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Re: Land of lost content, cliques and chaps
1) "The land of lost content" is taken from a poem by AE Housman.
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.
It is about the "good old days", when everything was so much better than now.... or that's how one remembers it. We were content then, but that has been lost. So, it means that many people (of my age, anyway) tend to think that Britain was a happier, more civilised country back in the 50's and 60's.
2) "Chaps" is an old-fashioned word for men of a certain background and outlook: upper middle class; probably educated at a public school, and with conservative views. These were the people who made up the Conservative Governments between 1951 and 1964. "Establishment Cliques" refers to the fact that many of the most important bodies which run the country (Political Parties, The Judiciary, The Church, the Armed Forces and the like) were actually controlled by a very small number of "chaps" who knew one another very well, and worked together to ensure that their positions were not threatened.
Remember that that's Andrew Marr's view, and it is not necessarily the whole picture. Cliques are not the preserve of any one political party. Some would say that Harold Wilson's Labour Government (which came to power in 1964), and the powerful Trade Unions of the time, were even more clique-ridden than the Conservatives.
I'm not a teacher of English, but I have spoken it for (almost) all of my life.... | <urn:uuid:bd386ade-1f8f-4f2c-a6f8-aaa357fb89fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/182951-land-lost-content-cliques-chaps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9825 | 387 | 1.992188 | 2 |
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) should be rewritten to restrict the use of hazardous chemicals in low-cost children’s and adult jewelry, states the Ecology Center. The Center, along with the Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health, has just released a report on the testing of 99 pieces of jewelry from 14 different retailers, including major companies, with outlets in Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and Vermont.
According to the reported results, 57 percent of the products tested had a high level of one or more hazardous substances.
“Four products contained over 10 percent cadmium, a known carcinogen,” state the groups. “Fifty percent contained lead, with over half of these containing more than 300 parts per million of lead in one or more components, exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) limit for lead in children’s products.”
CPSC was required by the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act to issue regulations to limit the presence of lead in jewelry intended for children. But the groups report that in 2010, CPSC declined to regulate cadmium in children’s products and instead supported an industry-developed voluntary standard. In the absence of federal requirements, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington have moved to regulate cadmium. | <urn:uuid:110116ba-0653-47b8-aacd-be2f7fb03df8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enviro.blr.com/environmental-news/hazmat-and-chemicals/TSCA-toxic-substances-control-act/TSCA-Rewrite-Needed-for-Jewelry-133957/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938316 | 278 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The effect that science has had in shaping literature has been notably underestimated in the light of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and other esoteric followings. For instance, Thomas Pynchon's first three novels (V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow) are like scientific manuals in everything from organic chemistry to rocket science (though they do become estoteric themselves when Pynchon begins interweaving Kabbalistic mysticism with other sciences). Italo Calvino uses scientific processes as a way of developing plots (take, for instance, the first story from t zero called 'The Soft Moon' in which the earth's metal and silicon surface is covered with great green globs of organic material that have been pulled to the earth by its own gravity, and now we, as human beings--the only rational animals on the planet--, must dig ourselves out of this mess and uncover our ancient steel edifices. And the list goes on and on . . . Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, &c. But the facts still stand, science has, historically, been ousted from many forms of literary art in favour of religion, sociology, psychology, and so on. Are we afraid of science because it makes literature seem less human? | <urn:uuid:9f424aa8-601c-458c-ac28-dca77070426e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?1206-Science-and-Literature | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933255 | 255 | 2.203125 | 2 |
For Parents Only: Rebel With a Cause - Part 1
- Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Rebel with a Cause
The intoxicating nature of freedom—and the fear of losing it—can lead even good kids to choices that look like recklessness and rebellion, but directly addressing their craving for independence will help them build responsibility.
Do you know that our teens are addicted? They really are. The facts is, even if our kids have never touched an addictive substance, they're still hooked on something with a high far greater than anything a basement lab can conjure up.
This intoxicating agent is called freedom. And as it turns out, a lot of behavior that confuses and alarms parents can be tied directly to a child's desperate quest for the rush of freedom—and to his fear of losing it.
Before we understood this, we were puzzled by exchanges like the following, in which a sixteen-year-old boy passionately complained about how he was being disciplined.
Him: "I hate when my parents take away my stuff, especially my cell phone or my computer. It's so unfair!"
Us: "Do you think you didn't deserve that punishment?"
Him: "I don't know. Maybe. But they just can't do that. That's my cell phone, man! That's my computer! They can't just take it away!"
After hearing this a few dozen times, we realized these comments signaled something beyond a teenager's obliviousness to the fact that Mom and Dad paid for the cell phone.
Freedom Is Like Cocaine
Enter Dr. Julie Carbery, adolescent and child psychotherapist, who has seen and heard it all in her twelve years of practice. We turned to her for help in identifying patterns in the teenage passions we were hearing. When we asked what was going on with this outraged sixteen-year-old and his fellow sufferers, she didn't hesitate.
"What's going on is freedom. Freedom is cocaine to a teenager. It's intoxicating. It's addictive. And it if often their biggest motivator. They will do anything to get it, and they are terrified of losing it. This cell phone kid is really saying, ‘Don't you take away my cocaine! Don't you take away my freedom!"
Once our eyes were opened, we watched in amazement at how often that addictive quest for freedom explained the motives and behaviors of the kids we talked to. "Addictive" may sound like an exaggeration, but look at how one representative high-school sophomore explained the feeling of freedom: "Once you have it, you can't get enough. Once you taste it, you want more and more." He concluded, "I can't imagine being super-controlled anymore."
Almost all the kids we talked with described a desperate pursuit of the ability to control their own possessions, choose their own friends, stay up late, sleep over at any friend's house whenever they want, eat or drink what they want, drive where they want at the speed they want, and generally make their own choices apart from even the most well-intentioned parents.
This craving was demonstrated in our national survey, in which nearly three out of four kids said they were strongly motivated to pursue freedom, and only a tiny fraction didn't really care about having freedom at all.
Is freedom something that motivates you and that you eagerly want? (For example, the ability to have your own cell phone, drive yourself places to do what you want to do, and so on.) Choose one answer.
72% Yes, I feel like I have to have that freedom; I'm strongly motivated to pursue it.
27% Yes, the idea of having that freedom is good, but I'm not strongly motivated to go after it.
1% No, I don't really care about having freedom.
In other words, freedom is not just a big deal to kids; it's what gets them up and going in the morning. (Or noon.)
At the end of the last day of school last year, I (Lisa) watched in amusement as the doors to the high school flew open and the kids erupted with their arms raised, yelling the Braveheart battle cry. "Freeedooommm!"
It appears that war-painted William Wallace's epic passion for freedom lives on in our very own rosy-cheeked offspring. As our teens experience their first exhilarating rush of freedom, they realize it feels insanely good. Once they taste it, they want more. And more.
"It gives me such a sense of power."
People who use drugs or alcohol are seeking a temporary, exhilarating high—often described as the feeling of being able to do things they normally couldn't. Our kids are getting the same rush, but in a good way. They're experiencing the thrill of freedom, of being liberated to do things on their own, often for the first time!
Keep in mind that for their whole lives our children have been dependent on us in countless ways. If your daughter wanted to go to the movies, she had no way to get there without you. If your son desperately wanted to play on the soccer team, he had to rely on you for the necessary money and transportation. Even if your daughter simply wanted to talk with a friend about homework, she first had to be sure you didn't need the house phone at that moment. And if you suddenly did need to make a call, she has to wrap up her conversation.
You can see why finally being able to do things on their own is such a thrill for our kids. Look how passionately several teenagers described their relief at no longer being dependent:
- It took me three years to save up for my car, and now that I have it, I feel so released. Whenever it's stressful around the house, I just take off and drive, top down, wind blowing, music blaring and everything's better. I feel sorry for my friends that don't have wheels. I'll do anything to make sure I've got my own car handy."
- It gives me such a sense of power to be able to schedule my own time and do what I want" (emphasis ours).
- There was such tension building up inside me before I got my license, like I was ready to explode from having to depend on someone else to get me places. I'm much more relaxed now.
"I felt like a real person."
Freedom not only gives your child the powerful relief of no longer being dependent, it also gives him the thrill of being an independent agent out there in the world as his own person, without having life filtered through you as the middleman. Consider this revealing comment: "When I finally got my own cell phone, everything changed. I felt like a person, suddenly connected directly to my friends and the world through phone calls and text messages. I can't imagine living without that."
Once a kid enjoys the entrancing feeling of being a "real person," you can see how scary it would be to think of losing that feeling.
"I should be able to make my own decisions."
Kids who begin to feel they don't need a physical middleman anymore (a.k.a. Mom or Dad) quickly begin to resist and resent being controlled by that middleman as well. Look at the telling way one teen describes this frustration:
It makes me mad when my parents try to control who I talk to at night on the cell phone. I mean, if I'm keeping my grades up, why should they care if I stay up late talking and lose a little sleep? I have to keep up with my friends, or I go nuts. The decision should be up to me.
The Five Facts of Freedom
When we see our teens pushing the independence envelope, taking foolish risks, evading straight answers, or breaking rules, we often chalk it up to peer pressure, media influence, and even rebellion—and we come down hard. Sometimes, obviously, there is a rebellious heart that needs to be dealt with, and lowering the boom may be necessary. But if we can spot the much more common signs of a spirit that is simply straining for a healthy freedom (albeit imperfectly), we can guide our child's quest in ways that are healthy instead of counterproductive—helping them learn responsibility instead of triggering their sense of desperation.
We found five often-overlooked truths about this freedom-seeking aspect of a child's inner life.
Fact #1: Freedom wields a greater influence than parents or peers.
Over the years, many studies (and parents!) have asked whether parents or peers exert a bigger influence on kids' behavior. Our research convinced us that this question misses the main point. When freedom is added to the mix, it seems to far outstrip the influence of any person. Look at the astounding survey results.
When you do something that your parents would disapprove of, what is the best description for the reason that you do it? Choose one answer.
6% I'm just doing what my friends want me to do.
89% I'm just pursuing my freedom and my ability to do what I want to do.
4% I'm just being rebellious against my parents.
*Note: Because of rounding, numbers don't quite total 100%.
Nine out of ten kids said that when they do something questionable, it's not primarily because of peer pressure or because they are rebelling against parents; it's because they are pursuing their freedom and their ability to do what they want to do. And although parents with strong faith beliefs might wish otherwise, this dynamic wasn't markedly different among kids who described themselves as Christians attending church every week.
It's all about doing what they want.
We heard from the kids that although both peer pressure and parental expectation have influence, neither is usually the motivator that freedom is. Peer or parental pressure is imposed from the outside, while the desire for freedom comes from the inside. When the two are in conflict, the internal "want" often wins.
For example, on girl described a typical peer-pressure situation: a school dance, where she didn't want to "dirty dance" with a guy, but her close friend did. The first girl repeatedly told her friend it wasn't cool and asked her not to dance that way—but it didn't matter. The friend did as she wanted—and accepted that the first girl would be upset with her for a while. At that moment, the opinion of her peer was a lesser factor than doing what she wanted to do; in other words, a lesser factor than freedom.
They also realize they can.
Allied to the powerful pressure of wanting to do something is the potent realization that they can. We talked to do many "good" kids who confessed to doing at least some things that their parents wouldn't approve of. They described the intoxicating realization that, physically, they could do what they want to do—because no one could really stop them.
On our survey, nearly seven out of ten kids admitted they would find a way to do something they wanted to do, even if their parents might disapprove.
Think of something that you really want to do that your parents might disapprove of. Which statement most closely describes you? Choose one answer.
22% If I want to do something, I will usually find a way to do it, no matter what my parents think or say.
47% If I want to do something, I will usually find a way to do it … although I'd hope my parents wouldn't think I was being too bad.
31% Even if I really want to do something and even if my parents would never know, I generally don't do it if they would disapprove.
Here's what one representative teenage guy told us: "I'll stop at nothing to get my way. I might make a slight modification based on my parents' wishes, but yeah, I'll do what I want."
This is the stark truth: Short of locking our teenagers in their rooms day and night, there is almost no way to physically prevent them from doing what they want to do. And they know it.
Now, most of the kids in our survey consoled themselves with the hope (perhaps wishful thinking!) that their parents wouldn't think they were being too bad. In other words, although most kids still care what their parents think, less than a third will let it stop them from doing something they want to do.
We should, however, mention one heartening exception. In most cases, the focus groups and survey found very few differences between kids who had a strong faith influence and those who didn't. But this is one of the few cases in which a difference did jump out at us: kids in private Protestant Christian schools were almost the reverse of those in any other kind of school (public, Roman Catholic, and other private academies). Among the small number of kids attending private, Protestant Christian schools (6 percent of our sample), nearly two-thirds would stop themselves from doing something they wanted to do if they felt their parents would disapprove.
Fact #2: Under the influence of freedom, kids may do stupid things.
Like addicts under the influence of a real drug, kids high on the thrill of freedom may be not be thinking clearly. To complicate matters, it's not just the high of freedom at work.
It turns out—and we say this as respectfully as possible—our teens are not only addicted; they are also brain deficient. Science demonstrates that the frontal lobe of the brain—the area that allows judgment of consequences and control of impulses—doesn't fully develop until after the teen years. So in the absence of a fully functioning frontal lobe, teenage brains rely more on the centers that control emotion—which in effect means they give in much more easily to impulses.
Teenagers also subconsciously believe they are invincible, that nothing bad will happen if they drive too fast in the rain, become sexually involved, or get drunk and go swimming in the lake with their friends.
So kids who are operating under the influence of freedom, feel they are invincible, and suffer from incomplete brain wiring will sometimes disregard rules and consequences to do really stupid things.
We asked every focus group this question: "What if a hidden camera followed you and your friends for one week?" Without exception, every teenager gasped or groaned. When we pressed for details, almost every child provided examples of using bad language, lying, smoking, cheating, experimenting with sex, breaking curfew, or driving recklessly.
Trying not to gasp ourselves, we asked the kids, "Why do you do these things?"
The typical answer (again): "Because we want to, and we can." (And, brain scientists would add, because their brains are not yet wired to easily stop themselves!)
Now, before we move on, remember that we are not excusing poor choices. But this does help us understand why those poor choices sometimes get made.
Read more next week in Part 2 ...
*This article first published September 28, 2007.
Excerpted from For Parents Only © 2007 by Veritas Enterprises, Inc. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpt may not be reproduced without prior written consent.
Shaunti Feldhahn is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, public speaker, and a best-selling author whose books include For Women Only. After working on Wall Street and Capitol Hill, this mother of two not applies her analytical skills to illuminating surprising truths about relationships.
Lisa A. Rice is the associate editor of Christian Living magazine, the mother/foster mom of three teenage girls and one teenage boy, and an experienced screenwriter and producer. She's also the coauthor, with Shaunti, of For Young Women Only and a movie reviewer for Crosswalk.com.
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Listen to Your Favorite Pastors
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1963-64 Studebaker Avanti
The rakish 1963-64 Studebaker Avanti was among the most daring 1960s American cars, a modern masterpiece with totally unique American styling that even top exotic Italian auto stylists wouldn't attempt to do.
The Avanti had advanced safety features, when no U.S. automaker particularly gave a darn about safety. Such features included a built-in roll bar, padded interior and door latches that became structural body members when closed.
Performance? An Avanti with a supercharged V-8 was one of the fastest 1960s autos. A supercharged model hit 168 mph, while a modified version reached 196 mph--a staggering speed for a 1960s production street car. Some 29 Bonneville speed records were smashed by a supercharged Avanti.
Safety? The Avanti (Italian for "forward") was the first mass-produced fiberglass-body four-passenger American car. It also was the first such car to use caliper-style disc brakes.
Sexy? James Bond author Ian Fleming ordered a black Avanti and shipped it to foreign countries he visited outside his native England. Ricky Nelson, the second most popular (behind Elvis) rock and roll singer of the late 1950s and early 1960s, also owned an Avanti (which I drove one evening in the 1980s because it was for sale at a Ft. Lauderdale exotic car dealer). In short, the Avanti was a modern masterpiece. Too bad it didn't last long enough to help the veteran Studebaker Corp. from failing in the United States in late 1963.
Studebaker was more than 100 years old when the Avanti debuted. It began making horse-drawn wagons in 1862 and produced its first cars--electric models--in 1902. But "Stude" was in deep trouble by the mid-1950s. It lacked the economy of scale of larger U.S. automakers and thus its cars, although good, weren't cost-competitive against giants such as General Motors.
However, Studebaker survived the 1950s by producing compact economy Lark models, which sold well in the depressed economy late in that decade, along with some sporty Hawk models, such as the now-classic 1956-58 Golden Hawk.
But then the prosperous 1960s arrived, and Studebaker again had to offer winners from its South Bend, Indiana, headquarters and plants because Lark volume fell by more than half for 1961.
Hard-charging young Sherwood Egbert arrived as Studebaker's new president in 1961 and quickly had Lark and Hawk styling updated on a crash basis by noted Milwaukee-based designer Brooks Stevens.
Stevens did the best he could while dealing with Studebaker's dated cars and engines, and Egbert felt Studebaker needed a dramatic new car. It had to really grab the public's attention to help generate much-needed sales and to rejuvenate the automaker's rather staid image.
Egbert's star car was the Avanti. With Stevens updating higher-volume models, Egbert recruited flamboyant Raymond Loewy, a world-famous industrial designer who had considerable auto design experience. Loewy had come up with the startling, slick 1953 Studebaker coupe--arguably the best-styled American car of the 1950s.
Given a rough idea of what Egbert wanted the new car to look like, Loewy had the Avanti's styling done under his supervision by his hand-picked team of young Tom Kellogg and seasoned Bob Andrews and John Ebstein.
To avoid distractions and interference from Studebaker executives, Loewy sequestered his highly talented team in a rented desert ranch house near Palm Springs, Calif.. The team knew the car was urgent business, so they worked 16 hours daily for weeks.
Loewy gave his men instructions that established the Avanti's design theme, such as "Coke-shape a must" and "wedgy silhouette." In fact, GM's most famous styling chiefs worked the same way, initially giving general directions and then specific instructions.
However, Loewy personally designed the Avanti's wheel openings, which had a shape similar to the flight trajectory of the sensational Russian Sputnik space satellite. He knew Egberrt loved flying, so the Avanti got an aircraft-style cockpit.
The Loewy group gathered in Palm Springs on March 19, 1961. It rapidly developed a clay scale model of the Avanti, which Loewy rushed to Studebakr's headquarters. Egbert wasn't a "car guy," but knew a winner when he saw one. He was delighted with the car, and Studebaker's board approved its construction just five weeks after Loewy's team began work on it. No major American automaker had ever done a car so quickly.
The Avanti had a coke-bottle "waist" and thin-section roof with an extra-large rear window and the built-in roll bar. Razor-edged front fenders swept back into the curved rear end and into a jacked-up tail.
The front had no conventional grille--just an air scoop below a thin bumper. The hood had an asymmetrical hump, and the interior featured aircraft-style instrumentation and controls, some placed above the windshield. Occupants sat in four slim-section bucket seats similar to those in an Alfa Romeo sports car.
No time or resources existed for wind-tunnel testing, but the Avanti nevertheless was highly aerodynamic--one reason it could hit nearly 200 mph. Loewy and his team had just guessed at the car's slippery shape.
There also was no time or money for steel body dies, so the Avanti body was made of fiberglass. The car was enormously strong, with a shortened, beefy Lark convertible frame and sport suspension with front/rear anti-sway bars and rear radius rods for superior handling.
Powering the Avanti was a modified version of Studebaker's dated but sturdy 289-cubic-inch V-8. This "Jet Thrust" engine developed 240 horsepower in standard "R1" form, with such items as a 3/4-race high-lift camshaft, dual-breaker distributor, four-barrel carburetor and dual exhausts. It developed 290 horsepower in supercharged "R2" form.
There also were a few supercharged "R3" V-8s with 335 horsepower and an experimental non-supercharged "R4" 280-horsepower V-8 with dual four-barrel carburetors. Then there was an amazing twin-supercharged, fuel-injected "R5" V-8 with magneto ignition. It produced an astounding 575 horsepower.
To Studebaker's delight, the public was crazy about the Avanti, which drew many to Studebaker showrooms. It was upscale and nicely equipped. The 1963 and 1964 models each had a $4,445 base price, when a less practical Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray two-seat coupe cost $4,252.
But quality problems arose because Egbert rushed the car into production, knowing time was running out for Studebaker. It didn't help that production was delayed for months because Molded Fiberglass Co., which also built Corvette fiberglass body parts, botched Avanti bodies--forcing Studebaker to set up its own fiberglass production.
Many Avanti buyers canceled advance orders and bought a Corvette or other sporty cars.
Making matters worse, the word was out that Studebaker was on the ropes and might go out of business. In fact, it closed its South Bend operation in December, 1963, when the last 1964 Avanti barely left its plant.
Suffering from ill health, Egbert had left that November. Studebaker built Larks and a few other models in Canada until 1966. The Avanti 240- and 290-horsepower V-8s actually were available for some 1964 models. But Studebaker engines were gone by 1965, so two Chevy engines were offered for 1965 and 1966, when Studebaker production ceased after totaling 8,947 cars that year.
Only 3,834 Avantis were built in 1963 and just 809 were classified as 1964 models. The general rule is that the 1964 Avanti had round headlight surrounds and the 1964 model had square ones.
A fair number of Studebaker Avantis have survived because of their no-rust fiberglass body and solid construction. A 1963-64 R1 is valued at $10,800 in good condition and at $20,500 if in excellent shape, according to the Cars of Particular Interest guide. It says a supercharged 1963-64 R2 is worth $12,000 in good shape and $22,800 in excellent condition.
However, the Sports Car Market value guide puts figures for an R1 at $16,000 to $28,000 and at $20,000 to $32,000 for an R2.
The Avanti was too good to die quickly. It lasted for decades after 1963 with Chevy V-8s after being initially rescued by two successful South Bend Studebaker dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman.
Altman and Newman bought all rights to the car, formed Avanti Motor Corp., and continued to have it hand-built for years in an old Studebaker plant as the "Avanti II," powered by a Corvette V-8. The revived car's chief engineer was Gene Hardig, the original Avanti head engineer.
"The Avanti was too sensational for us to just let it go," Altman told me during an interview at the Avanti II factory. He was wildly enthusiastic about the Avanti and worked tirelessly for more than a decade to make it successful.
The Avanti II was nearly the same as the Studebaker version, although Altman removed the car's slight front rake, substituted the modern Corvette V-8, gave it much higher quality and let buyers choose various high-grade interior materials such as carpets.
Other individuals continued to build the car for years when Altman passed away in the mid-1970s and the Altman family sold the operation.
The Avanti still turns heads. No car has ever looked like it, and none probably ever will. | <urn:uuid:17140067-52f6-41c1-b0d5-7bc53609e905> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.danjedlicka.com/classic_cars/studebaker_avanti.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973196 | 2,180 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Reaping the Whirlwind: Extreme weather prompts
unprecedented global warming alert
"In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signaled last night that (read on after our friend's masterpiece of a photo)
weather is going haywire. In a startling report, the WMO, which normally
produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end,
highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the
world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month
for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate
Here are 10 vital steps to slow global warming and climate destabilization. Some of these steps may be difficult at first, but all are fun, save money, and offer exercise and social opportunities. Apparently, government and greenhouse-gas generating corporations are not up to the task of saving the climate. So, let us act for the Earth at this critical time. The worlds transport sector is the worst offender in greenhouse-gas emissionsespecially the U.S. car fleet. Waiting for the technofix for industry could be ecocide: renewable energy cannot support a huge consumer economy; it is expected to rely on the same unsustainable infrastructure, and dwindling cheap petroleum in its diverse uses cannot be fully substituted.
We have launched the Global Warming Crisis Council to respond to the hammering on our global climate perpetrated by industry and overpopulation. The dominant culture may not be able to properly address global warming, but those of us in the vanguard to sustainability are getting started "by (almost) any means necessary." See our special page on the Global Warming Crisis Council.
A climate background section follows the Pledge, and next are the steps in greater detail: guided explanations and their benefits to you, society, and our Earth. Our postcard featuring these steps is available: email us to request postcards (tree-free paper; 25 cents each or $14 for 100).
The Earth lovingly provides its wondrous array of species, food, water and climates for our survival, so lets save it and be proud and conscious of what we are bequeathing to the next generations.
I pledge to begin taking as many of the following steps as I can to stave off the worst effects of global warming, and spread the word. In so doing I will cut fossil fuel use. I will do some or all of the following:
1. Cut down on driving my vehicle, or carpool. I will walk or bike, and not buy a car if I do not have one (best of all). I will support and use mass transit. I may work closer to my home.
2. Cut down on working just for money: I can thereby barter more, and cut down on commuting.
3. Depave my driveway, or help others depave their driveways, or depave parking lots, and grow food in depaved land.
4. Unplug or retire my television, and perhaps go off the electricity grid. I will reduce energy for heating, and share appliances such as my oven with neighbors, and not buy or use power tools or jet skis, etc.
5. Publicly oppose new road construction and road widening in my community, to start undoing sprawl, prevent growth in traffic, and halt the spread of forest roads allowing clearcuts.
6. Take vacations without jet air travel, and avoid career activity dependent on jet travel.
7. Plant trees, collect rainwater, and avoid overusing municipal water as it is energy-consumptive (and thus may emit CO2, the main heat-trapping gas that fossil fuels release).
8. Buy local products, buy as little plastic as possible, carry a travel mug. Minimize consumption. Support alternative plant materials to cut down on petrochemicals and trees for paper. Avoid eating animal products especially shipped-in beef.
9. Not bring more children into the world, or limit my offspring to one, and possibly adopt. I recognize the threat of overpopulation.
10. Inform my community and the greater national and global community on the need to take action such as the above for climate stability.
Ten detailed steps for greenhouse relief and benefits
1. Drive your car less, or give it up. Perhaps you can try carpooling or renting a car. Eventually you could move your residence closer to work, or find a job closer to home. Ride a bike, walk, take the bus or the train. Use bike-carts for hauling. Each gallon of gasoline burned means five pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. The U.S. burns over 115 billion gallons a year.
2. Cut down on working just for cash. Personal arrangements reduce commuting and boost community. Garden or farm locally so you can share in the food. Help clean or repair someones home, and in return perhaps get your hair styled or get a massage! Do some child care or teaching in your immediate neighborhood so others dont have to drive their kids, and you may be compensated in the form of getting some clothing, firewood or music lessons. Establish local currency.
3. Depave your driveway or someone elses. Grow food. Tear up a parking lot. Good soil for growing food is often under asphalt and concrete, except when a bed of rocks was put in and soil scraped away. Narrowing a road (which calms traffic and lowers the urban heat island effect of pavement) can allow for all-important tree planting. Create compost with kitchen scraps and garden clippings, for growing depaved veggies. Save urine for fertilizing trees; dilute it for garden plants.
4. Unplug the television and other electric or motorized appliances or toys. Read books, play non-electric musical instruments, and talk with your family. Get news and entertainment from a solar or handcrank radio. Get off the grid: use no electricity in first one room, then others. Reduce heating. Share ovens: Six loaves of bread can bake at once instead of one-this means getting together with neighbors! Go to bed early so as to not turn night into day. Use non-petroleum oil lamps. Minimize outdoor lighting. No motorized recreational toys or two-stroke engines. Push-mow lawns; bring back the scythe to clear fields.
5. Halt road construction at local, state and national levels. More roads and wider roads bring about more car and truck traffic and CO2 emissions, and allow sprawl development which means more electricity-demand and less green space. Roads are the way forests have been clearcut. There should be no compromise: our biosphere is running out of time. Cheap oil is running out too fast for myriad roads to be useful.
6. Reject the jet: Take vacations without air travel. Sail. Go into a line of work not requiring jet travel. Jets are less energy efficient than cars, per capita, comparing a jet full of passengers to one person driving. Forget jet skis too!
7. Plant trees on lawns (including golf courses), and everywhere: they suck up CO2. Vital places for restoration include stream and river banks, and dirt roads that have been closed. (Do close roads; the Earth would approve.) Hope that increasingly violent storms due to global warming will not destroy forests and plants too badly. Collect rain water and use water sparingly for washing, especially cars, as pumping municipal water can use much fossil-fuel energy that adds to global warming.
8. Buy and consume locally: This cuts down on petroleum-based transport. Also, buy smart: little or no petroleum plastic. Reuse paper bags and glass containers. Support sustainable, nontoxic materials-industries such as hemp: it replaces pulping of trees. Buy in bulk. Reuse and recycle everything including kitchen scraps for compost. Avoid eating animal products especially shipped-in beef. Consume no factory-farm animal products; the herds create methane and demand great quantities of electricity and petroleum. Earths petroleumoil and natural gaswill be virtually gone before 2050. Growing food organically does not use fertilizers made from natural gas or pesticides from oil. To improve diet for health and localization, look into www.living-foods.com.
9. Reduce population growth: Adopt a child instead of reproducing, but bearing one child is better than adding two to the population. Fewer consumers especially in the highest per capita energy-using nation (the U.S.) means lower global-warming emissions. Why bring another life into an overpopulated, greenhouse world? Instead of More Jobs for more people, what about less people? More jobs=more CO2 emissions.
10. Community action: Aim it toward governments and big corporations. If todays level of outcry against genetically engineered food and the excesses of world corporate trade were combined, that might be enough to get the ball rolling. So, write letters, demonstrate in the streets, form boycotts, and attend city-council and county-supervisor hearings. Use the Internet to email this, and link websites to www.culturechange.org. Take loving action to discourage fellow citizens climate-changing habits. Good luck to us all; we are all one.
The Beautiful Earth Provides
by Jan Lundberg
Our world is wondrous and still is mysterious. May it always contain and nurture development of species, and rocks too, in all their amazing variety and function, as vital to the whole. Simply because civilization recently came along and allowed overpopulation of one confused species (most of us by now), does not mean we should give up hope for resuming our evolution in an accepting, joyful fashion.
As daunting as todays problems arethat we have foisted on the future as wellwe are fortunate to be here and alive. In our time on the Earth we need to love one another and our common home, for our own happiness and peace of mind, as well as for securing for the future the beauty of this little third stone from the Sun. Our achievements can be said to be awesome, but perhaps the best of them return our attention to the original state of abundance shared by all: Please dont destroy these lands/Dont make them desert sands. (the Yardbirds, mid 1960s)
What you may have already known:
What you may NOT have known:
What we are putting into the atmosphere today will not be felt or detected in terms of global warming for another 50 years or more. The discernible warming today due to fossil fuel burning comes from prior to 1950. Not to slow global warming now is madness.
Positive feedback loops mean that carbon or methane sinks become greenhouse gas sources (emitters), and rising temperatures cause more release of the gases, causing quicker global warming which releases more gases more quickly, and so onthe runaway greenhouse effect. The Arctics permafrost is melting, releasing CO2 and methane contained there; ocean temperatures are rising which kills phytoplankton that soak up carbon; ocean water expands when heated and would engulf more land, killing vegetation that releases CO2. Meanwhile, bodies of water hold heat while ice reflects it away. Vast amounts of frozen methane on sea bottoms can be released, contributing to oceanic and atmospheric warming. Species are being driven extinct at a rate of perhaps over one hundred a day, before much global warming has even hit.
Individual and mass action is clearly required now; we must not wait to see what Al Gore would do. He supports more highway building, which increases motor vehicle use. U.S. automobiles are the single biggest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions. If non-petroleum fuels were the new propulsion for vehicles, the amount of CO2 emissions would increase with electric vehicles charged up on a fossil-fuel electric utility grid. But most emissions from cars are from the mining and manufacturing of the cars and components.
The Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations-spawned proposed treaty adopted in 1997, calls for the U.S. to cut greenhouse gases by 7% of 1990 levels. The Senate has not yet ratified it. Meanwhile, emissions have risen, to over 11% beyond 1990 levels. So, emissions are supposed to go down by 18% between 2008-2012, assuming they stopped going up now. The revised goal for arithmetic accuracy by then may have to be 25%, although that is less than half of what the climate needsassuming other nations came through too. Unless this happens, the result may be the runaway greenhouse effect. Scientists with the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in 1995 that the worlds fossil-fuels emissions reduction must be 60-80%. In Kyoto, Fossil Fuels Policy Action was advised that transport is the sector accounting for the rise in greenhouse gas emissions in the 1990s. To offset this means no new roads globally. It means retiring cars as Cuba did upon losing its Soviet oil. It means massive birth control. It means neighbors sharing the use of ovens to cook meals, and more.
In June 2000 the San Francisco Chronicle referred to the Global Warming Debate in a headline. This adds to confusion and prevents needed action. The reality of climate-change is not getting through, despite the alternative media. The U.S. government demands cheaper gasoline from the oil companies and more oil from OPEC. With that kind of leadership, when it knows full well what global warming is doing, our choosing lifestyle change on the individual level is what the Earth demands. In the process of a mass movement we will save money and improve health and sociability.
Due to heatwaves at present, perhaps due to global warming, energy shortages exist for electric power. This seems like the best reason and time to implement Kyoto-type cuts in consumption to cut emissions.
The technofix hope, pinned on renewable energy, can be a misleading dead-end when we consider dwindling oils unique applications, and we face existing overpopulation propped up by cheap petroleum. The technofix is well supported in the environmental movements literature because the industrial approach gets well funded. The inefficient, overbuilt infrastructure that the technofix would attempt to preserve relies on oils non-energy uses: e.g., asphalt, tires and plastic.
This documents list of steps to take is limited. Be creative! Eventually, a natural balance can be restored, and we will along the way achieve local food-supply security through non-petroleum farming and non-oil transport and trade. The steps in the Pledge for Climate Stabilization would aid the grassroots movement to fight climate destabilization.
Legislation and court decisions limiting secondhand smoke was possible through active respect for individual and public health. To pass and enforce laws against motor-vehicle exhaust is harder than fighting tobacco companies, because the national and global economy would collapse without ongoing sales of new motor vehicles. Some would welcome collapse, but society is already challenged to adequately care for stockpiles of nuclear weapons and radioactive waste.
There is hope in grassroots, nonviolent direct action. It is peaceful when people in the oppositionthose in denialare thought of as lacking information or in experience in using courage. Shutting down the WTO meeting peacefully in Seattle last fall proves people can be motivated to turn off the televisions and computers, get out of their cars, and make a long-term difference.
Check out the website of the Campaign
against Climate Change/Rising Tide
Back to Home Page | <urn:uuid:58ac017a-248a-4acd-8a3d-badbc1e68736> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://culturechange.org/global_warming_pledge.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93527 | 3,175 | 1.992188 | 2 |
28 August 2009
At the same time that I was writing my article for August, I also wrote a letter that ended a sixty-five-year-old family disagreement. Although the focus of this article will be about my family, many of you may have a similar situation in your family. The disagreement took place in September 1942 between my grandfather and his older brother, my great uncle. It involved dividing possessions that belonged to the family when their oldest sister died suddenly. She had never married but stayed at home with their parents until they died a few years before she died. Because of their disagreement, my grandfather and his brother never spoke to each other again. Their younger sister acted as an intermediary, along with the attorney who was handling the settlement of the older sister’s estate.
My grandfather claimed that his brother took something that belonged to him and left behind the cream pitcher to the silver tea service that my great grandparents received as a gift for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. My grandfather was willing to give his brother the pitcher when he received his property back. I know this exchange never took place since I now have that cream pitcher.
I did not know that my father's brother was still living when I was growing up. It was not until about six or seven years after my grandfather died that I found out his brother had been alive when my grandfather died and had died two years later.
When I began doing genealogy, I found some information about my great uncle. I questioned some of my mother’s siblings about their uncle, but no one seemed to know much about him. My mother claimed she did not know anything about him. I also talked to a son of my grandfather’s younger sister. He did not know much about his uncle either. However, he did know that his uncle’s son (my mother’s cousin) lived in a town about a mile and a half from where my grandfather lived.
About seven years ago my parents went to the local funeral home to preplan their funerals. The funeral home happened to be in the same town where my mother’s cousin lived. When my mother told the funeral director her maiden name, he asked if she was related to the man who was her cousin, and she curtly replied. "NO!" I asked her, “What do you mean NO? He is your cousin.” She said nothing and just stared directly at me and said nothing. I thought I would hear about it later, but she never said another word.
Part of me wanted to contact this cousin, but I was not sure if he would react like my mother. It was obvious that her father’s hard feelings were passed on to my mother. I had already talked to one of my mother’s cousins on her mother’s side of the family about my grandmother’s family. His reaction had been, “What do you want to know about them for? They're dead.” His wife did give me some information, but she did not know much. Because of his reaction, I hesitated to contact the cousin on my grandfather’s side of the family.
In April, the cousin’s wife died, and shortly after that I was talking to a couple of friends about my mother’s reaction at the funeral home. One of them asked if I had contacted him. That prompted me to finally write to her cousin. I did want to wait a little while after his wife died before making contact; so, I sent my letter in the middle of July. Two days later I came home to a message on my answering machine from the cousin. He did not know much about why his father and my grandfather did not speak, but he did say his father could be a very stubborn person, something that runs in the family. My grandfather could be the same way.
I had a trip planned to New Jersey the first week of August and made arrangements to meet my mother’s cousin. We spent about five and an a half hours together, sharing stories about both our families. The stories were filled with serendipity. My parents met roller-skating, and so did the cousin and his wife. His daughter works at the grocery store where one of my sisters shops. There were a number of other coincidences.
He sent my e-mail address to one of his nephews who has researched the family for twenty years. I learned that this nephew had contacted my grandfather before he died, but my grandfather did not want discuss anything about the family. He had information that I did not have, and I had information that he did not have. As a result of our mutual interest in our family history -- and our willingness to bury this ancient hatchet -- we will be sharing a lot of notes, records, pictures, and other information.
I hope that if you have a similar situation in your family, you will be inspired to contact the family members. The worst thing they can say is that they do not want to discuss the family. On the other hand, you may have new family members in your life and learn more information about your family. ◦ | <urn:uuid:b0f20f75-7749-46e6-b41f-702e36edefdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/2009/08/genealogy-news-and-issues-by-charles-s_28.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995673 | 1,059 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Broadcasting Australia tower at Willis Hill near Smithton, Tasmania, site of CSIRO's Ngara wireless access field trial. (CSIRO)
Fewer towers for CSIRO rural broadband wireless
In what could prove to be a major breakthrough for people living in rural and regional Australia, CSIRO is developing wireless broadband technology that could operate using barely a quarter the number of transmission towers required by current systems.
“Analysis we’ve commissioned shows other wireless technologies, which typically operate at higher frequencies, would require four times as many towers,” CSIRO ICT Centre Director Dr Ian Oppermann said.
CSIRO’s first prototype Ngara access system currently gives six simultaneous users 12 megabits per second (Mbps) from the network to their home and 12 Mbps from their home to the network. It is being shown to decision makers in industry and policy this week.
“We feel symmetry is important as people interact more using bandwidth-hungry applications such as video conferencing – they could be working from home, participating in a lesson or visiting their doctor online,” CSIRO ICT Centre Director Dr Ian Oppermann said.
“We feel symmetry is important as people interact more using bandwidth-hungry applications such as video conferencing – they could be working from home, participating in a lesson or visiting their doctor online”
Dr Ian Oppermann, CSIRO
“It’s easy to see how these services would be particularly valuable in rural areas.”
CSIRO’s Ngara technology aims to bring wireless broadband access to people living beyond Australia’s planned fibre network using existing broadcasting infrastructure and UHF spectrum, such as that left behind when Australian TV goes 100 per cent digital.
“Even with the analog TV switch-off, there won’t be much spectrum to spare so any wireless system has to be very efficient, sending as much information as possible within its allotted frequency range,” Dr Oppermann said.
At 20 bits per second per Hertz (20 b/s/Hz), CSIRO’s Ngara access system is one of the most spectrally efficient in the world. The 12 Mbps, six simultaneous user system works in the space of one television channel, which is seven megahertz (MHz) wide.
During recent field testing from a Broadcast Australia tower in Tasmania, CSIRO’s low-power prototype system operated over distances up to 16 kilometres.
“A feature of our first prototype Ngara system is that all six simultaneous users within the coverage area would have access to and from their homes at 12 Mbps,” Dr Oppermann said.
“Current wireless technologies are not designed to allow uploads and downloads at the same rate and making them symmetrical would likely mean even more towers.”
Ngara is a word of the Darug people meaning to listen, hear and think.The Darug people are the traditional owners of the land on which the ICT Centre's Sydney lab sits. This project is supported by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund. CSIRO acknowledges the assistance of Broadcast Australia.
Read more media releases in our Media section. | <urn:uuid:c82df3af-c998-48e4-8871-332989654cb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Media/Rural-broadband-wireless.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937538 | 662 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Back at the Trelew bus station after a morning in Rawson, fatigue set in. Big time. I’d slept very little the night before & it finally caught up with me. After a few empanadas in Plaza Centenario, I decided that I hadn’t come all this way just to take a nap in a public park… nothing like forcing yourself to be a tourist. Free bus station wi-fi turned out to be helpful in deciding what to visit in Trelew… much more so than the woman at the TI booth who was having maté with her friend. At least she gave me a map.
Compared to Rawson, Trelew is a much more happening place. Unfortunately there’s little left of its Welsh past to visit. In 1865 the first Welsh immigrants arrived with the hopes of establishing a permanent settlement to maintain their language & culture. Industrialization was in full swing in the UK & conflict with the English forced several to look around the world for a better place to live. During the same period, Argentina claimed Patagonia but had not made any attempt to establish settlements… seems to me that Welsh arrivals did the Argentine government a big favor. Conditions were less than hospitable, but the colony survived & even grew in size for about 50 years. Its success began to attract other immigrants & eventually Welsh influence faded. But it’s a unique bit of history.
The most visible reminder of Welsh presence in Trelew is the few buildings which survived. The former railway station is a museum dedicated to the city’s founders:
Not far away is the spectacular Banco de la Nación. A bit different in style than most of the other branches I’ve seen, this one comes with a clock tower. In the past it was meant to provide the official hour & keep trains on schedule:
Another remnant of the past is the St. David Association, which everyone says was built to resemble the St. David church in Pembrokeshire. I don’t see it. Beautiful building but hardly anything like a Gothic church. Seems like another case of “let’s all repeat what someone else wrote ages ago without verifying anything.” :-)
Plaza Independencia was by far the prettiest part of town… a haven of green with a 100-year old gazebo in the center. Important buildings surrounded the plaza, adding to its charm. As I walked around, a sculpture dedicated to mothers everywhere caught my eye. It looked like a work by Luis Perlotti & sure enough, it was signed by the artist & dated 1965.
I saved the most publicized museum for last, waiting until Darío returned from Rawson. The Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio claimed to be one of the best of its kind in the world & housed important fossils from the region. Say no more. I’ve always loved a good natural history museum, & this one had a petrified tree at the entrance. Very cool. Since the entrance fee was a steep 35 pesos, we thought it had to be good. However, I’d rank it as average with some great specimens (loved the gigantic Argentinosaurus, the large flightless bird-dinosaur & the massive ammonite).
Here’s my beef. At 35 pesos per person, it was odd to see exhibits left neglected. Signs describing fossils were not displayed correctly… they were merely propped up in the most convenient spot. Examine the photo above to see what I mean. Larger panels had been ripped from the wall & were also propped against whatever would hold them. The video was projected too high as well as horribly out of focus. And some displays had gaping holes which staff merely tried to hide (see below). There was space to do so much more.
One of my biggest complaints about cultural programming in Argentina is the sad state of curation in almost every exhibit I’ve seen. There’s nothing I love more than an interesting topic presented well, & Argentina usually fails in museum displays. Great things can be done on a small budget, so it’s not the lack of funding. Argentina really needs to improve their museums if they want to continue to draw tourism… or devalue the currency again.
We walked around town a bit more–the light was great for black & white photos–then finished the afternoon off with a few beers & dinner.
At that point I was beyond exhausted & knew I’d sleep the entire bus ride back to Esquel, regardless of road conditions. And I kept sleeping for most of the next morning too! Overall, I wouldn’t say that either Rawson or Trelew should be high on anyone’s destination list. Sure, there are some interesting sights but given their location, I’d say only stop by for a quick visit if you’re in the area… or if you are of Welsh descent & want to see where some of your relatives might have landed! | <urn:uuid:7f6fb317-1eb6-4e44-b056-f5db9b4695b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wrighton.com.ar/archives/trelew-one-day-getaway/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971113 | 1,045 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Founded in 2004, Games for Change is the leading global advocate for supporting and making games for social impact. They bring together organizations and individuals from the social impact sector, government, media, academia, the gaming industry and the arts to grow the field, incubate new projects and provide an open platform for the exchange of ideas and resources. Check out their great Learning Resources for more info.
The 8th annual Games for Change conference was earlier this week in New York. I was stoked to be offered a free ticket (thanks Beth!) and tweeted up a storm along with the rest of #G4C2011. We even storified keynotes by Al Gore, James Shelton, and Jesse Schell. I relished the opportunity to attend the conference as a relative novice–I’ve read a bit about games, but I’ve never made a game, worked on a game, or even been an active gamer. Here’s what I learned:
- Nonprofits (at least the ones smart/interested enough to be in attendance) are looking for opportunities to connect with game makers (& gamers), but know even less about goals for gaming than they do about goals for social media. Many of the speakers with a strictly nonprofit background made clear to the crowd, “I don’t know anything about gaming, but what you do seems cool and maybe useful, so if you’d like to work with us, get in touch!” Nobody has the expertise across game design & funding & social impact, so partnerships are abundant.
- The tradeoffs between making a game that “users want to play” and “C-level nonprofit execs will approve of” and “clearly leads to positive social change” and “attract enough revenue during the conception phase to actually get built” are nearly impossible to navigate. Many of the game demos presented were deeply flawed on at least one of those measures. If anything, it seems to be easier to take a “commercial game,” find the aspects of it that tangentially relate to the social good sphere, and build teaching/advocacy materials around that aspect (eg Portal 2).
- There’s a huge variety of genres of games for change–first person perspective, gestural based, point and click, simulations, Facebook, alternate reality, multiple choice, even low tech board games, and a wide variety of games adapted for smart phones and dumb phones.
- There’s a huge variety of nonprofit sectors interested in using games for change: we saw examples from city government, cultural institutions, a zillion games in the classroom (enough to form an entire Games for Learning Institute), public media, health care, and many many more. One interesting area of focus for Games for Learning is STEM subjects. Nearly anytime games for the educational sector were mentioned, it was in the context of teaching STEM. There was much debate on Twitter whether games should be about STEM, should simply include STEM principles/ideas, or if games de facto helped teach STEM, regardless of the content or genre of the game.
- There’s a huge variety of audience demographics interested in gaming: enough stats to make even my head spin–from boys to girls, kids to seniors, developed to developing economies, over represented to under represented communities. Games seem to be more ubiquitous than any other form of media, social media included.
- Evaluation metrics for games are awesome. Game designers build a game with an outcome in mind, and you can do a (relatively robust) pre/post game play user analysis to test that outcome. Most games have a clear conversion funnel (beginning, levels, end), clear metrics (user uploaded content, made it through this level in 10 minutes, etc). And game makers can test EVERYTHING during the game design process to optimize before launch.
- There exist gaming engines that you can build a game on top of so you don’t have to create your own software. Think of WordPress as a blog engine–you can modify the look of it, use it towards a lot of different ends, customize certain pieces of it. Unity was the game engine that kept coming up in presentations, but there are at least hundreds out there.
- Kids these days are WICKED smart. Gabe Newell, creator of Portal, showed an incredible video of middle schoolers taking a field trip to Valve labs and learning to build their own version of Portal in a few hours. Also, of a 2 year old playing a computer game–before the kid could talk he could understand game mechanics. We heard a few times from the demo judges that a game was “too complicated” but the (Twitter) crowd seemed to agree that the end-users (usually kids) would understand the game far better than the adult panel. On the other hand, one of the most provocative questions I heard at the conference was, “What’s the social graph of a 6 year old?”
- Game maker want to tie in-game action, to real world action. Achievement Unlocked gave a great presentation about their ideas for how to make that happen.
- An overall trend I noticed was for games to be mashed up with documentary film footage. Which of course is just a subset of the transmedia storytelling opportunities.
- Just like every other piece of digital content, users want to manipulate the game, change it to fit their desire, they want the game to adapt to them uniquely. Games, more than nearly any other type of digital media, seem to be able to incorporate this desire for manipulation organically into the game.
The conference itself included game play: a networking game called Stakeholdem that crossed LinkedIn with Uno and was the most successful “forced networking” I’ve ever seen at a conference (of which I’ve been in 7 in 2011 alone). There’s also an archive of the live stream that you should definitely check out. | <urn:uuid:c32ac580-8ff9-49c8-91a5-6f5ce330ec37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.devonvsmith.com/2011/06/games-for-change-conference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959141 | 1,233 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Did you know that women are 50% less likely than men to seriously consider running for office, less likely than men actually to run for office and far less likely to run for higher office? If you are inspired to get involved in the political process or know someone who you think should run for office, take a look at some leadership trainings.
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By educating young women and girls about the importance of politics, and imbuing them with the skills they need to be leaders, we give women the “running start” they need to achieve greater political power. With an earlier start in politics, women will climb higher on the leadership ladder, allowing more women to share in the decision making power of this country.
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Ready to Run™ is a bi-partisan program for women who want to run for office, seek higher office, work on a campaign, get appointed to office, or learn more about the political system. Policy experts, party officials, campaign consultants, and prominent elected and appointed leaders provide insight to participants in programs held throughout the country.
Find more resources at the Center for American Women In Politics | <urn:uuid:cea5f845-b38a-4b8a-9842-3aca50676e96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mylifetime.com/my-lifetime-commitment/your-life-your-time-your-vote/leadership-trainings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967481 | 305 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Comments on dredging and in-water disposal of dredged materials can be emailed to firstname.lastname@example.org or mailed to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, PSMP/EIS, ATTN: Sandy Shelin, CENWW-PM-PD-EC, 201 N. 3rd Avenue, Walla Walla, WA 99362-1876.
Comments to Ecology about water quality certification may be emailed to ecyrefedpermits@e... or mailed to the Washington Department of Ecology, ATTN: Federal Permit Coordinator – SEA Program, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600.
All mailed comments must be postmarked by April 11.
LEWISTON, Idaho — Two additional opportunities have opened to comment on a proposed dredging project in the lower Snake River.
According to a release from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the proposed dredging would be a short-term solution to restore the river’s navigation channel to its authorized dimensions.
The dredging would be at three locations in the Lower Granite Dam reservoir and at one site just downstream of Ice Harbor Dam in the McNary Dam reservoir. The dredged materials would be disposed of in the river just upstream of Knoxway Canyon and 23 miles downstream of Clarkston.
If authorized, the work would occur during a winter “in-water work window” from Dec. 15 to March 1. According to the Corps, maintenance dredging has not been performed in the river since the winter of 2005-2006.
The first additional comment period is to satisfy provisions of the federal Clean Water Act regarding the proposed immediate need for action, plus in-water disposal of dredged materials.
The second period is for comments to the Washington state Department of Ecology on a request by the Corps that Ecology certify that the discharges of dredged material will not violate existing state water quality standards.
The deadline for submitting comments on both issues is April 11.
Comments will also continue to be accepted through March 26 for the draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Corps’ Lower Snake River Programmatic Sediment Management Plan. | <urn:uuid:efe9f77a-47a2-4f95-983a-178000c0c06d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://union-bulletin.com/news/2013/mar/13/comment-period-extended-for-snake-river-dredging/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930644 | 454 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Due to some last minute scheduling issues this semester, I almost had to have an open lab in a room with no removable hard drives and the computers locked down to the point where nothing could be installed. Yep, this would make teaching advanced web technologies a bit dicey. As I was scrambling to find other rooms, I was also working on “Plan B.” This would have involved the use of a web based IDE (Integrated Development Environment). As long as students had access to a browser (and could also bring a USB drive), this could have been a workable solution. Although the room issue did get resolved, I thought it might be helpful to others to learn a bit about what I discovered. Hence this post.
First, my criteria for any web based IDE. The short list is below. By creating this list, I eliminated a number of potential contenders (since some cost, for example).
- Must be free to use (even a limited version is ok as long as students don’t have to shell out any money to use the IDE).
- One must be able to access files (preferably via upload and download to a USB drive, but I also entertained using GitHub or similar platforms).
Ok, based on the above criteria (and some quick searching online), I came up with several contenders. Frankly, I was amazed at the number of choices. I am listing them in alphabetical order below. Yes, some of these are relatively restrictive (with a focus on a given technology). However, the may prove useful if your focus is on that technology and you are severely hampered at what you can install locally. I probably missed a fair number (please use the comments section to enlighten me on the ones I missed). If anyone has experience with any of these environments, I would also appreciate comments.
Those that made the list are discussed in more detail below. However, here are the links to each (for those who want to investigate further on their own).
- Cloud9 – http://cloud9ide.com/
- CodeRun – http://coderun.com/ide/
- CSSDesk – http://cssdesk.com/
- eXo – http://www.cloud-ide.com
- Ideone – http://ideone.com/ (PHP only for our purposes)
- jsFiddle – http://jsfiddle.net/
- ShiftEdit – http://shiftedit.net
Yes, there are a number of choices. No the choices are not comparable in all cases. That being said, I recommend using the appropriate tool for the job. For example, if you only need to code a small amount of CSS and observe the effects, CSSDesk may be a perfect solution. On the other hand if you need to develop a full application eXo and Cloud9 may be much better choices. Since I teach a number of disparate technologies related to web pages, any one of these solutions may be the correct solution in a specific case. I was amazed at the number of choices and capabilities available. I particularly like the integration with PaaS (Platform as a Service) providers in the more advanced IDEs.
Ok, here are my slightly more detailed overviews of the various IDE choices mentioned above. I tried to provide some screen captures to help you better understand their capabilities. Again, I would welcome feedback/ comments from those who have used a particular IDE.
Cloud9 relies mostly on GitHub for a repository, but it also appears that one can use FTP with your own server. I did not have time to fully investigate this, but the initial screen capture is below. Click on the image to see a larger version.
The only issue one might have with this facility is security. For example, you are placing your FTP credentials in Cloud9 without knowing who else is watching. This would be of particular concern when using plain FTP (instead of sFTP). Ok, I was once paid to be paranoid and I can’t help thinking of potential issues like this. Overall, this looks like a very useful solution. I have had several students (and former students) tell me they use and like this IDE. Although I did not use it (in the interest of time), there is a plugin for the Chrome browser.
CodeRun – http://coderun.com/ide/ You can sign up or simply start using the environment. Emphasis is on selected code (ASP.Net with C#, JS, and PHP). Note the project types shown below. With CodeRun you can also download a zip file of the solution you are working on.
I chose a jQuery template as a starting point. Note the code is XHTML compliant. Details from the initial template can be found in the image below. Just click on the image to enlarge the details.
The end result is displayed below (only slight modification from supplied example).
CSSDesk – http://cssdesk.com/. Yep, this one has a focus on CSS. You can download the code you modify as a zip file. The changes happen in real time as you modify the CSS or HTML. A quick example is shown in the screen capture below. Click on the image to see a larger version.
eXo – http://www.cloud-ide.com. This is another environment which can be used for free. It is presently in beta (private). You begin by creating your preferred subdomain on their server. This has to be reviewed in their beta program and then accepted. It took roughly half a day for this to happen. I don’t view this as a problem at all since this is still a beta. Once all is created, you login and can then begin working with their sample templates or build your own files from scratch. Example templates are shown below.
The resulting code is HTML5 (I chose a simple example with limited HTML, CSS, and JS). Click on the image to see a larger version that you can read.
eXo Cloud also has significant integration with various PaaS (Platform as a Service) suppliers. Another screen capture is below.
Lastly, there are a number of capabilities found in the file menu system (including the ability to download your work to save locally).
I have included this for those who are interested in other languages, but I would recommend one of the other IDEs for those who just want to focus on HTML, CSS and related web technologies.
One can easily modify one of the examples (in this case, I used YUI and pulled my recent tweets after also updating the CSS. I would recommend signing up for an account so you can share your fiddles. It would appear that the easiest approach to saving your work locally is to simply copy [separately] the HTML, CSS, and JS and then save them locally.I recommend clicking on the thumbnail image below to open it as a full sized image.
ShiftEdit – http://shiftedit.net This is another web based IDE focused on HTML, CSS, JS and related technologies. This site wants you to tie the editor directly to a site. One can test small bits of code in the editor, but to do a lot, one must link to a site. Of course, this assumes one trusts that the credentials you supply are secure. Note the types of files one can create (below).
Again, one must also link to some repository (this can be a web site). For example, one could connect via FTP as shown in the screen capture below.
The generated HTML is HTML5 by default (see below).
So the above is my list of alternatives to trying to develop web pages on a locked down computer. Frankly, I was amazed at the choices. Many appear quite robust. I would be most interested in your experiences with these web based IDEs and what others you would recommend for HTML, CSS, JS and server side web technologies. Note that I need to approve comments (I get too many attempts at SPAM to blindly accept comments). That being said, as long as you have a legitimate comment, it will be approved below. | <urn:uuid:9f689796-71de-42e4-b971-d0cfbfcff495> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.markdubois.info/weblog/2012/01/web-based-ides/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949496 | 1,671 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Weekly News Roundup
News, Events and Observations about Health Markets in the Developing World
Bangladeshi Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which runs the CHMI-profiled Manoshi program, announced its goal to be completely self-financed by 2021! It went from 100% donor funding in 1990's to only 30% in 2011. Click here to read more.
Cola-Life is piloting the distribution of anti-diarrhea kits (ADKs) in bags and other forms of supply chains to maintain independence from Coca Cola. Cola-Life piggy-backs on the Coca-Cola distribution chain to get social products into the community shops that Coca-Cola gets to, however it may be that some retailers do not sell Coca-Cola. Hence Cola-Life is trying new ways to bundle and package the ADKs to be transported along with the different products without increasing the volume. Read about it here.
Bas Hoefman, the founder of Text To Change (TTC), was interviewed in a recent article of Ventures Africa about the experience and challenges the NGO had faced in introducing and executing m-health projects. TTC has led the way in using interactive text messaging for health in Africa especially in Uganda. It specializes in interactive and incentive based SMS programs, addressing a wide range of health issues including HIV/AIDS, malaria and reproductive health. So far it has implemented over 40 successful mHealth programs in 14 countries!
Check out a new video released by the Transparency & Accountability Program (TAP) at the Results for Development Institute (R4D), the coordinating partner of CHMI, illustrating a new ICT to address health worker absenteeism. When patients arrive at a PHC and the doctor is absent, they can use their phones to text a central location which will record this data to allow the government to track and citizens to see which clinics are chronically understaffed.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published an article about a Nigerian banker, Tony Elumelu, and his idea for “Africapitalism,” a business-led, African-run approach to spurring entrepreneurialism and fighting poverty. He started a foundation to finance non-profit work that supports economic growth. He joins a small but growing group of African philanthropists using their wealth to tackle current social problems. Read the full article here.
A new article in The Economist looks at the increasingly crucial roles of health care innovations in meeting health care needs especially in developing countries. As the demand for health care is rising faster than the supply of doctors in developing countries, innovative approaches for better allocation of resources, efficient targeting of tasks, and ICT seem to be providing effective alternatives to the traditional doctor-patient dynamic. These innovations have been lowering costs and improving the quality of care. Several CHMI-profiled programs such as Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, LifeSpring Hospitals, and MedicallHome are given as examples of innovative models. To read the article, click here. | <urn:uuid:ff34a43e-b908-48ae-bc7d-37df98081aa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthmarketinnovations.org/blog/2012/jun/7/weekly-news-roundup | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945158 | 620 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Agreement between the USA and the European Union
All airlines are legally required to disclose the flight and reservation details (also known as the Passenger Name Record or PNR data) of every passenger travelling to the USA to the American Customs and Border authorities (Department of Homeland Security). This information will be used solely for the purposes of combating terrorism.
The disclosure of the information and its use by the US authorities were regulated in an agreement between the European Union and the United States on 6 July 2007.
This agreement was ratified by the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) on 20 December 2007.
The relevant law can be viewed at the address below, along with details of the agreement and the American undertaking regarding data protection:
Information about the law
Specific aspects of the disclosure of information by Lufthansa
For more information about the data which Lufthansa is obliged to pass on to the US authorities, please see the FAQs. | <urn:uuid:48eb2da0-aa8b-4f2e-a0c1-72d2310b820d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lufthansa.com/lt/en/Access-to-reservation-information-by-US-Homeland-Security-authorities | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951057 | 194 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Israeli navy takes over Gaza-bound ship
The Israeli navy took over a Gaza- bound ship carrying international pro-Palestinian activists Saturday, Israel Radio reported.
The radio quoted an Israeli army spokesperson as saying that the operation to intercept Estelle, the Finnish-flagged Swedish ship, was in accordance with a government decision to prevent the boat from reaching Gaza.
The aim of the ship is to challenge Israel’s naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled enclave. It carries symbolic humanitarian aid and activists from Europe and Canada, including some parliamentarians.
According to the Israeli radio, the takeover process was peaceful. The Israeli naval forces boarded the ship after its crew refused to turn away from Gaza waters.
Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian Non-Government Organizations Network (PNGO) who was on constant contact with the activists, said communication with the ship was cut.
The boat set sail from Sweden three months ago, making stops in several European ports to pick up the activists and the aid.
Last week, Israel notified Finland that the boat will be stopped if it tried to enter Gaza’s waters.
In 2008, several international ferries succeeded to dock at Gaza’s fishing harbor, a year after Israel imposed a strict ground and naval blockade in Gaza to isolate Hamas.
But following Israel’s major military offensive here in 2008-09 winter, Israel decided to ban all foreign ships from entering Gaza ‘s waters.
In 2010, Israeli commandos intercepted a Turkish flotilla bound for Gaza and killed nine Pro-Palestinian Turks, tensing diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey. Following the standoff, Israel relaxed the overland closure, but kept the naval blockade tight.
JERUSALEM, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — Israeli Navy soldiers boarded the Gaza-bound Finnish Estelle ship Saturday morning and were currently leading it to Ashdod port in southern Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman’s office confirmed in a statement issued on its website.
“The Navy’s boarding was carried out in accordance with international law, as the ship attempted to break the maritime security blockade of the Gaza Strip,” said the statement. “The boarding took place only after the Navy had made multiple attempts to dissuade the ship’s passengers from sailing to the Gaza Strip — both via direct contact and through diplomatic channels — but to no avail,” it added. “Despite numerous calls to the passengers onboard, they remained unwilling to cooperate with Israeli authorities,” the statement claimed. Full story | <urn:uuid:0ad2d171-d4fa-46bb-a651-3d58bf49241e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/government/fraud/israel/news.php?q=1350849709 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952723 | 528 | 1.546875 | 2 |
10 good reasons to ban guns
1.) Guns are used in self-defense over 2 million times a year. However, this makes the attempted crime a "non-event," which necessarily complicates the Police investigation. Without civilian ownership of guns, these Police investigations would not have been compromised. Civilians should leave crime prevention to the Police, who are properly equipped to investigate following the crime's completion.
2.) Some .004 % (4/1000 of 1%) of guns are used in crime each year. This is way too high.
All guns should be banned
3.) Guns are unnecessary. In 98% of civilian gun defenses, no shot is fired. If you are not going to fire a shot, you clearly don't need a gun. This proves that the guns are unnecessary. Banning guns will prevent these unnecessary defenses.
4.) Guns cause criminal migration. In tough gun-law Washington, D. C., violent crime rates are very high. This high crime rate is caused by the migration of criminals from gun havens like Virginia. This migration is caused by the criminal's cowardly avoidance of armed householders and concealed-carry civilians. This criminal migration is detrimental to helpless unarmed citizens in no-gun areas and must be stopped. Guns should be banned everywhere.
5.) Most gun crimes are committed by inner city gangs and drug dealers. These relatively small and geographically restricted groups consistently commit the majority of gun crimes, which usually peak as turf wars erupt over Drug War changes. The best way to prevent this is by denying guns to all law abiding people everywhere.
6.) No woman needs to protect herself from rape, assault or murder. The Police will protect women by investigating the crime after the fact. Remember, Police paperwork is all the protection anyone really needs.
7.) Guns owners are disrespectful of authority. Good citizens should completely rely on the authorities. A failure to do so is an invariable sign of improper and overly independent attitudes. Failure to completely and absolutely trust and depend on the authorities is excessive democracy and sends a bad message to children.
8.) Guns owners engaging in self-defense are taking the law into their own hands. This is wrong. Only the Police and Criminals have the right to take the law into their own hands. Guns should be kept out of the hands of law abiding citizens.
9.) Children and young people should remain ignorant about guns. Real guns and real gun knowledge dissipate the fantasies created by violent video games and TV. Ignorance, once lost, can never be restored and needs to be protected.
Not to mention the lost sales of all the violent movies, TV shows, video games, etc!
10.) Guns reduce people's reliance on the Police and Government. This fosters a mistaken belief in "rights". No person has the right to question authority. No person should be less than 100% dependent on authority. This is fundamental to social order. Banning guns will help to establish the Order the authorities want. This is good.
Click to view image: '3e18434ce899-s_99e8e23009e9e5a267a2bf56d965df21.jpg'
|Liveleak on Facebook| | <urn:uuid:52e6f0c1-3b79-4fe1-95bc-4d6e112313de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33c_1234217087 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946191 | 658 | 1.882813 | 2 |
SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) is the processing of programs by multiple processors that share a common operating system and memory. In symmetric (or "tightly coupled") multiprocessing, the processors share memory and the I/O bus or data path. A single copy of the operating system is in charge of all the processors. SMP, also known as a "shared everything" system, does not usually exceed 16 processors.
SMP systems are considered better than MPP systems for online transaction processing (OTP) in which many users access the same database in a relatively simple set of transactions. An advantage of SMP for this purpose is the ability to dynamically balance the workload among computers (and as a result serve more users faster). | <urn:uuid:0c70c467-afcf-4b6f-b79d-c64bfd798adf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/SMP | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934715 | 155 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Family III. STRIGINAE. OWLS.
GENUS I. SURNIA, Dumeril. DAY-OWL.
|Genus||SURNIA FUNEREA, Gmel.
It is always disagreeable to an author to come forward when he has little of importance to communicate to the reader, and on no occasion have I felt this
more keenly than on the present, when introducing to your notice an Owl, of
which the habits, although unknown to me, must be highly interesting, as it
seems to assimilate in some decree to the diurnal birds of prey. I have never
seen it alive, and therefore can only repeat what has been said by one who has.
Dr. RICHARDSON gives the following account of it in the Fauna
"It is a common species throughout the Fur Countries from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than any other by the hunters, which may partly be attributed to its boldness and its habit of flying about by day. In the summer season it feeds principally on mice and insects; but in the snow-clad regions which it frequents in the winter, neither of these are to be procured, and it then preys mostly on Ptarmigan. It is a constant attendant on the flocks of Ptarmigan in their spring migrations to the north-ward. It builds its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and feathers, and lays two white eggs. When the hunters are shooting Grouse, this bird is occasionally attracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold enough, on a bird being killed, to pounce down upon it, though it may be unable from its size to carry it off. It is also known to hover round the fires made by the natives at night."
I lately received a letter from my friend Dr. THOMAS M. BREWER, of Boston, Massachusetts, in which he informs me that "the Hawk Owl is very common at Memphramagog Lake in Vermont, where as many as a dozen may be obtained by a good gunner in the course of a single day. Its nests in the hollow trees are also frequently met with." It is surprising that none should have been seen by Mr. NUTTALL or Mr. TOWNSEND while crossing the Rocky Mountains, or on the Columbia river; especially as it has been found by my friend EDWARD HARRIS, Esq. as far southward on our eastern coast as New Jersey.
HAWK OWL, Strix hudsonica, Wils., vol. vi. p. 64.
STRIX FUNEREA, Bonap. Syn., p. 35.
HAWK OWL, Strix funerea, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 115.
HAWK OWL, Strix funerea, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 550.
Male and Female.
Tail long, much rounded, the lateral feathers two inches shorter than the middle. Upper part of head brownish-black, closely spotted with white, hind neck black, with two broad longitudinal bands of white spots; rest of upper parts dark brown, spotted with white; tail with eight transverse bars of white, the feathers tipped with the same; facial disks greyish-white, margined with black; lower parts transversely barred with brown and dull white.
Male, 15 3/4, 31 1/2. Female, 17 1/2. | <urn:uuid:8d68bc46-7306-4ca3-95b8-5df66b0ce106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web4.audubon.org/bird/BoA/F3_G1a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956825 | 738 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Florida could soon join 39 other states that have banned texting while driving.
A bill filed last week by state Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, would make texting while driving a secondary offense under which a driver can receive a citation, but only after he or she is pulled over for a primary offense such as speeding or reckless driving, TBO.com reports.
The bill doesn't prohibit all use of handheld devices while driving, as some state laws do, and cell phone calls would still be permitted.
"If you are texting while driving, you are 23 times more likely to have an accident," Holder told TBO. "I think the timing is right. I think we are going to get something passed."
Are you in favor of such a law in Florida? Do you think it goes too far, or not far enough? Should cell phone calls or other forms of distracted driving also be banned? Post a comment below. | <urn:uuid:0cff7a09-74d8-455e-9f36-b33341372d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dunedin.patch.com/articles/should-texting-while-driving-be-banned-in-florida?logout=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978294 | 193 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Jacob is now 7 years old and we thought it was about time that we updated our story for you all.
Does he still need to use Makaton? Yes he does. Is his speech coming along well? Yes it is.
Jacob communicates to family, school and members of the public via verbal communication and using Makaton signs. It's not easy to understand Jacob when he talks, as he is still working on his vocabulary and diction. So he uses his amazing signing skills to let us know/ clarify what he needs, wants, or is trying to say to us.
Sometimes being Jacob's mum I still don't understand what he wants or what he is signing, but Makaton has given us the skills we need to work around the mis-understood. We can now re-phrase sentences so we both understand. You should see Jacobs face when I finally understand what he has been trying to say to me! The other morning he was signing that he wanted a burger for breakfast. I thought he was signing 'cheese' as it looked just like it. He kept saying 'no!', 'no'. I asked him to keep signing, and I kept on guessing, until in the end he took me to the freezer, pointed to the right drawer and then signed again. I said 'burger?' and he jumped with joy. I'd finally got it right. (Shame he had to wait for tea time to eat his burger though, bless him.) But we both know to persevere and keep trying and Jacob has all the skills he needs now to make sure I get there in the end.
I never really relied on symbol use up until the last year or so. But as Jacob has got older and his experiences are becoming more varied I find Jacob's need to use symbols have grown. Jacob has a daily timetable that he must do every day in the morning. His level of understanding is amazing so as it happens we have to include the whole days activities. It may read like this, 'today, Monday, sunny day, wake up, breakfast, get dressed, school bus, friends, school, home, tea, pasta, grandmas house, home, undress, bath, book, bed'. Very detailed but that's the way he likes it. He has his own timetable for school activities when he gets to school. When Jacob is at home he may continually ask me 'when' grandmas, or 'when' teatime. So instead of him getting frustrated and me too, I tell him to go and look at his today book, and he doesn't need me to tell him 'when' he can reassure himself.
We use Makaton every single day, and the whole family, use this now. Jacob has developed into a cheeky, interesting, loveable, thoughtful little man. He has many friends who all use Makaton and you should see them together. It's one thing that all our family love, to watch. Meaningful relationships, it's something I thought he'd never have and thanks to Makaton he has many close friends who share their love of life together.
We all love life now, it's just great.Wendy D | <urn:uuid:7b5dd16e-2e92-4b43-91e1-807389a9fdaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://makaton.org/blog/outAndAbout/usingMakaton/PostDetails/6915435301404206075 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98927 | 651 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A cop who saved a despondent man from jumping off the Verrazano Bridge was honored for his heroics by the City Council on Sept. 12.
Police Officer Yi Huang received a proclamation from Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) during a ceremony at City Hall. Council Speaker Christine Quinn also attended the ceremony.
Huang used his native Cantonese to communicate with the non-English speaking distraught man, according to police, who said the man was threatening to jump to his death.
Here’s what happened: on the afternoon of Monday, July 23,, police received a call that a man had parked his car on the Verrazano Bridge and had gotten out and stepped over the railing. It looked like the man was getting ready to jump into the water some 400 feet below.
Officers rushed to the scene and as several officers attempted to talk to the man, they discovered he only spoke Chinese. That’s when the Emergency Services Unit put out a call for an officer who could speak Cantonese. Huang answered the call. He rushed to the scene and immediately began speaking to the distraught man who was threatening to jump.
Huang quickly noticed that he and the man shared a similar accent and soon realized they both hailed from the same exact village – the small village of Taishan – a coastal city in China’s southern Guangdong province.
Having emigrated to America when he just four years old, Huang said he could empathize with the man and what he was going through as a distressed father dealing with the clash of traditional Asian cultures and his daughter’s American values. By relating his own personal experiences, Huang was able to get the man to think about the day he would see his daughter get married and the one day he might hold his first grandchild.
After four hours of tense negotiations, along with rain, lighting and heavy winds, the man finally allowed officers to pull him to safety. Huang said he was just the translator and that the rescue was truly a team effort.
“Today we honor Officer Yi Huang for going above and beyond the call of duty,” Gentile said. “Officer Huang reminds us all why the New York City Police Department truly is New York’s Finest.” | <urn:uuid:167b14c3-679d-42e7-b1e6-1d093e1f08aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brooklyneagle.com/articles/life-saving-cop-honored-city-hall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98608 | 469 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Mental activity that concentrates on a particular content of consciousness, an instinct encompassing religion and the search for meaning.
Ordinarily we do not think of "reflection" as ever having been instinctive, but associate it with a conscious state of mind. Reflexio means "bending back" and, used psychologically, would denote the fact that the reflex which carries the stimulus over into its instinctive discharge is interfered with by psychization. . . . Thus in place of the compulsive act there appears a certain degree of freedom, and in place of predictability a relative unpredictability as to the effect of the impulse.["Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour," CW 8, par. 241.]
In Jung’s view, the richness of the human psyche and its essential character are determined by the reflective instinct.
Reflection is the cultural instinct par excellence, and its strength is shown in the power of culture to maintain itself in the face of untamed nature.[Ibid., par. 243.]
Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man.
In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious, the sources of conflict are dried up. ~Carl Jung; Collected Works 11; Transformation Symbolism in the Mass; par. 401
To concern ourselves with dreams is a way of reflecting on ourselves-a way of self-reflection. It is not our ego-consciousness reflecting on itself; rather, it turns its attention to the objective actuality of the dream as a communication or message from the unconscious, unitary soul of humanity. It reflects not on the ego but on the self; it recollects that strange self, alien to the ego, which was ours from the beginning, the trunk from which the ego grew. It is alien to us because we have estranged ourselves from it through the aberrations of the conscious mind. ~"The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man" (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 318
If we do not fashion for ourselves a picture of the world, we do not see ourselves either, who are the faithful reflections of that world. Only when mirrored in our picture of the world can we see ourselves in the round? Only in our creative acts do we step forth into the light and see ourselves whole and complete. Never shall we put any face on the world other than our own, and we have to do this precisely in order to find ourselves. For higher than science or art as an end in itself stands man, the creator of his instruments. ~"Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung" (1928). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.737 | <urn:uuid:c5c26a2b-cd48-4ce4-bc93-605b7b7b36d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://carljungdepthpsychology.blogspot.jp/2012/11/self-reflection.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924424 | 609 | 2.75 | 3 |
The fort on the campus of SFA started its life as a magnificent Spanish Colonial house. Built by Antonio Gil Y’Barbo sometime between 1788 and 1791 on the Camino Real, the house weathered four revolutionary actions, acquiring its nickname the "Old Stone Fort" along the way.
The house changed hands many times and was used for, well, whatever the owners needed and some things they didn’t. The Mexican government billeted soldiers in the house and a succession of filibusterers took temporary possession of the building before it settled into its final incarnation as a saloon. But the house Y’Barbo built could not withstand the march of progress. Demolished in 1902 against a backdrop of statewide protest, Y’Barbo’s house was the focal point of one of the first preservation efforts in Texas.
A replica structure built in 1936 by the Texas Centennial Commission, the Museum was shepherded into existence by the Cum Concilio Club, a women’s literary group organized in 1894. As a museum, the building is no longer at the center of revolutionary struggles unless you include an account published in the campus newspaper, The Pine Log, on April 1, 1942:
HOODLUMS SPRING SURPRISE ATTACK ON ADMINISTRATION: Faculty Forces Holding out in Old Stone Fort
Somewhere on the Campus, Wednesday, April 1 (AP) - In a movement unsurpassed in the academic history of any institution, the College Commission, radical element of SFA, turned on their teachers like a pack of mad dogs and seized control of the school from authorities this morning, and set up a puppet government. The revolutionists were led by turbulent Bob Murffee, who promptly set up a dictatorship with himself on the top pedestal. Determined to make a last stand against the College Commission, the faculty has barricaded itself into the Old Stone Fort, historic East Texas landmark. They have supplies enough to last for at least two more hours, says Baby Rooth, rebel minister of supply. It looks bad for the faculty, folks.”
The puppet governments of years past, both real and imagined, are gone. But you might find a puppet show in the education room, so visit the Museum and open yourself up to something revolutionary. | <urn:uuid:bf9f6f8f-9e4f-41ef-a1a4-daeeec18d08b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfasu.edu/stonefort/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964542 | 476 | 2.75 | 3 |
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visits a unit of the Korean People's Army in an undisclosed location in this undated recent picture released by the country's official news service in Pyongyang on Wednesday.
Before reading this, consider the source, and the subject. The source is the Chinese twitter-like micro blog service Weibo, being cited by the U.S. website Gawker, and the subject is a dictator from notoriously secretive North Korea who has hardly ever been seen outside his country and about whom very little is known.
According to the Gawker report, Weibo has "exploded" with rumors that newly anointed head of state Kim Jong Un was assassinated at the North Korean embassy in Beijing:
"Here's one version of the rumor, cleaned up from the crappy Google translation:
According to reliable sources, North Korean leader [Kim Jong-Un was killed] in Beijing in February 10 2012, at 2 o'clock and 45 minutes. Unknown persons broke into his residence shot and were subsequently shot and killed by the bodyguard."
Kim — believed to be 26 or 27 — formally succeeded his father Kim Jong-Il in late 2011 as the leader of the hermit-like totalitarian state. The succession — and whether the young Kim has the wherewithall to maintain power over the military and potential political rivals — has been the source of intense speculation.
Beijing is one of the few formal allies of Pyongyang, a relationship arising from their communist roots. The Chinese capital is the primary "listening post" for those seeking information on North Korea because information sometimes leaks out of China-North Korea discussions.
The genesis of the assassination rumor, according to Gawker, may have been a large number of vehicles parked at the North Korean embassy in Beijing.
But it quotes ChinaSMACK staff writer Joe Xu who says this is just more of the same: "Rumors like this pop up every other week," he writes on Twitter.
And a senior U.S. official asked about the reports told NBC News that the information runs toward "the false end of the spectrum."
Then again, China is frequently also the source of credible information on North Korea — with news from refugees who have made their way into the country, from Chinese who do business there, and from people who have sighted the private train of the Kim family passing through the countryside.
Msnbc.com will be following the story, however it unfolds.
NBC News Senior Investigative Producer Robert Windrem contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- What gives? Another American in Libya no-fly limbo
- Report: Saudi Arabia to buy nukes if Iran tests A-bomb
- Zen monk fights radiation in Japan
- Himalayan ice melt estimates get a major downsizing | <urn:uuid:10111025-231c-41e8-a1ba-eff0150a812c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/10/10374846-rumors-repeat-rumors-north-korean-leader-shot | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961301 | 568 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Many of you belong to parishes where priests still won’t hear confessions on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Some priests, liturgical experts and even diocesan liturgy offices claim the rubrics of the Missal or “Sacramentary” forbid the sacrament of Penance.
However, this claim is absolutely incorrect.
Here is what the texts really say.
The previous 1970 and 1975 editions of the Missale Romanum (the Novus Ordo) said of Good Friday and Holy Saturday: “Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta penitus non celebrat… On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments”.
However, since this is in the Missal (the book for MASS), sacramenta refers only to Holy Mass and not the other sacraments.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS) clarified this in its official publication Notitiae (#137 (Dec 1977) p. 602). In the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum at paragraph 1 for Good Friday all doubt is removed. The above cited text has been amended to say (the change with my emphasis): “Hac et sequenti die, Ecclesia, ex antiquissima traditione, sacramenta, praeter Paenitentiae et Infirmorum Unctionis, penitus non celebrat… On this and the following day, the Church, from a most ancient tradition, does not at all celebrate the sacraments, except for (the sacraments of) Penance and Anointing of the Sick”.
Priests can and should hear confessions during on Good Friday and on Holy Saturday. Who can forget the photos of the late Pope hearing confession in St. Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday?
Here is a bonus tip, speaking of confessions. Some liturgists simply freak out at this idea. It is both permitted and recommended in some circumstances for confessions to be heard during Holy Mass on other days of the year! Want proof? Try the CDWDS document Redemptionis Sacramentum 76 and also the Congregation’s Response to a Dubium in Notitiae 37 (2001) pp. 259-260. | <urn:uuid:c8d43658-f239-46c7-bbae-32ad01ab9502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wdtprs.com/blog/2006/03/preview-of-upcoming-wdtprs-article-for-palm-sunday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915343 | 492 | 1.796875 | 2 |
settembre 14th, 2012
On September 26th our friend Todd Knurr and Ken Storch will interview Mauro Biglino, the author of “The Book that will forever change our ideas about the Bible”, on their radio show Paradigm Unhinged
Here what they wrote:
Mauro Biglino is an Italian scholar of history and of religions. He has published five books inItaly, two of which are focused on the research and re-translation work of the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament of the Bible in a literal way; word for word, from the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.
The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is the first printed edition of the Masoretic text, derived from the Leningrad Codex of 1008 AD, which is the original text of reference of the Bible for the Roman Catholic Church and for the Bible of theChristian Protestant Churches – the KingJamesVersion – and for the Torah of the Jewish religion.
What he discovered during the translation process was nothing short of paradigm shattering.
A quote from Mr. Biglino, “The bible tells us about beings that have come from other worlds and made the mankind; over the centuries these beings have been transformed into divinities and the original plurality has been reduced to a single god.”
Be prepared to have your long held paradigms challenged!
More information in the days ahead. | <urn:uuid:ed4b6ecc-a318-4929-aef2-d3c752b66748> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.holy-bible-aliens.com/?cat=13 | 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 | 0.942492 | 305 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Preparing to protect your pets in a natural disaster.
Preparing Your Pets for a Natural Disaster
In light of our recent tornado damage, The Pet Doctor wants to help our pet owners to be prepared for the event of a natural disaster that could affect their pets!
Don’t Wait, Make Plans Early!
Preparing ahead of time and acting quickly is the best way to keep you and your family safe, including your pets.
- Set up an appointment to talk to the doctors at The Pet Doctor about planning for your pets during a natural disaster.
- Assemble an animal evacuation kit.
- Familiarize yourself with each type of disaster that our area could be affected by, including a hazardous materials spill.
- Develop an evacuation plan for all of your animals.
- Keep written directions to your home near your telephone. This will help you tell emergency responders how to get to your home if you are in a state of panic and in need of rescue, or if a person unfamiliar with your area is the only person in your home during a disaster.
- Identify alternate sources of food and water. Some local food and water sources may be disrupted or contaminated for extended periods of time following a disaster.
- Keep all vehicles well maintained and full of gas.
- Keep emergency cash on hand.
In Case You Are Not At Home
Place stickers on your doors to notify neighbors, fire fighters, police and other rescue personnel that there are pets in your home and where to find your supplies. Provide a list of the number, type, and location of your animals, noting favorite hiding spots, in order to save time.
Designate a willing neighbor to care for your pets if a disaster occurs when you are not at home. This person should have a key to your house, be familiar with your pets, know your evacuation procedures, and know where your supplies are kept.
Microchips, rabies and license tags, will help reunite you with your pets in the event that you are separated. Identification should provide your name, home address, a phone number where
you can be reached, and an out-of-state phone number of someone that you will be in contact with. You should also include The Pet Doctor’s location, and phone number.
Transportation and Housing
Have a leash, collar, and/or harness for each pet. Have a collapsible cage or airline-approved carrier for each pet, including proper bedding, for transportation or housing purposes. Take the cage/carrier out several times a year and put dog or cat treats inside with blankets and toys. By doing this, you will reinforce positive feelings associated with the animal carrier.
Avoid transporting any pet outside of a carrier. Even the most well-behaved and loyal pet may become frightened during an emergency and try to run away or get in your way while you are driving. Also, the likelihood of serious injury in an automobile collision is much higher for unrestrained pets than those in carriers.
Make copies of important veterinary documents to store in the evacuation kit. Important documents to include are vaccination records, a list of any known medical conditions or allergies that your pet has and a list of medications or a photocopy of the drug labels for any medications that your pet is taking.
After A Disaster
- Survey the area inside and outside your home to identify sharp objects, dangerous materials, dangerous wildlife, contaminated water, downed power lines, or other hazards.
- Familiar scents and landmarks may have changed, and this can confuse your animals.
- Release cats, dogs, and other small animals indoors only. They could encounter dangerous wildlife and debris if they are allowed outside unsupervised and unrestrained.
- Reintroduce food in small servings, gradually working up to full portions if animals have been without food for a prolonged period of time.
- Allow uninterrupted rest/sleep for all animals to recover from the trauma and stress.
- Physically check animal control and animal shelters DAILY for lost animals.
- Post lost animal notices and notify local veterinarians and your neighbors of any lost animals. | <urn:uuid:a95ab2c4-e6b5-43c8-bbe2-fada30456eef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepetdoctorinc.com/2011/05/preparing-protect-pets-natural-disaster/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928492 | 842 | 2.671875 | 3 |
BlackBerry is a line of mobile phones made by the Canadian company, Research In Motion (RIM). It does many different things like a computer but is small enough to fit in someone's hand. It is a mobile phone; it makes calls without wires. It can access the Internet as well. It also has a calendar and camera, and can send text messages. The BlackBerry started out as a pager and later turned into a mobile phone. The BlackBerry has a PIN which is a eight character hexadecimal identification number which is given to every BlackBerry phone. The President of The United States Barack Obama uses and supports the BlackBerry.
Other websites [change]
- BlackBerry - Official website | <urn:uuid:f457fd11-1ea8-424d-9117-611ff1f03566> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952264 | 140 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2010 | 8:47 pm
Filed under: Deployment, Six Sigma, Six Sigma References
Posted by: meikah | 10 November 2010 | 8:17 pm
For this month’s quiz, and a chance to win a copy of Quality Quiz Classics, submit your response by November 29 to be entered in the drawing.
Here’s the quiz:
You just never know what will develop from something that begins as an exercise in using sampling techniques, especially when you put an idea on to simmer and hope that it comes to a full boil. When Russ T. Buckett’s boss, M.T. Pott, heard about Russ’ idea for developing and marketing a new exotic tea product, he was bubbling over with enthusiasm for the idea. Nonetheless, he wanted Russ to test the water, so to speak, to be sure that it represented a hot market for the new product.
Winners of last month’s quiz who will get a copy of Quality Quiz Classics DVD:
Noel Farrington (Flowserve)
Bartosz Jankowski (LG Electronics)
James Lauer (Caterpillar Inc.)
Carolyn S. Townsend (Clarian Health)
Kelly Whitehead (Ballard Power Systems)
Filed under: PQ Systems eLine, Quality, Quality Quiz, Six Sigma
Posted by: meikah | 8 November 2010 | 9:16 pm
The recession in the U.S. leaves many workers unemployed. Mary Wolf-Francis, business liaison for Workforce Division of the city of Phoenix Community and Economic Development Department, calls these workers as the “unlikely unemployed” because they are people who have advanced degrees and have decades of high-level experience.
So what city administrators of Phoenix City did was to use a portion of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds to help these out-of-work professionals. They worked in partnership with the Global Outreach and Extended Education (GOEE) office of Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. The out-of-work professionals were given trainings in Lean Six Sigma. The training composed of 2 sessions of a two-week Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program and 1 session of a four-week Lean Six Sigma Black Belt program.
The administrators believe that these trainings will arm the workers with the right skills to join the American workforce.
Filed under: Economy, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma, Six Sigma Belt, Six Sigma Training
Posted by: meikah | 8 November 2010 | 8:47 pm
Six Sigma, or its DMAIC tool, is closely connected with DOE, design of experiments. In general usage, a design of experiment is any information-gathering exercises where variation is present. This system finds cause-and-effect relationships, an information you need to manage process inputs and optimize the output.
An article on iSixSigma discusses a primer of Design of Experiments. The article starts the discussion with a definition of terms to an example, and to the process. | <urn:uuid:06a251d1-909c-4203-8cbb-ddb32b5d3608> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sixsig.info/six-sigma/date/2010/11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925628 | 650 | 1.609375 | 2 |
"1925 General view of Downstream Cofferdam and excavation m river bed for Power House, February 10th, 1933.
1996 View of the Himix Concrete Mixing Plant. February 28th, 1933.
1992 Looking downstream in Black Canyon from the upstream Cofferdam, showing excavation activities in river bed.
February 27th, 1933.
2011 Looking upstream on the Nevada side, showing weir foundation at the Nevada Spillway. March 2nd, 1933." | <urn:uuid:7c71af77-21cc-4414-845b-3b4f02ea1189> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://librarydigitalcollections.weber.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/EOWAT/id/271/rec/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920003 | 99 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Working towards a space code of conduct
by Thomas D. Taverney
|Simply put, space is a mess! Something needs to be done, but, thus far, little more than just talk has taken place. One positive step that could be employed is to move the spacefaring community in the direction of establishing a “Code of Conduct.”|
For those of us who have grown up in the space age, celebrating the exhilarating joy with each successful launch, our space systems confronts a terrifying reality: only a few irresponsible acts can bring it all to a crashing and damaging end. Indeed, decades of relatively unrestricted space activity has littered Earth’s orbits with debris. The crowding and congestion threatens satellites with on-orbit collisions, which means lost critical capabilities and lost investment of precious resources. As spacefaring nations continue to expand and augment their satellite constellations, orbital analysts observe that the potential for and consequences of collisions continue to escalate. Air Force space surveillance radars and telescopes now track roughly 22,000 objects in orbit, at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour) in low Earth orbit. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of detectable objects considered too small to continuously track or catalogue though they are still dangerously capable of damaging space-based systems.
Two key events have helped generate a global consensus about problems arising from the congested nature of the space domain. In 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) test in low Earth orbit, while two years later, a defunct Russian Cosmos and active American Iridium satellite collided in orbit. These two events generated vast fields of space debris, shredded pieces that will remain in orbit and threaten satellites and astronauts for a century or more. This debris jeopardizes not just US national security and economic interests in space, but those of the rest of the world as well. Shockingly, material ejected from the Chinese ASAT test and Cosmos-Iridium collision now account for 36 percent of the total number of catalogued objects currently residing in, or traversing, low Earth orbit.
Space capabilities are critical to all aspects of the global community, and the current approaches employed to manage this valuable medium are untenable. Simply put, space is a mess! Something needs to be done, but, thus far, little more than just talk has taken place. No globally accepted path towards a solution has been crafted and accepted. Any positive movement would be valuable. One positive step that could be employed is to move the spacefaring community in the direction of establishing a “Code of Conduct.” A code of conduct is simply a “set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization.” Codes of conduct can be found throughout all of humanity’s societies, sometimes described as ethics considerations or honor codes; nearly all of us has had been worked within them, whether in religious practice, the family setting, school, scouts, the workplace, or the field of sport. The successes they have achieved offers hope that a code of conduct for space could be crafted to help preserve the space domain.
With this introductory discussion in mind, it seems there are two questions for the United States: First, should we seek to develop an international space code of conduct? And, second, if we choose to pursue a code, how should we do so: as a leader or a follower?
Of course, responding to this query with a loud “no” simplifies the remainder of the debate. Certainly, there are constituencies that believe this is the best course. These opponents to a code generally argue that the United States already acts responsibly in space and would assiduously follow whatever voluntary or non-binding code we signed up for, as though it was law. They suggest that the balance of the international community would follow such a code only when it was expedient to do so, treating it as an obligation that could easily and immediately be disposed of. The United States would then be politically and diplomatically hard-pressed to withdraw from their commitments despite cheating by others. Once signed up to such a code, these people conclude that only the United States would suffer, as it would lose commercial and military competitiveness. In their view, the code’s non-binding agreement could only diminish vital US access to critical space capabilities, and produce no discernable improvement in peaceful assured access to space by the United States or the rest of the international community.
This argument is not without merit. Still, the reality is that significant space-faring nations are already cheerleading for a code of conduct or for treaties that will constrain military activities in space. For example, the European Union is evaluating its own Code of Conduct, while Russia and China have been proposing an international treaty calling for the “Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space Treaty” (PPWT). Neither of these proposals is without problems.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have strongly opposed the PPWT for a number of reasons, primarily because it is totally unverifiable and would place no limitations of kinetic energy (KE) ASATS like to one China demonstrated in 2007. Also, at one point, Canada had it own proposal, but it has now joined with the US and EU to develop an International Code. While I think the Canadians would love to support a legally-binding space arms control treaty, they have taken pragmatic approach because they know that no progress is going to happen with regard to space arms without US support, and because their military receives critical information from US systems and they don’t want to jeopardize this access.
|To those who would argue that any space code of conduct would unnecessarily tie the national hands, they should consider that a space code of conduct could, in fact, encourage all spacefaring nations to act responsibly.|
Ultimately, the United States must continue to demonstrate leadership in addressing the challenges facing the space environment. Leadership requires engagement, and the US must engage and negotiate with the international community to achieve a favorable outcome on the global discussions. Failure to engage invites a misperception that the United States has nefarious intentions. Global competitors already argue to this mischaracterization, taking to the world stage to claim they view US intentions with hostility and suspicion. These arguments could be made, in turn, to justify almost any action by adversaries who have already have plans to misbehave in space, or to limit US access to space capabilities in the event of a serious dispute.
To those who would argue that any space code of conduct would unnecessarily tie the national hands, they should consider that a space code of conduct could, in fact, encourage all spacefaring nations to act responsibly. In addition, developing a code would be fully consistent with the long-standing bipartisan goal of strengthening stability in space through measures that promote safe and responsible operations in space. Adopting a code does not necessarily mean that the United States would abandon its rights to exercise self defense. The 2010 US National Space Policy reasserts the view that nations have a right to access the space domain, and that in protecting this right the United States “will employ a variety of measures to help assure the use of space for all responsible parties, and, consistent with the inherent right of self-defense, deter others from interference and attack, defend our space systems and contribute to the defense of allied space systems, and, if deterrence fails, defeat efforts to attack them.” The current policy should also be commended for seeking to encourage establishment of internationally adopted Transparency and Confidence Building Measures (TCBMs) to enhance the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space environment.
Those who argue in favor of a space code of conduct believe such a statement of principle could encourage responsible behavior and provide a mechanism for singling out and pressuring those who act otherwise in space. This could have the effect of reducing the risk of misunderstandings, misperceptions, miscalculations, and misconduct.
Additionally, the US already follows a number of Codes of Conduct. Some recent examples include The Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (2002) and the UN Debris Mitigation Guidelines (2007). So, clearly, this would not be a precedent setting agreement.
Given the importance of space, the United States should enter into international space agreements, codes of conduct, and treaties cautiously, and only where it can assure continued access to and the availability of space capabilities, uninhibited and without interference. The behavior of every space user affects every other member of the spacefaring community. Space activities extend beyond space to influence the international community and national sovereignty issues. They are an important component of international commerce and help provide for the well being of the global population. Space is vital to protecting both the national security and economic interests of the United States, and expanding human knowledge of the universe.
I believe it is important to our national interest to maintain international leadership in space, and to maintain America’s leadership position we cannot ignore what is happening with regard to ongoing discussions about a potential code on the global stage, especially in the United Nations. To ensure that the inherent right of self-defense is not impaired, we must assume a position of leadership in these discussions. At the time of this writing, the current administration is not endorsing the European Union’s proposed Code of Conduct and has not embraced the Russian/Chinese/Canadian PPTW. Given this, and the desire that the US maintain an international position of leadership in space, the United States should proceed to propose its own code, one that satisfies both global interests as well as not eroding our own national interests.
In moving ahead, three broad options can be considered:
A. Accept the European Union developed code of conduct and sign it
B. Develop a US code of conduct and encourage the rest of the international community to adopt that version
C. Work with the international community to achieve a mutually acceptable code of conduct
The United States is apparently proceeding with option C, but not everyone, including some members of Congress, agree with that path. One critical, but subtle, issue of concern is the divining the meaning of “inherent right of self-defense” as stated in the National Space Policy. There may be ambiguity in what “self-defense” should mean in the space protection context. For example, some might interpret this clause to mean to take no action unless US or allied space systems are attacked, and then only taking limited action to solely and separately defend only the systems that are attacked. Obviously, that approach would be too constraining and unrealistic. Rather, the United States needs to feel free to consider a broad range of response options, whether in times of terrestrial conflict or prior to, during, or after any attack on US and allied space systems. The United States also needs the flexibility not only to respond to direct attacks but also to eliminate any advantages the enemy may be gaining from their own space systems. In such cases, our space systems may not be attacked, but, the enemy may be using space capabilities against us. Employing effective response options could and should be employed to save American lives.
|Any proposed space code of conduct should be developed consistent with the best intentions of 2010 US National Space Policy’s goals of strengthening stability in space through measures to promote safe and responsible operations in space, encouraging all spacefaring nations to act responsibly in a space environment.|
Any beneficial space code of conduct should allow the United States to retain the ability to build and test space superiority systems, whether offensive and defensive. Additionally, the United States may want to reserve options to inflict reversible space effects on others’ space systems (even short of conflict on the land, sea, and air) to convince another nation to behave as a good global citizen. This allows the President and his commanders to direct use of reversible alternatives in peacetime as one of a range of options that our nation can bring to bear on other nations, along with the ultimate irreversible option in times when there is no other option. Such provisions should minimize debris creation in peacetime.
The critical goals and objectives of any proposed code of conduct should be to prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust in space; provide guidelines to reduce space hazards (debris creating events); and increase the transparency of space operations. Unless the international community can adopt positive measures such as TCBMs to address irresponsible behavior in space, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to both human and robotic spaceflight. Given this challenge, all spacefaring states should be encouraged to act responsibly to preserve unhindered access to space capabilities. Some examples of things that could be included in such a code are as follows:
I do not think that there is much argument that all nations should strive to preserve the safe and unhindered use of space for peaceful purposes. While it is not possible to build flawless space systems, and failure is always a possibility, the goal should be to minimize risks of failure, have ways to manage failures when they occur, and make the international community aware of these failures. The code should also encourage positive planning for minimizing space debris.
Any proposed space code of conduct should be developed consistent with the best intentions of 2010 US National Space Policy’s goals of strengthening stability in space through measures to promote safe and responsible operations in space, encouraging all spacefaring nations to act responsibly in a space environment. It rightly focuses on generating best practices, actions, and activities rather than prohibiting the existence of unwanted or nefarious capabilities, which are difficult to verify. It also identifies TCBMs as important steps to enhance the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space domain. Finally and most importantly, any proposed space code of conduct must acknowledge the inherent right of self-defense, and the interests of national sovereignty. | <urn:uuid:e1abaf30-ca31-48da-9b9a-46ceaf2d133e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thespacereview.com/article/2066/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941512 | 2,829 | 2.796875 | 3 |
We thought that the “commodity frontiers”, the new mines that we dig on earth to take out the oil, gold, uranium or copper that feeds our consumer economies, are somewhere else; in the “South”, far from us, in the jungles of Amazonian or the desserts of Southern Africa. Well, the frontiers have now come back, next to our homes.
In my country Greece the response to the crisis and the quest for growth to pay off debts is a new, ugly sort of “extractivism” similar to that of Latin American countries, and unlike anything the country has seen ever before. The police used plastic bullets for the first time in Greece to put off demonstrators in the new gold mines opened in the peninsula of Chalkidiki in Northern Greece, previously known only for its long shores, pine forests and marvelous beaches. Plans for gold mines and new exploration contracts are signed as I write this piece. The Aegean is the new El Dorado, and spokesmen, from right and left, seriously argue that the future of Greece lies in its oil, soon to be discovered in the deep waters of the Aegean. Never mind that the Aegean with its blue seas and the mosaic of islands is the cradle of Greek civilization and the motor of its tourist economy.
Some wonder: how come and we had all these resources and we never knew it. Were we sitting on top of so much gold and oil and never cared to use it?
Let me be more academic here and propose a theory that may explain what is happening in Greece. I propose that this rise of a new extractivism is directly linked to the crisis, and in effect what we are observing today in Greece (and soon in Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe) is the same that we saw in indebted Latin American and African countries back in the 80s and 90s. It is not that Greece has today more resources than it had before. It is that the economic crisis reduced the cost of extraction and made accessible resources that previously were not. The crisis lowered costs by:
i) reducing the cost of labour (devaluation of salaries and of the value of health of workers) used in extraction activities;
ii) reducing the opportunity costs of extraction;
iii) reducing social resistance and the costs this brings through the delay of projects;
iv) reducing the monetary cost of externalities and the monetary value of impacts (‘the poor sell cheap’- health, visual or environmental impacts are no longer that highly valued).
Resources that were considered out of limits in Greece, for social or cost reasons, from gold and copper in the north of the country, to oil in the Aegean, are as a result now under a frenzy of exploration and development.
This provides evidence for the claim that economic crises are necessary for creating new exploitable territories when limits have otherwise been reached. They achieve it by the devaluation of economic and social capital.
My pessimistic conclusion is therefore: facing its limits the growth economy destroys what already exists by devaluing it and thereby creates fresh opportunities for accumulation. From the Second World War, to the crisis of the 70s, to the crises in Latin America and Asia, this is the repeated pattern. Only by escaping this growth economy and changing its institutions can we ever hope to find a way out of this vicious cycle of frenzied, meaningless expansion and bottomless destruction. | <urn:uuid:2a457e21-e551-4468-8f66-414b58c1e25e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.postwachstum.de/the-rise-of-a-new-extractivism-and-the-plea-for-degrowth-20121016/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955637 | 706 | 2.421875 | 2 |
One of the problems with making purchases based on “the greater good”—as opposed to the direct benefits and costs—is that your estimate might turn out wrong. For example, many people simply assumed that electric vehicles were “good for the environment” and so were willing to spend more, and put up with more hassles, thinking that they were helping future generations. Yet some recent studies suggest that the environmental case for electric vehicles is more dubious.
Electric Cars Can Create More Carbon Dioxide Emissions Than Gas Cars
An auto-enthusiast blog recently summarized a British study finding that electric cars may not necessarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions:
[E]lectric cars can create higher emissions over the car’s lifetime than their gasoline-powered equivalent, partly due to the pollution created from the factories that manufacture electric car batteries…
[The study] found that while in the past, tailpipe emissions have been used as the main measure of an electric car’s carbon footprint, when the emissions from the car’s total lifespan are taken into consideration, including the car’s production and disposal, some of the CO2 savings made from driving the car are offset. The study contends that “overall electric and hybrid vehicles still have lower carbon footprints than normal cars.”
The study found that compared with 24 metric tons for a gasoline-powered car, a mid-size electric car produces 23.1 metric tons of CO2 over its lifetime. But an electric car would have to drive about 80,000 miles before it would start saving more CO2 than a gasoline-powered car. Many electric cars will never reach 80,000 miles in their lifetime[;] electric cars get less than 90 miles on a charge, so they’re typically driven only short distances…Additionally, electric car batteries must be replaced after about four years. When the emissions connected with replacement batteries are added in, the total CO2 from producing an electric car increases to 12.6 metric tons, compared with 5.6 metric tons for a conventional car. Because recovering and recycling the metals in the battery consumes a great deal of energy, disposal produces double the emissions.
We may be witnessing the beginning of a process similar to what happened with ethanol: Initially beloved by environmentalists, ethanol soon fell into disfavor once people took into account the full consequences of turning food into fuel.
Alt-Energy Analyst Admits: “I Was Wrong About Lithium-Ion Batteries”
In addition to new doubts on the superior environmental bona fides of electric vehicles, it seems that consumers just aren’t that eager to support a transformation of the vehicle sector. An alternative energy analyst, in a refreshingly candid post, admitted recently that he had been wildly optimistic in his assessment of the demand for batteries for electric vehicles:
In February 2010 I wrote an article titled “Why I Don’t Expect A Lithium-Ion Battery Glut” that’s shaping up as one of the worst predictions in the history of my blog. This week Lux Research published a report titled “Using Partnerships to Stay Afloat in the Electric Vehicle Storm” that has me convinced that the capacity glut in lithium-ion batteries will be massive for at least a decade.
I humbly and sincerely apologize to any readers who bought shares in lithium-ion battery developers based on my starry-eyed optimism for the EV battery market.
The basic premise of my February 2010 article was that while plug-in electric vehicles would almost certainly die a slow and agonizing death from the congenital birth defects that have doomed every generation of EVs to the scrap heap of history, booming sales of electric two-wheeled vehicles, or E2Ws, and Prius-class hybrid electric vehicles, or HEVs, would be enough to absorb the slack. With eighteen months of history to look back on, it’s just not working out the way I thought it would.
As I expected, plug-in vehicles are drawing breathless reviews from the press and EVangelicals, and indifference or outright scorn from the car buying public.
Can you believe it? Cheap is beating cool. Who could have predicted such an outcome in the depths of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s?
Here too we see a familiar pattern: Proponents of electric vehicles (as well as energy sources such as wind and solar) keep assuring everyone that they just need government support to get over the next little hump…then they will be profitable and self-sufficient. Yet they’ve been saying that for thirty years.
Why Don’t Consumers Like Electric Vehicles?
The simple fact is that electric cars right now are very inconvenient compared to gas-powered cars. Consider the journal entry of the BBC’s Brian Milligan who recently drove an electric car from London to Scotland, charging it only at public stations:
It took 4 days, some serious thermal underwear, and copious amounts of waiting.
But my electric car and I finally made it to Edinburgh.
There were plenty of nervous moments, and a rather low-key entry to the Scottish capital.
After all, I was driving at 30mph and was shivering with cold.
On the last leg I’d got suddenly over-confident, and had a serious dose of range anxiety.
It has been a slow journey but Brian and the mini finally made it to Edinburgh
At one point my range indicator showed 48 miles charge left on my battery, with 50 miles still to go.
Hence the slow speed, and the lack of heater.
Including the time spent both charging and driving, I managed an average speed between London and Edinburgh of just 6mph.
With reports such as these, we can see why electric vehicles need a shot in the arm from a carbon tax or other government policy.
Government Can’t Pick Winners and Losers
The point here isn’t to relish in the floundering of a particular sector—people make mistaken forecasts all the time. A market economy works when investors try to pick the most profitable area to plow their money. Sometimes they hit it out of the park, and other times they strike out. Successful investors will make more money, and will have more influence over time on the allocation of scarce resources. On the other hand, investors who consistently make bad calls will eventually run out of money and will no longer pose a threat.
The one exception to this rule is government. When resources are directed through the political process, we have little reason to expect success. After all, policymakers haven’t earned their position through past profitability (the way rich investors in the private sector have). Even worse, the political authorities don’t stand to personally gain or lose, based on the success or failure of their “investments.” This is why government spending is so often seen as a corrupt boondoggle.
To take one example, consider the fate of Green Vehicles:
A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.
The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.
All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.
The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant.
When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.
Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned.
We don’t know what the efficient vehicle will be 20 years down the road. Perhaps at that point, most new cars really will be electric or hybrids. Yet we ostensibly live in a free society with a market economy. Government officials aren’t supposed to make these choices for us; let consumers spend their money without being influenced through the tax code or direct subsidies. Finally, if consumers are basing their decisions partly on feelings of saving the planet, they should do some research first to make sure their actions really are helping. | <urn:uuid:856e75da-942c-4b25-bad5-32fcc3161fd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2011/07/22/second-thoughts-on-electric-vehicles/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962367 | 1,752 | 3.140625 | 3 |
[31 August 2011]
On March 7, 2010, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally recognized a woman as being worthy of the title ‘best director’ for the first time in the 81-year history of the Academy Awards. Even as a constant Hollywood critic, Deren would have loved to have seen that moment, if not receive an achievement award from the Academy (which should happen). Originally from the Ukraine, her family came to America five years after her birth. After college, she made her way to New York City where she did a thesis on poetry, worked as a photographer and assisted a choreographer. She then made her way out to Los Angles, finding a kindred spirit in Czech Alexander Hammid, who became her second husband and collaborator on Meshes of the Afternoon, which alone would have assured her place in film history. | <urn:uuid:9545d6da-5529-487c-bed9-103c7b4b4507> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/print/146908/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985365 | 176 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A new beta of Windows Defender has appeared on the Microsoft website, designed to run outside the Windows OS.
Defender has been a marginal part of Microsoft’s security strategy for end users for some time now, acting in many ways as a precursor to its Security Essentials offering. During the Build conference, Microsoft announced that Defender will be stepping up to the plate and taking on full anti-malware responsibilities in Windows 8. Windows 8’s boot protection has also been hotly debated among the OS community.
The new Defender offline tool can be installed to a CD, ISO or USB flash drive. When you restart the PC you wish to scan, you boot from the memory stick, which then allows Defender (which is based on the upcoming Windows 8 version, points out Paul Thurrott) to scan the OS on the main hard disk without booting it. This whole process allows it to check for rootkits, and other such pre-OS boot malware, to make sure the entire system is secure.
Download the beta now from the Windows site – you never know when it could be useful to have a memory stick with it on around. | <urn:uuid:d0508c5c-4aa3-4c87-bac2-033682fb6829> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.developerfusion.com/news/134365/windows-defender-offline-protects-against-rootkits-and-other-malware/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931273 | 234 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Casper's Scare School: The Howling Hole (Turquoise A) 6-pack
Part of the Bug Club series
- Publication Date
- September 2010
This title is part of Bug Club, the first whole-school reading programme that joins books with an online reading world to teach today's children to read. In this Turquoise-A level Casper book: Ra learns to screamboard like his hero, Hot Rod Ramses. When Thatch calls him a ‘dummy‐mummy’, Ra vows to screamboard across the Howling Hole. His friends warn him of the danger, but he is determined to do it … but doesn’t succeed. Casper asks Hot Rod Ramses to visit Ra and give him some screamboarding lessons. | <urn:uuid:b4f99bb1-dba6-43da-89da-25ac15f45446> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/Primary/Literacy/AllLiteracyresources/BugClub/ISBN/BugClubTurquoiseLevelPrint/CasperHowlingHole6-pack.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902409 | 160 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Title text: Why would anyone ever, ever say that? Please, nobody ever say that.
One-upmanship is the act of surpassing another person. In this case, one female character is one-upping her friend's claim of being taken on a mountain hike with a claim that she was proposed to.
Mario is the star of the Super Mario series. In the games, completing specific conditions causes a "1-up" to appear on screen, referring to an additional life. The comic relies on the homonym of the action of one-upmanship and the event of one-ups in Mario.
Randall in the image text seems to imply that he finds it a pretty bad joke.add a comment! | <urn:uuid:29f6c4a4-ab07-4b51-943d-f63b71e70838> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=151:_Mario&oldid=16705 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966443 | 149 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Things were going bumpily according to plan for the men in charge of the President Ford Committee at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Mo., in August 1976. With so many moving parts, however, most campaigns are at best “garbage moving in the right direction,” as GOP operative Eddie Mahe once quipped.
The Ford campaign was no exception.
The battered GOP gathered in a glass, steel and concrete edifice called Kemper Arena amid heat, humidity, tension, polyester, cigarette smoke, bouffant hairdos and visceral contempt between supporters of Gerald R. Ford and Ronald Reagan. No attempt was made by either camp to conceal the animosity, and much was seen on live network broadcasts.
That convention was as real as it could get, with clashes over platform planks, seating credentials, polygraph tests and hotel arrangements. You name it, the Reagan and Ford legions fought over it.
It was the first time the Republicans had met in the “cow town” since 1928, when they had nominated the very popular Herbert Hoover, who had gone on to crush Democrat Al Smith in the general election. Smith had no choice but to be a “Happy Warrior.” Good humor was about all he could count on.
Through the spring of 1976, the insurgent challenge by former California Gov. Ronald Reagan had bedeviled the president’s often star-crossed campaign. It was only when Stu Spencer, Dick Cheney and Jim Baker asserted themselves that the Ford campaign slowly righted itself.
Even so, Ford won the nomination in a nail-biter by just 57 votes more than the 1,130 he needed to defeat the Gipper, whom he personally detested and didn’t mind telling people he loathed. A “test vote” on a pro-Reagan rule change — infamously known as “16-C” had been bitterly fought over (including within the Reagan camp) and had gone down to narrow defeat on Tuesday.
Shoving and shouting matches between Ford’s forces and Reagan’s renegades were not uncommon, and the vice president of the United States, Nelson Rockefeller, was involved in a melee on the floor of the convention over a torn sign and a ripped-out telephone.
It simply was the most intense, heart-stopping and historic convention in the history of the Grand Old Party. As hard as it was to believe, there was yet abundant drama to come.
In preparation for his own history, Ford had practiced his acceptance speech for hours, assisted by David Gergen, a young White House aide. On Thursday evening, Ford, by universal agreement a poor public speaker, gave the best speech of his life before the pleasantly stunned media and convention hall.
The party was still asunder. Ford could not leave Kansas City leading a broken party against the Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter, who at that stage was 30 points ahead of Ford in the national polling. No one much liked the Republicans in 1976 after Richard Nixon, Watergate, Nixon’s pardon, Henry Kissinger, the state of the economy and the state of the world. Everything was pretty much a mess, and most people blamed it on the Republicans.
In order to pull together his bloodied party, Ford at the end of his remarks motioned to Reagan, who was high atop the hall in his skybox, to come and join him at the podium. Ford also had a hidden agenda, even as Reagan flashed a “thumbs up” while shaking his head no, that he would prefer to stay where he was.
The audience of 17,000 joined in with Ford, applauding and calling for Reagan, some chanting “We want Ron!” and others motioning with their arms. It was erroneously reported in a recent book, “The President’s Club,” by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, that Reagan favorite Lyn Nofziger was there that night, advising “Ron” not to respond to Ford’s entreaty. Nofziger had told this author that in fact, he hadn’t even gone to the arena that night, so angry was he over Reagan’s loss the evening before.
What convinced Reagan to go to the rostrum — albeit reluctantly — was not the urgent pleading of Ford, Ford’s aides or any of his own staff, but the thought of disappointing the Republican faithful. That Reagan could not abide.
Reagan arrived onstage, and Ford warmly introduced his loathed opponent (politics is indeed the art of the possible) and asked him to make a few remarks. Frankly, the Ford people were hoping Reagan would choke.View Entire Story
'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
By Susan Crabtree - The Washington Times
President Obama forgot to return the salute of a U.S. Marine while boarding Marine One Friday morning, then came back out to shake the Marine’s hand, according to a tweet by CBS News’ Mark Knoller.
By Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times
House Republicans who are critical of the federal health care law have written to more than a dozen companies, including top insurers Aetna and BlueCross BlueShield, to ask if President Obama’s top health official tried to solicit funds from them to support the overhaul. | <urn:uuid:860d2e18-40a5-443f-928f-e77a914b7555> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/24/another-history-making-gop-convention/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978952 | 1,111 | 1.554688 | 2 |
After Deadline examines questions of grammar, usage and style encountered by writers and editors of The Times.
It is adapted from a weekly newsroom critique overseen by Philip B. Corbett, the deputy news editor who is also in charge of The Times’s style manual. The goal is not to chastise, but to point out recurring problems and suggest solutions.
Since many writers wrestle with similar troubles, we think these observations might interest general readers, too.
Hyphens: Too Many or Too Few
I shy away from discussions of hyphens. It’s treacherous terrain, where the rules are murky but the opinions strongly held. The risks of error are high, the rewards for success relatively low.
Still, I’ve noticed a few cases recently where we’ve had too many or too few. We should push to get even the little things right.
The onslaught was led by Campbell, the low-key, low-ball hitting Texan. He birdied the first five holes for the best start in the history of the tournament, eclipsing Ken Venturi’s four straight birdies to start the 1956 event.
We needed one more hyphen to hold the second descriptive phrase together: “low-ball-hitting Texan.”
Concerns about downward mobility mostly focus on the children of the least-educated immigrants, particularly poor Mexicans and Central Americans who account for more than a third of today’s second generation.
In general, comparative or superlative modifiers with “more,” “most,” “less” or “least” don’t require hyphens. Use one only if it’s needed to avoid ambiguity. (Even then, rephrasing might be a better option. For example, consider this sentence: “After that first attempt, she wrote several more successful books.” Do we mean several additional books that were also successful? Or several books that were more successful than the first? Hyphenating “more-successful” would show that we mean the latter, but rephrasing would be less awkward.)
[Editorial] When President George W. Bush was stocking the federal courts with conservative ideologues, Senate Republicans threatened to change the august body’s rules if any Democrat dared to try to block his choices, even the least-competent, most-radical ones.
Again, no need for hyphens here.
“I have been doing class-actions for over 20 years, and I don’t think there is a notice program as comprehensive as this notice program,’’ he said.
In the phrase “class-action lawsuit,” the hyphen is needed to tie the compound modifier together. But “class actions” requires no hyphen; “class” simply modifies the noun “actions.”
One of my unhappiest duties is to carp periodically about subject-verb agreement. This seems basic, but we slip often, in predictable ways. And when we do, readers are understandably dismayed.
A few recent lapses (thanks to colleagues and readers for spotting some):
Eager to escape the long arm of government, Goldman Sachs is preparing to return $10 billion in taxpayer funds as fast as the ink can dry on the check. But the bank, and a number of others, is quietly holding on to other forms of public support that come with virtually no strings attached.
Commas or no, “and” is a coordinating conjunction and gives us a plural subject. If we wanted the reference to the other banks to be secondary or parenthetical, we could have used a phrase like “along with” and kept the verb singular. Or we could have recast the sentence.
[A subheading with an amusing piece about flying cars:]
There’s enough lousy drivers already. Now we want to give them wings?
This is a great subhead, and obviously the tone was intended to be colloquial (note the use of “lousy”). But colloquial doesn’t have to be ungrammatical, and I don’t think it would have hurt the tone to say “There are enough …” or “We have enough …”
By early 2003, the office of the district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, had opened a new investigation, led by a veteran homicide prosecutor, Daniel L. Bibb, who concluded after 21 months that neither Mr. Hidalgo nor Mr. Lemus were guilty of the murder.
This is one of our most common agreement errors. In compound subjects with “or” or “nor,” the verb agrees with the closest part of the subject. Here, both parts are singular, and we needed a singular verb.
It’s been another busy few days for the Obama administration, which the news media has faithfully cataloged.
We treat “media” as a plural, so we needed “have.”
After Deadline readers both inside and outside The Times have urged me to offer more examples of sparkling prose. I’d also love to get comments from readers with passages they admire — both from feature stories and from straight news articles, where fine writing is harder to do and easier to overlook.
In the meantime, a few more examples that caught my eye recently:
I usually single out a phrase or a passage, rather than a whole article. But anyone who missed C.J. Chivers’s breathtaking account of a deadly ambush in Afghanistan should go back and read it. The writing doesn’t draw attention to itself; the reporter just tells the story, clearly and sharply, with fine detail and great pacing (and that’s to say nothing of what it took to get the story in the first place). While you’re at it, check out his earlier account of another firefight.
Closer to home, here’s a leisurely but delightful lead from Alan Schwarz, on a Science story about computer simulations in baseball (4/7):
You can learn a lot during a major league baseball game. Like Ukrainian, if it is a particularly slow nine innings.
As for the science of baseball strategy, one game teaches precious little. A well-timed sacrifice bunt can backfire and lose the game; a foolish steal can appear brilliant. The vagaries of randomness — the way Sandy Koufax got battered occasionally and a pipsqueak named Bucky Dent hit one of the most famous home runs ever — camouflage the game’s inner forces, which for 150 years have operated somewhere between fact and fable.
One game has little meaning. A thousand seasons can take a while. Thank goodness for quad-core processors.
Alliteration is a device to be used sparingly, but it worked to good effect in this pitch-perfect description of Isaac Mizrahi by Eric Wilson (4/2):
“How much is Eileen Fisher charging these days?’’ he asked, pawing a display of T-shirts from a competitor. “Sixty-eight dollars for a tank top?’’ His eyes were as wide as a pauper’s at Prada. | <urn:uuid:2e8b4669-89c5-4acf-87a1-504be75c2fa5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/the-little-things/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948945 | 1,528 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Speaking with a little sass and a lot of passion, “Glee” actress Lauren Potter stole the show when she joined forces with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to say “enough is enough” to bullying special-needs children.
“I was a victim of bullying,” said Miss Potter, who has Down syndrome and portrays cheerleader Becky Jackson the hit Fox television series. “When I was in my old school, a group of boys starting teasing me and calling me names.”
Forcing back tears, Miss Potter said that this incident was not uncommon when she was in school, and that the other students “thought it was OK, just because I looked different than they did.”
“They didnt think they would get in trouble because I was just a Down’s girl,” she said. “But this Down’s girl spoke up, and told those boys that called me names to grow up. Everyone seemed shocked.”
Miss Potter, 20, was on Capitol Hill to help mark the release of “Walk a Mile In Their Shoes,” a new report on bullying of special-needs children.
Rep. Jackie Speier, California Democrat, described the report as a call to action.
“This type of bullying has fallen under the radar screen for far too long,” she said. “For special-needs students who already face tremendous challenges, adding this extra burden is fundamentally unacceptable.”
Ms. Speier said that she plans to introduce legislation that would require federally funded schools to report the number of incidents regarding bullying, and whether those incidents included students with special needs.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican, said that she was speaking as the proud mother of a 4-year-old Down syndrome boy “who just happened to be born with that extra 21st chromosome.”
She said that she was grateful for the community that opened its arms to her when her son was born, and believes there are more opportunities for her son than ever.
Story Continues →
© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. | <urn:uuid:38a551c4-15d3-4f9a-b93d-eaeb179cf316> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.schoolbullyingcouncil.com/tag/bully-school-fox/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982036 | 449 | 1.546875 | 2 |
“Sustaining doubt is harder work than sliding into certainty.” – Daniel Kahneman
On the surface, Daniel Kahneman’s book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ is an examination of a two-component model of human behaviour – thinking fast (intuition) and thinking slow (analysis). At a deeper level it is the most comprehensive examination you will ever read about how the human mind screws thing up. The compendium of brain bothcing is chapter-and-verse substantiation for embracing the failure of making assessments with Vulcan-like logic.
Kahneman argues that the human mind has evolved both cerebral systems as a way to have the best of both worlds. The first is a rapid-response cognitive engine both for when time is of the essence as well as for everyday things so as not to exert too much valuable mental energy on routine matters. The second is a more computationally intensive engine for solving more complex issues. The human mind can apply either of these calculators to problem solving it faces. But that raises some interesting problems. First, how does a human brain know when the right time is to use one or the other. Second, what happens if the two systems disagree with one another?
- “The bat-and-ball problem [‘A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much more does the ball cost?] is our first encounter with an observation that will be a recurrent theme of this book; many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuition…Subjective confidence in a judgement is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgement is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his mind, not necessarily that the story is true.”
He explores an unmatched compendium of cognitive failure syndromes some of which I have addressed before myself, but many of which are quite novel…
- Confirmation Bias – While scientific method constantly seeks to disprove, confirmation bias selectively filters for reinforcing data…rose-tinted glasses.
- Law of Small Numbers – “The law of small numbers is a manifestation of a general bias that favors certainty over doubt.”
- Illusion of Validity – “The global evidence of our previous failure should have shaken our confidence in our judgements of the [officer training] candidates, but it did not. It should have caused us to moderate our predictions, but it did not. We knew as a general fact that our predictions were little better than random guesses but we continued to feel and act as if each of our specific predictions was valid…the confidence that people have in their intuitions is not a reliable guide to their validity. In other words, do not trust anyone – including yourself – to tell you how much you should trust their judgement.” (also echoed in the Nisbett and Borgida experiment).
- Illusion of Skill – (corollary to the Illusion of Validity) “The illusion of skill is not only an individual aberration; it is deeply ingrained in the culture of the industry. Facts that challenge such basic assumptions – and thereby threaten people’s livelihoods and self-esteem – are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them…Those with the most knowledge are often less reliable. The reason is that the person who acquires more knowledge develops an enhanced illusion of her skill and becomes unrealistically overconfident.”
- Planning Fallacy – (a more specific instantiation of the Illusion of Validity applied to ‘Planning’) “The term ‘planning fallacy’ [describes] plans and forecasts that (a) are unrealistically close to best-case scenarios, and (b) could be improved by consulting the statistics of similar cases.” Probably, most familiar in every day life to the rule of thumb to take the builders best estimate…and double it (for time and cost).
- Diminishing Utility of Wealth – “Explains risk aversion – the common preference that people generally show for a sure thing over a favourable gamble of equal or slightly higher expected value.” Looks at not just the overall scale of wealth and the size of the risk/opportunity relative to it, but also the preceding state of wealth (ie. was the person richer or poorer earlier on). All of these contextual factors have a huge impact on people risk propensities.
- Denominator Neglect – “If your attention is drawn to the winning marbles, you do not assess the number of non-winning marbles with the same care. Vivid imagery contributes to denominator neglect.” (used extensively by casinos)
- Disposition Effect – “If the problem is framed as a choice between giving yourself pleasure or causing yourself pain, you will [choose the former]…Finance research has documented a massive performance for selling winners rather than losers.” (in the hopes that the losers will recover). Kahneman goes on to explain that this effect is itself an instance of ‘Narrow Framing’ fallacy and has a more specific example known as the…
- Sunk Cost Fallacy – “The decision to invest additional resources in a losing account, when better investments are available.”
- Taboo Trade-Off – The aversion to “accepting any increase in risk” of which the most classic is people going to extreme lengths to avoid risks for their children when the resources could be more effectively applied to other areas that would actually better protect the children.
- Duration Neglect – “The duration of a [painful] procedure had no effect whatsoever on the ratings of total pain”
- Peak-end Rule – “The global retrospective rating was well predicted by the average of the level of pain reported at the worst moment of the experience and at its end.” Why ‘moments of truth’ are so critical to customer satisfaction (ie. cheery smiles and free candies at reception end up meaning nothing if you can’t deliver useful help when the customer is in more dire need of it).
- Affect Heuristic – “where judgements and decisions are guided by feelings of liking or disliking, with little deliberation or reasoning.”
- Affective Forecasting – “People who get married expect it will make them happier or because they hope that making a tie permanent will maintain the present state of bliss…on their wedding day, the bride and groom know that the rate of divorce is high and that the incidence of marital disappointment is even higher, but they do not believe that these statistics apply to them.”
- Focusing Illusion – “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.” An extension of ‘Affective Forecasting’ and something Dan Gilbert examined in depth…”Daniel Gilbert and his colleague provocatively claim that people generally anticipate more regret than they will actually experience, because they underestimate the efficacy of the psychological defences they will deploy – which they label the ‘psychological immune system.’ Their recommendation is that you should not put too much weight on regret; even if you have some, it will hurt less than you think.”
Finally, as I would expect from any thorough treatment of risk analysis, Kahneman’s work also includes some analysis apropos to the Upside/Downside model of Leadership/Management. In particular, his analysis of people’s attitudes to risk get quite sophisticated including the landmark ‘Boston Matrix’ for Prospect Theory dubbed the ‘Fourfold Pattern’. It represents (a) Probability, and (b) Gains/Losses across the two dimensions and identifies ‘Risk Adverse’ (Managers) and ‘Risk Seeking’ (Leaders) quadrants.
Required reading for any one serious about understanding how people really understand and respond to risk. | <urn:uuid:1239a66e-610e-4d28-827f-a67648bfe248> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brucelynnblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/failing-fast-and-slow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952364 | 1,696 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Colleges, communities, and the common good
President Roush featured in City Magazine. April 24, 2003
by Dr. John Roush, President, Centre College
community issues magazine of the
Kentucky League of Cities.
In 1831, 25-year-old Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in search of America. After nine months of exploration, he returned home to write Democracy in America, a classic often called the best book ever written on democracy and the best book ever written on America.
De Tocqueville's overriding impression was that democracy produced a powerful range of benefits for the citizens of the country: social, political, economic. He viewed as one of democracy's best by-products the tendency of Americans to form voluntary associations for the common good.
While de Tocqueville did not write explicitly about the relations of educational institutions with their surrounding communities, he surely would have viewed a vigorous, positive association of town and gown as a significant contribution to the common welfare.
It's not rocket science. I should say at the outset that positive college/community relations are also in the self-interest of all parties involved. Every college and community I know anything about are, in fact, “joined at the hip.” It requires only a little common sense to understand that an institution of higher learning has much to offer the surrounding community (cultural opportunities and economic stimulus, for example), and that the institution and its people will be better positioned to flourish when surrounded by the active good will of the community.
Four steps to success. So how does one promote a healthy college/community association? First you must be intentional. Good town-gown relations don't occur by accident.
The institution's leadership must make it clear that good community relations are a priority. This requires an investment of time; energy; and, sometimes, financial resources. Relationships with community members must be cultivated and nourished. Being a president or senior officer at a college or university requires one to be a citizen-leader. There are limits, of course, to performing one's role as a community citizen, but more often than not you need to say yes to the committee appointment and/or the invitation. Nothing conveys involvement and concern more than “being there.”
Second, communicate—through public statements, publications, press releases, and release of important college officers and faculty into the community. Reiterate that the college and the community are full partners and that the community's welfare, input and involvement are valued.
A small, but telling example of this is “This Week at Centre,” an ad we place in the local newspaper each Sunday inviting townspeople to a host of campus events. These range from student-produced plays, to sports events, to lectures by Nobel laureates, to Broadway musicals at our Norton Center for the Arts.
While most of these activities are free, the ads are not. But they communicate to the community the richness of our offerings and our desire for them to participate. Community members tell us again and again how much they appreciate both the information and what the weekly invitation symbolizes.
Third, expect good—even brilliant—ideas to come from the community. It is critical that those of us involved in higher education never believe or act like we know it all. Truth be told, the academy has no corner on the good-idea market, and we need to announce this and be sure our neighbors are encouraged to bring their concepts, plans and dreams to us.
• Food for Thought. We invite community members to enjoy nourishment for the body and mind in this luncheon series featuring presentations by faculty and staff members. Topics range from the common good to how student life is changing, to the Virgin of Guadalupe and Che Guevara, to principles of leadership. These sessions give community members the opportunity to hear experts in their fields, engage in discussion and participate in the intellectual life of the college.
• The Declaration of Independence/Guinness Record Attempt. When Centre recently had an opportunity to host a rare original copy of the Declaration of Independence, we decided to involve the community in the widest possible way. A vigorous promotional campaign attracted more than 6,000 visitors from the community and state—many of them schoolchildren—to view the historic document. In addition, we organized a Guinness record attempt for continuous reading of the Declaration and other American documents. College and community members read for an uninterrupted 56 hours, 13 minutes to break the existing record of 52 hours. (The jury is still out on whether Guinness will certify the record, but the patriotic bonding and feelings of good will generated were surely of record-setting proportions.)
• The 2002 Kentucky Historic Preservation Conference. This three-day event hosted by the college attracted more than 500 attendees from around the state and country to hear noted preservationists and discuss how preservation can enhance a community's way of life. Again, it allowed the college to be a partner in an important discussion for the public good.
• The Morphing of Main Street. This summit sponsored by NewCities Foundation, the Kentucky League of Cities, and Kentucky Educational Television, and hosted by Centre focused on the future of America's heartland cities. Attended by mayors, city planners, and other officials from around Kentucky and nation, the three-day event conveyed our interest and involvement in not only the welfare and future of Danville but of small cities like it around the country. It was a powerful symbol of partnership between communities and an educational institution.
• The 2000 Vice Presidential Debate. Without question, this 2000 General election debate, which involved the college locking arms with the city's leadership, was the most meaningful and successful team effort I have ever witnessed. All of us took the risk to dream big and execute without flaw. Having done this together, Centre and Danville have forged a bond that will last for years. Not that it won't need regular attention—it will—but the success we accomplished together made our community a place where anything is possible.
There you have it. As noted earlier, establishing good college-community relations isn't rocket science. It involves the time-honored principles of being intentional; communicating effectively and intentionally; looking for and expecting good ideas from all partners; and finding and creating occasions that have the power to unite and excite us.
The need for this kind of cooperation, inclusiveness and synergy is as enduring as the seasons. Now, when the democratic principles de Tocqueville so admired are under unprecedented attack, we must join together to empower and inspire our best mutual efforts for the common good of our institutions, our communities and our nation.
John Roush is president of Centre College, Kentucky's only national top-50 educational institution. He has written extensively about civic involvement and leadership. | <urn:uuid:ca40feed-8840-4d1f-b4a4-d58c7b72e2e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centre.edu/presidents_office/citymag.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962368 | 1,403 | 2 | 2 |
The Ukrainian Navy Is Strapping Dolphins With Guns To Attack Swimmers
The U.S. Navy has a marine mammal program that's been teaching underwater mammals how to locate marine mines, detonate, and even prevent explosions since the 1950s. But this is the first time we've heard of anything like the following story from the Ukraine.
Russia's state-owned news agency Ria Novosti says the Ukrainian navy is "bring[ing] back killer dolphins," by training them to attack swimmers, but that's not the unique part.
An unnamed source told Novosti that the Ukraine is now training 10 dolphins for underwater attacks against swimmers by using knives and guns.
From Ria Novosti:
The killer-dolphins will be trained to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads, the source said. "We are now planning training exercises for counter-combat swimmer tasks in order to defend ships in port and on raids," he said.
The Navy actively used underwater mammals in Vietnam and to support Bahrain missions in 1986 and points out the U.S. has given 32 Dicken Medals in the course of its history honoring animals in war.
Get Military & Defense Emails & Alerts | <urn:uuid:45486e86-f289-4f92-b216-c376974d5a63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ukraine-is-bringing-back-killer-naval-dolphins-2012-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934881 | 254 | 2.203125 | 2 |
A state Senate hearing has been scheduled to discuss school emergency plans designed to prevent incidents like the mass shooting in December at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee and the Education Committee will hold the hearing from 9 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, February 13th at the North Office Building in Harrisburg. Among the strategies up for discussion is a proposal by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, which would vastly increase the amount of grant funding available for schools to increase their safety and enact violence prevention initiatives, including training and hiring of armed guards to protect students.
In the month that has followed the deadly school shooting in Connecticut, many school districts across Indiana County have discussed the hiring of armed security personnel. Groups that plan to testify at that February hearing will include the state Dept. of Education, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, schools superintendents, teachers and principals. | <urn:uuid:0c18c3a1-7eb1-4e89-adfd-8a014093207f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.1160wccs.com/news/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1871446 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958497 | 193 | 1.578125 | 2 |
- Have you ever wanted to learn to play an instrument but you can never find the time?
- Have you taken music lessons in the past but become frustrated and quit?
- Would you like to learn an instrument but you simply don't have the time or money for private lessons?
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- Are there other topics you would like to explore but you need some help getting started?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then a Just ONCE class is just for you! Our seminars are designed to help beginners get started on playing a musical instrument or to help them get started on whatever skill they want to learn. Many people today would like to learn to play an instrument but they just want to learn to play for their own enjoyment. They want to have fun playing songs they are familiar with and they are not at all interested in going through a lengthy, expensive process to get to this simple goal. Other people want to explore a topic or learn a new skill but signing up for a weekly class is just not possible given their busy lifestyle.
Fortunately there IS an easier way!
Just ONCE Classes are ONE TIME seminars designed for busy people. Each class introduces students to the topic of their interest and then a workbook and companion DVD or CD is taken home by each student for continued study and development at home. All the material covered in each class is also covered again in the workbook and students are also able to follow along and learn with a practice CD or DVD. Everyone does not learn at the same pace and everyone's schedule is not the same either. With this approach students can learn at their own pace and fit this into their own time frame, whatever that may be. With our specially prepared materials it's just like taking your instructor home with you (and the nice thing is, he doesn't eat anything).
Our classes are sometimes lecture/demonstration and sometimes hands on depending on the topic. In any case, the learning environment is very non-threatening because almost all of the students who attend are just as new to the topic as you are. Some students get everything they need from attending the class and others take advantage of additional educational materials to help them go on to a more advanced level.
Each class is sponsored by a college or recreation program and you will need to call them directly to register before the class. There is a registration fee (which you will pay to the sponsor) and a materials fee for the book and DVD (which is usually collected by the instructor in the class). To find a class near you simply click on Enroll and you will be able to see the schedules of instructors who teach these classes in your area.
If you have always dreamed of playing an instrument but gave up on the idea because of a bad experience in the past, we really encourage you to give this another try. If you would like to explore some other topic but you need a crash course that won't take weeks and weeks to complete we have the format that is made for you. You'll be surprised at who you will see attending our classes with you (we have students of all different ages and backgrounds who attend our classes). | <urn:uuid:cd004f1e-174b-405e-a4df-bf6b718decd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://justonceclasses.com/info/welcome.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977525 | 654 | 2.15625 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also called Darwinian theory.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The body of biological doctrine propounded and defended by the English naturalist Charles (Charles Robert) Darwin (1809-1882), especially in his works “The Origin of Species” (1859) and “The Descent of Man” (1871), respecting the origin of species. It is, in general, the theory that all forms of living organisms, including man, have been derived or evolved by descent, with modification or variation, from a few primitive forms of life or from one, during the struggle for existence of individual organisms, which results, through natural selection, in the survival of those least exposed, by reason of their organization or situation, to destruction. It is not to be confounded with the general views of the development or evolution of the visible order of nature which have been entertained by philosophers from the earliest times. (See
evolution.) That which is specially and properly Darwinian in the general theory of evolution relates to the manner, or methods, or means by which living organisms are developed or evolved from one another: namely, the inherent susceptibility and tendency to variation according to conditions of environment; the preservation and perfection of organs best suited to the needs of the individual in its struggle for existence; the perpetuation of the more favorably organized beings, and the destruction of those less fitted to survive; the operation of natural selection, in which sexual selection is an important factor; and the general proposition that at any given time any given organism represents the result of the foregoing factors, acting in opposition to the hereditary tendency to adhere to the type, or “breed true.” See selectionarid Survival.
- n. Belief in and support of Darwin's theory. Also Darwinianism.
- n. Various concepts of development or evolution popularised by Charles Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859.
- n. The principles of natural selection set out in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859), more strictly defined by August Weismann and developed by other authors into a central part of the modern evolutionary synthesis.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Biol.) The theory or doctrines put forth by Darwin. See above.
- n. a theory of organic evolution claiming that new species arise and are perpetuated by natural selection
- Darwin + -ism (Wiktionary)
“˜Darwinism™ as it is used today is isomorphic to Darwin's Darwinism, as Gayon puts it, is that each of these questions is still hotly debated, and has been throughout the theory's history.”
“One reason why people believe in Darwinism is proof that mankind existed prior to 4004 B. C., thus, we must have evolved from apes!”
“It doesn't help that the term Darwinism is actually used by scientists, although only to differentiate between early evolutionary hypotheses.”
“Judson's criticism was not of Darwin or his work, but of the term Darwinism which she described as misleading.”
“One of the difficulties with the word Darwinism is its ambiguity.”
“You'll never erase the word Darwinism from the lexicon, but people who know the story of Darwin's and Wallace's near-simultaneous inspirations — and there are an increasing number of those people now — accept that the ideas of survival of the fittest and the origin of species were the work of two people, not one.”
“The term 'Darwinism' is more politically and philosophically polarized.”
“Dembski's logic and most ID arguments very much hinge on the concept that "Darwinism" is a chance hypothesis of nature.”
“So the move from RM/NS to "Darwinism" is slightly adrift.”
“Worse still, DR Witt’s straightforward answer does little to reassure me of his probity: In the very same venue where I asked that question, DR Witt had used the term Darwinism to clearly refer to a school of thought in philosophy, as for example when he said “Thus, in practice the materialist/Darwinists’ fourth … “ and this is just one of many such statements threatening the consistency of his self professed definition.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Darwinism’.
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
Another of my random palavery lists for words or phrases that haven't yet found a place in one or more of my other lists.
Looking for tweets for Darwinism. | <urn:uuid:cbfa8cc2-b1c6-4277-8fdf-7d301dd7f330> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/Darwinism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95017 | 1,041 | 3.390625 | 3 |
WINDHAM, N.Y. (AP) — From Maryland to New England, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee flooded roads and highways, swelled waterways and put emergency responders still weary from dealing with last week's cleanup back on alert.
As rivers and streams rose dangerously from flash flooding, many East Coast residents Wednesday began the now-familiar process of bailing water from basements or even heading to public shelters.
At least one rain-related death was reported. Police in Derry Township, Pa., said a man who was removing water from his basement was killed when the house's foundation collapsed.
"Now it's getting on my last nerves," said Carol Slater, 53, of Huntersfield, N.Y., on the northern edge of New York's Catskill Mountains and just outside of hard-hit Prattsville.
As rain washed out the tennis matches for the second straight day at the U.S. Open in New York City, the National Weather Service predicted it would continue to fall heavily across the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states through today with anywhere from 4 to 7 more inches falling and up to 10 inches in isolated pockets. Flood watches and warnings were up throughout the region.
In Pennsylvania, rain set off flash flooding across a wide swath of the state, shutting down roads, closing some schools early and forcing evacuations.
"The same areas are getting hit repeatedly," by rain, said Larry Nierenberg, a national weather service spokesman who monitors an area that includes Greater Philadelphia and most of New Jersey.
On Wednesday, near Trenton, N.J., he said a half inch of rain fell in 10 minutes. "You get something like that and it can drop 2-3 inches of rain in an hour, and then it will move on."
New York positioned rescue workers, swift-water boats and helicopters with hoists to respond quickly in the event of flash flooding. Teams stood by in Vermont, which bore the brunt of Irene's remnants last week, and hundreds of Pennsylvania residents were told to flee a rising creek.
Areas of New York's Broome County, including portions of downtown Binghamton, were being evacuated Wednesday night as heavy rains caused flood levels on the Susquehanna River and other creeks and tributaries. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was installing flood control gates in several locations throughout the county, according to a statement from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who planned to tour the region today.
Numerous sections of the New York Thruway, including exit ramps, flooded Wednesday night and motorists were advised to take alternate roads, but many of them, too, were covered with water.
On Wednesday afternoon, Prattsville was cut off, its main roads covered with water as public works crews tried to dredge the creeks to alleviate the flooding. Trash bins stood in the mud-caked streets to collect debris left by Irene and the wreckage of houses destroyed by the earlier storm still dotted the area.
Heavy rain fell, and residents were ready to evacuate as the Schoharie Creek escaped its banks and smaller streams showed significant flooding.
"Businesses and residential areas were devastated before," Wayne Speenburgh, chairman of the Greene County Legislature, said of Prattsville. "Downtown, there's nobody living because there's no homes to live in."
In nearby Middleburgh, dozens of residents were evacuated from temporary shelters set up in schools, many for the third time since Irene hit. Many businesses remained empty but were adorned with hopeful signs — like the one at Hubie's Pizzeria — that they would reopen.
Flooding also led to voluntary evacuations in the Catskills town of Shandaken, Rotterdam Junction near Albany, and a section of Schenectady along the Mohawk River. Some schools in the Hudson Valley north of New York City closed or delayed start times.
Patrick Darling said he and wife Dawn are trying to keep their sense of humor while dealing with a second week of flooding.
"We have stress, lots of stress," he said after using shovels to clear mud and debris from his neighbors' homes. "We've been shoveling our stress out."
Lee formed just off the Louisiana coast late last week and gained strength as it lingered in the Gulf for a couple of days. It dumped more than a foot of rain in New Orleans and trudged across Mississippi and Alabama.
Tornadoes spawned by Lee damaged hundreds of homes, and flooding knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people. Trees were uprooted and roads were flooded. Winds fanned wildfires in Louisiana and Texas, and the storm even kicked up tar balls on the Gulf Coast.
At least four people died. Irene was blamed for at least 46 deaths and billions of dollars in damage.
In Maryland, firefighters were among those who had to be rescued Wednesday as storms flooded roads, stranding drivers who had to be pulled from rushing water and pushing residents from their homes.
A swift-water rescue boat capsized in the Patapsco River near Catonsville as firefighters responded to rescue calls near the Howard County line, Baltimore County spokeswoman Elise Armacost said, adding that all firefighters were later accounted for.
A flood watch was in effect through Thursday afternoon in soggy Vermont. Parts of the state are still recovering from flooding from the remnants of Irene, which was a tropical storm by the time it swept over the area.
Swift water rescue teams are on call, and residents should be ready to evacuate if rivers rise fast, said Vermont Emergency Management spokesman Mark Bosma.
Irene hit upstate New York and Vermont particularly hard, with at least 12 deaths in those areas and dozens of highways damaged or washed out. Several communities in Vermont were cut off entirely and required National Guard airdrops to get supplies.
Flood watches or warnings were in place through Thursday night for much of Pennsylvania. About 3,000 residents along the Solomon Creek in Wilkes-Barre were ordered to evacuate due to quickly rising waters, but the creek crested about 4 feet below flood stage and the order was lifted Wednesday afternoon. Rain from Irene also led to evacuations there last week.
Flash flooding shut down dozens of Pennsylvania highways Wednesday and forced the evacuation of some riverfront trailer parks and campgrounds, while state officials braced for potentially worse problems along the swollen Susquehanna River. Other damage on Wednesday included a mudslide in Lancaster County, and two zoo animals that were caught in rising floodwaters in Hershey had to be euthanized.
In New Jersey, where many residents were still cleaning up after Irene, the remnants of Lee were expected to drop anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of rain. There was some flooding along rivers including the Passaic, which breached its banks during Irene and caused serious damage. Heavier flooding is expected Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the open Atlantic, Hurricane Katia brought rough surf to the East Coast but was not expected to make landfall in the U.S. Tropical Storm Maria also formed Wednesday far out in the Atlantic, but it was too soon to tell if and where it might make landfall. | <urn:uuid:cbf6ef04-054e-400a-8924-d6ce6ea7773f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.monroenews.com/news/2011/sep/08/northeast-preps-for-more-floods/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978664 | 1,475 | 1.601563 | 2 |
In order to identify our subject’s parents, we first start with known facts, working from the most present information to the past. Family sources stated Jacob (also known as “John” or “Jack”) Meiselman had the following siblings:
- Izzie of Boston, Massachusetts
- Ben, who resided in North Carolina, and who had a son named Michael, who also resided in North Carolina. Ben owned movie theaters.
- Herman (research showed that Herman Benjamin [who sometimes used the middle name Bernard] is the same person as Ben above)
On July 1, 1913, we find Bernard, Lottie and another brother Leon (who also went by Louis) arrived at Ellis Island, having sailed from Antwerp to the U.S. aboard the SS Kroonland. Listed as parent was “Mechel Meiselman” of Zalischyky, Austria.
Page two of the passenger list states the siblings will be going to live with brother I. Meiselman, likely Izzy. Confirmation that this is the correct family was made by a review of Herman’s naturalization documents dated 26 Oct 1927 which were witnessed by Jacob Meiselman, and included an address of 2113 71st St, Brooklyn, NY.
Herman was still at this address in 1930, where he is listed with his sister, Lottie (who was then married to Sol Augenlicht) and mother, “Ida.”
Further confirmation was obtained through published public records that state that H.B. Meiselman “… immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1913. Over the years, Mr. Meiselman accumulated substantial wealth through his development of several family business enterprises. Specifically, Mr. Meiselman invested in and developed movie theaters and real estate. Several of the enterprises were merged into Eastern Federal Corporation [hereinafter referred to as Eastern Federal], a close corporation…”
Herman also listed his mother Ida, and sister Lottie, on his World War I Draft Registration. He was residing at 190 S. 8th Street:
The family was still residing there on 19 Jan 1920 when enumerated on the 1920 census:
Jacob (age 29) is listed as head of family with his siblings Louis (age 27), Herman B. (age 25) and Lottie (age 2_), and a 92-year-old woman Lottie. The latter was enumerated as mother, but this has been determined to be incorrect. At age 92, she may have been grandmother or great-grandmother of Jacob and his brothers and sister.
On 26 June, 1920, arriving at Ellis Island aboard the SS Vauban which sailed from Liverpool were Michael and Chajcie Meiselman, who were “going to Son.” Page one of the ship’s manifest is shown below.
Page two of the manifest provides the name and address of the couple’s son, Jacob, who resided at 190 So. 8th St, Brooklyn, NY:
Michael/Max Meiselman, and Chajcie/ Ida /Clara Hackmeyer, parents of Jacob P. Meiselman
To complete an exhaustive search of available records, the death certificates for Jacob and his siblings were requested as detailed below.
The following documents demonstrate that Michael and Chajcie also had aliases. Chajcie was sometimes called Clara and other times went by Ida.
Isador “Izzy” AKA Isaac Miselman: parents Michael Meizelman and Ida Hackmeyer
Ida Meiselman arrived in the U.S. on the SS Possdam on 9 Sept, 1911 stating she was going to join her son “Issy Meiselman”:
“Isaac” Meizelman and Rosa Brown were married on 3 May 1909 in Boston, Suffolk Co, Massachusetts. Isaac (also known as Isador) had a marriage registration which listed his parents as Michael Meizelman and Ida Hackmeyer.
Isaac’s relationship to his siblings is confirmed by his obituary:
Jacob P. “Jack” Meiselman
Florida’s division of Vital Records was unsuccessful in producing a death certificate for Jacob, whose last address according to the Social Security department was in Dade County, Florida when he died in August 1971. After further discussions with family members, it was revealed that Jacob died in Rhode Island.
Lottie (Meiselman) Augenlicht
Flooding in New York due to Hurricane Sandy eliminated the possibility of ordering the death certificate for sister Lottie at the time of this project.
Louis Meiselman: parents Max Meiselman and Clara (maiden name unknown )
The death certificate for Louis Meiselman who died 23 April, 1982 listed parents Max Meiselman and Clara (maiden name unknown).
According to the death certificate, Louis Meiselman was born 23 April 1897 in Austria, which correlates within two years of the birth date Louis provided when registering for the WWI Draft:
As shown above, Louis’ address when registering for the draft was 190 So. 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY, and he provided a birth date of 23 April 1895 – substantiating that while the year of birth is off by two years (not uncommon when the bereaved are providing information for death certificates) we are tracking the correct Louis.
Herman Benjamin Meiselman: parents Michael Meiselman and Clara Hadkmayer.
Unfortunately, the state of North Carolina was unable to locate a certificate for Herman, who is listed as Herman Benjamin Meiselman in the North Carolina Death Index, having been deceased 28 April, 1978 with last known address in Mecklenburg, NC. However, later research on FamilySearch.org revealed that Herman Benjamin Meiselman died in Clemmons, Forsyth, North Carolina and the informant stated his parents names were Michael Meiselman and Clara Hadkmayer.
The parentage of Jacob Meiselman is based on the combined documentation of his siblings’ death certificates as well as the passenger list indicating he is the son of Michael and Chajcie Meiselman. Additional evidence includes:
- Strong links between the Meiselman siblings in documents, often using the address 190 So 8th St
- Isador M. Miselman (also known as Isaac) marriage record to Rosa Brown, listing parents as Michael Miselman and Ida Hackmayer in 1909.
- Ida Meiselman arrival in 1911, going to join her son “Issy Meiselman”
- Mechal Meiselman listed as father of Leon, Bernard and Lottie on the passenger list in 1913
- The reference to mother “Ida” on Herman’s World War I Draft Registration with Herman’s address of 190 So 8th St in 1917
- Michael and Chajcie listed on passenger list stating they were going to stay with their son Jacob at 190 So 8th St in 1920
- Ida’s enumeration on the 1930 census with an immigration date of 1921 near the time that Michael and Chajcie arrived | <urn:uuid:f2d48415-cde3-40d4-957b-1d19ae5df3cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genejourneys.com/2012/12/04/determining-the-parentage-of-jacob-meiselman/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=3fdfac1636 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97117 | 1,503 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone
"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for "after it, therefore because of it". That it comes from Latin should indicate how far back that particular fallacy can be traced. Yet ever since Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, it has been the point of comparison for every flagship phone, from every manufacturer, on every carrier. Just like "post hoc ergo propter hoc" isn't always -- or even often -- true, "post iPhone ergo propter iPhone" isn't always true. Yet time after time, phone after phone, everything from hardware design to software features are taken as derived from, or as being a response to, the iPhone.
There's a theory in combat that dates back to Sun Tsu, if not earlier, called "strike first to gain the initiative". If, in a fight, all you do is defend, you'll eventually make a mistake and get tagged. Even if you're a natural counter-puncher, if you don't take an opportunity when it opens up, at best you'll stall your way to stalemate (and get booed for your efforts), and at worst you'll mess up at some point and get clobbered. That's why a good fighter knows everything is an attack. Everything is an attempt to turn an opponent's mind away from acting and towards reacting.
It can be obvious -- a strike or shoot or something else an opponent has to deal with. Or it can be subtle -- a change of angle or distance that rocks them back on their heels or shoulders and messes with their balance and timing.
Those same essential strategic truths apply to the ancient battlefield, the modern Octagon, and business -- including the smartphone business.
In 2007 Apple didn't introduce a better Treo or BlackBerry, they introduced a better device. They didn't take a tiny little step that entrenched competitors could quickly match. They took a diagonal leap that entrenched competitors either couldn't quickly match, or didn't even understand. They changed the rules of the game. They attacked.
It didn't matter that the 2007 iPhone lacked apps or copy/paste or unobtrusive notifications or MMS or any of a dozen features existing smartphone has on their neat little checklists. It mattered only that multitouch, and the way the iPhone interface leveraged it to make a new experience, was so compelling no one cared what it was missing.
That was an attack.
The shift was so radical that for years after, every other flagship, or would be flagship phone was pitched by desperate competitors and attention-seeking media alike as an "iPhone killer". (Early among them, the Samsung Instinct -- a coincidence, I'm certain.) That the iPhone made every headline, that every device was cast not as something unique unto itself but as something wholly dependent on the gravity well of the iPhone, was the punchline. (No true iPhone killer would ever be called that -- everyone would be too busy talking about it to bother mentioning the iPhone.)
And since then, no one else has done much attacking. Hell, most of Apple's competitors ignored or derided the iPhone at launch. Smartly, Google didn't. They spun on a dime and turned their new Android acquisition from a BlackBerry or Windows Phone Standard (or Nokia Communicator, if you lived in Europe) competitor to an iPhone competitor almost over night.
Yet Apple didn't react. They didn't rush to match any Android features that the iPhone was missing or toss in a hardware keyboard to win over legacy smartphone users. They changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They announced the App Store.
Palm got back into the game sooner than the other traditional smartphone vendors. But when they made the leap from Palm OS to webOS it was far more audacious than Android. (That tiny, cash-starved Palm literally coded circles around mighty Google, and made a more Google-esque product than Google itself, should be scrawled in permanent marker atop the dessert-laden garden in Mountain View so as to never be forgotten.) While elements of the Palm Pre were inarguably iPhone inspired -- having the former head of Apple hardware, Jon Rubenstein, as their CEO and a lot of Apple engineers on their team will do that -- they played a smart strategy. Rather than matching iPhone features, they tried to hit Apple where Apple was weak -- multitasking, notifications, unified messaging. And unlike the early days of Android, they did it in an elegant, tasteful way.
RIM floundered with the Storm. And the Storm 2. And the Torch. Microsoft stumbled with Windows Mobile 6. And Windows Mobile 6.5. Still, other platforms started adding their own centralized software stores. Android Market (now Google Play), Nokia Ovi Store (no, really), webOS App Catalog BlackBerry App World. By and large, like Palm with the Pre, they tried to differentiate themselves by going where they thought Apple was weak -- openness. It turned out, however, that openness didn't translate into a better user experience. Having great apps and being able to take credit cards in large amount of global markets were far more important. (The "iTunes advantage" was the platform equivalent of having seized the high ground before the battle ever begun.)
Sadly, Palm never made webOS work well enough, fast enough, to catch on before they were brutally bought and betrayed by HP corporate intrigue and ineptitude. Android, however, got some body shots in. The Nexus One was smartly timed to the hit the market right in the middle of Apple's typical year-long product cycle. With great hardware, an improved OS, and features like voice control, it caught influencers at the perfect moment and got a lot of attention. The Droid, meanwhile, seized on the huge, Verizon-sized hole Apple left in its flank by being locked to AT&T in the U.S. for 4 long years. (The Evo did similar on Sprint, and I'm sure something did on T-Mobile as well...)
Apple's limited carrier footprint couldn't stop Android from gaining incredible non-AT&T marketshare, but the iPhone remained a strong enough device that it not only held its own ground with but one flagship a year, on one carrier in the U.S., but kept on growing it.
And then Apple changed the rules again. They acted again. They attacked again. They released the iPad.
It was a tablet launched in 2010 that didn't (and still doesn't) have a desktop or windowing system, that didn't (but now does) have multitasking for 3rd party apps. Like the iPhone in 2007, it didn't matter that the iPad didn't have nearly as much as the decade of Tablet PCs before it. It utterly obliterated and obsoleted its predecessors before it even shipped.
Again, Google reacted. They spun on a dime and rushed out (a still closed-source version of Android), Honeycomb, to compete in the tablet space. Absent the carrier opening it had with the iPhone, however, and left to their own devices, Android tablets haven't caught on. Nor did the incredibly iPad-like Palm TouchPad hardware, even with it's arguably still more elegant multitasking, notification, and messaging software. Nor did the BlackBerry PlayBook, similarly rushed to market without even a chance to put its email on.
Microsoft, meanwhile, finally got Windows Phone off the ground. Unlike Palm, however, they didn't target the iPhone where it was weak. They copied the weaknesses the iPhone had at launch. Weaknesses Apple, for the most part, had long since addressed -- no multitasking, no copy and paste, and an app store that needed to be filled from scratch. The design was new, much to Microsoft's credit. It wasn't the same old app launcher and swapping panels. That part Microsoft absolutely nailed. But taken as a whole, great new design with fundamental flaws in functionality (not to mention branding), it wasn't enough to slow the iPhone's momentum. The same interface gambit that gave Apple its smartphone mindshare in 2007 just wasn't repeatable in 2011. At least not by Windows Phone. (Maybe one of those transparent aluminum jobbies from Avatar or Iron Man could have made that shot...)
BlackBerry is now trying to get back into the game, some 5 years later, with BlackBerry 10. Based on QNX it will offer realtime capabilities and the most promiscuous development story in the smartphone space. The PlayBook, like Honeycomb, shipped before it was fully baked. RIM seems prepared to take their time with BlackBerry 10. We'll have to wait see how that works out for them.
Until then, one essential truth remains indisputable -- Apple, who wasn't even in the smartphone or tablet business before 2006 -- has controlled the pacing of both industries since the moment ever since. While they've given up a step or two, while they've been cut and bloodied a little at times, for the most part they've stood at the center of the ring, cut off the angles, and forced everyone else to circle and fight Apple's fight going on 5 rounds now.
And if the Galaxy S III event is any indication, where Samsung introduced a bigger black slab with music matching and interactive voice control, no one is even challenging them for control of round 6.
Whether you like Apple and their products or would love nothing more than to kill them just to watch them die, everything that matters that's happened in mobile since 2007 is because of Apple and iPhone, or has been in response to Apple and the iPhone.
Post iPhone ergo propter iPhone.
And as someone who loves technology even more than I love the iPhone, I'm well past tired of it. | <urn:uuid:a522e7cc-a6b3-4566-bd33-be91272fe5ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/post-iphone-ergo-propter-iphone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971103 | 2,000 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Mafia Toolbox: Charm
Pages: 1 2
Mr. Mafioso has always been a charming devil -- my readers know that. It goes back to my school days when I was a little ragazzo, and no matter how naughty I was, I could always count on my charm ability to make the adults smile, ruffle my hair and send me on my way. This is because even then I knew about the importance of charm.
In fact, charm is such a powerful tool that it is sought after by virtually everyone. Politicians, actors and businessmen have all craved it (and so have many others). This is because, once you’re equipped with a degree of charm, you’ll find that you can open doors that would otherwise remain closed.
So how do I get it, you ask? Here are seven tips to help you get started:
Remember and use peoples' namesThis lets people know they are important enough for you to have remembered them, and it makes them feel special. You might think it’s a very minor thing to do but, really, you’d be amazed at the number of people you can win over just by using their first name. But, be careful not to use it too much or you may come across like a used car salesman.
Project confidenceThe truly charming simply exude poise and grace, so keep in mind that the way others see you often says more than the words you utter. First impressions are paramount, and if you want to be taken seriously, you must have good posture. Unlike the fairy tales you read or the bad movies you watch, hunchbacks and slouches never end up saving the day or getting the girl.
Be a good listenerAsk plenty of questions in social situations, especially with people you have just met. It shows that you are interested in others and, in turn, they will find that endearing. If you try too hard to be the center of attention, people won’t find you charming -- just annoying.
Maintain eye contactThis is important, particularly when meeting someone for the first time. I’ve met far too many shifty-eyed stronzos over the years and I can usually pick them out right away by their reluctance to look me in the eyes when they speak. The ability to make and maintain eye contact is generally a good indication of the integrity of a individual, and an even better way to let them know that you are also self-assured. But make sure you identify where the length of the gaze goes from confident to creepy.
More lessons for your mafia toolbox on charm... Next Page >> | <urn:uuid:1163f56b-3083-4940-9130-a0733b733918> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.askmen.com/money/mafioso_150/167_mafia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958032 | 547 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Sir—Xiao Yan Zhong and colleagues point out some pitfalls in the clinical applications for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of single-gene disorders by maternal plasma. We essentially agree with their comments.
Many investigators report the detection of free fetal DNA sequences by real-time PCR not present in the maternal blood, such as Y chromosome from male fetus and rhesus D gene in rhesus d pregnant women. We established a highly sensitive quantitative PCR with use of the LightCycler system (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) and analysed the sensitivity of sex determination from maternal plasma through DYS-14 gene amplification. At 15—20 weeks' gestation, sex could be accurately identified from maternal plasma (20 of 20). In early gestation, however, 8% of results were false negative.
We agree that the procedure is required to prevent DNA contamination or allele dropout. We have previously reported that the detection of fetal nucleated erythrocytes (NRBCs) in maternal circulation by use of HLA DQα genotyping without fetal sex determination.1
In five of 45 cells, the foreign source DNA contamination, except for parental alleles or allele dropout, was seen when whole genome was amplified from single fetal cells by conventional PCR. Another difficulty is the low recovery rate of DNA from maternal plasma. The amount of free fetal DNA in maternal plasma is small—only about 25 copies/mL maternal plasma.2
Although we extracted fetal DNA from maternal plasma by QIAamp DNA Blood Mini kit (Quiagen, Hilden), the recovery of fetal DNA from maternal plasma was around 55%. Therefore, we are trying to improve the DNA extraction efficiency to achieve the sufficient sensitivity and accuracy for prenatal DNA diagnosis from maternal plasma.
Non-invasive prenatal DNA diagnosis of single-gene disorders from maternal blood has possibilities, although, according to the previous reports and our data, at the present time, clinical application for prenatal diagnosis from maternal plasma is not suitable for fetal DNA screening. | <urn:uuid:52cd00ae-64fe-4142-bf97-34d8ec936411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)71755-4/fulltext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928325 | 411 | 1.820313 | 2 |
January 27, 1966
Wisconsin State Circuit Court Judge Elmer W. Roller ruled that the Milwaukee Braves must stay in town or promise the state a team for the 1967 season. The team had announced they were moving to Atlanta and were sued in state court arguing that the team violated state antitrust laws.
The ruling by Roller was overruled later that summer by the state Supreme Court and it wouldn’t be until 1970 when car salesman Bud Selig would bring a team back to Milwaukee.
January 27, 1982
The Philadelphia Phillies send Larry Bowa and a minor league infielder named Ryne Sandberg to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan DeJesus.
DeJesus would play three seasons in Philly and Larry Bowa would play four seasons in Chicago, but the big deal was the future Hall of Famer Sandberg who would play 15 seasons for Chicago. He was a 10-time All-Star, 9-time Gold Glove winner, and was the 1984 NL MVP.
Born on this day:
1968 Eric Wedge | <urn:uuid:21954991-0ee1-4f66-845d-625c6e6da2fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baseballdeworld.com/2013/01/27/today-baseball-history-january-27th/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982583 | 208 | 2.171875 | 2 |
New Mexico Gun Laws
Like many states in the US, New Mexico possesses weak gun control laws with a few provisions in regards to concealed weapons. Based on the chart below, New Mexico can be regarded as containing the median restrictions and regulations for gun control laws in America.
State requirements for rifles and shotguns:
No permit is necessary to purchase rifles or shotguns
Registration of rifles and shotguns is not warranted
License of ownership is not necessary
there is no permit required under concealed carry laws to carry a rifle or shotgun
State requirements for handguns or pistols:
No permit is necessary to purchase
Registration is not warranted
License of ownership is not necessary
Under concealed carry laws a permit is necessary to conceal a handgun or pistol
According to concealed carry laws, New Mexico is a "shall issue" state for the right to carry concealed handguns. Along with being at least 21 years of age, an applicant for a concealed carry permit must provide proper documentation detailing residency within the state. Concealed carry laws require an applicant to complete a state approved training course that includes at least 15 hours of classroom time. The classes and the shooting instructional vary based on weapon and caliber. Unlike most states, New Mexico requires that the license holder pass the shooting proficiency test every two years. The process to carry concealed weapons takes roughly 3 months and the license is valid for 4 years.
New Mexico does not require a concealed weapons permit if an individual has a similar carrying permit of the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
If a concealed weapons permit is valid, an individual will still face a few restrictions on where he/she is allowed to carry a handgun; these places include: Any federal buildings, schools, or restaurants that serve alcohol. Concealed carry laws in New Mexico are complex and detailed in regards to locations that sell alcohol. For instance, it is legal to carry concealed weapons in grocery stores or convenient stores that sell alcohol, but considered illegal if carried into a liquor store.
Concealed weapons which are unloaded can be carried legally in any establishment except those that sell alcohol. New Mexico also possesses an "extended domain law", which renders one's vehicle as an extension of the home. It is therefore, legal to carry a loaded, concealed weapon anywhere in a vehicle.
Typically speaking, a state's interpretation of gun laws will not waver in terms of leniency between buyers and sellers. New Mexico is no exception. Distributors in the state have limited to no regulations based on the state's gun control laws. Even with a precarious location (New Mexico borders Mexico), sellers are not required to be licensed, file sales reports with the state, nor are police inspections allowed of gun shops or trade shows. There are no limitations placed on bulk purchases, ammunition regulations, or background checks performed during purchase. There are no state waiting periods, ballistic filings, magazine bans, or even restrictions placed on assault rifles.
New Mexico faces a constant struggle between cultural history, crime statistics, and gun trafficking. With a cowboy image, sprawling deserts, and a conservative stance, guns have been woven into the state's fabric. These lax policies towards concealed weapons and firearms has helped perpetuate a violent society. New Mexico is one of the most dangerous states in the US in regards to violent crime percentages. To make matters worse, the state's casual regulations on dealers and distributors further augments gun trafficking across the Mexican border. Contact New Mexico lawyers for legal advice and assistance.
NEXT: New York Gun Laws | <urn:uuid:ffcc0728-9e04-43f9-94c1-103395abdae7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gun.laws.com/state-gun-laws/new-mexico-gun-laws | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933338 | 740 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Persian-Style Rice with Saffron and Lentils Recipe
This recipe elevates rice to a new level, yet it’s simple to make. In Persian households, this is a dish that each cook personalizes to make his or her own. The best part is that the rice, potatoes, and yogurt form a crust, called tadeeg in Farsi, that is so good you’ll be fighting over the last forkfuls. This version is layered with lentils and onions for an understated twist.
Special equipment: A heavy-bottomed pot, such as this cast-iron Dutch oven by Le Creuset, helps the tadeeg develop well.
Game plan: Once you have all the ingredients layered in the pot, you can’t see the crust, so use your nose to discern the smell of the rice as it cooks. If you smell something that resembles burning, turn down the heat!
- 4 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 cup green lentils
- 1/2 medium white onion, fine dice
- 4 cups long-grain, white basmati rice
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 medium russet potato
- 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground saffron (optional)
- Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Rinse lentils in a colander and set aside. Combine 2 cups water with lentils and onion in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat. Once it’s boiling, lower heat to medium-low, cover, and let until simmer 10 minutes. Drain, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and set aside.
- Place the rice in a large bowl and fill it with water. Rub the rice between your hands until the water is clear. Drain the rice into a colander and set aside.
- Once the water boils, add the rice and let boil until it is half cooked, about 5 – 7 minutes (the grain will be translucent yet still starchy). Remove from heat and drain the rice.
- Slice the potato into 1/4-inch rounds and set aside. Mix together the yogurt and half of the saffron. Add 3 cups drained rice and mix. Mix the remaining rice with 2 tablespoons oil and the remaining saffron, and reserve.
- Return the pot to the stove over medium-high heat and add 3 tablespoons oil. Spread the potato rounds evenly to cover the bottom of the pot (overlap if necessary) and cook until just beginning to color, about 5 minutes. Top the potatoes with the rice and yogurt mixture, and spread it evenly over the bottom of the pot. Let it cook until the rice begins to form a crust, about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Lower heat to medium and add 1/3 of the reserved rice. Top the rice with half of the lentil mixture, and alternately layer the rice and lentils (ending with the rice).
- Place the lid on the pot and continue steaming the rice until it is just cooked, about 7 – 10 minutes. It is done once the rice is al dente but fully cooked when you bite into it (there is no starchy taste). Remove the rice from the heat and flip it onto the serving dish, so that the crunchy part (the tadeeg) is on top. | <urn:uuid:76681e32-f797-4e49-a2eb-e076e6a52713> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chow.com/recipes/10682-persian-style-rice-with-saffron-and-lentils | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906636 | 714 | 1.515625 | 2 |
I saw this as a comment someone posted on Google+ in response to NHK announcing a show:
I think it's saying "If this is really what you intend to broadcast, give me back my broadcast fees!"
I'm not confident in that, though, because of that
よ that comes just before the comma. My translation is more because I can't think of anything else that makes sense.
So far as I know,
よ is just a for emphasis. As such, I don't know if I've ever really noticed it being used in the middle of a sentence before. If it just emphasis, then we should be able to take it out, like this:
Which to me looks incomplete. If I wanted to say in Japanese the same sentiment, I would use
ば, like so:
よ in the original sentence serving the same purpose as my
ば, or is there something completely different going on?
What exactly is the best translation of the sentence, assuming mine is off? | <urn:uuid:4eee7474-7906-4331-8f99-20263426e454> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6594/what-is-%E3%82%88-doing-as-a-connector-before-a-comma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959507 | 211 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Very efficient algorithms exist to draw cubic Bezier curves. In fact, these algorithms are so efficient that other types of curves are often converted to Bezier curves. For example, it is possible to approximate a 90 degree circular arc with a Bezier curve.
Recall that a cubic Bezier curve has four control points. Derive the coordinates of the four control points of a Bezier curve that approximates this circular arc. This approximation should touch and be tangent to the arc at both endpoints as well as the midpoint. Hint: Find control points such that the midpoint of the Bezier curve (t=1/2) lies on the midpoint of the circular arc.
Let P0, P1, P2 and P3 be the four control points of the Bezier curve.
P0 and P3 must be coincident with the endpoints. Thus, P0 = (0,1) and P3 = (1,0).
P1 and P2 must be chosen so that the curve is tangent to the arc. The tangent to the arc at (0,1) is (1,0); thus, P1 must have the same y coordinate as P0. Similarly, the tangent at (1,0) is (0,1), and thus P2 must have the same x coordinate as P3. Since the arc is symmetric, the best approximating Bezier curve should also be symmetric. Thus, P1 = (a,1) and P2 = (1,a).
The final unknown a can be found by requiring the midpoint of the Bezier curve to like at the midpoint of the arc, (sqrt(2)/2,sqrt(2)/2). Using the midpoint subdivision rule, we arrive at the following:
P0 P1 P2 P3 (0,1) (a,1) (1,a) (1,0) 1/2(a,2) 1/2(1+a,1+a) 1/2(2,a) 1/4(1+2a,3+a) 1/4(3+a,1+2a) 1/8(4+3a,4+3a)
Seting 1/4(4+3a)=sqrt(2)/2 and solving for a we get a = 4(sqrt(2)-1)/3 = .552.
+6 points for getting the endpoints right.
+6 points for getting the tangent contraints right.
+4 points for noticing the symmetric and reducing the problem to a single unknown.
+4 points for knowing the correct subdivision rules, for being able to evaulate the Bezier curve at the midpoint.
Certain errors resulted in the following deductions:
-2 for formulating the problem correctly but making a math error in the final answer.
There were lots of answers that we almost right. Most of these received 14 points. They were wrong in that they did not satisfy the constraints that the curve should go through the endpoints and touch the midpoint.
One common solution was to compute the intersection of a 45 degree downward sloping line with the y=1 and x=1 lines and setting P1 and P2 to the points of intersections.
Several bisected the 45 degree angle and computed the intersection of a line through the origin at 22.5 with the x=1 and y=1 lines, and used those intersection points as the control points.
Another common error was to use a quadratic Bezier curve; or to use subdivision rules that reduced to the quadratic case.
Another approach was to reduce the problem to Hermite interpolation by setting the endpoint and tangent conditions. This can be made to work, but you must find a way to constrain the curve to go through the midpoint.
A clever approach was to try to set the tangent of the Bezier curve at the midpoint to have a slope of -1 and try to find separate Bezier curves for top and bottom part of the arc. | <urn:uuid:dc5379c9-1407-483e-a99f-e7147c141790> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs248-98-fall/Final/q1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92779 | 872 | 3.859375 | 4 |
Republicans in Tampa on Tuesday called for protections of Internet freedom, less telecom regulation, and family-friendly online content in a party platform that also criticized President Obama’s “Luddite approach” to technology policy.
Obama has often been cast as a tech-savvy president who carries his own smartphone and understands the fast-paced world of technology. That’s not the way Republicans see it.
In their platform approved at the Republican National Convention, they accuse Obama of keeping the tech and telecom industry—the “most vibrant sector of the American economy”—shackled by a 19th-century regulatory system, as well as controversial net-neutrality rules.
“An industry that invested $66 billion in 2011 alone needs, and deserves, a more modern relationship with the federal government for the benefit of consumers here and worldwide,” the document states.
Besides decrying domestic regulation, the platform also calls for protections for Internet freedom, a stance advocated by businesses as well as liberals and libertarian Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
“We oppose any diplomatic efforts that could result in giving the United Nations unprecedented control over the Internet," the platform reads. “International regulatory control over the open and free Internet would have disastrous consequences for the United States and the world.” The authors go on to promise to “resist any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations.”
In a section on cybersecurity, the platform largely echos the GOP stance that government agencies should not have the authority to set security standards for private businesses. Such arguments have stalled White House-backed legislation that would give the Homeland Security Department more authority over certain critical networks.
“The current administration’s laws and policies undermine what should be a collaborative relationship and put both the government and private entities at a severe disadvantage in proactively identifying potential cyberthreats,” the platform says. “The costly and heavy-handed regulatory approach by the current administration will increase the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy and harm innovation in cybersecurity.”
The platform takes a stance against any regulation of political speech on the Internet, as well as the now-defunct Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to provide equal airtime to opposing views. The law had not been enforced since 1987 and was stricken from the books in 2011.
Additionally, Republicans urge enforcement of all laws governing child and other pornography, and they call on Internet providers to prevent the Web from becoming a “safe haven for predators” while respecting free speech. The platform also opposes any online gambling. | <urn:uuid:9881b3f0-e631-47c1-81b8-ec6159ced48f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-election/gop-platform-blasts-obama-on-tech-policy-20120828 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948636 | 552 | 1.59375 | 2 |
OTTAWA – Canada’s finance minister says the U.S. economy still faces significant risks despite a last-minute deal to keep income taxes from rising on the middle class and the poor.
While Jim Flaherty is pleased to see an agreement south of the border to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, he says the United States isn’t out of the woods yet.
“Canada welcomes the agreement reached between the president and the Congress that protects the U.S. economy in the short term,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“That said, there remain a number of significant risks to the U.S. economic outlook. It is my hope that leaders in the United States continue to work together to develop future action that will put the U.S. fiscal position on a sustainable path.”
Congress has been deeply and bitterly split over the fiscal deal for months. But the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to support the bill passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate, averting a crisis.
Had an agreement not been reached, economists warned that tax increases for most Americans could have sent the country spiralling back into recession.
The agreement reached late Tuesday night includes a tax hike for Americans earning more than $400,000 a year and couples earning $450,000 or more, while preserving middle-class tax cuts that were to expire in 2013.
But with one political showdown behind them, U.S. lawmakers face more battles in the months ahead over spending cuts and on raising the country’s limit on borrowing. | <urn:uuid:39e781d9-035d-42b9-bc36-99aa531c33af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadianbusiness.com/business-news/fiscal-deal-good-but-big-risks-still-face-u-s-economy-flaherty-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951035 | 323 | 1.78125 | 2 |
America is still dragging its feet in dealing with the Syrian crisis. The American Secretary of State is speaking in riddles about an idea proposed at the beginning of the revolution for establishing "safe haven zones" under cover of the Security Council. However, Clinton threw the burden of establishing such zones on the shoulders of the rebels themselves, saying it depends on the ability of the rebels to hold the regions they liberate from the Assad's regime, without providing any promises for helping them in this respect outside the United Nations.
Clinton's announcement doesn't match with the great developments of the Syrian opposition, who succeeded in killing some of the senior regime's symbols, threatened the capital Damascus and opened a new front in Aleppo.
It doesn't also fit the expansion of the military and diplomatic defections, because it is not suitable to supply the rebels with communication devices, while Assad's army receives equipment, advisors and even fighters and money from Russia and Iran.
The assumption that the opposition with their current modest armament would succeed in liberating wide areas and keep them for a long time does not fit with reality, because the regular army adopts the shifting war method to prevent the rebels from holding any area for a long period.
The regime directs it to the areas with dense rebel forces so as to disperse and prevent them from establishing a foothold. That is why the fighting calms down in one town to intensify in another in a consecutive way.
It is boring to repeat the reasons making the Americans to take a hesitant position including the presidential elections, in fear of the arrival of extremists to power in Damascus, the possibility of their possession to chemical weapons as well as the lessons learned from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The last point is the main excuse in the procrastination and fear of Washington from involvement in a new war in light of a deteriorating economic situation. It prefers the present cautious dealing with the Middle East crises, especially given that the Iraqi occupation had only resulted in strengthening the Iranian influence in this country, leave alone the results expected in a country more complicate like Syria.
Washington attributes its reluctance to the adamant Russian position at the UN Security Council, and its desire not to «cut the cord» with Moscow. But, in the Libyan experience is an example for helping the Syrian people without direct involvement.
It is true the NATO intervention in Libya came after the Security Council resolution, but it is also true the intervention didn't need a resolution as the eastern parts of the country were threatened with a terrible massacre at the hands of the Gadafi forces moving towards it. Any intervention from any country for preventing this possibility would have found international understanding without overt agreement.
The NATO forces, for the most part American, especially the air force and missiles, succeeded in abrogating the Libyan regime through air raids and strikes, without sending a single soldier to Libyan soil. So why cannot this "distant" intervention be repeated in the Syrian case?
The continuation of the current American evaluation to the situation in Syria means the "hit and run" battles will continue for a long time; because of the inability of any party to settle down the battle for his advantage. This requires the Arabs not depend on the Americans and the initiative. They should move outside the traditional framework so as to save the Syrian people. | <urn:uuid:b5a78e23-03dc-4549-9629-a3df87c4f75e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yemenfox.net/articles.php?lang=english&id=693 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954037 | 659 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Apple began construction on their iconic Fifth Avenue store in June and closed off much of the store for construction, covering up the entire cube and shutting down parts of the store. Customers continued to access the store through a small walkway that led directly into the store, causing crowded elevators and stairways. Apple has revealed the plans for the iconic glass cube and the future for the store and posted them on the construction site, showing off a much simpler and clean design for the glass panes.
We’re simplifying the Fifth Avenue cube. By using larger, seamless pieces of glass, we’re using just 15 panes instead of 90.
According to the new design, Apple will be using 3 panes of glass on all sides of the cube inlcuidng the top with each pane of glass reaching from top to bottom. This works well with Apple’s focus on simplicity, highlighting the key component of the storefront, the large Apple logo. Apple is attempting to simplify it’s stores design, something that is very important to the brand itself and it’s use of design to attract customers to it’s store and it’s products.
Last year, Apple filed a patent on the original Fifth Avenue design in order to protect the design of one of the most photographed sites in Manhattan. Apple’s Fifth Avenue Store is one of the most visited places in the city and has quickly become a hub for tourists.
Apple’s new design will continue to make Fifth Avenue a popular spot and will help Apple market its product much better. Apple has not yet commented as to when the store will be completed or when it is set to open completely. | <urn:uuid:3961a815-c306-49c1-9500-3584c6bb6b43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://touchreviews.net/apple-reveals-plans-avenue-glass-cube-redesign/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941464 | 345 | 1.5 | 2 |
Review: Michael Foley’s The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy
Just when our enslavement to the demands of mass media and popular culture, both on the collective attention and on the pocket, could scarcely be more absolute, Michael Foley comes up with The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy.
With so many branches and forms of communication dictating what we do, what we think, wear, watch and hear apparently solving the conundrum of that sub-title, we might be forgiven for wondering what more needs to be said. It is the mixed messages about how to look and what to believe that leave us perplexed about our prescribed, yet ever-fluctuating, value system, right?
Well, before that assumption prevails and a book is judged by its cover, it is worth observing that, whilst The Age of Absurdity is indeed a sobering primer that mercilessly critiques the eccentricities of the modern condition, it is also an infectious, instructive satire rather than a moralistic indictment revealing uncomfortable home truths.
The inaugural chapter, ‘The Absurdity of Happiness’, sees Foley charting the invasive and bewilderingly diverse box-ticking process apparently necessary to prove to society that an individual is “one of the crowd” – the material acquisitiveness, sexual adventurousness and independence which indicates that a person is “well-adjusted”, attractive, and, wait for it, normal.
Like Lester Burnham’s opening narration to American Beauty, Foley’s initial musings outline the tensions and frustrations abundant on the road to societal acceptance, ending on the suggestion that happiness is not contentment itself but the practice and satisfaction of the will.
Though there are points during this scene-setting when the poetic licence, infused though it is with impact and humour in its account of how, allegedly, “to fit in”, might leave us asking “And?”, Foley duly announces the intent of his project – to “…trawl philosophy, religious teaching, literature, psychology and neuroscience for common ideas on fulfilment”. A multi-generic quest for the origins and possibility of happiness, then, embracing the sciences genetic and social, fundamental doctrines guiding ethical conduct, and seminal texts Eastern and Western, to ask how satisfaction can be so elusive when humanity is so incorrigibly proud.
It would be difficult to stylistically pigeon-hole Foley’s book, but “a historical analysis” might be a valid classification, since it contains a wealth of reportage and insight into cultural and intellectual definitions of happiness, and curious case studies (including claims that children who reject offers of marshmallows may go on to be happier and more successful in their adult lives).
To be sure, Foley’s book is no self-help guide, those well-meaning but superficial handbooks for beautifully derided in Chapter Four, ‘The Old Self and the New Science’, but that is not to say he merely commentates. On the contrary, he also inspires, concluding that absurdity is neither to be celebrated nor scorned, but merely accepted, and that life’s manifest oddities and contradictions go far in accounting for and accentuating its beauties, both apparent and hidden. | <urn:uuid:5db22d25-97ba-4944-97b3-fc1ac1f68a6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palatinate.org.uk/?p=14230 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924875 | 690 | 2.1875 | 2 |
My Sunday column is about contraception — saying that research on new technologies is woefully underfunded, but that nonetheless some new contraceptives are expected on the market that could have a far-reaching effect. The backdrop is that so often when I travel, I come across women who have far more babies than they want, because existing methods don’t meet their needs.
I remember one woman in Haiti who had nine children, if I remember right, even though she had wanted to stop at four. But her husband refused condoms, and she had had various problems with other methods. Most recently she had tried injectables, but like many women had had problems with bleeding. Of women who start using injectables, only half are using them a year later — partly because of side effects and a lack of counselling, and partly because a woman returns to the clinic only to discover that it has run out of supplies. And while IUD’s and implants work pretty well, they require trained health workers (and by law in some countries, doctors) to insert.
Another question that arose in reporting my column was this: Why aren’t private companies investing more in contraception. After all, there are so many women around the world who want to curb their fertility, including women in the rich world, that a breakthrough technology should make a pile of money. I understand why companies don’t want to invest in trachoma (it blinds only the poor, who can’t pay for medicine). But pharmaceutical companies have been focused on lifestyle medications that wealthy people will pay for to use on an ongoing basis — and that’s contraception. So in asking around, I heard several overlapping explanations and I’ll share them here: | <urn:uuid:ce34b788-ca9f-4d27-a0fc-996bb22c2d43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/implants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979861 | 353 | 1.820313 | 2 |
|LIST OF FEATURE ARTICLES|
Migration and mobility in Western Australia
Western Australia's state final demand (trend chain volume measures) grew 0.7% ($217 million) to $31,323 million in the March quarter 2008. This followed higher growth rate in the previous two quarters of 1.4% ($440 million) in the September quarter 2007 and 0.9% ($282 million) in the December quarter 2007.
Perth's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose for three consecutive quarters, from 0.6% in the September quarter 2007 to 1.4% in the March quarter 2008. Perth's current quarter price rise is slightly higher than the national CPI rise of 1.3%.
Western Australia's retail turnover (trend) recorded a total of $6,419 million in the three months to April 2008, a decline of 0.1% ($8 million) compared to the previous three month period. For the three months to May 2008, sales of new motor vehicles (trend) in Western Australia decreased by 0.4% (137) to 10,217 vehicles, following a growth 0.3% (104) recorded in the previous three month period.
|INVESTMENT AND FINANCE|
Private new capital expenditure (trend chain volume measure) in Western Australia increased by 2.2% (up $118 million) to $5,427 million in the March quarter 2008, slightly higher than the previous quarter's growth of 2.1% (up $111 million). The number of dwellings financed has slowed from a growth of 0.8% (217 commitments) in the three months to July 2007.
In the three months to April 2008, a total of 4,058 houses were approved for construction in Western Australia, 6.1% (264) less than in the previous three month period. Despite the fall in house approvals, other residential dwelling approvals have risen 8.9% (133 approvals) in the three months to April 2008.
Western Australia's trade surplus grew 14.9% ($1,302 million) to $10,043 million for the year to March quarter 2008. Growth in the state's surplus resulted from strong exports growth (up $2,605 million or 18.0%), while imports also increased (up $1,303 million or 22.7%).
Mineral exploration expenditure (trend) in Western Australia grew by 7.7% ($23 million) to $321 million in the March quarter 2008.
A total of 65,051 overseas visitors arrived in Western Australia for holiday in the March quarter 2008, 1,900 (3.0%) more compared to the March quarter of 2007. In the March quarter 2008, a total of 82,825 Western Australians travelled overseas for a holiday, 17,611 (27.0%) more compared to the same quarter of 2007.
Job vacancies in Western Australia decreased by 16.9% (down 5,500) in the February quarter 2008. Western Australia's full-time employment (trend) rose 0.4% (up 3,600 persons) to 818,000 persons in the three months to May 2008. The unemployment rate (trend) in Western Australia rose marginally, from 3.2% in February 2008 to 3.4% in May 2008.
Western Australia's estimated resident population was 2,130,797 in the December quarter 2007, an increase of 0.6% (11,929 persons) from the previous quarter. Western Australia's quarterly population growth rate of 0.6% was second to Queensland (up 0.7% or 27,840 persons) and above the national rate increase of 0.4%.
|SOCIAL TRENDS - Population and Health|
In percentage terms, Western Australia's population growth of 17% between June 1997 and June 2007 was higher than the national average of 13% and was the second highest among the states and territories behind Queensland with 23%. In 2006, there were 11,600 deaths registered in Western Australia. The underlying causes of death were mainly cancer (malignant neoplasms), ischaemic heart disease and stroke - together accounting for more than half (55%) of all deaths. | <urn:uuid:2e601082-e95f-4f30-80ec-b5378b05c4fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/ProductsbyReleaseDate/4B8BDE8B0F404487CA2574DB000B6482?OpenDocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939459 | 865 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- 1 Post By Ouisch
Men in tights
In the sentence below, what does "Men in tights" mean?
Men in tights are good in Shakespeare, not so good in the gym. Paige brings you this and other fashion disasters we'd rather not see...ever...again.
Thanks in advance
Re: Men in tights
"Men in tights" refers to men wearing tights, which is usually acceptable when they're dancing the ballet or performing in the circus, and nowhere else. It's just not a very "manly" fashion statement.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO | <urn:uuid:8c8b351e-8f89-4349-9a2f-90f607c3d994> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/75683-men-tights.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944924 | 129 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Lessons - 2
goode at DPW.COM
Wed Mar 18 09:56:23 CST 1998
At 07:07 PM 3/17/98 +0530, Swami Vishvarupananda wrote:
>If there was no free will, there would also be no karma associated with our
>Freewill exists relative to the individual. I.e. it is as real/illusionary
>as the individual, its actions and the responsibility as well as the effect
>of its actions.
>What I mean to say is, as long as we experience ourselves as individuals we
>have a free will and we reap the results of the actions this individual is
>performing. Of course from the paramartika level the individual as well as
>its free will, its actions and the results, all are illusionary.
>Though duality is an illusion, the illusionary individual does have the
>freedom of deciding his albeit illusionary karma by his also illusionary
>actions. That is the law of the vyavaharika level. Non existence of free
>will applies only to the 'realm' of nonduality where no action, no karma, no
>thoughts, no feelings, no happiness and no pain exist either.
I agree with Swami that in the realm of Brahman, nonduality, that none of
these concepts or entities exists. But the nonexistence of free will can
be experienced on the vyavaharika level as well. There are many bhaktas in
every religion who see everything that happens as totally ordained by God.
Even their thoughts. Not to mention, there are the well-respected Western
theories of determinism and compatibilism that, when can give the
experience of everything happening via some causal process, no freedom
More information about the Advaita-l mailing list | <urn:uuid:cf72bcff-566a-430d-b6a2-b0e12a145571> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/1998-March/008258.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9526 | 397 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Definition of Pregnancy danger from urinary tract infection
Pregnancy danger from urinary tract infection (UTI): A pregnant woman who develops a UTI should be treated promptly to avoid premature delivery of her baby and other risks such as high blood pressure. Some antibiotics are not safe to take during pregnancy. In selecting the best treatment, doctors consider various factors such as the drug's effectiveness, the stage of pregnancy, the mother's health, and potential effects on the fetus.
Last Editorial Review: 6/14/2012
Back to MedTerms online medical dictionary A-Z List
Need help identifying pills and medications?
Get the latest health and medical information delivered direct to your inbox FREE! | <urn:uuid:8d0d8fda-31ae-4ad8-bcb7-3fa0609406e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=5022&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905015 | 139 | 2.65625 | 3 |
A RETAILER of household goods says the returns from sale of goods must allow for recovery costs.
Courts Fiji Limited said the enormity of its customer base — 56,000 customers and 76,000 accounts — put recovery costs in terms of manning and collections costs at a higher level.
"Our returns need to allow for these costs. The report makes no mention of this important aspect," Courts director marketing Anil Senewiratne said.
Responding to the Consumer Council of Fiji's report on the $60 million hire-purchase industry, he said repossession of goods was not a lucrative business.
"Nothing can be further from the truth than this. Repossession is a measure of last resort as both parties lose out," Mr Senewiratne said.
The Rule of 78 — which calculates interest charges on a hire-purchase transaction for the repayment period — was misunderstood, he said.
The council and the Reserve Bank of Fiji had earlier called for the abolishment of the Rule of 78 primarily because it was confusing and difficult to understand.
But Mr Senewiratne said the rule, which was prescribed in the Consumer Credit Act, was an internal book keeping mechanism for recognising income on a hire-purchase contract.
He said the rule was well accepted internationally.
"We demonstrated this in our submission to the council by attaching a spreadsheet working, which shows there is hardly any difference between the Rule of 78 and the reducing balance method, both in the case of income recognition and calculation of interest rebates on early settlement of contracts," Mr Senewiratne said. | <urn:uuid:291c9882-ae64-46a3-ab72-59e8b26e4f0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=207724 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97825 | 332 | 1.554688 | 2 |
by Dr. Weirde
"SF Police Opium Squad," c. 1900
And it takes little but little imagination to smell the sweet, cloying vapors of opium drifting from places below sidewalk level...
The first shipment of Chinese opium fifty-two boxes in all arrived in San Francisco in 1861 aboard the clipper Ocean Pearl. By 1864, "the Year of Opium" in San Francisco, huge shipments were arriving regularly, and the City's first three big drug busts occurred: On January 16th and April 22nd, shipments from the ships Derby and Pallas were seized, and on June 19th a shipment of eggs turned out to have something other than white and yolk in the shells.
Despite occasional crackdowns, the opium trade was never seriously menaced by law enforcement. Chinatown itself was hardly ever visited by police, and the opium dens were almost completely ignored. An English journalist wrote in the 1880's: "Occasionally, when the police are short of funds, they make a descent on some of the dens but, as a rule, the proprietors are left unmolested." (The same situation prevails today, except that with asset forfeiture laws the police are legally allowed to keep and sell the property they seize during drug busts, even if the arrestee is later judged innocent.)
The police, who occasionally did find themselves short of funds, encouraged the passage of anti-drug legislation with tirades about the evils of opium. One of the milder ones came from New York Police Chief George W. Walling, who wrote: "Reveries, dreams and stupefaction do not come with one pipe. Again and again the smoker cooks his lump of opium, packs it into the bowl and lazily watches the smoke curl up around the lamp. After awhile the pipe drops from his nerveless hand and there is a glaze on his eyes which are half-shut like a mad man's. His head falls upon his breast and he is in the opium trance which is either paradise or hell according to the degree of his indulgence in the narcotic."
The clergy, who were peddling their own opiate-of-the-masses, joined in the anti-opium chorus. Reverend Frederic J. Masters described a San Francisco opium den thus: "The air is sultry and oppressive. A stupefying smoke fills the hovel through the gloom of which the feeble yellow light of three or four opium lamps struggles hopelessly to penetrate. There are two or three wooden beds covered with matting and each is furnished with lamp and pipe. Three Chinamen lie in different stages of stupefaction. The room is about fifteen feet by ten feet, ceiling and walls black with years of smoke. We have been in this den about five minutes and no one has spoken a word. It is like being in a sepulcher with the dead."
"Typical Opium Den," c. 1900
The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 was the first attempt to stymie the opium trade in the US. The treaty formally banned the importation of opium in the US, but said nothing about opium dens. At first, the treaty was widely ignored. In the 1880's and 1890's, local laws of ever-increasing severity attempted to stop the flow of opium and prohibited Americans from visiting opium dens. San Francisco's reputation as America's capital of opium debauchery stimulated the City authorities to at least take cosmetic steps. A handful of Americans were jailed, and by the late 1890's, as the laws grew more severe, fewer and fewer Americans visited the dens.
The hysteria that led to the no-whites-in-the-dens law was stimulated by lurid tales about white girls being forced into wild opium-fueled orgies with the Slant-Eyed Sultans of Smoke. A Grand Jury reported that "white girls between the ages of thirteen and twenty are enticed into these opium dens, become regular habitues, and finally are subject wholly to the wishes of the Oriental visitors." A police captain corroborated the story: "It is only we detectives who know the extent to which the opium habit has caught on amongst high-toned women in San Francisco. And the trouble is that the high-spirited and most adventurous women seem to succumb first."
In the late 1880's the San Francisco Call estimated that there were about 300 opium dens in the city, most of them in Chinatown, serving the roughly 3,000 hardcore "hopheads" or "opium fiends," along with the countless others who indulged less immoderately. The opium dens bore red signs above their doors reading PIPES AND LAMPS ALWAYS CONVENIENT in Chinese calligraphy.
The opium dens were finally wiped out in the earthquake and fire of 1906; most were never rebuilt, and the few that lingered were put out of business by the nationwide drug crackdown a decade later.
Hookah smoker circa 1900.
Police burn opium in 1914, in front of unfinished City Hall.
Video: Prelinger Archive
Public opium burning in 1919
Opium Crackdown, 1920
--by Anthony W. Lee, excerpted from Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture, a City Lights Anthology, 1998
In a public event that took place sometime around 1920, San Francisco police burned confiscated opium in the middle of rebuilt Chinatown. The event was apparently worth photographing several times and was well-attended. To our eyes, the public burning may represent many things--the formal display of civic authority, the ritualized expunging of sin, the vigilant surveillance of Chinatown's streets, the symbolic punishment of vice in the public sphere. What was being burned was not the body of a particular sinner but the recalcitrant body of underground Chinatown itself. The burning gave ceremonial form to the claim that the new tourist quarter, like the old, was still ridden with vice, despite the appealing pagoda lamps and colorful streaming banners. | <urn:uuid:a298f4cb-766c-43a3-8fa6-4b6893e348fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Chinatown's_Opium_Dens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965659 | 1,233 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Section 45A. The treasurer of a public body shall, without further authority than that contained in this section, have power to use a facsimile machine for the purpose of affixing his signature to any check drawn by him in the name and behalf of the public body on any bank or trust company having funds of the public body on deposit. Any such bank or trust company, in addition to any other rights which it may have as drawee, may, in the absence of connivance or neglect on its part, pay and charge to the account upon which it is drawn every check drawn on such bank or trust company which check (1) bears on the part of the public body as drawer, regardless of by whom affixed, a facsimile signature of its treasurer made from the same plate as a specimen facsimile furnished by such treasurer to such bank or trust company, and (2) is inoperative solely because such facsimile signature was affixed without the authority of such treasurer. The treasurer of the public body shall be accountable on his official bond to the public body for the amount of every such check so paid and charged which bears a date within the period he is in office, whether or not such check is so paid and charged within such period. As used in this section, the term “public body” shall be deemed to include the commonwealth, and every county, city, town, district, authority or other political subdivision or governmental unit; and the term “treasurer” shall be deemed to include any person authorized by statute, ordinance or by-law, or in other lawful manner, to sign or countersign checks for the purpose of disbursing funds of the public body. | <urn:uuid:3d709c07-8752-4b14-80c7-8df28bdea6b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXV/Chapter107/Section45A | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965918 | 353 | 1.507813 | 2 |
You can display your knowledge, creativity and love for science by creating a good science project. Science project for class twelve standard must be of high quality and repute as it will help in setting an important example for the juniors and it will help the students to get high grades.
Some ways to find a good topic for project are:
You can choose a project that gives answer to questions. By answering the questions you can find a good science project for class twelve standard. You can find the solutions of different questions through an experiment. There are many topics which have lots of questions attached to it.
- Music is one such topic. You can come up with excellent results if you conduct a research on effects of music on growth of plants and person’s memory. Electricity can also be an interesting topic as well. You can do experiments on metals and find out the best conductor of electricity. While working on a project based on any question, be sure to find all answers related to that question.
- You can even find a theme for project while proposing an idea. One topic related to this is global warming. You can propose an idea or one method to solve this problem. Another topic on which you can do research is dog food and can propose an idea that which dog food is better than other. You must perform experiments to prove you are right and accurate in your research.
- You can also come up with new topics for your science project. You can take any topic related to electricity, water or any other. You can also create your own invention. A new invention can result in a very good and high quality science project for class twelve Standard. It may be any topic but you must have to work hard to invent your own model.
You must work on the project with full dedication and complete the project on time. Always prepare for the questions related to your project. | <urn:uuid:9ce717c7-6a41-4756-bcf8-7caff1d1fca7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scienceprojects.in/science-project-for-class-twelve-12th-standard.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94502 | 380 | 3.96875 | 4 |
There have been several developments in the mutual fund (MF) arena of late. MF houses have also introduced a variety of schemes to cater to the needs of different investors. One such product is gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As these schemes get listed on the exchange in coming days and start trading, investors need to have a clear strategy of how to invest in them.
Gold ETFs have the basic characteristics of MFs but they are traded like stocks on the bourses. This means that the fund is available for investment on the stock exchange and it can be bought and sold like a normal stock.
The ETF is normally linked to an index so that it mirrors the performance of the index and this usually makes it a passive fund. A passive fund is where the fund manager does not take decisions about the composition of the portfolio but makes the investment according to the stated guidelines.
In a gold ETF, the fund's performance depends upon the price movement of gold. Hence, the movement in the value of the fund depends upon the movement in the gold price. This makes it a useful tool for those who want to consider gold as an investment option and gain from its price movements.
Here, investors do not actually accumulate gold. In case investors require gold, they have to sell the units from the fund and buy physical gold from the market.
Once the gold units get listed, there has to be some strategy with regard to investment in such schemes. The first principle that investors should follow is that they must try to get a significant appreciation when they quote at a higher price. As the price of gold increases, the price of the funds will also rise and vice versa.
When the units are available on the exchange, they can be bought and sold like normal stocks, which gives an indication to investors about the expense that will be incurred. Brokerage charges have to be paid to the broker through whom the units are purchased and sold. This is slightly different from normal MFs where there are additional charges in terms of an entry and/or an exit load when the investment is made.
The basic reason for investing in gold ETFs is to earn returns by making use of the yellow metal. Considering the past history of price movements, it's evident that the overall returns will be moderate if attention is not paid to the investment. Holding gold ETFs for the long term does not guarantee above-average returns. This changes if the cost is extremely low and hence, this has to be considered while framing the investment strategy.
Some individuals may want to make regular investments in this arena. However, they must understand that a systematic investment plan is not possible by giving direct instructions like a normal fund. Instead, investors would have to go out and actually buy units at regular time intervals. If they invest carefully and wisely, they can boost their earnings from gold ETFs. | <urn:uuid:37295a8f-74b6-45fb-babe-9c4a0d7e20c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2007-04-13/news/28445414_1_gold-etfs-physical-gold-gold-units | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965155 | 579 | 1.625 | 2 |
About 40,000 vacancies have been created in public sector banks so far this year due to retirements, resignations and expansion of business. The State Bank of India group had 19,000 vacant positions, followed by mid-size banks like Syndicate Bank and Central Bank of India, which have over 3,000 vacancies each. The data is from the Department of Financial Services.
The current employee strength of all state-run banks is about 672,000. The SBI group has about 200,000 employees, followed by Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, which do not have any vacancies presently.
“Retirements and opening of new branches and business growth are the key reasons for these vacancies. Branch expansion is happening at a much faster pace than the selection process. Banks are trying to fill these posts but getting the right talent is a challenge,” said the chairman of a state-run bank.
|Bank of Maharashtra
|Indian Overseas Bank
|Punjab National Bank
|United Bank of India
|Bank of India
|Punjab & Sind Bank
|Bank of Baroda
|Union Bank of India
|Central Bank of India
Indian Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India also have over 1,000 vacancies each. IDBI, Corporation Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Indian Overseas Bank have filled all posts.
“Recruitment in public sector banks is a continuous process. The entire selection process handled by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) takes a long time. Too many vacant posts and delay in recruitment affects growth and performance of banks to some extent,” said another top banker.
In 2008-09, about 55,000 people were recruited by public sector banks. IBPS had initially estimated recruitment of over 30,000 people in 2009-10. However, this may go up because banks have to fill existing posts, as well as new vacancies arising out of superannuation and expansion of business over the next three months. SBI is planning to hire 13,000 persons in the current financial year. Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Indian Bank are planning to recruit 3,000, 1,500, 1,000 and 700 people, respectively, at various levels.
Apart from opening a significant number of new branches every year, many banks have ventured into new areas such as distribution of insurance and other financial products. The average number of offices per bank in India rose to 825 in 2008-09 from 776 in 2007-08. Business per employee also rose to Rs 7.5 crore last year from Rs 6.33 crore in the previous year. Wages as a percentage of total expenses came down by 50 basis points, to 13.52 per cent in 2008-09. | <urn:uuid:f9d11f90-0a44-4c68-9508-b128d6e4d4fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/psu-banks-need-to-fill-40-000-vacancies-110010400030_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920378 | 588 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Draw Something Review
- Part Pictionary / part Scrabble; approaches the same problem from two angles, increasing its accessibility.
- Animates the drawing and guessing stages for both people; makes you feel as though they're right there with you.
- Self-imposed rules; no need to play with those who break the spirit of the game.
- Nerdy and pop-culture references add a nice touch.
- Limited word lists; easily possible to receive the same word multiple times in the space of a day.
- No testing space / blank page for practice purposes.
- Unable to save animations for later viewing.
Despite its asynchronous gameplay, Draw Something succeeds in turning a simple game of Pictionary in to something delightfully engaging thanks to features that make you feel as your opponent is right there beside you.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
I bring this message to you in the brief moments of time I now have spare to me. It is abundantly clear to me now that downloading, installing and playing Draw Something with my friends was a huge mistake - I need to work, but I can't... I'm stuck trying to work out how best to depict the word 'Morning' in a clever new way.
OMGPOP - you have single-handedly ruined the productivity of smartphone owners around the world.
For those who haven't jumped on board the increasingly popular craze that is 'Draw Something', the premise is simple. Take a dash of Scrabble and a whole heaping of Pictionary, add social features and bake until you're up at 4am wondering why no-one is responding any more.
Players have a choice between three words, each increasing in challenge and representing a greater coin value than the last one should both people succeed in drawing and decoding said drawing. These coins can be spent on purchasing 'bombs' (used to switch to new words or clear letters) or new color palettes to make drawing easier.
Games can be initiated either by finding friends playing the game through Facebook, email, specific username's, or more interestingly, by allowing the game to pair you up with someone completely at random.
Aside from the fun of competing with friends in a friendly game of 'what did I draw?', there's a magic in being able to watch the person you're playing with draw their picture in real-time. All of your strokes are saved and sent to the player and replayed - after guessing correctly the person who drew the picture can also see the other person trying to guess the answer as they tap each letter in turn.
There's something intensely visceral about this subtle touch - it makes you feel as though you're right there with the person trying to guess your secret word. If there's any real negative side to the game at this time it's that you can't save animated sequences for later viewing - a real shame given the amazing detail some players go to. Nothing prevents a player from simply cheating, but that's the beauty of the game - you can just stop playing with them if they don't want to keep to the spirit of things.
While there is a paid-for version that removes advertising, a free version also exists, so there's no reason not to start playing against your friends today. Just be aware that this is the real-deal when it comes to destroying your spare time, so approach Draw Something with caution if you lead a busy life!
DescriptionPlay the AD-FREE version of Draw Something, the most popular social drawing and guessing game in the App Store! Experience for yourself the laugh-out-loud game your friends are raving about! Plus unlock these exclusive bonuses:
- 2000 More Words!
- 200 FREE Coins!
- 5 FREE Hints!
Not ready to buy? Download the FREE version - Draw Something Free
If you already have the free version, switching to the paid version is easy! Your existing account, games, and friends will carry over automatically to this ad-free version. IMPORTANT NOTE: AFTER UPGRADING, DELETE THE FREE VERSION
PLEASE NOTE: if you are having trouble finding your Draw Something account password, please check the welcome email you received when you signed up or email email@example.com
PRAISE FOR DRAW SOMETHING BY OMGPOP
“★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Keeps me entertained for hours.” - Jspronk
“★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Awesome!!! My New Addiction" - Paul B
"★ ★ ★ ★ ★ BEST GAME IN IPHONE HISTORY" - Brian R
★ Play with Friends on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch!
Challenge friends on Facebook or Twitter, or be automatically partnered with new gaming buddies.
★ Turn-based Gameplay
Perfect for gamers-on-the-go! Take turns drawing and guessing at your own pace.
Rally back and forth with friends for the most “Turns.”
★ Push Notifications
Be alerted when it’s your turn to draw or guess.
★ Color Packs
Turn simple doodles into rich masterpieces with color packs.
Stumped by a difficult word? Exchange it for a new one by exploding it with a bomb.
Become a fan! Get exclusive rewards and stay up to date on our latest news.
Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/playdrawsomething
If you like Draw Something, try other iPhone games by OMGPOP!
Boom Friends - The explosively addictive puzzle game!
Puppy World - Raise adorable puppies in The Cutest Game in the Universe!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | <urn:uuid:f48401af-c2b8-4613-a5b6-0241714762c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appspy.com/review/5353/draw-something | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926467 | 1,185 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Health in Waco, Texas
Cost of Living,
There are 204 physicians per 100,000 population in Waco, TX. The US average is 261.
Waco, TX Health Index
Air quality in Waco, TX is 80 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is based on ozone alert days and number of pollutants in the air, as reported by the EPA.
Water quality in Waco, TX is 76 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). The EPA has a complex method of measuring watershed quality using 15 indicators.
Superfund index is 100 on a scale to 100 (higher is better). This is upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts.
Waco Health SperlingViews
Texas - Born and Raised in So. Cal but happy to li: I find that people with this type of attitude will bring it wherever they live. It is best if the previous writer moves back to California, as they are the type we were... (read more)Quality of Life in Waco, Texas: A Personal Judgme: In general, the population is not that aware of the 'outside world'. I find the overall lack of interest in traveling the world and seeing all that there is to see... (read more)Waco, Texas: Waco has exceedingly hot summers with basically two seasons, summer and spring/fall. It has a small town, conservative atmosphere, often with a "head in the sand"... (read more)Have an opinion about Waco? Leave a commentTo See All SperlingViews for Waco Click Here | <urn:uuid:4d17cfff-72c6-4cf2-aeea-6799e89464d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bestplaces.net/health/city/texas/waco | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935453 | 341 | 1.570313 | 2 |
|This article does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. This article has been tagged since 07:16, June 8, 2011 (UTC). If you are using this information for your own research, campaign or general interest, you should not rely on its accuracy.
|This article requires cleanup.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page and improve it if you can. This article has been tagged since 07:16, June 8, 2011 (UTC).
Mephistopheles, Lord of Cania
|Known language(s)||Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal|
Mephistopheles, also known as the Lord of No Mercy and the Cold Lord, is the lord of Cania, the eighth of the Nine Hells. He was the main opponent of Baalzebul during the Reckoning of Hell, and still holds a claim to his own layer. He seeks to take Baalzebul's layer away from him, that he may gain enough power to one day challenge Asmodeus for rulership of all the Nine Hells.
Mephistopheles is something of a walking contradiction. Unstable and thoroughly wicked, he presents multiple faces to those he meets. On the one hand, he can be charming, erudite, and civil. But beneath the veneer of respectability is a vicious temper and unchecked ambition. He is patient and cunning, yet when alone, he flies into a fury, screaming and shrieking, tearing at his skin and destroying everything around him in a thunderous explosion of hellfire and devastating magic. He has one goal, one reason for existence: He covets Asmodeus’s throne. It is, in his mind, his destiny to rule the Nine Hells. So confident is he that he has told this to Asmodeus himself. One would think that such arrogance would be reason enough for the Lord of the Ninth to bring this archdevil to heel, but curiously, Asmodeus hasn’t. It seems he’s content to let Mephistopheles have his delusions. Mephistopheles' naked ambition and haughtiness does not sit well with his peers. Some are drawn to his power, such as Dispater, but most despise him, seeing him as an unstable and unpredictable element in the Hells’ convoluted politics. Among his enemies, Baalzebul is his greatest. The Lord of Lies has long opposed his every effort. So long as Baalzebul lives, Mephistopheles spends his time hatching plots to eliminate his ancient rival, leaving Asmodeus secure in his position as the Lord of the Nine Hells. Despite his distractions, Mephistopheles still poses a grave threat. He commands legions of ice devils as well as the pit fi ends, barbazu, and cornugons that have flocked to his banner. In addition, it falls to him to protect the only gate into Nessus, so he nominally commands the army whose sole duty it is to safeguard Asmodeus’s realm. To make matters worse, he has mastered the essence of Hell, channeling it into a foul destructive energy called hellfire. With such tools at his disposal, it seems Mephistopheles will one day make good on his promise to rule in Asmodeus’s stead. Thankfully, Mephistopheles does not exert the same influence on the Prime Material Plane. Many mortals confuse him and Asmodeus, believing they are one in the same. This frustrates Mephistopheles to no end; above all, he wants to be worshiped as a god. Still, he has a number of small cults that revere him as the god of hellfire. He also attracts disaffected devilworshipers, stealing individuals from other archdevils. His temples are strange places, hidden and out of the way. Decorated with fire pits, they are unbearably hot and the pits are rigged so that they flare up during ceremonies at the most dramatic moments. The cultists meet to perform sacrifices, binding their living victim on a blackened altar and immolating him alive. His screams add the chorus to their silent prayers.
This diabolical fiend is a nine-foot-tall, has crimson skin, with handsome yet diabolical features that include a set of massive red leathery wings, curling horns, his eyes are white with red irises and pupils, and long, straight black hair. He has huge muscles that befit his great strength, and his speech is whispering wind. His wings, horns, and talons are deep red and his scales are sooty black. Swathed in a flowing black cape, he is the vision of evil.
Once the court magus of Asmodeus in Nessus, Mephistopheles gained the rulership of Cania by seizing it away from Rimmon. After the Reckoning, he seemed to fall into a slumber, remaining frozen and unmoving, until he led a coup against himself in the guise of Baron Molikroth and then destroyed all his co-conspirators against himself.
In more recent events, Mephistopheles had persuaded his half-breed son, Magadon, to release the devil inside of him and therefore bringing himself and his fellow companions Erevis Cale and Drasek Riven to Cania through some manipulation of Erevis Cale's ability to travel the shadows. Mephistopheles then proceeded to kill his half-breed son, when Erevis Cale stepped in and promised Mephistopheles a portion of the god Mask's divinity to him in return for Magadon's soul. Mephistopheles agreed to this under one condition, that condition being he kept half of Magadon's soul there until delivery. Erevis Cale later returned to Cania and sacrificed his life for the return of Magadon's soul. It was at this time that the new demigod Drasek Riven, who had also absorbed part of Mask's divinity traveled to Cania and paid Mephistopheles a visit. Riven attacked and badly wounded the archdevil, and told him that if he ever stepped out of his domain that Riven would utterly destroy him. Mephistopheles replied by telling Riven that he will come back, and he will be waiting for him. He seemed to think that Riven would be back for Erevis Cale at some point in time.
Attack on TorilEdit
Not too long after 1372 DR, a drow matron afterwards known only as the Valsharess managed to bind Mephistopheles into her service on the material plane, in Toril. Aided by his powers, she proceeded to conquer much of the Underdark, and even went on to try to expand her influence on the surface, attacking Waterdeep through Undermountain.
Previously, an adventurer fleeing the briefly re-risen but again falling Netherese city of Undrentide into the Plane of Shadow had come across a strange relic that they used occasionally to access the small plane of a strange creature known as the Reaper. This item was in fact meant for the leader of a cult of Mephistopheles, and contained a piece of the devil's own flesh. Later the adventurer, by then quite famous and powerful, came to Waterdeep to aid the city in its struggle against the Valsharess's forces. Mephistopheles manipulated the Valsharess to eventually capture the adventurer into her inner sanctum, where she ordered him to kill them. At this point, her control over Mephistopheles was loosened, since the relic carried by the adventurer bound them to the archdevil, and ordering him to kill the adventurer broke the pact which she used to bind him. Instead of complying, Mephistopheles let the adventurer free to duel and kill the Valsharess. He then sent them to Cania in his stead and set out to conquer Toril, intending to turn it into a new layer of Hell that would go down below the Ninth and make him the new supreme ruler of the plane. He raised the dead from the recent battles between the Valsharess and her enemies as a special form of undead army and began to follow a similar course of conquest to hers, advancing from the Underdark to Waterdeep. However, the adventurer, who had by this time grown in power far beyond that of most other mortals, was able to escape Cania, return to Toril and banish Mephistopheles back to his old domain before he could destroy the City of Splendors.
According to this account, Mephistopheles's true name is Thra'axfyl the Ambitious.
- ↑ Robin D. Laws, Robert J. Schwalb (December 2006). Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, p. 153. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-3940-0.
- ↑ Robin D. Laws, Robert J. Schwalb (December 2006). Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, p. 149. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-3940-0.
- ↑ Robin D. Laws, Robert J. Schwalb (December 2006). Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells, p. 154. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 0-7869-3940-0. | <urn:uuid:c00ac87b-81ec-4d5d-be6d-859eb756354a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mephistopheles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965138 | 1,989 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Brian Krebs reported today that security firm Bit9 has suffered a breach. Apparently the bad guys got access to Bit9′s code signing certificates. This is bad for many reasons. I’m guessing that this code signing certificate is signed by a trusted CA. This would mean that malware signed with it would “appear” legitimate. What’s worse is that according to reports the Bit9 software will automatically trust anything signed by the Bit9 certificate.
Ruh Roh Shaggy. This should make the RSA Conference experience very interesting for Bit9. | <urn:uuid:874fae6a-05a1-4a99-81e2-f0810f715714> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infosecpodcast.com/2013/02/bit9-hacked-and-keys-used-to-sign-malware/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9679 | 117 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Parents, guardians invited to join SEACWORTHINGTON — The 2010–2011 school year is off to a fast and exciting start. I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents and guardians to join the Worthington ISD 518 Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC) for students with special needs ages 0-21.
By: Tricia Denzer, District 518, Worthington Daily Globe
WORTHINGTON — The 2010–2011 school year is off to a fast and exciting start. I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents and guardians to join the Worthington ISD 518 Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC) for students with special needs ages 0-21.
SEAC is a group of stakeholders that meets to provide input on special education issues at the local school district level. The purpose of this group is to advise and advocate for students with special needs by sharing unique experiences and perspectives. The goal is to continually improve services for students with special needs by having regular meetings throughout each school year. You will receive a letter with the dates and times for the meetings that will be held during the school year.
The Worthington ISD 518 has received training and will implement the new Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment — Modified for students with special needs. Students must qualify for this assessment, and it will be discussed at the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. In order for students to be able to participate in this assessment, a standards based IEP must be written. This IEP will focus on the Minnesota standards in the areas of reading and math.
In response to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004), Minnesota School Districts must demonstrate that “all children with disabilities, including children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located, and evaluated.” This responsibility extends to children with disabilities who are educated at home or in non-public schools.
Upon request, your local public school will provide information to concerned parents on specific disabilities including information about the educational or behavioral characteristics of each disability. Parents who believe their child may indeed have a disability may request information on how to arrange for an evaluation through the district’s special education staff.
Parents of students who are evaluated and are found to be eligible for special education services will become part of a team which will develop, implement, and monitor the effectiveness of a Service Plan to meet the identified needs of their children.
If you need additional information on any of the initiatives in the special programs department please call anytime. The special programs phone number is 372-2983.
I hope this school year is going well for everyone and please contact me anytime with questions, concerns, or comments. Have a great year!
Tricia Denzer is District 518’s director of special programs. | <urn:uuid:82346f72-d307-49d0-ba8f-98fee3849055> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dglobe.com/event/article/id/41107/publisher_ID/24/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96155 | 594 | 2.015625 | 2 |
This is actually a really interesting question. I suspect Peter nailed it with his excellent post, but I'd like to add a few thoughts, since it looks like the thread more or less died without addressing the additional questions you asked. My answers might not be the best, but maybe someone else could step in and refine this (or fix it), plus provide some sutta references or something.
Drolma wrote:Now I know things like natural disasters aren't the result of kamma. But for example, would the reign of George Dubya be a result of collective kamma? I have always found this confusing. Or was WWII potentially a result of collective kamma? Though many people had volition and performed action, Hitler is generally the only one blamed for things. But it wasn't the result of one person's incredible evil, right?
My understanding is that the web of conditions for even a single individual is so complex that you can't really know (unless you are the Buddha) exactly why a person is having a particular life experience. Since this is the case with a single individual, then imagine how much more complex it must be to analyze entire societies.
More concretely, though, I think common sense would demand that others besides Hitler share responsibility for the atrocities of WWII, and I think that if you look at the recent history of modern Germany, you'll find a great deal of soul-searching and even societal blame-accepting that was largely absent during the first difficult decades right after that war. The denial mostly passed, and this generation is coming to terms with the widespread complicity that enabled Hitler.
So, sure, in any analysis I think we have to acknowledge that the prevailing political order in any nation will be the result of a complex blend of conditions including the volitional character of its present leadership, but also including the manner in which its people react to that, the economic realities, tradition, etc.
One question is, how would the concept of collective kamma inform one's path of practice?
Drolma wrote:So if I pay taxes right now and that tax money goes to supporting wars, am I participating in the war machine? Is this an action that will bear fruit, and would the same be true for all Americans?
I guess the alternative is to break the law by refusing to pay taxes? Or to become a monk so that the payment of taxes is not an issue? For the overwhelming majority of the householder population, things like taxes and death are unavoidable. Merely by existing in society, one contributes in an unavoidable way to suffering. Even if you are a vegetarian, when you pay for your vegetables, part of your payment may go toward the wages of an employee who is not a vegetarian, and who then uses that income from you to buy meat at the butcher shop, so you're still indirectly supporting the slaughter of animals. No matter what we do, from the moment we are born in ignorance we participate in this samsara until we are fully liberated.
All right, I don't know if that addresses your questions, but maybe it will spur a better response from someone else. | <urn:uuid:6d01c55b-2d4a-42b1-8d9b-bc1d7736d356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=9518 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97331 | 644 | 1.984375 | 2 |
The common understanding of prayer involves you talking or communicating with something else, something more powerful, with the intent of getting something out of it, receiving something you don’t already have.
As many self-proclaimed free thinkers and atheists have pointed out, this is little different than talking to an imaginary friend with the hope that it will somehow solve your problems or create miracles.
If you ask me, both perspectives are pretty useless.
Prayer is an ancient and timeless technology. You have prayed before, even if it wasn’t under the pretense of prayer. It is a natural happening that overtakes us in very special moments. But it is up to us to allow those moments to go from being special to absolutely ordinary in the most beautiful way.
Prayer is about listening, not speaking. When you pray, you connect with the larger picture. You connect not as a small piece of a large puzzle but rather as a piece that contains the whole. Everything is in You and You are in Everything. Prayer is the remembrance of this basic truth.
For prayer you need to become a receiver. You need to empty yourself so that the divine may fill you.
The following are five perfect times to pray.
1. When you wake up in the morning.
The first moment you realize you are awake, what normally enters your mind? Is it something you are looking forward to, something you wish you could avoid, a desire, a rejection, a depression? The first moments of our wakefulness help to set the tone for our day.
Instead of transitioning directly from sleep into the cravings of the mind, take a moment to pause. That is a perfect time for prayer.
Get out of bed, stretch, and sit down somewhere comfortable. Become still and relaxed, empty yourself. You have the whole day to plan and worry and excite.
Sit with the Tao, with the moment, and just soak it in. Feel something shining into you. Shine outward into everything. Then go about your day.
2. Before eating meals.
When you consume a meal, you are partaking in a replenishment. Every seven years the entirety of the cells in your body have been replaced. You are not an independent phenomenon but rather exist as an example of interdependence.
The earth gave birth to your existence. Your existence is only sustained because around it is a living system that constantly supplies nourishment while recycling whatever is left.
Before you eat, enter Silence. A great many things had to live and die, grow and assemble, for this one meal. Even the simplest meal is a great wonder. Take this moment to acknowledge the fact that your body is a product of all that has sustained it and even when your body is sustaining something else, you will still Be. Connect to this larger picture. Then chow down!
3. When you feel a change in emotion.
People can never seem to decide whether to celebrate their emotions or escape from them. But either way, emotions are there. We are human and they are the color palate we use to paint our existence.
Changes in emotion are the perfect time for prayer because prayer reminds us that emotion is temporary. Prayer acts as a way of keeping all things in perspective.
When you feel yourself being moved to anger, or desire, or jealousy, when you are being made to feel like there is something you are lacking, enter prayer.
Welcome your emotion with open arms and immediately connect it to the whole. That is prayer. When you can see an emotion as it arrives, you will remember that it will also go. This will develop a relaxed equanimity in you.
4. When you are in the presence of Fear.
We think of fear as the terror that possesses us when our lives are in danger. And yes, that is fear. But the more dangerous fears are the small fears we let plague us every day. We are afraid of certain people, of what they may think, or of what we may think. We are afraid to lose and sometimes afraid to win. There are many kinds of fear.
When you feel fear, pray. Don’t ask for anything to happen, for your fear to magically disappear. Instead, forget your fear through prayer. The tao is always flowing, the Divine is always shining, your Soul is always blissing. Prayer is remembering the Divine Tao of your Soul at any chosen moment.
When you remember the tao, you are no longer at odds with the object of your fear. This is because you and the object of your fear are ultimately part of the same Picture. But because you are busy defending your body and its perceived separate existence, you allow fear to enter. Prayer is when you stop defending yourself. That is surrender.
And when you stop defending yourself, surrendering the ego, the divine will have an opening through which to shine through you.
5. Before going to sleep.
A great many things happen throughout the course of a day. Every day someone new is trying to condition you. New experiences are trying to condition you. Everything is trying to tell you who you are. And you are so desperate to know who you are that you are willing to listen.
Before going to sleep, silence the voices of the world. And then silence your own voice. Sit somewhere that feels right to you and enter Stillness. Let your existence shine through you. Let Existence shine into you.
There is nowhere to go, nothing to become, nothing to attain. Give gratitude to the opportunity to appreciate this moment.
Then go to sleep. :)
Prayer is a powerful technique for mindfulness when you can understand the experience of praying. Meditation is a very effective way to develop your capacity to pray. So is art, contemplation, and music. Contemplate these words and give it a try for a few weeks. You’ll discover what I mean very quickly.
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- pondrotom likes this | <urn:uuid:2289d52e-0831-4633-bfa0-c387b3c40f8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lazyyogi.org/post/19362160907/what-is-prayer-five-ways-of-using-prayer-for | 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 | 0.946169 | 1,766 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The Oval Portrait" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe involving the disturbing circumstances surrounding a portrait in a chateau. It is one of his shortest stories, filling only two pages in its initial publication in 1842.
The tale begins with an injured narrator seeking refuge in an abandoned mansion in the Apennines, with no explanation for his wound. He spends his time admiring the works of art decorating the strangely-shaped room and perusing a volume which "purported to criticize and describe" the paintings. He eventually discovers a painting which shocks him with its extreme realism, which he refers to as "absolute life-likeliness of expression." He spends a moment ("for an hour, perhaps," the reader is told) in silent awe of it until he cannot bear to look any more, then consults the book for an explanation.
The remainder of the story is a selection from this book discussing how the painting was created — a story within a story. The book explains that the picture was painted by an eccentric artist depicting his young wife, but that he grew obsessed with his painting to the point that he paid no attention to the woman he was painting. When he finishes the painting he is appalled at his own work, and exclaims, "This is indeed Life itself!" Then he turns to see his bride, and discovers that she has died and her spirit was transferred into the lifelike painting.
The central idea of the story resides in the confusing relationship between art and life. In "The Oval Portrait," art and the addiction to it are ultimately depicted as killers, responsible for the young bride's death. In this context, one can synonymously equate art with death, whereas the relationship between art and life is consequently considered as a rivalry. It takes Poe's theory that poetry as art is the rhythmical creation of beauty, and that the most poetical topic in the world is the death of a beautiful woman (see "The Philosophy of Composition"). "The Oval Portrait" suggests that the woman's beauty condemns her to death.
Poe suggests in the tale that art can reveal the artist's guilt or evil and that the artist feeds on and may even destroy the life he has modeled into art.
Monomania – see also "Berenice," "The Man of the Crowd"
The death of a beautiful woman – see also "Ligeia," "Morella"
"The Oval Portrait" was first published as a longer version titled "Life in Death" in Graham's Magazine in 1842. "Life in Death" included a few introductory paragraphs explaining how the narrator had been wounded, and that he had eaten opium to relieve the pain. Poe probably excised this introduction because it was not particularly relevant, and it also gave the impression that the story was nothing more than a hallucination. The shorter version, renamed "The Oval Portrait" was published in the April 26, 1845 edition of the Broadway Journal.
Critical reception and impact
The story inspired elements in the 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Five years before the novel's publication, Wilde had praised Poe's rhythmical expression. In Wilde's novel, the portrait gradually reveals the evil of its subject rather than that of its artist.
A similar plot is also used in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1843 tale "The Birth-Mark."
French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard cited passages from the story in his 1962 film Vivre sa vie. Many saw this as Godard acknowledging the complexities of using his then-wife Anna Karina in the leading role for his films.
1.^ Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972: 311 ISBN 0807123218
2.^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 290. ISBN 0815410387
3.^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001: 178. ISBN 081604161X
4.^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998: 331. ISBN 0801857309 | <urn:uuid:54060563-f638-4db9-ba76-c92db8b2d344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://poeforward.blogspot.com/2011/04/oval-portrait-published-1842.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966883 | 879 | 2.625 | 3 |
In an unexpected reversal of fortune, NASA's NanoSail-D spacecraft has unfurled a gleaming sheet of space-age fabric 650 km above Earth, becoming the first-ever solar sail to circle our planet.
"We're solar sailing!" says NanoSail-D principal investigator Dean Alhorn of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. "This is a momentous achievement."
NanoSail-D spent the previous month and a half stuck inside its mothership, the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology SATellite (FASTSAT). FASTSAT was launched in November 2010 with NanoSail-D and five other experiments onboard. High above Earth, a spring was supposed to push the breadbox-sized probe into an orbit of its own with room to unfurl a sail. But when the big moment arrived, NanoSail-D got stuck.
"We couldn't get out of FASTSAT," says Alhorn. "It was heart-wrenchingyet another failure in the long and troubled history of solar sails."
Team members began to give up hope as weeks went by and NanoSail-D remained stubbornly and inexplicably onboard. The mission seemed to be over before it even began.
And then came Jan. 17th. For reasons engineers still don't fully understand, NanoSail-D spontaneously ejected itself. When Alhorn walked into the control room and saw the telemetry on the screen, he says "I couldn't believe my eyes. Our spacecraft was flying free!"
The team quickly enlisted amateur radio enthusiasts Alan Sieg and Stan Sims at the Marshal Space Flight Center to try to pick up NanoSail-D's radio beacon.
"The timing could not have been better," says Sieg. "NanoSail-D was going to track right over Huntsville, and the chance to be the first ones to hear and decode the signal was irresistible."
Right before 5pm CST, they heard a faint signal. As the spacecraft soared overhead, the signal grew stronger and the operators were able to decode the first packet. NanoSail-D was alive and well.
"You could have scraped Dean off the ceiling. He was bouncing around like a new father," says Sieg.
The biggest moment, however, was still to come. NanoSail-D had to actually unfurl its sail. This happened on Jan. 20th at 9 pm CST.
Activated by an onboard timer, a wire burner cut the 50lb fishing line holding the spacecraft's panels closed; a second wire burner released the booms. Within seconds they unrolled, spreading a thin polymer sheet of reflective material into a 10 m2 sail.
Only one spacecraft has done anything like this before: Japan's IKAROS probe deployed a solar sail in interplanetary space and used it to fly by Venus in 2010. IKAROS is using the pressure of sunlight as its primary means of propulsiona landmark achievement, which has encouraged JAXA to plan a follow-up solar sail mission to Jupiter later this decade.
NanoSail-D will remain closer to home. "Our mission is to circle Earth and investigate the possibility of using solar sails as a tool to de-orbit old satellites and space junk," explains Alhorn. "As the sail orbits our planet, it skims the top of our atmosphere and experiences aerodynamic drag. Eventually, this brings it down."
Indeed, mission planners expect NanoSail-D to return to Earth, meteor-style, in 70 to 120 days.
If this works, NanoSail-D could pave the way for a future clean-up of low-Earth orbit. Drag sails might become standard issue on future satellites. When a satellite's mission ends, it would deploy the sail and return to Earth via aerodynamic drag, harmlessly disintegrating in the atmosphere before it reaches the ground. Experts agree that something like this is required to prevent an exponential buildup of space junk around Earth.
Alhorn and colleagues will be monitoring NanoSail-D in the months ahead to see how its orbit decays. They'd also like to measure the pressure of sunlight on the sail, although atmospheric drag could overwhelm that effect.
No matter what happens next, NanoSail-D has already made history: It has demonstrated an elegant and inexpensive method for deploying sails and become the first sail to orbit Earth. Eventually, the team will diagnose the sails reluctance to leave FASTSAT"and then we'll be batting a thousand," says Alhorn.
A follow-up story on Science@NASA will explain how sky watchers can track and photograph NanoSail-D before it returns to Earth. Stay tuned for "Solar Sail Flares."
Explore further: Dark, massive asteroid to fly by Earth on May 31 | <urn:uuid:a08ec03e-6b4e-4550-b89a-3896cc8e30ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news/2011-01-first-ever-solar-momentous.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955311 | 994 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Plasmons boost light emission from quantum dots
Feb 27, 2012 6 comments
Hybrid structures containing semiconductor quantum dots and metal nanoparticles could lead to better light-emitting diodes and new nonlinear photonic devices. That is according to researchers in China, who have studied hybrids made of cadmium–telluride quantum dots and gold nanoparticle arrays. The amount of light emitted by these structures can be increased dramatically by simply tuning the plasma oscillations on the gold particles to resonate with transitions in the quantum dots.
Quantum dots are tiny semiconductor structures in which electrons are confined in all three dimensions. They have electronic and optical properties that can be controlled by adjusting the shape and size of the structures and have been intensively studied over the last two decades. In particular, quantum dots could be ideal for making a new generation of semiconductor lasers with lower threshold currents and higher efficiencies, as well as light-emitting diodes, solar cells and other photonic devices.
More recently, researchers have turned their attention to hybrid structures containing both semiconductor quantum dots and periodic arrays of metallic nanoparticles. Such systems have shown improved optical characteristics and might be useful for a variety of photonic applications, such as photocatalysis, light harvesting and all-optical switching. The improvements come thanks to the interactions between bound states of electrons and holes in the semiconductor – called excitons – and surface plasmons on the nanoparticles. Plasmons are collective oscillations of electrons on metal surfaces, and they interact strongly with light.
Improved optical response
In this latest work, Andrey Rogach and colleagues at the City University of Hong Kong and the Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics studied the optical properties of hybrid structures composed of cadmium–telluride quantum dots and gold nanoparticle arrays. The researchers found that they could dramatically increase the amount of light emitted by the structures by tuning resonance of the gold surface plasmon to the exciton transitions in the semiconductor quantum dots. "This is possible because the two materials are confined in the same small space – something that leads to the local electromagnetic field of the metal surface plasmon being enhanced," explains team member Ming Fu. "The interaction of the enhanced field and the excitons in the semiconductor dots can then improve the optical response of the entire system."
To date, the researchers have only studied the luminescence of the hybrid semiconductor–metal structures. They now plan to investigate the fluorescence behaviour of the materials using techniques such as confocal microscopy. "These experiments will hopefully help us glean more information about the interactions between metal particles and semiconductor quantum dots in general," says Fu.
The work is described in Applied Physics Letters.
About the author
Belle Dumé is a contributing editor to nanotechweb.org | <urn:uuid:4694de8a-5608-4823-86d3-9066dfc57629> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2012/feb/27/plasmons-boost-light-emission-from-quantum-dots | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924899 | 582 | 3.125 | 3 |
" is a song written and recorded by American
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....
. It was released in May 2005 as the first single from Paisley's 2005 album Time Well Wasted
-Personnel:As listed in liner notes.*Jim "Moose" Brown - piano, keyboards, Hammond organ, background vocals*Randel Currie – steel guitar*Eric Darken - percussion, vibraphone*Jerry Douglas - Dobro*Stuart Duncan - fiddle, mandolin...
, reaching number 4 on the Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...
charts. It also peaked at number 28 on the U.S. Billboard
It was nominated for two Grammys: Best Country Song and Best Country Male Vocal.
The song is a mid-tempo in 3/4 time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
and the key of C major
C major is a musical major scale based on C, with pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Its key signature has no flats/sharps.Its relative minor is A minor, and its parallel minor is C minor....
. In the song, Paisley personifies alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
s in general, describing the various influences that the beverages have on certain people ("Helping white people dance"), ultimately stating "You'll have some of the best times you'll never remember, with me, Alcohol".
Kevin John Coyne, reviewing the song for Country Universe, gave it a positive rating. He says that Paisley pulls the song off with "good taste and great humor."
The music video was directed by Jim Shea. It features Little Jimmy Dickens
James Cecil Dickens , better known as Little Jimmy Dickens, is an American country music singer famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size, 4'11" , and his rhinestone-studded outfits...
, who puts a lampshade on his head. It was released in June 2005. A newer, 3D live version of the video, directed by Scott Scovill, was released in late 2010.
The song debuted at number 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week ending May 7, 2005. | <urn:uuid:b1c55037-55ad-48c7-b4ba-020365be5906> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Alcohol_(Brad_Paisley_song) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953993 | 720 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Peripheral Blood Gene Expression and IgG Glycosylation Profiles as Markers of Tocilizumab Treatment in Rheumatoid Arthritis
The Journal of Rheumatology, 04/02/2012
Mesko B et al. – As a preliminary report, gene expression changes as a result of tocilizumab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined, and gene sets discriminating between responders and nonresponders were found and validated. A significant increase in the degree of galactosylation of IgG N–glycans in patients with RA treated with tocilizumab was documented.Methods
- Global gene expression profiles from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 13 patients with RA and active disease at Week 0 (baseline) and Week 4 following treatment were obtained together with clinical measures, serum cytokine levels using ELISA, and the degree of galactosylation of the IgG Nglycan chains.
- Gene sets separating responders and nonresponders were tested using canonical variates analysis.
- This approach also revealed important gene groups and pathways that differentiate responders from nonresponders.
- Fifty–nine genes showed significant differences between baseline and Week 4 and thus correlated with treatment.
- Significantly, 4 genes determined responders after correction for multiple testing.
- Ten of the 12 genes with the most significant changes were validated using real–time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
- An increase in the terminal galactose content of N–linked glycans of IgG was observed in responders versus nonresponders, as well as in treated samples versus samples obtained at baseline. | <urn:uuid:14cea968-fbc9-4343-8771-26997a9c7005> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/news-article.cfm/4001110/0/arthritis-rheumatoid/next/162?source=scroller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92676 | 339 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Next to a family, a team is one of the most influential groups to which an individual ever belongs, according to session chair Ronald Kamm, M.D., a sports psychiatrist. The intensity of that relationship can be seen in "Remember the Titans." The movie is based on the inspiring story of the 1971 integration of three high schools—two black and one white—into one high school in Alexandria, Va., and its football team. Not only are black students bused to the school over the objection of the white community, but a black coach—played by Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington—is brought in to a replace a beloved, highly successful white coach, who is demoted to assistant coach. Nonetheless, the coaches are determined to overcome the racism that threatens to destroy the team, and they go on to produce a squad whose members respect one another and become champions. | <urn:uuid:71237fb3-8ba6-4e45-9e1a-8b19339ee1ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=104480&RelatedNewsArticles=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969949 | 177 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Celebrate the Opera this September! KQED will air four performances by the San Francisco Opera, beginning with Puccini's La Bohème on September 1 at 8pm. Visit our program page for more details and air dates.
19th Century opera composer Richard Wagner described opera as "Gesamtkunstwerk," or "total artwork," in which music is combined with theater and visual arts to produce a complete multi-sensory experience. But few people realize that even a great master like Wagner required assistance from stage directors, conductors, costume and set designers, choreographers, technicians, singers, musicians, dancers and actors to create his “Gesamtkunstwerk.” In short, artists and artisans from several different disciplines must effectively collaborate in order to create a great operatic work.
Studying opera, both contemporary and historical, Eastern and Western, will give your students a better understanding of how collaboration is integral to the creation of this rich form of performing arts. The SF Opera's YouTube channel provides countless options for media introductions to the organizations, including previews of Tosca and La Bohème, and interviews with opera staff including directors and the wig and make-up shop masters.
The San Francisco Opera offers resources for educators including professional development, curriculum guides, and DVDs for your classroom such as a video production of the student-friendly opera, The Magic Flute, which is a highly accessible performance for younger students. If you are a Bay Area educator, please contact the San Francisco Opera at firstname.lastname@example.org to obtain a free copy of the Magic Flute DVD.
Older students can compare San Francisco Opera's more traditional productions with one of its most recent, The Bonesetter's Daughter, based on the novel by Amy Tan. KQED produced a documentary about the making of the opera, which entailed years of research including trips to China to discover cultural music and art forms. Watch the Spark video about the making of The Bonesetter's Daughter on our website, and discover related web extras on YouTube such as a interviews with Chinese Circus Art performers.
The Spark video about Amy Tan's opera is available for streaming online, and will also air on KQED 9 and KQED Life August 31-September 4. Check the Spark schedule for air dates and times.
If you want to explore circus arts as an offshoot of your operatic lessons and activities, check out Spark's video and educator guide about Lu Yi's Circus Center in San Francisco.
Leave a comment below and let us know how you and your students engage with opera and other forms of performing arts. And remember to catch four exemplary San Francisco Opera performances from the comfort of your own living room this September on KQED 9. Don't forget your opera glasses! | <urn:uuid:61debfb2-e31a-46b4-b800-de1625554820> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://education.kqed.org/edspace/tag/circus-center/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936149 | 575 | 2.375 | 2 |
Some machines carry their own distinctive personality — ones about which the “old-timers” always just nod and smile when their name is mentioned. With engines, it’s often a distinctive sound, the way it cranks over and starts up, or how it whines at full power. For many of those who either remember or simply enjoy antique airplanes, the Curtiss OX-5 V-8 engine has that distinctive, unmistakable sound. Admirers and detractors alike agree that “you always know an OX-5.”
Even for its time, the Curtiss OX-5 was neither state-of-the-art nor even close to “high performance” on the airframes to which it was mounted. It required an incredible amount of pre- and post-flight maintenance, and time between overhauls was very short, often less than 50 hours, as recommended by the Curtiss maintenance manual. And yet, after a hundred years, a good number of them are still being flown by pilots and restorers who wouldn’t think of using anything else. So why all the adoration and loyalty?
For one thing, the OX-5 is an engineering and manufacturing milestone in aviation history. Glenn Curtiss was known for assembling a world-renowned engine design team, including Charles Manley, Henry Keckler, and Charles Kirkham. Beginning with its first two-cylinder motorcycle engines that eventually led to aviation power plants, the Curtiss company was dedicated to the V-style cylinder arrangement that grew quickly from two, to four, then to eight cylinders. (Curtiss also developed in-line engine models.)
By 1908, the basic “OX” design was in place. For the next few years it went through several modifications (from OX, to OX-2, and OX-3), especially in valve train design and fuel delivery methods, until 1915 when the first OX-5 was born. The massive (and heavy) aluminum wet sump crankcase was the source of the force feed and spray lubrication system. The Curtiss manual warns that “the proper lubrication of any mechanism is of so vital importance, and any neglect is so sure to cause expensive repairs that the mechanician should make it his unfailing habit to look after it daily.” On the side of the crankcase was both a simple metal pointer attached to a float inside the sump, as well as a manual sight displaying the level in the 3-gallon sump chamber. Two baffle plates inside the crankcase sloped toward the center from each end providing positive lubrication and “at no practical flying angle can the cylinders become flooded with oil.” A simple gear pump forced oil from the sump to the hollow camshaft and bearings, then to the crankshaft bearings via connecting tubes. Oil spray flung off the crankshaft lubricated piston pin bearings and cylinder walls.
Eight cast-iron cylinders were individually bolted to the rigid crankcase and arranged in two banks of four in a 90-degree “V.” Each cylinder was held in place by four long bolts attached (in most cases) to cross strapping on top of the head. The style created cooling challenges which was met by designing cross-flow cylinder heads with overhead valves and water cooling. The first models used a copper-nickel alloy water jacket which soon gave way to one of brazed-on steel.
Keckler developed a unique valve operating system which used one nickel steel intake and one tungsten steel exhaust valve per cylinder. The exhaust valves required an unusually long rocker arm actuated by a solid steel push rod that moved up and down inside the larger hollow intake push tube. The unique and sometimes fragile valve mechanism used no internal oil and, in fact, had to be hand lubricated before each flight. As the Curtiss manual described, “minute holes are drilled in alignment with the external holes. As oil is forced into these external holes [by hand] the hollow spaces inside the pins act as reservoirs, and will oil evenly all bearings of the rocker arm mechanism for several [usually no more than three] hours after being filled.” This arrangement allowed for greater valve lift and duration for the “under square” (thus high torque) engine with its 4-inch bore and 5-inch stroke. The OX-5 displaced 503 cubic inches and created 90 hp at 1,400 rpm. It was the best Curtiss engine design yet and would serve the aviation industry in large numbers for the next 30 years. | <urn:uuid:187b729d-f534-4e10-9ffd-9067b4068831> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationpros.com/article/10374469/the-curtiss-0x-5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963811 | 951 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Rome Early Origins & Recent Roma History
Rome History & Overview
Early Origins & History
Various legends, for one reason or another suggest that Rome origins as a city can be dated to between 758 BC & 728 BC. The Roman Empire later decreed that the actual year was 753 BC. The early origins of the City of Rome are therefore uncertain. Some historians suggest that the first settlers in the area were immigrants from the far east who had migrated to the Italian peninsula sometime between the second and first millennium BC whilst their brethren settled further north in Europe as founders of Germanic or Celtic races.
The historians believe that Rome was founded by some of these migrants in one of three settlements in the the 9th century BC. These settlements were at the Palatine Hill the home of the Rumi , the Quinnal Hill home to the Titientes and in the nearby forests the Luceres. In 2006 these theories were supported by archaeological findings to the north of Palatine Hill unearthed the remains of Palatine House, which is thought to be the birthplace of Augustus Rome’s Emperor. However not everyone accepts these interpretations.
By the 6th century AD the area was dominated by the monarchical Etruscans who had previously dominated the Italian peninsula to the north of Rome. in what today are the regions of Lazio and Tuscany. The Etruscans precise origins are uncertain as their culture has similarities with the far east but also Greek culture which through migration influenced Italian societies to the south of Rome. The Etruscans are credited (or discredited) with introducing the gladiatorial culture to Italy. They also gave the Romans the skills needed to build Temples to worship the Gods that Etruscan culture had installed in Roman society.
The Etruscans rule was weakened by conflicts in Southern Italy with Greek colonists and at the beginning of the 5th century BC the Romans rose up an over-threw them. The monarchy was replaced by a senate based on nobility and various democratic assemblies. By the 3rd century BC Rome had become the capital of the Italian peninsula and during the following two centuries its importance accelerated as the country embarked on building an empire in the Punic wars which won it territory in North Africa Spain Sardinia and Sicily. In the last century BC the Rule of Rome was challenged by other forces in other Italian cities who had fought alongside Rome but gained few democratic or economic rewards for their efforts. In 49 BC Rome fell to forces led by Julius Caesar until his death in AD44 when the city was then run by two of Caesars lieutenants Antonius and Octavian. Octavian and Antonius embarked on a 12 year struggle for sole control of Rome. Octavian (who was Caesar’s nephew) proved the stronger and in AD 31 became the leader of Rome and its empire. His rise to power signaled the end of the Roman Republic.
For the next 200 years Rome benefited from the total power of the Roman Emperors it population increased from around half a million to at least around a million and a half – though some estimates say it increased six fold. Between AD 165 and AD 189 the power of the Roman Empire waned as a smallpox plague spread across its territories. In Rome at it’s peak this plague is estimated to have claimed up to two thousand lives a day. The aftermath was that on the third century a weaker empire which had its critics within. It also made Rome vulnerable to repeated military challenges from across Europe. By 273 the city had a 19km fortified wall around it and though it remained the capital of the empire other cities including Milan became the safe homes of its Emperors.
By 330 Rome had lost it status as the empires capital to Constantinople. In the second half of this century the Roman Empire converted to Christianity and the Bishop of Rome (later to become known as the Pope) became the most powerful religious leader in western Europe. In 408 the city was attacked and fell to Alaric by a Germanic leader. In 455 and 472 it fell two Germanic leaders Gaiseric and Ricimer. The latter’s victory which was aided by Roman soldiers effectively marked the end of the Roman Empire.
During the 6th century Rome was fought over several times. Power was finally taken by the indigenous Byzantines and shared with Bishop of Rome. In 589 the River Tiber broke its banks and flood vast areas of the city. The following year another plague struck the city. Legend has it that the then Pope took out his sword at Hadrian’s Tomb in order to stop the plague spreading any further. Over the next century the power of the Pope grew and Rome once again became a city of importance in the west. In the 8th century several unsuccessful attempts were made by politicians and Italian forces to destabilize and remove the power of the Bishops of Rome.
In the 12th century these problems were resurrected but this time the people of Rome took to the streets as well. In 1188 the Catholic Church was forced to accept their co-existence with an independent Government based on a representative Senate. However the partnership was not a success with some of the senators accused of corruption. In 1204 street battles broke out across Rome as supporters of the Pope fought with supporters of another religious family – Orsini’s for the control of the Church. During these riots many of the city’s historic buildings were burnt to the ground or destroyed. The challenge of the Orsini family prevailed and they used their religious power and political influence over successive Italian rulers. For a while in the fourteenth century Papal power in Rome waned when it became temporally subservient to the rule of the King of France. However in 1527 troops loyal to Charles V attacked the city and executed over a 1,000 citizens loyal to Papal rule. 80% of the Swiss Guard appointed to protect the Pope were killed and the Pope himself was imprisoned for the best part of a year before being released. Successive Popes no longer had the authority in Rome or abroad as illustrated by Churches breaking away from Catholicism in England and Germany.
In 1798 Rome became part of the Roman Republic which was a construction by Napoleon leading the city to become part of France. When Napoleon lost power in 1814 Papal power was reinstated in Rome and other parts of Italy. During the 19th century following the Italian War of Independence Rome for a while was occupied by French troops who underpinned the power of the Popes. In 1870 at the outbreak of the Franco Prussian War French troops withdrew from the city and the Italian Army took control of it. Rome became part of greater italy. The former status of Florence as Italy’s capital was transferred to Rome the following year. Relations between the Italian government and the Vatican were strained until in 1929 a treaty gave the Church independence within the boundaries of the ancient Rome. This agreement led the declaration of the Vatican as independent state – the smallest in the world.
Rome Recent History & Overview
In June 1940 the Italian Leader outbreak of Benito Mussolini met Hitler in Munich – six weeks later Italians occupied British Somali land in East Africa. In mid-September Italy invaded Egypt and then later in the month signed a Tripartite Pact with Germany and Japan. The following month Italy invaded Greece but they were defeated within four weeks. Further engagements with Allied Forces followed over the next two and half years. On July 19th 1943 the British bombed Rome and within a week the Mussolini regime fell. On September 8th Italian forces led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio surrendered. Five weeks later on October 13th Italy declared war on Germany. Even though Italy fought on both sIdes during WW2 Rome escaped any significant damage.
After the war, Rome expanded to accommodate it growing economy. New suburbs were built and by 1960 its growth enabled it to stage the 1960 Olympics. During these games some events were staged on ancient sites which internationally promoted Rome as a historic city and this combined with interest in the new Vatican State and its many treasures (more info) dramatically increased tourism to Rome. In recent years Rome has been repeatedly named as one of Europe’s Top Ten city by travel companies. In the year following the death of Pope John Paul it had nearly 10 million visitors nearly double the number of visitor it would have expected a decade earlier. | <urn:uuid:df55193e-ddbf-4bed-9721-c4028219bf22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.romemost.info/rome_early_origins_recent_history_roma_overview.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984264 | 1,706 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Spiderfish specializes in all things kinetic including set design, gallery exhibits, sculpture, museum displays, theatrical events and robotic mechanical workshops.
Established in 2006, Spiderfish designs and delivers science, engineering and robotic workshops. Over 10,000 young people have participated to date. The company is led by an inspirational team of makers, scientists and educators that continually create many of their own fascinating sculptures and exhibits for galleries, museums and theaters. Spiderfish supports and encourages young people to develop practical hands-on skills, to think critically and learn to reflect.
Workshops are designed to encourage young people to develop hands-on skills, think critically and learn to reflect. Over 10,000 young people have participated in Spiderfish workshops. All tools and supplies are provided in kit form and are designed specifically for smaller hands.
Sculptures & Exhibits
Spiderfish specializes in all things kinetic. Our makers have over 15 years experience designing and building for many industries. Prior work includes bespoke sets, exhibits and sculptural creations for galleries, theaters, museums, promotions and public display. | <urn:uuid:677a367a-0b43-4581-9426-e1a7174d358c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://spiderfishmakers.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956644 | 219 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimized branch of the English royal House of Lancaster. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extirpated.
Henry Tudor was able to establish himself as a candidate not only of the traditional Lancastrian supporters, but of discontented supporters of the rival House of York, and rose to capture the throne in battle, becoming Henry VII. His victory was reinforced by his marriage to Elizabeth of York, symbolically uniting the former warring factions under a new dynasty. The Tudors extended their power beyond modern England, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542, (Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542); and successfully asserting English authority over the Kingdom of Ireland. They also maintained the traditional (i.e. nominal) claims to the Kingdom of France, but none of them tried to make substance of it, though Henry VIII fought wars with France to try and reclaim that title. After him, his daughter Mary I lost the claim on France forever with the Fall of Calais.
In total, five Tudor monarchs ruled their domains for just over a century. Henry VIII of England was the only male-line male heir of Henry VII to live to the age of majority. Issues around the Royal succession (including marriage, divorce, and the succession rights of women) became major political themes during the Tudor era.
The Tudor line failed in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I of England, who died without any children to succeed her. Through secret negotiations with her cousin James, King of Scotland, (whose great-grandmother was Henry VIII's elder sister, Margaret) Elizabeth arranged the succession of the House of Stuart to the English throne, uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a personal union. | <urn:uuid:1d28fa1d-b0ee-4cec-9bdb-1e948f054222> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peoplescollectionwales.com/Lesson/52-tudor-times | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971654 | 446 | 3.640625 | 4 |
The following is a review of the book Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD.
I recently picked this book up for two reasons: firstly, I found out that the author, Dr. Robert Cialdini, was going to be the keynote speaker at Pubcon this year, and although I was unable to attend Pubcon, I knew that if he were selected as the keynote he must be really, really good.
Secondly, he’s a distinguished professor at Arizona State, right in my backyard, and has a grant for ASU students that my lovely fiance was awarded this year for work on her dissertation on Clinical Psychology.
It was as if the universe was telling me to read this book, so I complied…and I’m super glad I did. I definitely recommend you pick up a copy (feel free to click one of the links in this post to do so – full disclosure though, they’re affiliate links).
The book is based on Dr. Cialdini’s research into how effective sales people are able to influence/persuade people to buy things they may not have necessarily wanted. He spent years infiltrating and studying the minds of used car salesman, tupperware parties, boiler room stock traders, waitresses, you name it.
These studies, along with other scientific research & tests, were able to draw some commonalities on different “weapons of influence” that these salespeople will use. These weapons are all based on “shortcuts” that humans rely on to make quick decisions when they don’t have time to fully analyze a decision – for instance, this brand of ketchup is very popular, therefore it must be good, so I’ll buy it. These shortcuts are a necessity of life – without them, we’d have to carefully analyze every purchase decision, which would make routine tasks like grocery shopping take forever – but unfortunately, many less-than-scrupulous salesman (or “compliance professionals” as Dr Cialdini calls them) have found ways to take advantage of these shortcuts and exploit them.
The weapons of influenced outlined in the book are:
- Reciprocation – I give you something (like a free sample) and you feel compelled to return the favor (by buying a whole box)
- Commitment & Consistency – I get you to publicly admit you believe in something (like a political cause), then you’ll feel compelled to take an action to be consistent with that declaration (by donating to PAC in support of that cause)
- Social Proof – if other people like something (this is our most popular model!), you’ll want it more
- Liking – if the salesperson is likable/relatable, you’re more likely to purchase from them
- Authority – if an authority figure tells you to do something, you’re more likely to do what they’ve asked
- Scarcity – items marketed as “for a limited time only” are especially likely to result in an impulse buy, especially if there is competition perceived for the time (think of the Black Friday sales for the first 50 shoppers)
Cialdini rightly points out that these shortcuts can be reliable indicators of quality & desirability to guide our purchase decisions, and that he’s not advocating we ignore these shortcuts altogether. Instead, we should be weary of those who try to exploit these shortcuts through fraudulent or misleading tactics.
As a marketer, the weapons of influence seem like very effective tools to help be more persuasive when explaining recommendations to clients, or helping them market their products better. But like Cialdini, I agree that these weapons should only be used benevolently – when the claims being made are truthful and sincere.
As a consumer, I’ve definitely fallen into many of the traps by so-called compliance professionals, and will definitely try harder to identify these sales-traps as they occur, analyze the decision more clearly, and walk away from products/deals that I only want because of an artificial trigger being manipulated by a salesperson.
Editors Note: I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and am going to try to do “book reviews” on my blog to both share those books I really enjoyed and also help process & retain the information I picked up in each book. It’ll also force me to update this blog more, which would be nice. This is the first one of hopefully many more to come… | <urn:uuid:7b97bcf2-20e6-4b87-a105-74c123ea0929> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nickroshon.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961903 | 948 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Salvador Dali is my favorite artist. Some in the art community consider him a sell out because of his commericalization. Dali has a unique style that combines different elements together. His paintings differ greatly. I am not such a big fan of the deconstructed images as I am of the ones with hidden pictures and perspectives. Among my favorites: The Last Supper Abraham Lincoln … more
ART PHILOSOPHER 33 YEARS ; 21st CENTURY ART PHILOSOPHER (AXIOLOGIST),RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF COLOR FORM ASSERTION IN POST ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.ALSO THE DISCOVERY OF THE POST PICASSO AXIOLOGY … more
Consider the Source
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Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres.
Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. Dalí's expansive artistic repertoire includes film, sculpture, and photography, in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.
Dalí attributed his "love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes" to a self-styled "Arab lineage," claiming that his ancestors were descended from the Moors.
Dalí was highly imaginative, and also had an affinity for partaking in unusual and grandiose behavior, in order to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork. | <urn:uuid:3d8250be-9649-46ea-a2b6-ca7c1a0dd71c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lunch.com/Art_is_Life/reviews/public_figure/UserReview-Salvador_Dali-164-1431248-56281.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97506 | 419 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Roget's Int'l Thesaurus
Fowler's King's English
The King James Bible
Brewer's Phrase & Fable
Frazer's Golden Bough
Shelf of Fiction
Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I
The Beginnings of Verse, 16101808
> Dryden and Pope in New England
INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes
VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I.
The Beginnings of Verse, 16101808
§ 8. Dryden and Pope in New England.
The years between the close of the seventeenth century and the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 form a transition period in the development of American verse. It is interesting to note that the passing of the old century coincided almost exactly with the passing of the old models. About 1700 new literary influences came from England;the old forms of verse were discarded for others more polished; Quarles and Sylvester gave way, first to Waller, then to Pope. But the change was not one of form alone. The decline of clerical influence, the increase of security and comfort in the conditions of life, the more frequent intercourse with Englandall these and other changes were reflected also in the subject-matter, the purpose, and the spirit of the new verse.
New England poets before 1700 learned nothing from the English poets of the latter half of the seventeenth century;for New England seems to have placed all the literature of the Restoration period under a rigorous embargo. There is no sufficient evidence that Dryden was known in America before 1700, in spite of some fairly regular quatrains by Michael Wigglesworth and an occasional polished couplet by Cotton Mather and Benjamin Tompson. If they knew even Milton they perhaps saw in him only the champion of divorce and of other heresies. But there are other and obvious reasons for this ignorance or neglect of Dryden and Milton. Although Cotton Mather had some correspondence with Quarles, there was not much literary communication of any kind between the colonies and England before the eighteenth century. New England was complete in itself.
Dr. Benjamin Colman (16731747), upon his return from England in 1699, brought with him both Blackmore and Waller. This decisive event in the history of American verse marked the beginning of a new era, that of the heroic couplet. But though Colman praises Waller and Blackmore and recommends both to his daughter Jane Turell, he himself, when he wrote his
(1707) on the death of the Rev. Samuel Willard, imitated Dryden in his heroic couplets and his method of applying a Bible story as in
Absalom and Achitophel.
Jane Turell (17081735), whose literary tastes were formed by her father, admired the Matchless Orinda, Blackmore, and Waller; but she wrote the couplet of Pope. Another and even earlier evidence of the influence of Pope is a poem by Francis Knapp, who was born in England in 1672, and at an uncertain date emigrated to America and settled as a country gentleman near Boston. In 1715 he addressed a poetical epistle to Pope beginning
Hail! sacred bard! a muse unknown before
Salutes thee from the bleak Atlantic shore,
which was included among the prefatory poems in a subsequent edition of Windsor Forest (first published in 1713). Thus promptly Pope crossed the Atlantic to begin his undisputed reign of almost a century. Knapps heroic poem
(1723), an obvious imitation of Addisons
celebrates The most illustrious persons in camp and cabinet since the glorious revolution to the recent time, and is perhaps the earliest example of the patriotic narrative poem that was to become so common in American after the Revolution.
But a far more distinguished exponent of the style of Pope was the Rev.Mather Byles. To let you see a little of the reputation which you bear in these unknown climatesI transmit to you the enclosed poems,Byles wrote to Pope in 1727. It was perhaps these poems that Byles published in a volume in 1736, and which were published anonymously in the somewhat celebrated volume of 1744,
Poems by Several Hands.
Mather Byles is a more eminent figure in the annals of American poetry than is at all warranted by his poems, which are few and altogether imitative. His reputation is due in part to the general poverty of the transition periodthe barest era in our verseand in part to his fame as a preacher and a wit. He was born in 1707, was educated at Harvard, and served as pastor of the Hollis Street church in Boston through the greater part of his ministerial life. After the Declaration, he became a staunch and vehement Tory, lost his former popularity, and died embittered and broken in 1788. He corresponded with Lansdowne, Pope, and Watts, took himself seriously as a poet, at least in his younger days; in his attention to contemporary English literature and his setting up of something approaching an æsthetic standard in verse, represents a definite change from the point of view of the generation before him. But the Puritan is still at work in him, however modern may be his style. His most ambitious poem,
a description of the physical phenomena of the last day, and a shorter poem,
are both in the spirit of Wigglesworth, for all their heroic couplets and artificial diction. His elegies are unadulterated Pope; and his hymns are in imitation of Watts.
One of the first volumes of miscellaneous verse published in America was the
Poems by Several Hands
(Boston, 1744). All the poems are anonymous; and aside from humorous ballads probably by Joseph Green, they merely echo Pope, with a plethora of amorous swains and blushing charms. Some were certainly written by Byles, and others are tributes to his genius. Indeed, the purpose of the volume was to extol Byles as a poet worthy to be mentioned with Homer and with his only modern rival, Pope. Already America was looking for its Homer, a search that was to continue with increasing assiduity throughout the centuryand Boston found him in Byles.
More original and interesting than the poems of Byles are the humorous verses of his friend Joseph Green (17061780), a Boston distiller possessed of literary tastes, who ranked with Byles as a wit and social favourite. After the outbreak of the Revolution he too became a Tory, and finally found refuge in London, where he died. Though his poems seem to have been written for his own amusement and that of his friends, they are important as the first attempt to lighten the heavy Puritanism of early New England with some leaven of humour and wit.
An Entertainment for a Winters Evening
is perhaps the earliest piece of Hudibrastic verse written in America. We have travelled far from Puritan New England when a Bostonian can find amusement in the godless spectacle of a drunken parson and his tipsy companions, and can edify his fellow townsmen with a burlesque account of their nocturnal adventures.
Associated with Byles and Green in
Poems by Several Hands
was the Rev.John Adams, a young clergyman of Boston who died in 1740 at the age of thirty-five. Five years after his death his friends published his
Poems on Several Occasions;
Original and Translated,
which contains among other pieces paraphrases from the Bible, translations from Horace, and half a dozen elegies, including one on Cotton Mather and one on Jane Turell. All these are written in the heroic couplet but in a diction more natural than Popes. That Adams knew Miltons poems is apparent in his
Address to the Supreme Being.
Indeed these poems, though pervaded by the Puritan spirit, yet reveal a more purely æsthetic purpose and a more careful style than can generally be found before the later years of the century.
The almanacs of Nathaniel Ames, father and son, of Dedham, Massachusetts, had their part in disseminating throughout New England a knowledge of the English poets and perhaps also in fostering a taste for humorous poetry. The brief passages from Dryden, Pope, and James Thomson (yes, and Blackmore!), prefixed to the astronomical data, and the unpretentious humorous verses scattered through the other matter, were far more widely read than the laboured and ambitious poems of the literary group in Boston. An
Essay upon the Microscope
is an elaborate poem, by the elder Ames, which, if not poetic, is interesting as perhaps our first ode in irregular verse.
INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS
to shop the | <urn:uuid:a2d95543-1bd5-4021-8ebf-990536a52cd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.bartleby.com/225/0908.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960351 | 1,842 | 2.96875 | 3 |
What's NewNow with Juddly! Juddly safely delivers your child's creations to your inbox!
App Description"One of our top 5 back to school apps" - Applolicious
Kids App of the Week -Parenting Magazine
"Chalk Walk is a very unique iPad app. It has been developed to help your children improve the pincer grip they use to hold a pencil. An app that wants you to take what you’ve learned and apply that to good old fashioned paper and pencil? You bet!" - The iPhone Mom
"Chalk Walk for the IPAD is an interactive app for toddlers and pre-schoolers that develops their thumb-finger pincer grip skill needed for school. It also teaches other skills like hand-eye coordination, simple motor skills, simple letters and words introduction, and promotes left to right progression. And it does all of these while maintaining fun with the visuals, games, and rewards." - IHeartThisApp
4 Stars! - Best Apps For Kids
Introduce your kids to the first app to help children to develop the pincer grip needed at school. Many children are coming into school unable to properly hold a pencil. As time spent drawing on paper or coloring with crayons is swapped for screen time, key fine motor skills remain underdeveloped. But screen time can also solve the problem and prepare kids for the pencil-and-paper tasks they encounter in school. Mrs. Judd’s Games’ new app, CHALK WALK, is designed to fill in the blank: young hands get needed exercise as they use a thumb & finger pincer grip to play this fun, innovative, teacher-designed game.
Typical iPad tracing games ignore this need for children build awareness of hand positioning required for success in school. CHALK WALK helps focus a child's attention on this skill and offers clever tracing lines that bend and twist before the player's eyes. Children can relate to the familiar activity of drawing and after playing CHALK WALK, we hope they are encouraged to practice their new skills by creating their own drawings with real sidewalk chalk.
CHALK WALK's colorful, fanciful maps offer children a journey through the unique sidewalks of places like Kitty City and Crown Town. Players collect alphabet puzzle pieces and chase prizes as they make their way to Silly Town, where they are encouraged to create their own designs with loops and squiggles that will give their hands—and imaginations—a workout!
The video playback feature offers children a chance to study their own moving "chalk lines" and motivate them to try again, just for fun!
- encourages fine-motor flexibility/exercise
- builds awareness of hand positioning
- left-hand icon option is included in settings menu
- clearly demonstrates/reinforces thumb-finger pincer grip
- alphabet puzzle pieces create an emerging literacy task
- animated tracing lines promote left-to-right progression
- photos of unique sidewalks inspire an awareness of beauty and diversity in our world
- fanciful maps point the way to pretend worlds and imaginative thinking.
- endless opportunity to revisit, and refine one's work
- video play-back motivates a child to study their progress in an active way
- reset button offers teachers and parents the option to give new players a fresh start
April 26, 2013 New version 2.3
February 01, 2013 New version 2.2
January 19, 2013 New version 2.1
December 15, 2012 Price Decrease: $1.99 -> FREE!
December 11, 2012 New version 2.0
April 15, 2012 Initial Release | <urn:uuid:788ffc60-8c91-47ab-b29b-7755d55260fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.148apps.com/app/517669317 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924092 | 745 | 2.078125 | 2 |
"Write your YA book with the guidance of an author published by Penguin and Simon & Schuster."
Nova Ren Suma, author of IMAGINARY GIRLS, will be teaching an online writing class through MediaBistro.com.
Course description from Nova's blog:
The course starts April 19, and the goal is to come away with the first draft of a YA novel (or middle-grade novel—writers of middle-grade are welcome) by the end of the class! We’ll be talking about ideas, characters, plotting a novel, outlining and how it can help to write the dreaded synopsis before you finish your book, voice, strategies for moving forward and making it to the end, and we’ll also be thinking ahead to revision strategies and agent querying and what publishers are looking for. But mostly, if you take the class, you’ll be writing, writing, writing, and I’ll be reading and commenting on your pages as you go, as will other writers in the class with you! I can’t wait to read the students’ novels.
The class is entirely online, so you don’t have to be here in New York City to take it… There is a one-hour chat session each week, and it’s late enough to accommodate writers on the West Coast (and a transcript will be saved every week if you happen to miss it). So the class will be a lot of work, but it’s flexible… and I think that’s the best part.
You can apply for the class on MediaBistro.com.
The cost is $610, which is too pricey for me right now, but if you have the budget for it, it might be fun. For more info, check it out on Nova's blog or MediaBistro.com
Let me know if you sign up! | <urn:uuid:b4d8480f-ff3a-4231-bc83-117b0f25ec97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shannonkodonnell.blogspot.com/2012/03/have-you-seen-this.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92258 | 400 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I experiment some with pie crusts and have seen recipes that include vinegar as well as eggs. What does the vinegar do and what does the egg do. I have heard the vinegar promotes tenderness but have read on one of the posts here that it speeds gluten formation.
From On Food and Cooking:
And weaker gluten structure is definitely a good thing for pastry doughs!
From the same source:
So eggs help provide a more tender structure, again good for pastry doughs. | <urn:uuid:b4650062-d787-431a-82de-35e16823e740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/19577/why-do-some-pie-crust-recipes-include-vinegar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966455 | 99 | 1.875 | 2 |
Whether you believe we are in a recession or not, here is a timely article from Forbes that addresses something all of us are interested in during tighter times...how to cut costs while still living well...
Plan, Plan, Plan
Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, co-authors of On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl's Guide to Finance, suggest dividing your income into four categories: taxes (about 25% of total income, on average, savings (15%), necessities (45%) and wants (15%). Pay off debts with an interest rate above 7% and pay more than the monthly minimum. Knowing your financial situation makes it easier to see what you're working with and where to make the necessary cuts later.
Become A Craftier Consumer
Clip coupons, buy in bulk and go with store brands. Finding the best deals at the grocery store can save an average American family of four over $700 annually. Also, get yourself a PayPal account and shop online. With an endless number of merchants hocking their virtual wares, searching based just on price returns some good deals. If you're patient, you could save a bundle in the long run.
Get Better Gas Mileage
Ease up behind the wheel. Less-aggressive drivers use considerably less gas than their lead-footed counterparts. And experts say faster isn't always better. "In most traffic situations, accelerating isn't going to get you there any faster," says Philip Reed, consumer advice editor for auto site Edmunds.com. Also, take off the roof rack when you're not using it, since this can boost your car's fuel efficiency by as much as six miles per gallon. You can get an additional boost by regularly maintaining your vehicle with tune-ups, oil changes and tire rotation.
Squeeze The Most Out Of Your Utilities
Putting a half-gallon, sand-filled milk jug in your toilet tank saves that much every flush. For an average American family, that's 20 gallons of water a day. Low-flow fixtures use less than half as much water, but do cost more for the initial investment. Also, replacing standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home can save $30 a month.
Get Cheaper Entertainment
Most museums have a free or discount day for their general exhibitions. Also check out nearby college campuses for movies and arts performances, such as plays and symphonies. And if you do feel the need to eat out, do it on a weeknight, since many restaurants and bars slash prices during the week to draw in as much business as they can.
Look For Luxury On The Cheap
Find a massage school in your area, rather than a high-end spa. Some schools offer rates as low as $10 an hour. If you want a luxury car, get a used one: a one- or two-year-old car will have lost much of its resale value by then, but will still be ahead of its class in amenities. When it comes to clothes, look for last year's line in designer wear, which is usually heavily discounted to make way for the new season.
Eat Right, Exercise, Drink Lightly And Avoid Smoking
All these things help you save money in the long term. A major ailment like cancer or heart disease can take a devastating toll on those who aren't prepared financially. The best method for saving on long-term health care is prevention. | <urn:uuid:4e3c54b8-811f-4208-9f9b-ff987b324c36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnfenzel.typepad.com/john_fenzels_blog/investing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959899 | 703 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Today, the Obama administration issued a new proposed rule regarding the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act. Many reproductive rights organizations are calling it a victory. Some advocates, not so much.
So what just happened?
1. The new proposed rule spurned lobbying led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that would have made businesses eligible to opt-out of the contraceptive mandate.
All along these men have been arguing that the owner of a Taco Bell, a craft store chain or any business should be able to dictate the terms of what private insurance companies will provide to beneficiaries. That didn’t happen today. No ifs, ands or buts. The Obama administration did not cave. This is probably why some reproductive rights organizations are calling the new proposed rule a victory.
2. The new proposed rule did slightly expand the religious exemption, at a minimum creating a new gray area that could cause some women to lose contraceptive coverage.
Prior to today, religious institutions (houses of worship) were exempt and religiously affiliated non-profits were not. In broad brush strokes this wording has not changed, but the details create cause for concern. Breaking this down:
Previous rule: Houses of worship are exempt. Private health insurance plans do not need to cover contraception, period.
New rule: No change.
Previous rule: Religiously affiliated institutions with a primarily secular purpose and population (including, for example, Catholic hospitals, religiously affiliated colleges) will offer a private health insurance plan that covers contraception, but the cost of contraception will be paid for only by the private health insurance company with no funds contributed by the objecting religiously affiliated institutions.
New rule: Religiously affiliated institutions may attempt to claim they are religious institutions just like houses of worship.
If the claim is accepted, private health insurance plans do not need to cover contraception, period.
If no claim is made, or if the claim is rejected, religiously affiliated institutions will offer a private health insurance plan that covers contraception, but the cost of contraception will be paid for only by the private health insurance company with no funds contributed by the objecting religiously affiliated institutions. So in essence it mimics the old rule, except with one new change: The college student or hospital employee or professor or beneficiary will receive a piece of paper informing them that the institution does not cover contraception, but their private health insurance company will.
3. Here are some additional points to consider about even a slight expansion of the exemption.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the greater “hey, you slut” anti-birth control community has proven itself to be extremely determined to continue the pre-Affordable Care Act practice of insurance companies discriminating against women by charging higher rates for contraception. It is reasonable to assume they will do everything they can to ensure as many colleges, hospitals and non-profits as possible are suddenly classified as churches or other houses of worship. It’s unclear in practice how they will do this, but one invitation ripe for strengthening their inevitable arguments could be discriminating in admissions or hiring against those who don’t share the religious beliefs of the university-wannabe-church, so that a larger percentage of the population is “religious.” Think about that for that for a second. And think about the federal dollars those schools and hospitals gleefully accept.
Most of this fight has centered around religiously affiliated hospitals and institutions. They are estimated to affect the private health insurance coverage of up to three million women. So while the likelihood that the “Mommy Wow! Your Hospital Is A Church Now” claims won’t fly in many cases is strong, the potential universe of those who could be affected in a worst-case scenario is huge.
The note to students and employees who keep their contraceptive coverage is weird. It’s weird and stigmatizing. It says to the 18 year-old women and men entering college, there’s something wrong with birth control and there’s something wrong with sexuality. We don’t do this to any other form of basic preventive care. We shouldn’t here, either.
Philosophically, it makes no sense to negotiate with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the topic of contraception. Practically speaking, they discriminate against women so much they aren’t even allowed to take leadership. Further, 98 percent of Catholic women use contraceptives at some point – hewing to the 99 percent of the overall population. Morally speaking, they have decades of of rape and pedophilia crimes and cover-ups under their supposedly celibate robes. They have no standing to dictate public health and human rights on matters of sexuality.
Bottom line: The new proposed rule could have been worse, and thank goodness it isn’t. But we had made progress. As a country we need to keep moving forward and not backward. Eleven years ago I was a broke Georgetown University student with school-sponsored health insurance coverage, paying $110 out-of-pocket when I went to pick up my birth control prescription. Birth control is basic medical care — that $110 copay was discrimination against me as a woman. This wasn’t a theoretical conversation with Rush Limbaugh on one side and Planned Parenthood on the other. I wasn’t a slut. I just needed prescription contraception. It was me and my life. And today, with this new gray area and the inevitable Supreme Court case about the entire contraceptive mandate, it could once again be tons of other women and their lives. | <urn:uuid:a2fcddea-0b83-4dc7-a044-324f140b757d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://erintothemax.com/2013/02/01/new-birth-control-proposed-rule-what-just-happened/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9643 | 1,137 | 1.6875 | 2 |
How many different outputs consisting of 3 bits can be made from 5 different inputs?
thanks for helping!
As far as I am concerned, this phrasing of your question is not sufficiently clear. In the context of what kind of input-output system are you asking this question? If it's a static arrangement of logic gates, then there can only be different outputs anyway, and to bring them about, 5 different inputs are certainly sufficient.
But you could be taking about a more general kind of input-output automaton. - If so, what kind?
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