, one cannot make sense of Turkey's recent success in its struggle against deep state networks or of the colossal progress it has made in democratization and economic growth. If this sociopolitical infrastructure consisting of CSOs, educational institutions, media outlets and Anatolian business circles that eased the task of the AKP in the country's economic transformation had not existed, I think all of those achievements would have been mere fancies. Or, had this sociopolitical infrastructure existed in the 1980s, Özal might have implemented his post-2002 reforms more comprehensively and successfully. Still, we should not regret this missed opportunity. In the final analysis, the process Özal patiently initiated with foresight has today come to bear fruit in the hands of the AKP.
It is clear there is a parallel between the weakening of the military heritage through the empowerment of civil society and the strengthening of Turkish democracy. A sociopolitical climate in which the distribution of income is fair, the middle class grows larger and CSOs are more active is the greatest guarantee for democratization, liberalization and democratic achievements. In this respect, it is really relieving to know that the political fate of the country has not been left to a handful of political elites. And our confidence in the democratization process is further emboldened with the fact that the number of Turkish CSOs is on the rise.
Thus, the number of CSOs rose to 60,931 in 2000, a 235 percent increase from 1990, and to 90,930 in 2011, a 47 percent increase from 2000. Membership in CSOs reached 8 million in 2011. These figures are certainly important, but not nearly sufficient in comparison with countries similar to Turkey. Indeed, the number of CSOs in Germany is 2.1 million and in France is 1.4 million. There are 7 million in the US, a country where civil society is at its peak.
To conclude, neither the state nor political parties can act as guarantees for democratization and democracy. With the fact that the main impetus behind and guarantee for our democratization is our ever-growing civil society, we need to consider whether we are attaching due importance to CSOs. | <urn:uuid:1cb64ad8-e0ce-4586-93fa-3cca17d84dd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=281126 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969046 | 971 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Nottingham University is a research university in Nottingham, UK. There are also campuses in China, and Malaysia. Nottingham University has been described as the best in higher education. It is one of the hardest universities to get accepted to in the UK.
History of Nottingham University
Nottingham University was founded in 1875 when there was an anonymous donor to their Adult Education School and Cambridge project. Thus Nottingham University was founded by the former UK Prime Minister William Gladstone.There was a big expansion to the University in 1920 when it was moved from the center of Nottingham to a larger campus on the outside of the city.
Nottingham University is a research led school that has gotten two Nobel Prizes in this decade alone. The majority of the work on MRI was conducted at Nottingham University. The University is considered a Time Higher Education school, and offers many departments of study. One of the departments of study is on terrorism research. Dr. Thronton leads this field of study.
Alumni of Nottingham University.
To name a few more notable alumni’s they include:
- Lord Trent
- Sir Francis Hill
- Betrand Hallward
Read More »
They say shedding hair is normal but too much hair loss will mean that you need to visit a doctor or a dermatologist. Normally, hair loss resolves naturally but there are cases that it would need medical attention. Hair loss or alopecia can cause a woman’s confidence to deteriorate which later on will lead to depression, says the researcher of Nottingham University.There are hair loss treatment products available in the market today that are used by people who have this problem and they use any product available. The question is about the best hairloss treatment – does it exist? Read More »
According to a researcher at the Nottingham University, that eating protein rich foods will help a person maintain his or her muscle mass and prevent the risk of women getting osteoporosis. Eating the right kind of foods such as fruits and vegetables is what makes a healthy diet plan. This will help a person’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being since eating healthy foods affects a person’s life. It keeps the person always on the go without feeling too much stress after a long day’s work. Read More »
People with hemorrhoids often times are ashamed to visit their doctors since they will need to expose their back side for examination. Unfortunately, this is one of the ways to check if a person has hemorrhoids. Nottingham University researchers made a study about which kind of treatment procedure is more effective to use. The two procedures studied were stapled haemorrhoidopexy and haemorrhoidectomy and found out there is no significant difference between the two.But home hemorrhoids treatment is possible if for some reason the person does not want to go the hospital for treatment. Read More »
Men who have less sexual activity are more likely to have premature ejaculation problems. There are also other men, out of anxiety and excitement prematurely ejaculates right away during making love. Some people say that men who are having sex most of the time are prone to having problems with their prostate. However, a research was done by the Nottingham University researchers and found out that it is the other way around. This means that it does not cause prostate problems. It was also found out that premature ejaculation cures is very simple. Read More »
Rattan is widely used to make beautiful and durable furniture. They are found mostly in Australia, Africa and Asia. Today, more people are looking for rattan furniture for home use and even for office use. Others purchase these kinds of furniture for their businesses. They can also be used in schools such as at Nottingham University to make the school more attractive and students will feel more relaxed rather than stressed out. Rattans can also be made into baskets. And rattans can also be painted and stained to make it look more attractive and more pleasing to the eyes. Read More »
Tobacco users are all over the world and most of the time these users can no longer count how many they have used. And if you ask them this, “can you stop smoking?” they will tell you this, “I already did but I could not control the urge to use it again!” Unfortunately more people are already addicted to smoking and they can no longer stop using it. Nottingham University made a study and confirmed that if tobacco or cigarettes are removed from the stores or if they are out of sight, will change the people’s attitude to smoking which means that they will no longer be looking for ways to be able to smoke. Read More »
Snoring is due to the blockage of your airway while sleeping and when the air passes through the blocked area, it makes a vibrating and often times a loud sound. It can greatly cause tiredness, sleep problems and problems with concentration. Snoring can be because of hereditary influence, if you are a man and if you are middle aged man or even older. It can also be due to asthma, colds or allergies because these conditions can also lead to the blockage of airways. But is there a way how to stop snoring? Read More »
Stress can be described as the wear and tear we receive during this trip called life. Just about everyone has had some form of stress enter into their life from family, work, or even friends. It is one of the reasons why people easily get sick and gets irritated right away for no reason at all. But what is stress management? How can we deal with stress? These are just some of the questions that needed answers for us to know how to cope up with stress and how to deal with it. Read More »
Teeth whitening is a procedure of bleaching your teeth and making your teeth look white and clean. It uses a bleaching agent and is applied to your teeth. The cost will depend on your dentist and the treatment procedure. There are tooth whitening kits available in the market and they are manufactured by different companies. But do teeth whitening kits work?Since not all teeth whitening kits and manufactured by just one company, there might be a big possibility that not all products are effective and safe to use. There are products that might cause damage to the teeth instead of making them look white from discoloration. Read More » | <urn:uuid:7d81af06-b34b-4003-aca2-dc66e6cac15b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nottinghamcf.co.uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975225 | 1,306 | 2.578125 | 3 |
One of the last things I do with a novel before I call it "done," is to go through a list of words I know I overuse (or misuse), words I shouldn't use many of, words that often spell trouble, and words to avoid. I check each one and decide if I really need it or if the sentence would be better without it. It's boring and tedious, but it does force me to focus on those little edits that can really tighten a manuscript.
I call it the spit shine.
This long list has developed over years from various books, posts, conferences, etc. on how to write and edit. I've found it very helpful in cleaning up stragglers and tightening my prose.
One caveat though--don't cut anything simply because there's a "never do X" rule attached to it. Sometimes a "bad" word says exactly what you need it to say, or provides the best rhythm for word flow, or works as a judgment word for your POV. Just because a word is on this list does NOT mean it has to be changed at all costs. It just means think about why and how you're using it and if there's a better way to say what you want to say. Usually you can. But if you can't (or don't want to), leave it.
Words Commonly Goofed
These are words that are often misused. I'm always surprised at how many wrong ones slip in there. Makes me cringe when the copy editor spots them.
Who vs that
Few vs less
Farther vs further
Which vs that
Only and just (are they modifying the right word)
Bring vs take
In vs into
On vs onto
(Here's a quick refresher on how to use these commonly misused words)
Words to Avoid
These words I can almost always cut without losing anything from the sentence. Often there's another word that makes them redundant.
(Here's more information of hunting down unnecessary prepositions)
Words to Rethink
These are words that often show up in told prose.
(Here are some more telling red flag words)
Word That Often Spell Trouble
These are words that keep readers out of the moment or aren't as active as they ought to be. Adverbs, passive verbs, passive writing.
Was, were (especially the was -ing forms)
(Here are some more words that often spell trouble) and one on (fixing passive writing)
Words That Often Indicate Weak Prose
Some words read just fine, but I've discovered if I tweak them a little, I can strengthen my story and turn a lot of "good" sentences into great sentences.
Now the Hard Part
I go through each word and do a "find" and then look at the sentence. Then I ask:
- If I cut the word, does the sentence read better?
- If I reword the sentence to eliminate the word, does it read better?
- Is there a stronger verb or noun I could use?
- Can I rewrite the sentence in a more active fashion?
- Can I be more descriptive or am I relying on boring words?
- Can I rewrite it so it's more in the voice of my character?
Yes, it's a pain, and it does take a ton of time, but this stuff creeps in without us even realizing it. I've found checking sections at a time makes it easier (I break the book into quarters before I edit)
A little extra polish can make the difference between good writing and great writing. And that can make the difference between "you're a talented writer but..." and "let's talk representation."
Do you have a spit shine list? Are there things you check last before submitting your work? | <urn:uuid:5751407e-997c-4085-85f0-b2d64565acd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/02/re-write-wednesday-spit-shine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956592 | 785 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Case for Data Hoarding
Do we really need all of this data?
It’s a question that I’ve heard more than a few times in my consulting career, especially as organizations have moved from legacy systems to more contemporary equivalents. Most of these improvements mean that organizations can consolidate data sources and, at least in theory, store all of their data in one place.
Now, generally speaking, hoarding is not a healthy thing–and I don’t need reality shows to tell me as much. With respect to data management, though, is it really detrimental to an organization?
Amber Simonsen seems to think so. Simonsen is the PMP Executive Project Manager of Pierce Transit and talks about the perils of data hoards. ”What begins as an innocent desire to keep relevant information close at hand can turn into an unhealthy obsession that plagues IT departments and Records Managers in organizations everywhere,” Simonsen warns.
It’s a fair point, but think for a minute about data storage costs. To say that they’ve dropped in cost over the last three decades is the acme of understatement. Consider the following chart:
For more on the methodology used to derive these numbers, click here.
So, the cost of data hoarding has dropped exponentially, even as the amount of data available has also risen exponentially. If you do the math, you’ll discover that organizations can store much more information these days than even five years ago for significantly lower costs. As a result, it’s hard to buy the “it’s too expensive to store this data” argument.
Of course, just because an organization can store a great deal of data doesn’t mean that it should. Data storage is a continuum, not a binary. What’s more, CIOs can actively decide not to store certain types of information for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps the most important consideration for an organization is what it uses to access and analyze new forms of data. If you’re trying to cram Big Data into Small Data solutions, then data gathering and storage (never mind) hoarding is going to pose a significant problem. As I write in my new book, you can’t write SQL statements against petabytes of unstructured data and expect to see meaningful results. New tools are needed to make sense of Big Data.
Data hoarding only makes sense if two conditions are met:
- Your organization has deployed the right tools–i.e., Hadoop, NoSQL and columnar databases, etc.
- Your organization actually does something with that data.
If that’s the case, hoard away.
What say you?
Other Posts by MIKE20 Governance Association
The moderated business community for business intelligence, predictive analytics, and data professionals. | <urn:uuid:f3d2c0a5-8fa8-4b07-8a55-2fd02eac86c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smartdatacollective.com/node/91991 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931553 | 595 | 1.640625 | 2 |
November 28, 2012 - Tuition-free, full-day kindergarten could become a reality in the Mehlville School District, pending the Board of Education's vote when it meets tonight — Nov. 29.
Superintendent Eric Knost plans to recommend approval of tuition-free, full-day kindergarten for the 2013-2014 school year when the board meets at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Administration Building, 3120 Lemay Ferry Road.
"The need for a tuition-free, full-day kindergarten program is evidenced in the newly adopted Common Core State Standards," Knost wrote in information provided to the board. "These new standards include over 25 new highly rigorous kindergarten standards requiring the need for more instructional minutes.
"A full-day program should be the standard for all next-generation kindergarten students."
Changes to kindergarten curriculum, according to information Knost provided to the board, include:
• Math: Addition and subtraction, previously introduced in first grade.
• Reading: Comparing and contrasting characters, events and ideas, previously introduced in third grade.
• Writing: Determining the meaning of words using prefixes and suffixes, previously introduced in fourth grade.
Funding for tuition-free, full-day kindergarten "could be provided through state aid as opposed to tuition," Knost wrote, due to the district being on the state's foundation funding formula.
Moving to free, full-day kindergarten, and adding three full-time personnel, the district would net $593,000 from the state in fiscal 2013-2014 with 512 students enrolled; $934,000 with 650 students enrolled, adding nine to 12 personnel; or $1,434,000 with 765 students enrolled, adding 12 to 16 personnel.
The district conducted an early enrollment week for full-day kindergarten in October, during which 512 kindergarten students registered for the 2013-2014 school year.
"We expect that total to increase significantly between now and August 2013," Knost wrote.
Knost will present two enrollment scenarios, one with 650 students, the other with 765 students.
With 650 students enrolled, seven students would be relocated to different buildings — five from Oakville Elementary and two from Trautwein Elementary.
With 765 students enrolled, 43 would be relocated to different buildings — 16 from Oakville Elementary; five from Rogers Elementary; 13 from Trautwein Elementary; and nine from Wohlwend Elementary.
During a goals-setting session in January, the Board of Education identified implementing tuition-free, full-day kindergarten as a priority for the district. | <urn:uuid:03c2f95f-c857-4492-a7e4-cc4edbad9ef7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.callnewspapers.com/Articles-Impact-News-i-2012-11-28-263980.112112-Mehlville-board-to-weigh-OK-of-free-fullday-kindergarten.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943826 | 535 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Here's the rundown on all Southwest Michigan fruits this week:
Strawberry harvest is well underway. Fruit size and quality are excellent. Harvest at the beginning of June is several weeks early for strawberries.
Brambles: Bloom is ending in raspberries. Early raspberry fruit is about a half inch in diameter. Blackberries are blooming.
Grapes: Concord and Niagara bloom began last week and is well advanced in some vineyards. Wine grape bloom varies, depending on variety.
Blueberry fruit is sizing rapidly. Soils in sandy fields are dry; many growers are irrigating.
Cranberries bloom is underway.
Fruit of all kinds are scarce and hard to find.
Apricot fruits are 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter.
Peach fruit are 1.25 inches in diameter.
Tart cherry fruit are 14 to 16 mm and beginning to yellow.
Japanese plums are 7/8 to 1 inch in diameter.
Apple fruits are 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter and June drop is underway.
Pear fruit about an inch in diameter for Harrow Diamond and other varieties with fruit. | <urn:uuid:b574bf2a-0de4-4c04-bb03-91b20da4032b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/05/fruit_update_southwest_michiga_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954552 | 238 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Fenimore Art Museum debuts new traveling exhibition – Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection
Press Release Category:
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Cooperstown, NY (09/28/2009) - The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York announces a new traveling exhibition entitled Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. This major exhibition is currently scheduled to travel to three cities, bringing to a national audience treasures from the extensive holdings of The Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. The collection is widely recognized as one of the most important assemblages of this type in the world. The New York Times described it as “a collection any museum in the world should envy.”
Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection is scheduled to travel to the following locations with more venues to be announced.
* The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (Mar. 7, 2010 - May 30, 2010)
The exhibition explores the extraordinarily diverse forms of visual expression in American Indian heritage. Organized by geographic culture areas, the objects were chosen both for their high artistic quality and to provide insight into the complex cultural, aesthetic and spiritual meanings embedded in the art. The objects date from well before first European contact to the present, and celebrate the continuing vitality of American Indian art.
“The collection has long been recognized as a national treasure. This traveling exhibition gives us the opportunity to finally share these significant works with a much larger, national audience,” said Paul D’Ambrosio, Vice President and Chief Curator at the Fenimore Art Museum.
A 120 page, full color catalog will accompany the exhibition.
About The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art
In 1995, the Fenimore Art Museum embarked upon a new era with the addition of a spectacular new American Indian Wing designed to house the extraordinary gift from Eugene and Clare Thaw of their collection of American Indian Art. The collection has continued to grow and new objects are periodically added by the Thaws and other donors. Today, it includes over 850 objects. Each new object reaffirms the Thaws’ commitment to the beauty and artistry of American Indian art, and thus strengthens the philosophical foundation of the collection: that the aesthetic power of American Indian art is equivalent to that from any culture.
The collection features art from a broad range of cultural areas including Northwest Coast, Woodlands, Prairie, Plateau, Plains, Southwest, California, The Great Basin, Arctic and Subarctic, dating from pre-history to today.
About Eugene and Clare Thaw
Eugene Victor Thaw and his wife Clare have an extraordinary sense of public duty. Their many and continuing benefactions in the arts, music, education, environment and ecology, cultural preservation and animal rights among other causes, reflect their broad interest in the world. In the area of art, their generosity has enriched many great public institutions both through gifts of important objects and contributions that further the intellectual and practical aims of art history. The Thaws have always recognized the necessity of enhancing collections and supporting scholarship. In recent years, they have donated an extraordinary collection of Old Master drawings to the Morgan Library in New York while at the same time making possible there the construction of a modern conservation laboratory. Eugene Thaw, recognized as one of the premier fine arts experts in the world, has a seemingly incurable curiosity about all art. He recently assembled and donated to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, a great collection of ancient Ordos bronzes. If a single consideration might be said to inform his collecting, it is an insistence on the highest aesthetic quality of everything he acquires.
When the Thaws established a home in Santa Fe in the 1980s, Eugene Thaw became interested in the art of American Indians, starting with the beadwork of Plains peoples. Before long he had become thoroughly conversant with the aesthetic values of all American Indian art, and was collecting the finest objects from many cultural areas. Having had a farm for many years in central New York, near Cooperstown, the Thaws eventually decided to donate their American Indian collection to the Fenimore Art Museum. A new wing to house the collection opened in 1995. Since that time the Thaws have continued to donate objects that improve the collection in quality and scope. Today, it is recognized as one of the great collections of American Indian masterpieces.
About the Fenimore Art Museum
The Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake -- James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass Lake” -- in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including: folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings; an extensive collection of domestic artifacts; more than 125,000 historical photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprising more than 800 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Founded in 1945, the Fenimore Art Museum is NYSHA’s showcase museum. FenimoreArtMuseum.org
For more information or images, please contact: | <urn:uuid:6ae1f5a1-f2fc-4e4a-814f-5dff0f265579> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/about_us/press_room/press_releases/the_fenimore_art_museum_debuts_new_traveling_exhibition_%E2%80%93_art_of_the_american_indians_the_tha | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936985 | 1,104 | 1.851563 | 2 |
There's no shortage of harrowing stories of life under Islamist militants in northern Mali.
Public floggings for smoking a cigarette.
Brutal beatings for working as a radio journalist.
Broken limbs. Broken hearts.
"For the Islamists, a human being is like an ant you squash, like an animal you slaughter," said Sedou Sangare, a resident of the northern town of Gao.
Gao was once a vibrant community filled with colorful camel caravans lazily strolling down the streets. Bearded men and beaded women mingled freely.
Then the Islamists rode in on rundown pickup trucks, armed to the teeth.
They banned smoking, television, sports and music -- a major setback for the northern region known for its "Festival au Desert."
They forbade unwed men and women from mixing in public.
An offensive led by France is aiming to stop the militants from expanding their reach to the capital of Mali.
But the north remains under the Islamists' iron grip.
Though Gao has a majority Muslim population, most residents practice a more relaxed form of the religion.
After militants started imposing a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia, throngs took to the streets in protest.
"When they declared Sharia, everybody panicked," Sangare said. "Christians, Muslims, everybody fled."
But the protests did not deter the militants, who publicly punished anyone who defied their teachings.
In August last year, they forced a couple allegedly having an affair into two holes and stoned them to death as terrified residents quietly watched.
Lists of public and cruel punishments grew.
Floggings, executions, amputations -- all in full view of aghast residents.
The Islamists compiled a list of unmarried mothers, saying Sharia law condemns relationships outside marriage.
A mayor -- and his people -- displaced
Mayor Sadou Diallo misses residents of his desert town of Gao, most of whom fled to Bamako when militants took over.
About 229,000 Malians have been displaced -- mainly from Kidal, Timbuktu, and Gao, according to the United Nations.
He is one of the displaced. A former respected community leader, trying to rebuild, just like his people.
Residents of the north, once proud of the vibrant desert communities near River Niger, say the region is a shadow of what it used to be.
"Home is not sweet anymore," said Fadimata Alainchar, a charity worker and native of nearby Timbuktu.
A recent visit to her hometown left her shaken.
"When entering the city, the signboard which was: "Welcome to Timbuktu the City of 333 Saints" is now "Welcome to Timbuktu, the gate to the application of the Shariya," she said in a submission to CNN's iReport.
The fabled city includes ancient tombs and wooden structures dating to the 15th century, a major part of its cultural heritage.
And those are not the only changes. | <urn:uuid:a928a924-b729-4682-9b04-79ae87f5a451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ktbs.com/news/Broken-limbs-torn-lives-in-northern-Mali/-/144844/18259368/-/item/0/-/e8kmk2z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955985 | 630 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Ford Fuses Fashion And Sustainability At FNO
Ford Motor was in New York early this month to put the fashion plate on the 2013 Fusion, touting it as an exemplar both of affordable uber design and eco-friendliness. For the latter, the message was not just about the motor, but the recycled materials inside. Fashion's Night Out (FNO), of which Ford Fusion is the official car in the U.S., is an international program with about 20 countries involved. In New York, the event -- which involved about 900 stores -- was on Sept. 6, the day before the beginning of Fashion Week, of which Mercedes-Benz has title sponsorship.
Part of Ford's umbrella "Random Acts of Fusion" campaign for the redesigned 2013 Fusion, the New York program centered on a pop-up store co-sponsored and promoted by Vogue. The venue, next to the Hotel Gansevoort in the city's Meatpacking district, boasted eco-friendly designer products from Christopher Raeburn, John Patrick and Rebecca Minkoff, and also had a panel discussion on sustainable fashion featuring the designers.
The automaker says its first-ever fashion report shows that nearly 70% of the Fashion’s Night Out community rates “eco-friendly” as an important attribute when purchasing a product.
Ford also had two dozen Fusions serving as shuttles to take people around town to other FNO events. Besides the sustainability and affordable-fashion connection, it probably made sense for Ford to be there because the Dearborn, Mich. company had hired former Donna Karan designer Anthony Prozzi to do the car's interior.
Prozzi, who was on hand to participate in the panel discussion, explained to Marketing Daily that the interior and exterior design teams had to step back and take some history lessons before drawing the vehicle. He relates that Ford Chief Designer Jay Mays told the teams to think about what design says about a given era.
"He said, 'guys, even before you sketch think about who this vehicle is for. Who's the 'protagonist'?” Prozzi says. “I want you to know who they are what their exposed to what makes something modern.' We looked at the time-line of design through the decades -- what happened in the 1900s, ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, etc. -- to see, well how the synergies in one decade fueled the next. We looked for areas where history repeats itself."
For example, in another era of economic desperation -- the ‘30s -- there was a paradoxical flourishing of industrial design.
"It was a golden age of car design,” he said. “You had cars like Delahaye, DeSoto, and yet it was a time of economic blight."
He said this is a similar time.
"We are coming out of a recession,” Prozzi said. “People want an escape. How do we give people this experience that takes them away from the mundane of reality through shape and form? We wanted a vehicle that was not so much about being provocative but seductive."
On the panel, Prozzi said the designer's job is to figure out the perfect balance of art and commerce.
"You want something beautiful that also sells,” he said. “It's about accessibility. Ten years ago, who could dream that Martin Margiela would be at H&M? This idea that to have something that has luxury to it, without that premium price tag is really important."
"Vogue helped bring it together for us, so it's great to have their stamp of approval on everything," said Ford spokesperson Marisa Bradley. "There's no ad buy or marketing commitment as part of this -- it's just pure activation and sponsorship. Design and style are so high on consumers' radars now, and Fusion's design speaks volume about accessibility. Fashion's Night Out is about affordable fashion, and accessible style, so it's a perfect alignment for fusion." | <urn:uuid:e8c0abb0-d024-4a9e-ad67-4276aa15e899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/183258/ford-fuses-fashion-and-sustainability-at-fno.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972908 | 833 | 1.640625 | 2 |
There are several ways to connect electronic devices to each other by wires, radio signals and infrared light beams, and an even greater variety of connectors, plugs and protocols, so that the art of connecting things is becoming more complex, hence the need for wireless technology (wireless). Bluetooth is wireless and automatic, and has a number of interesting features that can simplify our daily lives. Beware, however of spy equipment or equipos de espionaje, which can be harmful or violate security.
What is Bluetooth?
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), a trade association composed of leading telecommunications, computer and network industries, is driving development of Bluetooth wireless technology and bringing it to market.Bluetooth wireless technology is a radio wave technology for short-range (2.4 gigahertz frequency) which aims to simplify communications among computer devices such as mobile computers, mobile phones, other handheld devices and between devices and the Internet. Also aims to simplify data synchronization between devices and other computers. At Tactical Venezuela we take very seriously your security. You can check more at our website: www.tacticalvenezuela.com | <urn:uuid:a1c0b094-4a42-4142-8300-d122c379adda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twin-love.com/ | 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 | 0.923466 | 229 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Under Three and your first visit is free! Children’s Dental Center and Big People, Too! has provided specialty dental care to children for over 40 years. The current recommendation from the AAPD, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry is that all children should visit the dentist by age one. Most dental practices are simply not equipped to handle such young patients. But we can.
Children’s Dental Center and big People, Too! has created a unique program for expecting mothers and parents of children of any age. Our program is entitled Early Childhood Caries, what every parent needs to know. This is a 20 minute presentation designed to educate all parents and patient about the causes of tooth decay, the consequences of tooth decay in the baby teeth, understanding good nutrition choices and what is the current state of the art in prevention today.
Unfortunately early childhood caries is increasing in California. Presently tooth decay in school age children is 5 times more common than asthma. This first visit is free because it is educational and the goal is to teach members of the community about prevention. The program is presented by one of our qualified and most experienced staff members and is not time with the dentist.
If you would like to see one of our staff dentists we can arrange that too, just call us and we will be happy to help you. Most insurance companies now have a billing code for the under three dental exams, so you may have coverage for this early dental visit.
If you have questions about our Under three and your first visit is free program call us at 408-272-2720 today.
Children's Dental Center & Big People Too San Jose CA | Dentistry Patient Information
Pediatric Dentistry San Jose CA |General & Cosmetic Dentistry San Jose CA | Orthodontics for Children & Adults San Jose CA
Dentists San Jose CA | Pediatric & Orthodontics Dentistry Office | Patient Registration Form | Photo Gallery | Disclaimer | Site Map | <urn:uuid:703025a9-df72-439f-b463-2d159dce19df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childrensdentalcenter.org/under-three-dental-visit/dental-visit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947496 | 404 | 1.945313 | 2 |
- Genome sequence of the necrotrophic plant pathogen Pythium ultimum reveals original pathogenicity mechanisms and effector repertoire (2010)
- Background: Pythium ultimum (P. ultimum) is a ubiquitous oomycete plant pathogen responsible for a variety of diseases on a broad range of crop and ornamental species. Results: The P. ultimum genome (42.8 Mb) encodes 15,290 genes and has extensive sequence similarity and synteny with related Phytophthora species, including the potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans. Whole transcriptome sequencing revealed expression of 86% of genes, with detectable differential expression of suites of genes under abiotic stress and in the presence of a host. The predicted proteome includes a large repertoire of proteins involved in plant pathogen interactions although surprisingly, the P. ultimum genome does not encode any classical RXLR effectors and relatively few Crinkler genes in comparison to related phytopathogenic oomycetes. A lower number of enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism were present compared to Phytophthora species, with the notable absence of cutinases, suggesting a significant difference in virulence mechanisms between P. ultimum and more host specific oomycete species. Although we observed a high degree of orthology with Phytophthora genomes, there were novel features of the P. ultimum proteome including an expansion of genes involved in proteolysis and genes unique to Pythium. We identified a small gene family of cadherins, proteins involved in cell adhesion, the first report in a genome outside the metazoans. Conclusions: Access to the P. ultimum genome has revealed not only core pathogenic mechanisms within the oomycetes but also lineage specific genes associated with the alternative virulence and lifestyles found within the pythiaceous lineages compared to the Peronosporaceae. | <urn:uuid:b2e8e569-424c-494d-a330-cab4ea5daa94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/solrsearch/index/search/searchtype/authorsearch/author/Bernard+Dumas/start/0/rows/10/author_facetfq/Barry+Moore | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908881 | 391 | 2.28125 | 2 |
It seems like the topic of the month in my little online community is: be human. Discussions going on all over the place, and I wrote about it the other day when I asked you to take the road less traveled. In the comments, Shonali Burke reminded me of her post about being intentional and genuinely interested when we ask someone, “How are you?”.
Then the other morning I had time to kill while my car was being inspected, and I decided to work from a local coffee shop. I noticed the couple next to me was perusing one of those local tourist maps, plotting out their day. The old Ken would have just kept his mouth shut, but the more social Ken decided to chat them up. I asked them if they were from out of town, and got their life story (they were from Tacoma, Washington, and were taking a day trip from visiting family down on the Delmarva peninsula), and took the opportunity to recommend a few key things I thought they should see while in town for the day.
OK, maybe I talked a little too much, but I know I made them feel welcome on their first visit to my little city. And then when I got home, I found this article in my Facebook stream: Why You Should Say Hello to Strangers in Pittsburgh. This article again urges us to be intentional in reaching out to others and being friendly. The author of this article quotes a study from Atlantic Cities about this concept:
In a study cited by the Atlantic Cities last week, Wesselman explains the correlation between eye contact and feelings of recognition or happiness within a community. According to Wesselman’s study, eye contact—or the lack thereof—contributes directly to an individual’s sense of inclusion in his or her community and can affect a population’s overall happiness.
The study’s conclusion seems to echo the mission of organizations like Project for Public Spaces, a non-profit dedicated to helping people build and sustain stronger communities by improving public spaces. This includes creating easily accessible public food markets and promoting “multi-modal” transportation, like walking or biking instead of driving.
Project for Public Spaces subscribes to the idea that buildings, streets and public spaces play a key role in public health issues…
In the online world in general, and social media world in particular, we talk a lot about community. We stress the need for building and engaging in communities from a marketing or business perspective. But communities aren’t false. They aren’t easy to manufacture. They happen. And for small businesses, in most cases, they begin offline, and are then expanded online.
We can’t forget that.
In order to be “human” online, we must first be human offline.
Eye contact. Greeting others sincerely. Using their names when speaking to them. Showing interest and expecting a response.
We need to put this into practice in our business relationships, no matter what form of contact we have. Maybe you can’t make eye contact online (unless you are using Skype or some other video platform), but the way in which you engage others across social platforms can be a form of digital eye contact.
Take the time today to be more intentional about connecting with others and building community. From the time we are children, we are taught to NOT talk to strangers. But now that we’re adults, we need to change that.
Your homework assignment for this weekend, should you choose to accept it:
1) Chat up a stranger in the “real world” – Greet someone, and take an interest in them. I promise, it’s not that scary.
2) Find a new friend online – interact with someone in your Twitter stream or on some other platform. Introduce yourself and ask questions, expecting an answer. I bet you find some common ground.
I’m trying to be more intentional as I seek to build stronger relationships with those around me. I have a list of people with whom I plan to connect, either face to face or via Skype. My goal is to turn strangers into friends, and then turn those friends into important members of my community.
The fact is, you can’t build a community with strangers. But everyone is a stranger the first time they cross your path. It’s what you do with that opportunity that determines whether you remain strangers, or begin something that might just build a community. Think about the implications of that as you seek to do business both online and offline. Your customers and prospective customers are probably strangers at the onset, but if you can get to know them, you have a better chance of bringing them back.
What are you doing to build individual relationships and create community?
- Why You Should Say ‘Hello’ to Strangers on the Street (theatlanticcities.com)
- Is Technology Killing Communication? (troyclaus.com) | <urn:uuid:ba05b7eb-026d-40e0-b2df-daeeccf13519> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inklingmedia.net/2012/06/22/you-cant-build-a-community-with-strangers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958848 | 1,029 | 1.546875 | 2 |
1961 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB
As of this week, two examples--a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB raced by Stirling Moss as well as the famous ‘Breadvan’--are on show at the museum, which is located in Maranello, Italy.
Built between 1952 and 1963, the 250 GT was one of Ferrari’s most popular early model lines.
There were two different wheelbase lengths offered though almost all were powered by the same ‘Tipo 125’ 3.0-liter V-12 engine designed by Gioachino Colombo.
During the 250 GT’s production run, numerous variants were launched, including some of today’s most sought-after Ferraris. These included the legendary 250 Monza and 250 Testarossa as well as the 250 GTO.
The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB pictured above was driven to victory by Stirling Moss in four races (Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Goodwood and Nassau). It is finished in the classic blue and white livery of Rob Walker and was recently restored by the Ferrari Classiche department.
It was originally built as part of a chapter in motor racing history that sadly went unwritten: Enzo Ferrari had reached an agreement to supply the highly efficient British team with one of his Formula 1 single-seaters for Moss. Unfortunately, just before the project was to debut, Moss was involved in a terrible accident in a Lotus at Goodwood which ended his racing career.
1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB 'Breadvan'Enlarge Photo
In 2010, Ferrari finally awarded the Breadvan the ‘Attestation for Vehicles of Historic Interest,’ a document issued for Ferraris which, although they do not comply with the strict Ferrari Authenticity Certification criteria, are deemed to be of historic interest because of their competition or fame. | <urn:uuid:34f15862-299f-418a-9f16-bf73bafac0d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1076351_ferrari-celebrating-60th-anniversary-of-the-250-gt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971852 | 389 | 1.859375 | 2 |
In 1837, a block of land between Richmond and Adelaide, along Brant Street, was set aside to serve as a market square for the newly developing west end of the city. It became known as St. Andrew's Market, one of three in the city (the others being St. Patrick and St. Lawrence). A handsome market building was built, and the south end of the block became a heavily used playground for sporting activities.
In the 20th century, however, commercial properties and garment factories began replacing the area's residences, and the market declined. The market building was demolished in 1932, replaced by an interesting art deco city works building. The playground at the south end gradually fell into disuse. By 1990, the park was bare and decrepit: scraggly trees, little grass, rusting swings, a muddy track.
In the early 1990s, Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall granted a special zoning designation to the declining King-Spadina industrial area. A boom in condo conversions and developments followed, and suddenly there were residents in the area again. With them came dogs — and dogs need a place to run around. As the only local patch of green space, the park was soon occupied, but its desperate state became all the more obvious.
A plan was hatched to revitalize the park. The newly formed residents' association requested some simple improvements: a paved path, a gathering space, better lights. But what to do with the dogs? A separate dog run? How much space should it get? A prestigious local landscape architecture firm jumped in with their own ambitious proposals: Water features! "Horizontal" or "vertical" themes! Paths that lead nowhere! There was much discussion, but all of these ideas proved impracticable. In the end, the City came up with a simple, elegant plan based on the residents' original requests.
The transformation wrought by a few simple improvements is remarkable. Brick-lined winding paths with attractive lightposts lead from the three accessible corners of the park to a central gathering area, graced by a trellis, benches, new trees, and granite boulders. Beside it lies a pretty new playground. The neglected corner of Brant and Adelaide will become a little piazza with a round garden, and the border along Adelaide has been defined with a low fence to keep children (and dogs) from running out onto the street. The park is suddenly accessible, pretty, and welcoming — a new gathering space for a new community. | <urn:uuid:cc85e422-8981-49af-9345-fed5eb41acab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spacing.ca/magazine/issue/issue5/dogs-and-landscaping/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972166 | 510 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Iraqi Shoe-Hurling Journalist Merely Expressing "Dissent"?
For the media, the highlight of Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad was the president ducking an onslaught of shoes and insultshurled byan angry Iraqi journalist duringBush's press conference with Iraqi PM Maliki. The Times' front-page photo caption curiously described the physical and verbal assault on President Bush as "dissent."
President Dodges Shoes in Iraq - President Bush, on a surprise trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, got a taste of dissent at a Baghdad press event Sunday when an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at him, forcing him to duck.
Steven Lee Myers 'and Alissa Rubin's Monday story, "Iraqi Journalist Hurls Shoes at Bush and Denounces Him on TV as a 'Dog,'" began:
President Bush made a valedictory visit on Sunday to Iraq, the country that will largely define his legacy, but the trip will more likely be remembered for the unscripted moment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at Mr. Bush's head and denounced him on live television as a "dog" who had delivered death and sorrow here from nearly six years of war.
The drama unfolded shortly after Mr. Bush appeared at a news conference in Baghdad with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to highlight the newly adopted security agreement between the United States and Iraq. The agreement includes a commitment to withdraw all American forces by the end of 2011.
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!" He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.
As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!" That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president's face to help shield him.
The Times pointed out that symbols of both Bush and the dictator Saddam Hussein had been targeted with shoes by angry Iraqis, but emphasized that the protest against Bush had been "far bigger."
The shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad punctuated Mr. Bush's visit here - his fourth - in a deeply symbolic way, reflecting the conflicted views in Iraq of a man who toppled Saddam Hussein, ordered the occupation of the country and brought it freedoms unthinkable under Mr. Hussein's rule but at enormous costs.
Hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq. It means that the target is even lower than the shoe, which is always on the ground and dirty. Crowds hurled their shoes at the giant statue of Mr. Hussein that stood in Baghdad's Firdos Square before helping American marines pull it down on April 9, 2003, the day the capital fell. More recently in the same square, a far bigger crowd composed of Iraqis who had opposed the security agreement flung their shoes at an effigy of Mr. Bush before burning it. | <urn:uuid:6791740a-dd99-49c6-8303-5d67bbfba152> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mrc.org/articles/iraqi-shoe-hurling-journalist-merely-expressing-dissent | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968365 | 668 | 1.546875 | 2 |
More than half of U.S. Senate special elections since 1970 have resulted in a partisan flipping of voter preferences
The special election for Massachusetts' U.S. Senate seat is garnering significant national attention for what is perceived as a surprising degree of competitiveness. Massachusetts, one of the most Democratic-friendly states in the country, has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since Edward Brooke in 1972.
Most polls show the matchup between Democratic Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Republican state Senator Scott Brown a dead heat with Brown surging.
Many Democratic loyalists are explaining away the highly competitive race as a result of poor campaigning by Coakley.
Republicans, meanwhile, see the Senate race as an extension of the national momentum the GOP is experiencing across the country; as evidenced last November when the Party picked up two gubernatorial seats - in Virginia and New Jersey.
However, a Smart Politics historical analysis finds that turnover in special election contests is actually quite common. In fact, since 1970, there has been more turnover than not - with voters changing their partisan preference at the ballot from the last time the Senate seat in question was up for election in 13 of 20 races.
In most of these states, appointments have been made to temporarily fill the U.S. Senate seat in the interim - and frequently such appointees have gone on to win the special election. Since the first popular vote special election in 1914, 22 appointees have won the special election contest.
However, in the case of Massachusetts, the appointee, Democrat Paul Kirk, is not on the ballot.
Overall, the partisan flip-flopping in U.S. Senate special election contests among the electorate has been on the rise, with 65.0 percent of seats flipping since 1970, 48.8 percent flipping since 1942, and 36.2 percent flipping since 1914.
Seven of these 13 partisan shifts in special elections since 1970 have been from Democrats to Republicans (Alaska in 1970, Minnesota in 1978, Washington in 1983, Texas in 1993, Tennessee in 1994, Oklahoma in 1994, and Missouri in 2002), with six from Republicans to Democrats (Illinois in 1970, New Hampshire in 1975, Pennsylvania in 1991, California in 1992, Oregon in 1996, and Georgia in 2000).
(Note: a partisan shift or 'flip' is defined here as a change among the electorate from the last time the Senate seat was on the ballot. Such a flip is not necessarily synonymous with a 'pick-up' in the Senate Chamber, however, as such changes sometimes already occurred after gubernatorial appointments changed the seat from one party to another, with the appointee incumbent then going on to win the special election (e.g. Georgia 2000, Pennsylvania 1991, Washington 1983, Alaska 1970)).
The tightness of the Massachusetts race is also not surprising in light of the fact that special elections have been much more competitive than regular U.S. Senate contests in recent years.
A Smart Politics analysis of the fourteen U.S. Senate special elections since 1990 finds the average margin of victory was 16.7 points, whereas the margin of victory in those fourteen states for full-term U.S. Senate seats was 26.4 points.
Even when pick-ups have not occurred, special elections over the past two decades have resulted in some competitive races for both Democrats in heavily Republican states and vice-versa.
For example, in the heavily Republican state of Kansas, the average margin of victory for full-term U.S. Senate races has been 39.8 points since 1990. However, the 1996 special election race between Republican Sam Brownback and Democrat Jill Docking was decided by only 10.6 points.
And in Mississippi's 2008 special election, Republican Roger Wicker defeated Ronnie Musgrove by 9.9 points. Republicans had trounced Democrats in full-term U.S. Senate contests by an average of 48.1 points since 1990.
Republicans have also made Democrats sweat bullets in heavily Democratic states. For example, in 1990, Democrat Daniel Akaka defeated Republican Patricia Saiki in a Hawaiian special election by just 9.4 points. The average margin of victory by Democratic U.S. Senate candidates in the six elections since has been a whopping 44.4 points.
Given the fact that special U.S. Senate elections are much more competitive than regular Senate races and that voters frequently 'flip' and vote into office the opposite political party from when the Senate seat in question was last on the ballot, it should not be so stunning that the Coakley-Brown matchup is as close as polls suggest heading into Tuesday's election. (Particularly given the current political environment that shows many Democrats struggling nationwide).
Follow Smart Politics on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:8f57d342-bbce-4c72-bce4-d16525efdf45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2010/01/massachusetts_us_senate_race_s.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961346 | 966 | 2.25 | 2 |