text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
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I'm bullish on the power of story to inspire and revolutionize acts of justice and peace. So when I read about something as exciting as Bishop Desmond Tutu's simple yet powerful plan of universal birth registration, my mind begins to whirl around plot possibilities. A dystopian YA novel about teens with lost identities? A picture book featuring one of these children to show how important a birth certificate can be? As you watch the video below, what stories come to mind for you? | <urn:uuid:2f2977c1-d138-4877-8fa9-156f4162e2be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitaliblog.com/2009/11/could-story-help-this-happen.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949596 | 96 | 1.5 | 2 |
Extracting meaning from the mounds of data available on the Web is no easy task. For example, take the case of Data.gov, where the Obama Administration has posted 272,000 or more sets of raw data from its departments, agencies, and offices to the World Wide Web.
“Data.gov mandates that all information is accessible from the same place, but the data is still in a hodgepodge of different formats using differing terms, and therefore challenging at best to analyze and take advantage of,” explained James Hendler, the Tetherless World Research Constellation professor of computer and cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “We are developing techniques to help people mine, mix, and mash-up this treasure trove of data, letting them find meaningful information and interconnections.
“An unfathomable amount of data resides on the Web,” Hendler said. “We want to help people get as much mileage as possible out of that data and put it to work for all mankind.”
The Rensselaer team has figured out how to find relationships among the literally billions of bits of government data, pulling pieces from different places on the Web, using technology that helps the computer and software understand the data, then combine it in new and imaginative ways as “mash-ups,” which mix or mash data from two or more sources and present them in easy-to-use, visual forms.
By combining data from different sources, data mash-ups identify new, sometimes unexpected relationships. The approach makes it possible to put all that information buried on the Web to use and to answer myriad questions
“We think the ability to create these kinds of mash-ups will be invaluable for students, policy makers, journalists, and many others,” said Deborah McGuinness, another constellation professor in Rensselaer’s Tetherless World Research Constellation. “We’re working on designing simple yet robust Web technologies that allow someone with absolutely no expertise in Web Science or semantic programming to pull together data sets from Data.gov and elsewhere and weave them together in a meaningful way.”
While the Rensselaer approach makes government data more accessible and useful to the public, it also means government agencies can share information more readily.
“The inability of government agencies to exchange their data has been responsible for a lot of problems,” said Hendler. “For example, the failure to detect and scuttle preparations for 9/11 and the ‘underwear bomber’ were both attributed in a large part to information-sharing failures.”The website developed by Hendler, McGuinness, and Peter Fox — the third professor in the Tetherless World Research Constellation — and students, provides stunning examples of what this approach can accomplish. It also has video presentations and step-by-step do-it-yourself tutorials for those who want to mine the treasure trove of government data for themselves.
Hendler started Rensselaer’s Data-Gov project in June 2009, one month after the government launched Data.Gov, when he saw the new program as an opportunity to demonstrate the value of Semantic Web languages and tools. Hendler and McGuinness are both leaders in Semantic Web technologies, sometimes called Web 3.0, and were two of the first researchers working in that field.
Using Semantic Web representations, multiple data sets can be linked even when the underlying structure, or format, is different. Once data is converted from its format to use these representations, it becomes accessible to any number of standard web technologies.
One of the Rensselaer demonstrations deals with data from CASTNET, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Status and Trends Network. CASTNET measures ground-level ozone and other pollutants at stations all over the country, but CASTNET doesn’t give the location of the monitoring sites, only the readings from the sites. The Rensselaer team located a different data set that described the location of every site. By linking the two along with historic data from the sites, using RDF, a semantic Web language, the team generated a map that combines data from all the sets and makes them easily visible.
This data presentation, or mash-up, that pairs raw data on ozone and visibility readings from the EPA site with separate geographic data on where the readings were taken had never been done before. This demo and several others developed by the Rensselaer team are now available from the official US Data.gov site.
The aim is not to create an endless procession of mash-ups, but to provide the tools and techniques that allow users to make their own mash-ups from different sources of data, the Rensselaer researchers say. To help make this happen, Rensselaer researchers have taught a short course showing government data providers how to learn to do it themselves, allowing them to do their own data visualizations to release to the public.
The same techniques can be applied to data from other sources. For example, public safety data can show a user which local areas are safe, where crimes are most likely to occur, accident prone intersections, proximity to hospitals, and other information that may help a decision on where to shop, where to live, even areas to avoid at night. In an effort McGuinness is leading at Rensselaer along with collaborators at NIH, the team is exploring how to make medical information accessible to both the general public and policy makers to help explore policies and their potential impact on health. For example, one may want to explore taxation or smoking policies and smoking prevalence and related health costs.
The Semantic Web describes techniques that allow computers to understand the meaning, or “semantics,” of information so that it can find and combine information, and present it in usable form.
“Computers don’t understand; they just store and retrieve,” explained Hendler. “Our approach makes it possible to do a targeted search and make sense of the data, not just using keywords. This next version of the Web is smarter. We want to be sure electronic information is increasingly useful and available.”
“Also, we want to make the information transparent and accountable,” added McGuinness. “Users should have access to the meta data — the data describing where the data came from and how and when it was derived — as well as the base information so that end users can make better informed decisions about when to rely on the information.” | <urn:uuid:5da492a6-58c6-40af-a80e-8f0c4e191c0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drdobbs.com/web-development/a-how-to-primer-on-mashing-up-web-data/228300066 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933866 | 1,358 | 3.03125 | 3 |
'Oddball' moon Hyperion
This NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens image reveals the odd shape of Saturn's moon Hyperion and an intriguing variation in brightness across its surface.
Hyperion is one of the smaller moons of Saturn, with a diameter of 266 kilometres, but larger than Phoebe. It has a pock-marked body and is one of the largest irregularly shaped satellites ever observed.
Hyperion might have had a major collision which blew part of the moon away. Its eccentric orbit makes it subject to gravitational forces from Saturn which have set it tumbling out of control.
The largest crater on its surface is approximately 120 kilometres in diameter and 10 kilometres deep. With evidence of bombardment by meteors, and its irregular shape, Hyperion appears to be the oldest surface in the Saturnian system.
This image was taken in visible light with the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft narrow-angle camera on 20 October 2004, at a distance of about 2.2 million kilometres from Hyperion. The image scale is 13 kilometres per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a co-operative project of NASA, ESA and ASI, the Italian space agency.
Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute | <urn:uuid:0892e45d-b665-4e0f-b4e1-e907677a7d24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Oddball_moon_Hyperion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930058 | 264 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Contains the keyword Preschool--United States
"In The Promise of Preschool , Elizabeth Rose traces the history of decisions on early education made by presidents from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, by other lawmakers, and by experts, advocates, activists, and others. Using this historical context as a lens, the book shows how the past shapes today's preschool debate and provides meaningful perspective on the policy questions that need to be addressed as we move forward: Should we provide preschool to all children, or just to the neediest? Should it be run by public schools, or incorporate private child care providers? How do we most effectively ensure educational quality and success?" | <urn:uuid:7f69979c-3f97-443f-bad8-7ceddbdf1680> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stanford.edu/group/cubberley/biblio/keyword/16503 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943575 | 133 | 2.46875 | 2 |
With Steve Jobs stepping down from the CEO job at Apple, it’s easy to overlook the computer industry’s other big invention factory: Microsoft.
While it’s not often regarded as a font of innovation, Microsoft actually devotes substantial resources — to the tune of $8 billion annually — to research and development. The company was the third-most prolific recipient of patents in 2010 (after IBM and Samsung), with 3,094 patents granted, putting it far ahead of Apple’s 563, which ranked it 46th on the list.
And the company’s research facility in Redmond is a Mecca for computer scientists. The company employs 850 Ph.D.s around the world in its research efforts, and many are located in the Redmond campus’s Building 99.
I visited the facility earlier this year, before leaving Wired to come work at VentureBeat, and after some delays my story appeared recently: How Microsoft Researchers Might Invent a Holodeck.
Wired photographer Jim Merithew and I started out somewhat skeptical of the idea of spending a day at the home of Windows 7, Outlook and Clippy the Office Assistant. But then we were ushered into a world filled with mad scientists, intent on re-imagining the way that people interact with computers.
Some of these visions were more impractical than others. I’m not convinced, for instance, that we’ll ever need wrist cuffs that “read” our finger positions based on the electrical signals emitted by our forearm muscles.
On the other hand, some of the inventions we saw that day could take us far closer to the day when you can walk up to a video wall and peer through it at people on the other side of the world, just as naturally as you’d look through a window into the next room. In this vision, the scene changes for each viewer, so as you move your head side to side, you see slightly different views, while the person standing next to you sees their own perspective, just like in real life.
So while Microsoft makes most of its money from Windows and Office, it is definitely pushing the limits of innovation. Some of these mad-science inventions even make their way into products. You can see a direct line from these R&D projects to truly inventive products like the Kinect. The real question, then, is why Microsoft isn’t making better use of all those patents.
It’s an open question. But if the scientists in Building 99 are even partially successful, Microsoft will continue to play a significant role in inventing the interfaces of tomorrow.
Photos by Jim Merithew/Wired.com
- How Microsoft Researchers Might Invent a Holodeck (wired.com)
- How Microsoft designed Kinect to withstand gamers and lightning strikes (venturebeat.com) | <urn:uuid:0a2f7161-d4be-41be-838d-006061bef839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/03/microsoft-invention-factory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946529 | 587 | 2.390625 | 2 |
All News & Blogs
Alternative remedies and some over-the-counter drugs can help when you're sick
Some over-the-counter medicines can make you
Matt Rourke/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Visit the Photo Place
When your persnickety, purist doctor won't prescribe antibiotics for your cold/flu/sinus infection/ear infection/bronchitis, what should you take?
Whatever makes you comfortable while your immune system fights off the virus, which can take a couple of weeks.
There are more than 800 over-the-counter cold remedies, and some of them have gone out of favor a bit, having been found not very effective, or worse. The cough suppressant dextromethorphan is being used by some kids to get high (turning them into "Robotards"--named after one of the more popular DM-containing products, Robitussin). And the popular decongestant sudefedrin is now being used to make methamphetamine.
Guaifenesin is a useful treatment for cold/flu/sinus problems. It will thin out the mucus and encourage drainage and expectoration. Guaifenesin is in many over-the-counter products. The highest dose is in Mucinex.
Discussing this mundane subject of how to treat a cold at a recent medical conference, Dr. William J. Heuston of the Medical University of South Carolina veered toward the alternative. He recommended a saline nasal spray/rinse administered using a Neti pot or sprayer (but with a 3 percent solution instead of the usual 0.9 percent). He also noted that some studies have shown benefit from the herb echinacea, vitamin C and zinc lozenges.
Another natural remedy is suggested by a study from Penn State College of Medicine: It showed the eons-old treatment of buckwheat honey to be superior to dextromethorphan as a cough suppressant. So there's a traditional, wholesome, safe alternative.
One other pearl from Dr Heuston is to "give your patients a realistic expectation" and let them know that after a bout of bronchitis, it is normal for the cough to linger for weeks or even months--especially if you are a smoker or work in a cold environment. | <urn:uuid:c7a415d8-3d3f-48d1-966f-5a9e77fe8f6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/032008/03232008/364078 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910259 | 480 | 1.703125 | 2 |
With the collapse of the No Child Left Behind policy that has driven American education policy for at least the past decade, one would think that our nation’s leaders would pause to consider the faulty thinking that brought this erroneous policy to life to begin with.
And don’t doubt for a minute that NCLB is indeed a failed policy.
As edublogger Anthony Cody writes, “In spite of a decade of No Child Left Behind, growth in student achievement remains essentially flat.”
Quoting Lisa Guisbond of FairTest, Cody notes that academic growth, as measured by this month’s release of the Main National Assessment of Education Progress, often used as a yardstick by government officials and policy wonks, “was more rapid before and flattened after NCLB took effect.” And “black-white achievement gaps remain large, at 25 points, and have not budged, despite the hope that NCLB’s bright light would expose these gaps and motivate targeted, successful responses to close them.”
Another NAEP yardstick — the longer term assessment of students age 9, 13, and 17, going back 40 years — shows that the greatest narrowing of the achievement gap occurred in the 1970s and 80s, long before any “reform” movement preceding NCLB started dominating education policy.
So Cody correctly concludes, “NCLB, perhaps the least popular law ever to blight our schools, has been a dramatic failure by its own chosen indicators.”
But never quick to reflect on failure, our political leaders in Washington, DC are responding like all the king’s men after Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall.
Instead of starting over with fresh thinking and taking a consensus view — through perhaps something like an Education Summit that includes educators, parents and students — Education Secretary Arne Duncan is busy jury-rigging a system for waiving the restrictions that NCLB imposed while at the same time pushing for NCLB-inspired “reform” measures featured in Race to the Top and other policies.
In fact, the ruined remains of NCLB — RTTT, School Improvement Grants, Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) grants — have become the de facto policy guiding American public education, and they perpetuate failed notions of education “reform” which, like zombies refusing to die, continue to menace our schools and our children.
Chief among the education reform undead is the pernicious notion of basing teacher evaluations on student scores on standardized tests.
Writing this week in The New York Times reporter Michael Winerip brings us up close and personal to just such a new teacher evaluation system in Tennessee. See if this makes sense to you:
The new rules, enacted at the start of the school year, require Mr. Shelton [the school principal] to do as many observations for his strongest teachers — four a year — as for his weakest. “It’s an insult to my best teachers,” he said, “but it’s also a terrible waste of time.”
Because there are no student test scores with which to evaluate over half of Tennessee’s teachers — kindergarten to third-grade teachers; art, music and vocational teachers — the state has created a bewildering set of assessment rules. Math specialists can be evaluated by their school’s English scores, music teachers by the school’s writing scores.
This evaluation system is the brainchild of reform policies pushed onto states by the RTTT grant competition.
Tennessee, along with eight other states and the District of Columbia, were awarded billions in federal funds on the basis, partially, of agreeing to implement new systems that tie teacher evaluations in a significant way to student scores on standardized tests. Because Tennessee was among just two states (the other being Delaware) to win the first round of RTTT grant awards, the state is being viewed by many as a model for other states to follow.
In fact, Florida is in the process of rolling out a system similar to Tennessee’s with the same absurd consequences to teachers. Again, the evaluation is based on a formula that tries to determine a teacher’s effect on a student’s standardized test performance, and again “thousands” of teachers who don’t teach a subject assessed by the Florida state exam will get a “score” that has nothing to do with the subject or the students they happen to teach.
North Carolina and New York, also RTTT winners, are gearing up to implement similar evaluation systems. And even states that are not RTTT winners, such as Wisconsin, have jumped on the bandwagon to use evaluation systems that are designed, not to see how students are actually doing on acquiring subject area content, but to see if teachers and principals are able to raise test scores.
As one of the quotes from the Winerip article points out, the immediate consequences of these new evaluation policies “put everyone under stress, are divisive, and suck the joy out of schools.” But the impacts go way beyond that. In a powerfully written document that also came out this week, principals from schools in Long Island, New York enumerate to their state legislators the multiple problems with this approach to education reform.
It’s bad enough that these new evaluation models do not produce reliable measurements — like “using a meter stick to weigh a person,” the principals explain — but far more important are the damages that these new evaluations will likely have to children.
When “test scores take front and center,” the principals state, the curriculum will narrow to “test preparation and skill and drill teaching, and “enrichment activities in the arts, music, civics and other non-tested areas will diminish.” More struggling students will likely get placed in lower-level classes without standardized assessments. Schools will likely become “more reluctant to challenge students upward” for fear that it will push test scores lower. Teachers will more likely try to “avoid students with health issues, students with disabilities, English Language Learners, or students suffering from emotional issues.” And teachers will become less collaborative as they focus more only how well their students are doing on tests rather than on how well the entire school meets the needs of all its students.
Furthermore, from a financial standpoint, creating and implementing these new evaluation systems is taking huge sums of money away from direct services to students at a time when school budgets are being slashed to the bone in just about every state.
In New York, at the same time when state legislators passed $1.3 billion in education cuts, the state’s new teacher evaluation system is redirecting more tax dollars from schools to, in the words of the Long Island principals, “testing companies, trainers, and outside vendors.”
While it’s true that some states have gotten federal money — through RTTT and other grants — to help offset the costs of implementing these evaluation systems, the long term costs go way beyond the amount of the federal funds. Florida, for instance, got $700 million in its RTTT award but will spend more than $1 billion, over the next two years alone, to develop and implement the testing and evaluation apparatus.
California recently calculated that it would cost the state $3.5 billion to implement teacher evaluations and other RTTT-inspired requirements for obtaining a waiver to No Child Left Behind mandates still in force.
California wisely turned Secretary Duncan’s waiver offer down, but 42 other states have applied for the waivers.
Certainly, there’s got to be an alternative to this madness. But efforts to reauthorize federal legislation governing education have generally stalled and most who are currently involved in the negotiation do little more than trade talking points about “accountability” and “achievement,” but until these terms become disassociated with “test scores” the conversation will not change.
In the meantime, there’s wide agreement among the Serious People that NCLB has become untenable. So now, after the consequences of NCLB waivers roll out across the country, get ready for the next Very Serious Discussion on education policy: What to do about the untenable waivers. | <urn:uuid:69973a3a-4d7a-47ba-a8c5-6c63ed44b81d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ourfuture.org/20111111/NCLB_Dies_Zombie_Education_Reforms_Live_On | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956808 | 1,717 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Is information available to help families concerned about an elderly parent driving?
Families face difficult decisions when their older family members begin to drive unsafely, and they need to exercise tact and sensitivity in dealing with this touchy subject. When You Are Concerned (click here) is a handbook to help families, friends and caregivers facing the dilemma of what to do when an aging loved one is driving unsafely. When You Are Concerned is, in part, a compilation of the experiences of families and others who have successfully resolved an unsafe aging driver situation.
Families and Caregivers
Find resources for all caregivers, from teenagers caring for grandparents and other relatives caring for children. | <urn:uuid:27181865-c766-44a6-b6f4-1eb0eaa0464b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nysegov.com/citGuide.cfm?ques_id=574&superCat=82&cat=388&content=relatedfaqs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92051 | 140 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Would somebody please give Harper’s literary editor Ben Metcalf a back rub? Or maybe pour him a cup of sleepy-time tea? Or buy him a gift certificate for some yoga lessons?
After all, it’s difficult for an editor to write a readable magazine column when he’s hyperventilating with anger — which seems to be exactly what’s ailing Metcalf in his current “Notebook” column in the front of Harper’s.
In the column, Metcalf ostensibly sets out to write a lofty, literary essay about the limits of free speech in this country. Is it legal, Metcalf wants to know, for him to write about his desire to strangle the president?
“Am I allowed to write that I would like to hunt down George W. Bush, the president of the United States, and kill him with my bare hands?” writes Metcalf.
“In truth, I bring neither a message nor a promise of violence,” he adds. “I seek only to gauge what level of discourse is still acceptable in this country by asking, in the hope that I might someday participate in that discourse, whether I am free to posit that it would probably be great fun, and a boon to all mankind, if I were to slaughter the president of the United States with my bare hands.”
Having posed the question, Metcalf half-heartedly seeks an answer.
Along the way, he reveals that in 1917 Congress passed legislation making it a federal offense for anyone who “knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail … any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States … or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat.”
The upshot, according to Metcalf, is that somehow George W. Bush has taken advantage of this not-exactly-new restriction on free speech. According to Metcalf, the president’s “free ride on our backs was made possible” by Congress’ 1917 decision.
How is the president getting a free ride on our backs because it’s illegal to make threats against his person? How is that different than any other president since 1917? What does that have to do with the current tension between the White House and the reporters who cover it?
Metcalf never explains. Instead, he haphazardly vents his pent-up anger, and the column soon breaks down into a four-alarm hissy fit against the president.
“I hardly mean to imply that George W. Bush is a delusional party hack whose aim is to rob and mislead us for the benefit of his friends,” he writes. “That idea deserves to be stated outright: George W. Bush is a delusional party hack whose aim is to rob and mislead us for the benefit of his friends.”
Just in case that was too subtle, Metcalf reiterates the point.
“True, George W. Bush is an ignorant, cruel, closed-minded, avaricious, sneaky, irresponsible, thieving, brain-damaged frat boy with a drinking problem and a taste for bloodshed, whose numerous crimes have been abetted by the moral corruption of his party cohort and whose contempt for American military lives alone warrants his impeachment, but what has it ever won us to say so?” he adds.
In the end, all of Metcalf’s rage adds up to quite a spectacle — like watching a toddler in the midst of a temper tantrum, clenching his fists, and smashing at his tinker toys with his favorite Tonka Truck. Several thousand words in, we found ourselves thinking, “Go ahead Big Guy, keep going, get it all out of your system…”
Not that Metcalf’s column is without its merits. Along the way, he succeeds at the previously unlikely feat of making his “Notebook” predecessor, Lewis Lapham, sound like the soothing, moderate voice of reason. | <urn:uuid:41f16c5b-15db-45f8-92af-da09857e1527> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cjr.org/politics/harpers_ben_metcalf_throws_his.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962756 | 870 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Helping students gain understanding and self-confidence in algebra.
Gsingh wrote:I made a common denominator of -(x-2)(x+2) on the left side and then combined to form one fraction, then i cross multiplied and somehow i ended up with x^2(x-3) = -20
Gsingh wrote:Ok these were my steps... (im going to explain in words instead of pictures because it took me forever to post that last message)
1. factored the 4-x^2 into -(x+2)(x-2).
Gsingh wrote:4. i simplified to get -x^2/-(x^2-4) = 5/(x+2)
5. cross multiply... -x^2(x+2) = -5(x^2-4) | <urn:uuid:d2d0ad5f-d359-4b12-8d4d-2b09a3b1deda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.purplemath.com/learning/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2700 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940281 | 179 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Recent articles from a number of news outlets suggest that mortgage lenders are beginning to loosen up their standards for mortgage qualifications. While some might be concerned that loose credit standards were part of the cause of our last real estate meltdown, we’re in a very different league right now.
Mortgage qualification standards have become draconian in recent years, and the initial reasoning was sound. Banks were reticent to lend money when their current portfolios were constantly in the loss category, as a large percentage defaulted while the market declined. The changes in the current market have allowed lenders to begin realizing profits on real estate lending, though, and new standards in appraisals, combined with appreciating home prices, have made most of their mortgage portfolio less risky.
The newly-loosened standards of mortgage lenders today will still look nothing like they did at the real estate boom’s peak. We still have income verification and qualification, credit score requirements far higher than in the past, and verifiable appraisers/appraisal companies. However, there is now a shift toward allowing a more reasonable percentage of the population qualify for a loan. This is good for the country and the real estate market as a whole. Consumer spending on real estate has a huge positive effect on the economy, and responsible home buyers with reasonable credit strengthen their long-term financial picture when buying a home.
From a recent article in Realtor Magazine:
Tight underwriting conditions have been one of the main obstacles for the housing market recovery. But the credit agency says that those conditions began to ease somewhat this year and likely will continue to.
“Rising house prices give lenders more breathing room to extend credit,” the analysts at Moody’s noted.
Over the past year and a half, large lenders have loosened up or held standards stable on prime loans for mortgage originations, according to the Survey of Senior Lending Officers.
Aiding lenders’ confidence is that mortgage delinquencies have fallen to pre-recession rates.
“Being right-side up on the mortgage improves a borrower’s credit profile. It also lowers the risk of default and increases the likelihood of trade-up buying,” according to the Moody’s report. | <urn:uuid:cb37555e-0d21-480c-89ae-4936905066fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlewaterfronthomes/2013/03/06/real-estate-constraints-reduced-banks-may-be-loosening-their-mortgage-requirements/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962931 | 460 | 1.617188 | 2 |
People are searching the net for all possible keywords like wildearth.tv, black bear den cam, bear web cam, bear cam, live bear cam etc.
Its not often that one gets to see a bear give birth, but this year, it might be possible to see the bear’s birth on a live webcam.
Thanks to A Minneapolis filmmaker, Doug Hajicek, one can spy on a hibernating wild bear through a video feed from a den near Ely.
In 1999, Hajicek had similarly set up a bear cam but that time no cubs were born. But this this time many researchers believe that there is much better chance that this year, Lilly the bear will give birth to 1 pound cubs around January mid.
Doug’s camera will transmit in color by day and produce infrared images during night time. There will be a motion sensor which will trigger video and sound transmission when there would be any activity, else it will send stills.
Earlier, the video feed of the bear’s birth was going to be available on the North American bear Center’s website, bear.org, but due to heavy traffic the site crashed. According to the Wildlife Research Institute now the bear’s den cam will be available on wildearth.tv.
The webcam installed outside the bear’s den will provide pictures and videos in real time for the world
The video of bear giving birth would be a must watch and not to be missed. | <urn:uuid:b508ae7d-e617-425d-b316-f4f3fdf8bff4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.merinews.com/article/wildearth-tv-bears-birth-live-web-cam---watch-video/15793832.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931221 | 306 | 1.851563 | 2 |
World Suicide Prevention Day – My Story
In honor of today being World Suicide Prevention Day, I wanted to share my own story.
Now, I realize that this may come as a shock to some of you who know me now, but I have attempted suicide. I have spent days of my life contemplating suicide, and have made very detailed plans to commit suicide. Luckily, the majority of the time I was able to come to my senses and not carry through on those plan, and the one time I did actually attempt it, I didn’t have a very good plan. You could argue that this indicates that I wasn’t all that serious about actually wanting to die, and I suppose you could make a case for that. On the other hand, if I had a sharper razor blade, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. So whether I was serious or not, I spent a large portion of my early adulthood plagued by suicidal thoughts, so the subject is very important to me.
When it comes to the subject, I consider myself to be very lucky. I know of others who were not so lucky. I once read that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. That has stuck with me through the years because it’s true. When I was younger, and first coming to grips with my childhood, and the very real effects it was having on me as an adult, including bouts of major depression, which lead to suicidal thoughts, I was sure that this would never end. I thought I was destined to carry around the pain of depression, and to live the life of a victim for the rest of my life. I thought that because I didn’t know anything else.
I was an idiot.
I took a look at what had happened to me, and what I had already been through, and decided that was all life had to offer. That was all I had to offer. Despite the fact that I survived everything, and had made it to adulthood without much help. and almost no support, I was not worthy to live any longer. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I thought I was alone, and that my emotional state would never change. (It did change, frequently, even then.) The truth is that I was suffering from depression, I was not thinking clearly, and had managed to get lost inside my own head, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure, constantly reminding myself of all the ways I didn’t measure up.
Of course, now I can see that I was never alone. Millions of people survive childhood abuse all over the world. Millions deal with depression and other mental illnesses as well. I believed myself to be a freak, when in fact, I was just one of many who were struggling and dealing with these things every day. Now I can see that I was healing all the time. Oh it wasn’t always pretty, and it help plenty of painful moments for me, but I was changing, because life is all about change. The truth of the matter can be stated in certain, mathematical terms:
Life + Time = Change
That’s what makes suicide such an illogical choice. When I was suicidal, I saw it as the only solution because things were never going to change, not realizing that I was the one guaranteeing that things would never change, by taking away the things that always lead to change. Of course, that logic escaped me, because I was making decisions emotionally from my own warped perspective. That’s why the best thing you can do, if you’re having suicidal thoughts, is to please, please, get out of your own head and talk to someone. Get help. Call a suicide hotline, go see a therapist, whatever it takes. What is going on in your head right now is wrong. You need to get a different perspective and realize that the decision you’re about to make is not the solution. Staying alive is the only thing that gives us hope for positive change.
Looking back now, I can clearly see that the life I am living now is one I couldn’t have even imagined then. It’s completely different than the life I thought I would have in my 40s in large, and small, ways. I am also keenly aware that if I had my way back then, none of this would have ever happened. I wouldn’t have had the experiences I’ve had now, I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet and get to know all the wonderful people that have been part of my life over the years, and any positive impact I’ve had on them, or on readers here, would likewise have never happened. My story would have ended, a simple statistic, a tragic event that others would be left to deal with. I’m glad that’s not the legacy I left behind. Don’t let it be the legacy you leave behind. The people who care about you deserve more. You deserve more. | <urn:uuid:ea699f6f-0eb4-4dc6-88cd-430bcf5ddb21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.childabusesurvivor.net/wordpress/2012/09/10/world-suicide-prevention-day-my-story/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989525 | 1,032 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations
Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence"
- S: (n) company (an institution created to conduct business) "he only invests in large well-established companies"; "he started the company in his garage"
- S: (n) company (small military unit; usually two or three platoons)
- S: (n) company, companionship, fellowship, society (the state of being with someone) "he missed their company"; "he enjoyed the society of his friends"
- S: (n) company, troupe (organization of performers and associated personnel (especially theatrical)) "the traveling company all stayed at the same hotel"
- S: (n) caller, company (a social or business visitor) "the room was a mess because he hadn't expected company"
- S: (n) company (a social gathering of guests or companions) "the house was filled with company when I arrived"
- S: (n) party, company (a band of people associated temporarily in some activity) "they organized a party to search for food"; "the company of cooks walked into the kitchen"
- S: (n) ship's company, company (crew of a ship including the officers; the whole force or personnel of a ship)
- S: (n) company (a unit of firefighters including their equipment) "a hook-and-ladder company" | <urn:uuid:140ff2a8-8ba1-46c6-9492-2206ad85fd70> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?o2=&o0=1&o8=1&o1=1&o7=&o5=&o9=&o6=&o3=&o4=&s=company | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964535 | 326 | 2.921875 | 3 |
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Immigrants are people who have left one country, usually because it sucked, and travel to another country to live. Normally this is made possible because the country they are travelling to has previously colonised them and taught them all how to speak the language. This combined with the natives of the rich countries all being too lazy to do any real work has invited the greatest movement of the people since Bob Marley played to Moses at the parting of the Red sea festival AD 1307.
Usually, immigrants are brown in colour, and so can be easily identified, however, recently we have seen the advent of the "stealth immigrant", a new type of immigrant usually from Poland. Stealth immigrants are white in colour, and are often mistaken for pikeys. They are far more difficult to identify and have appeared on the scene as a result of recent worldwide legislation which frees up limitations on what colour people can be imported into different countries.
edit Types of immigrants
Immigrants come in many shapes, sizes, colours and odours.
Brown immigrants originate mainly from Mexico. They live in dwellings called corner shops and survive by selling produce at vastly inflated prices to the native population who are too lazy to walk slightly further to the supermarket. Their hobbies include taking all the jobs from Americans and the border people are instructed to shoot them on the spot, should they attempt to cross the border. Mexican immigrants can be identified by their funny hats, their eccentric mustaches or their sheer refusal to use the word 'is'.
Black immigrants are divided into Africans who were once our slaves, and the Africans who sold them into it. Because they are all now living here, together they have turned their attention to their common enemy, the Asians. They are very often stereotyped of committing the following crimes:
- Mugging old ladies
- Shouting obscenities into a microphone
- refusing to queue for trains, tubes, buses, etc
- refusing to pay for trains, tubes, buses, etc
- Playing the racist card; (often on trains)
- stabbing each other
- shooting each other
- benefit fraud
Unlike other forms of immigrants, yellow immigrants have little impact on the environment, apart from generating large amounts of waste product. This waste product is known as chicken chow mein. However, this is prized in many countries around the world and these immigrants are able to subsidise their stay in other countries by selling this waste product to the locals.
Yellow immigrants are notoriously good at mathematics. In their spare time they enjoy calculating the value of pi up to a gargantillion decimal points.
Yellow immigrants will generally try to integrate themselves among white people, thus believing themselves to be one of them.
Although still unproven, many are convinced that the yellow immigrants are aliens equipped with supercomputers trying to infiltrate into the human civilization (hence explaining their outrageous aptitudes in terms of science and fertility).
There are many different types of white immigrants and it would be impossible to list them all here. Most of them are from Europe, Canada to US (vise-versa) and Brazil. (But, you can find some white musleum immigrants, BEWARE) For lonely nerdy white men, they should thank the lord for creating the Baltics or the Balkans on the seventh day: a huge supply of mail-order brides! There are also white mexicans these are the best ones into blending into the society because of the color of their skin we should all be aware of them if you see them talking about "futbol", put your guard up. They may attack about futbol not football.
A mix of the above Immigrants, these people are intriguing combinations. They tend to float around by themselves, not being accepted by anyone because of their Retardation and lack of proper nationality. Often they will have a Monkey Fetish.
edit Eastern Europeans
Eastern Europeans are an example of the stealth immigrant recently introduced into EU law. Each member state who signed the Stealth Immigrant Charter has to take a proportion of the available immigrant population according to how long the name of their country is:
- Germany: 7%
- France: 6%
- Spain: 5%
- Portugal: 8%
- Italy: 5% (It's still unclear if they're Eastern Europeans or North Africans).
- Greece: 6%
- Luxembourg: 10%
- Malta: 5%
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: 48%
- Storfors,Värmland,Sweden: 30%
The Eastern European for the phrase, "I do not understand" is "yes". Therefore it is very important to ensure that you are understood when speaking to them in order to avoid confusion. English should be spoken... slowly... with... pauses... after... each... word. (See William Shatner.) Otherwise, even if the question was "can I do your mother up the wrong 'un", the answer will always be "yes". Note: asking a Frenchman the same question will always result in a positive answer, but that's because they're dirty little bastards, ain't they? I mean, if it's got a pulse, they'll have their oily way with it.
Contrary to popular belief, Eastern Europeans are actually very good for the British economy. Every piece of construction work they do collapses approximately six months later. British workers can then come in and charge 3 times as much to repair the damage. They have also created huge numbers of job opportunities for British workers in other fields; for example, any British plumbers who are struggling for work can now readily find employment in Poland.
The E.U. signed a million hot, young, blond, blue-eyed and easy-to-get Eastern European women through a mail-order program. This information was taken from a drunk russian who now thinks he is chinese.
edit Australians/New Zealanders/South Africans
Despite their protests to the contrary, these are in fact all from the same country, as is evidenced by the manner in which they flock together to insult British sporting teams. There are some regional differences, however:
- Australian males are all exclusively called Bruce. Females are all called Sheila.
- South Africans hate kaffirs. Kaffirs is Afrikaans for "coffee"; South Africans prefer tea.
- New Zealanders are very partial to lamb, although they have curious food preparation habits. It is unclear how shoving your cock up a sheep's arse improves the eventual taste of the meat, although this practice is not exclusive to them, being also conducted by the Welsh.
- New Zealanders all look like Jonah Lomu. Even the women. In fact, particularly the women.
Australian/NZ/SA immigrants all work in bars and are incapable of any other work. The recent changes to licensing laws in the UK which allowed pubs to stay open longer were introduced solely so that there were enough hours in the day to ensure that the 47 quadrillion immigrants were all able to pull at least one pint each.
A lot of immigrants make no attempt to learn the language, complain about the indigenous way of life, avail themselves greedily of free health care, only eat food they would expect to have in their own country of origin (e.g. in the case of Mexicans, most forms of fat wrapped in foil), and rigidly stick to themselves (in enclaves of their own people making no attempt whatsoever to integrate into the society that they have joined). These people are known as Scumbag Polish and have moved to Spain or Portugal, where they assist to make up these countries' stealth immigrant quota.
The small community known as smurfs are on the increase in Britain, They usually come by parachute and land in your shed. If you see a smurf you should not approach them as they are very dangerous and always carry an over-sized donkey foot. A new race of blue immigrants is emerging, escaping from the oppression in Avatar.
edit Advocates of immigrants
edit Ken Livingstone
Ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone claims that immigrants are what makes London the multi-culturalist utopia it is today. He also says that the sky is green, up is down and that charging people to move their car three feet from one parking space to another is not morally bankrupt. Rumours have arisen recently that Livingstone himself is of immigrant stock, having crooked teeth certain races of immigrants possess.
Nevertheless he can become very cross if someone who is Jewish asks him a polite question when he's leaving a private party that was paid for with £10,000 of taxpayers' money.
edit Opponents of immigrants
Yeah. Read the Bible bitch. Or at least say you do... that's what most of us do. | <urn:uuid:724fe305-f33c-45ec-8819-b44c941a677d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Immigrants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96755 | 1,808 | 2.984375 | 3 |
The Democrats' answer to our energy crisis is, hold on, wait one minute, wait one minute, it is promoting the use of the bicycle.Streetsblog implies and commentors note that the automobile and the internal combustion engine is also 19th century technology, as are lightbulbs, phones, radios, railroads, guns, photography, refrigerators, stethoscopes, and even paved roads! Many modern bicycles, in fact, require advanced technologies, materials and manufacturing processes that did not exist in the 19th or even 20th centuries.
Oh, I cannot make this stuff up. Yes, the American people have heard this. Their answer to our fuel crisis, the crisis at the pumps, is: Ride a bike.
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the Democrats, promoting 19th century solutions to 21st century problems. If you don't like it, ride a bike. If you don't like the price at the pumps, ride a bike.
Our roadways have always been designed with the intention of being shared by multiple users. A road is simply a paved structure meant to accommodate a given width and weight of vehicle. The first paved roads were in fact lobbied for by bicyclists in the last part of the nineteenth century and were later shared by early automobiles. Since then, a myriad of 'other' users including Amish buggies, farm equipment, bicyclists, and other slow-moving vehicles have legally shared the road with motorists. While that has undoubtedly required the occasional patience and understanding, it has always been considered a mark of good citizenship to responsibly share the roads. The present animosity between a small fraction of cyclists and a small fraction of motorists is more personality driven and should not detract from the safe interactions among most adult drivers and cyclists.North Carolina cyclists, you can let your Representative how you feel about your "19th Century technology" by calling him at 202.225.2576 in Washington DC, or toll-free in North Carolina at 800-477-2576. More contact information is on his website. 10th Congressional District residents and businesses can contact him via the web here.
The rise in popularity in cycling has indeed given rise to an equally popular cyclist's lobbying movement to incorporate cycling-specific design into new roadway construction or renovation. While there are differences in details among various special interest groups, what virtually everyone, whether motorized or not, agrees on is to provide added width (shoulders, bike lanes, wide traffic lanes) so that cyclists and motor vehicles traveling at different speeds can get past each other without encroaching into oncoming traffic. However, while such improvements are wonderful, they do not detract from our present roadway's ability to be shared safely by competent, compliant users.
Labels: north carolina | <urn:uuid:845bd433-c399-4392-85e5-f0b100ce0fe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cyclelicio.us/2007/08/north-caroline-bicycle-is-19th-century.html?showComment=1186709981934 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960331 | 562 | 2.203125 | 2 |
There are certain functions, such as exponential functions, that have many applications to the real world and have useful inverse functions. Graphing exponential functions is used frequently, we often hear of situations that have exponential growth or exponential decay. The inverses of exponential functions are logarithmic functions. The graphs of exponential functions are used to analyze and interpret data.
Exponential or power function are a new type of function. What they are are a function where instead of having x in the base of the problem where you say like x squared, x cubed and things like that. What we actually have is our variable moves to the exponent, moves to the top, okay? So a exponential power function is anything of the form a to the x. And there is a restriction on a and that it has to be greater than zero and it can't be 1. Reason it can't be 1 is if you have 1 to any power, it's just always going to remain 1. So it doesn't really make sense to have our base be 1 anyway.
Some language that goes along with this, okay? We call a the base and we call x the exponent, okay? So exponential power functions. Anything that is of the form a to the x with a being a positive number not equal to 1. | <urn:uuid:d71f1393-ee99-4b9e-a7b3-41ccf19e5bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brightstorm.com/math/algebra-2/inverse-exponential-and-logarithmic-functions/exponential-functions-and-their-graphs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956654 | 265 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Photographs by Yuki Onodera.
64 pp., 38 duotone illustations, 14x17".
Yuki Onodera has, variously, used transformation and intervention techniques, straight photography (of scenes she set up herself), found photographs, and digital photomontage, the links between them being intellectual rather than visual. For Transvest, the artist has made montages not only from images she has taken herself but also from newspapers, magazines, video and other media, using both traditional cut-and-paste methods and the more sophisticated digital technology. Her silhouettes, made from magazine clippings, stiffened and set upon a glass platform, are instantly recognizable – the soldier, the scuba diver, the tap dancer, the mother and child. Onodera has selected the shapes of the figures for their evocative capacity and the sense of déjà-vu they convey. We are sure we know what is there, but still must conjure up the details for ourselves. Alongside these stark and stylish figures are more complex pictures; scenes that include the ripple of a lake’s surface, night-time at a harbor, mountain slopes, ruined buildings, indeterminate animals – a range of subjects of disproportionate size collected together and placed on a surface of darkness. As with the silhouettes, the closer you look, the more you see – both on the page and in the imagination. Essay by Dana Friis-Hansen. | <urn:uuid:be435db0-4dbc-4150-85c5-c90493bca576> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?Catalog=TR158 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92307 | 300 | 1.539063 | 2 |
At the Easton Area Public Library Friday Library director Jennifer Stocker… (DONNA FISHER, THE MORNING…)
The old safe was locked for decades. Combination lost. Contents a mystery.
Members of the Hugh De Payens Commandery No. 19, a Masonic organization in Easton, had nearly given up on trying to open the roughly 6-feet-high by 3-feet-deep vault. A locksmith said he would pick it open, but couldn't. Drilling would be expensive and void the safe's fire warranty.
Then, members of the group known as the Knights Templar found some old documents, including one with what appeared to be a combination. They tried it on the safe, and when the door swung open they found petitions and meeting minutes from the 1800s.
But there was something else that caught their eye. A document printed on parchment, thin material made from animal skin.
"We figured it was very old," Knights Templar member Lou Starniri said, "But we had no idea what it was."
The document turned out to be a Penn Patent, a deed signed by William Penn's sons granting the lot where the lodge now stands to Northampton County. The Knights Templar on Thursday night donated the document to the Easton Public Library.
Freed from the safe, the document will be housed in the library's Marx Room among local history treasures such as the flag Northampton County soldiers carried during the War of 1812 and the edition of The American Eagle, a weekly Easton newspaper, that announced George Washington's death.
"When they told us that they were going to donate it to the library, we were ecstatic," said Barbara Wiemann, Marx Room coordinator. "Having somebody willing to entrust us with this document is an honor for us."
Penn Patents were issued for almost every plot in Easton when the city was originally subdivided, but the library has never had one in its collection, Wiemann said.
The Sigal Museum in Easton does have several original patents, said Andria Zaia, the museum's curator, and patents and documents with signatures of the Penn family are fairly common across the state, according to the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
A settlement of estate signed by William Penn in 1707 was auctioned for $4,000 in 2008 at a New Hampshire auction house. The Penn Patent, signed by sons Thomas and Richard, would likely generate substantially less if sold, said Bobby Livingston, vice president of sales and marketing at RR Auction.
But beyond monetary value, the patent has notable local significance, Zaia said.
The patent found by the Knights Templar is for the land at 22 S. Third Street, the site of Northampton County's first jail, which held prisoners during the Revolutionary War. Under the terms of the patent, the county was to present a red rose each year to the Penns or their designee — a precursor to deals today in which land is sold for a dollar.
When the jail was moved to its current location in 1871, the land was used for various commercial purposes until it was purchased by the Knights Templar in 1884. The group had kept the patent ever since, even though its members were oblivious.
Keeping the document would have been difficult because exposure to light would harm the ink, Starniri said. The darkness of the safe helped preserve it for so long and the group thinks the library will be the best home for it. His worst fear was future generations of Knights Templar getting rid of the document without knowing what it is.
"We wanted to give it someplace where it could be preserved and where people could see it," Starniri said. "It would be a lot more beneficial to everybody."
The library plans to restore the patent and keep it covered, taking it out only when visitors come to see it.
• A Penn Patent is an official deed signed by William Penn or his family, which conveyed clear title and all rights of land to a private owner. Penn Patents were issued for almost every plot in Easton when the city was originally subdivided. | <urn:uuid:d0f1e6a3-885c-422b-bec4-851a3e7d6490> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.mcall.com/2012-04-27/news/mc-easton-library-penn-patent-20120427_1_knights-templar-document-marx-room | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979548 | 841 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Choosing an apiary site
An apiary is a place where bees can be conveniently kept and managed. Siting beehives is a decision that affects the bees, the beekeepers and other people in the district so it is one that needs to be made carefully. However, all sorts of places can be used to keep bees. Bees can be kept near the homestead or far away from people. Depending on their species and nature, honey bee and stingless bees can be on roofs, yards, trees, or wild and waste places. They can utilise places that may not be useful for other crops; the first crop harvested from a minefield after a war can only be a crop of honey.
The decision about what place to keep the bees is a personal one that reflects personal circumstances. However, there are some helpful guiding principles:
The bees need a source of food (or forage). This is best supplied by a diverse range of melliferous flowering plants within a 2-3 k radius of the apiary. A diverse range of plants will ensure nectar and pollen for the bees for the longest possible period and minimise any need for feeding during the dearth period. Smaller bees such as Apis cerana or stingless bees will have a proportionately smaller foraging range. The successful colonisation and productivity of a colony relates very closely to the quality of the natural resources in the area. Where tropical bees abscond it is often due to the paucity of forage at that time of year.
All living things need water and bees are no exception. They need a water source within 500 metres of the colony if they are not to cause a nuisance at public watering points or domestic taps. If water is not available all year round then water needs to be supplied. This does need to be large but does need refilling on a regular basis. A container of water filled with pebbles so the bees can drink without drowning is ideal.
Both bees and beekeeper need space. Beehives, especially those containing African bees, should not be too close together or they will be difficult to work with. Furthermore, too many hives in one place will cause unhealthy competition for resources.
Beehives kept using stands need to have a relatively level site. This is helpful to the beekeeper also to give accessible working space. Honey is heavy so thought needs to be given to the practicality of getting the honey home.
Colonies need protection from extreme weather conditions; in particular extreme heat. Siting colonies under trees will provide shelter from excessive heat, rain and winds. Hives may also need protection from predatory or domestic animals or even thieves.
- Think safety:
Bees should not be kept near public thoroughfares or places where people work or congregate, especially if they are African bees. Placing the hive high up or growing a live fence or bushes in front of the entrance encourages the bees to fly upwards over the heads of people where they are less troublesome. The gentle types of bees, such as stingless bees or Apis cerana, are the most amenable for keeping close the homestead.
Print topic information
List of Articles available on this topic (7) | <urn:uuid:eee96938-83c0-4abf-9082-9e1d4df022cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beesfordevelopment.org/portal/topic.php?id=156&p=93 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930732 | 657 | 3.28125 | 3 |
“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high; like a diamond in the sky”.
Sounds familiar eh?!
That is because us and the generation before us grew up with those rhyming words. If you give it a closer look, there’s nothing very impressive about those verses but they are catchy and also easy to remember. So when you start to think about how to write my own lyrics, you want to make sure you include words that rhyme in your verses; it makes it easier for the listener to both follow and also remember your song.
Without the slightest element of doubt, we all have music inside of us. Either this music can be expressed through instruments in the form of compositions & rhythms or it can be revealed through the eccentric talent of poetry. Even I, keeping my love & passion for music in perspective, love to write my song lyrics and make my own lyrics to go with the novice compositions I endeavor to create. It really is a satisfying feeling you get by reading your own poetry because it all makes perfect sense to you and also enables you to tell others the message you are trying to or intend to convey through the amazing words you have inked down.
But, saying things like “I cannot write my own lyrics” would be a fallacy you do not want to become a victim of; trust me, you CAN create your own lyrics; and you WILL! And after reading this small humble excerpt, you will come across songwriting tips hints that it will be as easy as ABC to write your own song lyrics. So let us explore on how all of us can familiarized with how to write my own lyrics.
Quick Steps to Write My Own Lyrics
1) Inspirational theme behind your song idea
There is always a predominant thought or mood that inspires us to write a song. This is the exact mood or thought you need to seize and use it to create the chorus. The chorus will be the soul of your song and will further enable you to write the remaining verses for your beautiful creation. So rule number one is to create & hold on to the chorus! The fact of the matter is, if you have the chorus nailed, the remaining verses will flow relatively easily and will be so much more easier for you to hold on to the message wanting to be conveyed.
2) Giving a title to your song
Once you have the chorus crafted to a certain extent, be sure to write it down. Additionally, grab a piece of paper and note & ink down all the words that come to your mind while looking at that chorus. This will also enable you to give a Title to your song. The title will also pave the way for you to further develop your song.
3) Crafting the body and flow of your song
Once you have the title, start to question yourself. For example, let us suppose that the title we have chosen for our song is “The dark night”. Now, we want to go ahead and interrogate ourselves a little bit. Was it the weather that made the night dark? Did a particular event take place that night which made your mood dark & mellow? Or was it instead a happy dark night where you sat near a bonfire with your friends eating marshmallows? The interrogation can go on & on and will help you craft the song waiting to jump out of your heart and engrave itself onto the paper in front of you.
4) Making use of imagery
Imagery is as important as the words you write down. Imagine a funeral; look around from the third person perspective and note all the things that you see; people, plants, surrounding environment (clouds, wind), emotions etc.
5) Sequencing your thoughts and ideas
Once you have all the ammo (words) that you feel are enough, begin writing them down in a sequential manner. Trust me if you have the concept clear enough in your head, it will be a piece of cake to write the remaining bit of your song.
These are the exact same step that I adopt myself when people ask me how to write my own lyrics verse. It is not magic, a bit of an art, but for the most part, an engulfment of emotions inked down on paper. So follow these steps and hopefully you will be successful at knowing how to write own songs & coming up with beautiful poetry backed up by mesmerizing melodies & compositions that will dazzle an audience of any size and age group. | <urn:uuid:781ed11a-26d6-44f0-9a7a-5c0a4a649206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.writeawriting.com/how-to-write/lyrics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949888 | 925 | 1.890625 | 2 |
|About Immigration Voice|
The issues, in a nutshell
1. Green Card Delays and Backlogs :
The Employment based green card system is completely broken due to excessive delays and backlogs in petitions of nearly half a million highly skilled workers who are certified by US Government to be doing a job that no US citizen is willing, qualified or able to do. The delays in obtained permanent residency are due to 2 reasons: Numerical caps on employment-based green cards and processing delays in adjudication of files. Today the system takes anywhere between 6-12 years to grant Green cards to some of the best and brightest of the world who have chosen America as their future home.
These future Americans are facing huge quality of life issues and their employers are facing difficulty in attracting more of the best and brightest of the world due to the broken system. The system prevents these workers from accepting promotions and switching jobs for the time-period it takes to process their files. By stagnating career growth and suffocating the creativity of the most innovative and technical minds of the world, America is creating a class of future Americans, who would see no career growth for 6-12 years and making under-achievers of these individuals.
The pressure on these individuals to go back to their home countries are increasingly each day as many world economies, especially India and China are booming and they also happen to be the country of origin of more than half of these skilled foreign-born workforce. If America delays reform of the broken system of employment based immigration, the pressure on these individuals to go back would neutralize the incentive to wait here and tough it out with the broken system. It would result in a reverse brain drain where the talent and human capital flows from developed west to the burgeoning Asian economies. The reverse brain drain would exacerbate the effects of overseas outsourcing on economy. These future Americans have waited for reform for more than 2 years but congress hasn’t reformed the system yet. The fight for the best and brightest in the world is America’s to lose.
2. The Per-Country rationing of green cards that exacerbates the delays :
Today, the employment based skilled immigrants face more backlogs if they are from India, China, Mexico or Philippines than what backlogs they would face if they were born anywhere but these 4 countries. This is due to the fact that green cards from the annual quota are rationed at 7% per country. Unused visas from the remaining countries that don’t use the 7% allocated visas are mostly never allotted to these 4 countries that have the highest number of scientists, engineers and technology workers willing to make America their future home. It is discriminatory to have laws that subject immigrants from 4 nations to more backlogs and the resulting hardship from such backlogs.
America has had per-country ceilings since decades on family based and diversity-lottery based visas and it makes sense to have uniform distribution of visas to countries where the basis for immigration is family relationship and family reunification. However, in the employment based immigration system, the petitioner is the employer who wants the retain the employee and facilitate employee retention based on skills, knowledge, education and talent. Employability has nothing to do country of birth. We do not allow employers to discriminate hiring based on their nationality or country of origin. Therefore, the employment-based immigration, which is a derivative benefit of employment, should also be free from rationing based on nationality or country of birth.
Immigration Voice is a non-profit organization (501 (c) (4)) . We act as an interface between this set of immigrants and the legislative and executive branches of the government.
Immigration Voice has hired Patton Boggs, a top public affairs firm, to help us reach our goals. Patton Boggs brings a bipartisan, multi-disciplinary approach to helping clients tackle public affairs challenges. The firm’s government relations and communications professionals have a strong understanding of the White House, the U.S. Congress, Senate, Federal agencies, advocacy groups and the media. The firm and its members are consistently recognized as among Washington's most influential and effective by various publications.
Immigration Voice is a non-profit organization. All of our volunteers are unpaid. All monies collected by Immigration Voice go towards grassroots efforts and obtaining advice from our strategic counsel Patton Boggs. As a 501(c)(4) organization, Immigration Voice is obligated to file tax returns with the IRS and have its accounts audited by a CPA.
Immigration Voice upholds the right of the people of the United States to impose immigration laws for the advancement of the nation. Immigration Voice acts within the framework of the constitution of the United States.
Our big initiative currently is towards addressing delays and other flaws in the employment based green card process. Immigration Voice has hired Patton Boggs, a top public affairs firm, to help us reach our goals.
The mission of Immigration Voice is to organize grassroots efforts and resources to solve several problems in the employment based green card process including (a) delays due to Retrogression (visa number unavailability for certain employment-based categories) (b) delays due to USCIS processing backlogs and (c) delays due to Labor Certification backlogs. We will work to remove these and other flaws by supporting changes to immigration law for high-skilled legal employment-based immigrants. High-skilled legal immigrants strengthen the United States' economy and help maintain American technological superiority.
History of the formation of Immigration Voice
Immigration Voice was founded by a group of volunteers who were closely following the Senate debate in November of 2005 that aimed to provide relief from green card delays. Those reform provisions failed in the House-Senate conference in December. It was a huge disappointment for nearly 500,000 legal skilled immigrants stuck in backlogs. During this time, Aman Kapoor (aka WaldenPond) an active poster at the forums announced a conference call to start this non-profit organization with the objective to end retrogression by creating representation for the community that had no representation. After an initial lukewarm response, few other active posters joined the team. Thus was born Immigration Voice.
Immigration Voice Achievements
i. USCIS takes note of the flower campaign
i. Media coverage: Business Week
i. 1/2006: 60
ii. 2/2006: 600
iii. 7/2006: 4500
iv. 1/2007: 7500
v. 7/2007: 15000
vi. 8/2007: 20000
vii. 11/2007: 25000
viii. 07/2008: 30000
IX. 09/2009: 36,810
|When will I get my Greencard?|
|Create/Edit FREE profile here.|
|The Immigrant Exodus: By Vivek Wadhwa||Immigration: By Stuart Anderson| | <urn:uuid:f5a52d33-582c-4072-9fdf-4f2df4810a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php/forum/forum/forum/tracker/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=47 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956566 | 1,401 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon, nicknamed "First Lightning", at a test facility on the steppe of northeast Kazakhstan (formerly the Kazakh SSR). The test site, named the Semipalatinsk Polygon, would go on to host 456 atomic explosions over its 40-year existence. Residents in the surrounding area became unwitting guinea pigs, exposed to the aftereffects of the bombs both intentionally and unintentionally. The radiation has silently devastated three generations of people in Kazakhstan - the total number affected is thought to be more than one million - creating health problems ranging from thyroid diseases, cancer, birth defects, deformities, premature aging, and cardiovascular diseases. Life expectancy in the area is seven years less than the national average of Kazakhstan.
Stunning images on The Big Picture. | <urn:uuid:5c9e83b7-7d29-411e-b75b-04b77e022efd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://xeophin.net/en/tag/photography | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943363 | 165 | 2.859375 | 3 |
"I want to extend the nation's deepest gratitude to the heroes of Flight 93 and their families," he said. "They responded with selflessness, determination and tremendous courage. They were successful in preventing an attack on the U.S. Capitol."
And Panetta was in the Capitol on that fateful day, he said. This was his first visit to the site where the crew and passengers of Flight 93 overpowered the hijackers and sent an airliner crashing into the countryside instead of its intended target. He had planned to come last year, but his trip was canceled because of the weather.
Panetta was the second defense secretary to visit the site. Donald H. Rumsfeld came in March 2006, which was before the memorial was completed. Panetta was escorted by Dennis Reidenbach, regional director of the Northeast Region of the National Park Service; Jeff Reinbold, superintendent of the Flight 93 site; Patrick White, president of the Families of Flight 93; Gordon Felt, past-president; and several other members of the Families of Flight 93.
The 40 heroes of Flight 93 continue to inspire our nation, Panetta said. Since that day, millions of American men and women in uniform have stepped forward to serve. Like the heroes of Flight 93, they put their lives on the line for our country. We gather at the memorial to renew our pledge to those who died on Sept. 11.
"We will remain forever vigilant to threats against our homeland," he said. "Nobody attacks America and gets away with it."
Although Osama bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda still remains a threat, the secretary said. We continue to fight them in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. We will continue to fight them where ever they go.
"I pray, as we remember 9-11 and the terrible things that took place, that we take the time to remind ourselves of the sacrifices made by those who fought and died on those days and since then," Panetta said. "Every day, they are fighting to make sure that this country is protected. That is the spirit that was reflected in the heroes of Flight 93. They charged ahead, knowing they were making the sacrifice and it is that sacrifice that makes this country strong and we damn well will remember that every day."
Following his visit, Felt said Panetta gave each of the Families represented the defense secretary's "coin," the medallion he hands out to troops he meets in combat zones.
"We're thrilled the secretary was here representing the administration today to honor the 40 heroes," Felt said. He comes back to the site to feel closer to his brother, Edward Felt, who was one of the passengers. "I feel a sense of peace here. It is important that the Families continue to be a driving force in the completion of the memorial."
White said that the secretary asked the same kinds of questions that the typical visitor asks upon seeing the memorial. He escorted Panetta to the boulder that marks the impact site. White said he knew that the secretary wanted to spend time there in quiet reflection to pay his respects to the heroes, and so he stepped back.
"He said things we will all cherish and remember," White said. "The 40 heroes' actions were worthy of being remembered forever. The secretary said he visited a lot of places, but few like this have had such a moving impact on it." | <urn:uuid:6515daba-599c-4cc9-9574-c50854c2e43a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyamerican.com/news/somerset/da-ot-defense-secretary-panetta-visits-memorial-20120910,0,7030482.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984088 | 689 | 1.71875 | 2 |
[Talk-us] State Route relations (was: Highway Tagging Consensus toImprove OSM (and address some of 41 latitude's concerns))
niceman at att.net
Sat Oct 16 12:12:33 BST 2010
> I'd love to see a consensus on how to tag these roads come pretty
> quickly, as I'll need to have something finished in less than 2 months
> (school schedules are rough, man!).
I would say that the result of your project will be usable even if we
change our mind. Once relations have been established, they can also be
updated by a bot also.
> One thing I /haven't/ seen addressed yet is whether single relations are
> preferred, or one relation for each way with a super-relation.
> Currently both are in use, but I think it would be a lot easier for
> future code if we pick one and move towards it from now on.
The current preferred convention is one relation per state, with a
super-relation for all. Some people are converting existing road route
relations, but it takes time. The reason is to minimize editing
conflicts across long distances where it is likely that 2 or more people
will be splitting a roadway to add attributes at the same time.
More information about the Talk-us | <urn:uuid:8cf90adc-4b51-42db-a096-336434f842af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us/2010-October/004411.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947505 | 275 | 1.625 | 2 |
What could be more fun than having a baby shower for a friend? Afraid of the work? Let us help you with the planning so you can enjoy the party!
- Ask a friend or two to help. Divide duties to make lighter work for all.
- Set the date and create the guest list with input from the guest of honor. Obtain addresses of guests at this time.
- Don’t overlook the possibility of a couples’ shower. The dad-to-be might like being included.
- Invitations: Purchase or design your own and place them in a baby bottle for a fun presentation. Mail the invitations two to three weeks prior to date, and don’t forget to include RSVP information and directions to the shower.
- When you know the number of people attending, plan amounts of food, drink, and tableware.
- Consider the number of guests.
- Consider the time of day.
- Brunch: Quiches, fruit platter, and fruit juices
- Lunch: Tea sandwiches, simple salads, fruit platter, and punch
- Evening: Hot and cold appetizers, fruit tray, and punch
- To save time, order prepared food or party platters from the deli.
- For a darling dessert, choose Pitter Patter Petits Fours or Baby Block Cakes.
Set the Mood
- Theme: This could correlate with the theme of the nursery or could be a general “baby” theme.
- For a centerpiece, tuck a few tiny baby toys, such as a rattle, teething ring, and small plush teddy bear, into a pastel floral arrangement.
- Instead of placing gifts on a table, tuck them into a baby buggy or stroller.
- Tie napkins with satin ribbons in blue, pink, and yellow.
Games—Let the Fun Begin!
- Memory Game: Fill a laundry basket with items one will need for a baby. Give guests a pen and paper. Allow guests to view the items for 30 seconds. Remove basket and ask guests to write down as many items as they can remember within the time. The person with the most wins! Examples of items:
- When the game is over, wrap the basket for a great gift for the mom-to-be.
- Name Scramble: Type a list of scrambled words and have guests try to figure them out within a certain period of time. The person who gets them all the fastest or the person who has the most correct within the time wins! Examples of words:
- Pidare - diaper
- Toblet - bottle
- Gihh rachi - high chair
- Diaper Race (Especially fun for a couples’ shower): Provide two dolls, two cloth diapers, and four diaper pins. Select two teams. A member of each team runs to their doll and diapers it. The next team member removes the diaper and re-diapers the doll. The team that finishes first wins. Need an extra challenge? Try it blindfolded!
- Feed Me! (Also fun for a couples’ shower): Select two teams. One member from each team sits in a chair. The next member is blindfolded and attempts to feed the teammate. After one bite is successful, the blindfolded person sits in the chair. Blindfold the next team member and continue until all team members have tried to feed someone. The team that finishes first wins. (Use clean spoons for each team member!) | <urn:uuid:5ecd3a64-12d1-4ac7-af50-412ae92b877a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pillsburybaking.com/bakers-corner/baking-tips/all-about-cakes/baby-shower | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927561 | 733 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Two weeks ago, a stack of flyers was left at a community center in Bed-Stuy informing “friends” that “if you have not voted since November, 2008, you must pre-register to vote 35 days prior to November or you will not be allowed to vote in the upcoming National Presidential Election.”
This is not true!
In addition, there is no formal organization or sponsorship on the flyer and the local phone number listed for the Board of Elections is not a valid number.
This could be an attempt to keep people from voting and, at the least, it will confuse voters. The public needs to know that this may not be the only misinformation out there.
If you have any questions about whether you are properly registered to vote you can check by going to www.vote.nyc.ny.us and go to the voter section. You can also call the NYC Board of Elections at (866) 868-3692.
Trust only information provided by reputable organizations such as the League of Women Voters, the NYC Voter Assistance Program, NYC Campaign Finance Board or the NYC Board of Elections.
Should you see any notices providing incorrect information regarding voting, please report it the NYC Board of Elections.
Chair, Voter Services Committee
NYC League of Women Voters | <urn:uuid:8912393c-2b47-4e81-95bb-76ac0e87a3e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/20610258/article-Beware-of-fraudulent-voting-info | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93567 | 265 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Resonant converters do, though, have several disadvantages. Performance can be optimized at a single operating point, but not across a wide range of input-voltage and load-power variations. Also, the quasi-sinusoidal waveforms found in a resonant converter exhibit higher peak values than their equivalent rectangular waveforms. In addition, current can circulate through the tank elements even when the load is disconnected, leading to poor efficiency at light load. A similar switching technology is today often employed in low-power LED drivers in which a quasi-resonant or valley-switching topology is implemented. To start, current IQ1 ramps up until the desired energy level is charged in to coil L - see figure 5
. Then switch Q1 is turned off. When the switching transient is complete and the coil current equals zero, the drain voltage starts to oscillate around the input voltage level VDC. The amplitude equals V0. Circuitry connected to the Q1 drain pin senses when the voltage on the drain of the switch has reached its lowest value. The next cycle is then started. The effect of this topology is to reduce capacitive switching losses and electromagnetic emissions. On the other hand, a quasi-resonant converter has the same disadvantages as a resonant converter, as described above.
Figure 5: operation of a quasi-resonant, zero-voltage switching circuit.
Click on image to enlarge
EMC standards for conducted emissions generally set peak energy limits within the frequency band from 150kHz to 30MHz. Although carefully selected fixed-frequency modulation can be effective in spreading harmonic content, the disadvantage is that in some cases it might not provide sufficient attenuation of the fundamental. New research, however, suggests that modulating at a fixed frequency is not as effective in reducing the peak energy in the fundamental as modulating the carrier with a complex, random, or pseudo-random waveform. Perhaps the most important lesson to learn from experience is the importance of testing prototypes for EMC, before going to pre-production.
About the author:
Arnoldas Bagdonas is Field Application Engineer at Future Electronics (Lithuania) - www.futureelectronics.com
Courtesy of EETimes Europe
See related links:
Developing smart LED-based lighting systems
Infrared LEDs for camera systems
LED lighting drives demand for phosphors
LED performance boosted by wireless bonding
Design archives: LEDs
If you found this article to be of interest, visit SmartEnergy Designline
where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology,
product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of clean
technologies. And, to register to our weekly newsletter, click here. | <urn:uuid:3e9d4f9b-f1f9-4a55-8715-b2a5e8b93fd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eetimes.com/design/smart-energy-design/4402334/Powering-LED-luminaires--What-s-the-best-option-?pageNumber=2&Ecosystem=audio-design | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91379 | 556 | 2.875 | 3 |
Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) October 03, 2012
Childhood obesity is an epidemic that is threatening the future of our nation. Awareness and prevention of this crisis is a mission for all Americans. The newly founded Children’s Obesity Fund (COF) is a non-profit organization that was established to fight childhood obesity in our communities. COF is committed to support organizations and agencies that provide information and resources to parents, educators and other role models to help our children make choices that will lead to healthier lives.
First Lady Michelle Obama is a leader in the campaign against childhood obesity. She is a passionate and tireless advocate in raising awareness on this issue. According to the program she founded, Let’s Move (letsmove.gov), childhood obesity rates in the United States have tripled in the last 30 years. Almost one in every three children is overweight or obese with nearly 40% of African American and Hispanic children overweight or obese.
Childhood obesity affects all income levels and ethnicities and the associated complications can impede the physical, social and emotional well-being of a child. Related health problems are well known: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, asthma, sleep disorders, and high blood pressure. In addition, obese children often suffer with behavioral and learning problems, depression and low self-esteem, and are frequent targets for teasing and bullying. Obese children are also more likely to become obese as adults.
We all know that good food choices and more physical activity can lower the risk of obesity and developing related diseases. However, there are a myriad of lifestyle factors today that make it difficult for everyone to maintain an ideal weight: the ease and affordability of fast food, larger serving portions, and the popularity of sedentary activities such as computers, television and video games.
The Children’s Obesity Fund aims to help reverse the trend of rising obesity rates in America. The goal of the non-profit charity is to help people fully understand children’s obesity and its dire impact on individuals and society as a whole -- and to use that knowledge to teach children healthy behaviors early on. COF hopes to encourage and support meaningful initiatives so that we can work together to raise healthy, active, social, and happy children. More information about the Children’s Obesity Fund is available at http://www.childrensobesityfund.org. | <urn:uuid:c52ada30-3d63-4cbc-972e-0f9713b5ff87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb9977091.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95231 | 480 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Really, shouldn't we invest heavily in wind and solar power? Wouldn't it be wonderful to tell all the countries that sit on huge oil reserves to eat their oil? Just imagine what wind and solar power would mean to air and water quality. I'm sure there would be a few unlucky birds that get tangled up in the turbines, but they'll learn to stay away from those big white turning things after a while.
Camilla Zenz/Zuma Press
Wind turbines generate power in San Gorgonio near Palm Spring California. In 2004, wind power became the least expensive form of new power generation, dipping below the cost per kilowatt-hour of coal-fired plants. Wind power is growing faster than any other form of electrical generation. | <urn:uuid:4fdaacd3-8dec-4b26-9370-684043ca9e49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2006/11/27/4352122- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957993 | 153 | 2.109375 | 2 |
From a career management perspective there is one reason
to get a PE. It may open the door to a job opportunity for you
in the future. Currently, there are some jobs that only a PE
• Only a PE can prepare, sign and seal, and submit
engineering plans and drawings to a public authority for
approval, or seal engineering work for public and private
• Some states require that individuals teaching engineering or
engineering design courses are licensed.
• If you are pursuing a career as a private practitioner, the
PE designation could prove invaluable, and will be required if
you advertise and provide engineering services to the public.
• Some government agencies require that certain higher level
engineers are licensed.
• Looking at the issue from the perspective of a potential
employer, if two or more candidates for a job are all equally
qualified, but one has a PE, that candidate may stand out. | <urn:uuid:7706084b-bfca-404e-b339-4c94c9942b3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.searchenterprises.com/FAQs/faq.php?answer=18&cat_name=Frequently%20Asked%20Professional%20Engineer%20Questions&category_id=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931075 | 189 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The woodland area boasts, among other plants, more than 20 hostas of various cultivars, such as 'Great Expectations', 'Patriot', 'Ryan's Big One', 'June', and 'Sum and Substance', as well as several types of Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis).
South of the woodland, a patio provides an inviting entry from the house into the backyard. This part of the garden is currently undergoing substantial renovations, as space is being made to incorporate a 1.8-metre black Japanese pine. "The plan is to create an outdoor room for the tree," says Harold. Larry explains that the existing concrete patio will be refaced with flagstone to better integrate with the surrounding gravel-covered beds and pathways. To further ensure this specimen pine gets plenty of attention, it will be placed on a mound behind the headwater rock of a stream that runs from just beyond the patio area. (The stream gathers into a series of ponds and small waterfalls before culminating into a bog at the lowest end of the garden.) The size of the headwater rock is deceptive, as most of it is buried. "It's an interesting rock," says Harold. "From one angle it looks like the peak of the Matterhorn." The patio area's reconfiguration will require the removal of one of three ornamental plum trees that flank the Monterey cypress hedge (Cupressus macrocarpa) that borders the property. "I hate to cut that tree down," says Harold, "but it's far too close to the hedge to try to dig it out."
The meandering gravel path encountered earlier follows the stream along its course. A bridge near the third and final pond at the southwest corner of the garden leads to a log bench where one can sit and enjoy the play of water. Black and golden bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra and P. aurea), grown in containers, heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) and stipa grass are some of the plants found along the waterway. The plants add colour and movement while providing a soft contrast to the gravel path. Later in the season, white and pink water lilies, cultivars unknown, cover most of the surface of the lowest pond.
For the most part, rocks throughout the garden provide the focal points, while plantings act as the backdrop and frame. This is especially true in the desert garden along the south side of the house, with its perfect growing conditions for yucca (Yucca spp.), prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp.), artichoke (Cynara scolymus), red hot poker (Kniphofia) and a fig tree (Ficus spp.)
Moving up the slope again, the path passes a replicated alpine setting with grafted dwarf trees (including dwarf Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus 'Nana'), weeping Korean fir (Abies koreana 'Pendula') and globe Colorado spruce (Picea pungens 'Globosa'). In this section, a huge rock that looks like a small mountain takes up much of the gravel bed. Bits of the rock have been chipped away to create a scree slope. The adjacent walkway acts as a valley between the rock and the house. "The rhodos overhang this area like trees would in a woodland clearing," says Larry.
Walking west, a gazebo designed by Larry and Harold provides a good lookout spot. Situated next to the pond and bog area, the structure offers views of most of the garden.
Other rocks placed around the property emulate everything from puffins and ducks to Inukshuks and a smiling monk. The liberal use of rocks and gravel means less lawn to maintain, too. Though the design of their garden may be stylized, the Myerses have made every effort to work in harmony with nature. The result speaks for itself. | <urn:uuid:0ecceea6-d177-473e-9a2a-e03475df370e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadiangardening.com/gardens/featured-gardens/rock-stars/a/1217/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943407 | 809 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Hemis Gompa The Hemis Gompa is the biggest
monastery in Ladakh. Located 45 Km to the south of Leh. Hemis Gompa was
built in 1630 and houses monks of the Brokpa or Red Hat sect. Tourists
can see beautiful frescoes (paintings) on the walls and the largest Thangka
painting in Ladakh, which is over 12 m in length. The Hemis Gompa is famous
for its annual Tse Chu Festival held in June-July, which is characterized
by colorful masked dances. The festival commemorates the anniversary of
Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. Dancers wearing brightly
colored masks that represent good and evil characters in Mahayana Buddhism,
enact an age-old tale of the victory of good over evil. The Hemis Festival
also includes a vibrant bazaar where craftsmen sell handcrafted items.
Shanti Stupa (Entry Free.
Timings: 5 a.m.-9 p.m.)
The Shanti Stupa is an impressive
white-domed structure in Chandspa that is beautifully illuminated at night.
It was built by a Japanese Buddhist organization to commemorate 2500 years
of Buddhism and to promote World Peace. The Shanti Stupa was inaugurated
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1985. You can approach the monastery
by a steep flight of steps or by a 3 Km route from the Fort Road. The views
of the sunset and sunrise from the Shanti Stupa are spectacular.
Sankar Gompa (Prayer Timings
7 - 8:30 a.m)
Situated 2 Km North of the
city center, the Sankar Gompa houses monks of the Gelukpa or Yellow Hat
order. It has a grand image of Avalokiteshvara (The Buddhist deity of compassion)
who is depicted with 1,000 heads and 1,000 arms.
Namgyal Tsemo Gompa
(Prayer Timings 7 - 9 a.m)
The Namgyal Tsemo Gompa,
was constructed in 1430. This historic gompa has a rich collection of Buddhist
art and manuscripts and an image of Buddha, which is 3 stories high. There
is a ruined fort ahead of the monastery, from where you can see panoramic
views of Leh Town.
Leh Palace (Entry
Fee: Indian Rs 5, Foreigners Rs 100 / Timings: sunrise to sunset)
The Leh Palace is a smaller
version of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Built in the
17th century for King Singge Namgyal, the Leh Palace was the residence
of the Ladakhi royal family till they were sent into exile in Stok in the
1830s. Now undergoing reconstruction the Leh Palace also houses the Ladakh
office of the archeological conservation organization of the Indian Government.
Stok Palace (Entry
Fee: Rs 25, Timings 8 a.m. - 7p.m.)
The Stok Palace is located
on a glacial deposit of pebbles and overlooks fields of barley grown on
terraces on the mountains. Standing four storeys tall, the Stok Palace
was the official residence of the royal family of Ladakh and was constructed
in 1814 by Ladakh's last ruler. The museum at the Stok Palace has an intriguing
collection of Buddhist art, weapons, jewelry and artifacts, including thangkas
painted with colors derived from crushed precious stones. Also on display
are the ceremonial headdresses or 'peraks' of the erstwhile rulers of Ladakh.
These headdresses are decorated with turquoise, lapis lazuli and coral
and gold, making them an exotic sight.
Lamayuru Monastery The Lamayuru monastery is
located on a high rocky outcrop, which overlooks a valley and the village
of Lamayuru, 125 Km west of Leh. It is also called the Yung Drung or Swastika
monastery and its stunning location makes this monastery a must visit on
a tour to Ladakh. The monastery has a many Thangka paintings in its main
hall. The annual festival of Lamayuru Monastery is held every summer on
the 28th and 29th days, of the 2nd month of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar.
Shey Monastery Situated on a hillock 15
km south of Leh, Shey Gompa was previously the summer palace of the Ladakhi
kings. A prince of Ladakh installed the 12 m tall gold-plated copper statue
of Sakyamuni Buddha, which can be seen here. The Shey Gompa celebrates
its annual festival on the 30th day of the 1st month of the Tibetan Buddhist
Alchi Gompa The Alchi Gompa is situated
on the bank of the River Indus and is easily accessible since it is the
only Gompa in Ladakh, which is located on flat ground. Founded by Ringchen
Zangpo, the Great Translator, the Alchi Gompa displays a Kashmiri influence
in its art and architecture. Within the monastery you can see many beautiful
images of Buddha. Photography is not permitted within the Alchi Monastery.
Likir Monastery The Likir Monastery is also
called the Klu-Kkhjil or "water spirits" gompa and is situated 52 Km from
Leh. Built over an earlier Gompa burnt down in the 15th century, the present
Gompa is an 18th century construction and houses monks of the Gyalukpa
sect. The Likir monastery has a rich collection of paintings, robes and
artifacts. The Likir Festival is held from the 17th to 19th of the 12th
month of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar.
Spituk Monastery The Spituk Gompa is perched
on a high hill overlooking the Indus river about 18 Km from Leh. Rinchen
Zangpo the Great Translator who helped spread Buddhism in Ladakh named
the monastery. (Spituk means exemplary). The Spituk monastery is known
for its collection of Buddhist artifacts and for the Spituk festival held
from the 17th to 19th days of the 11th month of the Buddhist calendar.
Further up the hill is a Mahakal Temple, where a fearsome image of Vajrabhairava
is unveiled once a year at its annual festival.
Thiksey Monastery The Thiksey monastery located
17 Km from Leh is 12 storeys high and has many statues of Buddha, a pillar
inscribed with Buddhist teachings, a 15 m high seated Maitreya Buddha in
the main prayer hall, and a vast collection of Buddhist art. Home to monks
of the Gelukpa order the Thiksey monastery is known for its annual festival
held from the 17th to 19th day of the 12th month of the Tibetan Buddhist
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from your end. | <urn:uuid:fdeab34d-fea4-45e1-8130-bad6a453ee04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveindia.com/ladakh/Attraction.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915159 | 1,642 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To fish by pulling a line through the water. 2 To try to lure or incite someone by passing something where they can see it. 3. (Obsolete) To sing in the manner of a round or simply merrily.
Notes: We have reduced the 14 meanings of today's Good Word to the three central ones in the Oxford English Dictionary. Most of this word's meanings are obsolete, like No. 3 above, and as you can see from the three we selected, they are quite disparate.
In Play: About the only time you will hear the third meaning of this word is when you (or someone else) is singing the Christmas carol, Deck the Halls:
"Don we now our gay apparel
Fa la la la la la la la la
Troll the ancient Yuletide carol
Fa la la la la la la la la."
Otherwise, you will hear it used in its second meaning: "Hackers troll the Internet looking for computers they can crack into."
Word History: Today's Good Word's origin is as mysterious as the disparity of its meanings. It can be traced back only as far as two Old French words, troller "to go hunting" and trôler "to meander, wander about". The latter may have originated in Germanic trollen "to roll", but the two later merged and finally disappeared from most dialects. You can see how the senses of the French words might be related to the first two meanings of today's word, but where the third meaning came from is anybody's guess. The verb has no relation to the noun troll, which was borrowed from Norwegian. (Let us all troll a melody of Yuletide thanksgiving to Peggy Nielsen for suggesting this elderly member of the English vocabulary for today's Good Word.)
Come visit our website at <http://www.alphadictionary.com> for more Good Words and other language resources! | <urn:uuid:1c5c0fe2-f84d-4cfb-98f9-8ace6f1b96a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/date/2012/12/21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946554 | 406 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Video-glossary : Writing
Quechua is now written in the Latin alphabet despite the fact that its phonological system is very different from Indo-European languages. The transcription system therefore requires considerable work. Starting in 1580, a graphic system was put into place for speakers of the language, a system that remained valid until the middle of the 18th century. Other systems were later elaborated but were not very consistent. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that a genuine unification and simplification of systems was created. This phonologically based system is still currently used in Peru and Bolivia. | <urn:uuid:60e6c9b7-90f5-4c59-bca0-a4d5d7d8f2d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.archivesaudiovisuelles.fr/EN/_EncycloPubByKeyword.asp?motCle=Writing&theme=&nom=&video=Transcribing+Quechua&src=924_en&id=a844a829c-b871-4783-8682-4f9df3d5c081 | 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 | 0.981966 | 123 | 3.40625 | 3 |
"In 1907, Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung began what promised to be both a momentous collaboration and the deepest friendship of each man's life. Six years later they were bitter antagonists, locked in a savage struggle. In between them stood a young woman named Sabina Speilrein: a patient and lover to Jung, a colleague and confidante to Freud, and one of the greatest minds in modern psychiatry. This mesmerizing book reconstructs the fatal triangle of Freud, Jung and Spielrein. It encompasses clinical methods and politics, hysteria and anti-Semitism, sexual duplicity and intellectual brilliance wielded as blackmail. Learned, humane and impossible to put down, A Dangerous Method is intellectual history with the narrative power and emotional impact of great tragedy." | <urn:uuid:93208674-fdb5-4529-8a8b-0ec81f260eb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dangerous-Method-Story-Sabina-Spielrein/dp/0857891782 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902525 | 153 | 2.140625 | 2 |
City receives grant to fix dam at pond by Ian Stepleton, Editor, Ripon Press
The city of Ripon has known it would need to invest tens of thousands of dollars into the Mill Pond dam to stabilize it for the future.
On Tuesday, the city found out it won’t have to do so alone.
The DNR announced this week that Ripon was one of 15 municipalities from around the state to receive matching grants that would enable the communities to “maintain, repair, abandon or remove the municipally owned structures.”
Ripon received a matching grant from the DNR. The city was approved for a $156,000 grant, plus another 40 percent for contingency. The city, meanwhile, budgeted $160,000 of its own dollars to match the state funds.
City Engineer Travis Drake was optimistic about getting the grant.
“I had more or less expected it,” he said.
According to a DNR press release, Ripon’s dam was considered the eighth-highest priority dam for receiving funds statewide.
It’s been on both the state and the city’s radar since 2008, when heavy rains led to flooding around the city and at the dam.
Read the full story in the Jan. 5, 2012 edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press.
Excerpted from the Ripon Press website: http://riponpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubsectionID=35&ArticleID=3713 | <urn:uuid:eabde3f9-aef5-483b-bb08-37eb7977cd8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.casonassociates.com/blog/tag/ripon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962068 | 316 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The bigger, the better, right? For a generation of kids, doe eyes are all the rage. Photos of young women in both Asia and the West show that this trend isn't going anywhere. Big eyes are here to stay.
The look is a melding of both the real and the unreal. Eyes that existed only in comic books and video games are entering our three dimensional world. Or, are they? Ideals are taking their cues from computerized images, and beauty isn't skin deep, it's pixel deep.
The big-eyed look isn't new. I wrote about them in 2005, when black contact lenses became all the rage. Before that, young Japanese women seemed more interested in contacts that made their eyes blue or green. The black contacts made them appear larger, thanks to black circles that increased the size of the iris. After the lenses, which initially were not prescription, hit big in Japan, contact lens makers began selling prescription versions. The trend coincided with a movement towards pale skin. For centuries, even before the arrival of Westerners, pale skin was highly prized in Japan. Coupled with a movement back towards dark eyes, shows this trend was part of a larger return to traditional Japanese beauty.
But large, bright eyes aren't necessarily "traditional" at all. Yet, in Japan, characters with enormous eyes show up all over the place—making the look appear to be Japanese. However, American cartoons—most notably Walt Disney—influenced the look in cute Japanese characters. Tezuka Osamu, the famed Japanese artist and animator, grew up before World War II a huge Disney fan. When he came of age in the years following the war, his manga characters didn't simply ape Disney's designs, but did carry their influence. There were big-eyed characters here and there before Tezuka, but since he was so influential (and so talented), his characters and his style set the tone for Japanese manga and anime. The "big-eyed look" is now synonymous with Japanese anime.
Around the same time that black contact lenses were taking off in Japan, Japanese sticker machine makers began filling arcades with sticker machines that would make people's eyes bigger. It was a software trick, and the onboard computer would locate your eyes and the make them appear "larger" by adding rings around your iris—much like the contact lens did.
This big-eyed trend continued throughout the end of the last decade in Japan. Online make-up artist Michelle Phan helped spread the big-eyed look to the West with her make-up videos. CBS News reported that teens were snapping up non-prescription "circle lenses" from Asia, warning that the lenses could damage your iris. In the West, the contact trend was apparently inspired by Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video.
In it, Lady Gaga appeared with enormous, computer altered googly eyes. Since then, more and more young women in both Asia and the West started going all googly eyed. Honestly, I doubt that Lady Gaga's video influence the majority—though, I'm sure it influenced some of them. Rather, her video is a mainstream turning point for the look—it helps mark when the trend was no longer grounded in reality. It's a moment that the trend became altered and crystallized. It's something we can point to.
Nicki Minaj's video "Stupid Hoe" is pitching up that googly-eyed torch and running with it. Internet person Dakota Rose, who finally became famous because of her huge eyes, is set to make her debut in Japan
In the past few months, more and more photos have surfaced in Japan, in China, and in the West that depict individuals with abnormally large eyes. The photos have been either altered with software or camera tricks. The googly eyed look walks the fine line between anime cute and totally disturbing—with, more often than not, it veering into freaky.
Those photos show women (and men) starring into cameras. They're vain. They're empty. And they're not real. So don't call them big eyes. This look is something totally different, rooted in imagery and altering said imagery. They've created a look that is neither based in reality, not does it exist in reality. They're fantasy and freaky, cute and creepy. Call them googly eyes. That, or disturbing. | <urn:uuid:c2817707-c030-4e32-a4d8-3054d6b3200a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kotaku.com/5901635/lady-gaga-nicki-minaj-and-the-rise-of-the-googly-eyes?tag=lady-gaga | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976927 | 904 | 2.109375 | 2 |
By Joli Guenther, MSSW, NASM
Perhaps more than any previous generation, baby boomers are committed to staying active as they age. Although we know that exercise is essential for a long life and physical health, recent research is beginning to demonstrate its importance for maintaining memory and mental health over the long term. Unfortunately, only about half of the baby boomer generation is exercising as much as they need to. If you're looking to stay healthy and strong as you age, try some of these tips for developing a fitness routine at home.
Keep it Consistent. Consistency is the most important part of ensuring the success of your fitness routine. Brisk walking on your treadmill, cycling on your recumbent bike, and using your elliptical in the comfort of your home are all great ways to maintain cardiovascular fitness that will benefit your body and your brain. A good program will have you exercising for at least half an hour most days of the week to maintain your fitness. If you're looking to lose weight through exercise, you need to gradually increase that time to 60-90 minutes most days. If you can't fit it in all at once, try scheduling exercise breaks of at least ten minutes throughout your day.
Balance Your Workouts. Cardio is important, but a good routine will also include strength and flexibility training to decrease injury and promote skeletal and muscular health. You don't need to schedule separate workouts to get the benefit of these types of training. Try including some body weight exercises (such as push-ups and squats) after you've warmed up with a bit of cardio exercise. This will help you maintain better form and burn more calories during your workouts. If you're looking to add some weight to your workouts, resistance bands are widely available and easy to use at home or on the road. Flexibility training can be added to the end of your workouts to avoid injury and balance any tight areas of your body. Click here for more tips on creating a balanced fitness routine.
Enjoyment. Sticking with your fitness routine is much easier if you're having fun. Find activities you like and ways to make your routine enjoyable. Many models of Horizon Fitness Equipment come equipped with docking stations that allow you to include music in your workouts and personal fans to make your workouts more comfortable. Teaming up with a friend or partner for weekend activities or joining in on an athletic fundraising event, such as a heart walk or cancer prevention fundraiser, can be a great way to keep your motivation high and add social connections to your workouts.
Avoiding Injury. It’s more possible to have fun with your fitness routine when you avoid injury. Although a consistent, balanced routine will go a long way, you should also check with your doctor for advice on how to begin the right program for you. Start your workouts slowly with a warm-up of your planned activity and include gentle slow stretching after your workout to reduce soreness the next day. If you're noticing sharp pains or inflammation associated with your workout, it's time to get a doctor's opinion. And finally, remember to schedule some rest between workouts. Strength training should not be done more frequently than every other day and hard workouts should be limited to two or three times per week. Click here for more ways to avoid injury.
Weigh in: Are you a baby boomer who's committed to staying fit as you age? Share your story with us here! | <urn:uuid:efd3ec50-78d0-4b04-bf28-2d9d02ee13a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.horizonfitness.com/GetFitBlog.aspx?id=9445&blogid=2331 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961797 | 696 | 2.21875 | 2 |
PLANK JANUARY 2, 2013
If you look at the House Republican vote, you find regional divisions that mirror the Red-Blue divisions in the national electorate. All in all, 85 Republicans voted for the Senate resolution and 151 voted against it. The opposition was centered in the Old South. Southern Republicans opposed the measure by 83 to 10. The delegations from Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina were unanimously opposed. As one might expect, the bill got support from five Florida Republicans, including Republicans from Cuban districts.
Republican House members from the East and the Far West strongly backed the Senate resolution. In the East, House Republicans were 24 to one in favor, with New York and Pennsylvania unanimous. In the Far West, Republicans voted by 17 to eight in favor. The Midwest was split, with 27 against and 21 for, with Michigan and Illinois in favor, and Ohio, the Speaker’s state, against 7 to 6. This back of the envelope tally suggests that, to a surprising extent, the Civil War divisions endure, and even supersede in this case the partisan divisions between Republicans and Democrats. | <urn:uuid:0f9b1b80-07d7-4f92-b2a2-1f32c83deef4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/plank/111549/the-civil-war-endures-in-the-fiscal-cliff-fight | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963688 | 232 | 3.125 | 3 |
Ralph Terry (born on January 9, 1936 in Big Cabin, Oklahoma) is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees (1956-57, 1959-64), Kansas City Athletics (1957-59, 1966), Cleveland Indians (1965) and New York Mets (1966-67). Terry is best remembered for giving up the home run to Bill Mazeroski that won the Pittsburgh Pirates the 1960 World Series.
In his 12 seasons as a player, Terry posted a career record of 107-99, with 1000 strikeouts, a 3.27 earned run average, 257 games started, 75 games finished, 20 shutouts, 11 saves, and 446 bases on balls in 1849 innings pitched.
In five World Series (1960-64), Terry posted a record of 2-3, 31 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA. Both wins came in the 1962 World Series (of which he was named MVP) against the San Francisco Giants, including a 1-0 shutout in Game 7 over Giant ace Jack Sanford. That game - and thus the Series - ended with Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson catching Willie McCovey's line drive with Willie Mays on second and Matty Alou on third; had the ball been hit a foot or so to either side, Richardson could not have caught it and San Francisco would have scored two runs and won the Series. | <urn:uuid:865129c2-b6cc-4091-828a-907cda753af6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mysticgames.com/famouspeople/RalphTerry.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961653 | 288 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Book of Numbers
In the Book of Numbers, significant historical information is highlighted, which focuses on the route that the Israelites took out of Egypt. The encampments that they set up along the way to the Promised Land are mentioned. When reading Numbers, you will encounter the numbering of the Israelites, details regarding the journey from Sinai to Moab, and the rebellion of the Jewish people.
The majority of events discussed in the Book of Numbers take place in the wilderness – detailing the wandering of the Israelites between the second and fortieth years. In the first 25 chapters, you will learn of the experiences of the first generation of Israel as they traveled in the wilderness. The rest of the Book chronicles the experiences associated with the second generation. Some of the themes touched upon in the writings include obedience, rebellion, repentance and blessings.
Book of Deuteronomy
Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy, where he gives instruction and guidance to the Israelites shortly before his death. There are 34 chapters in this fifth book of the Old Testament. The main theme of Deuteronomy deals with the covenant between God and the Israelites. Moses gives direction to keep the commandments because you love God, which makes a reference to the 'heart of the covenant.' He gives a speech that repeats the Ten Commandments.
From chapters 1 to 4, the first address that is made includes the historic events during the Israelites'; forty years in the wilderness. You will find in the book, the laws and guidelines that were set for the Israelites – the conduct they should follow while in Canaan – the Promised Land. By the end of Deuteronomy, Moses enters a state of preparation for his death and appoints Joshua as his successor.
In the book, the word 'command' is used more than 100 times. when reading the book, you will find that it reads much like a sermon – this is distinction that sets it apart from other parts of the Torah. Other highlights of the book include the Song of Moses found in chapter 32 and Moses Blessing found in chapter 33.
Book of Joshua
Moses is known as the man responsible for leading the people of Israel out of Egyptian captivity. When he dies, Joshua was appointed to continue where he left off. Joshua is now seen as the new leader. The first chapters of the book highlight the conquest of Canaan, which continues up to the twelfth chapter. From chapter 13 to 22, the allotment of the land to the twelve tribes is described. The final two chapters are spent sharing the farewell speeches of Joshua.
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All Matter Was Created By
Every Person Has Their Own Frequency Signature. | <urn:uuid:7da583d5-b180-4e4d-a23c-8adc27f67a56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unexplainable.net/religion/summary-of-books-of-the-old-testament-4--6.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948499 | 588 | 3.484375 | 3 |
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It's a race against the weather for California rice farmers. They've been working long hours to try to harvest the rest of their crop before the rain that's predicted in the next few days. Even after the rain starts, farmers will keep operating their combines until the rain makes fields too wet to work. All but about 6 percent of the rice crop has been harvested by now. What remains are mainly late-season varieties and rice that was planted late due to the wet spring.
Fresh tomato supplies have improved, and wholesale prices have declined some. Tomatoes had been in short supply earlier in the autumn because of reduced production linked to the July heat wave. California tomato production now shifts to the southern part of the state, while farms in Central California wind down their harvests. Supplies of imported tomatoes from Mexico continue to be affected by crop disease that has hurt tomatoes there.
Rising demand for pomegranates and pomegranate juice has brought a steady increase in acreage, mainly in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Farmers report that this year's pomegranate crop features good sugar content and beautiful color. Harvest will continue through November. Farmers say pomegranates require skill to grow successfully, and that they're learning more with each harvest. They say they've seen strong demand domestically and in exports to Japan and other Asian markets.
A new crop pest that arrived in California this year appears to be confined to the three counties where it initially emerged. Crews continue to treat locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties to fight the diaprepes root weevil. A statewide postcard mailing that asked residents to report sightings of the weevil has not turned up new locations so far. The pest threatens more than 270 different plants and poses a particular threat to citrus trees.Top | <urn:uuid:1e9bf629-8d34-493c-80b0-eccb4eee6a2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cfbf.com/news/FoodAndFarmNews.cfm?FFNID=525 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960787 | 395 | 2.28125 | 2 |
C. F. Martin Honors American Folk Legend WOODY GUTHRIE with 000-18WG Commemorative Guitar
Source: Sounding Board Newsletter Vol 7 - July 1999
000-18WG (Woody Guthrie)
Woodrow "Woody" Wilson Guthrie is considered one of the most influential folk musicians of all time. Immortalized as an American legend, and inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, Guthrie wrote such classics as "This Land is Your Land," "I Ain’t Got No Home," and "Pretty Boy Floyd." Born in Oklahoma in 1912, Guthrie’s music and controversial politics were influenced by his own experiences as a migrant farm worker. His songs reflect his concern about class conflict, union issues and the American West. Guthrie impacted some of this country’s greatest songwriters including Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and others. Guthrie died of Huntington’s Disease in 1967.
In honor of Guthrie’s legacy, his individuality, spirit and lasting impact on the American music scene, Martin is honored to unveil the 000-18WG Woody Guthrie commemorative guitar. Woody is not the first Guthrie to be honored with a Martin edition. In 1997, Martin honored Arlo Guthrie with a limited edition guitar which commemorated the 30th anniversary of his famous song, Alice’s Restaurant. Of the 60 instruments that were offered (30 six-string and 30 twelve-string models), all sold out within days of their introduction. Toward the end of that project, Arlo visited the Martin factory with an old Martin guitar that Woody had given him as a child. The instrument was in rough condition and in the process of getting the guitar back into shape, discussions about the potential for a Woody Guthrie commemorative model began.
Woody had owned literally hundreds of guitars throughout his career, many of them Martins. He gravitated toward more affordable smaller bodied 0, 00, and 000 mahogany guitars, and he would often give his instruments away to aspiring musicians along the way. Irreverently, he often wrote or drew on his instruments. Perhaps one of his more famous statements is: "This Machine Kills Fascists!", a quote which Woody painted on most of the guitars he owned.
The 000-18WG Woody Guthrie Commemorative is a 14-fret 000 "auditorium" model inspired by the smaller bodied guitars of the pre-World War II era, Vintage 000-18s are especially prized for their lightness, brilliance, and purity of tone. The back and sides are bookmatched from select solid straight"grained genuine mahogany. The rosette is inlaid in the vintage style with plain black inner and outer rings. The solid genuine mahogany neck is slightly V-shaped with a squared and tapered headstock bearing the old style Martin decal logo. Tuning gears are the vintage open gear variety with chrome butterbean knobs.
The fingerboard is genuine ebony, inlaid with abalone dots in the vintage style. The bridge, also of genuine ebony, is fitted with a long "through" saddle. Woody Guthrie’s stylized signature is inlaid in pearl between the 19th and 20th frets.
Each interior edition label will be personally co-signed by Arlo Guthrie, Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie who manages the Woody Guthrie Archives, Woody’s former manager Harold Levinthal who manages Woody Guthrie Publications, and C.F. Martin, IV. Each instrument will be numbered in sequence without total. A secondary label bears a self-portrait sketch of Woody and his guitar with the artist’s memorable words, "This world is your world. Take it easy, but take it!" Inconspicuously located on the underside of the soundboard is a third label with Woody’s words, "This machine kills fascists!"
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each 000-18WG Woody Guthrie guitar will be split between The Guthrie Center and The Woody Guthrie Foundation.
Martin dealers will begin to take orders for the 000-18WG Woody Guthrie Commemorative Guitar immediately, though the actual edition will not begin to appear in stores until the early months of 2000.
The Immortal Words Of Woody Guthrie
"I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard traveling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think you’ve not any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I’d starve to death before I’d sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with such no good songs as that anyhow.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Woody Guthrie Foundation
250 West 57th Street, Suite 1218
New York, NY 10107
The mission of the Woody Guthrie Foundation is to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of folk musician Woody Guthrie. As guardians for the largest collection of Woody Guthrie material in the world, the Woody Guthrie Foundation achieves this goal by caring for, maintaining, and sharing the Woody Guthrie Archives with the public.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462
This Land Is Your Land: The Life & Legacy Of Woody Guthrie, June 26th-September 26, 1999
The exhibit has been organized by The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and The Woody Guthrie Archives in association with The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. The exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of Nissan North America. Additional support has been provided by the Smithsonian Institution Educational Outreach Fund and The Martin Guitar Company.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 Van Deusenville Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
The Guthrie Center was founded in 1991 by Arlo Guthrie providing a place to bring together individuals for spiritual service, as well as cultural and educational exchange. The Guthrie Center is located in the old Trinity Church of Alice’s Restaurant fame. Persons of all faiths and backgrounds are welcome at The Guthrie Center to share their lives while cultivating a deeper awareness of the humanity and environment we all have in common.
The Guthrie Center is funded to a large extent by individual donations. Programs are coordinated by volunteers and have included cooking, art, and music programs for children, support and instruction to anyone living with AIDS/HIV, blood pressure clinics and meetings of the La Leche League. Center volunteers have visited local nursing homes and provide transportation services to those in need. Plans are underway for a Cyber Center to introduce children to the Internet and to foster understanding with other children throughout the world via video conferencing.
You can support The Guthrie Center by becoming a member and/or volunteering your services. For additional information, contact the center by calling (413) 528-1955, or visit our website at:www.guthriecenter.org.
If you happen to be driving by, stop in and say hello. | <urn:uuid:fdbc83fb-fe02-4cab-8fbb-b69679eef2ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.martinguitar.com/players/martin-artists/15-main-site/artists/252-c-f-martin-honors-american-folk-legend-woody-guthrie-with-000-18wg-commemorative-guitar.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953229 | 1,755 | 2.359375 | 2 |
After President Obama's moving UN General Assembly speech that started with a story of who US Ambassador Christopher Stevens had been in terms of his life's passion for the Middle East and North Africa, the Romney camp issued a statement from former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky:
In his speech, President Obama listed the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process, Syria, and Iran as major challenges facing the international community. But those are three vital issues on which President Obama has unfortunately made no progress. The Peace Process is at a standstill, tens of thousands have been killed in Syria with Assad still in power, and Iran is hurtling toward nuclear weapons capability.The President and his national security team do deserve criticism for how some of these portfolios have been managed. After all, Israel/Palestine had been the first major national security agenda item the President put his power and credibility behind, appointing former Senator George Mitchell to be his Envoy in seeking to secure real Middle East peace.
In his 2009 speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Obama called for progress on the Peace Process and for an end to Iran's nuclear weapons program. Three years later, he's failed to deliver. As has too often been the case with President Obama, the rhetoric doesn't match the policy.
In a compelling but bleak New York Times assessment titled "Seven Lean Years of Peacemaking" by my New America Foundation colleague Daniel Levy, the negative results scream out. Levy writes:
One thing is clear: The years from 2005 to 2012 have been seven decidedly lean ones for peacemaking and withdrawal and seven gluttonously fat ones for entrenching Israel's occupation and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In these areas, almost 94,000 new settlers have been added since 2005, some settler outposts have been legalized and thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.Obama should only get the blame for the 2009-2012 part of this portfolio -- but the failure to get Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on to a credible peace track with Palestinians has enormous strategic consequences for the country.
Dobriansky tells only part of the story as it was in both 2009 and 2010 that President Obama committed substantial portions of his UN General Assembly addresses to the problems of Palestine and Israel. In 2010, he pointedly criticized the unwillingness of the parties to come together and pushed George Mitchell and others on his team to double down and get a deal done. Obviously, with the resignations of both Senator Mitchell and Dennis Ross who had been Obama's Middle East wrangler on his National Security Team (both of whom had often worked at cross-purposes), ended Obama's efforts thus far on securing Middle East peace.
These results deserve both to be highlighted and criticized -- so thanks to Ambassador Dobriansky.
That said, would her candidate Mitt Romney do any better?
Yesterday we were given what were perhaps some of the most thoughtful comments yet expressed by Governor Romney on the turmoil in the Middle East and what can be done in response. While his comments were not Palestine-specific and this may be the first time I have heard Romney address foreign policy and not make a single mention of Israel, his broad survey of the Middle East region and his assessment of the youth cover Palestine.
Romney makes the sensible point that jobs matter, that economics is a major driver of both hope and desperation.
Work has to be at the heart of our efforts to help people build economies that can create jobs, young and old alike. Work builds self-esteem. It transforms minds from fantasy and fanaticism to reality and grounding. Work does not long tolerate corruption nor will it quietly endure the brazen theft by government of the product of hard-working men and women. To foster work and enterprise in the Middle East and other developing countries I will initiate something I will call Prosperity Pacts, working with the private sector the program will identify the barriers to investment and trade and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism in developing nations. And, in exchange for removing those barriers and opening their markets to U.S. investment and trade, developing nations will receive U.S. assistance packages focused on developing the institutions of liberty, the rule of law, and property rights ....Whether Romney is right or not, his jobs talk and the notion of "Prosperity Pacts" are a step ahead of the rhetoric that typecasts instability in the Middle East as a function of Islamic culture and fanaticism. And the fact is that the Obama administration's policy towards places like Egypt and Palestine, Tunisia, and Libya is to try to lay groundwork for investment, aid, and jobs.
The aim of a much larger share of our aid must be the promotion of work, and the fostering of free enterprise. Nothing we can do as a nation will change lives and nations more effectively and permanently than sharing the insight that lies at the foundation of America's own economy, and that is that free people pursuing happiness in their own ways, build a strong and prosperous nation.
So, Romney and the Obama administration actually are on similar tracks. But the scale of what is needed in the region is staggering -- and small US programs or bland talk about job creation by the GOP presidential challenger doesn't come near to the level of economic course correction the region needs.
The more disconcerting gap between rhetoric and action is not on Obama's docket, however, but on Romney's.
What it not Mitt Romney who said at a fundraiser regarding Israel-Palestine peace, "this is going to remain an unresolved problem."
As Bill Clinton said during his Democratic National Convention speech, "it takes some brass to criticize the President for something you have done yourself." In this case, it's out of place to take Obama down a notch on Israel-Palestine when your own candidate has no intention of trying to resolve the geostrategically significant ulcer.
And even more disconcerting were Romney's comments in Jerusalem about "culture" being the dividing line between the economic performance of Israel vs. Palestine. As reported by Ashley Parker and Richard A. Oppel Jr., Romney said:
Notwithstanding Romney's significant errors on the GDP gap between Israel and Palestine, it's outrageous to assess Palestine's economic potential without considering that all they have done has been done under Occupation, with barriers to travel and commerce embedded throughout their territory which Israel occupies and dominates, often brutally.
"Culture makes all the difference," Mr. Romney said. "And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things."
He added, "As you come here and you see the G.D.P. per capita, for instance, in Israel, which is about $21,000, and compare that with the G.D.P. per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality. And that is also between other countries that are near or next to each other. Chile and Ecuador, Mexico and the United States."
It's easy to talk about jobs and "Prosperity Pacts", but tougher to put them into motion in addressing the economic needs of a growing MENA youth bulge that needed a massive number of jobs yesterday.
To make this interesting, I dare Mitt Romney to test his thesis personally in the way that former World Bank President James Wolfensohn did. Wolfensohn invested his own money in an effort to get Palestinian-grown strawberries to markets in Europe and worked out deals with the Israelis and established a greenhouse project and processing infrastructure at Israel's Karni Crossing. To make a long and sad story short, even the great James Wolfensohn failed to overcome Israeli arbitrariness in what it allowed and didn't in terms of earnest Palestine commerce with the rest of the world.
Let's see if Mitt Romney can devote a small bit of his fortune to getting a business up and running in Palestine. Perhaps he could meet with his new employees and hear what they have to do to connect with their families and what humiliations they go through trying to get their kids to school or trying to take products to market.
Perhaps Romney would succeed in ways others in Palestine have not, but until then, it seems that, as Dobriansky framed it, the gap between rhetoric and results on the Romney vision for the region seems insurmountable.
This article available online at: | <urn:uuid:de33c4c0-a2f3-4527-a08c-ed71e86d2b28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlantic.com/international/print/2012/09/would-romney-prosperity-pacts-work-in-palestine/262874/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970296 | 1,733 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Forwarded email urges California residents to call the governor and voice their objections to AB 2567, a legislative bill designating May 22 as Harvey Milk Day to commemorate the San Francisco city supervisor slain in 1978.
Description: Email flier
Circulating since: Sep. 2008
Email example contributed by NGJ, Sep. 19, 2008:
Subject: : AB 2567
I just called, this is true! (The Number to call is: 1 916-445-2841) It took 4 "redial" calls to get through. Then key in 1, then 2, then 1, then 2 for a NO vote.
Please take a moment to voice your NO vote! Just one more reason to move from wacky CA. I have nothing against gays and believe they shouldn't be discriminated against but to have a gay day in elementary schools is going too far.
Dear Friends: This is an issue that is pretty much going under the radar, and I think we all need to make this telephone call.
This is real. It took less than 30 seconds. It is just a recording and pressing 2 to say NO. Please read it!!!
AB 2567 has passed the California Assembly and the Senate and is awaiting Governor Schwarzenegger' s signature or veto. This bill will set aside May 22nd as a special day to celebrate the life of homosexual politician Harvey Milk in the public schools. Harvey Milk will be honored in the same manner as our Founding Fathers and Martin Luther King, although the only thing he is actually known for is being proud be be a homosexual! If you haven't heard about this bill it is because the liberal media is downplaying this bill so that it will pass.
PLEASE CALL GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER AND MAKE YOU VOICE HEARD.
The Number to call is: 1 916-445-2841
Please forward this to as many people as possible.
Comments: True. California Assembly Bill 2567 (full text) calls for the governor to proclaim May 22 "Harvey Milk Day" in honor of the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in a major U.S. city, Harvey Milk.
Introduced by state assemblyman Mark Leno in February 2008, AB 2567 was passed by the legislature in August and sent to the governor's office for signing in mid-September. As of this writing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has neither authorized nor vetoed the bill, nor made any public statements for or against it.
Contrary to the impression given in the message above, AB 2567 would not create an official holiday comparable to Martin Luther King Day or Presidents Day. Rather, to quote the bill's first paragraph, it would designate May 22 as having "special significance in public schools and educational institutions and would encourage those entities to conduct suitable commemorative exercises on that date." (See excerpt below for more details.)
Note, too, that the new law would encourage public schools to recognize Harvey Milk Day, not require it.
Lastly, the phone number provided above is correct. To contact Governor Arnold Shwarzenegger and voice your opinion on AB 2567, dial 1-916-445-2841.
Excerpt from AB 2567:
37222. (a) The following days in each year are designated and set apart as days having special significance:
(1) The second Wednesday in May as the Day of the Teacher.
(2) April 21 of each year as John Muir Day.
(3) April 6 of each year as California Poppy Day.
(4) May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day.
(b) On each of the days designated in subdivision (a), all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to observe those days and to conduct suitable commemorative exercises as follows:
(1) On the Day of the Teacher, exercises commemorating and directing attention to teachers and the teaching profession.
(2) On John Muir Day, exercises stressing the importance that an ecologically sound natural environment plays in the quality of life for all of us, and emphasizing John Muir's significant contributions to the fostering of that awareness and the indelible mark he left on the State of California.
(3) On California Poppy Day, exercises honoring the California Poppy, including instruction about native plants, particularly the California Poppy, and the economic and aesthetic value of wildflowers; promoting responsible behavior toward our natural resources and a spirit of protection toward them; and emphasizing the value of natural resources and conservation of natural resources.
(4) On Harvey Milk Day, exercises remembering the life of Harvey Milk and recognizing his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to this state.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the exercises encouraged in this section be integrated into the regular school program, and be conducted by the school or institution within the amount otherwise budgeted for educational programs.
Sources and further reading:
Bill Would Declare an Annual Harvey Milk Day in California
Sacramento Bee, 27 July 2008
Day to Honor Harvey Milk Passes State Senate
CBS5.com News, 5 August 2008
Harvey Milk Bio
Time, 14 June 1999
The Harvey Milk Assassination
About.com: Gay Life
Last updated: 08/20/08 | <urn:uuid:da968ec2-96e7-4878-94fa-4743aa956755> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/harvey_milk_day.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936439 | 1,086 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Oct. 27, 2011
Williston schools fundraiser a huge success
Whitcomb’s Land of Pumpkins would like to thank everyone who participated in and supported our annual “Giant Pumpkin Display/Weighoff” and Williston schools fundraiser. We displayed and weighed some very nice and big pumpkins.
The pumpkin plant sale in the spring, along with the pumpkin and maze donations, totaled $1,170. More than 70 Williston families visited us to purchase pumpkins and run through the corn maze. Beautiful weather was enjoyed by all.
Thank you for supporting Williston schools and this community event, and a special thanks to our local businesses for their generous prize donations.
The Whitcomb family (Mary, Lorenzo, Cale, Max and Dane)Williston
Please stop texting and driving
Every day I travel back and forth from Champlain Valley Union High School to Williston Central School. I am amazed at how many teenagers I pass whose heads are down while driving because they’re texting. Today I counted five teenagers coming from CVU to the Williston village.
I have had a few close calls in the past with people (not just teens) texting and driving, where if I wasn’t paying attention, I could have got hit head on. The point of my letter is not to lecture, but that hopefully it will encourage parents to talk with their teenagers again and again about the dangers of texting while driving.
Maybe take the time to go online and pull up the statistics of those who have hurt or killed others while texting and driving. I hope that at least one person reads this and stops driving and texting. No message is that important that you can’t wait until you get home or to school.
I heard recently of a young man who texted a reply of “LOL” to a friend. He hit and killed a person who was on the side of the road. This young man will have to live with that for the rest of his life. Was the “LOL” really that important? Couldn’t he have just waited to reply until he wasn’t driving? Was it worth it? Life is too precious to take the chance. Please stop texting and driving!
Lead impacting protection area
In addition to your story (Observer, “Testing Confirms lead pollution in farm’s well,” October 13, 2011), I would like to point out that this property is sitting in a mapped “Wellhead Protection Area.” And for those of you not familiar with this terminology, a “Wellhead Protection Area” is a surface and subsurface land area regulated to prevent contamination of a well or well-field supplying a public water system. This program, established under the Safe Drinking Water Act, is implemented through state governments. Our testing shows that this protected area has been contaminated by lead. As this is a more rural area, most of our homes depend on our wells for our drinking water. Our bedrock well is fairly shallow — only 125 feet deep — but has supplied our water needs for many years. The lead content in our well came back at .053 mg/l. This is almost four times the level for toxic substances in drinking water for humans.
How much longer will it be before the lead reaches other wells in our Wellhead Protection Area?
On a side note, we would like to thank Jessica Edgerly, State Director of Toxics Action Center, for all our her assistance in bringing our lead pollution issue into public knowledge. When issues like this are made public, they can get resolved. We are looking forward to that day!
Mona Boutin, Lead Free Williston
Attend the budget community forum
The Williston School Board is holding a budget community forum on Nov. 1 at 6 p.m. in the Williston Central School’s dining room. The School Board is looking for community input as we start the process of developing the school budget for the 2012-2013 academic year.
Hearing from parents and other community members is important for the School Board as we strive to prepare a budget that ensures the delivery of a quality education to our children at a value to the taxpayer. Public input is essential in helping the School Board meet these objectives, especially during this difficult economic environment that has impacted our state and town. By attending this community forum, you will have the opportunity to inform the School Board and administration about your priorities, what you would prefer the school district to continue to offer, or to change.
So now that the school budget process is about to begin anew, please join the School Board members and school administration team at this budget community forum. Working together, we can build a strong educational program that benefits the entire community. We hope you can attend.
The Williston School Board — Joshua Diamond, Kevin Mara, Giovanna Boggero, Deborah Baker-Moody and Holly Rouelle | <urn:uuid:2616ccda-a8d4-494c-baa6-62b4f8f04fcc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.willistonobserver.com/letters-to-the-editor-59/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961287 | 1,017 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Diversity -->Undoubtedly, 2009 will go down as a year of major diversity triumphs.
The first African-American president took office and Sonia Sotamayor has become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.
In an era when diversity has emerged as a top priority nationwide, leading universities are educating and preparing the next generation of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic leaders in all walks of life.
In that context, HispanTelligence, the research arm of HispanicBusiness Magazine, assessed the diversity records of top graduate schools in the areas of keen interest to Hispanics: Engineering, Medicine, Law and Business.
Instead of looking at diversity as a federal requirement, these schools embrace it as a means of educational enrichment. Using factors such as enrollment and percentage of degrees earned by Hispanics, the numbers show that Hispanics are steadily making educational strides, while universities are also doing more outreach to them.
Of the top 40 graduate schools for Hispanics, 30 hailed from Texas, Florida, California, and New Mexico. Texas and Florida had the most, each possessing 10 of the most diverse graduate programs in the nation. No schools from the Northwestern U.S. made the list.
"Our population is soon to be majority minority," said Felicia Benton-Johnson, the director of Diversity at the Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, the No. 1 engineering school on the HispanicBusiness Magazine list. "As diversity nationally increases, so will the need to have leaders and professionals who reflect this same burgeoning diversity."
Still, much work remains to be done.
Graduate School Obstacles
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 13 percent of Hispanics over the age of 25 complete four years of college or more. Of that number, only 3.6 percent go on to receive a masters, professional or doctoral degree. These are the lowest statistics of all ethnic groups, according to Census data.
Many factors contribute to the gap. First-generation Hispanic youth are the worst off educationally. Their drop-out rate from grade school is the highest, and too often grow up feeling an obligation to pay back their families and communities by immediately jumping into the workforce.
Many factors make recruiting minorities a difficult task, but the economic one is certainly a key factor. It requires a multi-pronged strategy; each of the No. 1 universities in the four disciplines has developed their own recruiting methodologies to obtain and maintain their institution's diversity enrollment goals.
The Stanford University School of Medicine ranked No. 1 on HispanicBusiness Magazine's list of top medical schools for diversity. Hannah Valantine, the senior associate dean of Diversity and Leadership at the university, said summer programs, camps, and internships offered to undergraduates and high school students have been instrumental in Stanford's ability to reach minorities.
The medical school has had a difficult time attracting minorities, notably into its residency program. Summer research internships, Ms. Valantine said, and programs for both high school and undergraduate students work the best to create interest in higher education at Stanford and builds student-faculty relationships through one-on-one interaction.
"Diversity is an issue that goes beyond equal opportunity," said Ms. Valantine. "It is about how we maintain our university." Minority patients feel more comfortable when their resident physicians are of diverse backgrounds, a factor that further motivates the school to bolster its diversity.
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This test is used to determine the amount of bicarbonate, called HCO3 (H for hydrogen, C for carbon, 03 for 3 oxygen molecules), in the blood.
This test is ordered to help diagnose a wide variety of disorders in the body's basic functioning. This may include problems with the kidney, adrenal gland, stomach and bowels (either vomiting or diarrhea) ,or lungs.
It is also helpful in diagnosing some types of poisonings. For example, people who drink radiator fluid (ethylene glycol) inadvertently or in a suicide attempt develop a severe acidosis, and therefore, drop there C02 or bicarbonate level.
A sample of blood is taken in order to measure the CO2 level. The blood is usually drawn from a vein in the forearm or the hand.
First, the skin over the vein is cleaned with an antiseptic. Next, a rubber tube called a tourniquet is tied around the upper arm. This enlarges the veins in the lower arm by restricting blood flow through them. A very thin needle is gently inserted into a vein, and the tourniquet is removed. Blood flows from the vein through the needle into a syringe or vial.
The sample is sent to the lab to be analyzed. After the needle is withdrawn, the puncture site is covered for a short time to prevent bleeding.
On some occasions the blood may be drawn from an artery (usually the radial or one of the "wrist" arteries).
Individuals should receive instructions from their doctor. Most of the time no preparation is required.
The normal value for CO2 in the blood is 23 to 29 mEq/L. Most of the carbon dioxide in the blood is in the form of bicarbonate. Either term can be used.
The lungs and kidneys are designed to control the amount of bicarbonate in the blood. This keeps the blood from becoming too acidic or basic.
In order for a person to live, he or she must have neither too much acid nor too much base in the blood. Carbon dioxide or bicarbonate can be too high or too low in the following conditions: Kidney problems (usually acid)Breathing or lung problems (can be either acid or basic)Poisonings or drug overdoses (usually acid)Severe diarrhea (usually acid)Uncontrolled diabetes (usually acid)Severe dehydration leading to kidney under-function (usually acid)vomiting (usually base)over use of water pills (diuretics) (usually base). | <urn:uuid:90457245-58ef-4eb4-8528-dedd8afacbec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.activeforever.com/a-co2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914313 | 530 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The office of the state's Legislative Analyst - which provides the Legislature with non-partisan analyses of fiscal and policy issues - has released its take on the end of redevelopment. And it turns out that the end is not an end at all, but only the start. (You can read the entire report here.)
Early on, the report lays out the sorry history of the state's financial chaos, starting in 1972:
(P)assage of Chapter 1406, Statutes of 1972 (SB 90, Dills) created a system of school "revenue limits," whereby the state guarantees each school district an overall level of funding from local property taxes and state resources combined. Thus, if a district's local property tax revenues do not grow - due to redevelopment or for other reasons - the state provides additional state funds to ensure that the district has sufficient funds to meet its revenue limit. Second, Proposition 13 in 1978 (and later Proposition 218 in 1996) significantly constrained local authority over the property tax and most other local revenues sources. These measures did not, however, reduce local authority over redevelopment.
Here and elsewhere in the report, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) builds a rationale for the end of redevelopment by implicating redevelopment agencies (and the cities that created them) in the unresolved conflict between the state's guarantee of school funding and the the state's inability to balance its budget.
(Cities have a spectator's interest in the issue of school funding and had nothing to do with the irrationality of the Legislature's fiscal decisions.)
The Legislature could have devised other taxing strategies to achieve school funding equity or given school districts more authority to raise revenues or taken steps to restrain its own spending, but Prop. 13 left the Legislature with limited and politically unappealing options. Flummoxed, the Legislature continued its unsustainable ways, becoming addicted to highly volatile income tax receipts (in good economic cycles) and massive borrowing (in bad times).
By itself, redevelopment had little to do with financing schools or preventing state deficits. Combined with SB 90 in 1972 and Prop. 13 in 1978, however, redevelopment changed in both perception and purpose. From the perspective of the state, redevelopment represented sequestered revenue that might otherwise backfill the state's guarantee of school funding. From the perspective of cities, redevelopment - although limited by the Legislature - provided a sheltered revenue stream in an era of repeated state takeaways of local revenue. As the LAO report tells it:
With fewer fiscal checks and less revenue authority, cities (joined by a small number of counties) no longer limited their project areas to small sections of communities, but often adopted projects spanning hundreds or thousands of acres and frequently including large tracts of vacant land. Some jurisdictions placed farmland under redevelopment. At least two cities placed all privately owned land in the city under redevelopment.
In the LAO's telling, the sins of the few (those two cities and the ambiguous "at least") are called on to justify (in part) the punishment of the many. What's missing is an honest evaluation of California's irrational system of government financing - a system that drove cities to shelter as much local revenue as possible under redevelopment. Cities can be blamed for using the blunt instrument the Legislature gave them. But if all you have is a hammer, as the saying goes, everything looks like a nail.
The Legislature now recognized the growing imbalance between state sovereignty and local autonomy, as represented by tens of millions of dollars in redevelopment revenue the Legislature could not touch. Cities, too, saw protection of municipal revenue as a platform on which larger issues of local control might be presented to anxious voters. In the LAO's account:
Beginning in the 1990s, the state began taking actions in its annual state budget to require RDAs to shift some of their revenues to schools to offset the state's increased costs associated with redevelopment. . . . These state budgetary actions occurred nine times between 1992 and 2011. Concerned about the magnitude and frequency of these budget shifts, redevelopment advocates (along with groups interested in transportation and other elements of local finance) sponsored Proposition 22. Among other things, this initiative measure (approved by the state's voters in November 2010), limits the Legislature's authority over redevelopment and prohibits the state from enacting new laws that require RDAs to shift funds to schools or other agencies.
The LAO fails here to illustrate the actual scope and depth of the citizen/local government coalition that led to the adoption of Prop. 1A in 2004 and Prop. 22 in 2010. These measures were in response to the state's extraction of billions of dollars in local revenues and the multiple failures of the Legislature since 1978 to manage the state's finances and not, as the LAO report implies, primarily to protect redevelopment authority.
In effect, the voters changed the state constitution to constrain the Legislature's reach in order to favor of the kind of government voters actually trusted: their city and city council members.
For worried state legislators and Governor Brown, that constraint had to be weakened, and not because the end of redevelopment will magically end the state's deficit or because new revenues will now suddenly appear. (The end of redevelopment redistributes revenues in ways that will relieve some of the state's education costs and pay off some of the state's deficit. But both of those outcomes come at the expense of cities.)
The LAO's report makes for illuminating reading for anyone concerned about the future of California's cities:
Redevelopment in 2011 bore little resemblance to the small, locally financed program the Legislature authorized in 1945. Statewide, the RDAs received more property taxes in 2011 than all of the state's fire, parks, and other special districts combined and, in some areas of the state, more property taxes than the city or county received. Redevelopment also imposed considerable costs on the state's General Fund because the state backfilled K-14 districts for property tax revenues distributed to RDAs. Overall, redevelopment cost the state's General Fund about as much as the University of California or California State University systems, but did not appear to yield commensurate statewide benefits.
Here is the heart of the issue. Who will determine what benefits you, your neighborhood, and your city more? You might naively think that the government closest to you and your neighborhood might make that choice, that elected officials you can see at city council meetings might be best able to see your needs clearly.
"Statewide benefits" means whatever the Legislature wants it to mean, subject only to constitutional initiatives and the state Supreme Court. The LAO report notes (with apparent concern) that:
Shortly after passage of [the legislation ending redevelopment], proposals began to surface to separate some of redevelopment assets for use for statewide objectives, such as affordable housing, economic development, and environmental programs. These proposals in turn, raise difficult policy and fiscal questions for the Legislature to consider. Specifically, which level of government should make the decisions over these assets? . . . The proposals pose equally difficult fiscal issues. Specifically, ending redevelopment shifts some funds that formerly would have been allocated to RDAs to other local agencies. Many cities relied on RDA funds to pay city expenses and now are experiencing fiscal stress due to the redirection of these resources. Under ABX1 26, some of this fiscal stress would be offset by the city receiving its share of the distributed cash and assets. Reserving some of this cash and assets for statewide objectives, in contrast, would reduce the funds the city would receive from the dissolution of redevelopment.
"Statewide objectives" - not local interests - are now paramount, even when the objectives of the state Legislature are poorly framed, developed in a culture of political back scratching, and adopted with no public participation at all. But the LAO could hardly speak to these fundamental issues. The LAO is non-partisan, but it's (by necessity) biased toward the interests of the Legislature
Redevelopment in its final form wasn't pretty or even wholly defensible, except as a strategy to keep government revenues as local as possible. State constitutional initiatives - Prop. 1A and Prop. 22 - weren't entirely in the best interests of all Californians, except as ways (failures it turned out) to limit further damage to cities and neighborhoods after repeated cycles of local revenue takeaways by the state.
And now the Legislature - while the LAO mildly frets - is already looking at new ways to further its own interests at the expense of your city and your neighborhood.
D. J. Waldie, author, historian, and as the New York Times said in 2007, "a gorgeous distiller of architectural and social history," writes about Los Angeles on KCET's SoCal Focus blog.
TrackBack URL: http://www.kcet.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/12570 | <urn:uuid:6a18ad2f-e4ad-4e06-b35b-3b5c7e4bdfd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcet.org/news/1st_and_spring/commentary/lao-report-the-legislature-has-the-final-say-on-whats-good-for-your-city.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956603 | 1,799 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Tired of the same old, same old? Super-size it and make the same old a brand new experience loaded with SUPER SIZED learning!
With a little imagination and cleverness, you can super-size almost any learning opportunity you currently provide young children.
WHY would you want to SUPER SIZE learning?
What happens naturally when children are presented with something SUPER SIZED?
1) They need to problem solve
2) They need to determine what they need, then ask for it. (whether it be people or tools to help them out)
3) They need to use more muscles.
4) They need to coordinate their bodies.
5) They need to collaborate with others.
6) They need to strategize.
7) They feel empowered!!
That's just a few of the benefits super sizing play (aka: learning) provides! This blog has some of the successful ways I have super-sized play and thus, the learning that goes along with it. Feel free to use these ideas, then put on your own thinking caps and clever pants and see what normal, everyday play opportunities you can supersize for super sized learning in your programs!!
Super Sized Marble Painting
All you need is a large, sturdy box (this is a treadmill box and it's HEAVY), large paper, paint and a variety of balls to supersize the typical marble painting!
|Look at the focus, the teamwork, the muscles and coordination!! This picture is at the beginning of the process, where the children are using trial and error to figure out how this is going to work.|
|Further into the process, they have learned that standing up helps with lifting the very heavy box. They have also named themselves "Parkers Side" and "Ty's Side" in order to coordinate the movement of the balls.|
Super Sized Playdough
Make at least 3 batches of homemade playdough..step back and watch out for super-sized learning!! I have used anywhere from 3-8 batches at a time! Plop the playdough onto the center of the table in ONE LARGE MOUND. Stand back, and let the children take the lead from here!
For extra fun, hide special items inside the playdough! Our favorites? "Monster Playdough" (only, I never told them it was monster playdough..they took what they found and created monsters out of it!!) "Treasure Playdough" (jewels and necklaces) and "Creepy Crawly Playdough" (plastic and rubber bugs!!) (for pictures of this playdough...go to my Facebook page, "Play Counts"!) and "Snowman playdough" (buttons, small wooden dowel pieces painted orange).
Keep in mind, when plopping a "theme" playdough...do NOT, I repeat do NOT lead the children -- follow them!!! They may not see what you see in the playdough and THAT'S OKAY!!! For example...the snowman playdough actually became "birthday cake" playdough! They used the "carrot noses" for candles!! :)
It takes more then just fingers to manipulate a large mound of playdough. Lindsey has found it necessary to use her entire arm in order to create enough pressure to smash the playdough down!
Have you ever seen a child manipulate a small batch of playdough with both of their ARMS?! I don't think so!
Little Trillian is feeling mighty fine about himself as he cuts through this massive, and challenging mound of playdough! Look at him working those all-important gripping muscles!!
|Practicing Social Skills|
This super sized mound of playdough has pirate treasure hidden inside. Super-sizing playdough gives the children the opportunity to share, cooperate, imagine, compromise, use more muscles in different ways and is just plain FUN!!
Super Sized Puzzles
Floor tiles found at Sam's Club make an AWESOME super-sized puzzle!
|Using Big Muscles is Empowering|
The fact that the puzzle piece is BIGGER then Erik is and HE IS STRONG ENOUGH TO HOLD IT!! This is extremely empowering for a young child.
As if staying on the path, safe from hot lava wasn't difficult enough...then the children added SNAKES to the challenge!
Bergen was the first to take the puzzle pieces and build UP with them. Very clever, very outside-the-box, and very impressive! This became a present game, and then a giant jack-in-the-box (ironically, that IS Jack in the box!!)
Super Sized Ramps
Read more about how this super-sized play evolved at my blog, www.playcountsdenitadinger.blogspot.com . You will find it under the category, "ramps".
Think outside the box for some SUPER SIZED ramp fun!
|Think Outside the Box|
When the children were telling me what they knew about ramps, one said "Hey! My nose is a ramp, Nita!". Another child quickly added to that by holding onto her long hair declaring it was a ramp too! This made me think outside the box for some super fun, super-sized indoor ramp fun!! Read more about this, and see more pics by clicking HERE.
|Trial and Error|
Setting up a super-sized ramp like the one above involves lots of trial and error, lots of problem solving (see the stack of containers to get the ramps exactlyl the right height and angle?)
Ella and Ty are debating the angle of the ramp. Ella wanted her ball to make a bouncing trail, while Ty wanted his to run smoothly across the paper.
|Organizing Bodies and Minds|
Super-sized play requires organization of thoughts and materials. I love how Avery is using her entire body in order to carry more balls. She obviously cares a great deal about staying clean (sarcasm here folks)
Super Sized Goop
If it's fun in smaller quantities...then it's over the top GRAND when you super-size it!! Take goop for example! This simple cornstarch and water mixture is a hit...especially when feet can get involved too! A simple dip in water cleans it right off!
|Yes please! Plenty of goop and space for free exploration!|
No explanation needed. Clearly, she is LOVING the opportunity to be IN goop! Super sized play provides super sized sensory experiences that awaken the senses and gets brains thinking of endless possibilities!
Author's Note: It is always a pleasure to share the wonderful cleverness of my young crew! All of the ideas you just saw began with a simple "plop" (click here for an explanation of a "plop"), then the children in my program led the rest of the way! If you liked what you just read, check out my blog for more!! www.playcountsdenitadinger.blogspot.com
See you next time!!
Professional Brain Developer and Defender of Play
I speak ENTHUSIASTICALLY FOR PLAY!!! Contact me for more information about the topics I present!! | <urn:uuid:ce3a06e0-9192-4d9d-938e-2fca443e4ceb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/08/super-sized-learning.html?m=0 | 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 | 0.942866 | 1,516 | 2.765625 | 3 |
It’s a common problem in San Antonio - stray dogs. Nobody wants to see an animal suffer, so how can you help a stray?
I posed the question to Animal Care Services Public Information Officer Lisa Norwood, who had some great ideas. She says first, make every effort to see if the dog has an owner. Talk to neighbors and see if anyone is missing a dog. You might also take the dog to a vet's office where they can scan for a microchip that will have owner information.
If you have no luck there, try and find a family for the dog. Facebook is a good start, so are email blasts to friends. Lisa says local shelters are full with the spring puppy and kitten season in full swing, so you may not have luck finding a shelter that can take the dog. But it’s worth checking; contact the Animal Defense League, the San Antonio Humane Society, or San Antonio Pets Alive. If you want to make the trip, check shelters in Austin to see if they can help, too.
Many people who find strays take them straight to Animal Care Services. Not always the best idea. Here’s what Lisa says:
“ACS should be the last resort for a pet that’s found because, despite the historic rise in our live release (it’s at almost 70%), we still have to euthanize some pets that come in. Residents should contact the other local shelters first before turning in the pet to ACS. Strays will be held for a legally mandated 72 hours before they become the shelter’s to disposition—this does NOT mean the animal has 72 hours until it will be euthanized. It means at the end of that “stray hold” the dog or cat becomes the shelter’s, so we can get the dog out to rescue, into adoptions, foster, etc. The overwhelming majority of pets brought in as strays are given time after their stray hold ends to find live release options.”
Animal Care Services is overwhelmed by the stray population on a daily basis, and is at capacity in its efforts to get their animals adopted. Please help in making sure your own dogs and cats are spayed and neutered. Here’s a link to the city’s spay/neuter clinic program.
Of course, maybe the best plan for a stray you find, is to adopt it yourself! | <urn:uuid:6f85a2c5-9012-46da-8046-225d23ee2b9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/Defenders-Blog-Help-I-found-a-stray/-/478436/13079048/-/10v8iabz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948054 | 502 | 1.90625 | 2 |
As of March 17, HARP 2.0 has been in place to help keep homeowners above water. (Mike Kemp, Getty Images)
After months in the works, HARP 2.0 is available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers who want to refinance but owe more on their mortgages than their houses now are worth.
HARP 2.0 — HARP stands for Home Affordable Refinance Program — is being billed as an improvement over the 3-year-old version that just about everyone acknowledges didn't help anyone.
The reason for that failure: The original program had limits on loan-to-value ratio, the amount of a mortgage as a percentage of the appraised value of a property. If the balance of a mortgage exceeded the appraised value — say, $300,000 versus $150,000 — the borrower wasn't allowed to refinance.
Recognizing that none of the borrowers the program was intended to help would be able to qualify, the limits were dropped when the new version of HARP was heralded in October.
Does that mean all lenders have agreed to no limits?
"I have lenders that have limited the loan-to-values. Some have even differentiated between attached and detached homes," said mortgage broker Fred Glick, who has launched a blog, harp2.com, to update consumers. "They still are limiting what they will do" with loan-to-value ratios of 150 percent and no more.
"All in all, it is a great way to get people's rates down in spite of low values. This will decrease the supply of homes for sale and increase values over the long run."
As with all these programs, the months since HARP 2.0 was announced have been spent trying to get lenders on board — no easy task since Fannie and Freddie loans are pooled as mortgage-backed securities that are owned by many investors. All the investors need to agree before borrowers can apply to reduce monthly payments to today's low fixed interest rates, which remained under 4 percent for many months but now are beginning to increase as bond yields rise in an apparently improving economy.
As of March 17, HARP 2.0 has been in place to help keep homeowners above water. About 4 million Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers nationwide owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
Those links also can be reached through makinghomeaffordable.gov, which has details about HARP 2.0 and other information.
Underwater loans might also be eligible to refinance under provisions of the recent National Mortgage Settlement. That applies to loans neither owned by Freddie or Fannie nor insured by the Federal Housing Administration, which has its own streamlined refinancing under a program announced in January. Details of that settlement are being worked out, and eligible borrowers will be notified by the five participating lenders — Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ally Financial and Citibank — at some point.
To be eligible for HARP, homeowners must be current on their mortgage. That means paid in full up to date, with no late payments in the past six months and only one in the past 12. They also need to show that they can afford the new payments gained through refinancing without any trouble.
Borrowers must have closed on their current mortgage on or before May 31, 2009, and cannot have refinanced through HARP before. In addition, mortgages must fall under current "conforming-loan limits," which vary by region.
One thing both Fannie and Freddie want to see is whether borrowers refinance to loans with terms shorter than 30 years. They call this "movement to a more stable product."
Borrowers with an interest-only loan will be urged to refinance to a mortgage product that provides amortization of principal and accumulation of equity in the property.
Those who have an adjustable-rate mortgage will be encouraged to refinance to a fixed-rate loan that eliminates the potential for payment shock, or to an adjustable with an initial fixed period of five years or more and equal to or greater than the existing mortgage.
Homeowners with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage will be advised to refinance to a 15-, 20-, or 25-year fixed that offers, in Fannie Mae's words, accelerated amortization of principal and equity-building. But borrowers won't be allowed to cash out equity under this refinancing "except for closing costs and certain allowances to cover items such as association fees, property tax bills, insurance costs, and rounding adjustments."
Plus, borrowers may not satisfy subordinate financing in the form of a home-equity line of credit or a closed-end second mortgage with the proceeds of the refinance mortgage.
Balloon mortgages and convertible adjustable-rate mortgages are eligible for HARP 2.0 if the conditional right to refinance the balloon or convert the ARM was exercised by the borrower and "redelivered" to Fannie Mae before June 1, 2009.
To determine whether Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac owns your mortgage, visit fanniemae.com/loanlookup and freddiemac.com/mymortgage.
To access Fannie Mae's frequently asked questions file, go to goo.gl/pN54x.
Many of the rules and regulations outlined in the latest information from Fannie and Freddie are far beyond the understanding of the typical homeowner, and, as the government warns, scam artists are already hovering above borrowers, waiting to pounce. For information about mortgage-assistance-relief scams, visit ftc.gov.
Some underwater homeowners will qualify for assistance under the mortgage settlement. The Center for Responsible Lending has a downloadable consumer's guide for that program at goo.gl/2FZKM. | <urn:uuid:b33a58b9-8fad-4332-a482-5f568f7ecdf9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-20/business/sc-cons-0419-harp-mortgage-20120420_1_underwater-borrowers-fannie-and-freddie-loans-fannie-mae | 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 | 0.964111 | 1,190 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Provide a new innovative and engaging way of learning for Gen-Ed students.
How it can be done?
Students can play a game and learn in the same time.
For example they can pick their own character, get achievements, badges based on their activities.
What software can we use?
Some time ago I found a website about using scavanger hunt game for the orientation purposes (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/mobile-game-turns-college-tours-and-orientations-into-scavenger-hunts/33114?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en)
For those purposes they are using product called scvngr (http://www.scvngr.com/). SCVNGR is currently used by Duke University, Boston College, Yale University and many more (http://www.scvngr.com/clients)
Watch the You Tube video to see how it’s used at UofL Cardinal College
How can we use it?
Game is built upon challenges, rewards and treks.
We need to come out with different challenges for our students. For now you can pick from four different types of challenges:
- Open Responses allows for open responses from the students.
- Specific Response require specific answer or answer set
- Photo Challenges require users to snap a photo.
- QR Challenges players need to scan a QR code at particular location to pass the challenge
Each challenge can contain multimedia like images, audio or video, ( so we can embed instructional material in it)
We can reward user for getting for getting some amount of points. Think about Math Students, they can get for example Pitagoras award for their accomplishments.
Treks connect places and challenges into themed and branded paths. For example, the “Boston’s Best Baristas” trek is a set of all the best coffee houses in Boston with a challenge featured at each one. Treks can be done casually over time or all at once. Players can choose to visit the places and do the challenges in the order listed, or in whatever order they choose. Each trek has its own leaderboard and activity stream.
You can create and use up to 5 challenges for free. For details about pricing contact the: firstname.lastname@example.org
Assessment and tracking:
Small business and Enterprise versions have analytics tool that allows to track user’s activities. Furthermore you can create and export reports for Challenges, Rewards, and Places.
Some things are still not completely clear, for example analytics, tracking student progress, playing in groups but it seems that product has a lot of potential. Building challenges, rewards, and treks is extremely easy and it can be done by anybody. | <urn:uuid:79160675-9b61-416d-aa36-95b71a0298d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://appzman.com/blog/?p=230 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907157 | 585 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Seventeen years ago, John Shelter found himself and his two young children homeless for a six-month stretch. The single father lived in a van in a campground and then moved onto "couch surfing," or staying on sofas at friends’ houses. Today, the aptly named Shelter, 50, is Executive Director of the Arcata Endeavor, a Northern California nonprofit that provides food, skills training, mentoring, and employment to the homeless and others who live in poverty.
This Arcata, Calif., resource could become a national model for employment programs geared toward homeless people who have trouble keeping long-term employment. It is certainly a standout in its area.
Arcata Endeavor’s philosophy, which is gaining ground around the country, is that the down-and-out need opportunities and guidance, not just crisis-mode food and shelter. "It’s important that the homeless work and view these places as a hand up, not as a handout," maintains Shelter. "Rather than just giving them what they need to get through the day—a hot meal and a shower, for instance, which are also important—you must provide services to help them climb out of the hole of homelessness and poverty. We take them by the hand and redirect their lives." They may have no birth certificate or other identification necessary to land a job, for instance, or not know how to apply for Social Security. Arcata Endeavor shows them how.
Shelter’s place offers an array of services, including a hot meal program, a food pantry, box lunches for low-income residents, showers and laundry, substance-abuse and mental-health counseling, one-on-one career and life-skills guidance, job coaching, case management, and actual employment so that prospective candidates will have a current work history and references. The nonprofit also provides a telephone, voice mail, mailing address, and Internet access—all necessary tools for today’s job hunter.
Many Arcata Endeavor volunteers are themselves homeless. Their jobs may be to fill or distribute the box lunches, serve hot meals, or help with job mentoring. The remaining volunteers are people from the community, many of whom are age 50+ and act primarily as mentors.
Among the goals of the Back to Basics (BtB) work-readiness program, as it is called, are to instill personal responsibility, a sense of accomplishment, and a feeling of belonging to a larger community—the "real world."
At first, BtB participants perform tasks at the facility that are closely supervised by staff. Once they’ve met the facility’s work and behavioral standards, they can become part of a paid crew in the community. It might be as a day laborer, or assisting or cleaning up at a citywide recycling event, for instance. After proving their reliability in the community, volunteers teach participants to write an effective résumé and other tasks such as how to look presentable and conduct themselves both during the interview and once hired. | <urn:uuid:edc7b13b-9b48-4a62-8c0f-6d120fb73abe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aarp.org/giving-back/volunteering/info-06-2009/getting_a_leg_up_finding_jobs_for_the_homeless.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960369 | 634 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Holes In Heaven? HAARP and Advances in Tesla Technology
The late Carl Sagan said (which is related to this documentary): We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We’ve also arranged things so that almost no one understands science or technology. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later, this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. This documentary film poses the question: Are we making Holes in Heaven? HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a controversial high frequency radio transmitter, or “ionospheric heater,” which is believed to be descended from the works of Nikola Tesla and is operated by the U.S. Navy/Air Force and Phillip Laboratories in remote Gakona, Alaska.
Using HAARP, the military can focus a billion-watt pulsed radio beam into our upper atmosphere, ostensibly for ionospheric research. This procedure will form extremely low frequency waves and send them back to the Earth, enhancing communications with submarines and allowing us to “see” into the Earth, detecting anything from oil reserves to underground missile silos.
However, several researchers claim HAARP poses many dangers, including blowing thirty-mile holes in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. They also warn of possible disruption of the subtle magnetic energies of our Earth and ourselves. Holes in Heaven? is a prime example of grassroots filmmaking by producer Paula Randol-Smith and Emmy-winning director Wendy Robbins. Narrated by Martin Sheen, the documentary, investigates HAARP, its history and implications, and examines the dangers and benefits of high and low frequencies and of electromagnetic technology.
Watch the full documentary now | <urn:uuid:9c43ffa3-7448-4523-b127-5047279ab451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/holes-in-heaven/ | 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 | 0.91746 | 361 | 2.21875 | 2 |
When folks at the American News Project (ANP) decided to chronicle election day 2008, Birmingham seemed a natural destination.
Polls were showing that the country was poised to elect its first African-American president. And perhaps no U.S. city is more associated with the struggle for civil rights than Birmingham. In fact, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a prime stop for anyone wanting to fully understand the struggle for equal opportunity in this country.
ANP launched in May 2008 and is devoted to producing online video journalism. The project is funded by the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and works in conjunction with a number of news organizations, including McClatchy Newspapers. You can check out the people behind ANP here.
ANP dispatched a reporter/photographer team to Birmingham to capture the mood of the city heading into election day--and on into election night. Reporting teams also chronicled activities in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, Florida.
You can check out a video report on election day in Birmingham here. It is produced by Garland McLaurin.
Tony Pugh, a Washington-based reporter for McClatchy Newspapers, contributes two compelling pieces. His pre-election piece, "In Birmingham, Obama's Run is More Than Just Politics," captures the city's mood against the backdrop of its tortured history on race relations.
In his election-night piece, "Civil Rights Battleground Celebrates Obama's Victory," Pugh noted that some residents were moved to tears of joy by the election of the nation's first black president. He spoke to others who expressed a sense of fear, feeling that America is turning to an unknown and untested leader at a time of crisis.
In the video, Pugh poignantly calls Obama's election the "prize-winning fruit" of a civil rights struggle that has its roots deeply planted in Birmingham. | <urn:uuid:c1a6673d-179d-47df-beab-1d2c48efcac4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/11/birmingham-perspective-on-historic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967244 | 385 | 2.3125 | 2 |
James bets Bill $1000 that he can predict the score of the football game before it starts. Bill agrees, but loses the bet. Why did Bill lose the bet?
Interview question and answer by: Virendradugar
| Posted on: 12/16/2009 | Category: Aptitude Test Interview questions
| Views: 2587 |
James said the score would be 0-0 and he was right. Before any football game starts, the score is always 0-0.
Email from a friend. | Asked In:
| Alert Moderator
Found interesting? Add this to: | <urn:uuid:e3c19c61-fa07-4d8a-aea6-da681452431c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dotnetfunda.com/interview/exam1630-james-bets-bill-1000-that-he-can-predict-the-score-of-the-football-game-be.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919035 | 124 | 1.9375 | 2 |
This piece is part of a series of blogs by leading NGOs to call attention to a range of issues that should be raised at the G8 summit at Camp David in rural Maryland from May 18-19.
If you took the current population of the United States and quadrupled it, you would almost have the number of people living in extreme poverty in the world today. A whopping 20 percent of the world's population -- 1.4 billion people -- lives on less than $1.25 a day. Over two-thirds of these extremely poor people do not have enough food to eat, and going to bed hungry is an everyday occurrence.
Food security, hunger and poverty are some of the most overwhelming problems facing the world today. It is undeniable that the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty will not be easily broken, especially since it has been exacerbated in recent years due to external shocks like the global food and economic crisis. Countless parents are unable to feed their families enough nutritious food, leaving children hungry and malnourished. Over a billion people will go to sleep hungry tonight.
But don't despair. Despite these hurdles, we can break this cycle for good, and the G8 must take the necessary steps to put an end to food insecurity once and for all. As the G8 countries prepare to convene at Camp David, agriculture in the developing world is expected to be a big focus. ONE and our 3 million members worldwide are jumping on this opportunity to ask the G8 leaders to remember their L'Aquila commitments and to invest in 30 country-owned plans that can ensure that 50 million people escape poverty through agriculture and 15 million children no longer suffer from chronic malnutrition.
At the 2009 L'Aquila G8 Summit, the G8 countries and five other donors responded to the global food crisis and pledged $22 billion in support of agriculture and food security initiatives. The donors promised to deliver the funds within three years, to agree on a set of principles as to how they would spend the money, and remain transparent and accountable on their commitment.
Despite the initial enthusiasm and diligence, however, the major donors failed to agree to consistent pledge years or a uniform system for measuring progress for the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI). As of July 2011, donors had disbursed a mere 22 percent of their $22 billion pledges, and in most cases, donors had not taken the Rome Principles to heart. Only 7 of the 40+ L'Aquila Initiative signatories have made pledges to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, GAFSP, the multilateral fund that best embodies the Rome Principles.
Just as important as the dollars and cents of the donor's pledges is how the donors promised to spend those funds, as significant budget constraints in many countries make maximizing the impact of every aid dollar absolutely essential.
The Rome Principles call on all donors to design development plans based on the needs of each developing country and to guarantee that all actors are cooperating to achieve sustainable outcomes. The Rome Principle of country ownership calls for investing in country-owned plans, aimed at channeling resources to well-designed and results-based programs and partnerships. Country ownership is of particular importance to us now, and the United States has started to take country ownership seriously as part of its Feed the Future initiative. Unfortunately, most other donors lag behind in developing investment plans that are country-led.
With this lapse in mind, ONE has launched Thrive -- an ambitious new campaign that calls on each of us to play our part in tackling the root causes of hunger and extreme poverty. You can learn more about the campaign and find out how to get involved at www.one.org.
Our recent research has shown that if donors, national governments, and the private sector funded the country agriculture plans of the 30 poor countries that have taken the time to determine what their farmers need to thrive, we could lift 50 million people out of poverty with those 30 plans alone. If we complemented those agriculture plans with nutrition interventions in countries that have demonstrated commitment to nutrition, 15 million fewer young children will suffer from stunting or irreversible developmental damage to their minds, organs and bodies
As food prices rise yet again, the barriers to achieving food security and poverty reduction remain more daunting than ever. Supporting country-led initiatives is one of the most proven ways to achieve sustainable development and progress against food insecurity, and I encourage the G8 leaders to remember this as they head to Camp David later this month.
Read more G8 news and blogs on HuffPost's G8 big news page. | <urn:uuid:bd47d799-e910-41ab-a23b-2e0bb418bb56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-leo/g8-food-insecurity_b_1504655.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952167 | 923 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Most Active Stories
Mon June 11, 2012
Lebanese Fear Spillover Violence From Syria
Originally published on Mon June 11, 2012 7:10 pm
A rash of kidnappings in Lebanon over the weekend, coupled with deadly cross-border attacks by the Syrian army, are all worrying signs that Syria's troubles are continuing to spill over into its smaller and weaker neighbor.
In the most recent incidents, a Sunni sheik known to support the Syrian uprising was abducted. In retaliation, several Alawites aligned with the Syrian government were taken. Days before that, the Syrian army shot several people on Lebanese territory.
The troubles start in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where residents say Syrian army vehicles cross over the border, come through the valley and shoot Lebanese people. Since the beginning of the year, Syrian attacks have killed six people in the area; many more have been injured.
In a hospital room outside the valley and away from the Syrian border, Lebanese farm worker Khatib al-Khoujairy is recovering from five bullet wounds: three in his abdomen, one in his leg and one in his arm.
Khatib says just last week, he and a few other workers were walking in a cherry orchard when he saw dozens of Syrian soldiers hiding among the trees.
"I saw the soldiers, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground," he says. One worker died, the others were driven to the hospital in private cars. There was no sign of the Lebanese army.
Now the workers, and the family who owns the farm, have abandoned it.
Unclear Syrian Motives
Exactly what the Syrian soldiers were after remains unclear. Could the farmers be smuggling arms to Syrian rebels? Could they be rebels themselves? Are they just being punished for housing Syrian refugees who oppose the government?
What is known is this isn't the only place where an attack like this has been reported.
In April, the Syrian army killed one man and injured several others in Turkey. That sparked international outcry. Turkey threatened to invoke the self-defense article of the NATO treaty, which says that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all.
But Lebanon is different, in many ways.
First, analysts say, the Syrian army used to occupy Lebanon, and still acts as if it controls certain areas, especially those that are known havens of cross-border smuggling.
Second, though Lebanon's own civil war ended more than 20 years ago, the Lebanese army has yet to deploy along all of the country's borders. And now that the crisis in Syria has ramped up, says Nadim Houry, who heads the Human Rights Watch office in Beirut, the Lebanese state remains absent, unable to resolve the growing conflicts in its own country.
"That's not sustainable. I think what's needed, and what we've been repeating from the beginning to the Lebanese state is, one, you need to protect all people present on your territory. And the Lebanese state has the authority as well to control any sort of illegal activity on its borders," Houry says. "But it can no longer act like an ostrich and keep its head in the sand and not do any of that."
Houry acknowledges that an assertion of Lebanese sovereignty is easier said than done in a place that remains so divided internally and with what is happening in neighboring Syria.
Lebanese politicians from all sides are sitting down to a long-awaited national dialogue this week. Analysts say they expect few results. | <urn:uuid:9f11fb63-da09-43d5-96af-b69619528894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ketr.org/post/lebanese-fear-spillover-violence-syria | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980913 | 722 | 1.875 | 2 |
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Television Production and Project Management
Kaye Lavine, project director and series producer
Miriam Lewin, producer
Susan Perlman, associate producer
Gary Bradley, supervising editor
Laura Young, editor
David Hogoboom, director of photography
Jim Furrer, camera
Theresa Liberatore, segment producer
Claudia Mogel, segment producer
Paul Gardener, additional editing
James Krieger, post production audio
Carl Anderson, series animation
David Sherman, series theme music
Carol Stein, post production supervisor
Print Materials and Web Development
Adam Kernan-Schloss, project team leader
Bonnie Jacob, project manager
Geoff Camphire, senior production manager, Web and print
Susan Gillespie, production manager, Web and print
Steve Kramer, production editor, Web and print
Sarah Hope Zogby, production editor, Web and print
Mina Habibi, Web and graphic design
Maria Nicklin, series logo, Web and graphic design
Michael Smith, financial officer
Advisers for The Arts in Every Classroom
Deborah Brzoska is the director of arts education for the Vancouver School District in Vancouver, Washington, which has been recognized by the Presidents Committee on Arts and Humanities as one of nine districts in the nation with exemplary K12 arts education.
David Diaz Guerrero has been a documentary photographer for more than 30 years. He has been a recipient of a Colorado Humanities and Arts grant, an NEA Collaborative Project grant, and a Colorado Council on the Arts Visual Artist fellowship. He has taught as a visiting artist in several schools in Colorado.
Joseph Juliano, Jr., served as president of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, an association of artists and educators serving young people. He is the director of fine arts for the Hamden Public Schools in Hamden, Connecticut, where he supervises programs in all the arts for grades K12. In addition, he is on the steering committee of the Arts Education Partnership and is chair of the Interdisciplinary Committee of the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations.
Donald J. Killeen is national program manager of the National Arts Education Consortium, Department of Art Education, Ohio State University. He has more than 20 years of experience teaching and administering in higher education settings both in the United States and internationally. From 1997 to 2002, he directed the Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge (TETAC), a five-year national education reform initiative designed to link comprehensive arts education with national and local efforts to reform our nations schools. TETAC was funded by the Walter H. Annenberg Foundation and the Getty Education Institute for the Arts.
Sally Nogg, a first-grade teacher at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Brewster, New York, is an early childhood specialist who has been a classroom teacher for more than 25 years. She began teaching at the secondary level but after six years moved to primary grades. Her teaching experience ranges from living and teaching on Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico to working in an inner-city school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She specializes in diverse populations and developmentally appropriate practices.
Martha Rodriguez-Torres is the principal of P.S. 156, The Waverly School of the Arts, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. When she started at Waverly, it was a relatively low-performing school with only 17 percent of the children reading at or above grade level. She made the school into an arts magnet school and improved student performance outcomes.
Vicki Rosenberg is vice president and chief operating officer of the Council of Michigan Foundations. Before taking this position, she was senior program officer with the Getty Grant Program, a subsidiary of the J. Paul Getty Trust, where she managed national programs designed to improve the quality and status of arts education in American public schools.
Wayne Walters is principal of the Frick International Studies Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Previously he was assistant principal at Northview Heights Elementary School, where he fostered a music program for inner-city children. He also was an elementary and vocal music teacher at Martin Luther King, Jr., Elementary School in Pittsburgh.
Stella Yu is associate director of the Mayors Office of Art, Culture, and Film in Denver, Colorado. She has a background in fine arts, arts education, and business and is an accomplished visual artist who spent many years as a visual art specialist teacher.
Susanne Burgess is the director of the Southeast Institute for Education in Music at the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts. She has worked with all age groups from newborn to college, teaching general and choral music in public and private schools, conservatories, and community organizations.
Scott Rosenow is the director of the Southeast Institute for Education in Theatre at the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts. He has taught and directed theatre at the elementary, middle, high school, and university levels.
Project Collaborators to SCEA
Kathy DeJean is the dance specialist at Lusher Alternative Elementary and Middle Schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has taught, danced, and choreographed in schools and professional dance companies in the United States and Europe.
Ann Rowson Love is the curator of education at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana. She previously was director of visual art at the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts.
Hazel Lucas is a curriculum coordinator at Browns Mill Elementary School in Lithonia, Georgia. She previously taught fifth-grade social studies at Browns Mill and has given workshops in visual art education in the United States and China.
© Annenberg Foundation 2013. All rights reserved. Legal Policy. | <urn:uuid:31a1f7ff-5760-4386-a42f-b883d76dbd22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.learner.org/libraries/artsineveryclassroom/abtproduction.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947822 | 1,183 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Communications & Video Accessibility Act
Please read, as this is IMPORTANT!
The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress on June 26, 2009. The goal of this law is to "establish new safeguards for disability access to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind as technology changes and the United States migrates to the next generation of Internet-based and digital communication technologies." (http://www.coataccess.org/node/32)
More information about this important legislation, including an online petition you can sign to show your support for it, can be found on the Internet. Please visit the sites listed below to learn more about this bill. More importantly, please consider contacting your Congressional representatives and asking for their support (see the link below).
COAT (Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology): www.coataccess.org
Caption Action Blog: http://captionaction2.blogspot.com
Find and contact your Congressional representatives and Senators. | <urn:uuid:e4bb6973-50f9-4351-9471-429c93c5b4f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lalsd.org/content.cfm?new=1104&id=167 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915724 | 212 | 2.5 | 2 |
The head of a pan-European rights body on Tuesday called on EU hopeful Turkey, which has more jailed journalists than any other country in the world, to improve its dismal record on freedom of expression.
"There are still 450 cases pending against Turkey in the freedom of expression" domain before the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe chief Thorbjorn Jagland told a conference in Ankara.
"This is simply too much," he said, adding that "the need for action is evident".
Turkey is now the leading jailer of journalists worldwide, imprisoning even more than China or Iran, according to an October report by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Jagland called on the country of 75 million to enact legislative reforms to comply with European standards in the area.
"Freedom of expression may offend, may shock, but protecting journalism and freedom of expression is protecting democracy."
He spoke a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the European Union for "unforgivable" delays in Turkey's path to possible EU membership.
Erdogan's government has come under fire from rights groups for its escalating crackdown on the media, with critics saying its laws are putting a record number of journalists in jail.
The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists identified 76 journalists imprisoned in Turkey as of August 1, including 61 who were put behind bars purely because of their journalism.
But the government insists no one has been jailed because of their profession but rather as a result of criminal activities.
Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said at the same conference Tuesday that some of those said to be journalists were "bombers, people convicted of terrorism or for violent actions".
He added that Turkey was working on a new amendment to address the rights concerns. | <urn:uuid:1aa35025-1df6-4162-8e63-1ffbd5b93635> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/05/264547.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96699 | 361 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Sharing by Default?
Widlok, T. (2004). Sharing by Default? Anthropological Theory, 4 (1): 53-70.
Abstract:The establishment of moral relativism does not exhaust anthropological comparisons of how people strive for a good life. In this article I suggest that comparative research into ethical systems and moralities can be productively complemented by an anthropology of virtue. Experiences from post-Cold War settings and ethnographic examples from Australia and Namibia illustrate my attempt to outline such an anthropological theory of virtue based on recent anthropological work on art and on skill. The anthropological approach to virtue envisaged here is both nonconsequentialist and realist in orientation. It is non-consequentialist in that it accounts for the moral dimension of practices such as ‘sharing’ and ‘reciprocal exchange’ without relying on problematic presumptions about net results or ultimate consequences. It is realist in so far as it is based not on rationalist categories but on situated social practices, which entail reference to basic human goods such as sustenance and mutual engagement.
Source: Sage Journals Online
(Something interesting I found)Posted: Monday, March 01, 2004 | <urn:uuid:0e1ec954-a329-4590-9553-1cfd8604d3d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceofvirtues.org/blogs/publications/archive/2004/03/01/sharing-by-default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922972 | 250 | 1.96875 | 2 |
The L.A. Times' science and health staff has recently been accused of an ongoing campaign against fat people. Commenting on a post Monday, reader Big Jim Slade predicted "tomorrow we'll have another fat assault on how breathing the same air as fat people is dangerous...Maybe we should waterboard them, eh?"
Don't shoot us, Big Jim: We're just the messengers!
But for those of you who share Big Jim's sense of persecution, let me say, I feel your pain. If you think it's hard reading our drumbeat of reporting on the health effects of obesity, imagine what it's like for, say, a significantly overweight health reporter to write this stuff on a daily basis. (Trust me, I'd rather be at the gym--though a controversial recent report suggests that won't help me lose any weight either.)
Which brings me to the latest crop of bad news on being obese--and there is just no way to sugarcoat this pair of studies, my friends: being fat makes your brain shrink and, if you are a man, your penis limp.
A new brain-imaging study by researchers at UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh finds that the brains of overweight and obese subjects were on average 4% and 8% smaller, respectively, than the brains of those who were at a healthy weight--evidence, according to UCLA neurology professor and study author Paul Thompson, of "severe brain degeneration."
For the obese--those with a BMI over 30--the news is particularly bad: the areas of significant observed shrinkage were the frontal temporal lobes, the seat of higher-order reasoning and judgment; the anterior cingulate gyrus, key to attention and decision-making as well; the hippocampus, where long-term memories are processed, and the basal ganglia, from which smooth movement is initiated.
Overweight people--those with a BMI over 25--also had shrinkage in the basal ganglia, as well as in the parietal lobe, where we integrate sensory input and position ourselves in space, and in the brain's white matter, which helps speed messages among regions of the brain that must work together for us to function properly.
After virtually weighing and measuring the brains of 94 subjects over age 70, the study authors concluded that the brains of the overweight appeared, on average, eight years older than those of subjects at healthy weight. Brains of the obese appeared 16 years older. While the subjects scanned in the study showed no outward signs of cognitive impairment at the time of the study, the study's authors predicted the premature aging and loss of brain volume they observed would put heavier subjects at greater risk of Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain diseases.
Why? Because a big, robust brain under attack by these diseases can often compensate for their ravages for some time--forestalling the onset of symptoms. But a shrunken brain is not so resilient. Memory loss, movement problems and cognitive deficits are far more likely to show up early for overweight and obese patients. This study is published online in the journal Human Brain Mapping.
The current issue of the "journalzine" Obesity and Weight Management--free online this month-- explores another, better-known fellow-traveler of obesity: erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction is a common side effect of high blood pressure and atherosclerosis. Those conditions can lead to blockage of the major arteries that lead to the brain and the heart, causing stroke and heart attack, respectively. But they also can lead to "microvascular disease," including erectile dysfunction, say University of Colorado physician Adam Gilden Tsai and the University of Pittsburgh's Adam Sarwer.
Tsai and Sarwer present the case study of a 48-year-old man whose BMI is 32.6--considered "mildly obese," with erectile dysfunction that is not relieved by the use of tadalafil, the erectile dysfunction medication better known as Cialis.
There is, at least, some good news: A study expected to be published next month in the Lancet by the UCLA-Pitt researchers that observed brain shrinkage is expected to suggest that physical exercise can help spare even the obese some of the consequences of their excess weight. And, the patient with erectile dysfunction was medicated for his high blood pressure and, after dietary counseling, lost 4.6% of his body weight--just under 10 pounds. "The patient has been able to achieve adequate erections with the use of ED medication as needed," the authors report.
Now that's a happy ending.
-- Melissa Healy | <urn:uuid:c1a710cb-78c6-43be-9c5d-810f56c8fe8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/08/obesity-linked-to-brain-shrinkage-erectile-dysfunction.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952074 | 945 | 1.75 | 2 |
Regardless of one’s opinion of Tony Campolo, one has to admit Campolo is not afraid to speak his mind.
In 20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid To Touch, Campolo takes on some of the most difficult issues confronting contemporary Christianity.
Some of the issues addressed from the chapter titles include “Are Evangelicals Too Pro-Israel” and “Where Does A Single Woman Over 30 Go To Get Rid Of Loneliness?”
Some of Campolo’s comments are insightful such as those realizing that singleness is as ordained of God as marriage.
Other comments reveal a serious misunderstanding as to the fundamental nature of human nature.
In the chapter dealing with homosexuality, Campolo suggests that Evangelicals grant a blessing to celibate gays living together.
But humanly speaking, will any relationship between romantically attracted adults living under the same roof remain celibate for long?
Even among Christians, one reason for disinterest in the church is its failure to address the concerns of the day and instead explicate some arcane Old Testament passage week after week with little application to the life of the average Christian.
If nothing else, even despite his errors, Campolo’s text should spark interesting Sunday school debates or riveting rejoinders from the pulpit.
Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins | <urn:uuid:c5a4c086-7c78-4503-b3eb-b245a24249f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epistolizer.blogspot.com/2005/08/review-of-20-hot-potatoes-christians.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926365 | 274 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Undergraduate study - discover the elements of success
Opportunities in the world of chemistry and beyond...
A knowledge of chemistry is key to understanding the modern world. As a chemistry degree student, we will encourage you to develop your skills in this fast-moving science through hands-on laboratory work, lectures and seminars. You will also gain confidence in vital workplace skills such as communication and presentation that will boost your employability, no matter what career you choose after graduation.
Our impressive laboratories are among the best teaching facilities in the UK with expert academic and technical staff always on hand to help you learn the practical side of your degree in chemistry.
We offer a diverse range of areas of chemistry to study, from atoms to biomolecules and from crystal structures to functional materials.
Explore our different Chemistry degrees, you may also choose modules from elsewhere in the University.
We welcome applications from students from anywhere in the world, from a wide variety of academic backgrounds. | <urn:uuid:9416b9c0-286a-4bc6-8eec-22d2f51067a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southampton.ac.uk/chemistry/undergraduate/index.page | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929901 | 195 | 1.960938 | 2 |
* This post is written by Elizabeth Shim for the Korean Cultural Service in New York.
Across the arc of Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, tiers of seats are ablaze with enthusiasm for the performance on stage. The audience is connected to the dance and drum beats reverberating throughout the concert hall, as four men reenact a traditional Korean farmer’s dance. People are tapping their feet, clapping their hands.
It’s a lively, festive affair, and the energy is infectious. Even the most stoic observer can’t seem to sit still. But this is what gugak, or Korean traditional music is all about – the bond between performer and audience, as the performer sends his message to the spectators, and they send his energy back to him with genuine applause. In other words, Korean musicians don’t perform in an isolated vacuum. If 21stcentury social networks like Twitter and Facebook are notable for their peer-to-peer engagement, it’s no exaggeration to say social networking or community and togetherness in traditional Korea was borne out of its music, a crowd-sourced art form that requires audience participation.
The 2011 Korean Traditional Arts Festival on June 25 marked the 61st anniversary of the Korean War (1950-1953). It was also a celebration that transported viewers to a Korea of bygone days. Across a dozen acts, the audience was able to experience first-hand the rituals and rites, the storytelling and entertainment that defined the culture of Joseon period (1392-1910) Korea. The showcase ranged from the exuberant drumbeats and metal gongs that underscored the Gwanggaeto Samulnori, or traditional farmer’s dance, to the sweet melancholy of a shamanistic dance solo, or Salpuri Chum, beautifully expressed by Kim Myo-sun, a National Living Treasure of the Republic of Korea. From start to finish, the show was a moving museum of images, sounds, and Korean sentiments that resonated with the audience.
Performers, both Korean and Korean American, presented a united front in their dedication to their art form. The New York Traditional Marching Band, composed of Korean American schoolchildren ages 10 to 15, gave the performance a local flavor. The children synchronized various drums that crescendoed with youthful energy and fervor, as if they were playing improvised tunes etched into their collective hearts. Shin Young-Hee, a critically acclaimed singer of pansori, or traditional storytelling through song and instrumental accompaniment, was also a crowd favorite. Her charismatic and humorous tale of the brothers Heungbu and Nolbu, an allegory of the power of good deeds, brought continuous chuckles from the Korean audience.
The evening brought together Koreans and Korean culture enthusiasts under one roof, as well as septuagenarian members of the Korean War Veterans Association (KWVA) and their families, who were the guests of honor that evening. The performance closed with the Ganggangsullae, a 5,000-year-old Korean dance that expressed community solidarity and hope for a good harvest. Members of the audience joined in, including a handful of Korean War veterans, who seemed quite charmed to take part in the on-stage celebration. Performers and spectators encircled the stage of Alice Tully Hall in a convivial gesture of friendship, as they laughed and danced one last time.
So was it a typical evening at a classical music venue? Hardly. But was there interactivity and heartwarming Korean-style togetherness? Absolutely.
For more information about the annual Korean Traditional Arts Festival, please see the Traditional Arts Society of Korea website: http://task-us.org/ | <urn:uuid:531283f8-acf4-45bb-8592-ebbe33c593ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.korea.net/?p=5719 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957103 | 766 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Two new ESA satellites successfully lofted into orbit
ESA PR 28-2009. The second satellite in ESA’s Earth Explorer series – the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission – and the second demonstration satellite under ESA’s Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) were launched into orbit last night from northern Russia.
SMOS will play a key role in the monitoring of climate change on a global scale. It is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil moisture on a global scale. It features a unique interferometric radiometer that will enable passive surveying of the water cycle between oceans, the atmosphere and land.
Travelling piggyback on the launch of SMOS, Proba-2 is a follow-on to the highly successful Proba-1 satellite launched in 2001. It will demonstrate 17 advanced satellite technologies –such as miniaturised sensors for ESA's future space probes and a highly sophisticated CCD camera with a wide angle view of about 120º – while carrying a set of four science instruments to observe the Sun and study the plasma environment in orbit.
Two satellites on two orbits
The satellites were launched atop a Rockot launch vehicle provided by Eurockot GmbH. Liftoff from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia took place at 01:50 UTC (02:50 CET) on Monday 2 November.
Some 70 minutes after launch, SMOS successfully separated from the Rockot’s Breeze-KM upper stage. Shortly after, the satellite’s initial telemetry was acquired by the Hartebeesthoek ground station, near Johannesburg, South Africa. The upper stage then performed additional manoeuvres to arrive at a slightly lower orbit and Proba-2 was released too, some 3 hours into flight.
Both satellites are currently circling the Earth on their respective sun-synchronous orbits, at an altitude of some 760 km in the case of SMOS and 725 km in that of Proba-2. The Proteus mission control centre operated by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse, France, is in control of SMOS on behalf of ESA, while the Proba control centre, at ESA’s tracking station in Redu, Belgium, has taken over Proba-2.
Early in-orbit operations have begun to check the satellites before commissioning them for operations. Proba-2 is planned to reach operational status in two months' time. The highly innovative payload onboard SMOS will take longer to check and calibrate, and the spacecraft will enter fully operational mode within six months.
"We are extremely pleased with this double 'lucky strike' that will provide Europe with new tools to better understand our planet and climate change, as well as new technology breakthroughs that will enhance the competitiveness of European industry on the world-wide market, thus contributing to the global economy," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General, witnessing the launch from Plesetsk.
Looking for water exchanges
SMOS is a 658-kg satellite developed by ESA in cooperation with France’s CNES and Spain’s Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI). It is based on the Proteus small satellite platform designed and built by Thales Alenia Space and its payload is composed of a single instrument, the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS), developed by EADS CASA Espacio.
MIRAS is an interferometer that connects together 69 receivers mounted on three deployable arms to measure the temperature of the reflection of the Earth's surface in the microwave frequency range. This temperature is linked to both the actual temperature of the surface and its conductive characteristics, which are in turn linked to soil moisture for land surface and to water salinity for sea surface.
"The data collected by SMOS will complement measurements already performed on the ground and at sea to monitor water exchanges on a global scale. Since these exchanges – most of which occur in remote areas – directly affect the weather, they are of paramount importance to meteorologists" said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. "Moreover, salinity is one of the drivers for the Thermohaline Circulation, the large network of currents that steers heat exchanges within the oceans on a global scale, and its survey has long been awaited by climatologists who try to predict the long-term effects of today’s climate change," Liebig added, witnessing the launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
SMOS is the second satellite launched under the Earth Explorer programme conducted by ESA to foster the acquisition of new environmental data for the science community. It follows the Gravity and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), also launched on a Rockot, in March 2009. More Earth Explorers are already undergoing preparation. Cryosat-2, which will measure the thickness of the ice sheets, is due for launch in February 2010. It will be followed by ADM-Aeolus to study atmospheric dynamics and the Swarm mission to monitor the weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field, in 2011, as well as by the EarthCARE mission on clouds and aerosols in 2013.
Technologies for tomorrow
With a launch mass of 135 kg, Proba-2 is a much smaller satellite, "but like its predecessor Proba-1, it is aimed at demonstrating a wide range of technologies, both for future satellite systems and for space science instruments. Among these is a demonstration model of a miniaturised startracker developed for ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury and the future Solar Orbiter probe," said Michel Courtois, ESA’s Director of Technology and Quality Management, from Plesetsk.
Other technologies to be demonstrated include a digital sun sensor, miniaturised wide angle camera, fibre sensors, a high-precision magnetometer, a dual frequency GPS space receiver, a xenon-fed resistojet thruster, a cold gas generator and many more.
In addition, Proba-2 carries two Belgian solar physics instruments and two Czech plasma physics experiments.
Two more Proba missions are already in the design and development phase. Proba-V will carry a vegetation multispectral sensor to monitor vegetation cover, and Proba-3 is due to demonstrate formation flying. | <urn:uuid:7d1c81aa-2f37-4af1-811c-cba7342ad541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esa.int/ESA_in_your_country/United_Kingdom/Two_new_ESA_satellites_successfully_lofted_into_orbit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917664 | 1,357 | 2.84375 | 3 |
From the Dec. 6, 1934 News Record:
Thirty pioneer residents of this section of Wyoming met at the Noble tea room last evening and perfected the organization of the Pioneer Dutch Oven Club, which will seek to keep alive the memories of bygone days and preserve for history a record of early day events which took place in northeastern Wyoming. Officers elected to head the club for the next year are Nels Martin, president; Robert Davis, vice president; Mrs. May Davis, secretary-treasurer; W.D. Rooney, camp storyteller; and Mrs. B.C. Noble, historian. Interspersed throughout the business discussion and interesting reminiscences of the old timers present was music furnished by a string quartet. A typical setting was arranged on a large log table placed in the center of the tea room. A camp fire, realistic through the use of red lights, blazed amid a setting of pine boughs. Nearby could be seen an axe, coffee pot, dutch oven and other cooking utensils.
From the Dec. 19, 1968 News Record:
“It is wonderful to celebrate my 100th birthday”, said Mrs. India Pickering of Gillette, and her family agrees it was a wonderful occasion. She received flowers from friends and relatives and a birthday greeting from President Lyndon B. Johnson, Sen. Gale McGee, and Sen. Clifford P. Hanson as well as a personal call from Ed Hunter, Social Security field representative. Born in Indiana, Dec. 12, 1868, to William and Mary Richardson, her family moved to Buffalo, Mo., when she was only a year old. India Richardson met and married Sam Hite in 1888. They lived in Buffalo until 1901, when they moved with six of their children by covered wagon to Caremore, Okla., and moved into a log cabin on a farm. The only time India has ever been afraid is when she heard a screech owl and thought it was an attack on their Oklahoma farm after some Indian trouble. She lived in Wichita, Kan., until 1947, when she came to live with her daughter, Grace Hudson, in Gillette.
From the Dec. 10, 1982 Campbell County Record:
The new Wyoming license plates could give lemons a good name. That’s the opinion of Campbell County Treasurer Shirley Study. But they still go on sale Jan. 3 and must be displayed by March 1. They’re a mess,” Study said. They’re tinnier, and the horse isn’t embossed. The new plates, the first issued to Wyoming motorists and trailer owners since 1978, have brown lettering on a golden-yellow background. Although she acknowledges that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some people may like the combination, Study feels the background color makes the plates uglier than the brown and off-white ones of the past five years. The famous rider and bucking horse that adorned Cowboy State license plates for generations is still there, but the forms are no longer raised above the background on automobile plates. But the real problem for the treasurer’s office has been the condition in which many of the plates arrived. Some of the consecutive numbers are missing, while some envelopes contained only one plate instead of two. Other plates were stuck together and when treasurer’s office personnel peeled them apart, the paint peeled off one and stuck to the back of the other. Some of the numbers weren’t painted well enough to be recognized easily. | <urn:uuid:0528a0fb-8a41-42b7-9e9b-8fb5bded8067> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Gillette-histories,82413 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958336 | 725 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Some 20,000 labourers are working around the clock at Belo Monte on the Xingu river, the biggest hydropower plant under construction anywhere. When complete, its installed capacity, or theoretical maximum output, of 11,233MW will make it the world’s third-largest, behind China’s Three Gorges and Itaipu, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay. Everything about Belo Monte is outsized, from the budget (28.9 billion reais, or $14.4 billion), to the earthworks—a Panama Canal-worth of soil and rock is being excavated—to the controversy surrounding it. In 2008 a public hearing in Altamira, the nearest town, saw a government engineer cut with a machete. In 2010 court orders threatened to stop the auction for the project. The private-sector bidders pulled out a week before. When officials from Norte Energia, the winning consortium of state-controlled firms and pension funds, left the auction room, they were greeted by protesters—and three tonnes of pig muck.
Since then construction has twice been halted briefly by legal challenges. Greens and Amerindians often stage protests. Xingu Vivo (“Living Xingu”), an anti-Belo Monte campaign group, displays notes from supporters all over the world in its Altamira office... But visit the site and Belo Monte now looks both unstoppable and much less damaging to the environment than some of its foes claim...
Brazil already generates 80% of its electricity from hydro plants—far more than other countries. But two-thirds of its hydro potential is untapped. The snag is that most of it lies in untouched rivers in the Amazon basin. Of 48 planned dams, 30 are in the rainforest. They include the almost completed Jirau and Santo Antônio on the Madeira river, which will add 6,600MW to installed capacity. But it is Belo Monte, the giant among them, that has become the prime target of anti-dams campaigners.Opponents say that dams only look cheap because the impact on locals is downplayed and the value of other uses of rivers—for fishing, transport and biodiversity—is not counted. They acknowledge that hydropower is low-carbon, but worry that reservoirs in tropical regions can release large amounts of methane, a much more powerful greenhouse gas.
In the 20th century thousands of dams were built around the world. Some were disasters: Brazil’s Balbina dam near Manaus, put up in the 1980s, flooded 2,400 square km (930 square miles) of rainforest for a piffling capacity of 250MW. Its vast, stagnant reservoir makes it a “methane factory”, says Philip Fearnside of the National Institute for Amazonian Research, a government body in Manaus. Proportionate to output, it emits far more greenhouse gases than even the most inefficient coal plant.
But many dams were worth it (though the losers rarely received fair compensation). Itaipu, built in the 1970s by Brazil’s military government, destroyed some of the world’s loveliest waterfalls, flooded 1,350 square km and displaced 10,000 families. But it now supplies 17% of Brazil’s electricity and 73% of Paraguay’s. It is highly efficient, producing more energy than the Three Gorges, despite being smaller.
Of Brazil’s total untapped hydropower potential of around 180,000MW, about 80,000MW lies in protected regions, mostly indigenous territories, for which there are no development plans. The government expects to use most of the remaining 100,000MW by 2030, says Mr Ventura. But it will minimise the social and environmental costs, he insists. The new dams will use “run of river” designs, eschewing large reservoirs and relying on the water’s natural flow to power the turbines. And they will not flood any Indian reserves.,,,
The protesters’ legal challenge to Belo Monte is based on the claim that they have not been properly consulted, something the government denies. The constitution says that before exploiting any resource on Amerindian lands, the government must consult the inhabitants. But it is silent on how this should be done. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has a similar clause in its Convention 169 on indigenous rights, to which Brazil is a signatory. The government says that since no demarcated territories will be flooded, such formal protections do not apply. “We hold consultations about the projects we’re doing not because we have to, but because it is right,” says Mr Ventura. Between 2007 and 2010 there were four public hearings and 12 public consultations about Belo Monte, as well as explanatory workshops and 30 visits to Indian villages.
In 2011, in response to a complaint filed by Indian groups, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for a halt to construction pending further consultation. That was “precipitate and unjustified”, said the government, refusing the request. The ILO has asked Brazil’s government for more information on how it intends to fulfil its legal obligations.
The legal uncertainty surrounding Belo Monte is bad for both the Indians and contractors, says Mr Sales—not to mention Brazil as a whole. A draft law detailing how to consult indigenous people is expected by the end of the year. But before Congress legislates, ground is likely to have been broken on most of the new dams....
Belo Monte was given an initial budget of 16 billion reais, which had risen to 19 billion reais by the time of the auction. Norte Energia’s winning bid for Belo Monte offered a price of 77.97 reais/MWh. Since then, its budget has risen by a third. Officials insist that the costs are Norte Energia’s problem. That looks disingenuous. The group is almost wholly state-owned. In November, the national development bank gave Norte Energia a loan of 22.5 billion reais—its largest-ever credit. If Belo Monte turns out to be a white elephant, the bill will fall on the taxpayer.
Dams in the Amazon: the Rights and Wrongs of Belo Monte, Economist, May 4, 2013, at 37 | <urn:uuid:d3582355-f80e-45b4-a363-15f4b8398cc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alphabetics.info/international/category/environmental-news/property-rights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953365 | 1,325 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The report also shows that the value of public contracts going to businesses that make political donations decreased by 43 percent from 2006 to 2009.
Commission executive director Jeff Brindle said that the impact is huge and that the agency's report reinforces previous studies that show fundraising by state and county committees have sharply declined.
"The pay-to-play reforms of recent years appear to be reversing somewhat the dominance of political party entities that grew steadily from the earlier reforms enacted in 1993," he said.
The laws — hailed as among the toughest in the nation when introduced in 2005 — prohibit state agencies from awarding contracts worth more than $17,500 to companies that donate more than $300 to gubernatorial candidates or to county or state political parties. Only businesses with annual public contracts worth $50,000 or more must report their contributions to the commission.
According to the election enforcement commission, contractors last year gave $10.7 million in political contributions, down from $15.1 million in 2006.
The 1,820 contractors that reported donations last year had nearly $6 billion in public contracts. That figure is down from the $10 billion in contracts made by the nearly 2,300 contractors in 2006 who made political donations of more than $300.
By 2009, that number of contractors was also down, by nearly 500.
However, there is still a visible influence felt by top contributors in 2009, most of which are engineering and environmental planning firms that benefited from a bill passed last year allowing specially licensed private engineers to oversee the cleanup of more than 20,000 contaminated sites.
Middletown-based T&M Associates, an engineering and environmental planning firm, gave the most to campaigns in 2009, with $534,000 in donations, and was followed by CME Associates at almost $500,000.
Supporters of the measure said it would help move along many projects that have been delayed by understaffing at the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Environmentalists objected, contending the Licensed Site Remediation Professional program puts public health at risk because there will be less government oversight to ensure cleanups are done properly.
Jeff Tittel, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said one needs only to look at the top 10 list of donors to see that the problem is still happening.
"Pay-to-play is still alive. It's just less about public contracts and more about pushing legislation to benefit themselves," Tittel said. "Now it's pay-to-pass-legislation."
Another notable continual recipient of fat government contracts is highway contractor Joseph M. Sanzari, part-owner of Creamer-Sanzari Joint Venture. It received $86 million last year.
Sanzari came under scrutiny in 2005 after it was revealed that he used his private plane to fly the then-chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority on trips to Florida.In all, 1820 companies filed data with the state disclosing their political donations, down from 2,229 in 2006.
State agencies are barred from awarding contracts to companies that have donated more than $300 to gubernatorial candidates, state and county political parties and legislative leadership committees. But contractors do not face the same limits donating to municipal and county candidates as long as those local-level contracts are bid out through a "fair and open" process.
Despite the overall decline over the last four years, the amount of money awarded to companies who made political donations has increased in the last year, from just under $5 billion in 2008 to almost $5.9 billion in 2009 last year, even though the amount of political donations declined by $1.4 million during the same period.
Insurance companies dominate the ranks of public contractors. Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey, for instance, is the single largest public contractor, taking in about $1.2 billion from agencies at various levels of government. The bulk of that, however, comes from a state Medicaid contract worth more than $1.1 billion. Prudential insurance ranks second, with over $523 million in public contracts.
The biggest donors are overwhelmingly engineering firms, who make up eight out of the 10 top campaign spenders. T&M Associates ranks number one, having given $534,000 in donations last year, followed by CME Associates at $499,000 and Remington & Vernick at $356,000. | <urn:uuid:8fcb8b9d-8392-4396-9159-2ac100d50718> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/contractors_donating_less_to_p.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967832 | 896 | 1.859375 | 2 |
A town located in the county of Yorkshire, Doncaster is the historic centre of the borough with the same name. Popularly referred to as “Donny”, the town was originally built on the site of a Roman fortress on the banks of the River Don. It is filled with historical points of interest and landmarks that reflect its rich history. St. George’s Minster is a popular landmark within the town as is Conisbrough Castle, which also attractions many visitors in the area. The town is home to the famous Doncaster Racecourse while Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery is a popular attraction that depicts the history and culture of this town.
The town is a hub for business and commerce with a major emphasis on modern service industries. Computer support and service centres are abundant in town as are electrical engineering consultants, business advisors and financial consultants. There are graphic design firms and printing services along with lawyers, doctors and industrial equipment manufacturers. Mortgage brokers and public relation firms also have office space in the town. Prominent brands such as Amazon.com and Faberge have facilities in Doncaster, as does Confection by Design.
Entertainment And Dining Out
Doncaster has a buzzing night-life with a number of live-music venues. Doncaster Civic Theatre hosts theatre and performing arts shows while Vue Cinema has a multiplex in the town catering for movie goers. This town offers a wide variety of food for customers to choose from. There is Indian food on offer at Nur, Italian cuisine being served up at Sambucca, Turkish delights to enjoy at Turkuaz, and Mediterranean cuisine on the menu at Café Med. The Black Bull Inn is a great place to sample local British cuisine.
Doncaster is on the E15, which is part of the European roadway network passing through Sheffield and London, before moving into Europe. The M18 also passes close to Doncaster with Junction 2 linking the town to the Motorway. The A1 runs close to town while the M1 and M62 are within a short drive of Doncaster. Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield is the closest major airport bringing international air travel to the area.
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Available to all – they can be used by anyone, whether you require 1 or 100+ workstations. Nowadays, many companies use them as a long term alternative to conventional office space. | <urn:uuid:2da3d338-ea9f-4299-bd66-f18aff342fbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.searchofficespace.com/uk/office-space/doncaster-serviced-offices.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951081 | 850 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Members of our coffee group decided that if we were going to change Washington and the nation we must start with the local leadership. On envelopes and napkins, then, we jotted down what could be called a "State of the County" address — for any county, anywhere in Indiana.
Generally, there is a yearning for local leaders who can be trusted to advance a theme rather than the issue of moment, who will eschew that oh-so-cleverly crafted phrase that some political pro guarantees will win the plum of office. We need men and women who will speak for their community rather than for their own reelection.
Trust in our political leadership faded as a historic sense of opportunity was replaced by officially nurtured dependency. We are now bankrupt in the trust department, no longer certain that government will afford us the freedom that opportunity requires.
Somebody in our local public life needs to say that. More, they need to build a political apparatus around it. They need to select precinct leaders and recruit candidates who will be true to it and proactively work for it rather than stand passively by in feudal loyalty.
What's at stake? What does it cost if this trust cannot be restored at least here at the grassroots?
The rush for pistols, ammunition and permits has more to do with personal protection, alas, than with any appreciation of the wisdom behind the Second Amendment.
David Mamet, the playwright, wraps up the point nicely:
“The police do not exist to protect the individual. They exist to cordon off the crime scene and attempt to apprehend the criminal. We individuals are guaranteed by the Constitution the right to self-defense. This right is not the government's to 'award' us. They have never been granted it.”
Great numbers of law-abiding citizens in our county have come to the reasonable conclusion that the local police cannot protect them from a society gone sour. They are arming themselves to the teeth.
Some express surprise and revulsion at this. Really? Any mature, aware person, especially one trying to raise children to adulthood, cannot be but horrified at the dreamy ideas coming out of the ruling class.
We listen carefully to our mayor, the gun-control activist, explain how he imagines life works for us regular folk — and government's role in it all. He talks as if we had not had five dysfunctional decades of socially re-engineered families, schools and communities, and the psychopathy that has come along with it. He agonizes over the root causes of it all. He is a stranger to us.
A man on our street, a 65-year-old father of three, as middle-class as they come, has within his circle of immediate friends these statistics:
* Three bludgeoned to death as they slept (midnight prowler)
* One tortured and strangled to death after she answered her door bell (home invader/kidnaper)
* One stabbed multiple times in the shower (burglar/rapist).
*And the strafing of his neighborhood with full-automatic weaponry (labor dispute).
The tax system
An economist with the Indiana Policy Review Foundation recently examined what happens when citizens lose trust in their government. Specifically, she wondered what happens when citizens turn against a tax-collection system like ours that is essentially voluntary, one where comprehensive enforcement is impractical at current rates of compliance.
For a picture of what that looks like, visit any of a half-dozen Central and South American countries. Note the big lottery system and the hyperactive black market. Our local government is not nimble enough to take that kind of revenue hit. We could not protect ourselves from the federal and state usurpations that would follow.
One in our group remembers how his father would declare every penny of taxable income, whether or not his accountant considered it necessary. Few people do that these days. They don't like — or respect — their government that much.
Politicians in America (the Kennedys exempted) have treated the electoral process with a respect that approaches the sacred. This is changing, for as we lost trust in our politicians to make the right decisions in office, the political professionals seem to have lost trust in us to make the right decision at the polls.
Voting irregularities unheard of two decades ago are now common, especially in the high-density, one-party urban centers where the votes of low-information citizens are bought with massive government entitlements.
As a young Senate aide working on the El Salvador elections in the early 1980s, I came to learn how difficult it is to guarantee an honest election. The international experts we consulted considered America an anomaly. A trusting relationship between our citizens and their government allowed us to take for granted something as precious — and rare — as free, fair elections.
One at our coffee table has attended two separate "grand opening" ribbon-cuttings featuring the governor and assorted dignitaries at the same still-abandoned factory. That, sadly, is testimony to the boosterish enthusiasm for cookie-cutter economic-development programs that have swept our county and the state.
This press-release economics has held sway even as the local economy failed and as independent economists offered documented skepticism that simple rebate and grant programs, not to mention publicly financed convention centers, hotels and sports facilities, are ineffective ways to attract investment and jobs at the local level.
So the local political pressure to "do something" about jobs, combined with a general ignorance about how productive investment is attracted, has produced dozens of Potemkin villages throughout the city and county.
To sum it all up, the outvoted conservatives (née classical liberals) in our local political party don't trust the governing moderates (née tories). The governing moderates expect ambush by the outvoted conservatives. Neither trusts government to provide necessary services in any logical priority. Nobody feels confident raising the difficult issues — and these would be precisely the issues that must be aired before problems can be anticipated or their solutions widely accepted.
So we wait for the next crisis and choose from a list of bad alternatives. The important decisions have already been made by fiat in some bureaucrat's office if they have been made at all.
The members of our coffee group are discouraged — rationally so. All politics isn't local anymore. The state of the county is not good. We are out of ideas on how we can change (persuade, influence, move) even the long-serving chairman of our county political party let alone our powerful and distant state senator.
The ideologues, though, the city-hall tyrants, the crony capitalists, the ever-so-progressive journalists at the other paper and the small-town totalitarians, they are not discouraged. They have ideas — plenty of them. They are all we hear. | <urn:uuid:ec8cc902-c7d5-4822-9b8e-9a02980442e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130203/EDITORIAL/130209952/1021/YOURVOICE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964437 | 1,409 | 1.53125 | 2 |
President Obama was heckled by a reporter during his immigration remarks on Friday.
Obama announced that the Department of Homeland Security will stop deportations and grant work permits for students who meet certain requirements. The policy change will apply to those who arrived in the U.S. before turning 16, who have been in the country for at least five years, and are under the age of 30.
During his remarks, Obama suddenly addressed a person in the crowd, telling him that he was not yet taking questions. "Excuse me, sir, it's not time for questions, sir," Obama said. "Not while I'm speaking."
At the end of his speech, Obama referred back to the person who interrupted him. "And the answer to your question is sir, and the next time I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask that question, is this is the right thing to do for the American people...I didn't ask for an argument. I'm answering your question," he said, speaking over Munro's protests. "It is the right thing to do for the American people."
keyboard shortcuts: V vote up article J next comment K previous comment | <urn:uuid:c8211178-b3bf-4113-9676-cdb6f1d0d4a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ttruth3829683.newsvine.com/_news/2012/06/15/12242411-obama-immigration-speech-reporter-interrupts-heckles-president-during-remarks-video | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985187 | 239 | 1.859375 | 2 |
ATTENTION: College offices closed for business through Jan. 1. More.
What if I have experience or previous training?
The curriculum is also designed to allow students to start at the level that is best for them. College credit may be granted for previous experience and/or training. Students considering this option can visit the Automotive Technology Department Office to get more information about testing out of basic courses and life experience credit.
Can a student just take automotive courses?
Students can enroll in automotive courses without taking non-automotive courses providing they meet the prerequisites for those courses. Upon completion of these courses, students will receive a grade and college credit, which can be applied toward the degree requirements in the future.
Can students get part time jobs in the field while going to school?
Yes. Employers often contact the college for part time help. These positions are posted on lab bulletin boards and are announced by the faculty who are more than willing to help a student gain employment. Working in the field while taking classes enhances your education as well as your finances.
Through our upward articulation agreement with Franklin University, those interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree can enter their Bachelor of Applied Management Degree with junior status.
We also have an articulation agreement with Ohio University. Students with an associate degree from Columbus State can apply it to their Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies at Ohio University. Transfer Programs | <urn:uuid:0da88aaa-3477-42ae-b9d1-163053160b10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cscc.edu/academics/departments/auto/auto-tech/faq.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952288 | 287 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Posted in Latest News on 08/31/2011 12:20 pm by wpadmin
Painting is exclusively for those who have been born with a paintbrush in their hands. Or so we have been told. We don’t have to have the talent so as we can paint. Although talent is undeniably important, painting requires more than a “gift from heaven.” So if you think you can’t paint but you’re so in love with the art form, cheer up. It is not the end of the line for you. You can still learn how to paint. Given that you’d be willing to do whatever it takes. If you’d be resourceful enough, you won’t need to enroll in a painting class just to learn painting. There painting lessons which you can study on your own. Painting lessons – there are plenty of them online and one of the popular choices would be Learn and Master Painting by Gayle Levee.
Nowadays, we tend to look online for information of things we want to get to know or learn. Whatever guide you need, be it Learn and Master Ballroom Dance and The Complete Ballet Bible among others, it would be easy to find on the internet already. And because you want to learn how to paint, you could collect tips and guides about painting online. Some tips and guides are free of charge while others would require a fee before you can access it. Obviously, those materials that are not for free like Learn and Master Painting have something better to offer.
If you prefer to just enroll in a painting class, by all means. But remember a painting course in the conventional setting can be expensive. It can take so much of your time as well. If you’re a practical person, you wouldn’t appreciate this method, money and time wise. Whereas, learning at home using a painting lessons don’t have to be so pricey and time consuming. You are free to choose which method you will use because both will teach you how to paint anyway.
Anything can be learned indeed. Nothing is impossible nowadays as there are resources we can use to make things happen. No matter what it is that we want to do, we can all teach ourselves how to do it. We have everything we need, all we have to do is to do our part. Are you ready to jump in to the do-it-yourself bandwagon? It is given that you want to learn how to paint but how about you stretch the task a bit? Why don’t you challenge yourself to be your own teacher as well? That would give extra boost to your self-esteem. Start looking for the ultimate guide that would be your ultimate foundation. Have a fun learning experience.
Posted in Latest News on 08/19/2011 10:49 am by wpadmin
Painting is only for those who have natural talents. There’s no truth in that. We all can paint, whether we have the “talent” or not. While talent gives someone the edge, it’s not the deciding factor. So don’t be so gloomy if you are so into painting yet you can’t even draw decently. It is absolutely not too late for you. You have all the chance in the word to learn. Of course, it would still depend on the effort you will put in the process. If you’re a resourceful person, your learning doesn’t even need to involve attending a painting course. You can just use different painting materials and study by yourself at home. One of the popular ones is Learn & Master Painting by Gayle Levee.
These days, internet has become our go to place when we want to learn something or we want to gather information. This is why it is so easy to find different guides on random topics online like Learn and Master Ballroom Dance and The Complete Ballet Bible. Since you are particularly interested about painting, you can definitely find resources and tips about the subject online. Some tips and guides are free of charge while others would require a fee before you can access it. The ones that you need to purchase like Learn and Master Painting definitely come with perks you can’t have with free guides.
It’s all up to you if you want to enroll yourself in an actual painting class. But remember a painting course in the conventional setting can be expensive. Not only it can cost you so much, it could consume much of your time too. If you’re busy or if you are on a tight budget, then this method may not be suitable for you. On the other hand, if you’d go for the painting lessons and study at your own pace, it would be cheaper and convenient. You are free to choose which method you will use because both will teach you how to paint anyway.
As mentioned earlier, anything can be possibly learned specially now that we it’s so easy for us to get the tools and resources we need. We can teach ourselves anything if we’re that willing to learn. By using reliable materials at hand, we will surely achieve the results we want. This is the era where people just love to do it on their own, be one of them. You want to be a painter, that is a given but would you want to extend the challenge a bit? Why don’t you challenge yourself to be your own teacher as well? That will be quite an achievement. Start looking for the ultimate guide that would be your ultimate foundation. Good luck! | <urn:uuid:ada531af-a53c-4ca8-a864-04ff78f3632d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.premiostart.com/tag/painting-basics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960563 | 1,149 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Who owns the streets of Liverpool? Until recently the question would have been as redundant as 'Who owns the air we breathe?' Common sense dictates that the streets where we all work, rest, and play belong to everyone and no one. But that was before the latest city centre redevelopment plans were announced.
By Adam Ford
The Duke of Westminster - Britain's richest man - is to buy 1 million square feet of Liverpool, stretching from The Strand to Hanover Street, on a 250-year lease. The Paradise Street Development will see many buildings currently in the area - such as the Friends' Meeting House and the Quiggins complex demolished, to make way for a new upmarket shopping centre and 350 penthouses and flats. The new village will be enclosed within its own boundaries, and will be policed by US-style 'quartermasters' or sheriffs. The public will no longer have a legal right to walk through the streets of what has - until now - been 'their' city centre, because those streets will officially belong to the Duke's Grosvenor group and private businesses. Anyone wishing to enter the area will therefore be a guest of the Duke, and quartermasters will be allowed to remove 'undesirables' by force.
Reaction to the news has been mixed. Many people welcome the redevelopment itself, as there are many derelict buildings in the area. "Some places around here are a bit of an eye-sore", said Nicky, a shopper in School Lane, "so it's good that something's going to be done to clean them up". Steve from Kensington agreed, "the area around the Pier Head is disgusting, I'm not going to be sorry to see most of it go. But then we've been promised things in the past and they never happened". The civil liberties group Liberty, however, is just one of the dissenting voices campaigning against the plans. Their local spokesman, Barry Hugill, claimed it is "a very disturbing development" and that it "raises concerns as to whether a private police force is going to decide who can and cannot come into a public place." Donald Lee of the Open Spaces Society, which campaigns for increases in public access of way, said: "When I asked city council officials why the new routes could not be declared public rights of way, it was explained to me that the council and the developers needed to be in a position to 'control and exclude the riffraff element'." And for some, there lies the crux of the issue. Whilst many are concerned that famous cultural centres such as Quiggins will close - the complex claims to have raised as many as 150,000 signatures against the compulsory purchase order on its site - what lies at stake is nothing less than the heart and soul of the city centre. Private police, serving a private company's interests, may decide that the "riffraff element" includes anyone not shopping - anyone who cannot afford prices charged by the type of business the Duke wants to attract.
Although the scheme is the first of its kind in the UK, a similar development has taken place in Los Angeles, California. In his book City of Quartz, Mike Davis offers a view of the kind of "fortress" city LA has become, and that Liverpool is arguably becoming. Describing street privatisation as a "new class war . . . at the level of the built environment", he illustrates in vivid detail how the shopping mall includes "a high perimeter fence, video camera linked to motion detectors, a handful of gated and monitored entry points, a security observatory, and a substation of the LAPD". Inside this "pseudo-public space", "architectural and semiotic barriers (are designed) to filter out 'undesirables'. They enclose the mass that remains, directing its circulation with behaviourist ferocity. It is lured by visual stimuli of all kinds, dulled by muzak, sometimes even scented by invisible aromatisers".
The development has already got major backing from the rich and powerful. A number of businesses have signed-up, hailing it as the shot in the arm needed for shopping in Liverpool. Mike Wade-Smith - owner of the fashion company of the same name, claimed it would "make Liverpool much more competitive in attracting shoppers". The council argues that the scheme will create four thousand jobs. But perhaps this is confusing the issue. It is possible to redevelop Liverpool without taking away civil liberties, in fact it would surely work out cheaper without all the added security and barriers. For their own reasons the council, business, and the country's richest man are merely deciding not to.
Planning permission has been granted, and the scheme now awaits approval from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. But what kind of city centre do the people of Liverpool want for 2008 and the 246 years that will follow?
Seven things you didn't know about Liverpool's new landlord... | <urn:uuid:1dd236bc-be79-4203-a493-10812993a161> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve3/paradise_lost.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964259 | 1,004 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Welcome to another off-day puzzle. For today's edition, you'll find below a short, fictional anecdote involving our favorite 1st baseman, James Loney. Please read it through carefully, use your imagination, and try to pick up on the clues that will help you help him escape harm!
Premise: Dodger 1st baseman James Loney (known as "King" James to beloved reader Karina, among others) lives amongst his family and friends in a safe, comfortable neighborhood on the south side of town. One evening he gets the munchies and ill-advisedly decides to head to the dangerous north side of town (perhaps in search of a White Castle?). Dressed in his freshly-pressed home whites, James sets out on foot. Unfortunately, his travels soon take him through unfamiliar territory, and he eventually finds himself in an open and seemingly deserted field. He anxiously trudges on but does not know in which direction to head. He is lost and alone on the north side of town, and nightfall is quickly approaching.
James then hears footsteps in the distance. He looks around and notices four men each several yards away in different directions. All four are clearly watching him, and seem to be slowly moving closer. James tries to retain his cool. He quickens his pace but refrains from running, and discreetly observes his pursuers, nervously glancing at each.
The first thing James notices about them is that while the four men are following him, each seems to be moving in a distinct and indirect path toward him. James then notices that each is carrying a baseball bat. Not a good sign. Then, as the men inch closer, he realizes something else: each man is wearing the hideous alternate home uniform of the arch-rival Giants. Hmmm...very strange, and definitely bad news. It then dawns on him - each man is a former Giants player! He recognizes the four thugs as:
- Rich Robertson, SF Giants '66-'71;
- Bob Knepper, SF Giants '76-'80,'89-'90;
- Luis Quiñones, SF Giants '86;
- John Patterson, SF Giants '92-'95;
This realization only increases James' fear. He continues his way through the field but before he knows it, the four men have surrounded him and have closed to within arms' length, one at each corner. They are clearly intent on doing him serious harm. James knows he is in mortal danger, particularly when both Patterson and Quiñones raise their bats to strike him down...
Here is a visual representation of James' situation:
Question: Loney must act immediately or likely face an untimely death. His options are:
A) Run north, between Patterson and Quiñones;
B) Run south, between Robertson and Knepper;
C) Run east, between Knepper and Quiñones;
D) Run west, between Robertson and Patterson;
E) Attack Patterson;
F) Attack Knepper;
G) Attack Quiñones;
H) Attack Robertson;
What should James do?
Note: Hints available upon request. And as always, if you think you might have the solution but aren't sure, it means you probably don't have the solution. Enjoy!_________________________________
Hint #1 (11:43am PT): I chose those four ex-Giants for a specific reason, but not related to their positions played, years played, and/or stats. You won't need www.baseball-reference.com to solve this one.
Hints #2 & 3 (1:08pm PT): Technically, the existence of the compass is not required to pick the right answer, but it should help you verify that your reasoning is correct. And there's a reason I picked King James to be the protagonist rather than another Dodger.
Hint #4 (2:16pm PT): You don't have to research anything about the players involved, but you do have to think outside the boxes.
Solution: See here.
Additional Note: As mentioned, if you solve the puzzle correctly, you will be certain of it. If so, please don't post the explanation and spoil it for the rest...please instead post that you think you solved it and send us an email with your reasoning. Thanks! | <urn:uuid:58fc3940-236c-4c28-b769-22f6534d67a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sonsofstevegarvey.com/2007/06/off-day-puzzle-4-will-loney-meet-his.html?showComment=1214270280000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967422 | 908 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Natural disasters happen. Minnesotans have their share. You never know when you could suffer property damage or loss from a flood, tornado, wind, hailstorm, or fire.
There are many things in life you cannot control, but you can control your ability to recover from unforeseen events by having adequate insurance coverage
Government assistance becomes a reality in only 10% of all disasters. Therefore, relying on government for recovery assistance is not a prudent plan for protection for yourself and your family. Federal disaster declarations are only awarded in large-scale disasters, and when they are awarded, assistance is usually in the form of low-interest loans, not grants.
Manage your risks
Meet with your insurance agent annually or as needed to ensure your insurance coverage is adequate to protect you and your family against loss. Take into account any recent changes or additions to your property or surrounding area.
Read and understand your insurance policies
Many wait until after they experience a loss to understand their coverage. Unfortunately, these decisions cannot be undone and they will directly affect your ability to recover from a loss. Review your existing insurance coverage and figure out where your "gaps" are.
Has your property changed since you purchased the coverage? Your insurance agent will be able to assist you in making sure your coverage has kept pace with the value of your home.
Is your home insured for a least 80% of its replacement value? If you have less coverage, you may not be fully reimbursed for partial damage.
Are your possessions insured for actual cash value or replacement cost? Many policies provide compensation for the contents of a home on an actual cash basis rather than replacement cost basis. Talk with your agent to determine whether purchasing replacement coverage is worth the extra premium.
What is the liability coverage limits on your policy? Are they high enough? If you are unsure, discuss it with your agent.
No policy covers everything and coverage is subject to the policy's limitations, deductibles, and exclusions. Law does not mandate property and casualty insurance coverage. It is a good idea to read your policy thoroughly and be familiar with your individual coverage benefits and limitations.
The number of perils you are insured against will affect the cost of your insurance. Comprehensive coverage is the most common form of coverage. Homeowners' insurance does not, in any case, cover loss from flood, earthquake, war, or nuclear accident.
It is important to keep your coverage consistent with your needs and changes to your property. Many insurers require homeowners to insure their homes for at least 80% of the replacement costs in order to avoid a penalty for partial losses.
If you are insured for actual cash value, the insurance company will pay you for a covered loss based on the value of the item or repair minus depreciation. If you are insured for replacement cost, the insurance company will pay you for a covered loss, based on the value of the item or repair without subtracting for depreciation.
Actual cash value vs. replacement cost coverage
Your roof blows away in a storm and all the shingles need to be replaced. The cost to replace them is $10,000. The shingles are 10 years old, but they should have lasted for 20 years under normal conditions. Therefore, they have depreciated by one-half of their full value.
Under an actual cash value policy, you would only be paid $5,000 for a loss, minus any deductible. Under a replacement cost policy, you would initially receive $5,000 for the loss of the roof. Then, after having it repaired or replaced, you would submit the bill to the insurance company for the balance, not to exceed the amount determined by the insurance company to return your roof to its original condition.
Plan now for a future claim
No one ever knows for sure when a storm or other peril will strike. There are several steps you can take to ensure that you will be fully compensated for your loss as well as make the insurance claim filing process easier and faster after a disaster.
Inventory your household furnishings and other possessions, including model and serial numbers, and estimate their cash value or replacement value, depending on the type of coverage you have.
Do not overlook items used seasonally or infrequently, such as special china and silverware, holiday decorations, summer and winter sports equipment, carpentry tools and baby-care furnishings.
Fully document the value of collectible items such as jewelry, coins, stamps, guns, tools, antiques, and art, etc. A standard policy limits the amount of coverage for these items so make sure your policy covers their full market value.
Photograph or videotape each room of your home and your belongings.
Save receipts for big-ticket items.
Store all inventory information off your premises, such as at work or in a bank safe deposit box.
Keep readily at hand the telephone numbers of your insurance agent, your insurance company's local claims office, and its home office.
Fire and lightening
Windstorm or hail
Vandalism or malicious damage
Riot or civil commotion
Glass breakage, which is a part of a building
Sudden and accidental tearing apart, cracking, burning or bulging of steam\hot water heating system
Collision upset or overturns
Freezing of plumbing, heating system or appliance
Sudden and accidental damage from artificial electrical current
Weight of ice, snow or sleet
Collapse of a dwelling or part of a dwelling
Accidental discharge or overflow of water or steam from within plumbing, heating or air conditional system
and others specifically excluded in your policy
Contents\personal property is covered for all perils named in the broad form.
Insurance protection for floods is not provided under homeowners or commercial insurance policies. Flood insurance is, however, offered by the federal government through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). It is available to every resident of communities that participate in the NFIP, regardless of whether the structure is located in a mapped flood plain. Flood insurance can be purchased through local insurance agents or the NFIP directly. There is a 30-day waiting period before coverage under a new policy takes effect.
You can consult your insurance agent or call the NFIP DIRECTLY AT 800-611-6123 (ext. 901) to request information or purchase a policy. Flood insurance is much more affordable than disaster aid, which usually comes in the form of a loan. The average disaster loan payment is about $140 a month for 18.5 years, compared to the national average flood insurance premium of a one-time yearly payment of $400.
Some homeowner insurance companies offer limited coverage in the form of a rider on your homeowner's policy for loss caused by water that backs up through sewers or drains. This coverage, in most cases, does not apply if the damage is due to flooding or seepage/leaking through basement walls.
For more detailed information about flood insurance, read the Department of Commerce brochure "What Every Minnesotan Should Know About Flood Insurance".
Even if fully insured for all perils, some losses will not be covered:
Cost of tree and debris removal when structures unharmed
Undamaged property, siding or shingles
Damage to property not involving structures
If you experience a loss, get the claims process in motion. Contact your agent immediately to report a loss covered by auto, homeowners, or flood insurance. The agent will prepare a Notice of Loss form and an adjuster will be assigned to assist you. Follow the instructions given to you by claims personnel. Since there will be many people in need of help, anything you have done before the disaster to prepare for a loss will be to your benefit.
Keep your insurance policy number handy. The claims process always goes faster when the adjuster, the agent, or the service center operator does not have to search their records for information about your policy.
Keep your claim number handy. When you file your claim, the insurer will give it a number. Future conversations with insurance personnel will go quicker if you know your claim number.
Take notes. Start from the beginning to keep a log of the people you spoke to and when, as well as a summary of your conversation. If possible, photograph the inside and outside of the premises, showing the damage and surrounding area.
Figure out extent of damage. Separate the damaged from the undamaged property and put it in the best possible order for the adjuster's examination. If possible, protect the property from further damage.
Wait for the adjuster to arrive. Do not call everyone to permanently repair or replace your loss without first getting instructions from your adjuster, because your insurer's visual inspection of your loss may be necessary before covered repairs are undertaken. Do not throw away damaged property until your adjuster advises you. If your home is damaged, make only temporary repairs until a claims adjuster looks at the damage. Making permanent repairs before the adjuster's inspection could trigger a denial of your claim.
Get your questions and complaints answered immediately. Many "problems" with insurance are not problems at all, but misunderstandings. Insurance is a big expense and you have a right to know you are getting what you paid for. Again, you can expedite the process by having your policy and claim numbers handy along with an accurate summary of communications that have transpired to date.
If you have a dispute with your insurance company about the amount of damage or the cost of repairs, first try to negotiate a settlement with your insurance company. Most policies have a clause that allows you to ask for an appraisal of the loss. You will be able to select an appraiser, the insurance company will select one, and a third will be mutually agreed upon. Together they will appraise the loss and decide on a value. Your policy will have more details on this procedure. You can also contact the Department of Commerce for guidance.
Where to go with Questions:
MN Dept. of Commerce
800-657-3602 or 651-296-2488
Insurance Federation of Minnesota
Help Line Website
NFIP 800-611-6123 (ext. 901) | <urn:uuid:91522638-9c1a-4248-8e1a-912cecc58277> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mn.gov/commerce/insurance/topics/home-property/disasters-happen.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936597 | 2,083 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Release Date: May 21, 2012
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Three University at Buffalo students have received prestigious Fulbright Fellowships, the most recent class in what has become a UB tradition of multiple winners in the highly competitive, nationally-recognized scholarly competition.
The three winners, two seniors graduating this month and a graduate student, are:
-- Thawab Shibly, who has been known as a vocal and eloquent spokesperson for the rights of Palestinian refugees, graduates with a double major in political science and English, and a minor in art. She was recently chosen for the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.
Shibly is president of the campus Community Action Corps, has led a bi-weekly discussion group for the Muslim Student Association and is a volunteer mentor at the Priscilla Project.
Born in Damascus and raised in Buffalo, Shibly is the recipient of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to sponsor her for 20 hours a week of teaching in Jordan. She will also continue her oral history research of refugees living in Jordan.
A University Advanced Honors College scholar, she has been on the dean's list for five semesters. Shibly is also the recipient of the J. Scott Fleming Scholarship for Leadership and Excellence, and has volunteered in the New Orleans recovery effort.
-- Karl Barber, an Albany native, is a senior majoring in chemical engineering and French. Barber is a Presidential Scholar at UB and chairman for the Society for Biological Engineers for UB's chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
Barber has performed research in protein engineering since 2010 and is currently investigating the development of temperature sensitivity in a split mini intein. Last summer he pursued an internship in neurobiology at University Laval in Quebec City making use of a light-sensitive protein to study interneurons in the hippocampus of mice.
In 2011 Barber received the AIChE Outstanding Junior Award for the Western New York chapter. He also enjoys studying French Canadian linguistics and culture.
Barber will use the Fulbright grant to study the molecular basis of the death of mutant photoreceptors in neurons at McGill University in Montreal. This will have important implications in the study of inherited diseases related to retinal degeneration. Barber also plans to volunteer at a mental hospital, to emphasize the human aspect of neuroscience.
Barber is a member of the Honors College at UB. He will study for his doctorate in molecular biology at Yale University after his Fulbright award in the fall of 2013.
-- Grace Mukupa, a graduate student pursing a PhD in global gender studies, will use the Fulbright award to explore the effect of food incentives as strategy for attracting and retaining young students in educational institutions of the Khatlon Province in Tajikistan. The project will target 81 elementary schools and 17 high schools. This region endured brutalities of civil war and presently has high levels of disparity between boys' and girls' education.
Mukupa currently serves as president of UB's Graduate Student Association as well as advising three undergraduate organizations -- the African Student Association, Pi Delta Psi fraternity and the UB Gospel Choir.
She is a native of Zambia who grew up in Tokyo. Mukupa integrates discussion on gender and disparities in Southern Africa into her teaching of the undergraduate course "Gender in Africa and Gender and Traditional Laws in Africa."
Since 2010, Mukupa has been serving as representative to the United Nations to the Economic and Social Council through Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority Inc. She is also a member of American Association of University Women, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), and Society for AIDS in Africa and Affirmative Action on Gender Equality (AGEN).
In December she received a scholarship to present at the 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The three Fulbright Scholarships, among the most prestigious academic awards in the country, are major accomplishments for the students, both in personal stature and the opportunity it gives them to continue their scholarly work, according to Kenneth Shockley, UB's Fulbright Program Adviser and associate professor of philosophy.
The steady stream of Fulbright awards -- UB is now accustomed to having multiple winners each year -- also is a statement about the quality of the university, he said.
"UB should be very proud of these grantees, as we should be of all those students awarded fellowships of such prestige, and subject to such competition," Shockley says. "They demonstrate the caliber of our student body and the capacity of UB students to compete successfully against the best and the brightest of the most elite universities in the U.S."
Students interested in the Fulbright program are encouraged to contact Prof. Shockley, and read about the program at http://www.fulbright.buffalo.edu. | <urn:uuid:ceed693a-af0f-4f70-999d-6f5f40c5ff85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2012/05/13444.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956641 | 1,015 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Friday, March 30, 2012
Mitt Romney has three houses. The former Massachusetts governor would like to do a $12 million "fix-up" on one of them, a beachfront property in La Jolla, Calif. The plan is to tear down the existing 3,000-square-foot structure and build an 8,100-square-foot replacement, plus a car elevator.
Within the top sliver of the richest 1 percent -- in which Romney holds secure membership -- such extravagant displays are not unusual. But Romney is also the likely Republican candidate for president. He seems unable to connect the two.
We've had great presidents who were rich and privileged, the two Roosevelts being examples. But Romney has crossed the border from rich to super-in-your-face rich. The idea of building a private Xanadu on the Pacific doesn't quite work with the one of winning over anxiety-ridden middle-class voters. You really have to question the guy's judgment.
Romney is certainly not the first politician whose grandiose lifestyle came under harsh scrutiny. Former Vice President Al Gore, the Democrats' 2000 presidential choice, famously owns a 20-room Nashville mansion plus pool house. Critics chided him for pounding the lectern over the threat of global warming while consuming enough electricity to power a small village in Morocco. They had a point.
But "inconsistency" aside, the worry about politicians swaddled in cashmere is this: Can they serve the American people if their experience of America is limited by their platinum surroundings?
Consider how Romney's father lived. The CEO of American Motors and later Michigan governor, George Romney was a rich man. But he put his family in a 5,500-square-foot house that -- though located in Detroit's comfy Palmer Woods neighborhood -- would have been merely upper middle class by today's yardstick of residential splendor. (Interesting that when the feds took over the beach house of swindler Bernard Madoff, the media expressed surprise at its modest size. The Montauk Point, N.Y., hideaway was a mere 3,014 square feet.)
Romney's luxury-home portfolio includes a six-bedroom contemporary sitting on 11 choice acres along the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, in the resort town of Wolfeboro, N.H. Real estate experts value the 5,400-square-foot residence plus separate guest house at around $10 million. The family also has a townhouse outside of Boston, covering a mere 2,100 square feet. (We must also mention the Romneys' 9,514-square-foot extravaganza in the plush skiing resort of Park City, Utah, sold in 2009.)
What's notable about Romney's real-estate holdings, including the townhouse, is how totally they physically separate him from the rest of humanity. One can easily drop a dozen million dollars on a house in San Francisco or Manhattan, but the homeowner who walks out the front door goes cheek-by-jowl with other kinds of people. His father's house put the family within the borders of a teaming blue-collar city. What Romney has done is create a coast-to-coast buffer zone of luxury.
Note that the Romneys' only arguably middle-class residence is in Massachusetts. For the two years before buying it, Romney claimed the basement of his son's nearby house as his legal residence. Has he treated the state where he served as governor as merely a mailing address? Furthermore, does anyone who has three houses, two of them ginormous, really live anywhere? Or is he merely the globe-trolling private-equity zillionaire, happy wherever other rich people congregate?
Previous political gaffes -- like casually mentioning his wife's two Cadillacs -- have created the storyline that Romney hasn't the foggiest idea how ordinary Americans go through their days. Choosing this time to construct a Pacific palace really makes you wonder what's going on in Romney's head -- and whether he has much idea of what's going on in anyone else's.
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Geoscientists offer an explanation for why the Deepwater Horizon oil spill didn't have the environmental impact that many had feared. Using publicly available datasets, their study reveals that the force of the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico created mounds of freshwater which pushed the oil slick off shore.
- A push from the Mississippi kept Deepwater Horizon oil slick off shore, Penn research showsFri, 11 May 2012, 0:32:28 EDT
- WHOI study reports microbes consumed oil in Gulf slick at unexpected ratesMon, 1 Aug 2011, 12:36:27 EDT
- New method successfully predicted how oil from Deepwater Horizon spill would spreadThu, 2 Sep 2010, 14:25:52 EDT
- Mysterious flotsam in Gulf of Mexico came from Deepwater Horizon rig, WHOI study findsThu, 19 Jan 2012, 16:40:06 EST
- Deepwater Horizon crude less toxic to bird eggs after weathering at seaFri, 22 Jul 2011, 14:35:34 EDT
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- Woolwich Attack: Man Reportedly Beheaded In Brutal Assault In London Neighborhood (WARNING: DISTURBING FOOTAGE)
- 'We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you': Chilling words of bloodied man 'after he hacked British soldier to death with a machete' in horrific 'terror attack' on London street | <urn:uuid:fadd5e94-77b8-4a62-bc66-fdf85ae825ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://esciencenews.com/sources/science.daily/2012/05/11/push.mississippi.kept.deepwater.horizon.oil.slick.shore | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903261 | 325 | 3.328125 | 3 |
The Spherovelo will retail at around £69
The Spherovelo ride-on toy
Those curves are not just there for the good looks
The stabilizing balls can then be removed to convert the Spherovelo into bike mode
Spherovelo helps develop balance ready and prepare your child for a life on two wheels
We bet you can remember your first bike. We also bet it looked nothing like the Spherovelo - a sphere-based ride-on for children as young as one year old. Makers Early Rider, from Henley-on-Thames, UK, say the Spherovelo has been designed to improve your little one's balance and motor skills, making it the perfect pre-cursor to a "normal" balance bike.
Other Images from this Gallery | <urn:uuid:f82b1088-5ebd-4cb9-9421-6c1475008bc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gizmag.com/spherovelo-infant-bike/22164/pictures | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940547 | 167 | 1.65625 | 2 |
One thing quickly learned when studying tyranny (and lesser, more gradual, failures of states and societies such as observed in the contemporary United States) is that the ideological leanings of tyrants are largely superficial. Those are stances taken to win popular support, not sincere moral positions. Beneath the veneer, tyrants are essentially the same, whether fascist, communist, religious, or centrist in nature. Supposedly “right-wing” fascists and Nazis would readily deploy “socialist” innovations such as large public works projects and social welfare programs if it kept society stable in a way they preferred, while the supposedly “communist” elites in the Soviet Union and China were self-protecting, deeply anti-populist, and brutal– not egalitarian or sincerely socialist in the least. The U.S. upper class is a different beast from these and, thus far, less malevolent than the communist or fascist elites (although if they are unchecked, this will change). It probably shares the most in common with the French aristocracy of the late 18th-century, being slightly right-of-center and half-hearted in its authoritarianism, but deeply negligent and self-indulgent. For a more recent comparison, I’m going to point out an obvious and increasing similarity between the “boardroom elite” (of individuals who receive high-positions in established corporations despite no evidence of high talent or hard work) and an unlikely companion: the elite of the Soviet Union.
Consider the Soviet Union. Did political and economic elites disappear when “business” was made illegal? No, not at all. Did the failings of large human organizations suddenly have less of a pernicious effect on human life? No; the opposite occurred. What was outlawed, effectively, was not the corporation (corporate power existed in the government) but small-scale entrepreneurship– a necessary social function. Certainly, elitism and favoritism didn’t go away. Instead, money (which was subject to tight controls) faded in importance in favor of blat, an intangible social commodity describing social connection as well as the peddling of influence and favors. With the money economy hamstrung by capitalism’s illegality, blat became a medium of exchange and a mechanism of bribery. People who were successful at accumulating and using social resources were called blatnoys. The blatnoy elite drove their society into corruption and, ultimately, failure. But… that’s irrelevant to American capitalism, right?
Well, no. Sadly, corporate capitalism is not run by “entrepreneurs” in any sense of the word. Being an entrepreneur is about putting capital at risk to achieve a profit. Someone who gets into an elite college because a Senator owes his parents a favor, spends four years in investment banking getting the best projects because of family contacts, gets into a top business school because his uncle knows disgusting secrets about the dean of admissions, and then is hired into a high position in a smooth-running corporation or private equity firm, is not an entrepreneur. Anything but. That’s a glorified private-sector bureaucrat at best and, at worst, a brazen, parasitic trader of illicit social resources.
There are almost no entrepreneurs in the American upper class. This claim may sound bizarre, but first we must define terms– namely, “upper class”. Rich people are not automatically upper class. Steve Jobs was a billionaire but never entered it; he remained middle-class (in social position, not wealth) his entire life. His children, if they want to enter its lower tier, have a shot. Bill Gates is lower-upper class at best, and has worked very hard to get there. Money alone won’t buy it, and entrepreneurship is (by the standards of the upper class) the least respectable way to acquire wealth. Upper class is about social connections, not wealth or income. It’s important to note that being in the upper class does not require a high income or net worth; it does, however, require the ability to secure a position of high income reliably, because the upper class lifestyle requires (at a minimum) $300,000 after tax, per person, per year.
The wealth of the upper class follows from social connection, and not the other way around. Americans frequently make the mistake of believing (especially when misled on issues related to taxation and social justice) that members of the upper class who earn seven- and eight-digit salaries are scaled-up versions of the $400,000-per-year, upper-middle-class neurosurgeon who has been working intensely since age 4. That’s not the case. The hard-working neurosurgeon and the well-connected parasite are diametric opposites, in fact. They have nothing in common and could not stand to be in the same room together, because their values are too much at odds. The upper class views hard work as risky and therefore a bit undignified. It perpetuates itself because there is a huge amount of excess wealth that has congealed at the apex of society, and it’s relatively easy to exchange money and blat on an informal but immensely pernicious market.
Consider the fine art of politician bribery. The cash-for-votes scenario, as depicted in the movies, is actually very rare. The Bush family did have their their “100k club” when campaign contributions were limited to $1000-per-person, but entering that set required arranging for 100 people to donate the maximum amount. Social effort was required to curry favor, not merely a suitcase full of cash. Moreover, to walk into even the most corrupt politician’s office today offering to exchange $100,000 in cash for voting a certain way would be met with a nasty reception. Most scumbags don’t realize that they’re scumbags, and to make a bribe as overt as that is to call a politician a scumbag. Instead, politicians must be bribed in more subtle manners. Want to own a politician? Throw a party every year in Aspen. Invite up-and-coming journalists just dying to get “sources”. Then invite a few private-equity partners so the politician has a million-dollar “consulting” sinecure waiting if the voters wise up and fire his pasty ass. Invite deans of admissions from elite colleges if he has school-age children. This is an effective strategy for owning (eventually) nearly all of America’s decision makers; but it’s hard to pull off if you don’t own any of them. What I’ve described is the process of earning interest on blat and, if it’s done correctly and without scruples, the accrual can occur rapidly– for people with enough blat to play.
Why is such “blat bribery” so common? It makes sense in the context of the mediocrity of American society. Despite the image of upper management in large corporations as “entrepreneurial”, they’re actually not entrepreneurs at all. They’re not the excellent, the daring, the smartest, or the driven. They’re successful social climbers; that’s all. The dismal and probably terminal mediocrity of American society is a direct result of the fact that (outside of some technological sectors) it is incapable of choosing leaders, so decisions of leadership often come down to who holds the most blat. Those who thrive in corporate so-called capitalism are not entrepreneurs but the “beetle-like” men who thrived in the dystopia described in George Orwell’s 1984.
Speaking of this, what is corporate “capitalism”? It’s neither capitalism nor socialism, but a clever mechanism employed by a parasitic, socially-closed but internally-connected elite to provide the worst of both systems (the fall-flat risk and pain of capitalism, the mediocrity and procedural retardation of socialism) while providing the best (the enormous rewards of capitalism, the cushy safety of socialism) of both for themselves.
These well-fed, lily-livered, intellectually mediocre blatnoys aren’t capitalists or socialists. They’re certainly not entrepreneurs. Why, then, do they adopt the language and image of alpha-male capitalist caricatures more brazen than even Ayn Rand would write? It’s because entrepreneurship is a middle-class virtue. The middle class of the United States (for not bad reasons) still has a lot of faith in capitalism. Upper classes know that they have to seem deserving of their parasitic hyperconsumption, and to present the image of success as perceived by the populace at large. Corporate boardrooms provide the trappings they require for this. If the middle class were to suddenly swing toward communism, these boardroom blatnoys would be wearing red almost immediately.
Sadly, when one views the social and economic elite of the United States, one sees blatnoys quite clearly if one knows where to look for them. Fascists, communists, and the elites of corporate capitalism may have different stated ideologies, but (just as Stephen King expressed that The Stand‘s villain, Randall Flagg, can represent accurately any tyrant) they’re all basically the same guy. | <urn:uuid:ee5a07a1-a393-4ed1-bbeb-d53e4f423c9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2011/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953843 | 1,945 | 2.46875 | 2 |
In 2011, as uprisings unfolded all over the world, the United States saw the beginning of a new revolution. The recent economic recession still loomed in every American’s mind, though people hoped for a brighter future. To move forward, it became clear that drastic economic and social reform was necessary. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement became a major voice for this reform and set out to confront corruption and encourage equality. Shortly after the OWS protests began in NYC, McPherson Square became the OWS headquarters in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. Located on K Street, home to many of the lobbyists responsible for corporate corruption, McPherson Square was a symbolic location for Occupy DC to inhabit. From this hub, protestors established a cohesive community of hundreds, and organized rallies and marches for a variety of issues.
In October of 2011, I began documenting the Occupy Wall Street movement in Washington, DC. McPherson Square, along K Street in downtown, was established as the headquarters for DC’s Occupy Wall Street movement. K Street is the infamous home of many lobbyists believed to be responsible for the same kind of corporate and political corruption that spurred Occupy Wall Street. In the beginning, no more than 20 young people occupied McPherson Square. Men in suits could be overheard laughing or taunting the small group of occupiers. No one took the group seriously, and many thought they were just part of a trend that would soon vanish, others thought that the ‘real’ occupiers were in New York City. After a few weeks, tents began popping up at McPherson Square and the number of protestors increased exponentially. It soon became clear that this group of disgruntled, politically aware Americans was much larger than initially realized, and it was growing.
On October 6, 2011, a rally called “Stop the Machine” attracted thousands of protesters to Freedom Plaza, just several blocks from McPherson Square. This predominantly anti-war protest drew many from Occupy DC, and eventually led to Freedom Plaza becoming the second hub for Occupy DC. As the weeks went by, critics speculated that Occupy protesters would get tired or cold, and retreat back home. However, the movement gained momentum and grew steadily, showcasing a unique ability to galvanize people of all ages, backgrounds, and political affiliations. At Occupy DC, one could expect to see lawyers, artists, students, teenagers, and grandparents united for the common goal of holding perpetrators of corporate greed and corruption accountable. “We are the 99%” and “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” became common chants for many Occupy activists.
After the “Stop the Machine” rally, almost every bit of McPherson Square was covered with tents, and the same was true for much of Freedom Plaza. Along with their tents and sleeping bags, protestors were armed with creative, often humorous signs, with messages like “End the Fed!,” “Can you spare a billion?,” or “Love is too big to fail.” Occupy DC flourished and soon McPherson Square was home to a library, a first aid facility, and a public kitchen. Organizers even established two Occupy DC newspapers that printed thousands of copies, The Occupied Times and The Occupied Post. Although Occupiers agreed on the main ideals of the movement, there were plenty of issues that created conflict between different factions of protestors.
One day in late 2011, I arrived at McPherson Square to find that the mood had changed. There was tension in the air and fewer smiling faces than usual. The statue of Civil War General James McPherson, for whom the park is named, had been defaced by chalk graffiti. Some protestors had written Occupy slogans all over the base of the statue. Some protestors opposed the graffiti, saying that it was disrespectful, and hurtful to the cause. The tension came to a climax when several people began washing the chalk from the base of the statue. The conflict never became physical, but feelings were hurt and this event, along with similar disputes, caused a division that would ultimately limit the success of Occupy DC.
The most extreme members of the Occupy DC crowd began to negatively impact the movement. Some protestors believed in a “by any means necessary” approach, while others saw Occupy DC as a more passive way of making politicians and Wall Street take notice. In February of 2012, the numbers at Occupy DC began to decrease. After several violent encounters with police, and numerous arrests, many prudent protestors called it quits. This exodus of levelheaded activists left Occupy DC with an excess of extremists that hindered Occupy DC, and made it easier for law enforcement officials to justify the impending eviction.
After intense pressure from conservatives in Congress, park police began enforcing camping restrictions at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, effectively restricting Occupy DC’s growth. After an eviction of Occupy DC was announced, the number of protestors peaked, as did the media presence. The police initially backed down and decided to delay the eviction. Occupiers tested police by erecting the “Tent of Dreams,” a huge blue tarp draped over the General McPherson statue. After several days, when the media storm had calmed, police raided McPherson Square, confiscating contraband and items deemed to be of safety concern. A day later, police flooded the Occupy camp at Freedom Plaza. After barricading the plaza to keep protesters out, police and haz-mat personnel began searching tents, trashing sleeping bags and other banned items. Many protesters believed that pressure from the police would strengthen the Occupy movement; however, after several waves of eviction procedures, the movement fizzled.
Occupy DC’s physical presence may have dwindled away, but the ideals of the movement remain in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Occupy Wall Street taught Americans that it is okay for vastly different people to come together on important issues. It is reasonable to believe that the Occupy movement would not have been nearly as successful and vibrant if people quibbled over political affiliation or philosophical beliefs. This idea of looking past differences and coming together for the greater good is what Occupy Wall Street was originally about. The 99% continue to pressure the 1%, hoping to reduce the injustices and inequity perpetuated by the selfish and often corrupt Wall Street mentality. | <urn:uuid:e1427360-c1d3-4bc2-a257-0c8ea6060abd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.f8mag.com/projects/item/occupy-dc?category_id=183 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972206 | 1,311 | 2.375 | 2 |
Kappad Beach is located at Kappad
, about 16 km from Kozhikode
. It is a historic beach where Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator landed on 27th May, 1498 with 170 men in three vessels. A monument has been built on the beach in memory of this historic event. The beach is very calm with a stretch of rocks projecting into the sea. There is an 800 year old temple on this rock. This beach is locally known as Kappakadavu. | <urn:uuid:42e32c51-a9e8-4f3c-a3f9-27efd04abbe4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.india9.com/i9show/-Kerala/Kozhikode/Kappad-Beach-15771.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976826 | 107 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Kwényïï: a brief note
All available resources here
Story of Mâgénîînê
New Caledonia, 1967, Benedicto Kotere, Jean-Claude Rivierre
On the Île des Pins, everyone knows that Mâgénîînê is the name of a snake (blackbanded sea krait) living in a cave on the shores of the Oro sea, in the region of Tuété, in the eastern part of the island. According to Father Lambert, the author of the first work on Kanak ethnography, offerings must be left near Mâgénîînê’s cave by people who visit the area for the first time. This was obviously forgotten by the imprudent young girl who came to Wacia to swim and collect shells... The story has a happy ending and explains, according to the storyteller, the origin of the marriage alliances between the families from Tuété and those from Wacia. The Tuété Ti-Koice who, according to Father Lambert, rever Mâgénîînê are themselves in relation with Maré where traditions surrounding this snake are also current. [cf. M. J. Dubois, 1947, Mythes et traditions de Maré, Nouvelle-Calédonie, Les Eletok, Paris, Musée de l'Homme (Publications de la Société des Océanistes, n°35) and J. Guiart, 1963, Structure de la chefferie en Mélanésie du Sud, Paris, Institut d'Ethnologie (Travaux et mémoires de l'Institut d'Ethnologie, LXVI pp. 218-219)]. A visit to Mâgénîînê’s cave “Here is a narrow cave of a new character, given the strange memories attached to it. It bears the name of Kouaouété cave. The surrounding countryside is very pleasant. In this part of the island, lonely and silent, everything tends towards the supernatural and mysterious. Thus we found many sacred offerings there. To get to the cave, one must walk over a white sand beach, washed twice a day by the sea and bordered on both sides by a forest of Cook pines. The imagination of the natives saw, in these islets, at high tide, a great snake called Mangéméné, who visited the cave. One day, the reptile shed its skin and out of it came a mythical being, which was neither man, nor the spirit of man. It did however have a human face, but with its articulations backwards; its elbows were on the inside of its arms and its knees in the place of the calves. It had little feet and eyes at the back of its head. Some say they’ve seen traces of its feet in the sand, others say they’ve heard it hiss; but no one has actually seen it. This mysterious being is the center of a cult analogous to that offered to the ancestors. The Ti-Koïe family has always had control over it. When the members of this family decide to go fishing, or to travel by sea, they make up a packet of certain herbs, in which they put a small water snake, they then dip the packet in the sea, drink a few mouthfuls and beg for favorable winds, a calm sea, an abundant catch. With the same purpose, they place near the cave, as an offering, yams decorated with birds’ feathers. On returning from their travels or their fishing expedition, they return to offer fish to retain the genie’s favors. Two steps away from the cave is a small rock covered with shrubs. Any traveler visiting the place must hang an offering from the branches so as to ward off the genie’s curses. Thus these shrubs are covered with this sort of offerings.” [in Lambert (P.), Moeurs et superstitions des Néo-Calédoniens, Nouméa, Nouvelle Imprimerie Nouméenne, 1900, pp. 286-288]. | <urn:uuid:f4a02750-5744-4625-b957-009fa2e85783> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/archivage/languages/Kwenyii_en.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928621 | 878 | 2.671875 | 3 |
HONG KONG — Small humanlike skeletons found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island were actually human, and their miniature features were probably due to nutritional deficiency, researchers in Australia have suggested.
Writing in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the scientists said these were more likely to be cretin offspring of normal mothers who suffered from iodine and other dietary deficiencies. Cretinism is a condition of severely stunted physical and mental growth due to a congenital deficiency of thyroid hormones.
Ever since the 18,000-year-old skeletons were found in Liang Bua on the Indonesian island of Flores, four years ago, anthropologists have debated whether or not they represented a previously unseen species of dwarf hominid — or merely a group of deformed humans. The newly published research opens an additional argument for the latter view.
"We believe they were Homo sapiens, but with this disorder ... cretins born without the thyroid gland," Peter Obendorf of the School of Applied Sciences at RMIT University in Melbourne told Reuters in a telephone interview. "The mothers would be iodine- and selenium-deficient, and would be exposed to certain plant food that would release cyanide into the body."
Obendorf said the fossils were found inland, where their communities were cut off from seafood, a key source of iodine.
They probably relied on bamboo shoots and certain tubers, which could have released cyanide into their bodies given the primitive cooking methods they were using.
These plants are still found in forests in Flores.
"When there's a drought, people utilize them. In modern times, they are cooked better," he said.
Initially, the fossils were classified as a new species called Homo floresiensis, considered an offshoot of Homo erectus. Based on measurements of the skulls and skeletons, scientists said the hominids stood about 3 feet (1 meter) tall and had brains roughly the size of grapefruits.
The fossils were quickly dubbed "Hobbits," referring to the diminutive inhabitants of Middle Earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Some skeptics argued that the small size of the Flores skulls more likely resulted from a genetic condition known as microencephaly, characterized by a small head and short stature. Other scientists sought to put those doubts to rest by citing comparative measurements of skeletal dimensions.
Obendorf and his colleagues put forth a different argument against the designation of a new species, contending that the "Hobbits" were essentially modern humans affected by diet rather than genetics.
"We think the population was normal, but many of the women had goiter. In the middle of a drought, some were forced to eat unsuitable food ... and they had cretin children," Obendorf said.
The researchers said certain structures of the fossils, such as the arm bone, matched descriptions contained in medical literature of cretin skeletons found in Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland.
"The dwarf cretins in Europe have just the same structural rotation of the arm bone," Obendorf said.
This report includes information from Reuters and msnbc.com.
© 2013 msnbc.com | <urn:uuid:2723c77a-5525-496a-972c-f720dd1ba9e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23482462 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975151 | 661 | 3.53125 | 4 |
It is becoming increasingly common to read and hear arguments made in defense of homosexuality. Usually no appeal is made to Scripture. However, on occasion, books and articles appear that attempt to address the biblical passages that discuss the subject. This article is a brief response to common claims about the Bible and homosexuality.
Some contend that Genesis 19 should not be used to argue against homosexuality since Sodom was destroyed, not for homosexuality, but because of its inhospitality and pride (see Matthew 10:14-15; Ezekiel 16:48-49). The argument is that the men of the city did not necessarily have any sexual perversion in mind, but just wanted to “know” Lot’s guests in the sense of interrogating them in a disrespectful fashion.
While it is true to say that Sodom was not destroyed merely because some of its citizens practiced homosexuality, it is false to say that Sodom was destroyed merely because its inhabitants were inhospitable and proud. The city was destroyed because its citizens were exceedingly sinful (Genesis 13:13). Ezekiel 16, which does mention their pride, also says they “committed abomination before” the Lord. Their actions at Lot’s doorstep reflected that sinfulness (Genesis 19:4-11). When the men of Sodom said they wanted to “know” the messengers of God, they obviously had sexual intentions in mind. This is clear from Lot’s unfortunate offer of his two daughters. Jude 7 reinforces this view as well: “As Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Although Leviticus 20:13 enjoins the death penalty upon homosexuals, the passage is dismissed as irrelevant to the debate because it is part of a legal/holiness code that no longer is in force. It is no more binding than are the regulations against wearing different materials of cloth and planting different types of seed in the same ground.
It is true that the Mosaic legal/holiness code was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14). However, to trivialize the code by placing all items in it on the same level is dubious. The Levitical condemnation of homosexual behavior is treated differently than the legislations against mixing cloths and sowing mixed seed. The former was under penalty of death; the latter were not (Leviticus 19:19). A better, though more unpleasant, analogy to the Levitical view of homosexuality is seen in the prohibitions against incest and bestiality, which are mentioned in the same context (Leviticus 20:14-16ff.).
WHAT DID JESUS SAY?
It commonly is argued that Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. As our guide and model for life, we should follow Jesus’ example of silence. He taught, instead, that we should love one another in a non-judgmental way.
In response, it should be noted that Jesus’ silence on the issue is no argument that He approved of homosexuality. He never specifically addressed the issues of pedophilia, bestiality, or any number of other sexual perversions. Does this mean that Jesus approved of whatever He did not condemn by name? Are we to think that as long as people feel love, it doesn’t matter what they do? To ask is to answer. In fact, the Lord Jesus always spoke of sexual relations in heterosexual terms. What Jesus did say carries more weight than our views of what He did not say. Clearly, Jesus’ heterosexual view must be taken as normative (read Matthew 19:4-6 et al.).
1 CORINTHIANS 6 AND 1 TIMOTHY 1
Great strides are taken to prove that 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-11 do not condemn homosexuality in general, but rather, abusive homosexual practices and male prostitution in particular.
Although the specific type of homosexual behavior mentioned in these two passages may be male prostitution and abusive homosexual practices, this does not in itself argue in favor of “loving, monogamous, homosexual” relationships. In fact, that concept is foreign to the New Testament. Both of these passages do condemn “fornication.” Fornication is a broad term that includes homosexuality. This is so for two reasons: (1) fornication refers to illicit sexual behavior; and (2) all sexual behavior that violates, is contrary to, or in addition to, the heterosexual behavior implied by a monogamous marriage, is illicit.
Clearly the most problematic passage for all who wish to say the Bible does not condemn homosexuality is Romans 1:26-27:
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Proponents of homosexuality have tried to remove the force of this passage by suggesting that either Paul was expressing his own uninspired opinion, or he was merely laying the groundwork for his teaching on grace. So he was mainly concerned with idolatry, and not any sin in particular.
Although a biblical writer’s opinion might indeed appear in Scripture (e.g., 1 Corinthians 7:7), the suggestion that Romans 1:26-27 represents Paul’s uninspired opinion and is at variance with the rest of the Scripture, is erroneous. If we cannot trust Paul to express the will of God on this point, where can we trust him? What will be our standard? Unfortunately, our own opinions become the standard all too often.
The fact is, Paul meant exactly what Christians have long thought he meant—that homosexual behavior is symptomatic of sin in the world. This passage is not to be dismissed as too difficult to understand, or as an isolated passage that somehow is outweighed by an impressive array of passages teaching the opposite. Although this passage does not stand alone, from the standpoint of divine inspiration, one reference is enough.
The conclusion is this: every time homosexual behavior is mentioned, it is condemned. The Bible is not homophobic (i.e., obsessively hostile toward homosexuality), but it clearly treats heterosexuality as normative (1 Corinthians 7; Ephesians 5; 1 Peter 3; et al.). These unsuccessful attempts to reinterpret the Bible’s teaching on the subject raise an even more crucial question: What Scripture can be presented that legitimizes homosexuality? | <urn:uuid:650bbd9f-427b-441d-9942-1b5b6f1a06c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=444&article=285 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964712 | 1,383 | 2.59375 | 3 |
817 W Peachtree St
Atlanta, GA 30308
3:00 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, 2013
On Campus | Alumni
Have an idea for an app? Want to build a mobile or web app in 24 hours??? Join us for this special hackathon designed especially for college students. Learn what it takes to build an app and build a prototype in 24 hours in this fast paced hack competition. Prizes and food will be provided throughout the event. Meet startups from Silicon Valley, NYC, DC and ATL, and build an application side by side with them. (Psst - looking for an internship or job after college? This will be a cool opportunity to meet your future company)
Who should attend this event? Any college student interested in learning about startups or working at a startup or tech company.Note: You must be a current college student to participate in this event.
Do I have to know how to code? It does help. However, there are many other people involved in hackathons, such as designers, creative idea people, or marketing biz people. If you don't know how to code, but are interested in learning, check out online tutorials like Codecademy. Plus, there will be plenty of mentors at the event, if you need help coding.
The Schedule: Day 1:
4:00p What is a startup? Developing your idea into a company
4:30p The career path of an tech entrepreneur
5:00p Hackathon project proposals
5:30p Team Formation and Hackathon begins
8:30a: Doors open
2:00p: Hackathon ends ~ Presentation of Projects
4:00p: Winners announced
Please enter the building off of West Peachtree or 6th St.
Cool companies working with us:More questions? Email us or check out these helpful links.Codecademy: APIs TutorialHow to win a hackathonMore How to win a hackathonPreparing for a hackathonWhy not to worry about someone's going to steal my idea
I can code 0.00
I'm more like the creative designer type 0.00
I have so many ideas 0.00
I just want to come 0.00 | <urn:uuid:e9ba0810-c216-4f6a-ac60-32ab9d235058> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.b985.com/events/detail/2973549/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91142 | 465 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Samsung to build new NAND flash factory in China, production in 2013
- — 05 January, 2012 21:56
Samsung Electronics will break ground on a new NAND flash factory in China this year, a spokesman said Thursday, moving production closer to where many advanced devices are manufactured.
The new plant will eventually produce 100,000 12-inch wafers per month using cutting-edge 20-nanometer technology, each of which is cut into multiple memory chips. Construction is to begin this year, with operations to start in 2013, although the exact location has yet to be set, according to company spokesman Nam Ki-Yung.
NAND flash memory is the main memory component in the current generation of digital devices, from smart phones to tablets to ultrabook computers, displacing hard disk drives. Samsung is a major supplier of flash memory even to fierce rivals of its own products, including Apple, which produces much of its products at the Chinese operations of manufacturers like Foxconn.
Samsung received approval from the Korean government on Wednesday, and is still awaiting approval from the Chinese side. The Korean government cleared the plan after evaluating Samsung's plan for technology protection in China, and measures by the company to address concerns about its shrinking investment in the country, according to reports.
The company did not release information on its investment in the new plant. A local media report quoted a Samsung executive as saying it will be between 3.5 trillion and 4 trillion won (US$3 billion to US$3.5 billion). | <urn:uuid:9a12f6c3-fa3b-48e5-9798-862bbc9c1c10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/411536/samsung_build_new_nand_flash_factory_china_production_2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954484 | 309 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II met in Jordan
last week, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday.
The Prime Minister’s
Office neither confirmed nor denied the report.
According to AFP, the two
leaders met to discuss the frozen Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
meeting comes in advance of a much anticipated visit to Israel and the
Palestinian territories later this month by US President Barack Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry.
It will be Obama’s first visit to Israel
since taking office in January 2009. It will similarly be Kerry’s first visit to
Israel since he replaced Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in
It is hoped that Obama’s visit will rekindle the peace process
and lead to direct negotiations. Direct talks between the Palestinians and
Israelis broke down in December 2008, and with the exception of a few meetings
in September 2010, they have not been renewed.
The Palestinians have
insisted that they will not talk directly with Israel until it halts
construction in West Bank settlements and Jewish building in east
Israel has rejected that demand and insisted that talks be
held without preconditions.
In Istanbul on Friday, however, PLO
secretary-general Yasser Abed Rabbo met with MK Isaac Herzog (Labor) on the
sidelines of the Young Presidents Organization’s Global Leadership
The two politicians also appeared together on a panel in which
they discussed the absence of a peace process.
Herzog said he had told
Rabbo in their meeting that the Palestinian decision not to meet with Netanyahu
was a strategic mistake, and added that he also believes that Israel should
freeze building in isolated settlements as a gesture to the
“The time is ripe to push both leaders into the negotiating
room,” said Herzog.
During the panel discussion, Herzog said, both he and
Abed Rabbo were asked about their expectations of Obama’s upcoming
“We both expressed our hope that the president’s visit must lead
to renewed negotiations,” he said.
“Now is the time for an American
pro-active effort to find adequate terms of reference” for the talks, Herzog
But he cautioned, “a lot is dependent on the desire of the
[Obama] administration to be heavily involved.”
The Israeli politician
said that he hoped Obama would speak of the need for peace to both the Knesset
and the Palestinian parliament. | <urn:uuid:8956ff38-c8f5-4ed3-8936-bb7192662e34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?ID=305085&R=R1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94485 | 533 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Navy blimp arrives in New Orleans for Gulf duty
Published: Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 7:59 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 7:59 p.m.
NEW ORLEANS — A blimp that will fly over the Gulf of Mexico so observers can spot oil slicks and ailing wildlife has arrived in the region.
After being delayed by bad weather, the 178-foot long airship landed today in New Orleans, where it will be based for the next several days.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Howard Wright says the blimp is better suited for observation than a helicopter or plane, because it can move slowly over the sea at low elevations for up to 12 hours at a stretch.
It is owned by the Navy but operated by a private company, Maryland-based Integrated Systems Solutions Inc.
Company spokesman Bradley Campbell says it can operate at night using thermal imaging, but it's unclear if it will be used that way for the Gulf spill.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:73126711-1ebc-4b17-bd81-1bae0731df48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20100708/FEATURES12/100709408?Title=Navy-blimp-arrives-in-New-Orleans-for-Gulf-duty- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943277 | 232 | 2.09375 | 2 |
France to Require Apartments to Come Wired
The French government said Thursday that it planned to require builders to install fiber-optic cables in new apartment buildings to increase the introduction of fast broadband Internet.
From International Herald Tribune, May 01, 2008
Palm Beach County Cities Find Free Wireless Elusive
In 2005, Boynton Beach became the first city in the county to offer free wireless to some residents. But that success was short-lived. The city dropped its wireless provider March 31 after the company failed to maintain the system and make sure it worked properly.
From Orlando Sun-Sentinel, April 29, 2008
Kerry Fights for Broadband in Western Massachusetts
Citing areas like Western Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry told a congressional panel today that federal action is needed to bring broadband service to regions without access to the Internet, in order to even the odds of competing in a global market.
From MassLive.com, April 24, 2008
Norway: 99.8 Percent Broadband Connected
According to a new report, 99.8 percent of the Norwegian population will have broadband access by the end of 2008, which is considered to be "a condition for a complete electronic service to all of the citizens of this land... a key to a society in which everyone can participate," said Minister of Government Administration and Reform Heidi Grande Røys.
From Aftenposten, April 24, 2008
Broadband Study: Slow Going in Southwest Virginia
The households in 25 Virginia counties that make up the Roanoke/Lynchburg designated market area ended last in a ranking of 79 U.S. markets for broadband use, according to New York-based Scarborough Research.
From The Roanoke Times, April 24, 2008
Vermont Telecom Authority Awarding Broadband Grants
he Vermont Legislature has funded the Broadband Grant Program for four years. Last year it was funded with a $200,000 allocation. The goal of the Program is to create demonstration projects to test viable models for providing broadband to all Vermonters.
From Burlington Free Press, April 24, 2008
W. Virginia Governor Signs Internet Law (600 Kbps)
Gov. Joe Manchin has signed legislation designed to move West Virginia closer to meeting his goal of obtaining statewide high-speed Internet access by 2010.
From Charleston Daily Mail, April 24, 2008
AT&T: Internet to Hit Full Capacity by 2010
An AT&T executive has claimed that, without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010.
From ZDNet, April 22, 2008
AT&T Creates Its Own Browser
According to the company, Pogo is based on Mozilla and with 3D technology from Vizible, AT&T.
From The Inquirer, April 22, 2008
Fiber-Optic Broadband Service Outpaces ADSL in Japan
The percentage of fiber-optic service subscribers in Japan’s broadband population surpassed that of asymmetric digital subscriber line users for the first time last year, the government said Friday.
From Japan Today, April 22, 2008 | <urn:uuid:a66a2be2-fe1b-4c1f-ba30-83a8acf285b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://w2i.com/resource_center/headlines/p/id_934/lang_en/pageStructureId_361/page_53/page_51 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927351 | 647 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Three lines or less. That’s the standard rule for dialogue in a screenplay, and for the most-part, it’s a good rule to follow. After all, we aren’t writing a play here. Screenplays are about a quick and easy flow to your words – of movement between actions and dialogue – of constantly increasing friction between your Antagonist and the forces working to keep them from their goal. If your dialogue is consistently breaking the “three lines or less” rule, chances are your lessening the impact of your script.
Because of this, screenwriters – and not just beginners – need to be very wary of using monologues. Badly executed or over-utilized monologues give your reader a quick reason to put your script down and move on to the next one. But, like with any rule, there are times when a monologue is not only acceptable, but also the best option for your story.
Let’s take a look at…
Monologues and GOOD WILL HUNTING
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Academy Award winning script tells the story of a math savant with a troubled past who lives on the wrong side and the therapist who wants to help him. It’s an engaging screenplay full of lively characters. It also breaks all kind of screenwriting “rules” – dialogue length being one of the most obvious.
Not only does GOOD WILL HUNTING include a monologue, it has TWO, one by Will early on in the bar where we become fully aware of just how intelligent he is, and one by Sean (played convincingly by Robin Williams’ beard).
That’s the one I’d like to focus on.
I was thinking about what you said to me
the other day, about my painting. I
stayed up half the night thinking about
it, and then something occurred to me, and
I fell into a deep peaceful sleep and
haven’t thought about you since. You
know what occurred to me?
You’re just a boy. You don’t have the
faintest idea what you’re talking about.
Why thank you.
You’ve never been out of Boston.
So if I asked you about art you could
give me the skinny on every art book
ever written…Michelangelo? You know a
lot about him I bet. Life’s work,
criticisms, political aspirations. But
you couldn’t tell me what it smells like
in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never
stood there and looked up at that
beautiful ceiling. And if I asked you
about women, I’m sure you could give me a
syllabus of your personal favorites, and
maybe you’ve been laid a few times too.
But you couldn’t tell me how it feels to
wake up next to a woman and be truly
happy. If I asked you about war, you
could refer me to a bevy of fictional
and non-fictional material, but you’ve
never been in one. You’ve never held
your best friend’s head in your lap and
watched him draw his last breath,
looking to you for help. And if I asked
you about love, I’d get a sonnet, but
you’ve never looked at a woman and been
truly vulnerable. Known that someone
could kill you with a look. That someone
could rescue you from grief. That God
had put an angel on Earth just for you.
And you wouldn’t know how it felt to be
her angel. To have the love be there for
her forever. Through anything, through
cancer. You wouldn’t know about sleeping
sitting up in a hospital room for two
months holding her hand and not leaving
because the doctors could see in your
eyes that the term “visiting hours”
didn’t apply to you. And you wouldn’t
know about real loss, because that only
occurs when you lose something you love
more than yourself, and you’ve never
dared to love anything that much. I look
at you, and I don’t see an intelligent,
confident man, I don’t see a peer, and I
don’t see my equal. I see a boy. Nobody
could possibly understand you, right
Will? Yet you presume to know so much
about me because of a painting you saw.
You must know everything about me.
You’re an orphan, right?
Will nods quietly.
Do you think I would presume to know the
first thing about who you are because I
read “Oliver Twist?” And I don’t but the
argument that you don’t want to be here,
because I think you like all the
attention you’re getting. Personally, I
don’t care. There’s nothing you can tell
me that I can’t read somewhere else.
unless we talk about your life. But you
won’t do that. Maybe you’re afraid of
what you might say.
It’s up to you.
And walks away.
Now THAT’S a monologue.
But it works. And it works because that long speech is the only way Sean could accomplish what he was trying to do in that scene. This becomes even clearer when you go back through the script and look at it in context with Will’s dialogue. When he’s dealing with people in positions of authority, the majority of his dialogue blocks are over five lines long. He’s a talker. He uses his intelligence and his words to overpower people and get what he wants – usually to be left alone.
The only way for Sean to combat that, is the launch into this tirade where he not only debunks every defense Will has used against him, but does so in a fashion which doesn’t give Will a chance to respond. If he can’t get a word to the contrary, then he can’t take over and regain control.
And that’s the point. Sean’s monologue works so well not just because it’s well written – but also because it works structurally within this particular story.
Keep that in mind when you’re writing, and the monologue can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.
So, what do you think? What other film monologues can you think of that are essential to be there in that form?
- Ask the Expert: The Do’s and Don’ts of Screenwriting
- Spielberg Reveals the Definitive Word on the JAWS USS Indianapolis Speech
- Magic Bullet: Dialogue
Tools to Help: | <urn:uuid:c7c97e51-4ac2-4db9-80c3-4c23f9d0826b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scriptmag.com/features/specs-the-city-monologues-and-good-will-hunting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938571 | 1,473 | 1.617188 | 2 |
While training for her second Ironman Triathlon, a Minnesota woman was attacked by an otter that animal experts think was trying to protect its young.
Triathletes must endure a number of obstacles – but fighting off otters usually isn’t one of them.
A Minnesota woman is recovering from an unexpected attack where she was bitten 25 times by an otter in a lake north of Duluth last week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The incident left Leah Prudhomme, who was training for her second Ironman Triathlon, with marks on her legs, feet and back.
"It would dive under water and I didn't know where I was going to get bit next," Prudhomme, 33, told ABC News affiliate KSTP.
Prudhomme said her wet suit, which was shredded during the attack, most likely saved her from additional injuries. She received rabies shots for every bite, plus tetanus and antibiotic shots, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Conservation experts were baffled by the rare attack.
"I've never seen or heard of it before," Mike Scott, a conservation officer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Duluth, told the Tribune. "We've got otters everywhere ... lakes, streams. Most times, [swimmers] wouldn't even know it. Otters usually stay away."
The Department of Natural Resources said there have only been 40 otter attacks in the U.S. in the last 20 years, according to KSTP. Animal experts said the otter may have been a mother attempting to protect her young. | <urn:uuid:07dc6c25-e126-4a96-98bd-6e3ee97a120c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/NATL-Minnesota-Woman-Attacked-by-Otter-162873566.html | 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 | 0.982873 | 329 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Economics for Competition Law is for practising lawyers, regulators, academics or if you have a specific need for knowledge in this area. Gain an understanding of the increasingly important role that economics plays in competition law and when economic analysis is needed for a particular competition law case.
- Gives an in-depth insight into European Competition Law principles and practice.
- Programme materials are written by experts in the field.
- Can be studied anywhere in the world.
This programme enables practitioners to further progress in their chosen profession.
Professor Richard Whish
King's College London
Credit value (UK/ECTS equivalent)
UK 180/ECTS 90
Two years PT (distance learning), October to October.
Distance learning with two weekend seminars in central London.
Year of entry 2013
The Dickson Poon School of Law
1 September 2013 (although earlier application is advised). Late applications for the PG Dip may be considered.
PT Home: £5100 (PG Dip 2013)
PT Overseas: £5100 (PG Dip 2013)
Centre of European Law, The Dickson Poon School of Law
tel: +44 (0) 20 7848 2387
fax: +44 (0) 20 7848 2443
For practising lawyers, regulators, academics and those with a specific need for knowledge of Economics for Competition Law. Aims to provide the professional with an understanding of the increasingly important role that economics plays in competition law and an understanding of when economic analysis is needed for a particular competition law case.
Covers how to apply economic theory to the practice of competition law. The first unit covers the conceptual foundations of economics as applied to competition law. The next two units cover the basic building blocks of economics analysis in competition law: market power and market definition. Units four to seven look at economic issues that arise under Article 102, whilst unit eight deals with Article 101. These are followed by two units on mergers; one on state aid and one on empirical analysis.
Core programme content
- Introduction to Economics of Competition Law
- Market Power
- Market Definition.
- Predation and Excessive Pricing
- Price Discrimination, Discounts, Tying & Bundling
- Refusal to supply, Essential Facilities and Margin Squeeze
- Network Effects and Multi-Sided Markets
- Cartels and Vertical Restraints.
- Mergers: Unilateral Effects
- Mergers: Co-ordinated Effects, Vertical and Non-horizontal Mergers
- State Aid
- Quantitative Techniques.
FORMAT AND ASSESSMENT
Compulsory assignments and examination for the Postgraduate Diploma. MA: dissertation.
ACADEMIC ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
General entry advice
Applicants must normally hold a degree in law or in a related discipline, of a good second class honours standard (or equivalent in the case of degrees differently graded), or be a qualified barrister or solicitor. Applications from candidates who have achieved a comparable academic level through past studies and where previous study, work or experience has made the applicant a suitable candidate for admission may also be considered.
APPLYING TO KING'S
To apply for graduate study at King's you will need to complete our graduate online application form. Applying online makes applying easier and quicker for you, and means we can receive your application faster and more securely.
King's does not normally accept paper copies of the graduate application form as applications must be made online. However, if you are unable to access the online graduate application form, please contact the relevant admissions/School Office at King's for advice.
Postal applications only. All students apply through Informa, not through King's. The application form is attached to the web page accessible via the "apply here" link above.
We aim to turn around applications within four weeks. There is an additional fee of £250 for courier services.
PERSONAL STATEMENT & SUPPORTING INFORMATION
No information required.
Related programme student profile
Master of Laws LLM
I chose King’s because I wanted to study at a prestigious European university. King’s scored very high on the rankings, especially for the programme that I was interested in. So far, I have found the high reputation and quality of the professors and the multicultural environment felt in every class I attend particularly attractive. My professors make a big effort to obtain and facilitate lots of useful material on the module being taught.
Aside from my studies, I have been elected treasurer of the Postgraduate Law Society, which is proving to be an excellent networking opportunity. Thankfully King’s granted me an award to help cover my tuition fees and it has greatly helped my financial situation, especially while I’m living and studying in London.
When I finish my master’s degree I’m pretty certain it will help me obtain a better job in my home country and broaden my area of practice. My advice to students from El Salvador considering coming to King’s is that you can offer great value to the international approach that King’s gives to the programme, and the reputation of the institution. London is a multicultural city with a million things to do every day. It is a great place to do your master’s! The people at King’s are simply amazing and everyone is eager to socialise. | <urn:uuid:16f681fe-816b-4b0a-bae1-5a781efa072e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/print/name/economics-for-competition-law/alpha/ABC/header_search/keyword/chinese-studies/printable/true/printable/true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910289 | 1,099 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Aquarius Essay Contest
Located 20 meters beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, next to coral reefs in the Florida Keys, lies the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Aquariusthe worlds only undersea laboratory. Scientists use Aquarius to study our oceans, as astronauts use the International Space Station to study our planet and outer space.
Aquarius aquanauts sponsored an essay contest asking students to describe why they wanted to live underwater in Aquarius for two weeks. The Grand Prize winners have been announced on the Aquarius Web site. In the next few weeks, ten additional runner up prize winners will also be announced. | <urn:uuid:a194939b-b1af-4db7-8646-d109f826539c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/projects/04aquarius/essay/welcome.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915081 | 129 | 2.34375 | 2 |
The Simons Center for Systems Biology
The Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study conducts research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences. Led by Arnold J. Levine and Stanislas Leibler, Professors in the School of Natural Sciences, the Center hosts a range of distinguished Members and Visitors annually, and fosters original research in the field of systems biology.
Recent technologies have generated enormous amounts of hitherto unseen biological/genetic data. The tools of modern physics, mathematics, and computer science enable integration of such data, allowing scientists to draw conclusions that will result in leaps of fundamental understanding of evolution and basic molecular biology, and will reduce -- perhaps by years -- the time leading to significant breakthroughs in developing personalized approaches to diagnosis and treatment of cancer, viruses, and other diseases.
Researchers at the Center include a diverse group of theoretical physicists, cancer biologists, mathematicians and computational biologists of extraordinary promise. They are engaged in detailed analyses of large-scale genomic, structural, and clinical databases that have been created over the past several years, as well as in developing theoretical and experimental methods for conducting studies on the collective behavior of biomolecules, cells and organisms. The Center seeks to explore and understand how genes are expressed in time (fetus, adult, the progression of old-age), space (cellular localization and tissue type), and in different human conditions (disease, aging, embryonic development), and to understand how individual components can give rise to complex collective phenomena. Collaborations with experimentalists test and confirm predictions developed through these analyses in the laboratory and in the clinic.
The post-doctoral training model that the Center has developed includes frequent conferences, symposia and seminars and encourages collaborations with other academic, clinical and industrial groups, both locally and around the world, to test information and to confirm theoretical models. As one of the leading centers for theoretical research in the sciences, the Institute is a natural locus for research biologists to visit and work, as research in the life sciences increasingly requires extensive skills in mathematics, physics, computer sciences and chemistry. These interactions help to extend and promote the necessary exchange of ideas and formulation of questions for future discoveries and strides in the field.
Applications for future memberships are invited from people with experience in physics, computer science, statistics, mathematics or biology. In addition to one- or two-year memberships, there are opportunities for short-term visits and collaborative work.
For further information or to apply, write to firstname.lastname@example.org or The Simons Center for Systems Biology, Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540.
The Institute for Advanced Study gratefully acknowledges generous support
of the biology initiative from The Simons Foundation and the Leon Levy Foundation.
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
Telephone: (609) 734 8118
Fax: (609) 951 4438 | <urn:uuid:c8e6eb31-24d8-4d45-99fa-da34fa63125e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sns.ias.edu/csb/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908215 | 601 | 1.78125 | 2 |