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A bill moving through California's Legislature would require hotels… (David Paul Morris / Bloomberg )
Reporting from Sacramento —
Business owners and others who have long complained that companies are overburdened by state regulations say a proposal now moving through the Legislature shows that lawmakers have lost all touch with reality: It would require that hotels use fitted sheets.
"We are now going to make it a crime in California not to use a fitted sheet? Really?" state Sen. Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) asked during a debate before the Senate passed the measure in June.
The bill, one of nearly 900 awaiting final action in the Legislature when it returns Monday from a monthlong recess, is intended to address back injuries sustained by hotel housekeepers. But it has revived a long-simmering debate over whether California has become a hyper-regulated "nanny state."
In 2007, the Legislature was subject to national ridicule when it considered a bill to outlaw spanking of young children. Embarrassed lawmakers eventually shelved that proposal, but businesses have decried the Legislature's subsequent ban on trans fats in restaurant cooking, requirement that calorie counts appear on menus, and prohibition on dairies docking cows' tails.
This year, businesses are crying foul over proposals to ban restaurants from cooking shark fin soup and using Styrofoam food containers — and the sheets bill. Its author, state Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles), said scores of housekeepers suffer back injuries each year lifting heavy mattresses to replace flat sheets, and the issue is a personal one for him.
"My mother was a housekeeper and worked herself to the bone," said De Leon, who said his measure would be the first law of its kind in the nation. It also would require special tools to enable maids to clean bathrooms without having to stoop or get down on their hands and knees.
"Housekeepers have the highest rate of lower-back injuries in the hotel industry, and these workers deserve much better," the senator said.
More than 7,400 housekeepers working in California hotels have filed workers' compensation claims for injuries they say they suffered last year, including 883 who said they hurt their backs, according to the state Industrial Relations Department.
Another proposal pending in the Legislature would require hospitals to provide patient-lifting equipment or teams of backup workers to help nurses avoid wrenching their backs when they lift or move patients.
The hospital and hotel bills are being pushed by employee unions representing nurses and housekeepers. They are opposed by industry groups that say they share the goal of protecting workers but object to blanket rules dictated from Sacramento.
The dispute is particularly intense this year as California struggles with a tough economy and high unemployment.
"Californians will be outraged when they learn that instead of focusing on the many real problems facing this state, lawmakers want to regulate bed sheets," said Lynn Mohrfeld, head of the California Hotel & Lodging Assn.
The hotel industry says that it would have to spend at least $30 million to replace sheets and buy appropriate laundry equipment, and that De Leon's measure, SB 432, would open the door for more employee lawsuits. In response, De Leon is planning changes to his bill that would give hotels the option of adopting other methods of protecting housekeepers from back injuries, such as purchasing equipment to reduce strain.
Just as hotels object to the potential expense of De Leon's bill, the hospital industry says it would incur steep costs if extra staff and equipment were required for medical facilities that already have worker-safety policies. The cost of providing a two-person lift team 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is about $375,000 per year, according to Jan Emerson-Shea, a vice president with the California Hospital Assn.
The group opposes the hospital measure, AB 1136 by Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland). Emerson-Shea said the organization wants the bill changed to give each hospital more flexibility to determine whether a lift team or expensive equipment is needed.
A lift team might be warranted at a hospital for adults but be unnecessary at a facility specializing in newborns and small children, she said. "If you are moving a 2-pound infant, you don't need a lift team."
Stephanie Roberson, a lobbyist for the California Nurses Assn., said lift teams could be needed at pediatric facilities to move an obese child.
Swanson said it is costly for the country to lose nurses to injury. More than 9,700 nurses filed workers' compensation claims for injuries last year in California, including 2,182 who said they hurt their backs, according to the state Industrial Relations agency.
"Nurses are critical to our healthcare system, and 12% of them are forced to leave the profession each year because of the disabling injuries caused by lifting patients," he said, citing a report in the International Journal of Nursing Studies.
The objections of the hotel and hospital industries mean little to Nenita Ibe and Patricia Burress.
Both were injured doing their jobs, Ibe as a hotel housekeeper in Santa Clara and Burress as a nurse in Long Beach. Ibe was among a busload of housekeepers who came to the Capitol recently wearing their hotel uniforms and asking for help.
"Every night I wake up from the pain and can't go back to sleep for hours," the Filipino immigrant told a legislative committee, recounting how she badly injured both arms while lifting mattresses.
Burress' injury, which occurred while she tried to move a stroke patient at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, required emergency surgery and ended her nursing career.
"We are lifting patients constantly," she said in an interview. "If we would have had some sort of lift team, everything that happened to me would have been prevented."
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"Poetry has nothing to do with poetry. Poetry is how the air goes green before thunder. Is the sound you make when you come, and why you live and how you bleed, and The sound you make or don't make when you die."- Gwendolyn MacEwen
"Her looks fading, the vain Lispector became increasingly reclusive and demanding. Addicted to cigarettes and sleeping pills, she exhibited erratic and sometimes imperious behavior. She would call friends in the middle of the night and flee dinner parties for little apparent reason. She had a reputation for being a liar."-<em>NYT on Clarice Lispector
My dear child, who can tell? One can only tell that, by remembering something which happened where we lived before; and as we remember nothing, we know nothing about it; and no book, and no man, can ever tell us certainly.
Some couples don’t ask much of one another after they’ve worked out the fundamentals of jobs and children. Some live separate intellectual and cultural lives, and survive, but the most intense, most fulfilling marriages need, I think, to struggle toward some kind of ideological convergence. Norman Rush
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Prep For Summer Hiking Season
It's almost summer hiking season! Start prepping now so you can enjoy the great outdoors safely.
Don't let your fun wilderness hiking trip turn into a life-threatening ordeal. Follow some simple hiking safety tips so that you'll be prepared for unexpected situations and avoid problems that can be a danger -- getting lost, dehydration, weather-related issues, accidents and injury. Proper preparation is a big step towards assuring that your hike will live up to your expectations.
You're just going on a day hike, so why is it smart to carry extra supplies? Don't make the mistake of thinking that you could never end up spending the night in the wilderness. Experienced hikers have gotten lost, become ill or been injured before you. It's wise preparation to imagine a worst-case scenario where you'll need to be ready for a night spent outdoors. Don't leave essential items behind -- when in doubt, pack it along.
A GPS device is a great navigation tool, so bring it along if you have one. Most hikers rely on a map and a compass.
Even in warm summer months, hypothermia can be a serious danger in the mountains. Weather conditions can change rapidly, so be ready for rains or high wind. Pack some warmer clothing including a fleece jacket, long pants, hat, gloves and extra socks. Timberland's Full-Zip Hooded Sweatshirt is a great layering piece for a summer hike. These items won't add a lot of carry-weight, but could be a real lifesaver.
In hot weather, unprepared hikers can suffer heat stroke and dehydration. Bring along plenty of water and keep sodium levels high with salty foods or sports drinks. In arid and hot climates, time your hike earlier in the morning or later in the day when temperatures are cooler.
Always leave your trip plan with a trusted family member or friend. This is a written statement of where you are going -- include a copy of your map! Write down who you are going with, when you are leaving and when you plan to return. It should also include instructions on who to call for help if you haven't returned by a certain time. The person entrusted with this plan should be reliable enough to follow through and check that you have returned at the specified time.
Do your homework
Every wilderness area has unique hazards. In some, it could be a danger from animals. Knowing you are hiking in country inhabited by bears or mountain lions means taking certain precautions. In the high peaks of the Rockies, dangerous afternoon lightning storms are common during spring and summer. In desert landscapes, heat and dehydration are a deadly combo for hikers every year. Be aware of what you could possibly encounter, and take the necessary precautions.
Take a class
Take a wilderness first aid course. You'll learn basic first aid skills, like how to dress a wound or treat a broken bone, what to do for altitude sickness and heat stroke, how to recognize hypothermia and how to administer CPR. Hopefully these are skills you'll never need to use on the trail, but knowledge is power. Preparation is the smart way to ensure a safer summer hiking season.
The great outdoors
The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and the author alone. They do not reflect the opinions of SheKnows, LLC or any of its affiliates and they have not been reviewed by an expert in a related field or any member of the SheKnows editorial staff for accuracy, balance or objectivity. Content and other information presented on the Site are not a substitute for professional advice, counseling, diagnosis, or treatment. Never delay or disregard seeking professional medical or mental health advice from your physician or other qualified health provider because of something you have read on SheKnows. SheKnows does not endorse any specific product, service or treatment.
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- WEB STARTUPS
- WEB JOBS
- ALL TOPICS
Alright, this isn’t a startup idea I’ve ever thought of and frankly it took me a bit of time to “get it”. Cinnaminta offers a marketplace for media – typically audio or video. The founders describe the service as, “like YouTube requests with Google maps”.
Let’s say you would like someone to read a story or passage you have written in a specific place in the world. You post your request on Cinnaminta and then people in that location can pick up and perform the request. Requests are split into a variety of categories including poetry, literature, prayers, performance art, sights and sounds. Here are a few examples of requests:
- poem read in a crop circle
- write these words on a rock in a bear cave
- a poem written by a wife of a soldier killed in combat to be read in his hometown
- video some sheep munching some grass in a field
I can’t figure out how Cinnaminta generates revenue as it appears to be free to post a request and free to complete the request. From what I can tell there are requests for areas around the world.
Cinnaminta is based in the UK and launched in late 2007.
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"[NatureWild is an] excellent resource for environmental education, has lots of locally relevant information useful to our organization."
NatureWILD is BC’s only home grown nature magazine for children, it is produced by the YNC with contributions from some of BC’s leading naturalists and biologists. In it you will find fascinating articles on BC’s wildlife and ecosystems, stories about children taking action for the environment, along with activities, games and contests! NatureWILD is mailed to members quarterly. NatureWILD comes with your YNC Family Club or YNC School Club Membership or you can subscribe to NatureWILD. Read a free digital copy.
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An unprecedented decade-long study of apex predators in the Pacific Ocean found a wider range of distribution among some species than previously thought, unknown relationships between other species, and the importance of biological "hotspots" to the survival of most of these sea creatures.
The field program, dubbed Tagging of Pacific Predators – or TOPP – looked at 23 species from 2000-09 and included researchers from multiple institutions.
Results of the study are being published this week in the journal Nature.
"One thing that quickly became apparent is that there are many similarities among top predators in the California Current System," said Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University and co-author on the study. "There is a strong overlap in territory, for example, between blue whales and tuna. Blue whales eat krill; the tuna eat fish that eat the krill.
"But the krill, and the ocean conditions that promote its abundance, are key to both species," added Mate, who directed the cetacean portion of the TOPP study. "When there are hotspots of krill or other food, the apex predators need to find them."
Most of these hotspots result from upwelling, or the fertilization of surface waters with nutrient-rich deeper water as a result of wind-driven mixing. One such biological hotspot occurs just west of Santa Barbara, Calif., where the wind comes around Point Conception and triggers strong upwelling.
"When the winds there died, we watched whales eat literally all of the available food in three days, and then they just took off," Mate said. "Most of them moved to the Farallon Islands near San Francisco, which is another productive feeding area. Blue whales likely know these hotspots from experience. Instead of waiting for upwelling to renew the krill population, they'll travel 400 miles in three days to find a new food source."
The study also found, however, that some species have more difficulty with poor ocean productivity, as often happens during El Niño events. Coastal birds also depend on krill, and during an El Niño in 2006-07, most of their hatchlings failed, the researchers noted.
Pinnipeds – including seals and seal lions – normally experience a successful birth rate of 80 percent, but in El Nino years, that drops to 20 percent. "Most of the offspring die," Mate said, "because the mothers cannot produce enough milk."
The TOPP study was the first ocean basin-scale study of marine predator distribution and movement ever conducted, and the massive amount of data collected will help resource managers develop effective ocean protection strategies, the researchers say.
The study underscores the importance of apex predators in different ecosystems, noting how the loss of bluefin tuna and porbeagle sharks in the Atlantic Ocean contributed to the near-extinction of cod and similar species.
Mate, a pioneer in the use of satellites to track endangered whales and other species, has been studying blue whales for decades and has been featured in the National Geographic Magazine and the National Geographic Channel film, "Kingdom of the Blue Whale." Most of that documentary was shot aboard OSU's research vessel Pacific Storm, which tracked blue whales tagged off California in the fall to their first-ever discovered winter breeding and calving area 500 miles off Costa Rica in an upwelling area.
Blue whales may be unique among large whales in using areas for reproduction where they can continue to feed. Interestingly, the whales do not have just one route for this migration but instead use a variety of offshore routes and variable timing.
Adult blue whales can grow to the length of a basketball court and weigh as much as 25 large elephants combined. A blue whale's mouth could hold 100 people, Mate said, though its diet is primarily one-and-a half-inch long krill. The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small automobile. Scientists say the blue whale is the largest creature to ever inhabit the Earth – and it is one of the loudest animals in the sea, capable of making sounds equivalent to those of a jet engine, though at frequencies below human hearing.
Mate and his colleagues also tracked a fin whale for more than a year as part of the TOPP research.
"It did nothing that we expected," he said with a laugh. "Usually, we think large whale species go south for the winter and north in the summer, but this whale spent its winter in the Gulf of Alaska and didn't go south until spring when it went as far south as the tip of Baja, but returned back to the Gulf of Alaska without stopping anywhere. In total, the whale made four trips through a 30-kilometer wide area off Vancouver Island, suggesting a preference for a very precise corridor.
"It's hard to generalize about whale behavior with a small sample size," Mate said. "But that's the value of tracking animals over the years through efforts like the TOPP program. We learn about patterns and variability – and inevitably, we learn something we never knew before and often times it is really fundamentally different that what we thought we would find."
Among the Pacific Ocean predators tracked by researchers in addition to whales and tuna were several species of sharks, leatherback sea turtles, two species of albatross, sooty shearwaters, Northern elephant seals and California sea lions.
Provided by Oregon State University (news : web)
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Steamboat Springs Local U.S. Forest Service officials say a 120-acre land donation in northern Routt County provides one more piece in the puzzle of effective land and wildlife management in California Park.
The donated parcel is in a valley surrounded by Forest Service and state lands and includes about 14 acres of wetlands along the Armstrong and Elkhead creeks, where native cutthroat trout can be found.
Forest Service spokesman Aaron Voos said the significance of the donation is that it protects the California Park Special Interest Area from private development that could impact view corridors as well as wildlife habitat. The California Park Special Interest Area was designated in 1997 because of its historical and biological value. The area is home to prehistoric archaeological finds, pioneer homesteads and cabins, and animal species including boreal toads, cutthroat trout, Columbia sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse, greater sandhill cranes, mountain suckers and northern leopard frogs. California Park is popular with hunters because of its concentration of big-game animals like elk.
Voos said the private landowners had been working with the Forest Service to either sell or exchange their land. Ultimately, they decided simply to donate it. Voos said the landowners’ names are being withheld at their request.
“Any sort of land exchanges are part of our basic program of work,” Voos said. “We’re always looking at different inholdings within the forest to see if we can consolidate or swap. This is one we’ve had our eye on for awhile.”
Because the acquisition of the 120-acre parcel provides connectivity between existing tracts of public lands in California Park, the Forest Service can now manage land and wildlife without interruption throughout the area, Voos said.
California Park is an approximately 25,000-acre area north of Hayden and west of Steamboat Lake. The area includes between 12,000 and 15,000 acres of open range that historically has provided grazing for sheep and cattle herds. California Park is most commonly accessed by Routt County Road 80 out of Hayden.
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 16, 2010—The U.S. Department of Energy today offered the first conditional federal loan guarantee for new nuclear plant construction to Southern Co. for two advanced reactors at the Plant Vogtle power station in eastern Georgia. Following is a statement from Marvin Fertel, the Nuclear Energy Institute’s president and chief executive officer.
“The nuclear industry commends the Obama administration and the Department of Energy for having reached this major milestone in implementing the clean-energy loan guarantee program authorized by Congress in 2005. This first conditional commitment demonstrates the Administration’s recognition that new nuclear power plants must be part of America’s clean energy portfolio.
“The industry also congratulates Southern Company for its receipt of the first conditional loan guarantee for a new nuclear power plant, and for its leadership in responding to America’s need for reliable electricity supplies that drive economic growth while meeting increasingly stringent environmental requirements.
“This loan guarantee, and others to follow, will act as a catalyst to accelerate construction of new nuclear plants and other low- and non-emitting sources of electricity. By easing access to capital markets for electric companies seeking to build new reactors and reducing the cost of capital for clean-energy projects, loan guarantees reduce the cost of electricity to consumers—a significant win-win proposition in these difficult economic times.
“Loan guarantees also will have far-reaching economic multiplier effects. They send a strong signal to companies throughout the nuclear supply chain to expand their manufacturing capacity for growing domestic as well as overseas markets.
“We’ve already seen the results of the early preparation for building nuclear plants. Over the past few years, more than 15,000 new jobs have been created in the nuclear energy sector. U.S. manufacturers of components for nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities are adding to design and engineering staff, expanding their capability to manufacture components, and building new manufacturing facilities in Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and other states.
“Today’s announcement of the conditional commitment with Southern Co. is one of a number of steps taken by the Obama Administration to support nuclear energy expansion. Other steps include: The fiscal 2011 federal budget request includes a tripling of DOE’s loan guarantee authority for new reactors, adding $36 billion to last year’s $18.5 billion appropriation, for a total of $54.5 billion. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said this would provide federal backing for seven to 10 new nuclear power plants. A change to the regulations governing the loan guarantee program, which allowed clean-energy projects to tap other sources of financing side-by-side with the DOE-guaranteed debt; and The recent award of investment tax credits to Shaw Modular Solutions and Alstom to build new facilities to manufacture components for advanced-design nuclear power plants.“Increasing the loan guarantee authority is critical to accelerate deployment of the dozens of new reactors needed to meet rising electricity demand and stem the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.”-------NOTE: The conditional loan guarantee announced today will become a final loan guarantee agreement when the Vogtle project receives its combined construction and operating license, which is currently scheduled to be issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late 2011. Southern Nuclear Operating Co. received an early site permit and authorization for site preparation from the NRC in 2009, and has started site preparation.
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Spinal tumors may be cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign). The treatment of benign tumors depends on patient symptoms such as pain or lack of mobility, and may be treated with a watch-and-wait approach, various medications, radiation, or surgery. Malignant tumors can be treated with radiation and chemotherapy, and surgery can often be used in addition to these treatments to relieve pain, stabilize the spine, and improve quality of life.
Spinal tumors that arise from the spine itself are divided into three categories, depending on where they originate in the spinal cord. Many spinal tumors are benign and cause problems largely because they interfere with nerve conduction or with the structure of the spine:
- Intradural-extramedullary: menigioma, schwannoma, neurofibroma, nerve root tumors
- Intramedullary: astrocytoma, ependymoma, lipoma
- Extradural: schwannoma, metastatic cancer
Metastatic Spinal Tumor
The skeletal spine is often a site for metastasis (spread) from cancers that originate elsewhere in the body. The vertebrae are commonly affected by metastasized lung, breast, and prostate cancers. Metastatic cancers of the bony portion of the spine can often be successfully managed with radiation therapy, especially for pain relief. Bone-building drugs, such as agents used to treat osteoporosis, along with continued chemotherapy, can also help to slow or stop the progress of bone metastases for a significant period.
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I’m not sure if I’m angry, embarrassed, disappointed, or a combination thereof, because of an event that was held here in Franklin, Saturday, Jan. 22. The American Legion Post 108 held a Constitutional Speech competition for high school students. Students were to give an eight to ten minute prepared speech on the Constitution of the United States. The second part of the contest was a three to five minute extemporaneous speech on a selected amendment to the Constitution. Prizes were awarded and the winner is eligible to participate in the next level of the contest to be held in Hickory. As the student continues winning in the competitions, he or she is able to win large sums of monies for their college education.
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The Prequel to Moby-Dick
Not enough people have read Moby-Dick, and most people know it has something to do with a white whale and a nut called Ahab – oh yeah, and it starts off something like, “Call me Ishmael.”
All the above information is correct but deceptively vague. The final scene in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick involves the whale ship in the novel, the Pequod, being struck head-on by the giant white sperm whale. Some have question whether a whale would be able to do such a thing. In the Heart of the Sea proves this to be true.
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick is the story about the tragedy of the whale ship Essex, which served as Melville’s research for the climactic final scene in Moby-Dick. In 1819 the Essex set sail on a multiple-year journey around the world in search of whale, specifically sperm whales and their rich and expensive oil. Fifteen months later, in the abyssal depths of the South Pacific, a whale rammed the ship head-on. The hull was crippled and the ship quickly sank; all hands managed to escape on their large whaleboats.
Twenty men in three boats were set adrift in the world’s largest ocean, with little supplies and diminishing hope. Nevertheless, their captain kept his courage: they debated heading west towards the Pacific islands, but feared cannibalism – gruesome details having been brought back from sailors who had sailed through the islands – instead, they struck out east, heading for South America. So began their harrowing journey of starvation, isolation, and madness.
Three months later, two boats were discovered, with only eight of the remaining crew. They were found gaunt and nothing but hanging flesh, the bones of their crew lay in the bottom of the boats, having provided a menial cannibalistic feast for the remaining members.
‘Tis a story of grave irony: a hardy crew set sail in opposite direction to that way which cannibals lie, ultimate suffering the same fate as their supposed enemies, reduced to consuming the flesh, skin and bone of their fellow seamen. Nathaniel Philbrick does an excellent job of telling this gruesome story in vivid detail and moving narration.
Philbrick’s research features newly discovered documents on the fate of the Essex, featuring an account by Thomas Nickerson, who was one of the cabin boys on the Essex, discovered in an attic in New York in 1981.
The story is shocking, exciting and enthralling – and at the time the reader must constantly reaffirm to themselves that the events within these pages really took place. Nathaniel Philbrick masters at telling a grand story of the high seas with a different ending that excels in every way.
If you liked this review and are interested in purchasing this book, click here.
Originally published on May 14th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.
Originally published in the Long Beach Union.
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Guest blog submitted by mcgregl
In the world of showbiz, body image is paramount. Celebrities live their lives in the public eye and everything about them and what they do is scrutinized. They are walking advertisements for every new quick fix diet.
When Jennifer Aniston first announced her devotion to the Atkins Diet, suddenly everyone was on it. Likewise for the South Beach Diet, the GI Diet, and the Zone.
People look at slim celebrities, find out what diet they’re on and think if they go on it, it will give them a celebrity figure.
Because fad diets amount to little more than crash dieting, and for the majority of people, they simply do no work. Most of them involve excluding a group of foods from your diet. This is not sustainable or good for your health in the long-term.
“It is worth noting that up to 80 deaths have been attributed to these diets in the past,” says Irish dietitian Niamh O’Connor. “A fad diet usually results in dramatic weight loss, rather than slow safe weight reduction. There is a profound difference between these two concepts.”
She explains that rapid weight loss results in the loss of muscle and water and this leads to a reduced metabolic rate (the rate at which the body uses energy). So when someone returns to a regular eating pattern, they put on weight easier because their metabolic rate is lower than it was before the diet.
“Fad diets do not attempt to address any aspect of your health – they simply focus on weight loss, irrespective of the proportion of fat or muscle that is lost in the process,” she adds.
Recently I realized I’ve been on some sort of a diet for the past seven years. I’m 21 and have never struggled with my weight.
Why am I, along with so many others, obsessed with every morsel of food that touches my lips?
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Energy efficient building designs and technologies are everywhere these days. In fact, the sheer number of options can seem a little overwhelming for those interested in sustainable construction techniques. But Southface Energy Institute, headquartered in Atlanta, can be a valuable resource for homeowners, commercial or residential builders, or individuals who simply want to learn more about environmentally friendly design.
Southface Energy Institute is a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 that provides a wide variety of services, ranging from community education events to technical assistance for builders. The Southface website is full of handy tips and information for improving everything from individual building designs to big-picture community dynamics.
Southface practices what they preach, too. Their Atlanta headquarters is a showcase of innovative building designs and techniques that was awarded a LEED-Platinum designation.
For tips you can use in your own home or office, or to learn more about Southface, visit their website.
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Nov 24, 2008
Bruce Lee (1940 – 1973) was an American-born martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do combat form. He was widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the twentieth century and a cultural icon. He was also the father of actor Brandon Lee and of actress Shannon Lee.
Lee was born in San Francisco, California, and raised in Hong Kong. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim, and sparked the first major surge of interest in Chinese martial arts in the West.
Dowload the free PDF file here and make your own Bruce Lee toy!
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Watch "Fareed Zakaria GPS" Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET.
In Syria, the brutal regime of Bashar Assad is testing the proposition that repression works. The massacre of civilians in Houla is only the latest example of what appears to be a strategy of making no concessions and using maximum force. To the Assad regime's way of thinking, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi erred by hesitating, emboldening the opposition and sowing doubts among their supporters. So far, Assad's strategy has worked. Kofi Annan's mission, which appears to be based on the idea that Assad will negotiate his own departure, seems utterly doomed. The U.S., the Western world, indeed the civilized world, should attempt instead to dislodge the Assad regime. Is there a smart way to do it?
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Museums | Sights
In 2011, Clifford Owens asked a group of prominent, intergenerational African American artists for performance scores—written instructions specifying the performer’s actions—which he then performed in situ during a residency at MoMA PS1. Several artists featured in Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art are among those who Owen asked to participate. For this performance, Owens will perform a selection of scores from the larger compendium.Clifford Owens, (b. 1971) a photographer and performance artist, is well known for his interactive, provocative performances. Many of his performances pay homage to the artists working in performance that have been influential to his own practice. In Anthology, Owens creates a series of performances that opens a dialogue between him and other performance artists to create a personal, historical, and collaborative compendium of African American performance art.
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http://www.countrylegends971.com/events/detail/2850424/
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Relational database design explained … sort of
Click through for a larger version. The text:
It helps ensure data consistency and integrity. This may not seem important at first. But it becomes critical when you want to query or sort that data.
For example, we have three books by Toni Morrison in the database. if we stored author information in the same table, every time someone wanted to add a Toni Morrison book, they would have to type “Toni Morrison” in the author field.
That’s fine, as long as this person types well. But letters often get transposed, and some names are easy to misspell. If a user enters “Toni Morisson,” that book title won’t appear in a “Toni Morrison” search. We can help ensure data consistency with a separate authors table.
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http://tiffanybbrown.com/2010/09/26/relational-database-design-explained-sort-of/
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Everyone knows the importance of remaining fit. To get in shape and to lead a good life style, people adopt to various kinds of exercise programs. Though working out has many health benefits, it has a minor number of disadvantages too. One such drawback is the sweat that is produced while performing exercises and workouts is harmful for hair.
So in order to prevent our hair from sweat damage certain steps are required to be taken. Read further to know more about them…
How sweat damages hair?
When we sweat, salt is built up that tends to get lodged in our hair and on our scalp. This layer of salt makes our hair dry and ultimately leads to their breakage.
For maintaining healthy hair we need to first maintain healthy scalp. Our scalp has tiny pores that absorb essential nutrients and other substances. Salty sweat blocks up these pores and sometimes gets absorbed by these pores. Hence it is very important to get rid of sweat on your hair even while you are doing workout.
How to maintain shiny and healthy hair after workout?
Here are some tips we need to follow to prevent our hair from getting damaged from sweat while working out…
- During workout, try to keep your hair tied. Use soft band to tie them up in a high pony. Make sure that your pony stays away from your face and neck as this will cause less sweat and makes you feel comparatively cooler.
- To avoid sweat near hairline, use sweat band or cotton scarf or cotton hair band.
- Keep a hand napkin with you while working out. Use this napkin to wipe out sweat from your head and face during the intervals you take while performing exercises.
- Wash your hair as frequently as like twice or thrice in a week, especially if you are indulged in intense workouts.
- To maintain moisture in your hair, follow hot oil treatment at least once a week.
- Also you can use hair masks once in a month for keeping your hair moisturized.
Workout makes you get rid of toxins from the skin, and so you will sweat while doing it. This will probably makes your skin glowing from inside but damages your hair. Hope the tips discussed above will help you maintain your hair in a great way while performing your favorite exercises.
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If you haven't been to Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology, you are missing out on one of this city's most beautiful places. This world-renowned science, engineering and technology library sits on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus (though it's not part of the university) in an urban arboretum, creating a broad sensory experience. The library is a free and peaceful place to visit where, for the next few months, there's an exquisite collection of star atlases and maps from the library's rare-book collection.
Some of the books date back to 1603. It's thrilling to take in the grandeur and intimacy of the printed pages, the drawing and engraving skills and the fantastical images in the illustrations. That these books are rare — one is among just five in the world — enlarges the exhibition's appeal.
Many of these works originated in London and European cities such as Paris, Cologne and Amsterdam; most were atlases used by astronomers, and some were intended for the classroom. Seventeenth-century Dutch artists and scientists were intensely interested in microscopes, lenses, retinas and other optical apparatus; it follows, then, that the art emerging from Northern Europe was engaged with its visual culture. Rembrandt and Vermeer, and Albrecht Dürer before them, were devoted to helping us really see the world rather than merely producing more images of myth and religion. This humanizing effect is evident in these celestial atlases, too, and that's part of what makes them so appealing. The desire to map and describe both terra firma and the celestial sky affirms the richness of a time when art and science flourished in the North.
Yet religious instruction is still present in many of these books. The mixture of biblical, mythological and scientific images and ideas underscores a culture in flux. One of my favorites, Catherine Vale Whitwell's 1818 An Astronomical Catechism, is the only known book on the constellations that is written in the form of dialogue, from mother to daughter. And in an illustration of Corvus, Crater and the Hydra's tail, Whitwell describes the astronomy to her daughter using Judeo-Christian stories, telling her that Corvus (a small, southern constellation) actually represents the raven that Noah sent from the Ark to find dry ground.
Andreas Cellarius' 1661 Harmonia macrocosmica is one of the richest and largest atlases. The two-page spread on display shows a sky with Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant (think Raiders of the Lost Ark if your theology fails you), and the river Jordan, among many other images. The colors are bright and clear; Noah's Ark in this vivid and complex illustration is particularly engaging because of the small face that peers out of an ark portal.
Books are treasured vessels of knowledge, escape, humor, mind-expanding ideas, and visual and intellectual opportunity. Certain books feel good in the hand and are a joy to tote around as conspiratorial companions. It's a wonder, then, to consider what it was like to open one of these books at a time when knowledge was slow to come to the masses. Unlike looking at a painting, whose journey may be more easily traced, imagining where these books have been handled and enjoyed since the 17th century is a pleasure in itself.
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The most frequent error in medicine seems to occur nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to a specialist. A new study found that nearly a third of patients age 65 and older referred to a specialist are not scheduled for appointments and therefore do not receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended.
According to a new study appearing in the February 2010 issue of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, only 71 percent of patients age 65 or older who are referred to a specialist are actually scheduled to be seen by that physician. Furthermore, only 70 percent of those with an appointment actually went to the specialist's office. Thus, only 50 percent (70 percent of 71 percent) of those referred to a specialist had the opportunity to receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended them to have, according to the findings by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine.
The Institute of Medicine, in its seminal report "To Err is Human," defines a medical error as a "wrong plan" or a failure of a planned action to be completed.
"Patients fail to complete referrals with specialists for a variety of reasons, including those that the health care system can correct, such as failure of the primary care doctor's office to make the appointment; failure of the specialist's office to receive the request for a consultation—which can be caused by something as simple as a fax machine without paper - or a failure to confirm availability with the patient," said Michael Weiner M.D., M.P.H., first author of the study.
"There will always be reasons - health issues or lack of transportation, for example - why a referred patient cannot make it to the specialist he or she needs, but there are many problems we found to be correctable using health information technology to provide more coordinated and patient-focused care. Using electronic medical records and other health IT to address the malfunction of the referral process, we were able to reduce the 50 percent lack of completion of referrals rate to less than 20 percent, a significant decrease in the medical error rate," said Dr. Weiner.
The JECP study followed 6,785 primary care patients seen at an urban medical institution, all over age 65, with a mean age of 72. Nearly all (91 percent) of the patients were covered by Medicare.
"This is not necessarily the fault of patients or doctors alone, but it may take both working together - along with their health system - to correct this problem. Our study highlights how enormous a problem this is for patients who were not getting the specialized care they needed. Although our findings would likely differ among institutions, unfortunately overall trends are similar in other parts of the country" said Dr. Weiner.
Explore further: US health care: Does more spending yield better health?
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There are various ways of ending up behind a camera as a profession. One way, though possibly not so common, is to stand in front of a camera for many years until curiosity and interest take over completely. That is what happened to Jack Guy. He had been a model for fifteen years. He was standing in front of a camera in Montana, USA modelling for a shoot for Esquire magazine. When the photographer peeled apart the Polaroid and showed Jack, something clicked. That was the defining moment, quite simply. In 1988 to be precise.
From that day on, interest grew. He took a camera with him on modelling assignments and started to photograph the other models, just for fun and practice. It was a golden opportunity being able to shoot professional models in beautiful locations. He improved his technique and his portfolio grew.
And so it was. He eventually decided to go professional and took the step behind the camera instead on a permanent basis. Fashion was the natural area for him to begin with as that was the world he had been involved with. But he had a certain style that drew attention from entertainment magazine editors. He had been producing a kind of movie portrait and fashion mix that they liked. This style then paved the way for him to become a celebrity photographer, which is what he is today.
| ||He never studied photography at college level, as art and architecture were his subjects. On the other hand he had the great advantage of working alongside very experienced photographers who helped him and showed him how it was done. Today he looks back, is grateful for the help he received, and is now in his turn willing to help young photographers make their way as well.|
He has an attractive outfit at his disposal: a Hasselblad H1 complete with 80mm, 100mm, 120mm, 150mm, and 50-110mm zoom lenses. Efficiency and reliability are the characteristics he chooses to sum up his affection for Hasselblad. He also adds the word freedom though. By this he means the freedom he experiences resulting from superior image quality and autofocus. Time restrictions while shooting actors create a stressful environment. But the H1 can be relied upon to keep up with the rapid action and produce the goods. Jack says. “I need to be able to shoot as much as possible in as little amount of time possible. The H1 is the best camera for the job so far”. He has used other formats of course but he believes the medium format provides the perfect middle ground for his kind of work. He shoots both film and digital pointing out that apart from the usual list of pro’s and con’s for both sides he discerns a difference in overall appearance which he likens to the difference between a movie shot on film and high definition video - a certain visual quality or impression. He likes film but knows that commercially at least, it is a digital solution that will eventually win the race.
He enjoys the work of many photographers but remembers in particular people such as Kurt Markus, Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, Bruce Webber, Paolo Roversi, Richard Avedon. They were the ones that inspired him first. It is that essence of glamour and style that is of course part of his daily life. Celebrities naturally move in a world apart from the norm. As a contrast perhaps his leisure activities reflect another side to life and offer alternative opportunities for photography and relaxation. Apart from skydiving, riding his motorcycle, hiking and his general sports interests he has a few other ideas to try out. Firstly there is a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa followed by going on safari in Tanzania. These escapades will then be finally capped with a trip to the Seychelles. Glamourous, yes, but a different sort of glamour of course from the glitzy world of entertainment. He is hoping to produce a show and a book from these travels. The obvious question remains as to how will he decide which lenses to leave behind when he climbs Mount Kilimanjaro as they can’t all fit into one rucksack.
Log onto Jack Guy´s website for a selection of his recent work.All images: © Jack Guy / Corbis Outline
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The mere thought of having to take a required calculus course is enough to make legions of students break out in a cold sweat.
Others who have no intention of ever studying the subject have this notion that calculus is impossibly difficult unless you happen to be a direct descendant of Einstein.
Well, the good news is that you can master calculus.
It's not nearly as tough as its mystique would lead you to think.
Much of calculus is really just very advanced algebra, geometry, and trig.
It builds upon and is a logical extension of those subjects.
If you can do algebra, geometry, and trig, you can do calculus.
For more information about the title Calculus for Dummies, read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:
Recommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
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HIGH LEVEL TASKFORCE ON INTERNATIONAL INNOVATIVE FINANCING FOR HEALTH SYSTEMS
25 SEPTEMBER 2008 | NEW YORK - At the UN High Level Event in New York on 25 September 2008, world leaders called for an additional US$30 billion to save 10 million lives – 3 million mothers and 7 million children. Stronger health systems are critical to saving these lives and building these systems will also require more resources from the international community. For this reason, a High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems (Taskforce) was announced.
Taskforce objectives and mandate
The objectives of the Taskforce are to contribute to filling national financing gaps to reach the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through: mobilizing additional resources; increasing the financial efficiency of health financing; and enhancing the effective use of funds. The Taskforce's mandate is to make recommendations on the mix of innovative international financing mechanisms needed to deliver the extra resources required to achieve the MDGs and promote international support for these recommendations to ensure they are implemented. Link to more information on why the Taskforce was set up on the WHY link on the right.
The initial Taskforce report is to be presented to the G8 in July 2009. A final report is to be presented at the UN General Assembly and the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in September 2009.
Who is in the High Level Taskforce?
The members of the Taskforce comprise a small number of leading figures in the international community selected on the basis of the perspectives they can each offer on innovative financing, health systems or political feasibility. The Taskforce has been supported by two technical working groups:
- Working Group 1 on Costs and Contstraints
- Working Group 2 on Innovative Mechanisms and Chanelling
A full list of the Taskforce and Working Group I and II members can be found on the HLTF members link above and on the right.
HLTF Report released
29 MAY 2009 | PARIS The report of the Taskforce on International Innovative Financing for Health Systems, co-chaired by Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, was completed on 29th May at the third Taskforce meeting held in Paris. All Taskforce members agreed to a final report and set of recommendations that includes a range of innovative financing options that countries and other stakeholders can choose to support.
Link to the Taskforce Press release and key messages from the link above, on the right.
Contribution of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) has been involved in the work of the Taskforce in three main avenues:
- Representation on the Task Force: PMNCH provided important contributions to the work of the High-Level Task Force. Two Partnership members were key members of Working Group I, which oversaw the work on estimating the costs and the financing gap: Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Director a.i., PMNCH, and Dr. Helga Fogstad, Coordinator Health and HIV/AIDS, NORAD and Board member, PMNCH.
- Costing estimates: Two team developed separate costing estimates for WGI and subsequently used as well by WG II. The first team included PMNCH members: UNICEF, World Bank, and UNFPA as well as Mr Henrik Axelson, Health Economist for PMNCH. The other costing estimate was developed by WHO and UNAIDS. The methodology and findings of these two analyses can be found in the reports of WG1
- Civil society consultation : Several civil society organizations of PMNCH have contributed to the civil society consultations which have taken place including in London in March 2009, Johannesburg May 2009 and Abuja in May 2009. These included: ActionAid International, Family Care International, White Ribbon Alliance, and several other organizations based in low- and middle-income countries.
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Media Release – CAPS Hauraki 15th May 2013
Locals Front Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Campaign
Local champions from all walks of life are fronting a campaign in the Coromandel and Hauraki regions to prevent child sexual abuse.
A total of 17 locals have put their names and faces to the campaign. They include a mayor, parents, Police, health workers, community leaders, teachers, farmers and principals.
The three month campaign will raise awareness about child sexual abuse and offer concrete strategies for prevention.
Billboards will be put up in Paeroa, Thames, Coromandel, Waihi, and Whitianga and posters of the 17 champions will be displayed around towns in the Hauraki and Coromandel regions. Weekly columns will also be in the Hauraki Herald and Coromandel FM will be playing champions’ messages.
“Just as road safety programs help keep children safer around roads. Child sexual abuse prevention can help keep children safer from sexual abuse. This campaign is about helping adults understand the easy steps they can take to help prevent sexual abuse” spokesperson Rachel Harrison said.
At the core of the campaign is a range of information to prevent sexual abuse in the ‘Get Info’ section of the www.capshauraki.co.nz. Strategies cover a range of situations including: Babysitting, new/partners – blended families, staying away from home, setting up a family safety plan and family touching rules.
Around one in three girls and one in six boys is sexually abused before they turn 16. “If we are really going to stop violence happening all of us need to get involved and do something to prevent it from happening in the first place” says Harrison.
“We invited local people to be part of this campaign and are absolutely delighted that 17 everyday people agreed to stand up and speak out,” she said.
“Having local people front the campaign sends a message that every person in a community can be part of reducing and preventing child sexual abuse.”
The Campaign has been developed by CAPS Hauraki with funding from the Ministry of Justice Primary Prevention of Sexual abuse Fund.
For more information please contact:
Rachel Harrison – CAPS Hauraki Right2Bsafe Campaign Project Leader 027 333 7547
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Dental models are three-dimensional reproductions of a patient’s teeth and gums, according to “Torres and Ehrlich Modern Dental Assisting.” Also called study casts, these models are valuable diagnostic tools for creating devices such as dentures or braces, or for making temporary crowns or mouth guards. Whatever the reason, making a permanent teeth model is easy to do, if you don’t mind having plaster in your mouth for a few minutes. You could do it yourself with a few pieces of equipment, or you could have your local dentist make a mold for you. It is painless and doesn’t take more than an hour to complete. With these models, the dentist can study a patient’s mouth at angles he or she cannot reach during a regular patient examination in the dental chair.
Things You’ll Need
- Alginate material, powder measure, water measure, medium-sized rubber bowl, beavertail-shaped wide-blade spatula
- Room-temperature water
- Sterile impression trays
- Disinfectant spray
- Moist paper towel
- Plaster, flexible rubber mixing bowl, metal spatula, water measure
- Bowl or tub
- Glass slab or tile
- Gypsum, water, laboratory knife
- Dental lathe, pumice
Steps to Create a Dental Model
- Mix the alginate impression material in the medium-sized rubber bowl (measure the amount of powder and water according to the manufacturer’s instructions) until it appears smooth and creamy. Wipe the prepared alginate material into the impression tray for the bottom arch of the mouth, and seat the tray on the patient’s bottom teeth until the material has set. It is very important not to use anything else but alginate in the mouth.
- Remove the bottom tray and then rinse, disinfect and wrap the impression in a slightly moist towel. Place the impression in a precaution bag, and take an impression of the upper arch of the mouth (picture 1).
- Measure 45 milliliters of water in a flexible rubber bowl and add 100 grams of dental plaster in steady increments. Allow the powder to settle into the water for about 30 seconds, and mix until the plaster is smooth and creamy in about 20 seconds. If you are taking your own impression instead of your dentist, you can use regular plaster that can be bought from any crafts supply store.
- Place the bowl of plaster mix on the vibrator (set to low or medium speed). Lightly press and rotate the bowl on the vibrator for no longer than two minutes. This is to vibrate the bowl so that air bubbles won’t form and ruin the cast. You can also shake the impression tray while pouring in the plaster, so that the air bubbles can escape.
Hold the first impression tray by the handle and place the edge of the handle’s base on the vibrator. Dip the metal spatula into the plaster mix, pick up a small increment and place it in the back teeth of the impression until the material flows and covers the entire arch. Place the remaining plaster mix in the bowl onto a glass slab or tile in the form of a mound about 2 inches by 2 inches by 1 inch thick. Then, gently invert the impression onto this mound (the base of the dental model), and repeat the process for the second impression tray.
- Wait 45 to 60 minutes to separate the impressions from the models. Soak the bases of the models in a bowl or tub of water for at least five minutes. Trim the bottom of the base, the back, the sides and the front of the model of the top teeth. Allow the teeth of the top- and bottom-arch models to touch as they naturally would in the mouth, and trim the back sides of these models so they are even. Move on to the model of the bottom teeth: Trim the bottom of the base of this model, as well as the sides and front. (When the bottom and top arches are touching each other, the models together should stand 3 inches tall.) Lastly, trim diagonal cuts on the back corners of the models, again with the teeth of the two arches touching as they naturally would in the mouth.
Mix gypsum and water together and fill any holes in the bases of the models. When it hardens, remove excess with a laboratory knife. Polish with a dental lathe and pumice.
Tips & Warnings
- A commercial rubber mold can be used to help pour the base of a dental model (the mound) onto the glass slab or tile.
- When placing the impression tray gently into the base, make sure the handle is parallel to the glass slab or tile to ensure the base will be uniformly thick.
- Keep the freshly taken impression of the patient’s teeth moist, or else it could dry out and become distorted.
- While trimming the bases of the dental models, be careful not to trim away the actual anatomy of the patient’s teeth and gums.
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|faux ivory wax tablets|
Used much like a modern PDA, wax tablets where common amongst educated people.
They where used for tax records, devotional stories and other daily business and note keeping purposes. While many of the wax tablets where simple boards with a hollow carved out and filled with wax, those with the means often had onces made of ivory with multiple pages and ornate covers. Most often the covers where of a religious nature, portraying saints or scenes from the Bible. A metal or bone stylus was usually used to write in the wax. In the thin blackened wax of the ivory tablets the stylus would penetrate through the wax leaving the writing appearing white from the exposed ivory on a black background of wax. Once a page was no longer of need the back of the stylus had a flat that would be used to "Erase" the writing by smoothing the wax back out so the page could be used again. My replicas are made of a cast resin that replicates ivory. The cover page is cast from a master I sculpted that portrays Saint George and the Dragon, it is not based of any existing original but is done in the basic style common to many existing ivory tablets. The individual pages are filled with a thin layer of blackened beeswax on one side (Two sided pages might be available in the future). I include a forged steel stylus. The pages can be bound via holes drilled in the edge of the page and tied together or via a leather or parchment hinge glued to one edge of the pages. A tooled leather case makes the tablet easy and convenient to carry and protects it. My replica is of a typical medieval size at 2in wide x 2 7/8in tall. While I typical make them with 4 pages and a cover they can be made with any number of pages.
Price is broken down by parts as you can choice how many pages you would like in yours, or even do like some originals and have fancy covers front and back.
$40 for the cover
$15per wax writing page
$75 for a tooled leather case
$100+ for custom tooled case Stylus and binding included
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Check out these glass floors. They can be found on the highest floors of really tall buildings, allowing visitors a bird's eye view of the surroundings below.
Although people with a phobia for heights should probably not stand on such glass floors.
Some people think that having just a panel of glass between you and the ground might be dangerous.
Some think that it is a novel idea, and allows for an interesting view.
What do you think? Would you stand on one of these glass floors?
Pictures 1 to 24 show glass floors in buildings from around the world. The other pictures show a glass pathway built around a mountain in China.
This article was contributed by the STOMP Team.
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For U.S. leadership, less is more
Maybe Russian President Vladimir Putin knows best.
When Putin announced he’s skipping the heads of state G-8 summit on May 18 to tend to his busy domestic agenda, it underscored what the group’s Western leaders don’t realize — or maybe won’t admit: The G-8 serves little purpose in today’s global environment. Russia’s inclusion, in fact, leaves its members with contradictory goals and perspectives.Continue Reading
In a world where every major power is preoccupied with a “busy domestic schedule,” effective global leadership is aspirational and unrealistic. In this environment, subglobal endeavors with like-minded partners are the best path forward.
Internationally, leaders must agree to disagree. On a subglobal level, they need to turn agreement into action. A G-7 in which all members are on the same page won’t solve the world’s most pressing problems. But at least it can get off the ground in addressing them.
The strategy was simple. In the past, whether it was the G-8, the International Monetary Fund or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, groups were all iterations of a G-1 world: The United States and its allies set the agenda and dominated forums, whether universal in membership or more exclusive. The thinking was, if a country with conflicting views were invited into a U.S.-led organization, its policies would bend to the institution’s mandate.
We saw Russia included in the G-8 as Western powers tried to shape its post-Soviet Union trajectory toward a free-market model. We saw China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. This approach was partially successful — at best.
But since the financial crisis, we’ve seen the opposite effect. Such countries are warping the utility of the institutions they joined. Russia’s presence in the G-8 is a spoiler. Developing countries’ role in the G-20 makes it a forum for conflict rather than coordination. And there seems little Washington can do to get these global institutions back on track.
For the first time since the aftermath of World War II, U.S.-led, global institutions cannot function effectively and comprehensively. That era has passed. The United States is no longer willing and able to lead global institutions.
Yet America remains the world’s sole superpower and the most important international actor. So Washington is faced with a critical decision: In the absence of effective U.S.-led global leadership, should the U.S. rely on a) global institutions that are not U.S.-led, or b) U.S.-led institutions that are subglobal?
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Fuel and power spending by UK households has soared by 12 percent from between 2006 and 2011 (Reuters)
Bloating fuel bills drained household finances across the country as Britons made financial cutbacks across all other spending just to keep their homes lit and warm, according to official figures.
Britain's households spent an average of £483.60 a week in 2011, reported the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a figure that has fallen every year since 2006 when it was £541.20.
Spending on fuel and power bills soared by 12 percent, pushed up by volatile energy prices in a period that saw the cost of a barrel of Brent crude oil hit its most expensive ever.
It was the only sub-category of household spending to see a rise.
UK household spending: The percentage difference in spending by sub-category between 2006 and 2011 (ONS/IBT)
- FOLLOW IBTIMES
The data comes from the ONS Family Spending 2012 report, which adjusts prices in accordance with 2011's RPI numbers.
In 2008 the financial crisis triggered a domestic recession, and the economy is still in a painful downturn as it struggles to recover.
Recession-weary consumers, fearful for their jobs and hit by a high cost of living as well as stagnant wage growth, held back on spending to shore themselves up against any unforeseen personal financial disasters.
Other expenditure items, which the ONS said includes non-consumption spending such as mortgage protection premiums and council tax, fell by just over 24 percent, possibly suggesting people are opting to go without insurance or were newly receiving state support for certain bills.
Household goods and services spending saw the second biggest drop at slightly under 24 percent, while clothing and footwear outgoings came in third with a 21 percent plunge.
Food and drink, education, and leisure spending were all cut back between 2006 and 2011.
This article is copyrighted by IBTimes.co.uk, the business news leader
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Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, spiritual head of Palestinian militant group Hamas, has been killed in an Israeli air strike.
Yassin had been returning from morning prayers at the mosque
He was targeted as he returned from a mosque in Gaza City at daybreak. Seven others were killed and many wounded.
The killing triggered unrest and calls for revenge from Palestinians, as tens of thousands took part in a funeral.
Hamas said Israel had "opened the gates of hell" - but the army said the Sheikh had been "personally responsible" for the killing of Israelis.
Security forces killed the Hamas leader in an air strike on his car in northern Gaza Strip, an army statement said.
Reports from the scene said Sheikh Yassin was being pushed in his wheelchair when he was directly hit by a missile.
Two bodyguards and one of Sheikh Yassin's sons were reported to be among those killed. At least 15 people were wounded.
At the funeral procession in Gaza City, mourners jostled to touch Sheikh Yassin's coffin, which was draped in a green Hamas flag.
Gunmen wearing Hamas headbands fired shots in the air.
"The battle is open and war between us and them is open," said senior Hamas leader Abdul Aziz al Rantissi. "Today they killed an Islamic symbol."
Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said Yassin had been behind a terror network in Gaza and was what he called "marked for death".
Grief and anger
After news of the killing broke crowds took to the streets in Gaza, denouncing Israel and calling for revenge.
ASK THE EXPERT
Put your question to Middle East analyst Rime Allaf, from the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, at 1500GMT
The protests quickly spread to other Palestinian areas, and clashes broke out between youths and Israeli soldiers.
A Palestinian journalist was killed by troops while covering a protest in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian sources say.
Three other protesters were reported to have been killed in separate incidents, but Israeli sources have not confirmed any of the deaths.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has declared three days of mourning.
The BBC's David Chazan in Gaza says the grief and anger is not limited to Hamas supporters, and further attacks and suicide bombings appear inevitable.
In the first reaction from the US, the State Department appealed for calm. A senior official urged all sides to show restraint.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the killing of an elderly man in a wheelchair was "unjustified" and "very unlikely to achieve its objective".
France also condemned the assassination, and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was "very, very bad news" for the Middle East peace process.
'Cycle of violence'
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei called the attack on Sheikh Yassin a "dangerous, cowardly act".
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the BBC: "This will add fuel to the fire, and the cycle of violence and counter-violence."
He said the only way to stop violence was to "end the occupation of Palestinian territories".
Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that even if a harsh response from Hamas was likely, the long-term effect of the killing will be to rein in militants "because their leaders will know that they will be destroyed".
Military sources told the BBC the attack on Sheikh Yassin was personally organised and directed by Mr Sharon.
At a cabinet meeting last week, formal authorisation was given to attack and kill specific targets Israel says were responsible for the twin suicide attack in the port of Ashdod on 14 March that killed 10 Israelis.
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the decision to target such a high-profile figure is a significant move and Israel is likely to be on high alert in expectation of a response from Hamas.
Israel has warned on many occasions that it would target the Hamas chief after the militant group killed scores of Israelis.
A few months ago, they narrowly missed him after firing on a house where he had been having lunch with fellow Hamas members a short while earlier.
Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the killing, barring Palestinians from entering the Jewish state.
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|Grassroots Twinschool study-visit Canada: New Brunswick & Ontario
Celebration of the completion of Year 1 of Grassroots Twinschools Project.
Meeting of all 20 participating Canadian and Dutch schools with teachers, staff and students.
Three days of study at different seminars, subject Internationalisation and ICT at school.
Cultural and educational exchange between Canada and The Netherlands.
Opportunity for schools to make plans of continuation of collaborative projects.
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Computer hacking in Russia cheap and widespread
Trail of Pentagon computer attack leads to Russia
March 5, 1999
MOSCOW (CNN) -- Pentagon sources say an investigation into a "coordinated, organized" attack from hackers on Pentagon computers has led to Russia, where a blossoming hacker culture has begun to thrive on cheap, widely available hacking software.
U.S. defense officials told lawmakers in a classified hearing last week that hackers were trying to break into the Pentagon's military computers, as often as 60 to 80 times a day. No sensitive information has been compromised, sources said.
Investigators have traced some of the attacks to Russia but could not be certain whether Russians were responsible or if people from another country were channeling their computer attacks through Russia, the Pentagon said.
Russian officials said "no comment" when CNN asked for a response. But the head of Russia's state communications committee, Alexander Krupnov, called hacking an international problem.
"Hackers are a headache for most advanced countries, especially in such a sensitive area like national security," Krupnov said. "As for Russian hackers, they're the best, I'm afraid."
Although Russia is not as computerized as many Western nations, its hacker culture is widespread.
Street peddlers sell software specifically made for hackers. One popular program, "Superhacker 99," helps hackers create their own viruses or generate credit card numbers. It sells for just a little more than $3.
Russian law enforcement is preparing to fight back, training its security personnel to deal with hackers.
In Washington, the Defense Department says it has stopped the mysterious hackers with newly developed computer systems. But some fear the hackers could have penetrated systems that could ultimately provide access to classified sites.
Preparing for World War Web
DefenseLINK - Official Web Site of the U.S. Department of Defense
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Read our privacy guidelines.
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There is a wide range of career options available when looking into the field of massage therapy. With an accredited education from hundreds of Massage Therapy Schools and Colleges in North America, students can prepare for a variety of careers in areas like Chinese medical massage, Myofascial release, aromatherapy massage, cranial sacral therapy, shiatsu, Myotherapy, sports massage, and much more.
Massage therapy is a form of natural healing that provides a number of therapeutic techniques for dealing with issues like physical and emotion conditions, illness and stress, diseases, injuries, circulation, and other ailments. With an accredited education in massage therapy you can prepare for a career in alternative healing that will allow you to start you own business, or work for a variety of institutions such as spas, healthcare facilities, salons, private homes, hospitals, clinics, sports facilities, and much more.
MORE ABOUT ACCREDITED MASSAGE THERAPY COURSES and DEGREE PROGRAMS
Aromatherapy massage is a form of massage therapy that involves the use of essential oils, which are highly concentrated in order to provide a variety of healing properties to the client. With an accredited education in aromatherapy massage students can learn to improve a variety of physical and emotion conditions. Aromatherapy massage is used in spas, clinics, private homes, salons, and other facilities, as well as by reflexology
, acupuncture, and other natural healing professionals.
Chinese Medical Massage
Chinese medical massage is also known as acupressure
and is used to block illness and stress by applying pressure to certain pressure points on the body. There are a number of accredited schools that offer coursework in anatomy, meridian pathways, physiology, circulatory systems, pressure application, chakra stimulation, and other related courses. With an education in Chinese medical massage you can train for a career in spas, healthcare facilities, salons, private homes, hospitals, and more.
Cranial Sacral Therapy
There are a number of educational programs that offer training in cranial sacral therapy; which is a form of massage used to manipulate the spinal column, scalp, and sacrum for a variety of reasons. Cranial sacral therapy is used by some natural healing
professionals including osteopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and more. Areas of study can include physiology, anatomy, symptomatology, meditation, psychology, perception training, and many other courses.
Massage Therapy Certification
Massage therapy certification can be obtained from a variety of educational programs allowing graduates to work in spas, clinics, sports facilities, hospitals, and other organizations. With an education available from various schools and colleges students can study anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, pathology, massage techniques, nutrition, and much more. There are a wide range of massage therapy techniques including Shiatsu, Swedish massage, prenatal massage, deep tissue, reflexology, and many other forms. Professionals in other areas of healing may choose to obtain certification in massage therapy such as reflexologists, chiropractors, and holistic nurses
. The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) provides national certification to those who are licensed.
Medical massage is used to treat a variety of conditions that have been diagnosed by physicians. With an accredited education you can learn to become a medical massage therapist and provide massage therapy in rehabilitation centers, hospitals, doctor's offices, and more. Certified medical massage programs will teach students to provide an assortment of massage therapies in order to alleviate symptoms due to illnesses, diseases, injuries, and other ailments.
There are various types of educational programs that offer students the opportunity to obtain the skills needed for a career in Myofascial release. Myofascial release is a type of massage therapy that increases circulation, relaxes and stimulates the muscles, and increases lymphatic drainage. Students can obtain certification by training in stretching techniques, neurology, kinesiology, physiology, and other relevant coursework.
Myotherapy is a type of therapy that focuses on treating, managing, and diagnosing musculoskeletal problems, relaxing muscles, alleviating pain, and improving circulation. The International Myotherapy Association (IMA) offers a membership to graduates of Myotherapy programs. With an accredited education students can train in subjects like cupping, massage, dry needling, joint mobilization, stretching, chiropractics
, and much more to become a Clinical Myotherapist.
Shiatsu is a form of hands on massage therapy that incorporates acupressure to stimulate energy channels which promotes self healing and relieves pain and stress. Students can obtain an accredited education from a number of schools and other educational facilities allowing them to work with a variety of people and ailments. Shiatsu massage therapists have the skills and knowledge to improve symptoms caused by headaches, muscle tension, chronic fatigue, insomnia, arthritis, depression, and many other physical and mental issues.
Somatic education is an approach that reduces stress, and improves the muscular system and physiological functioning. With an education in this area students will learn a variety of techniques including body-mind centering, eutony, continuum movement, sensory awareness, and other techniques. Somatic education is related to massage therapy but deals with more than the bones and muscles in the body. With a career in the massage therapy field you can obtain an education that teaches bodywork exercises, posture, proper movement, breathing, and other somatic training.
The purpose of sports massage is to flush toxins and waste from the body while calming the nervous system. Sports massage classes teach student ways to improve and speed up the healing process due to sports related injuries. Fitness instructors
and athletic coaches can obtain an education in sports massage in order to help them improve the athletic performance of their clients. Coursework may include physical therapy, range of motion, massage techniques, strength training, hydrotherapy, and more depending on your career goals.
LEARN MORE ABOUT ACCREDITED MASSAGE THERAPY SCHOOLS and COLLEGES
When looking to obtain the necessary training for your career of choice from any type of educational program, it is important to make sure they carry full accreditation. With agencies like the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA)
and others that are approved to accredit schools and colleges you can find the program for you.
DISCOVER THE TOP MASSAGE THERAPY SCHOOLS and COLLEGES LOCATED AT PETAP.orgChoose a program
from the above drop down menu to learn more about a career in massage therapy. Contact several schools and colleges to request more information about the program that interests you.
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The lecture will deal with priorities of processes, I/O processes, interactive processes and Real Time processes. How do you decide which process will get the CPU next? When does the process lose the CPU? How is a starvation (a condition in which a process never gets the CPU) avoided? How does the nice value of the process affect the share of the CPU it will get? And most important - how can all this happen at a constant complexity? This and more.
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Abyssal Leviathan: Tentalus
|First appearance||Skyward Sword (2011)|
Abyssal Leviathan: Tentalus (古代海獣 ダイダゴス Kodai Kaijū Daidagosu?, Ancient Marine Monster: Daidagos) is the boss of the Sandship, the fifth dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It resembles an anthropomorphic sea monster.
Right after Link inserts the Squid Carving into the lock and enters the control room, Tentalus attacks the ship, blocking the corridors with its tentacles. Link must use a Skyward Strike to sever these tentacles as he makes his way to the deck to face Tentalus. If Link gets too close to any wiggling tentacles, they will grab him and he must break free before they pull him out. If he is pulled out, Link will respawn in a nearby location. As Link progresses towards the ship's exterior, the lower levels will begin to flood with water. When Link reaches the outside, the door collapses behind him, and the battle begins.
Tentalus starts off by diving underwater and attacking Link by breaking through the deck from below with its tentacles. If one of the tentacles grabs Link, he must quickly break free or it will throw him off the ship. To draw Tentalus out, Link must destroy a number of tentacles with a horizontal Skyward Strike, a fully charged shot from the bow, or a bomb. Once enough tentacles have been destroyed, Tentalus will rise and assault Link directly by slamming its arms down on him. In order to stun the beast, an arrow must be shot into its enormous eye, causing Tentalus to fall upon the ship so that Link may strike it with his sword. While a proficient marksman can hit Tentalus as soon as it opens its eye, it is easiest for Link either just after Tentalus slams one of its arms down, or after Link severs one of the arms with a Skyward Strike. After taking enough damage, Tentalus will start destroying parts of the ship, and Link must rise to the higher part while avoiding rolling barrels to initiate the final phase of the battle.
In the final phase of the battle, Tentalus will attack Link with the tentacles on its head, which have grown mouths and attempt to bite him. Link must cut the attacking tentacles, which will quickly regenerate, then fire an arrow at Tentalus' eye when it stops to roar. Tentalus will fall over once again, and Link can attack as he did before. After taking enough damage in this manner, Tentalus will be defeated.
Tentalus is possibly a portmanteau of "tentacle", referring to its many appendages, and "Tantalus", an ancient Greek mythological figure who was doomed to live in a cave with a pool of water and a grape tree above him. Tantalus was unable to drink from the pool or eat from the tree as a form of eternal punishment for his wrongdoings.
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Those who haven’t taken a year or two of Sanskrit classes have trouble making sense of the diacritical marks – the accents and dots that modify the Roman letters to indicate the sounds of Sanskrit. It is fatiguing for non-experts to read more than a few words with the unfamiliar codes. That is why I made the difficult decision to display the Sanskrit with a purely Romanized transliteration with no diacriticals.
Let’s take the first part of the text of verse 28, Dharana 5, as an example. The standard encoding, for example that done by Dott. Marino Foliero and posted at the University of Goettingen’s site, presents the text in this way: āmūlāt kiranābhāsām. There are several dots not shown here: a dot under the n, called a retroflex n, and a dot under the m, called the anusvara. Jaideva Singh and others use this encoding exactly. John Hughes and Lakshmanjoo present it as ā mūlāt kiranābhāsām. And Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati spells it out phonetically as aamoolaat kiranaabhaasaam.
Any way you spell it, aamoolaat is a beautiful sound. It means, up from the root, up from the muladhara, the root chakra at the base of the spine. Kirana means “a ray of light, a sunbeam or moonbeam.”
It is not an accident that there are modern popular expressions along the lines of “Blowing sunshine up your ass.” An expression like that originates in sensation. People describe orgasm as inner fireworks, and the energy surges upward from the area around the genitals. There is a lot happening between the legs – many nerves in the area around the genitals and the perineum. Yogis, and lovers, develop the capacity to sense energy flows upward from “the base” all along the spine. The text is referring to experiences that are earthy, sensual, humorous, and intuitively understandable. We all know what an orgasm is, and we all want to get better at it. It is worthwhile to approach the Sanskrit in that mood. This text is very much about what it feels like to be in love, how to cherish that love so that it grows and becomes a primary tone of your interaction with the universe.
Eventually, at your own pace, you may want to get comfortable with Sanskrit words such as muladhara, because there is no substitute. Sanskrit is just fabulous when it comes to describing areas of the body. Listen to the sound of the word – mooolah.
Moola and then, dhara. “Root” doesn’t do it, nor does “First Chakra,” or perineum, or “base of the spine.” The muladhara is actually located in your magnetic subtle body, not the body of flesh; it vibrates in accord with the nerves and glands around the base of the spine, but it is not a physical organ or location.
In order to make the wonderfulness of the Sanskrit sounds more easily available, I have made up variations of the phonetic spelling (the transliteration) of the Sanskrit, dropped the diacritical marks, and most of the Portmanteaux words, (an English example would be motor + hotel = motel) have been expanded so that the root structure is more apparent.
I have to admit, I was tempted to leave long words as is. For example Sutra 50 refers to focusing on the ecstasy of music. It begins:
Sutra 46 is a meditation on becoming absorbed in the excited vibrant energy of sexual intercourse, and reads:
The Sanskrit here is absolutely hypnotic, caresses the nerves, and begs to be played with. Perhaps in some future elaboration of this text or in the audio versions we can let the Shakti speak for herself and tell us more.
The 1991 census of India reported 49,736 fluent speakers of Sanskrit out of a population nearing a billion – that is only a small fraction of one percent, even in the country of origin. In the United States, the percentage of fluent speakers is probably less, but the use of Sanskrit is on the rise, especially among yoga and meditation practitioners.
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Title by indexer. Three people either ascending or descending a steep rock face above a canoe pulled up riverside. A large rock outcropping visible in the foreground. The water appears to be frozen in places next to the land.
Title taken from front of photograph. Street view of three houses along Second Avenue in Seward, Alaska. The first house on the left has construction supplies lying in the front yard. 1906? Photographer: Sylvia Sexton. Original photograph size: 4...
Group portrait of small children and babies with three adults standing in front U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Tidal Station on the Fourth of July in Seward, Alaska. Girls in front row hold gun and flag. Sign on building reads: "U.S. Coast & Geodetic...
Three men and three ladies standing on wooden sidewalk in Seward, Alaska, with Mr. and Mrs. George Sexton's bulldog. George and Claudia (Mr. and Mrs. George) Sexton are on the right. 1908? Original size of photograph: 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".
Title taken from front. A harnessed reindeer at Seward, Alaska, with three men partially visible standing nearby. Also from front: "JET." 1908? Photographer: John E. Thwaites. Original size of photograph: 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".
Three men with huge bear hide strung up between poles on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. Tent stands in the background. 1905-1910? Photographer: Sylvia Sexton. Original size of photograph: 5/1/2" x 3 1/2".
Seward, Alaska waterfront as seen from the dock at the end of Fourth Avenue. Buildings and tents line the waterfront and three skiffs are anchored between the dock and the beach. 1905-1915. Original photograph size: 3 1/8" x 4".
Title taken from front. Wild Bill DeWitt's brown bear carcass posed with three dogs and a rifle near Seward, Alaska. Man is partially visible at right. ca. 1910. Original size of photograph: 6 1/4" x 4".
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Road accidents regularly rise as darkness falls
Government statistics show that October and November is the peak period for road accidents.
As summertime ends, leaves are falling, rain is falling more frequently and darkness is falling increasingly earlier in the evening. Is it more than a coincidence that the number of road accidents occurring at this time of year increases?
Department of Transport Road Safety statistics for 2005-09 show October and November having the highest number of personal injury road accidents in four out of the five years. In 2009, the number reported in November was up to 40% higher than other months.
Michelle Dorian, Director of Content for DriveWize (www.drive-wize.com), an online driver training course and risk assessment said "This time of year brings the worst combination of driving conditions as the weather changes and British Summer Time ends, yet motorists continue to drive as though they were still in the summer months.”
The DriveWize course raises awareness of vehicle safety and safe driving techniques, which includes amongst other good advice the following for driving in bad weather conditions:
Check your tyres – Check they are correctly inflated and meet the legal tread depth of 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters of the tread. Many manufacturers recommend changing at 2mm or 3mm as anything less could be dangerous in wet or icy conditions.
See and be seen - Keep your windscreen, windows and all lights clean.
Allow for greater stopping distances – On wet roads, stopping distances will be at least double those required for stopping on dry roads. At 30mph that would be up to 46 metres, the equivalent of 12 car lengths.
Contact EssentialSkillz on 0844 448 4414 or
DriveWize is an online Driver Risk Assessment and Training solution that enables organisations to uphold their legal duty of care to occupational road users. To find out more about DriveWize please visit www.drive-wize.com. DriveWize is one of a range of online training solutions available from EssentialSkillz who were established in 2001 and have offices in the UK and Ireland.
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“Most Israelis support an apartheid regime [mishtar apartheid] in Israel,” announced the lead headline in the October 23 issue of the left-liberal Hebrew daily Haaretz, Israel’s most internationally prestigious newspaper. “Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arab citizens,” was the translation of this headline in the same day’s English edition of the paper.
Any way you look at it, it’s shocking — though, as we shall see in a minute, not quite true. Nevertheless, “apartheid” and “discrimination” are two very different things. “Apartheid,” a word first used in its now accepted sense in Afrikaans in 1929, means the systematic segregation of one people, race or group from another, such as existed in South Africa until 1990 and in the American South, where it was commonly known as “Jim Crow,” until the early 1960s.“Discrimination” means the systematic favoring of one people, race or group over another, such as exists in numerous countries around the world today. Did the English Haaretz simply mistranslate the Hebrew Haaretz’s headline — or did it justifiably correct it?
Let’s look at the Haaretz survey. Here are some of its findings:
When a sample of Israeli Jews was asked whether there was “apartheid” (the question was posed in Hebrew, using that word) in Israel, 39% said there was “some,” 19% said there was “a lot,” 31% said there was “none” and 11% had no opinion. Asked whether Israeli Jews should be given “priority” over Israeli Arabs for government jobs, 59% said “yes” and 34% said “no.” Asked whether there was anti-Arab discrimination (aflaya) in the Israeli workplace, 50% agreed there was and 29% thought there wasn’t. Asked whether they would deny Arab citizens of Israel the right to vote, 59% said they would not, 33% said they would. Asked whether they would object to an Arab living in their building, 53% said they would not, 42% said they would. Asked whether they would object to Arab children being in their child’s class in school, 49% said they would not, 42% said they would.
Other questions in the survey had to do with attitudes toward Palestinians in the occupied territories, but the answers to these are more subject to different interpretations. What are the conclusions that can be drawn from those given here? Here are a few:
1) A majority of Israeli Jews is in favor of anti-Arab discrimination in some areas, such as government hiring. A majority is against it in other places, such as the ballot box.
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07 January 2010
Delilah was beautiful and sexy, and Samson fell for her. But Delilah was a Philistine – and Samson was an Israelite, a terrorist and a murderer.
The Philistines bullied Delilah to discover the secret of Samson’s strength. Eventually, Samson admitted to her that the secret lies in his hair, and she cut his locks. His power curtailed, Samson was captured by the Philistines, who stabbed out his eyes with their swords.
The bible holds Delilah accountable for Samson’s defeat. The bible brands Delilah as 'evil'.
Here are some thoughts:
Samson didn’t have to tell her his secret. He chose to tell her.
Perhaps Samson wanted to tell her – perhaps he was tired of a brutal existence. Perhaps he was over-confident in his strength.
Perhaps she loved him, and he didn’t love her enough in return.
Perhaps he was abusive towards her.
Perhaps the pressure on Delilah from the Philistines was unbearable.
Perhaps Delilah was desperate. Perhaps she was unhappy. Perhaps she lost control for just one moment.
And some questions:
Why is it that a woman with hardly any rights – and who is oppressed, perhaps beaten and raped, denied options – is expected to demonstrate the same level of responsibility, integrity and rationality – if not more – than her male counterparts?
Why is it that we like women to be beautiful, but we judge them more harshly when men fall for their beauty?
If you like poetry...
Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'Delilah' in 'The World's Wife' is a beautiful interpretation of Delilah's story.
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7 SHOWS THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Television has a clever way of shaping our society and molding our personal lives. Sometimes they can change your perspective with story lines and subtle life lessons, giving us way more than mere entertainment.
We have seen plenty of television shows come and go over time, but there are a few that often don’t get their due credit for the way they ultimately affected how we will watch TV for the rest of our days. Check out these 7 television shows that not only changed history, but changed our expectations of what great television is supposed to be.
From 1982 to 1993, Cheers gave us a cast that was easy to relate to. The show brought so many personalities into a perpetual pub situation, creating a dynamic that had chemistry like no other. From romance to hardship, Cheers helped us put our differences aside and realize that we can all have fun together when having a cold one.
2. The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years helped an entire generation of young boys and girls come into their own as budding adults. The show had a short run, but introduced the world to a brand of television show they hadn’t seen before. It placed attention on family and the collateral damage of growing up.
3. In Living Color
In five seasons, In Living Color got the most bang for their buck out of any television show in history. Spawning a ton of career talents like Jim Carey, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez, the Wayans Brothers’ creation helped make us laugh like we never had before. Clearly a turning point for pushing the comedy envelope on network television.
4. Full House
The Tanners brought viewers something unique and special with their unconventional family situation. In its eight seasons, Full House offered something for everyone; young girls coming into their own, single fathers and promiscuous bachelors growing up. All set in beautiful San Francisco. Who can forget when the music would chime in at the end of every episode just before we were about to hear the “lesson of the day?”
5. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Debuting in 1990 and spanning six years with 146 episodes, it only took the first few to realize we were watching a star being born. Whether or not Will Smith carried this show, the premise and script matched with the chemistry of the cast. If you can’t rap the intro song without missing a word, your 1990′s popular culture knowledge needs a tutoring session.
X-Files was like nothing we had ever seen. Two FBI agents, one a firm disbeliever with a scientific explanation for everything and the other with passion for the paranormal. Throw in some sexual tension and some scare-the-pants-off-of-you story lines, and you have an iconic television show.
Aside from the fact that all involved parties on Seinfeld had colossal success with the show, Larry David was able to give us his original brand of comedy in a way now one will soon forget. No one could have called that a show “about nothing” would make us laugh so hard for years and draw so many comparisons with our own day-to-day lives.
Powered by Facebook Comments
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[b-hebrew] Vav Nun Suffix
fournet.arnaud at wanadoo.fr
Sat Nov 20 04:42:06 EST 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: "Isaac Fried" <if at math.bu.edu>
To: "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud at wanadoo.fr>
Cc: "Pere Porta" <pporta7 at gmail.com>; "Hebrew List"
<b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 5:27 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Vav Nun Suffix
> I am sorry, but what you are saying appears to me to lie somewhere
> between the world of mythology and the realm of dream-work. Do you have
> even the remotest idea how people spoke "when they first moved out of
it's possible to make some tentative statements.
Are you sure they were actually "people" like us?
What reason do we have to think they were not just like us (minus
televisions and computers)?
My point of view is that they were exactly like us.
And I tend to think that Neanderthals were not that much different, whatever
some people say to push them into non-mankind.
> In any event, language developed spontaneously and by agreement (no books
> nor schools) by "simple" people and hence "primitive" languages like
> Hebrew must have (or have had) a very simple logical inner structure.
I really do not see any reason to think Hebrew is "primitive".
Even though the bulk of vocabulary of Ancient Hebrew may be small,
especially when compared to classical Arabic, this is probably caused by the
nature of the documentation, not a feature of the language per se.
> In my opinion Hebrew is basically a primeval language that has retained
> this fundamental "grammar": word = root + identifiers (personal
> pronouns). The identifiers were the sounds I and U.
There's nothing fundamental in that typology.
This is just something you decree.
In addition vocalic schemes amount to infixes, and infixes are a complex
> There is, and there can't be, anything "deeper".
> Isaac Fried, Boston university
"there can't be".
ok => decree
More information about the b-hebrew
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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/22/saving_the_euro/
Four illegal ways to sort out the Euro finance crisis
And one of them is about to be used
Comment Saving the euro isn't the easiest of things: solving the current problems actually would be quite easy, if expensive, except for all the laws and regulations that rule out all of the easy ways.
The basic problem is well explained here . Don't worry too much about what the Taylor Rule is: just accept that if you're going to have a well-functioning currency across an area then the interest rate derived from the Rule should be the same for all the parts of that area.
And Europe, the eurozone, simply fails this test. Interest rates were about right in the boom and are about right now for the eurozone as a whole. But they were waaaaay too low for the periphery (most especially Ireland and Spain) in the boom, and they're similarly way too high for Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland now. They're just fine and toasty for France and Germany though: which is the very problem that the currency area faces. Because the different areas are so out of whack, partly for structural reasons, partly because they're on different cycles of boom and bust, the necessarily single interest rate associated with a single currency just won't be right for some areas all of the time.
In the jargon, the question is: "is the eurozone an optimal currency area?" And this result from looking at the Taylor Rule (which is by no means the only such test that gives a negative result) tells us that the answer is "No". Thus the current eurozone should not be the current eurozone; many of the countries that are in it should not be in it.
Which brings us to our first possible solution for the current woes. Break up the euro. This is simple and would be a good economic solution in the medium to longer term. However, it would also be an entire nightmare in the short term and, yes, you've guessed it, would be illegal. For, as we know, the whole point about the European Union itself is "ever closer union" and so everything has been set up to make it easy enough to join the euro, but you're not actually allowed to leave once in.
That "not allowed" may well get severely tested before this is all over, but currently there is no legal mechanism for anyone to leave.
At the other end of the spectrum we could work on making the eurozone an optimal currency area. This would involve much closer economic union. No, not just more economic power going to the EU and up from the nation states. It would need substantial subsidy from the richer areas to the poorer. Yes, I know we all moan about how much we already pay but current spending is a rounding error compared to what would be needed. We'd be talking about the sort of sums that the south east of England sends to the north east, the sums that west Germany has been sending to the east: several percentage points of GDP. Germany is still, 20 years on, sending 2 per cent of GDP to the east. To really sort out Spain (and, possibly, Italy) we'd be talking about 3 to 5 per cent of the northern European economies being collected in taxes and sent south.
Leave aside the political difficulties of this: this again would be illegal as the current rules stand, both at the EU level and almost certainly in the German constitution as well.
German mum could sign off on the southern kids' credit cards
Then we've the two methods of dealing with the immediate problems. Rather than looking at the long-term reasons about how this all happened – how did the periphery get so screwed, etc – look instead at what we're going to do about the mountain of debt and imminent bankruptcy right now.
The first is to simply create the Mother of all CDOs. A CDO, you will recall, is the piling up of loans into one great big bond, whacking a guarantee on it, and then flogging it off. It caused a few problems when American mortgages were treated this way, you might remember. However, we could take some or all of the Greek, Portuguese etc debt, stick it all together in one girt big bond, whack an EU guarantee on it (the real guarantee would be Germany) and then sell it off. The interest that Greece etc would have to pay would fall in just the same way that if your parents signed for your 16-year-old self's credit card, you would get a better interest rate, and if they have to pay less interest then they're not quite bust.
This is attractive as a solution, as long as Germany doesn't then become AIG Financial Products and go titsup itself, but it's also illegal the way everything is set up at the moment.
The final way would certainly work. Currently, you can buy, say, Greek bonds at 50 to 70 per cent off. So, why doesn't the European Central Bank do this? Or the EFSF (the special fund set up to try and deal with these matters)? They could buy the debt at this discount, cancel the bit that is the discount and hey presto, Greece's debt burden falls by 50 to 70 per cent. They're saved! The people who lose money here are the banks selling that debt at a discount and they don't care because they know they've already lost that money: that's why they're selling it at that discount.
Yes, you've guessed it, this too is illegal. The ECB etc can only buy new Greek debt. They're not allowed to go into the secondary market, they can only buy in the primary.
So, the four major ways we could solve this are all illegal. Not that that really worries the EU, rules and laws are for the little people. Which is why in the announcement today we get this :
- 7. To improve the effectiveness of the EFSF and address contagion, we agree to increase the flexibility of the EFSF, allowing it to:
- intervene on the basis of a precautionary programme, with adequate conditionality;
- finance recapitalisation of financial institutions through loans to governments including in non-programme countries;
- intervene in the secondary markets on the basis of an ECB analysis recognising the existence of exceptional circumstances and a unanimous decision of the EFSF Member States.
Let's change the rules so we can opt for solution 4.
It's not actually a bad solution, and if it had been done six months ago would almost certainly have worked. But will it work now? Phone your local sovereign bond trading desk and ask them.
The rest of the draft agreement that has been leaked is an attempt to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. Might work, might not: for they've still not solved the basic underlying problem. The eurozone just isn't (and is unlikely to be for many decades to come) an optimal currency area and thus, if we look at economic reasoning rather than political, just shouldn't be trying to have a single currency. ®
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As the Mississippi River continues to rise, all eyes are on the levees and backwater levees which are being monitored around the clock.
Many wondering if they'll be topped.
A river crest is expected to top out at 57.5 feet on Thursday, which is just half a foot from where the level is now.
Representatives with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say so far everything is going as expected and those main levees are holding up to their design.
A very close eye is being kept on the Yazoo Backwater Levee which will be very close to being topped over with water; but at this point, that's not expected to happen.
Should the anticipated crest exceed expectations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assures they are prepared and want people to be mindful of just how long the high water will stick around.
"Once we hit the crest on the 19th, it's not over," said Henry Dulaney with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Water is going to be on the levee for another month and so everything that we've told people they need to be weary of that for another month or so, month, month and a half."
Once the water does finally recede, teams will begin to go out and assess the levees to pinpoint any weakened areas for repair or any areas which may need improvement.
Monday, May 20 2013 11:48 PM EDT2013-05-21 03:48:15 GMT
A woman has been arrested after she allegedly locked her four young daughters out of their home for days at a time.A witness told police that the four girls, ages 7, 5, 3 and 1, had been in the same dirtyMore >>
A woman has been arrested after she allegedly locked her four young daughters out of their home for days at a time.More >>
Monday, May 20 2013 8:21 PM EDT2013-05-21 00:21:00 GMT
Jackson Police are investigating a homicide in west Jackson Monday after a body was discovered inside a residence on Arbor Vista Boulevard. According to Officer Colendula Green with JPD, officers haveMore >>
Jackson police have released the identity of the man found dead in a west Jackson house Monday morning.More >>
Tuesday, May 21 2013 10:34 AM EDT2013-05-21 14:34:41 GMT
NOTE: Photos and videos will be added to this story later in the evening. The Walthall County Sheriffs Department along with The Humane Society of the United States are in the process of raiding a puppyMore >>
Among the dogs, many are dead, and skeletal remains were mixed with living animals in small, dark, filthy enclosures.More >>
Friday, May 17 2013 7:16 PM EDT2013-05-17 23:16:53 GMT
One person has died in a crash near Harrisonville, MO, Thursday evening. The crash happened on Missouri Highway 7 and Walker Road. It involved a car and a tractor-trailer. Harrisonville is in Cass County.More >>
Savannah Nash celebrated her 16th birthday last week. She died Thursday when her car slammed into a semi while she was texting during her first time driving by herself.More >>
Tuesday, May 21 2013 10:36 AM EDT2013-05-21 14:36:49 GMT
(RNN) – A day after long track tornadoes devastated Shawnee and Edmond, OK, another round has begun near Oklahoma City.KOCO broadcast a slow rotating cloud that slowly extended down towards the groundMore >>
Dozens of people have died after a second day of tornadoes twisted through Oklahoma, this time taking aim at the town of Moore, south of Oklahoma City.More >>
Tuesday, May 21 2013 1:08 PM EDT2013-05-21 17:08:29 GMT
Residents in tornado-stricken Moore, OK, await news on missing love ones Tuesday, a day after a massive tornado devastated the city, killing at least 51. Rescuers worked all night, with particular attentionMore >>
A medical examiner's office spokeswoman said 24 deceased victims from the Moore, OK, tornado had been transported to their Oklahoma City office. Seven of the dead were children.More >>
Monday, May 20 2013 9:37 PM EDT2013-05-21 01:37:07 GMT
A body discovered in Clinton Saturday night has led to a homicide investigation. Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart confirms a body was discovered, although few other details are known. The bodyMore >>
Clinton Police Department's Interim Chief Mike Warren said upon further investigation, it appears a disagreement over a woman may have led to the death of a Jackson man.
Monday, May 20 2013 2:26 PM EDT2013-05-20 18:26:49 GMT
Hinds County sheriff's deputies seized five pounds of marijuana and made two arrests as the result of a three-month investigation. Sheriff's office officials say the northeast Jackson investigation isMore >>
Hinds County sheriff's deputies seized five pounds of marijuana and made two arrests as the result of a three-month investigation.More >>
An Oregon girl abducted as a baby and missing for 18 years finally emerged in Dallas this week when her mother turned herself in to authorities, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Department. More >>
An Oregon girl abducted as a baby and missing for 18 years finally emerged in Dallas this week when her mother turned herself in to authorities, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Department.More >>
Monday, May 20 2013 12:10 PM EDT2013-05-20 16:10:06 GMT
(WMC-TV) - Arlington High School senior Taylor Flake thought she was making history when her classmates elected her to be the school's first African-American class president. "It's more than just me representingMore >>
Arlington High School senior Taylor Flake thought she was making history when her classmates elected her to be the school's first African-American class president.
So when the school started planning for the commencement, Flake said she was shocked to find out that she was not among those chosen to speak.More >>
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
715 South Jefferson Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39201
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Kal Shastri received his PhD in Physics from Columbia University in 1985. Dr. Shastri worked at AT&T Bell Laboratory from 1985 to 1995, working on physical layer circuits for optical communication applications. He also designed 2nd generation hardware accelerator micro-controllers and contributed to the system level design. He consulted with Bell Laboratory in 1996 and designed CMOS PLL (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor phase-locked loop) and clock distribution architecture for multiple systems. Dr. Shastri founded AANetcom in 1997. AANetcom was the first company to solve high speed electrical interconnect problems by commercializing multiple channel CMOS Serdes (Serializer/DeSerializer) in 1999. Dr. Shastri founded Lightwire (SiOptical) in 2002 with the goal of solving high speed optical interconnects using CMOS Photonics.
Journey of a Physicist in the Engineering World
Dr. Kal Shastri received his PhD in Elementary Particle Physics from Columbia University in 1985. He made several transitions in his career to be a successful serial entrepreneur in the engineering business, while still maintaining his technology roots. The talk will focus on his decision making process, experience, and the lessons learned during this time. The technical, entrepreneurial and business details will be fluidly integrated in describing Dr. Shastri’s journey through this time.
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BERLIN, April 4 (Xinhua) -- German police are investigating thediscovery of six metal plates being fixed on a stretch of railway in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen which nearly derailed a high-speed train, it was reported Sunday.
The plates, measured 3 centimeters thick and more than 30 centimeters long, were covered by blue garbage bags which were spotted Saturday morning by the driver of a passing ICE, standing for high speed train in Germany.
The driver pulled the emergency brake and although the train ran over the metal plates, it stayed on the rails.
Law enforcement authorities of Nordrhein Westfalen said that the plates, which were sandwiched on one rail with metal bolts, are usually applied in construction sites to bolster scaffold.
They said that it was unclear whether the incident was of terrorist nature, but that it could involve more than one criminalsince plates weighed 17.5 kilograms each and were fixed on a stretch with busy train traffic.
After the incident, the railway, which connects Berlin and Cologne, was closed temporarily and 85 trains were delayed. Enditem
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UN Declares Internet Access a Human Right. What Does This Really Mean?
The United Nations just sent out a report declaring that Internet access is a human right. It states that "the Internet has become a key means by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom and expression." The report was inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings, but also implicitly defends people like Julian Assange and other whistleblowers.
For some of us, it may seem like access to the Internet is a third-world concern, especially considering the focus on the recent Middle Eastern revolutions. In fact, it's super-common to hear someone wistfully say they wish they could just "unplug" from their overly connected lives. But just like there are food deserts in the United States, there are Internet deserts, too. Five to 10 percent of Americans can't access Internet that is fast enough to perform basic functions, and that surely affects their ability to get informed, educated, and employed.
So what does this declaration from the UN actually mean? The report concentrates on instituting policies protecting the right to assert oneself freely online, but is the UN pushing nations to provide more public WiFi access, as New York did this week? Or better facilities in libraries? It should. It's not enough for governments to refrain from actively denying people use of the Internet. They also have to help democratize its usage. The good news is that the 2010 Census data on Broadband usage (or lack thereof) is pushing the federal government to initiate more programs expanding access to rural areas.
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Most Malawians are being convicted to long prison sentences, denied bail and failing to appeal undeserved sentences due to ignorance of the law and court proceedings, the Ministry of Justice has said.
The remarks were made by justice officials after the ministry conducted a Legal Aid clinic at Ntchisi Prison on Friday.
The clinics are part of the on-going programme aimed at sensitising inmates and remandees on bail and appeal application mechanisms under the Democratic Governance Programme.
Senior State Advocate Innocent Kubwalo said the clinics have exposed lack of basic knowledge of the law by most Malawians particularly inmates.
"There are problems especially with remandees some of whom were convicted erroneously by the court but most do not know appeal proceedings. The court too is supposed to enlighten them on their rights but fails to do so," said Kubwalo.
He also said the clinics also exposed congestion in the prison, saying the situation could be eased by alternative sentencing such as community sentences or suspended sentences.
Democratic Governance Programme Activity Coordinator Patrick Kauya said ignorance of the law was a huge concern, adding the ministry was optimistic that the project will alleviate some of the challenges facing inmates.
"Magistrates are utilising alternative sentencing, for example, but there is always a need for prosecutors or lawyers to move them towards taking that route. That can only happen if the accused person knows his or her rights and the same applies to issues of bail, giving mitigation factors and the appeal process," said Kauya.
During the clinics some prisoners who were arrested on small crimes such as theft of a bicycle were discovered to be serving sentences as long as 36 months.
Another inmate Kamchacha Kalacha was sentenced for fighting with a friend and sentenced to 27 months imprisonment.
The clinics are being conducted throughout all the districts of the country.
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18 SOUTHERN BRANCH
Arithmetic. As treated in Southworth's Essentials of Arithmetic, Book II., Werner's Arithmetic Book III., or an equivalent.
Geography. A knowledge of the relative locations of principal nations and names and locations of their capitals and chief cities; a good knowledge of the principal river and mountain systems of the earth; the chief industries and products of the principle nations; a. minute knowledge of the United States, and particularly of Utah will be required. The advanced natural geography will furnish needful preparations.
English Grammar, Composition, Reading and Spelling. The applicant should be able to recognize and define all the parts of speech and to tell their respective varieties; to define nouns and pronouns and understand their properties, to compare adjectives and adverbs; to explain regular and irregular, transitive and intransitive verbs, to analyze participial, infinitive and prepositional phrases; and to explain and analyze easy sentences, simple, compound and complex.
The student's knowledge of the use of capital letters and punctuation marks and his ability to compose good sentenses will be tested by a short article to be written at the time of examination.
He must be prepared to read clearly and intelligently any selection in any Fifth Reader.
He must be able to spell the words found in the Modern Speller (the book in use in Utah.)
Physiology and Hygiene. Work equivalent to Krohn's Graded Lessons in Hygiene. The examination will cover in a general way the subjects of digestion, circulation, the muscles and respiration.
United States History. There will be required a general knowledge of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, including the cause of the Revolution and the outline of the most im-
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[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Why *are* the kernels monolithic?
- To: misc_(_at_)_openbsd_(_dot_)_org
- Subject: Re: Why *are* the kernels monolithic?
- From: Matt Provost <mprovost_(_at_)_termcap_(_dot_)_net>
- Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 20:55:19 -0700
- Mail-followup-to: misc_(_at_)_openbsd_(_dot_)_org
> Lesse, box with 16MB of RAM and an 8MB Flash it's booting from.
> I figure I just saved 25% of my flash and ~15% of my RAM. Untrivial.
> Esp without swap.
> But I ask a philosophy question, unless everyones got the blow torches
> warmed up and have moved from just propane to adding O2.
> The OS is capable of loadable kernel modules. And yet, I'd be
> pressed to name any.
> While I understand that many of the substructure devices would
> want to be in the kernel (mii, etc). But *do* we need live drivers
> for 15+ scsi controllers in RAM?
> While it's almost moot on a box with 4 or 8GB of RAM, BSD finds itself
> often called on in the embedded market. Fitting a computer into small
> spaces for low cost (where a second 4MB of RAM *is* a signif cost) is
> a great place for BSD. Now these folks aren't using GENERIC anyway,
> but not having to work for it is a plus.
> Now FreeBSD modularizes EVERY driver and it's a black art to get the
> kernel with the right modules ONLY and insane to skip building them
> in any fashion.
> Is there a place in between?
Well according to the Bible (Design and Implementation of 4.4 BSD) the
main reason for not doing it is security, which is an argument that
should have some fans in this mailing list.
"...allowing code to be loaded dynamically into the kernel raises many
security problems. Code running outside the kernel is limited in the
damage that it can do because it does not run in privileged mode, so
cannot directly access the hardware. The kernel runs with full
privilege and access to the hardware. Thus, if it loads a module that
contains a virus, it can inflict wide-ranging damage within the system.
Kernels can be loaded across the network from a central server; if the
kernel allowed dynamic loading of modules, they too could come across
the network, so there are numerous added points for malfeasance. An
important goal of adding dynamic-loading functionality to 4.4BSD is to
develop a scheme to verify the source of and lack of corruption in any
code before that code is permitted to be loaded and used."
I'm not a big fan of LKMs on FreeBSD, and on Linux their main purpose in
life seems to be to allow vendors to supply binary-only modules.
It would be pretty easy (I would think) to have a kernel build process
sign all its modules and compile the key into the kernel, so it would be
able to verify that any module that is to be loaded is genuine. However,
that wouldn't let you load modules that are built after the fact or that
come from third party sources (unless maybe they are present at
compile-time). As far as I know no project has addressed the security
issues addressed in the 4.4 book.
Visit your host, monkey.org
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Integrated Security for More Complete Endpoint Control
Network security has become critical for organizations of all sizes, given their legal and ethical obligations to protect information from intentional or accidental breaches of confidentiality, availability or integrity. Given these mandates, the reality remains that threats of exposure have increased dramatically with the ubiquitous use of the Internet and the explosion of technologies such as wireless connectivity and peer to peer file sharing. In the past, security solutions typically relied heavily on creating an environment protected along the perimeter with firewalls and other network intrusion systems. However, today’s organization must also look within to security efforts that include effective management and control of internal network endpoints, including desktops, laptops, servers and other connected devices.
Adding complexity, the distinct separation of security tasks and systems management tasks in today’s IT organization have also blurred. This is not only because of the need to integrate perimeter security with endpoint security in order to be more effective, but because the two areas have frequently become the responsibility of a single team of individuals slated with holistic IT management, of which security is but one component. “Security” has grown to include such classic systems management tasks as configuration management and patch management, making an integrated systems management and security approach ultimately not only a more encompassing solution, but an essential one; indeed, no small task.
The Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance is an easy-to-use, cost effective appliance-based complement to traditional software security packages that helps make an integrated, collaborative approach to security and systems management a reality. The K1000 enhances endpoint security by identifying and remediating vulnerabilities across end nodes. It also helps manage and enforce compliance with company policies across desktops, laptops and servers reducing the risk of malware, spyware and viruses compromising endpoints. In those instances when problems cannot automatically be fixed or an endpoint becomes compromised, the appliance can allow systems to be quarantined to help prevent them from infecting the rest of the network. The K1000 can also enable users to more easily plan, execute and report on the often complex task of patch management. In addition, Secure Browser capabilities further enhance proactive threat containment at their source, the browser application itself, using application virtualization technology. Through these capabilities the K1000 helps improve security and reduces the chances of downtime and lost or stolen data.
- Patch management helps provide comprehensive and reliable patching that is easy-to-use and affordable. It maintains one of the largest patch repositories available, with patches for Windows and Mac operating systems, as well as a wide range of application patches from vendors including Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Symantec and Mozilla. Simple administrator patch scheduling capabilities helps allows patch application with minimal user interruption.
- With the security audit and enforcement capabilities of the appliance are a number of pre-built policy settings for improving security. These include enforcing XP Firewall, IE security and anti-virus settings, disallowing the running of specified executables and quarantine capabilities. The K1000 also includes an easy-to-use wizard-based scripting capability that allows creation of custom security policies without needing to learn a scripting language.
- The security audit and enforcement capabilities of the appliance include both OVAL-based vulnerability scanning, and SCAP scanning and reporting for FDCC compliance. SCAP and OVAL scans are integrated with the entire range of K1000 functionality including computer inventory, patching, remote administration and software distribution. The K1000 helps provide the ability to scan individual nodes, groups of nodes or even all nodes on a network.
- While many endpoint security solutions focus on detection and remediation, the Secure Browser aims to proactively contain threats before they become a problem. The Secure Browser provides users with a virtual instance of an Internet browser application. This means the browser and any activity resulting from its use are separated from the endpoint, keeping the actual computer and operating system free of changes that would normally occur. Any changes made via browser activity, malicious or otherwise, are kept separate and can be quickly cleared with a single click.
- PC lockdown involves controlling endpoint systems to varying degrees, from removing local administrative rights to restricting internet browsing abilities. The K1000 provides an optimal PC lockdown solution by allowing IT teams to assign flexible user privileges so that security and end-user productivity can be maintained. The self-service software portal enables organizations to publish approved software titles, license keys, files and scripts that users can access to install applications or configure their systems whether or not they have local admin rights. An integrated service desk seamlessly merges with the system management console so that administrators can view employee requests regarding user priveleges and address them from a single location. The Secure Browser whitelists and blacklists limit what sites a user may visit and what processes the browser is permitted to run.
- The K1000 provides comprehensive, straightforward reporting across the spectrum of its capabilities. This helps to address compliance issues and provides regular systems management insights into operational status to ensure minimum system downtime and maximum security.
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Words That Inspire: We are the 1%
Photos courtesy of We Are the 1%: We Stand With the 99%
The Occupy Wall Street movement emerged in September 2011, touting the now-famous slogan, “We are the 99%.” The wealthiest one percent in the United States—those who make over $500,000 a year—owned 17.7 percent of the nation’s income in 2008, according to economist Paul Krugman. In this photo essay, the 1% share their messages of why they stand with the 99%.
Note to educators:
View the photo essay as a group, and have your students read aloud several of the signs. Direct your students to keep in mind what signs they find most powerful as they view them. Take extra time on two or three images to analyze them deeper. Ask your students what they notice about these signs; what else they are wondering; and what they think is the goal of the sign-bearer.
After viewing the photo essay, end your conversation with these questions:
- What makes a sign powerful? Let them draw on the examples they saw.
- If you had to create and hold a sign that represents you, what would that sign look like?
Now ask your students to think of something in their life that is important for other people to understand. You may agree on one theme as a class, or students may choose their own. Once students have crafted their messages (e.g. ‘I’m a girl, and I’m strong’ or ‘I’m a culture, not a Halloween costume’), they can create their individual signs. When everyone has finished making their signs, take a group photo to remind you of the unique identities within your group.
If your students choose individual themes, they may see unifying themes emerge as the group shares their signs with each other. Look around—maybe you and your students will discover something unanticipated or unexpected, something that shocks or wows you about a person you learn with every day!
- Curriculum & Resources: Occupy Wall Street
Resources from YES! Magazine and the New York Times Learning Network help your students understand the Occupy Wall Street movement.
- How Occupy is Transforming Our National Conversation
In just two months, the Occupy movement has begun to unseat an economic narrative that held sway for thirty years.
- Signs of the Times: The Best Protest Signs in Madison
In Madison, Wisconsin, a workers' uprising is resulting in some clever slogans.
- Immigrant Youth Movement Takes a Civil Rights Lesson
How young immigrant activists are learning from the the civil rights campaigners who came before them.
READ NEWSLETTER: Understanding Students with Dyslexia :: Doodling Boosts Learning
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Independent. Nonprofit. Subscriber-supported.
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| 0.947851
| 592
| 3.234375
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Ten years after the September 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden has been killed, and al- Qaeda has been diminished to a shell of its former self. But the anti-Western hate that drives the terror group is still echoed by some Muslim leaders:
As millions of Americans remembered the nearly 3,000 men, women and children killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his claims that the U.S. staged the attacks to justify overseas military aggression and profit from weapon sales.
“The Sept. 11 [attacks] were actually a planned game to provoke the human community’s sentiments and find an excuse for launching attack on Muslim regions and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, which led to the massacre of 1 million innocent people,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Many are tempted to shrug off Ahmadinejad’s genocidal, anti-Israel and anti-American rants as just bluster, even while his regime is on the brink of building a nuclear weapon. But he represents a lingering problem in the Muslim world that has yet to be resolved a decade after the 9/11 attacks. Bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism still have a prominent place in the political culture. And American intellectuals too often try to dismiss that rhetoric, or even explain it away as a legitimate response to U.S. or Israeli actions. This is the same atmosphere that spawned the hijackers, that protected bin Laden and that bolstered and funded al-Qaeda. Remembering 9/11 also means acknowledging the noxious beliefs that led to it – and taking them seriously.
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| 0.972875
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| 2.3125
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F. The South Pacific
The island States of the South Pacific are generally dependent on imported fossil fuels. Due to the high oil prices in the early 1980s and plentiful indigenous biomass resources (on the larger islands), there was considerable interest in installing biomass gasification units for electricity production and crop drying. Available resources include residues from over 600,000 ha of copra plantations and almost 44.5 million ha of forested areas (Sanday and Lloyd, 1991). The main impetus for the introduction of power gasifiers into the South Pacific region was the European Community-funded Lome II Pacific Region Energy Programme (PREP) in 1983/84. This proposed, and budgeted for, 17 gasifier projects, but finally, only two were installed, both considerably reduced in scale, capacity and cost relative to the original proposals. Other gasifier units were also installed privately in the region. Sanday and Lloyd (1991) of the Energy Studies Unit (ESU) at the University of the South Pacific carried out a survey and monitoring programme of all power and heat gasifiers. They found that of the 16 power gasifiers installed altogether, only one was known to be still operating satisfactorily, the rest having ceased operation. Similarly, for the “Waterwide” heat gasifiers installed in Papua New Guinea, only 20 out of 80 were still in use in January 1990, and most of the other documented heat gasifiers in this region were also expected to have shut down.
The operational problems were thought mainly to be due to flaws in original designs resulting in shortened plant lifetime. The systems installed experienced severe operational and design problems that should have been solved prior to installation in remote sites. To Sanday and Lloyd (1991, p. 17) it seemed
“that the Pacific Islands have been used as experimental stations for technologies that have not been proven in industrial countries”. (Furthermore,) “gasifiers have often quickly deteriorated resulting from mismanagement of operational and maintenance procedures, and the persisting hostile operational environment.”
Most of the manufacturers were external to the region, some based as far away as Europe. Therefore, there was a lack of spare parts and skilled technicians to carry out maintenance and repair work. This situation was exacerbated by the fact that five of the six manufacturers who supplied systems to the region in the last decade went out of business. There was also a lack of infrastructure support within the region as personnel trained in gasifier technology were extremely scarce, so ordinary mechanics and technicians were often called on to carry out repair work with limited success. Since the gasifier locations were scattered amongst different islands it was difficult and costly to locate maintenance services and they could not be promptly available. Information on the technology was limited and usually in the form of papers for academics and other technical personnel rather than being designed for potential end-users.
The availability of biomass feedstocks may have been over-estimated originally, and the quality these feedstocks and their erratic supplies resulted in intermittent gasifier operation with some systems being periodically shut down. The shortages due to lack of fuelwood supplies were “compounded by domestic cooking receiving priority, difficulties associated with land availability and ownership, and soil salinity problems when replanting programmes were used” (Sanday and Lloyd, 1991, p. x). Also, lacking were schemes to collect scattered fuel and the failure to implement tree replanting programmes. Furthermore, the “Waterwide” heat gasifiers experienced problems with smoke contamination affecting the quality of dried agricultural products and causing heavy financial losses; this was mainly due to improper use.
Repetitive breakdowns and lack of maintenance support meant gasifier operators usually preferred to choose diesel systems which had been proved to be relatively successful and user-friendly in such situations. Furthermore, initial capital costs of gasifiers were high and unable to compete with equivalent diesel sets at current diesel fuel prices. All the problems experienced appear to have discouraged further developments towards implementation of gasifier technology in the region. Most success was found with small wood and husk-fuelled gasifiers installed in Papua New Guinea for agro-drying applications. The single power gasifier that was still operational, a BECE unit in Vanuatu, connected with a school, was successful due to “the availability of wood fuels, the commitment of the operators and the school management and the fortune to have a very gifted and enthusiastic support staff as one of the teachers at the school.”
[Ukrainian] [English] [Russian]
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<urn:uuid:035b5a3a-e8c5-449c-aaaa-2c5ad29d360d>
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LESLIE: Wilson in Montana needs some help with a basement floor. What can we do for you?
WILSON: I have a concrete floor that’s got a crack in it that runs across the whole house. It’s not – the gap is not great; it’s not more than probably an eighth of an inch but …
WILSON: … it’s a pretty significant crack, so I wanted to have a – get a product that would fill that and also wondered about some kind of surface coating or decorative coating for the cement that would – that I could make to simulate rock or tile; preferably something I could do myself.
TOM: Well, first of all, the crack is not unusual – that’s very typical – and you’re probably going to seal that with a caulk but in terms of what to put over it, I would look at the epoxy floor-coating systems. QUIKRETE has a new one out now that comes in 60 different colors and 4 different types of color flakes, so you can have something that looks like your plain, old gray floor or it could look like a brick color, brown, blue – whatever color you want.
TOM: It’s pretty attractive and it’s easy to clean when it’s done.
LESLIE: Yeah. And you know what’s interesting? If you wanted to take the time and effort to sort of tape off different areas and almost make it look like it has seams, the way the flake looks – depending on the color that you choose of the floor finish – you can make it almost look like travertine, which is that marble with that specking in it. Or QUIKRETE just released – we saw this at The Builders Show in January – there was a very interesting QUIKRETE product that sort of does acid staining and it came in like a reddish, a gold tone and in like an olivey-green and when done on the interior and polished in the way that they have the interior finish, it looks beautiful. And depending on the age of the concrete, the sort of acid-etching material that’s within the product causes it to get these different depths and tones of the color. So, in almost – if your concrete is older, it looks better. And that’s a new product; it’s an acid-staining home kit that they have.
WILSON: Do they have directions for how you apply and color and so forth these things?
LESLIE: Absolutely. And they’re very easy to follow and this new acid-staining kit is just a two-step process and the epoxy kit is also the same.
WILSON: OK. And can you put a design in those things like, you know, make it look like stone or tile and that sort of thing?
LESLIE: With the acid-staining, you absolutely can and you can do the same with the epoxy kit as long as you take time to sort of tape things out and work in a methodical method, if you will, to sort of create these areas without trapping yourself in a corner and letting things dry.
WILSON: Uh-huh. OK. And would I just find these at just any home improvement store?
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. I would start with the QUIKRETE website, just because the acid-staining kit is a new product for them, so I’m not sure what the distribution is.
WILSON: OK. And is that just QUIKRETE.com, you think?
TOM: Yeah. It’s Q-U-I-K-R-E-T-E.com.
WILSON: Alrighty. Thanks very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Wilson. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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Dr Shah Hussain
Q: What does a mattifying gel do? My skin type is oily and acne-prone. Fatima, Karachi
A: A mattifying gel helps control and absorb excess oil, providing a matte finish to the skin. It also minimises the appearance of enlarged pores. It can be used in your daily routine instead of powder. It can also be used as a primer, especially since you have oily skin.
Q: I am in my early teens and want my skin to glow. How should I take care of my skin? Daniya, Lahore
A: Skin-care is extremely important at this age. Junk food, irregular sleep patterns, stress, exposure to the sun and pollution could take a toll on the skin, making it dull and lifeless. Acne, dandruff, hair loss, grey hair and even early wrinkles could occur due to improper care. You must have plenty of brightly coloured fruits and vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, oranges, cherries, plums, berries, red grapes, spinach and broccoli. These are high in antioxidants, especially vitamin C, E, beta carotene and selenium. Antioxidants reduce free radicals and protect the skin from oxidative damage, thus helping your skin remain youthful and glowing. You should drink six to eight glasses of water daily to stay hydrated. As far as skin-care is concerned, avoid experimenting with different soaps and shampoos. Use a mild face wash and do not go out without applying sunscreen with an SPF of 30. It is even better if you carry an umbrella. Do not use too much makeup as this could block your pores and increase whiteheads and blackheads. If you have dry skin, don't forget to apply a moisturiser on slightly moist skin. You could use a scrub once a week. A microdermabrasion treatment once in two months will also help cleanse the skin.
Q: I bathe every morning, but I find that by mid-afternoon I tend to have body odour, despite using deodorants. What can I do about this? Seema, Multan
A: Sweat itself does not smell, but it is a good breeding ground for the bacteria that naturally live on our skin. The bacteria break down sweat into fatty acids that produce the unpleasant odour. To avoid body odour, avoid wearing synthetic and tight-fitting clothes. Underarm hair provides a greater surface area for sweat to adhere to and gives the bacteria a fertile breeding ground. So, it is advisable to keep the underarms shaved. It is also essential to wash clothes thoroughly. Particularly clothing that comes into contact with sweaty areas. Use deodorants with aluminium or zinc, as these metals kill odour-causing bacteria. There are some people whose body odour is too strong and deodorants and perfumes don't work on them, while others have very sensitive skin that reacts to deodorants. In such cases, antibacterial soaps are a good option. Anti-fungal powder also helps absorb sweat. Non-fragrant anti-perspirants can also be used.
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About 4,000 people were evacuated from 22 rural communities surrounding the volcano, which suddenly roared back to life after remaining virtually silent since 1960.
A giant column of ash was carried over Argentina’s Patagonia region, and eventually was blown northward into the skies above the capital.
“Ash was dumped like a snowstorm... The city is covered in gray ash,” said Carlos Hidalgo, communications secretary for the worst-affected city of Bariloche.
Snow plows and earth-moving equipment was dispatched to clear the ash from city streets.
Beyond the significant ash threat, Puyehue showered pumice stones and other debris on villages up to three miles from the volcano.
Since Argentina is currently moving into the barren winter months, the ash’s full impact on agriculture won’t be known for months.
Vulcanologists said that Puyehue was showing signs of calming down late in the week.
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All state and local entities of government should be maintaining performance standards and actual measures of performance against those standards, according to the recent recommendations of the Center for Michigan. The Center further suggests that agencies should be funded at least in part on the basis of their results in achieving those standards.
In the transportation field, the Legislature and/or MDOT should work towards developing more comprehensive performance standards and measures of performance for all aspects of their operations. Such data is critical for many decisions, including determinations about in-house vs. outsourced design and maintenance work. Results should also be a factor in the level of funding provided to the department. For instance, some percentage of compensation for department employees should be based on achievement of departmentwide goals.
The Legislature and/or MDOT should also establish a system of performance standards and measures that would be required of local road agencies. These performance measurement requirements would include a number of ones recommended by the Michigan Asset Management Council. The Council’s and other performance standards and measures decided on by the Legislature and/or MDOT should be made mandatory for those agencies receiving MTF money. Local agency funding should then at least in part be based on the degree to which progress is made towards achieving goals. Goals might relate to topics such as pavement condition, accident levels, construction costs, and maintenance costs. Agencies with strong performance on key performance measures could receive bonus funding from a special fund of money within the county and the city MTF distribution funds.
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Most churches send out some sort of weekly or monthly email. And most of those emails aren’t opened or read. But did you know that there’s one simple thing you can do to ensure that your email is opened and read by more people? Write something good in your subject line.
A good email starts with a good subject.
Here are five tips, adapted from the book Advertising Headlines that Make You Rich. (Yes, the book is expensive, and yes, the book is worth it.)
- Draw attention to a problem or desire that people have. So instead of saying, “Financial Class on Thursday night,” say something like, “Learn how to save money for your dreams this Thursday.” That let’s people know that the information you’re communicating is about them, not just you.
- Show people how to avoid mistakes. Instead of “Small Group Leader Training next week,” say, “Avoid these Five Mistakes in Your Small Group.” Negative headlines (five mistakes, three dumb things, etc.) have better reader rates.
- Use comparisons. There’s a reason that spam emails say things like “you can have the body of a supermodel.” It’s because comparisons frame the discussion and speak to peoples desires. “Kids volunteers are like superheros” is better than “Thanks for serving.”
- Show people that something is easy. “It’s easy to become a student ministry volunteer” is much better than “New volunteer opportunities.” People need to know that they can do it.
Put a little more thought in your email subjects, and more people will connect with your message. For what it’s worth, these principles also apply to blog titles. That means I should have called this post “You’re Killing Your Emails with Terrible Subjects” or “Write Email Subjects Like Joel Osteen.”
If you want to learn more about this important subject, I partnered with Giving Rocket to release an eBook called “Why Nobody Reads Your Emails”. It’s full of a ton of coaching and ideas that will help you communicate with your church.
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Obama’s Bipartisan Stimulus Plan: Neither Stimulative Nor Bipartisan
Posted By Jennifer Rubin On January 29, 2009 @ 12:48 am In . Feature 01, Politics | 38 Comments
President Obama’s stimulus plan, we were told, was designed to jolt the economy, “save” or “create” jobs and garner bipartisan support. The bill which passed the House Wednesday by a 244-188 margin (attracting not a single Republican vote and losing eleven Democrats) does none of these things. Although the bill now goes to the Senate, the House vote is in a sense a stunning rebuke. As Minority Leader John Boehner said in a released statement: “”This was a bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill.”
So what happened?
The stimulus bill which passed is the handiwork of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She certainly did not constrain herself to the concept of a “stimulus” plan. The Wall Street Journal explained:
We’ve looked it over, and even we can’t quite believe it. There’s $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make “dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.” Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There’s another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren’t likely to help the economy immediately. As Peter Orszag, the President’s new budget director, told Congress a year ago, “even those [public works] that are ‘on the shelf’ generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy.
The Democrats were shamed into removing a couple of the more egregious items — hundreds of millions to reseed the National Mall lawn and to pay for contraceptives. But the contours of the bill remained essentially the same and largely untouched by Republican hands.
And not only Republicans complained that the bill’s failure to focus on short term “stimulus” spending (including so-called “shovel ready” infrastructure projects). MSM outlets observed that this was a bill with plenty of superfluous, non-stimulative spending. And the Congressional Budget Office explained that much of the money won’t be spent for eighteen months and that less than 10% of the money will be spent on those infrastructure projects. Independent economists and business leaders expressed doubts that the stimulus package would do much to alleviate unemployment or spur growth. Even economists such as Martin Feldstein who supported the concept of a stimulus bill declared that this one needed to be “thoroughly revised” to meet its stated goals.
As Jim Manzi explained:
So, if this is a “normal” length recession, the spending bill will have the classic problem that fiscal stimulus does-namely, it comes too late to do much good, but right on time to help stoke inflation and mis-allocation of resources that are suddenly in high demand as the economy enters a recovery. And if this is a very long-lasting recession, more like a U.S. 1930s Depression or Japan 1990s “lost decade”, then the problem is so long-lasting that we’re not really debating a stimulus bill, we’re debating a near-permanent shift of control of resources to the government, which doesn’t exactly have a sterling track record of success. Only if this is a “Goldilocks-length” recession of more than 1-2 years, but less than a decade (which is a pretty hard beast to find in modern American history) would this temporal spending pattern turn out to be wise.
Republicans desire for significant tax rate cuts and for defense spending in lieu of some of the domestic grab-bag of traditional liberal spending items went unheeded. By the weekend Republicans and conservative commentators were out in full force warning that the bill in its current form was unacceptable. And while President Obama paid a courtesy visit to the Hill, he did not address their fundamental concerns. By the end of the process, with virtually every fiscal conservative organization opposing the bill, Republicans lacked any reason to vote for it. So they didn’t — not a single one.
In short, the Pelosi bill amounts to “a wish list for the left wing of the Democratic Party,” as Manzi explained. He listed the items costing $10B or more:
$20.0 billion to increase the maximum benefit under the Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program (i.e., Food Stamps)
$18.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs
$20.4 billion for programs administered by the Department of health and Human Services
$20.0 billion to renovate elementary and secondary schools
$17.6 billion for Pell grants and other student financial assistance at post-secondary institutions
$29.1 billion for other elementary and secondary educational programs
$30.0 billion for highway construction
$13.1 billion for other transportation programs
$11.2 billion for housing assistance programs administered by HUD
$19.5 billion (minimum, could be higher, as per Title XIII) for education grants to states
$27.1 billion for increase unemployment benefits
$13.3 billion to increase health insurance for unemployed workers
$11.1 billion for “Other Unemployment Compensation”
$20.2 billion for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments to encourage providers to improve healthcare IT.
And all that “shovel ready” infrastructure did not really materialize. Larry Kudlow explains:
And the infrastructure bailout turns out to be vastly smaller than originally advertised. In the 1950s, Ike launched a $550 billion highway-building plan. Today’s stimulus package has $30 billion in highway-related projects, and perhaps another $40 billion way down the road for broadband and electric-grid-type developments.The public expected an infrastructure build-out that actually made some sense. That’s not what they’re getting.
The question remains why the new President, who had promised a truly bipartisan bill and warned about throwing money imprudently around, would have supported this approach. One theory is that he was run over by the Democratic steam train in the House and lacked the will or skill to pull Pelosi back. Another is that his high-minded rhetoric (seeking a more surgical approach to combating the recession and bipartisan support) was simply that — rhetoric.
Whatever the genesis of the bill, neither the contents or the final vote count was what many had anticipated just a week after President Obama swept into Washington. Its failure to attract any Republican support and the President’s refusal to incorporate (let alone take seriously) Republican policy ideas ends, for all intents and purposes, the bipartisan honeymoon. Republicans have found their voice and intend to stand on principle when the legislation offered is as lacking in merit as the stimulus bill.
In this case, the Republicans were in no mood to offer “cover” to the Democrats for a bad bill. They are not about to spare the Democrats from the responsibility for a bill which will expand the deficit (the total cost already surpasses $1 trillion with interest included) without substantially improving the short term economic outlook.
The bill now moves on to the Senate. President Obama had hoped to win eighty votes as a sign of his bipartisan support. That seems highly unlikely absent a complete reworking of the bill. As one advisor to a Senate Republican put it: “Obama is going to have to realize that tough choices come with governing, and right now his choice is to dispense with the bipartisan veneer he wants on this bill or start flexing muscles on Democrat leaders.”
The betting is that at the end of the legislative process we will have a bill that is not very stimulative nor bipartisan. But it will be extremely expensive. That, it seems, is what comes from “New Politics,” which come to think of it, isn’t new at all.
Report: Barack Obama’s Al Qaida initiative began months before his election
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama was working with Arab intermediaries to establish an unofficial dialogue with Al Qaida long before his election as the 44th U.S. president, according to a report in the upcoming weekly edition of
Al Qaida has offered what has been described as a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to the report. in the upcoming weekly edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com
Obama has deemed the U.S. reconciliation with the Muslim world, including Iran, as his main foreign policy goal, sources quoted in the report said. The president has been aided by several Persian Gulf Arab Muslims with ties to Al Qaida’s leadership in Pakistan, they said.
On his first day in office, Obama ordered the shutdown of the U.S. Navy prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which where 245 suspected Al Qaida members are detained.
“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy — we sometimes make mistakes — we have not been perfect,” Obama said.
The two presidential actions have already prompted calls for reconciliation by a range of leading Muslims. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called on the United States to launch a dialogue with Al Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden while the Al Qaida-aligned Gamiat Islamiya urged an immediate four-month ceasefire.
At this point, according to the report, Al Qaida appears divided over Obama.
“Addressing the Islamic world, Obama said we are in need of a new direction,” a statement by Gamiat leaders said. “So he is calling for adopting a new approach that differs to the blocked and irrational path that [former U.S. President George] Bush followed.”
The report also says Obama’s initiative has been endorsed by much of the U.S. intelligence community.
“The United States has imposed attrition on Al Qaida, disrupting its command, control and communications and isolating it,” George Friedman, a leading U.S. strategist and director of Stratfor, said in a Stratfor.com report.
“To avoid penetration by hostile intelligence services, Al Qaida has not recruited new cadres for its primary unit. This makes it very difficult to develop intelligence on Al Qaida, but it also makes it impossible for Al Qaida to replace its losses.”
Still, Saudi Arabia’ royalty fears any reconciliation between Al Qaida and the United States. The sources said Saudi King Abdullah worries that Obama’s effort would legitimize Al Qaida and bolster its status in the Gulf Arab kingdom.
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NEW YORK—The European Court of Human Rights has today vindicated the long search for justice of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was the victim nine years ago of a mistaken rendition operation by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
In a landmark ruling, the court offered the most comprehensive condemnation to date by any court of what it termed “torture” by the CIA during the campaign of extraordinary rendition of terrorism suspects launched after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
In addition to condemning El-Masri’s arbitrary arrest, detention and interrogation in 2004, the court also found that the so-called “capture shock” techniques used by CIA agents to prepare him for a rendition flight to Afghanistan involved degrading ill-treatment amounting to torture. The ruling further found that El-Masri’s allegations of mistreatment throughout the more than four months he remained in U.S. custody were “established beyond reasonable doubt.”
“This ruling is a personal victory for Khaled El-Masri, who has faced a wall of silence in the United States and Europe about what happened to him for nine years,” said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and lead lawyer for El-Masri.
“It is also the clearest possible indictment, by the world’s leading human rights tribunal, of the illegal abuses associated with the CIA’s post 9/11 campaign against al-Qaeda, and of European complicity in those abuses.”
After being seized on December 31, 2003 on Macedonia’s border and held for more than three weeks in the capital Skopje, El-Masri was handed over to a CIA team at the city’s airport. Unnamed CIA agents placed him in restraints for the rendition flight to Kabul, in an officially-standardized process used in other renditions to induce a state of “capture shock” in detainees that included stripping him, photographing him and forcefully inserting a tube in his anus.
El-Masri was held for four months in Kabul and interrogated at the infamous detention center known as the “Salt Pit”. He was flown back to Europe on May 28, and left on the side of a road in Albania; the CIA was aware of its mistake for some time before he was eventually released. El-Masri’s subsequent attempts to seek legal redress in Germany, the U.S. and in Macedonia were unsuccessful, leading him to file an application to the ECHR in September 2009.
In its ruling, the court held Macedonia responsible for El-Masri’s treatment over the whole period of his detention, in both Macedonia and in Afghanistan.
Following the court ruling, the Open Society Justice Initiative is urging the Macedonian government to immediately publicly accept the facts of El-Masri’s abduction and rendition, and to issue a full, high-level public apology to him, while immediately paying the individual damages ordered by the ECHR.
Given the role of the U.S. government, as well as the reported involvement of Germany intelligence operatives in El-Masri’s detention, as well as Macedonia’s previous refusal to properly investigate wrongdoing in this case, the Justice Initiative doubts Macedonia’s ability to conduct an effective investigation into the events that occurred.
We therefore believe that this will only be achieved by means of a high level international inquiry, constituted by Macedonia with the support of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is charged with implementing ECHR judgments.
“Macedonia has proven it is not prepared to investigate what happened to El-Masri properly,” said Goldston. “In view of the diplomatic pressures and internal political constraints involved, we believe that only a properly constituted, independent international inquiry will deliver an accurate and credible account of responsibility.”
Although the U.S. government is not subject to the court’s jurisdiction, we urge the U.S. government to respond to the judgment by belatedly admitting its role in El-Masri’s extraordinary rendition, while issuing a public apology at the highest level of government, and paying appropriate compensation.
We urge the German government to transmit to the U.S. authorities the arrest warrants previously issued on 31 January 2007 for 13 CIA operatives involved in the case, so that U.S. officials involved in his case can be tried in Germany. Germany must also clarify the extent of its knowledge of, and involvement in, El-Masri’s extraordinary rendition.
We also urge the German government to provide El-Masri with adequate medical and psychological care for trauma associated with his extraordinary rendition.
The Justice Initiative’s legal work on human rights abuses linked to counterterrorism and national security issues supports the Open Society Foundations’ broader efforts to strengthen and defence human rights around the world.
The Justice Initiative is currently involved in two additional cases at the ECHR over the CIA’s post-September 11 campaign of extraordinary renditions, which focus on the use of secret prisons in Romania and Poland to secretly detain and abuse Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national now on trial before a U.S. military commission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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Watch the full-length documentary video “Hackers in Wonderland”, a film focused on elite Computer Hackers in Britain. The video also goes into details about the history of hacking, and the different types of computer hackers including Black Hat and White Hat.
Most people don’t realize that the majority of hackers are white hat, which are good computer hackers that are legally hired to protect businesses by testing their security and then fix the vulnerabilities. This film helps illustrate how important the need for white hackers are, and that we should fix the problems with the holes in the computer systems.
“Hackers in Wonderland” 47minutes 40 seconds.
“We could wipe out Cyber Crime tomorrow, simply be legislating due diligence standards for corporations. We are allowing the Bill Gates’s of the world. We are allowing the Internet equipment manufacturers the computer manufacturers to sell equipment that is not good enough. Companies are stealing us blind by protecting their formulas, by not protecting their intellectual property, by not protecting your bank account, by not protecting you from identity theft.
–Robert D Steele
Open Source Solutions
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Seventy years ago on May 12, 1942, all people of Japanese ancestry, infant through adult, American citizen or Japanese immigrant denied citizenship, were removed from their homes in Hood River County and sent to internment camps scattered across the country.
Those from Hood River were first held in Pinedale, Calif., for two months, then relocated to the more permanent camp at Tule Lake.
Hood River’s Japanese had three options prior to evacuation: to entrust their belongings to neighbors for safekeeping, to sell their items for pennies on the dollar or to abandon their homes, orchards, businesses, cars, tractors, farm animals, pets and personal possessions. They were only allowed to take what they could carry onto the awaiting train.
Their fear of the unknown escalated while preparing for evacuation as rumors of death camps in Europe circulated. Where would they be taken? What awaited them at the end of the line? What would the climate and living conditions be like? How they would sustain themselves and their families?
They boarded an olive-green army train at the Hood River Railroad Station at 9 a.m. on the 12th of May, 1942. Long lines of Japanese, dressed in travel attire, crowded the loading area, children and baggage in tow. Armed guards oversaw the evacuation and were posted inside the train as it pulled away from the station.
In the early 1970s my Aunt Vienna Annala Van Loan showed me a treasure trove of letters and pictures she kept in a dusty cardboard box beneath her bed in Monmouth, Ore. She told me that after she passed away she was entrusting these letters to me for safekeeping. It would be my job to protect the feelings of the young writers who painstakingly penned these notes but also to share the details they innocently scribbled across the pages in pen and pencil.
I was touched by her trust but fearful of the responsibility she was bequeathing me. I had just begun work on the Berkeley Project, documenting the stories of the Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants to the U.S. and Hood River. I was not only a very new, but very white member of the Mid-Columbia Japanese American Citizen’s League due to my recent marriage to Philip Yasui.
The responsibility weighed heavily on my free spirit, fueled by the fire of injustice done to so many in World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, the battle for Civil Rights. And now I was face-to-face with an incredible injustice that happened at the hands of my neighbors to my friends and family in my own community of which I was painfully unaware.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Miss Vienna Annala, a longtime Oak Grove teacher, realized, as did the rest of the community, that the Japanese would be evacuated from Hood River in the immediate future. She put her teaching position in jeopardy prior to the evacuation by requesting of the superintendent of schools, Mr. L.B. Gibson, the right to allow her students to graduate if they completed their studies before evacuation.
His response gives insight into the push and pull of good people influenced by war hysteria. “Any Japanese children leaving between this date and the date of the closing of school shall be given evidence of their standing-high school diploma-eighth grade diploma-or certificate of Promotion. I have an understanding sympathy for the Japanese in our community. But I also have two nephews and many other young friends in the Orient. Whether they are still living and serving under the American Flag or have fallen into the hands of the Japanese I pray God they may be faring as well as the Hood River Japanese. I admit a feeling of both justice and sternness in this matter. Thank you. Sincerely, L.B. Gibson”
Miss Annala prepared her students in earnest for graduation or promotion throughout April and May. She also made a simple request of her students. They had already been writing to other classmates who had enlisted in the armed forces. Would the students of Japanese ancestry please write to her and their classmates about their journey, and they in turn would write back to them.
Fred Wakamatsu wrote on May 12, “This is the first time I ever rode on a train. At first it was all right, but later it’s not so good because I got tired of it. The chairs on the train don’t fold into a bed so it’s pretty hard to sleep. From Portland we went to Salem and from Salem to Eugene and from Eugene to Oak Ridge and then to Klamath Falls and then to Reading California. On the way we went through about 22 tunnels. We stopped at many places (I don’t see why). The most interesting places were when we went on a high bridge and look down below into the water. We used to open the window and look up ahead of the train and every time we see a tunnel we slam the window shut because there is so much smoke in the tunnel. Say to everyone in the room hello for me. I wish I was there right now. Yours Truly, Fred W.”
Chitose Akiyama May 16, 1942 Pinedale California
“ Dear Miss Annala: We got here safely Thursday about 8:50 after riding 2 days and 1 night. Certainly had a nice trip. Everybody was so nice to us. I want to thank you for your kindness and the nice address book again. It sure comes in handy now. We certainly appreciated your kindness. We all live in a barracks which is divided up into apartments. We all have a nice room with a bed, etc. This place holds about 5,000 people and now there are about 2000 here. We can’t hardly get lonesome with all the people around us. But I am lonesome for good ole Hood River. I guess theres no place better than home. I certainly miss you all back home too. The weather down here reminds me of the coast with cool breeze blowing. Probably soon it will get so hot, I won’t know what to do. We all sat ona shift. I guess I was just unlucky. I have 6:15 11:00 and 4:00. I missed my breakfast the other morning, couldn’t make it. I guess I’m a sleepy head-I probably will miss lots more, too. Sunaye is working now as a waitress. I have my job as a waitress too. But not working now. Waiting for another mess hall to open. Everybody is getting jobs as cooks, dishwashers, postman, etc. Many of the Hood River boys are working as 2nd cook, dishwasher or postman. There’s nothing much we really could do so any kind of job will at least keep us from getting too lazy. Don’t you think so? I know your busy so I won’t bother you too long today. But will drop you a line again. I know your busy, but if you have a few minutes to spare, drop me a line or two won’t you. I’d love to hear from back home again. We are sending our regards to you all, back home. Missing you, too. Hoping someday soon we will be seeing you all again. Sincerely Yours, Chitose Akiyama”
“Dear Miss Annala, We were all missing you teachers and the students. On the way here on a train we visited one train car to another. And there were about 22 cars. Then at Portland we hitched 5 dining cars that was the cars we eat in. And now here we heard there was hot weather but that night it poured down the rain. Soon as we got to Fresno we take one of these buses to Pinedale. Then it was about 9:00 o’clock After we got here we went to certain section. We took the section D-7 and Apartment 3. There is 5 apartments to each building. We did not get the neighbors near us that were from Oak Grove. I couldn’t write to you earlier because I had my envelope and paper in the big suitcase. We put them in certain baggage cars and in this camp there are people from all over California mostly in the southern part and some from Washington. How is everything coming along in Hood River? About every day we are playing softball with all these people from all these parts. That’s all for now, so I’ll be expecting a letter from you I hope. So long and lots of luck. Yours Truly, Mark Hasegawa”
“Dear Miss Annala, Well here I am in Pinedale. I wrote the other letter (postcard) on the train so I couldn’t write very well and I couldn’t give you my address. We are staying at barrack no C8-Apartment 1. There is so much houses in the place a little kid could get lost very easily. I played catch a little bit today but there is not much place to play catch. Nobody can go near the fence, if they go more than fifteen feet from the fence the guard might think we was trying to get away and will shoot. One boy he tried to get a ball near the fence and he got shot. The houses aren’t very big but they are about right for a family of 3 or 4. The beds are army type. We got some blankets too. Gee I sure wanted to go home when I got here. Even if there were plenty of friends here, I still want to be at home at school. We got to camp about 8:00 o’clock and we had to stay up till about 2:00 o’clock to get all of our suitcases and duffle bags. We stopped at a place I didn’t know and we got off there and from there we traveled five miles by a streamlined bus. On the train all the soldiers were very nice. They amused us by telling jokes and stories. They gave us apples and oranges and candy. The engineer wasn’t such a good one because every time we stop he about jerked us off our seat and every time he start and if anybody was standing up he would almost fall down. Well tell everybody in the whole room hello for me. And I’m lonesome for everybody there. Tell Mrs. Tweedale and Mrs. Thomas hello for me. Yours Truly Fred Wakamatsu p.s. Excuse all mistakes.”
May 16, 1942 “Dear Miss Annala: I arrived in Fresno, California last Thursday night. I wrote many letters already so I’m getting tired and I haven’t anything to write on I mean like tables and chairs. But I hope you can read this. I’m not writing very much now but will write more later. This camp is better than I thought it to be but the water isn’t so good. I sure miss Hood River though. All the ones over 18 years have to sign up for some kind of a job and I signed up as a waiter. Our kitchen isn’t finished yet so I won’t have to work until it’s finished. I have to work from 12:30 to 7:00 pm. I sure wish I had the Hood River water now. I’m writing on a bed so it’s sort of messy but I hope you can read it. Please write to me. Sincerely Yours, Joe Sumoge”
May 22, 1942, “Dear Miss Annala: I received your letter about 5 minutes ago. And I sure was glad for every day since I came. I have been waiting patiently for a letter. Today I heard from Frances Cody too. Yesterday was a very bad day for me because I fainted. I always did want to know how it felt to faint but I guess its just like a dream. Yesterday noon I only ate 2 slices of bread because I didn’t like what they served. And they started selling coupons for 2.50 to buy everything. When I went there there was a very long line and it was very hot. And it happens they were out of tickets. I was standing there waiting with a friend and Haruko. I felt dizzy so I decided to go back. Haruko started back with me and pretty soon I woke up in somebody elses barrack. They say I was all green and everything. Ever since I fainted everybody comes up to visit me. Yesterday morning I took my last shot of typhoid fever. Its puffed up red. I am wondering if we are going to stay here for the duration or not. Im not sure its rumors or what but some say we will go to Idaho. Owens Valley somewhere near Death Valley-and some say Arizona. But I am getting tired of roaming around. Hiro is looking sour this morning too. Mary is a waitress in our mess hall. Ted is a dish washer. I bet the dishes are sure clean! Ted goes to work at 2:30 AM. Mary works in the afternoon. Two ladies died already. One is from Hood River. Lots of people are sick too. Yesterday the weather was above 110 degrees. I sure hope everybody would write to me. I bet everybody can hardly wait till the 22nd. Hope it turns out to be a yard picnic. I could just picture everybody playing and enjoying themselves. I always did want to go to Summer School ever since my sister went. One thing I hate is California and its water. Cant drink water from last night and today because it is dirty. Well I must close. Sincerely yours, Uriye Kawachi p.s. Tell everyone there is no place like home (Everybody doesn’t think so)”
Then there were the poignant pleas (no names requested):
“Here is a little something to buy food to feed my dog. No one would take him so I am afraid he is running in the hills starving.”
“Here is a few dollars to buy flowers for my son’s grave Miss Annala. I am sorry to bother you.”
Many more notes from Tule Lake and Pinedale are tucked in the box, lying in wait for the day when I dust them off and share them in a meaningful way that honors the optimism, determination, true grit and hope scribbled in pencil on lined note paper by children torn from their homes, schools and community.
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You will be redirected to your destination in 15 seconds.
Tandus and Antron: Old Is Green
Often the greenest thing you can do is nothing. The Westminster High School in Adams County, Colorado has done exactly that for 35 years—with its carpet.
The recently announced Grand Prize winner of the Antron Carpet Fiber Sustainable Flooring Performance Award, which recognizes floorcoverings using Antron fiber that have continued to meet the needs of the client in both design and performance, comes as no surprise. Tandus has won every year since the award’s inception.
The school could not be more pleased. “The Powerbond at Westminster High School is now 35 years old and has outlasted its life expectancy,” said a facility representative. “Its performance has proven to be superior with daily abuse and daily cleaning.”
Invista, producers of Antron nylon, points out the environmental benefits of long-lasting carpets. “The carpet at Westminster High School shows just how long properly specified and maintained carpet can last, providing years of use and savings for institutions such as schools,” said Diane O’Sullivan, global marketing director, INVISTA Commercial Interiors. Replacing carpet less often can also reduce the need for replacement product and additional product manufacturing.
The Adams County School District will expand this year with the opening of the New Westminster High School, a 365,000 square-foot facility, and will include Powerbond installations in classrooms, media centers, hallways and offices. Let’s check back in 2045 and see how it’s doing.
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Stop It Now! Philadelphia
Stop It Now! Philadelphia was launched in September 2000 with a mass media campaign that included pro-bono billboards and posters. It was sponsored by the Joseph J. Peters Institute, a treatment provider and affiliate of the Philadelphia Health Management Corporations. Initially, Stop It Now! Philadelphia focused on three neighborhoods where intensive work was done with community leaders. In 2006 this focus was expanded to include all of Philadelphia and focused on training and community education with a variety of audiences.
JJPI created JJPI Prevention Services which continued the prevention efforts of the Stop It Now! program. They continue to provide training and materials that educate adults about how to recognize sexual behaviors directed towards children, and how to act to stop it before children are harmed.
Past Advisory Board/Collaborative Partners
- The City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services
- The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Children’s Trust Fund
- SCAN – Stop Child Abuse Now
- Women Organized Against Rape
- The Philadelphia Support Center for Child Advocates
- The Philadelphia Children’s Alliance
- The Family Support Line of Delaware County, PA
- The Children’s Crisis Treatment Center
- The North Philadelphia Human Services Corporation
- Harmelin Media
- ClearChannel Outdoor Communications
- The Ms Foundation for Women
- The US Department of Health and Human Service, Administration on Children, Youth and Families
- Fontes, Lisa Aronson, M. Cruz and J. Tabachnick, Views of Child Sexual Abuse in Two Cultural Communities: An Exploratory Study among African Americans and Latinos, Child Maltreatment, Vol. 6, No. 2, 103-117. 2001
- Random Digit Dial Survey 2001 Summary Report -- Other research as part of a baseline evaluation including Stakeholder, Leadership, and Advisory Committee Interviews, Frontline Workers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs, Treatment Provider Self-Disclosure Questions and a Print Media Analysis (full report available)
- Random Digit Dial Survey 2006 (full report available); Media Coverage: Child Sexual Abuse-How Did We Get Here; In city, 1 in 4 report child sexual abuse
Stop It Now! Philadelphia developed a mass media campaign with the theme of child's play. For example, the billboard for this campaign included the text: "When Hide & Seek is about fear and abuse, it's no game." This campaign, which also included billboards, radio, tv and transit posters, won a National Addy award.
Community Education & Training
Stop It Now! Philadelphia did extensive training of professionals and community members on child sexual abuse prevention, healthy sexual development of children and adolescents. Since 2002, they have been training frontline professionals for the City of Philadelphia on how to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse. They have also held workshops for foster parents, neighborhood groups and other community members.
Based on data from the 2001 survey of Frontline Workers, Stop It Now! Philadelphia collaborated with the city's Department of Human Services to provide needed training and support on child sexual abuse prevention for frontline workers. In just the year July 2005- June 2006, Stop It Now! Philadelphia provided 6 hours of training to 51 DHS Family Service Provider agencies and 623 mandated reporters.
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November 7, 2011
For a short time this past July, it looked as if media mogul Rupert Murdoch would go the way of Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya — another dictatorial strong man forced into a shameful exit by a popular uprising.
In my days as a reporter for a Murdoch-owned tabloid, that’s the good-versus-evil slant that I might have put on the story — the jowly, leering tyrant stooped like a vulture over the body of a saintly, murdered 13-year-old girl eagerly trading her blood for profits, an outraged nation mobilizing to demand truth and justice as the sordid details of the scandal spilled forth.
After all, stark contrast sells. Given numerous flavor choices, people are least likely to buy the most vanilla of them.
Months removed from its summertime peak, the News of the World drama holds leadership lessons for our profession regarding crisis and reputation management.
One would think that by now, every organization in the public eye would understand the value of airing its dirty laundry as soon as someone uncovers it.
Murdoch and company would have fared far better if News Corporation had fully expunged the practice of phone hacking several years ago. In 2007, a judge imprisoned a former News of the World correspondent and private investigator on the World payroll for illegally intercepting voice-mail messages.
Instead, News Corp. leaders kept quiet and hoped for the best. Four years later, during a slow Fourth of July news cycle, new allegations surfaced that the World had hacked the phone of a missing, murdered 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, in 2002, and possibly those of victims of 9/11.
The cost of these allegations?
In quick succession, News Corp. shuttered its profitable 168-year-old flagship newspaper, shelved a critical pay television acquisition, shed $5 from its stock price, and lost respected editors on both sides of the Atlantic. The chastened CEO apologized before Parliament, and ordered a $5 billion stock buy-back plan in an effort to shore up the company’s valuation.
Facing 35 privacy lawsuits, News Corp. has had to set aside more than $32 million for litigation costs. The authorities had arrested 15 people by Labor Day. Top British police and political officials have had to step down. Ongoing investigations threaten more damage amid lingering questions of who knew what and when.
In a flash, News Corp. joined a long list of businesses blinded by a hubris that allowed its leaders to believe the rules of issues management didn’t apply to them.
Murdoch “paid his penance in humble fashion,” said former Boston Herald political reporter Cosmo Macero, now a public affairs strategist. “But he won't get a second chance. Another similar incident, and he will have to relinquish control to non-family officers.”
When an enterprise’s only reputation is the reputation of its leader, bad news immediately becomes personalized. And when the leader’s reputation is cold and ruthless, there is little goodwill to use as defensive capital.
Murdoch’s enemies and critics are legion, thanks in large part to his politics and take-no-prisoners style. His enemies immediately seized on the World scandal with a gleeful sense of revenge.
The tabloid doesn’t have a brand in the United States, but Murdoch does. It wasn’t long before the American media had anchored the nine-year-old hacking claims around the neck of a chief executive they viewed as an evil puppeteer.
“Even before the scandal broke, I really hated the way Murdoch and [Fox News President] Roger Ailes impugned the reputation of an entire profession in order to raise the profile of Fox News,” said former Herald police reporter Dave Weber. “A significant segment of the general public already thinks the media does not tell the truth, thanks in large part to Murdoch’s own Fox News’ constant railing against the ‘mainstream media.’”
Another former Herald colleague, who has gone on to a successful career for top broadsheets, described News Corp. as “a perfect reflection of Murdoch’s values.”
The colleague, who asked to remain anonymous because of media policies at his current employer, said, “Murdoch took the heat personally because smart observers, including the British politicians on both sides who were part of his system until this summer, understand that the whole thing is Rupert-driven. Murdoch is the message.”
A more strategic, spirited defense would have noted that Murdoch has saved thousands of media jobs in the United States and elsewhere; that his investments have maintained a competitive and vigorous free press; and that his media properties have acted in the public interest to expose countless cases of corruption worldwide throughout the years. In fact, The Wall Street Journal, arguably the world’s best business paper, has flourished under News Corp.’s management.
But there wasn’t a defense of the company because there weren’t any defenders. Murdoch stood alone, and News Corp. paid the price for never building a brand beyond its boss.
Crises play out against the context of expectations. Understanding the dimensions in which you do business is an important success factor in public relations.
Most Americans have only a vague sense of the back-office machinations behind the news and information that they consume each day, but they generally expect a sense of fairness and decency. Even in a culture addicted to fame, gossip and infotainment, the idea of a journalist hacking into the phone records of crime victims and their families goes too far.
Such tactics are far less shocking among the London tabloids that unapologetically wage a vicious daily battle for scoops.
“The people of London, unlike Americans, lap it up with their chips and bitter beer,” said David Guarino, an ex-Herald political reporter who is now a partner at the strategic communications firm Melwood Global. “In the States, the most beloved papers are the traditional, journalistically conservative dailies. In England, the trashier the better.”
None of the Herald colleagues I spoke with ever recall being induced or compelled to cross a moral line.
“In my 28 years at the Herald, I’ve worked for a number of Murdoch editors,” said Herald celebrity columnist Laura Raposa. “[No one] ever asked us to do something like that. We’re still old-school news gatherers — sources, telephones, document-retrieval and leg work.”
It’s improbable that you will see Congress holding the leaders of the New York Times Company or the Washington Post Company accountable for shady reporting or cozy relationships with the powerful.
But in Britain, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of Parliament requires that News Corp. — a $62 billion media network with a powerful web of holdings in the United States, Europe, Australia, Asia and Latin America — explains its “culture, practices and ethics” and its relationship with “the public, police and politicians.”
Great public relations cannot change bad facts. Once people know all the facts, it will be interesting to see whether a media empire that is so adept at breaking reputations is willing to recast its own.
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By SSG Emily Anderson, WTC Stratcom
Yesterday, AW2 Soldier SFC Leroy A. Petry was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for heroism, by President Barack Obama at the White House.
“The service of Leroy Petry speaks to the very essence of America—that spirit that says, no matter how hard the journey, no matter how steep the climb, we don’t quit. We don’t give up,” President Obama said during the award ceremony.
Leroy Petry “showed that true heroes still exist and that they’re closer than you think,” President Obama added.
After months of rehabilitation and therapy, Petry, who joined the Army in September 1999, was able to continue his military career through Continuation on Active Duty (COAD)—an Army program offering many wounded, ill, and injured warriors who desire to continue their Army service, if approved, an opportunity to do so.
Soldiers who meet at least one of three requirements—have served 15-20 years of service, qualify in a critical skill or shortage military occupational specialty, or have a disability as a result of combat or terrorism—can apply to serve through the COAD program, regardless of the extent of their injuries or time in service.
Nearly 177 AW2 Soldiers who are severely wounded, ill, and injured continue to serve in the military. Maintaining these experienced Soldiers is a win-win situation for the Soldier because they are able to continue their military careers, and for the force because the Army benefits from these Soldiers’ skills, experiences, and expertise.
On May 26, 2008, Petry, a Ranger assisting in a daylight helicopter assault mission near Paktya, Afghanistan, and another Ranger, entered an outer courtyard to secure an inner area. Once the inside area was cleared, the two Rangers moved to secure the rest of the vicinity. Unknown to them, the Rangers moved into a section containing enemy fighters.
As the enemies fired upon them, Petry and another Ranger moved to find cover behind a chicken coop, the only available area to shield them.
Before reaching the chicken coop, Petry was wounded by one round, which went through both his legs and the other Ranger, was hit in the side by a separate round. Petry successfully moved the other Ranger out of enemy fire and immediately reported the situation.
When a third Ranger came to their assistance the enemy threw a grenade toward the three Rangers, wounding two of them. Shortly after the first, the enemy threw a second grenade. Realizing the threat, Petry risked his life to save the other Rangers by grabbing the live hand grenade and throwing it away from his fellow Rangers, removing the immediate threat to their lives.
Unfortunately, Petry sustained additional injuries when the grenade detonated shortly after he threw it. The explosion caused the loss of his right hand and multiple shrapnel pieces to penetrate his body.
Despite suffering numerous injuries, Petry remained calm, quickly placed a tourniquet on his right arm and continued to lead.
Once they were out of immediate danger and received medical attention, Petry continued to remain calm and informed the medics about his injuries, which helped them assist Petry with treatment.
“This is the stuff of which heroes are made. This is the strength, the devotion that makes our troops the pride of every American. And this is the reason that—like a Soldier named Leroy Petry— America doesn’t simply endure, we emerge from our trials, stronger, more confident, with our eyes fixed on the future,” said President Obama.
Petry plans to continue what he has been doing for the last 11 years. He will put on the uniform, lace up his boots, and serve his country. He plans to retire from the Army after many more years of service.
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martin jamieson's blog
I attended the discussion at the recent TMF concerning the move from traditional to agile testing. The consensus seemed to be that agile testing is equivalent to "Best Practice". Whether working on a traditional life cycle model or an agile life cycle model the testing needs to be "Risked Based". "Good Enough Testing" aims to assure a level of quality within the budgetary constraints of the project. This strategy is independent of the project life cycle model. Note that "Agile Testing" is not a methodology. This raises the question whether it is time to drop the phrase "Agile"?
The term “Test Driven Development” appears far more widely than the term “Requirements Driven Development”. However, I argue that it is the latter which should often be the driving force. That is, unless the project is extremely agile and requirements only emerge through trial and error. T.D.D. seems to be a great approach to unit testing, but for the higher level test phases I argue that we should be looking to elaborate test cases through the exploration of requirements and it is the linkage between successful tests and requirements which ultimately prove the worth of the development.
The discussions I attended shared a common theme:
James Lyndsay is offering free places on this course:
During a presentation at the TMF on 30/04/2008 this boldly provocative statement appeared on a slide: "Testing Equals Quality".
Many thanks to Colin Robb of HP for your hospitality yesterday evening, which furthered a good discussion at the end of the TMF.
The TPI model would have us believe that an understanding of test techniques is more important and valuable than subject matter knowledge. Is this true? Well, yes it is, but only if a structured approach is followed in system analysis and design. I think that one of the most valuable concepts I have come across in the field of software testing is the concept of equivalence classes. That is, of course, that if certain classes of data are equivalent then we can justify one test case per class, thus drastically reducing the number of test cases.
During a discussion on tester skill sets at the TMF on 30/04/2008 it struck me that there was a cord with Becker's theory on specific and general training: In his seminal article on investment in human capital, Becker (1962) defined completely general training as a human capital investment that raises a worker's productivity at other employers to the same extent as at the employer that provides the training. Similarly, completely specific training is defined as a human capital investment that increases productivity only at the employer that provides the training.
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Oxford Baroque is a vocal and instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of music from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. Whereas most groups performing similar programmes tend to bring together players and singers late on in the rehearsal process, Oxford Baroque is committed to forming a tight artistic bond between the core singers and players from the start, allowing them to construct a strong sense of gesture, central to the rhetoric required to best perform baroque music.
They are directed by Jeremy Summerly, conductor, musicologist, broadcaster, and recording producer. He is the founder-director of the Oxford Camerata and the Royal Academy Consort, and a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music.
For more see www.oxfordbaroque.com or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.
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You see, when Dylan was 6 years old he was diagnosed with Legg Calve Perthes Disease. Its a rare disease that occurs when the ball of the thighbone in the hip doesn't get enough blood, causing the bone to die. Over the years, Dylan has suffered from this painful and debilitating disease which eventually led to him having surgery in May 2009. He had to give up a lot. He was not able to play some of the sports that he desperately wanted to. He never knew when he was going to get up and have his leg lock up on him. He and his parents constantly had to think about his activity level and whether or not he was going to pay tomorrow for having a bit of fun today.
Today, Dylan's leg still gives him a twinge now and then, but for the most part he is completely healed. The surgery did its job and Dylan is your typical teenager.
But is he? I would like to share with you, as a guest post the entrance essay that Dylan wrote for the high school he is applying for. As part of the application process he had the choice of 3 different essay questions. The one he chose to respond to was "Describe a person that has been inspirational in your life". I hope you enjoy reading Dylan's essay as much as I did:
The person who has been most inspirational to me is my cousin Sugar Boy. Some people might find this surprising, due to the fact that Sugar Boy is only four years old. However, age does not matter when it comes to inspiring or motivating others, and my little cousin is a great example of this.
When he was just two years of age, Sugar Boy was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. From that moment on, his life was affected. His daily life changed from being a normal little boy, to having multiple daily finger pricks, restrictions on what he can and cannot eat and having someone constantly watching over him. From the beginning, he had to deal with both physical and emotional pain, but he made it through each and every day with a smile. I admire him greatly for being able to make it through the difficult times of being a diabetic.
Sugar Boy is now four years old and has an insulin pump, but still requires many pokes and prods each day. He requires a lot of extra care, and I try to help out whenever I can. I am always on alert for something unusual when I am around him. When I am with him, I feel like his life is in my hands. It is a very big feeling of responsibility.
Sugar Boy’s entire life, as well as our whole family, has been impacted by this horrible disease and we have all been inspired to help find a cure. There is a lot of research being done, and we continue to pray and participate in many events to raise money to help children like Sugar Boy, and to find a cure for this disease. Sugar Boy has inspired me to do as much as I can to help every person like him. He has taught me that it is possible to live with a disease like this and still have a good attitude. I believe that if a four year old can deal with the emotional and physical pain of having Type 1 Diabetes, I can overcome anything with the right attitude and the help of God, family and friends.
Along with inspiring me with his attitude, and inspiring my family to help find a cure for Diabetes, Sugar Boy has also taught me the greatest lesson of all: never lose hope. He is always a fun, rowdy little boy, despite his condition. Even though he is only four years old, he has been a big inspiration in my life. When times get hard and even when he is in pain, he pushes through and never gives up hope. He shows us all that with hope, we can get though anything.Typical teenager? I think not.
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced on Aug. 2 that it plans to delay construction of the $1-billion Green Line extension to Somerville and Medford until fall 2018 or as late as summer 2020.
It plans to purchase the required land and obtain permits before putting out a bid for design and construction to avoid loss of time and money—which happened to a commuter-rail project completed south of Boston in 2007. A day after the announcement, the city of Somerville circulated a petition stating that a four-year delay was unacceptable and demanded an accurate timeline for the project. It noted, “The state must do better than declare it is going to miss the legally mandated 2014 deadline for the extension.”
The authority was unable to estimate how much added cost would be incurred because of the delay. MassDOT and MBTA are considering staged construction of stations and other ways to accelerate project completion.
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Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press, August 24, 2009
"Wall Street may have discovered a way out from under the bad debt and risky mortgages that have clogged the financial markets. The would-be solution probably sounds familiar: It's a lot like what got banks in trouble in the first place.
"In recent months investment banks have been repackaging old mortgage securities and offering to sell them as new products, a plan that's nearly identical to the complicated investment packages at the heart of the market's collapse....
"In recent months, banks have tiptoed toward a possible solution, one in which the really good bonds get bundled with some not-quite-so-good bonds. Banks sweeten the deal for investors and, voila, the newly repackaged bonds receive AAA ratings, a stamp of approval that means they're the safest investment you can buy. 'You've now taken what was an A-rated security and made it eligible for AAA treatment,' said Richard Reilly, a partner with White & Case in New York."
Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Theo Francis and Ben Levisohn, Business Week, August 5, 2009
"In recent months such big banks as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) have rolled out newfangled corporate credit lines tied to complicated and volatile derivatives. Others, including Wells Fargo (WFC) and Fifth Third (FITB), are offering payday-loan programs aimed at cash-strapped consumers. Still others are marketing new, potentially risky 'structured notes' to small investors....
"Some of Wall Street's latest innovations give reason for pause. Consider a trend in business loans. Lenders typically tie corporate credit lines to short-term interest rates. But now Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and BofA, among others, are linking credit lines both to short-term rates and credit default swaps (CDSs), the volatile and complicated derivatives that are supposed to act as "insurance" by paying off the owners if a company defaults on its debt. JPMorgan, BofA, and Citi declined to comment.
"In these new arrangements, when the price of the CDS rises—generally a sign the market thinks the company's health is deteriorating—the cost of the loan increases, too. The result: The weaker the company, the higher the interest rates it must pay, which hurts the company further.
"The lenders stress that the new products give them extra protection against default. But for companies, the opposite may be true. Managers now must deal with two layers of volatility—both short-term interest rates and credit default swaps, whose prices can spike for reasons outside their control."
Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press, June 15, 2009
"The value of loans held by the 21 largest institutions getting support from the government's $700 billion bailout fund fell in April, the fifth decline in six months....
"The big banks included in Treasury's monthly loan survey account for more than half of the net loans outstanding at financial institutions."
, Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2009
Lending at the biggest U.S. banks has fallen more sharply than realized, despite government efforts to pump billions of dollars into the financial sector.
According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data, the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid made or refinanced 23% less in new loans in February, the latest available data, than in October, the month the Treasury kicked off the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The total dollar amount of new loans declined in three of the four months the government has reported this data.
Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press, February 17, 2009
"The 20 largest banks that received government rescue funds slightly reduced their lending to consumers and businesses in the last three months of 2008, the government said Tuesday.
"The Treasury Department said the banks reduced their mortgage and business loans by a median of 1 percent each, while credit card lending rose by a median of 2 percent. The median is the point halfway between the banks that lent the most and those that lent the least.
Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press, December 22, 2008
"'We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, "Here's how we're doing it," said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. 'We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to.'
"The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest? None of the banks provided specific answers....
"No bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money. 'We're choosing not to disclose that,' said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion....Heine, the New York Mellon Corp. spokesman who said he wouldn't share spending specifics, added: 'I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those details.'"
Mike Meyers, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 2, 2008
"The nation indeed may be facing a financial crisis, with large institutions failing in the wake of multibillion debts, but most bank-lending to business customers actually has been on the rise....
"'The story goes that they [banks] are holding on to the money or putting it into Treasury bills,' said Lawrence Christiano, a Northwestern University economist and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. 'That seems to fly directly into the face of the evidence that's out there.'
"It's a puzzle that's getting little attention, even as hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are devoted to fixing a problem that seems belied by government figures. 'Their own data seems to contradict their position,' said V.V. Chari. 'It would be valuable for them to explain what they're talking about.'
"The $700 billion taxpayer bailout of large players in the financial system reminds Chari of the buildup to the Iraq war. 'The analogies with the war in Iraq are more than disturbing,' Chari said. 'We're again hearing things like: "We know things you don't know. Trust us."
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Choosing the right university and course is a big decision. If you know you have Dyslexia it is advisable that you investigate the support facilities at the university of your choice, in order to make sure provisions can be put in place to support your Dyslexia. The university will have an disability team and you should contact them to advise on procedure and facilities to support your time at that university.
A few guidelines for questions to ask the university student support team are:
- What facilities do you offer to Dyslexic students?
- What is the timescale of registering yourselves as Dyslexic to receiving support?
- What is the policy for student support?
- What support will I receive?
- Who can I ask for help if I am unsure of what to do?
If you are a current university student and suspect that you may have Dyslexia, don't worry - contact your disability team at once and they will give you advice. Alternatively, contact us to discuss what to do next on our Freephone: 0800 077 8763. Remember, each university will have a slightly different procedure to the next.
If you have accepted a place at university and know you have Dyslexia, it is advisable to tell the disability team at your chosen university as soon as possible. Remember, if you don't declare it, the university won't know and can't provide you with the available support.
If you think you may be Dyslexic and are at university, we would advise speaking to the disability team who will be able to advise you on what to do. For an example of screening tool see our digital screening tool. A screening can suggest if you have characteristics associated with Dyslexia and is one of the first steps in identifying Dyslexia.
At higher education level, an assessment for Dyslexia should be carried out by an Educational Psychologist or practitioner who has 'Approved Teacher Status' who specialises in post-16 assessments for Dyslexia. Your university should be able to put you in contact with an assessor, alternatively, feel free to contact us for impartial advice on dyslexia assessments and what you need to know.
An assessment will cost between £300 - £400 and you may be asked to make a contribution towards the cost. Please note this contribution varies between universities, so do remember to check first with your university.
If you find you have to pay for the assessment yourself, remember to ask if the university has a bursary scheme or can help towards the cost. For more information, please see our funding section.
If you are in a position where you have had your Dyslexia confirmed by an assessment, you can apply for support through the government’s Disabled Students’ Allowance scheme which will provide for personal support and equipment to aid you through your studies where your disability is affecting your education. For more information on DSA procedures, please visit the DSA website.
Your DSA application form will need to be submitted to the SLC. The Student Loans Company administers government-funded loans and grants to students throughout the United Kingdom. They are responsible, in partnership with Local Authorities in England and Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Education and Library boards in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Institutions and HM Revenue & Customs, for student support delivery in the UK. It can take a number of weeks for your application to be processed, so it is advisable to fill out and send off your application as soon as possible. Here is a link to the SLC website.
In England, your DSA application form will need to be submitted through Student Finance England; in Scotland or Wales there is a separate application form. The process takes many weeks, so it is advisable to submit your application as soon as possible. Remember you will need your university to stamp and sign your DSA1 application if you are a part-time undergraduate or postgraduate student.
Allied health professionals such as nurses, midwives, doctors or dentists should make application for a NHS-funded bursary. Applications are available from the NHS Student Bursaries website or more information is available in the following PDF: Download .PDF
If your application is successful, Student Finance England will contact you and ask you to arrange a Needs Assessment – this is a meeting with a specialist who can draw up a set of recommendations for you, based on your Dyslexia Assessment.
A Needs Assessment is the next step in receiving support and takes the form of a meeting with a Needs Assessor. The assessor will identify within your difficulties (as outlined in your educational psychology assessment) possible solutions in the form of technological interventions to assist you in your studies.
This process can take a number of weeks so if you are in a scenario where your course has commenced and you haven't yet received your support, it is advisable to speak to your university which may be able to provide interim measures of support. The best thing to do in all cases is ask your university’s disability team.
One to One
One valuable aspect that DSA funding provides is one-to-one support, which in most cases takes the form of regular sessions with Support Tutors who will aid you to get the best out of your work. For examples of what you can expect from one-to-one support, please have a look at some of our case studies.
One-to-one support includes:-
- Helping you to understand your own specific learning difficulties and how they may affect your studies.
- Introduction to techniques and strategies that will improve your ability to study more effectively and independently.
- Guidance on how to develop and utilise your learning strengths to help you study more efficiently.
Amanuensis - Helper/Translator
If part of your Dyslexia includes difficulty with spelling, slow copying speed when writing and difficulty translating ideas or thoughts into a written document, then an Amanuensis could be of benefit. An Amanuensis, in some cases referred to as a scribe, would be beneficial to Dyslexic students who have difficulty with written responses.
A few things to consider if you choose to access help from an Amanuensis: The Amanuensis should be suitably qualified to undertake the role that you require from them and have a full understanding of Dyslexia. It is recommended that time be allocated to allow practice sessions with the Amanuensis in order to familiarise with this method of working.
There is a large amount of technology which can assist you in your studies that can help with different elements of Dyslexia. For instance, the phonic spellchecker will support a student's spellchecking by providing word selection based on sound and not letter composition; therefore providing more accurate spelling alternatives.
In research strategies, a text reader can help students to check the meaning of words quickly without using paper-based dictionaries, which can be time consuming. A text reader can also scan text and read out loud from a page to help with an understanding of the written work as a whole.
There is a wide range of technologies that can assist you with your dyslexia. The Needs Assessment process will pin point the best solutions for you.
In some cases a Dyslexia Assessor makes recommendations for adjustments to the usual exam conditions in their assessment, based on the person’s Dyslexia. This often takes the form of additional time during examinations. If you find you are in a situation where you're really struggling with examinations, it is advised to discuss additional exam concessions with your university’s disability team.
The transition from university into employment can be daunting and, if you are Dyslexic, there are a number of issues which may concern you.
A key issue is whether or not to disclose your Dyslexia as many people are fearful about highlighting anything they feel could further disadvantage them in their application. However, if it is not clear in your application that you are Dyslexic, your application may be viewed less favourably to other applications. This may be due to issues such as the structure of your personal statement or minor spelling and grammatical errors.
Job adverts that have two tick symbol indicates the employer operates a policy of positive discrimination in favour of candidates who declare a disability or specific learning difficulty such as Dyslexia. As long as a candidate meets the basic selection criteria, they will automatically be offered an interview so that they are able to present themselves in person and demonstrate what they can offer.
Video Case Study
Choosing the right University and course is a big decision. If you know you have dyslexia then its advisable that you investigate your choice universities support facilities in order to make sure provisions will be put in place to support your Dyslexia.
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No. 14, February 2006
This issue highlights just some of the work in macroeconomics and health that is ongoing in a number of countries in all WHO regions. More information from other countries can be found on the macroeconomics and health website at www.who.int/macrohealth.
NATIONAL MACROECONOMICS AND HEALTH REPORTS
In recent months, a number of countries released national macroeconomics and health reports, the culmination of CMH follow-up work since 2001. The focus of these reports, and how they will be used, vary from country to country. In countries such as Ghana and India, the result has been a costed health plan that takes into account selected health-related sectors. In others, such as the 15 member states of the Caribbean Community, China, Mexico, and Sri Lanka, a targeted research agenda has been commissioned that is building the evidence for national priority-setting, advocating with policy-makers and future planning.
Technical Advisory Group in Cambodia examines how to increase and improve health resources
The Cambodian follow-up to the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health has been a process of collaboration between key ministries in the Royal Government of Cambodia, civil society organisations, and international partners. A Macroeconomics and Health Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was formed drawing on staff from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Economy and Finance and Ministry of Planning. This group has led a series of activities examining the quality and quantity of financing for the public health sector, including a National Research Symposium that brought together civil society organisations, international partners and management from the three ministries. Through this process, the TAG has authored a joint discussion paper, Financing the Cambodian public health sector. As Cambodia already devotes a large percentage of its national budget to health, this paper brings the institutional and technical expertise of the three ministries to bear upon the question of how the public health sector may better benefit from resources that are currently available, while at the same time examining possibilities for increased resource flows.
For more information, see http://www.who.int/macrohealth/action/cambodia_tag_report.pdf.
The Caribbean Commission on Health and Development: Building evidence and proposing solutions
The aim of the Report of the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (CCHD) is to analyse different dimensions of the health situation in the Caribbean, present the nature of the problems faced and offer some possible solutions for consideration. The work of the CCHD, a sub-regional initiative, is placed within the context of increasing integration in the 15 countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) due to changing political arrangements, especially the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. The report considers in detail the burden of noncommunicable diseases, noting that in the latter part of the 1990s, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer accounted for 51% of deaths in the Caribbean. It presents evidence of the economic returns to health, through health's impact on foreign direct investment and tourism. The CCHD also devotes considerable space to the critical shortage of nurses due to migration. In order to reduce user fees, the report recommends that public health services should be fully funded from public funds, and broaches the possibility of instituting a Caribbean-wide social health insurance.
The CCHD report was presented to the 26th meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government, who have asked that the report be distributed to all stakeholders and an implementation agenda be developed.
For more information, see http://www.who.int/macrohealth/action/PAHO_Report.pdf.
China: Towards alleviating poverty pockets and sustaining long-term economic growth
The focus of the macroeconomics and health work in China has been on presenting evidence to promote the need for a greater Government role in ensuring affordable, quality health care for the population. The China macroeconomics and health report, China: health, poverty and economic development, highlights significant barriers in financial access to medical services, with 70% of people failing to take inpatient care citing financial difficulty as the reason. There is a growing gap in the health system, as well as soaring costs of health care. At the same time, evidence suggests that poor health may have an significant impact on total factor productivity, which will play an increasingly important role to sustain high economic growth in China in the coming years. The report reviews the strategies currently followed by the Government to deal with these issues, as well as strategies being planned.
For more information, see http://www.who.int/macrohealth/action/CMH_China.pdf .
Towards achieving health targets: A health investment plan for Ghana
The report of the Ghana Macroeconomics and Health Initiative (GMHI), Scaling-up health investments for better health, economic growth and accelerated poverty reduction, establishes a multi-year strategy to scale up a priority health package to improve health outcomes and expand access for the poor. This package consists of essential health interventions, health systems development, close-to-client services, and improved access to water and sanitation. The report's investment plan details resource requirements, financing gaps and resource allocation in line with policy priorities. The GMHI found that an additional US$ 5 billion will be needed over 2002-2015 to achieve national health priorities. The report also presents evidence of the links between health and development in Ghana; for example, it is estimated that Ghana's low life expectancy of 57 years deprives the country of about US$ 620 million in annual output.
The GMHI report is aligned with completed and ongoing planning activities, such as the Ghana poverty reduction strategy, the medium-term expenditure framework and the Ministry of Health Programme of Work. Its findings are being used by the United Nations system to inform the assessment of the health component of the Millennium Project in Ghana, and as a reference in preparing the proposal for the United States Millennium Challenge Account. It will also be employed in discussions with donors on financing options for the health investment plan, including health's share of the recent US$ 4 billion debt relief to Ghana.
For more information, see http://www.who.int/macrohealth/action/GMHIFinalReport-web.pdf.
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Recent research1 has shown that a public information campaign run by the Department of Health (DH) during the swine flu pandemic reassured the public and had some effect at changing behaviour.
Dr James Rubin from King’s College London, one of the authors of the report, told People & Science, `We looked at a vast amount of telephone survey data collected by DH. We found there were very low levels of worry in the community. Over the course of the pandemic somewhere between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of respondents reported being worried about the risk of catching swine flu.’
He continued: `However, people who’d heard anything from DH advertising were more likely to carry tissues and more likely to have bought disinfectant hand gel. So the DH communications were effective at influencing behaviour, and the reason they were effective is because they increased the perceived efficacy of these behaviours.’
‘Our key recommendation for future campaigns is to focus on efficacy: “we’re recommending these behaviours because we know they work, and this is how they work and this is why they work.” That would really increase uptake among the general public.’
Dr Dean Marshall, a GP and one of the British Medical Association’s leads on swine flu has some concerns about how messages reach the public. He told People & Science: `I’m certainly reassured that the public campaign had an impact but we had people coming to GP practices asking for a vaccination, having been told by official announcements in the press that vaccinations were available when they weren’t.’
He continued: ` There was a lot of conflicting information and unfortunately journalists and the media have to accept a certain amount of criticism for publishing articles that were more opinion than fact. DH struggled to counter some of that. The evidence on the swine flu vaccination was that it was safe, which was the agreed position of all sides, and then we had a lot of stories about it being an untested vaccine that was unsafe.’
James Rubin agrees that the government and media can be poor at communicating risk: `About 50 per cent of the public, consistently, thought people were making too much fuss out of swine flu. Our hunch is that they’ve been here too many times before. If you think of SARS or flesh-eating bacteria, or Y2K or the health risks of mobile phones, we’re constantly bombarding the public with messages about risks that don’t always materialise. So how do we convince people that actually, this time we do really mean it?’
1 Health Technology Assessment 2010; 14: 34, pp.183–266
As US researchers announce the first safety trials based on human embryonic stem cells of a treatment for spinal injuries, new research1 on public engagement (PE) and stem cell research has found PE activities have `considerable scope to (re)build trust in science.’
Dr Sarah Parry of Edinburgh University and her colleagues organised a PE event to see whether dialogue between scientists and others could increase trust in science. They recorded scientists and members of the public discussing the regulation of stem cell research and the Hwang affair, in which a South Korean stem cell researcher admitted fraud. They analysed discussion transcripts to understand factors behind trust in science and found that the event’s ethic of mutual respect favoured a presumption of trust between the scientists and non-scientists taking part.
However, Parry warned: `We should be very cautious about using public engagement to rebuild trust, because [it] exists in a wider political context, in which particular world views are privileged, particularly those of scientists. Public engagement should not be about consensus building, [which is] actually a mechanism for silencing people.’
Professor Andy Stirling of the University of Sussex offers an alternative to consensus-building for science policy PE.2 He told People & Science: `If you aim to illuminate different possible answers, equally valid, from the exercise, then people relax more and they’ll be more able to say “yes, we disagree majorly on factor X but on A, B and C we absolutely agree”.’
He continued: `We [shouldn’t] say: “Embryonic stem cells, shall we do it or not?” We [should] say: “Well, under these conditions and views, then this would be the right kind of way of handling it, but under these conditions and views, that would be the right way. We can tell you in some detail why that is, but we can’t tell the political process which of those is definitely the way to go, because we didn’t actually agree on it.” It is elected politicians who should be accountable for the final decision.’
Discounting public views
Dr Charles Thorpe of the University of California and and Dr Jane Gregory of University College London see another danger. Their recently published work3 concerns PE and nanotechnology. Thorpe told People & Science: `I’m all for public engagement, but there’s a fundamental tension between a market imperative to develop [new] technologies and the desire to genuinely involve the public in the shaping of science and technology. [The problem is] not that the public can be manipulated, it’s that the public can be ignored.’
1 S. Bates, W. Faulkner, S. Parry and S. Cunningham-Burley (2010) How do we know it’s not been done yet?! Trust, trust building and regulation in stem cell research. Science as Public Policy (forthcoming)
2 A. Stirling (2008) Engaging Futures: ‘opening up’ choices on science and technology in The Road Ahead: Public dialogue on science and technology. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, London. 2008. http://tinyurl.com/2vjtnfz
3 C. Thorpe and J. Gregory (2010) Producing the Post-Fordist Public: The Political Economy of Public Engagement with Science. Science as Culture (forthcoming). DOI: 10.3152/030234210X12778118264495 http://tinyurl.com/27vux3w
Staff at UK and European science and discovery centres have raised concerns with the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom over its decision to award a Quality Badge to the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm. The Zoo, near Bristol, reminds visitors ‘of the contemporary science that points to Creation plus evolution of species’.
Only 3 per cent of the Chinese population is scientifically literate, according to a 2010 survey by the China Research Institute for Science Popularization. The survey is the ninth since 1992. Questions included whether they had ever tried fortune telling based on birth data. The score is an increase from 2.25 per cent in 2007.
Siemens is to build a £30million landmark sustainability centre in London’s Docklands. ‘I hope the Siemens Pavilion will act as a catalyst for wider community involvement in the debate about how we best address the challenge of climate change in our cities,’ said Andreas J. Goss, Chief Executive of Siemens plc.
The Royal Society has awarded first Kavli Education Medal to Professor Celia Hoyles, Director of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics from London University’s Institute of Education. ‘I am sure the Royal Society Kavli Education Medal will enhance the status of science and mathematics education,’ she told People & Science.
FameLab is successfully developing young scientists as science communicators, and engaging general audiences with science, according to a paper published in Science Communication. ‘The [talent show] medium transfers very well in all kinds of cultures, and that’s one of the main elements of its success,’ scientist-author Dr George Zarkadakis told People & Science. http://tinyurl.com/22n9mdz
The National Science and Engineering Week Awards will not be running in 2011, its funder, Research Councils UK, has announced. ‘RCUK are supporting festivals including the Bath Literature Festival and the Big Bang Fair, all of which take place during National Science and Engineering Week 2011,’ an RCUK spokesperson told People & Science.
A new Concordat for engaging the public with research is being launched in December, to clarify the expectations and responsibilities of research funders, including Research Councils UK (RCUK), with respect to public engagement. ‘[It] will help the academic community consider the effectiveness of their approaches,’ Professor Alan Thorpe, Chair of RCUK, told People & Science.
The public engagement community is nervous about government funding in the face of spending cuts. The EPSRC has already axed its Partnerships for Public Engagement scheme, saying ‘It has always been our intention to integrate [public engagement] within EPSRC’s portfolio… The importance EPSRC places on high quality public engagement has not diminished.’
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Pork producers have a long-standing record of conscientious environmental stewardship. To recognize that commitment to manage their modern pork production systems in harmony with our natural resources, National Hog Farmer and the National Pork Board developed a program to recognize exemplary environmental management programs.
This is the 12th year of the Environmental Stewards of the Pork Industry recognition program, launched to showcase pork producers who are doing an outstanding job of incorporating state-of-the-art environmental and nutrient management programs into their pork production systems.
Through this program, the pork industry has gained a greater public awareness and appreciation for pork producers' conscientious environmental management. Additionally, this program has reinforced to the nation's policymakers and the general news media that pork producers are commited to protecting the environment and our valuable natural resources.
Areas of Evaluation
Nominations are now open for the class of 2006 Environmental Stewards. A national selection committee comprised of pork producers and environmental experts will review all nominations and select four for national recognition.
Nominations will be evaluated in eight areas:
General farm production and background;
Soil and water conservation practices;
Air quality technologies and odor control management strategies;
Farm aesthetics and neighbor relations;
Wildlife habitat management;
Adoption of innovative ideas; and
A short essay describing the nominee's view of environmental stewardship.
Nominations Open to All
This recognition program is open to production systems of all types and sizes. Since 1995, winners have represented family-owned-and-operated farms, management teams working within an integrated system and contract producers.
Pork producers can apply or be nominated by Extension agents, veterinarians or others. A nomination should be focused on a single production site, outlining the owner's and/or manager's diligence and expertise in applying their environmental management program.
Winners will receive a special plaque, an expense-paid trip to the awards ceremony and a $1,000 cash honorarium. In addition, each environmental steward's farm will be featured in a special report published in the September 2006 issue of National Hog Farmer.
Additional information and an easy-to-use nomination form are available on the sponsors' Web sites: www.pork.org or www.nationalhogfarmer.com (click on the Environmental Stewards banner). Nomination forms may also be requested by calling Allan Stokes, National Pork Board, (800) 456-7675, or Dale Miller, National Hog Farmer, (800) 722-5334.
Send nominations to: National Pork Board, Attention: Environmental Stewards, P.O. Box 9114, Des Moines, IA 50306-9620. Nominations must be postmarked by March 31, 2006.
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The line for many immigrants hoping to enter the United States legally remains, as ever, a very long one. So now that the U.S. State Department has posted whose turn is up this month to receive an immigrant visa, let's take a look once more at who has been waiting the longest.
According to the monthly Visa Bulletin, that distinction goes once more to the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens from the Philippines, as is the norm. Those whose turn it is to receive visas this month filed petitions to come legally as immigrants back in November of 1988.
Here are the top four categories of immigrants who have endured the longest waits this month:
1) Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens from the Philippines, a wait of more than 23 years (petitions filed November 1, 1988).
2) Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens from the Philippines, a wait of more than 19 years (petitions filed July 22, 1992)
3) Unmarried adult (21 and over) sons and daughters of U.S. legal permanent residents from Mexico, a wait of more than 19 years (petitions filed December 1, 1992)
4) Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens from Mexico, a wait of just over 19 years (petitions filed January 1, 1993)
What the monthly bulletin shows are priority dates, i.e. the dates on which petitions were filed, as visas technically become available to those waiting. Having one’s priority date appear in the monthly bulletin is good news, but the dates are subject to change and often do, which means that many who thought they’d made it to the front of the line have to keep waiting.
While not as long as the waits for relatives in Philippines and Mexico, people applying for these family-sponsored visas in China and India endure long waits as well, some stretching back to 2000. Why are these waits so long? Every country is allotted the same percentage of visas from a pool of family and employer-based visas available each year, regardless of the demand from any individual nation. This is key, since for countries represented by especially large immigrant populations in the U.S. – i.e. Mexico, the Philippines, China and India – there is an especially high demand for family reunification. Since these hopeful immigrants are competing for the same number of available visas as, say, their peers in Switzerland or Uganda, they must wait longer.
It’s a different process for immigrants defined as “immediate” relatives of U.S. citizens, such as spouses, parents, and children under 21, all of whom are exempt from the limits (although U.S.-born children of immigrants must be 21 in order to sponsor their parents, and penalties apply if the parents entered illegally). Other family members must wait until their priority date comes up.
The entire Visa Bulletin for February 2012 can be viewed here.
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I think this is a great idea, however I think the delivery of these articles does need to be discussed as well as ease of writing an article, how easy to find and accessible the articles are. What is the stance on Localisation? Are we going to bother with it?
First of all, should it be standard practice to include videos with the article (I think it should be, some people require visual and audio aids to learn)? Does GameDev have the bandwidth or do we host those videos with youtube and link to them? Are we even allowed to include videos in an article or is this supposed to be book-like only? Some serious thought should be put into this as we are using the web, why limit ourselves to being a book, why not a super-book! Obviously we would still have to make sure we have lo-fi versions(No automatically loaded video and make this easily accessible) to bring in those with limited bandwidth.
We should also think about the writing process of the articles, if you want more people writing articles you should make it easier to write them, so I have thought up of a few ideas to help in that regard, here is one. Make articles more of a collaboration rather than one author does one topic. You would probably have to limit collaborators to a few people, or have something like a 'pull request' on articles. This would alleviate the problem of an Author feeling overwhelmed with writing (Well, if someone actually contributes).
Some topics I think should be covered include waterfall all the way to all the agile project management techniques and what free sites \ programs are available to use to handle projets (Trello, smartsheet etc).
Sidenote: Until I saw the board this was posted in and the title I saw development libraries and thought a GameDev.net engine! Then got super excited until 1 second later when I actually started reading things.
To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan...believe... act! - Alfred A. Montapert
Gold Coast Studio Manager, Lead Programmer and IT Admin at Valhalla Studios Bifrost.
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by Michael D. Anestis, M.S.
I have a small window here at the end of my work week to put together a quick post, so I wanted to spend a little time talking with PBB readers about a study I just published with Thomas Joiner (Anestis & Joiner, in press) in the Journal of Affective Disorders. The study took a new look at the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (IPTS), taking emotion dysregulation in general (and negative urgency in particular) into consideration.
Click on the IPTS link above for a more thorough description of the theory, but here is a quick summary of what the theory says:
- We must differentiate between the desire for death by suicide and the capability for death by suicide
- Few who desire have the capability and few with the capability have the desire.
- The desire is comprised of two variables: thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. The former refers to a distorted belief of an individual that he or she has no meaningful connections to others and the latter refers to a distorted belief of an individual that he or she makes no meaningful contributions to the world.
- The acquired capability for suicide is comprised of a diminished fear of death and a heightened tolerance for physical pain. This is developed through repeated exposure to painful and/or provocative events.
All of these points have been supported through extensive research and many of those studies have been written about previously on PBB (click here to access all PBB articles that discuss suicide). Despite all of this great research on the IPTS, there are a number of important areas for which we simply do not yet have data. Dr.Joiner and I addressed a couple of those in this study:
- What role might emotion dysregulation have in suicide risk?
- Does the IPTS work the same for everyone?
The way we approached this was by gathering data from 492 patients at an outpatient community mental health clinic on a number of variables relevant to this topic. For emotion dysregulation, we looked at negative urgency, which is defined as the tendency to act rashly in an effort to diminish negative emotions (click here for a more thorough description of this idea). We hypothesized that the three-way interaction of the IPTS components (perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and the acquired capability for suicide) would predict participants' lifetime number of suicide attempts, even when controlling for sex and depression severity. In other words, we believed that individuals with high levels of all three of those variables would have a greater number of lifetime suicide attempts and that effect would not be better accounted for by being male or female or being depressed. This, in fact, turned out to be the case.
Going a step further, we made our own heads spin and hypothesized that the four-way interaction of the IPTS components and negative urgency would also predict lifetime number of suicide attempts. In other words, we anticipated that individuals who not only had high levels of thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and the acquired capability, but also high levels of negative urgency, would have the greatest number of lifetime suicide attempts. Again, the data supported our hypothesis. Four-way interactions are not something you typically see, as they are highly complicated and a bit confusing, but think of it this way: we understand from multiple studies now that when individuals have elevations on all three IPTS components, they're likely to be at greater risk for suicide and, as we showed here, are likely to have a more extensive history of suicidal behavior. The question though is, do elevations on those variables have the exact same level of impact for everyone or are there some people for whom this is a bigger deal? This is like stress and depression. Anyone who becomes stressed is more vulnerable to becoming depressed, but folks with a genetic vulnerability to mood disorders might be more likely to become depressed in response to stress than would somebody without that vulnerability. In this case, we're saying that anyone with elevations on the IPTS components is likely to have a more extensive history of suicide attempts, but folks with high levels of negative urgency are at particular risk in that scenario.
Why might this be? There are a bunch of potential answers here. The first might simply be that these folks are also more likely to have Cluster B personality disorders like borderline personality disorder. Another might be that a lifetime of struggling to manage negative emotions leaves these individuals more likely to consider harmful methods for regulating how they feel because, faced with this problem over and over throughout the years leaves them ready to accept highly imperfect options in frequent moments of desperation. As it turns out, I have some new data that leaves me thinking the answer is something else entirely; however, while the initial paper discussing those results is under review at a journal, I have to hold off on discussing them in order to avoid shooting my own legs out from under me.
All this being said, I will be discussing these results at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies conference in San Francisco this November on a panel with PBB contributors Tracy Witte, Kim Van Orden, and Kelly Cukrowicz, so if you plan on attending the conference, I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts.
If you would like to learn more about this or other topics discussed on PBB, please consult our online store for scientifically-based psychological resources.
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Finding a flash mob of 25,000 honey bees in your yard or on the side of your home might alarming, but local beekeepers are asking you to resist calling an exterminator to eliminate these valuable pollinators. Instead, call your local beekeeper. You’ll be doing your whole community a valuable service, and it won’t cost you anything.
Spring is swarming season, when honey bee populations spike, and some bees leave their hives to form new colonies. After leaving their original hive, the bees will cluster temporarily on a nearby branch or protected area while scout bees go in search of a new, permanent home. The cluster may stay in the temporary location for a few hours, or a few days. It is important to note that during this time the bees are very docile. They will avoid human contact, and will not sting or become aggressive unless unduly provoked. This is the time to act fast and contact your local beekeeper.
Beekeepers can carefully remove virtually the entire migrant colony, often in less than an hour. The captured bees can then be added to the beekeeper’s apiary where they will be safely housed, and become valuable assets. Instead of being killed, the bees will aid in honey production and pollination. It’s a win-win for the community, the beekeepers, and the honey bees.
Saving honey bees from extermination is especially beneficial in recent years as populations have been declining due to parasites, viruses and indiscriminate pesticide use. It is important to do everything we can to promote the welfare of this valuable pollinating insect. For a list of beekeepers that will capture swarms in your area, visit the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild website phillybeekeepers.org/
Barbara Patrizzi is the secretary for the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild. You can reach her at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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What Users Say and Do About Intellectual Property
Jabed Tarapdar writes up the discussion from the 'Copyright in the Digital Age: What Users Say and Do About Intellectual Property' event, which focused on new evidence from the University of Leeds.
Executive Director for Open Rights Group, Jim Killock calls for policy-makers to make 'more effort to understand the perspective of the user' during the policy-making process
The event 'Copyright in the Digital Age: What Users Say and Do About Intellectual Property' was held on 28 November 2012. The discussion focused on recent research by University of Leeds. ORG's Executive Director Jim Killock gave one of the key note responses. You can see notes from his talk at the ORG website.
Representatives from the University of Leeds argued that if copyright legislation is to be successfully implemented, it is crucial that users understand and agree with it, otherwise people may find alternative ways to undermine the law. The research discovered that at the moment 'half of all internet users are unsure if they are using the internet legally', leaving copyright law in 'disrepute'.
Jim Killock explained that the law does not really reflect the norms and expectations of internet users because, during negotiations over copyright law, policy makers have not made enough effort to understand the perspective of the user.
UK copyright law makes it absolutely clear that unauthorised file-sharing is illegal.
However, Killock highlighted the findings that people often have a different understanding of what activity is acceptable or fair. For example, the research suggests users tended to believe that sharing between family members is normal and fair, whereas, illegal selling is not fair and clearly illegal.
So how can this situation be improved?
Chief Executive of PACT, John McVay noted, under current proposals within the Digital Economy Act 2010, letters will be sent to customers for alleged copyright infringement. These letters will explain how their actions may have conflicted with copyright law.
Helen Goodman MP stated 'education is only one strand' of successfully protecting creators' material. What if they disagree with the message? These letters will not be useful if they counter user norms. She also noted that streaming could help tackle illegal downloading.
The research by University of Leeds argued 'copyright is a social thing. The user should be seen as a partner who can help the industry survive'. However, it was suggested that under the current system, people are unwilling to support the industry because they see some elements as illigitimate.
If McVay is correct and 'royalties are spread to all workers', this has to be made clearer to the public.
Copyright law is also neglecting users' various uses of copyright material. There was plenty of disagreement over policy-makers' proposals for a parody exception to copyright.
Killock explained, for example, that the absence of a parody exception has meant campaigners cannot offer the most effective critical commentary. Such use should not depend on the consent of the person who created the original.
However McVay countered, the creator has the moral right over the intent of their work. He gave as an example 'the use of an anti-war song as a pro-war parody' will offensively undermine the original intended message.
But according to Killock, supporting parody in law will ensure copyright does not work as a sort of veto over economic and socially useful activity.
Killock suggested that policy-makers' lack of understanding of users stems from their attention being focused on trade associations during discussions over copyright law. 'Trade associations and technology groups' play a major role during copyright policy-making. The Digital Economy Act is one example of policy-makers paying little attention to wider interests.
Killock concluded successful copyright law depends on policy-makers taking into account the public interest and running a more open and inclusive policy making process.
Does BT need television to compete with other service providers? Should the owners who own the means of distribution be allowed to also own the content it streams? Wendy G explores the issue of network neutrality.
ORGZine: the Digital Rights magazine written for and by Open Rights Group supporters and engaged experts expressing their personal views
People who have written us are: campaigners, inventors, legal professionals , artists, writers, curators and publishers, technology experts, volunteers, think tanks, MPs, journalists and ORG supporters.
Snoopers' Charter: MP debate, Edinburgh
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Canada Reads is too competitive, a friend suggested today. Too brutal. He doesn’t tune in.
I imagined my book La Chiripa in that competition, advocated, I would hope, by someone just as fierce as its feisty, teenaged, flaming-redhead protagonist, Pira.
But what if the incredibly popular national host asked one of those negatively slanted questions, as he did today, “In which book were you least able to identify with the characters?”
Terrified that some panelist might vilify Pira or Alma for shallowness or failure to grow, would I be on the phone, or Tweeting? “Leave my book alone, damn it!”
What about today’s last question: “In which book did you experience the least emotional impact from the characters?” (Sorry for paraphrasing, Jian!)
I’d be hammering on the door, probably, shouting, “A zillion readers can’t be wrong! Give me back my book!”
This entire event is so full of Canucktitude, I’m oozing maple syrup. Or maybe drowning in it. I hadn’t realized until today that these books are supposed to be about Canada. Or its history. Yes, we are still at that stage. Proof? This question: “Which book does the best job of portraying Canada’s history?”
Maybe Jian didn’t actually say, “Canada’s history.” Maybe he said only, “History.” It hardly matters, since all five books portray Canadian and only Canadian history. It suddenly occurred to me that it was more than likely that these five books had been chosen with Canadian history as one of the criteria.
Oh oh. This is the point where my novel could lose. Probably no one would argue that it does less than a great job of portraying Guatemalan history, as Guatemala is the setting where my little Canadian family acts out a crucial chapter of its story. But I’d have to go pound on the door again unless La Chiripa’s advocate piped up, “It is Canadian history. It shows how Canada has had its head in the sand all these years about world affairs and the impact of that willful blindness on one family of Canadians.” Wow. Give that panelist a bottle of maple syrup, a big one.
Besides, the antagonist, Matt Wayne, is really an American. That ought to count for something. Something about the history of American-Canadian relations.
Nope. I’m not ready to lay my book-baby down on the altar of Canada Reads, no matter the perks that follow the sacrifice. I think I’d have a nervous breakdown. The book is strong and ready; the author, not so much.
I should have played hockey. My parents should have bought me boys’ skates and forced me to get up in the dark for practice, perhaps the first girl in Alberta to compete in a boyish sport. What were they thinking, these silly European DPs? Then I would have had a real Canadian story to tell.
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The new ground zero in Internet warfare
The power grid is an obvious target for terrorists, but experts disagree about how to secure it
Computerworld - When it comes to critical national infrastructure, the highly distributed and ultra-interconnected U.S. power grid is, hands down, the most vulnerable to cyberattack. On this one point, many cybersecurity experts seem to agree.
Yet just how likely a terrorist target is the grid? And what's the best way to secure and protect the massive inventory of generators, power plants and transmission lines plus the cat's cradle of computer networks that make up the electric power system?
Talk to 10 experts, and you'll likely get 10 different answers.
"The problem is that we have a hard time assessing risk," says Jim Lewis, a senior fellow specializing in cybersecurity at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We seem to settle on either indifference or a Bruce Willis movie."
Up until about a decade ago, things were a lot simpler. The industrial control systems that manage the generation and flow of power were pretty much protected from intrusion by their closed-loop architecture. These control systems existed and operated in isolation from everything else.
But increasingly, these systems have been linked to countless corporate networks for everything from real-time monitoring of electricity generation and transmission to remote meter reading and automated grid operations.
"We had an explosion in business network technology, and as that occurred, individuals in accounting, for example, wanted real-time information at their desktop computers so they could do projection planning," says Michael Assante, chief information security officer at North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), an industry organization of U.S. electrical grid operators.
The smart grid relies heavily on public communication networks, including cellular networks and WiMax, to digitally monitor and control the grid for more efficient operation, he explains.
But more connections mean more points of vulnerability, and that's what worries Sami Saydjari, president of Cyber Defense Agency, a privately held security consulting firm headquartered in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.
"The power grid is controlled by systems that are antiquated and highly vulnerable because they have very little security. They've been historically protected by disconnection," he says.
But the rush to improve convenience and efficiency by tying together administrative systems and billing systems over the Internet has created gateways to the power grid control systems, Saydjari notes.
"The concern that many of us have is that an adversary can jump that gap directly or indirectly and exploit vulnerabilities," he says.
In particular, they could use these control systems to destroy physical things, like generators, or overload transformers and destroy them, Saydjari says. If that were to happen, it could take six months to replace transformers or generators, "and we have no [replacement] manufacturing capabilities in the U.S.," he says. "Germany, China and Japan are our sources."
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Local Indian Restaurants provide some of the most diverse Indian cuisines of its culture, providing unique dishes and numerous variations of the most popular Indian dishes of the region. Indian food is an important part of the Indian culture, as India has many festivals and celebrations to honor their ethic beliefs. What is fascinating about Indian cuisine is that different ethnic groups and regions individually have their own style of cooking, dependent on the climate and region in India where the food has either been grown or the chef learned to cook from. Local Indian Restaurants are available in fast foods or they can be one of the best dine-in restaurants in the area representing their country and its culture. Restaurants with an Indian cuisine are located in both U.S. state and International locations, with some of the best restaurants right around the corner. Food from India tastes like no other food in the world, with Indian exotic spices in their cooking consisting of ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, tamarind, black pepper. Local Indian Restaurants are located all over the world - from the City of London to Denver, Colorado - with the food the people from India eat pretty much what the local Indian Restaurants have all over the country.
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When nearly two-thirds of the students in my Senior Seminar abandoned their capstone projects and opted out of our course last December, I nearly despaired that our new program — meant to inspire students towards self-directed learning and gaining real-world skills — could stay afloat. For the past four months, I have continued to work with the pioneering five students who took a chance, overcame peer pressure to slack off, and pursued their passions to create something lasting and important. I had hoped my students would learn to persevere through difficulties, adjust to the unexpected, and communicate with a network of helpful supporters who could help them succeed. I am now proud to say that they have learned something completely unexpected: the courage to learn independently.
When I introduce the culminating senior project, I ask my students to dream big. I show them TED videos of Adora Svitak on pursuing your passion and Dan Pink on motivation. I show them the blank canvas given to me by a former colleague who wanted me to have what I needed whenever I felt the desire to paint.
This year I ran straight into all the things Seth Godin rails against in his education manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams. My students were in a panic as they faced the production line of the college process – many of them confronting this hardship alone because they were the first in their families to apply to college. Burnt out by a grueling academic schedule and swamped by seemingly endless forms and applications, not to mention demoralized by less than inspiring SAT scores, they dropped everything else and focused on marketing themselves for college acceptance, completely missing the point that our work together on their culminating senior project was meant to help them begin to achieve the dreams that college represented for them.
Seth Godin says, “We can teach people to make commitments, to overcome fear, to deal transparently, to initiate, and to plan a course.” This was exactly what we aimed for when we designed our culminating senior project. Godin further states, “We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate” (Stop Stealing Dreams 28). Similarly, our project was meant to launch our students as independent learners who could do exactly those things – pursue lifelong learning, express themselves, innovate. But too many of my students were too scared, too alienated from their own passions, and too overwhelmed by the college process to dream their dreams any more.
Except for my brave five who persevered — I celebrate them here.
Promoting Outdoor Leadership
Inspired by his own experiences with the Woods Project and NOLS, Richard Juarez dreamed of creating his own outdoor education leadership program that could be used by schools like ours. He got his chance to actualize his dreams on a school-sponsored camping trip in March. Working closely with teachers Stephen Vrla and Lee Bryant, Richard took on the task of teaching his peers, but as he relates in his blog post about the camping trip, “Honestly, the camping trip was more of a learning experience for me. I had planned out to teach the students about outdoor leadership, but I feel that I was the one who learned about outdoor leadership. Throughout the trip I was learning about leadership by being in charge, for the first time, of a group of 19 students and giving them instructions.” Richard is rounding out his project by blogging about his experiences and designing an outdoor leadership curriculum at Leading and Learning.
Meeting the Needs of Young Women
Ana Flores knew first-hand how effective counseling can help young people navigate the rough waters of growing up. She felt so strongly about the need for her peers to have access to counseling, she began researching ways to improve counseling services at our under-funded school. She started a blog to share transparently how she had gained confidence and strength through counseling. But as her motivation started to flag in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles (read: funding), she nearly gave up on her project. Luckily, she found a new focus by teaming up with her classmate, Alejandra Badillo, to revive a moribund support group for high school girls on our campus.
Alejandra was committed to creating a safe and comfortable forum for high school girls to talk about issues important to them. Alarmed by classmates she knew were making poor personal choices – whether about sexual activity or about which career path to take – she began investigating how to resuscitate a club for girls, formerly called “Women’s Group,” that had fallen by the wayside when its faculty advisor had left the school. With the help of Girls Inc. – Houston and her new partner Ana Flores, Alejandra began “Ladies of Chinquapin” in January. Ana and Ale have designed bi-weekly programs in conjunction with Girls, Inc. facilitator Kori Harver, in which they have discussed subjects ranging from body image to friendship to sexual myths and misinformation. They have also bonded through the experiences of taking a Zumba class and participating in a trail ride with a female trail boss. Their accomplishments are recorded on Ana’s blog (see above) and Ale’s blog, Dreamer; they have also created a video documenting their accomplishments. Most importantly, they have built a legacy for our school by creating a much-needed focus on girls’ needs that will continue next year and, we hope, beyond.
Learning Creative Discipline through Songwriting
Lots of kids teach themselves how to play a musical instrument, especially these days with the help of Youtube videos. But I don’t know very many who will sit down and teach themselves music theory. Otilio Rios, Jr., had taught himself the basics of playing the guitar and had grown further as a member of our school’s guitar ensemble, led by Paul Nichols. Otilio, however, wanted something more. He wanted to write and record his own songs. Often frustrated by his own lack of knowledge, Otilio would try to create songs in fits and spurts, but he never got very far. He talks openly about his process in his presentation for TEDxYouthDay.
This heart-breaking situation unfortunately comes up frequently in my work with children without financial means to gain the training they crave. Yet, Otilio was undaunted, and armed with a copy of Music Theory for Dummies, he got to work. Now he is close to finishing his first song. He will record it to share it on his blog, though he regrets not having decent enough professional equipment to get the sound right. More than anything, though, Otilio has shown others that developing self-discipline and fortitude are essential to the creative process.
Film-making for a Cause
Alan Rodriguez is determined to pay back Chinquapin Preparatory School for the education it has given him. Literally. Having totaled up the cost of housing and feeding and educating an economically disadvantaged kid like him from Houston, Alan cast about for a way to raise money for the school. He decided to create a video to share his story and invite others to donate to the school, even in small amounts, to meet his fund-raising goal of $1200, 10% of what his tuition might be per year if he had to pay for his schooling. He and I have discussed how to network on Twitter and Facebook, as well as how to share his video via social networking. He knows it’s a long shot, but he hopes his video will go viral enough to bring in some ad income from Google. Check out his trailer and follow his progress on his blog, Trying to Help My School. You might even share his dream with others – and, who knows, maybe it will come true?
The Courage to Learn
As my students reflect on their experiences designing and implementing an independent project, they marvel at what they have learned. Richard says he knows now that teachers have a responsibility to prepare and deliver accurate, meaningful lessons. He has also learned how to “rebound from mistakes.” Ale has gained confidence and learned she is not so isolated in her concerns for young women, while Ana has learned how to juggle the different roles of running an effective program. Otilio has learned how to set more realistic, attainable goals, especially with regard to the time it takes to reach them. Alan has learned that he loves film-making perhaps as much as he loves his school.
More than this, my students have found the courage to learn on their own. As Richard states so well in his blog post on “Courage,” “I realized that my classmates and I, who chose to stay in Senior Seminar, have courage. We took on a risk. We accepted the challenge to complete a senior project while handling many other important things during our senior year. This risk is scary because of having to sacrifice other things in order to reach your end product and even having the possibility of failing, but we stuck to the project because we find a meaning in what we are doing. Whether it is composing music or guiding young women, we are doing it because it is our passion.” Amen.
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With 500 species in the veronica family, it’s not surprising things get a bit confused. I grow several dwarf veronicas in my scree garden, but the one I wanted to write about is veronica wormskjoldii, partly because this is a very useful rock garden plant at this time of year, but also because of its discoverer.
Here is the plant I grow:However, you only need to look at Google’s collection of images to realise that this plant (if it is the same) grows completely differently in its native US habitat. Some plants do this, I know – but the differences here look pretty extreme. Any feedback on this from American readers?
Anyway, assuming that this is indeed v.wormskjoldii, I recommend it for providing rare late summer colour in the rock garden and for being an amenable, decent plant, with no bad habits. It spreads very slowly, but layers naturally, and you can multiply it by cutting the layered shoots in Autumn and moving them in Spring.
I think we are too chauvanistic about our plant hunters. Scotland has produced a good crop of them, including Forrest, Douglas, Menzies and Sherriff. Yet who, outside Denmark, has heard of Morten Wormskjold? Yet here was a botanist and naturalist, driven by that early 19th century lust for knowledge, who spent a year in Greenland and two years in Kamchatka, when both were even less well know than they are now. Whenever I look at my veronica, I think of Wormskjold, stuck at the farthest ends of the earth in the bogs of Kamchatka, tracking down the plants that we can now enjoy without stirring further than our local plant nursery…..
In other news:
I fear for my pair of swallows. They embarked on a second brood terribly late in the year and are now desperately feeding their chicks. It will be at least another two weeks before the young ones fly, and they won’t have much time to build up their strength for the journey to Egypt. Already the older birds are beginning to gather on the telephone wires. It won’t be long before they are gone, and then it will be late April before they return.
Today I also found a Goldcrest wren, Britain’s smallest bird, which had flown into a window. I fear it has broken a wing, in which case there is no hope for it. I shall put it out of the reach of cats for 24 hours in case I am wrong and it recovers. But I’m afraid I may have to kill it to spare it further suffering. Not a task I shall enjoy.
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Makerere University Research Repository >
Faculty of Arts >
Theses & Dissertations (Arts) >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
|Title: ||A study on socio-economic and institutional factors affecting income generating activities among refugees in Uganda: a case of Nakivale Settlement|
|Authors: ||Kashaija, Mark|
Income generating activities
|Issue Date: ||2009 |
|Abstract: ||Since 1940's Uganda has been hosting refugees with the first group being the Polish Ex-service men. This therefore indicates a long experience in hosting refugees. However, refugees have not lived a dignified life despite interventions from UN agencies such as UNHCR and other implementing partners. Refugees are encouraged to participate in Income Generating Activities (IGAs) as source of livelihood as one of the strategies to contribute to their wellbeing. This study sought to find out IGAs that refugees are engaged in with a view to assess the factors affecting these activities in a refugee setting. The data was collected from Nakivale refugee settlement one of the oldest settlements in Uganda using quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings reveal that refugees were engaged in various activities such as cultivation, petty trading, livestock keeping, tailoring, and offering casual labour. The issues that formed a focus of the study were categorised into social, economic and institutional factors. These are the factors that affect the self reliance strategy of refugees through IGAs. The economic factor that came up prominently was lack of sufficient capital which constrained refugees from engaging in any activity or force them into activities not of their choice. The socio-economic factors reported were language barrier, inaccessibility of the settlement to business centres, lack developmental and entrepreneur skills, and limited resources such as water and land. This has resulted into unprecedented overuse of natural resources for shelter, cultivation and animal grazing. It has also fuelled social conflicts which stem from sharing of the scarce resources especially water for animals and domestic use. The institutional factors which limit the participation of refugees in IGAs are animal movement restrictions and the bureaucratic procedures to get a movement permit.
Based on these findings, it is therefore highly recommended that refugees be provided with financial and technical support to enable them engage in IGAs. Furthermore, the host communities and refugees should be sensitised on how to co-existence so as to use scarce resources in a harmonious manner. The sharing of scarce natural resources need to be planned and implemented through a social communication campaign. The host communities should be taught to respect the refugees as human beings that need to be treated with the same dignity. The restrictive administrative measures and bureaucratic procedures should also be made simple so as to enable refugees in business carry on with ease.|
|Description: ||A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Social Sector Planning and Management of Makerere University.|
|Appears in Collections:||Theses & Dissertations (Arts)|
Files in This Item:
All items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved.
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Cabbage, How to Shred
Learn how to shred heads of cabbage.
Cut head of cabbage into fourths. Place a flat side of one of the fourths on a cutting board; cut off the core. Cut cabbage into thin slices with a large knife. Cut slices several times to make smaller pieces.
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The 40 paintings include some at Tate Britain, the British Museum and in the hands of private and regional owners. On display from Jan 12th to March 13th at Petworth's newly-refurbished exhibition gallery, the works will include a pencil sketch & painting of Petworth House made by Turner in 1809.
The exhibition will also display views of Sussex towns Arundel, Ashburnham, Rye and Hastings as well as rarely-seen works portraying Brighton, Chichester, Lewes & Shoreham.Turner, who lived from 1775 to 1851, was a frequent visitor to Petworth House where some of his work is on permanent display.
The volume and range of subject matter which inspired Turner in Sussex was extraordinary and it's extremely exciting to bring so many examples together at Petworth
– Andy Loukes, house & collections manager at Petworth House and the curator of the Turner's Sussex exhibition
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The Binary Code is a code of representing more complex data from a sequence comprised of two components. In computing, these two states are symbolized by zeroes ( 0 ) and ones ( 1 ).
Binary code works by applying exponentially increasing numerical values to each item in the sequence. A binary sequence will typically have a uniform delimit, which in computer technology is typically every eight. A sequence of eight zeroes and ones is known as a byte, and each item in a byte is known as a bit. One byte can represent one of up to 256 states (ranging from 0 to 255) which are typically equated to characters on the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) table.
Binary Code Examples
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In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell famously proposed that spoken and written clichés functioned to supplant critical thinking. He cited numerous catchphrases that, in his opinion, had come to infect English, his own language. His argument certainly applies to other languages as well. But it also applies to other forms of communication, all of them subject to infestation by what I’m here calling tropes — recurrent formulations and structures deployed to evoke knee-jerk responses rather than to express new ideas and provoke new thoughts.
Assuredly, as I’ve tried to point out in this series of posts, photography has accumulated a plethora of its own tropes, their explosive growth encouraged as ever by any environment in which the jargonized and scientistic combine with the doctrinal. The present-day academic-art context thus provides the perfect fertile medium for their incubation and dispersal. This milieu functions, per Orwell, to suppress “criticality,” not to further it.
Mind you, if asked whether I agree or disagree with the proposition that every single microculture and manifestation of social life on the entire planet merits documentation, even if in an absolutely predictable, pre-fab, formulaic, cookie-cutter way, I’d probably say yes, on principle. After all, who am I to judge whether our present and future need for societal annotation will get better served by a small catalogue of women with their firearms or an equivalent aggregation of images showing girl children with pink stuff? Do parents whose children have left the nest merit less attention, now or later on, than people in prison in Louisiana?
But that doesn’t mean I want to spend time with each and every one of those projects simply to demonstrate that, in some wishy-washy liberal way, I “care about” the subjects — especially if the structure of the project, and the structure of the imagery, reeks of the generic.
In the first post in this series, I cited, as an example of a trope conceived by academically certified photographers, several projects premised on the notion that the same person appeared more than once in each image. I dubbed this conceit the “Doppelgänger” trope, using the German term for the idea that a person has a double somewhere in the world. The two examples I gave, Kelli Connell’s “Double Life” series and Rick Odell’s “My Better Half” series, do not specifically use the term ”Doppelgänger” in their accompanying statements.
Since then I’ve discovered the work of Veronika Marquez and Tomoko Sawada, also energetically milking this same cow. Add to that list Cornelia Hediger, who had a show by that name, “Doppelgänger II,” at the Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn’s DUMBO district, opening September 7 of last year. For the gallery’s press release, click here. An extract from the hype:
“With this newly released series of photographs, Hediger continues her exploration of the uncanny, constructing complex pictorial narratives into segmented tableau vivants (sic), consisting of up to eighteen individual photographs combined into a single composition. In each artwork the central characters — doppelgängers — are interwoven into a performative psychological struggle, displaying an undercurrent of the sinister, of angst and moral ambiguity. The relationship between the two central characters is superbly enacted by the artist herself, drawing comparisons in visual and conceptual strength to the work of historical photographers such as Claude Cahun.”
Hediger received her MFA in 2000 from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. From her resumé, it appears she premiered her first “Doppelgänger” series in 2007, beating Connell, Odell, and Marquez to it. Given the access to information the internet enables, I find it hard to imagine that these picture-makers don’t know about each other’s projects.
But Yasumasa Morimura had already mined that vein in the late ’80s, and O. G. Rejlander got there over a century before that, with his 1871 self-portrait “OGR the Artist Introduces OGR the Volunteer.” With the emphasis placed on awareness of the medium’s history and field of ideas in the photography BFA/MFA system, and the resources now available toward that end, I find obliviousness to historical precedent, and/or failure to acknowledge it, inexcusable. That goes for gallerists and others writing publicity materials for marketing purposes, as well as for the photographers themselves.
The Rustle of His Wings
In that same July 5 post launching this series I predicted that a survey exhibition based on the “Doppelgänger” trope would take place soon. This prophecy almost immediately came true, with the July 14 opening of the current show at the Center for Photography at Woodstock titled “Doubles, Dualities & Doppelgängers.” (I received no advance notice of this project.)
The CPW group show casts a net wider than the conceit of staged images with a single model playing multiple roles, represented therein by Kelli Connell, Cornelia Hediger, and Ruud van Empel. It also includes images of twins by various photographers, including a few sets of twins who have photographed each other. Still, I’d say this validates my forecast, emboldening me to issue more. Stay tuned for my prediction on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.
Some of the core ideas I’ve expressed in this series of posts made their way into an odd post at Art Participant, a blog published by the Berkeley, CA private dealer/gallery Charles Guice Contemporary. I consider the post curious because while listed under “Reviews,” bearing a review-like title (“Eufália Cristina Paz de Almeida: An Artist Finds Her Method”), and reading like a review, it gives no indication of where and when the work it discusses was exhibited or otherwise seen by the reviewer, and is unsigned and undated. (From the indication of how long ago it got posted, I calculate the publication date as July 27.)
Poking around the blog, I learned that Art Participant was “developed to facilitate dialogue about the gallery’s artists and their work, as well as about photography, culture and art in general. The views expressed here are those of the gallery, its owner, and of the contributors.” Presumably, then, the author is Charles Guice himself. It’s impossible to tell from the blog, or from the website for Charles Guice Contemporary, whether this dealer represents Paz de Almeida, or plans to do so. Regardless of the answer, I consider it inappropriate — indeed, deliberately misleading — for anyone in the marketing sector of the field to publish anything self-authored and titled a “review” at a website sponsored by his or her commercial enterprise. Doing so anonymously compounds the error, muddying the waters even further.
Anyhow, putting all that aside, the “review” contains the following passage toward its end:
“Paz de Almeida’s series is not the photographic narrative we have become accustomed to seeing. It does not fit comfortably within the framework of the well-made project nor do the photographs: the primary subjects (here alone breaking formula, there is more than one) do not receive central placement within the frame.
They are not the largest element, they are not addressed frontally or head-on, and they aren’t always in sharpest focus. For some, arguably, the photographs might even be considered banal or boring.”
All of which comes pretty much verbatim from my commentaries, as the link Guice included indicates — except for the last sentence, which suggests that the pictures in question “might even be considered banal or boring” because they don’t conform to the trope. Whereas I’ve emphasized that conformity to the trope engenders viewer boredom (mine, at least). I’m glad whenever someone finds a concept of mine useful, but chagrined to discover it deployed in such a murky context.
This series has provoked the estimable Peter Marshall to comment on it and reminisce about his own early encounter with one of the tropes in question during a beginner’s class in photography decades ago, in an August 10th post titled “Trope” at his blog, Re: PHOTO. Marshall’s always worth reading.
Bryan Formhals, Social Media Manager at B&H Photo, excerpted my definition of the most common visual trope in his July 22 post, “Photography and Progress,” for LPV Magazine, which he founded and edits.
This post supported by a donation from the Estate of Lyle Bongé.
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A big question.
Actually, God don’t condemn anyone to anywhere. Everyone writes their own ticket. Everyone gets on their own train to wherever they end up. God gives people opportunities to make choices. People choose where they want to go by the choices they make in their lives.
What is disturbing is that people make the wrong choices knowing when they make the choice, that choice is wrong and then they think God will be understanding and let them slide by and alter their destination. Each of us carves our future in stone that cannot be erased except by repentance and coming to Christ for forgiveness.
All the mistakes, all the wrongs, all the decisions made with a sinful heart can be erased when people come to the Cross and understand who Christ was and is and then they must repent and turn away from their sinful life.
So what is actually Sin then?
Sin is when people go their own way rather than God’s way. Every person has their own mind, their own heart, and their own soul. When people turn away from God and do what Satan wants them to do then that is a sin. People are born with 2 ears. I am not talking about the physical ears, I am talking about spiritual ears. One spiritual ear is tuned to Satan’s call. One spiritual ear is tuned to God’s Call.
People do make choices about who they want to listen to. The sinful nature of man is within the person from birth. Every person is born with selfishness in their heart and an ear to evil and darkness as well as an ear to God. Satan and God conflict within each person. There is truly a war for each person’s soul. Some people are born and raised in total darkness and never hear God’s voice yet they still have the spiritual ear to hear God.
Even after you come to Christ and repent, you still have that ear that can hear Satan. You must continually pray that you resist the cunning voice of Satan and listen only to God. What everyone must understand is that after you repent then Satan will still come after you. Accepting Christ into your life does not mean you no longer are deaf to Satan and temptation. Many people want to believe they are deaf to Satan after salvation but it is not true. What all must remember is that God is always speaking to you.
When a Christian commit sin lets all say for the first time,he feels so much guilt but then when he deosnt turn away and continue to sin more,then he no longer feels guilty and that can grow into perversion eg sexual immorality bcos we buy into so many sex lie in the modern world full of nudity and pornography easily assesible n even if ur not looking for it,its just around you.
One cant just stop this sin of addiction easily by just cutting it off and tries so hard to stop.Its not about how hard you try.The only solution is to embrace the truth.And that truth is Jesus and the more we embrace or get closer to God ,the more we drift away from such sin and cling to Jesus.
Our lifestyle should glorify God.
Life is short n we shouldnt buy to the Devils lie that when we live it to the fullest,that is the end of it.Our souls will never die and will burn in eternal Hell fire if one is unrepentant of his or her sin before death.
I have been through the world persuing life dreams of worldly things and money n all sorts of immorality thinking they will give me the joy i need but i tell you all today that the joy God gives to those who live for His glory is oceans and oceans of pure joy,freedom and satisfaction within oneself and above all eternal life in Christ Jesus.Its just an unbelievable feeling all mankind should experience and God’s promise will forever be trustworthy.Amen
Pls read Ephesians 2 :8-10 ,Ephesians 6 :10-14 ,1 Peter 5 :8-10. Pls make time for God n pray and it shall be well with you all the days of your life
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New SNU Video Series
New video series for Students of the New UrbanismSubmitted on 01/1/2013. Tags for this image:
Students for the New Urbanism (SNU) can now tap into the expertise of CNU partners and member organizations in our new SNU Video Series. Learn from CNU stalwarts as they examine the defining issues of urbanism.
CNU Board Vice Chair and 2013 Charter Awards Jury Chair Doug Farr (Farr Associates) tackles sustainability and its place at the center of New Urbanism. Eric Dembaugh (Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University) breaks down the historic function of street and street planning, and answers how municipalities and planners alike can rediscover the street’s inherent function. And Karja Hansen (Principal at Poliphili) explains what turned her into a New Urbanist and why its holistic approach to the built environment is what will give communities the “sense of place” they yearn for.
Click SNU Resources to watch.
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After she was widowed, Mary received a lump sum from her husband’s life insurance policy. Mary needed current income and also wanted to invest for her retirement. Her financial planner, Harriet, suggested mutual funds.
Harriet explained that a mutual fund is a professionally managed pool of stocks and/or bonds that provide reduced portfolio risk through diversification. Investors buy or sell shares of the pooled securities, which provide liquidity and the convenience of automatic reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. Because there are over 9,000 funds, there are plenty of funds that are right for every investor.
Harriet explained to Mary about “no-load” and “load” funds. No-load funds can be purchased directly from the fund without incurring a sales charge. Load funds typically involve a commissioned broker who markets the fund. “NAV” (net asset value) refers to the share price.
Harriet stressed the importance of carefully reading the fund’s prospectus, which describes the fund’s objectives, manager’s style, other pertinent information regarding the fund, and fees.
All funds charge fees, referred to as the “expense ratio”, for professional management and operating expenses. For example, 12b-1 fees cover advertising and promotion of the fund. Look for other fees such as deferred sales charges, exchange fee, or redemption fees.
Harriet warned that fees reduce your return dollar for dollar. A 20% return less a 2% fee nets 18%. Not bad. An 8% return less a 2% fee nets 6%. Not so good. Harriet also warned that most of the returns are taxable each year as income.
There are two kinds of mutual funds: open-end and closed-end.
Open-end funds create more shares as more money is received by the fund and are bought or sold by the fund or a broker. Closed-end funds have a fixed number of shares and are bought or sold on stock exchanges using a broker.
Given Mary’s goals of retirement and income, safety and preservation of capital is important. Harriet described to Mary how mutual funds are classified by risk.
- Aggressive growth: Greatest long-term growth generally in small to medium cap stocks. Highly risky.
- Growth: Long term growth generally in large cap growth companies with solid track records. Less risky than aggressive.
- Growth and Income: Long-term growth with emphasis on stable companies that pay dividends. Moderate risk.
- Income: Generally consists of bonds or high-paying dividend stock such as utilities. Moderate to low risk (no junk bonds).
Harriet also explained the often-used terminology for naming funds.
- Stock funds: Consist of large/medium/small cap stocks, value or growth companies.
- Global funds: The manger invests in U.S and foreign stocks.
- Foreign funds: Fund invests in developed foreign and emerging markets.
- Index funds: These funds track or mirror the performance of particular indexes. These funds have low stock turnover, thus minimal capital gains.
- Balanced funds: A combination of stocks and bonds to reduce risk.
- Bond Funds: A fund consisting of bonds, such as government, corporate or municipals.
- Money Market Funds: Consist of highly liquid and safe short term investments and pay a higher interest rate than a savings account.
With Harriet’s guidance, Mary selected an investment portfolio with; a balanced fund for safety and preservation of capital, a growth stock fund her retirement, an index fund to minimize taxes, and an income fund to satisfy her current need for living expenses.
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The Paleo-DNA Laboratory is accredited under the following standards:
1. Standards Council of Canada CAN-P-4D and ISO/IEC 17025, the
Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories.
2. Standards Council of Canada CAN-P-1578, the Guidelines
for the Accreditation of Forensic Testing Laboratories.
View our Scope of Accreditation
Our Laboratory is also ASCLD compliant.
About the Standards Council of Canada
Council of Canada ("Council") is a crown corporation
established by an Act of the Canadian Federal Parliament in 1970
to foster and promote voluntary standardization in Canada. It is
independent of government in its policies and operations, although
it is financed partially by Parliamentary appropriation. The Council
consists of members from the government and private sectors.
The mandate of the Council is to promote the participation of Canadians
in voluntary standards activities, promote public-private sector
cooperation in relation to voluntary standardization in Canada,
coordinate and oversee the efforts of the persons and organizations
involved in the National Standards System, foster quality, performance
and technological innovation in Canadian goods and services through
standards-related activities, and develop standards-related strategies
and long-term objectives.
In essence, the Council promotes efficient and effective voluntary
standardization in Canada in order to advance the national economy,
support sustainable development, benefit the health, safety and
welfare of workers and the public, assist and protect consumers,
facilitate domestic and international trade and further international
cooperation in relation to standardization.” (SCC Guidelines
for The Accreditation of Forensic Testing Laboratories)
History of Forensic Accreditation in Canada
Forensic Science is the application of science to the law, without
distinction between civil and criminal proceedings. The Canadian
Society of Forensic Science (CSFS) is incorporated to promote the
study, raise the standards, and to enhance the status of forensic
science as a distinct discipline. In pursuit of these goals, in
March, 1994, the CSFS approved the formation of a committee to study
accreditation processes available to Canadian forensic laboratories
and identify the best means for them to become accredited. The SCC's
primary interest is to accredit laboratories that provide analytical
results of documented quality to the Canadian Courts of Law in both
criminal and civil proceedings. The assurance that a laboratory
adheres to recognized practices and standards can be achieved through
accreditation in the Program Specialty Area - Forensic Testing (PSAFT)
using the Guidelines for the Accreditation of Forensic Testing Laboratories
(CAN-P-1578), which can be applied to all types of testing performed
in Canadian forensic science laboratories. The ultimate goal of
an accreditation program is to enhance the reliability and the comparability
of test data generated from individual laboratories. The members
of this committee worked with the Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
to develop the following document as a framework for accreditation
of forensic laboratories within Canada under the auspices of the
Standards Council of Canada.
In September of 1994, the Canadian Department of Justice released
a consultation paper entitled "Obtaining and Banking DNA Forensic
Evidence". This document, which mentioned that the Canadian
government was investigating various aspects of forensic deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) analysis with a view to developing legislation, asked
the question "should forensic laboratories conducting DNA analysis
be accredited?" Despite its high profile, forensic DNA analysis
constitutes only one part of the broad field of forensic science;
most Canadian forensic laboratories are multidisciplinary in nature.
The CSFS accreditation committee strove to ensure that the guidelines
in the following document embraced the entire Canadian forensic
science community and that they were in place prior to passage of
legislation demanding accreditation. To ensure that they were complementary
with the legislation under consideration, the CSFS Accreditation
Committee augmented its membership with representatives from the
CSFS DNA Advisory Committee and the Department of Justice Working
Group on DNA Legislation.
How Forensic Laboratories are Classified
The services of forensic testing laboratories in Canada are generally
organized into the following divisions or sections: toxicology (drugs,
alcohol and poisons), firearms and tool mark identification, questioned
documents and counterfeit examinations, biology (serology and DNA),
and chemistry/trace evidence analysis.
These divisions of work are often referred to as forensic science
"specialty areas" or "disciplines." Within a
forensic testing laboratory, they may be organized as sections.
The activities of forensic testing laboratories generally take place
within the laboratory itself. There are, however, occasions when
attendance at a (crime) scene is necessary in order to best provide
the services required. In most instances, scene attendance and any
evidence recognition and collection are carried out by specially
trained personnel who also deal with other forms of evidence such
as fingerprints, footprints, and tire prints. These evidence types
may not be directly included in a Forensic Testing Laboratory.
How Canadian Standards Relate to International Standards
Rather than creating its own “stand-alone” standards,
the Standards Council of Canada designed its standards to harmonize
with and complement International Standards. The Standards Council
of Canada CAN-P-4D, "General Requirements for the Accreditation
of Calibration and Testing Laboratories", which is ISO
17025. In the development of these standards, the committee
relied on the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation
(ILAC) Forensic Working Group document.
(Click here to visit
the ISO website).
What Achieving Accreditation Entails
Accreditation requires on-site assessment of the laboratory and
continued participation in proficiency testing programs, where available.
The accreditation program is operated and managed by the SCC through
its Program for Accreditation of Laboratories - Canada (PALCAN).
PALCAN is operating in accordance with ISO/IEC Guide 58 Calibration
and Testing Laboratory Accreditation Systems - General Requirements
for Operation and Recognition.
What Accreditation Means
The Standards Council of Canada offers accreditation to laboratories
that undertake forensic testing. Forensic labs are involved in the
testing of physical evidence from potential crime scenes. In addition
to testing the evidence, forensic scientists often issue reports
and give expert court testimony on the test results obtained and
the conclusions that might be made based on this information.
To ensure that this evidence stands up to scrutiny in court, it
is imperative that the testing methods used by the laboratory have
proven and documented credibility. Accreditation provides an assurance
that a forensic laboratory has adhered to recognized practices and
Accreditation under the CAN-P-1578 program is the formal recognition
by the Standards Council of Canada of the competence of a forensic
testing laboratory to manage and perform this type of activity.
It is not a guarantee that test results will conform to standards
or agreements between a testing laboratory and its clients; business
transactions between an accredited testing laboratory and its clients
are legal matters between the two parties.
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The tale of Dennis Rodman’s bizarre visit to North Korea got a little stranger on Monday, when the former NBA star’s visit to Pyongyang became a topic at both the White House and the State Department. At press briefings in both buildings, Obama Administration representatives spoke with caution about the quality time “The Worm” spent watching a basketball game with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose regime calls America “the sworn enemy of the Korean people” and produces YouTube videos of Manhattan’s destruction. And they implicitly rejected the invitation conveyed by Rodman on behalf of Kim for Obama to pick up the phone and call the North Korean leader.
“The United States has direct channels of communications with the DPRK,” explained White House spokesman Jay Carney, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “And instead of spending money on celebrity sporting events to entertain the elites of that country, the North Korean regime should focus on the well-being of its own people who have been starved, imprisoned and denied their human rights.”
The State Department offered a virtually identical response: “We have direct channels of communication with the DPRK,” deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell said dutifully, before repeating the rest of Carney’s response almost verbatim.
“North Korean words and stunts such as this have no meaning,” Ventrell added. “What matters are the actions they take and the need to come in line with their international obligations.”
Is it true that Rodman’s trip had no meaning at all? Clearly, his visit to the country (sponsored by Vice Media, which is filming for a newsmagazine show that will debut next month on HBO*) isn’t about to alter Pyongyang’s nuclear policy. But wasn’t there value in seeing the Hermit Kingdom’s relatively new leader’s weakness for American basketball — one that American diplomats might try to exploit?
Not really, say some North Korea experts. “We have learned something more about Kim Jong Un’s love of basketball,” says Charles Armstrong, a Korea specialist at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. But, he adds, Kim’s fandom was already known to outsiders, in part because it was shared by his hoops-loving father.
And while hanging with Rodman — who in his post-NBA life has become an oddball reality-TV character — might reveal Kim’s comfort with American culture, that shouldn’t surprise anyone, either. Both he and his late father Kim Jong Il are known as fans of American movies and other cultural exports: “Hollywood and NBA may be American icons, but Kim’s demonstrated affinity for such forms of amusement does not signal an overture to Washington,” adds Sung-Yoon Lee of the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. “It certainly does not indicate intentions of reform or opening, coming just a couple of weeks after a nuclear test.”
In July, after all, North Korean television aired an unusual video of Kim taking in a performance that featured Mickey and Minnie Mouse, as well as women in clothes that were revealing by North Korea’s prudish standards. Yet that glimmer of cultural liberalization didn’t prevent Kim from overseeing a provocative missile test a few months later.
But while Rodman has been pilloried for praising the leader of a regime that operates gulags and presides over mass hunger as “awesome,” Lee cautions against assuming that his visit amounted to a domestic p.r. coup for the young dictator. It’s not clear that Kim, an heir to power with few accomplishments under his belt, has the full trust of his country’s powerful military establishment.
“If anything, such displays of pro-U.S. pop culture will only irk the old guard. Kim Jong Un clearly lacks the gravitas that his counterparts in the neighboring capitals carry, and even that of his late father,” Lee says. “He may believe that he is exuding an affable ‘average guy’ image by being seen with Rodman,” but to some Koreans he may underscore his image as a “lightweight.”
As for Obama calling Kim: it’s not going to happen. As a candidate in 2007, Obama said he would hold direct diplomatic meetings with North Korea’s leader and criticized the Bush Administration for not conducting more aggressive diplomacy with Pyongyang. But as North Korea has continued to test missiles and nuclear weapons, even multilateral diplomacy has been stalled for years. Today, Obama’s North Korea policy is largely shaped by Seoul and Beijing, and mostly amounts to “strategic patience,” which translates as buying time and hoping that the regime buckles or collapses.
Surely a little more insight into the thinking of North Korea’s reclusive leader would help the Obama team plan its next steps. But at the State Department on Monday, there was little sign that top officials would be contacting Rodman to hear about his quality time with Kim. “We welcome those who want to get in touch with us after a visit to North Korea,” said Ventrell. “We take the call.” But when it comes to Rodman, he added: “We haven’t been in touch.”
* HBO is owned by Time Warner, the parent company of TIME magazine.
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Grades 3 - 5
Grade level Equivalent: 7.3
Lexile Measure®: 940L
DRA: Not Available
Guided Reading: Not Available
- Comedy and Humor
- Diaries and Journals
- Middle School
- Family Life
- Friends and Friendship
About This Book
It's an eventful month for Jamie Kelly. Stinker and Stickybuns' litter of puppies has arrived — which makes Jamie and her nemesis Angeline "in-laws by dog." Ugh.
Jamie's class at Mackerel Middle School is doing a unit on journal-writing, and someone's diary falls into the wrong hands.
But worst of all, Angeline and Isabella are becoming...friends.
Dear Dumb Diary,
It's not my fault I know everything.
Okay, I don't know where Timbuktu is, but I refuse to know that. Even if somebody told me, I would flush my brain like a thought-potty and wave goodbye to Timbuktu as it swirled down my brain hole.
I know everything that I WANT to know.
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Ribbon-cutting ceremonies took place on Feb. 13 for
the new JHU Libraries' Service Center, a state-of-the-art
facility providing high-density shelving for more than 2
million volumes. Located on the
Laboratory campus in Laurel, Md., it replaces the
libraries' Baltimore facility, which was established in
1995. The new center was funded in part by a state grant of
The center houses approximately 1.4 million books and
journals, microforms and audiovisual materials from the
Library. The Welch
Medical Library and the Wilmer Eye Institute
also house materials there.
Modular in design, the current shelving capacity of
2.2 million volumes can be expanded to hold 8.8 million
volumes, including a cold storage area for film. Books are
shelved by size to maximize shelving capacity, and the
temperature is kept at a cool 50 degrees, an optimal
setting for the preservation of library materials.
"The APL campus is an ideal location," said Winston
Tabb, dean of university libraries. "It allows us to
provide quick and easy access to library materials, and the
expansion capability will ensure that we can maintain
on-campus library space for readers and key library
services. We are grateful to our colleagues at APL for
their generosity and support of this initiative, which
benefits patrons at all the Johns Hopkins libraries."
The center receives an average of 100 requests daily,
which can be made online from the JHU Libraries Catalog or
via the Web. Ninety percent of the article-length materials
requested are delivered to the requestor's desktop computer
within two hours, and books are delivered twice daily by
courier to the Homewood campus. All the materials formerly
housed at the Baltimore facility have been relocated to the
new center, which is open seven days a week.
Future plans call for the center to be available to
Maryland libraries as a statewide facility for preserving
and providing access to a shared collection, reducing the
need for redundant print collections in individual
libraries. The University System of Maryland's McKeldin
Library already shelves more than 475,000 items there.
The center was built by the Kinsley Construction
Company, based in York, Pa.
On hand to cut the ribbon were Jim Zeller, associate
provost; Larry Kilduff, executive director of facilities
operations; Winston Tabb, dean of university libraries;
Richard Roca, director of APL; and Ruth Nimmo, assistant
director of operations at APL.
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A new study has found that businesses, particularly small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), have significant room for improvement when it comes to data protection and document security.
The study, conducted by Ipsos Reid, included more than 1,000 Canadian small business owners and 100 executives from larger companies. The results suggest that small business owners may underestimate the potential damage of a data breach, as 61 percent indicated they do not believe their organization would be seriously impacted by such an event.
"A data breach can happen anywhere, anytime," said Mike Skidmore, privacy and security officer at a leading data security company. "Relaxed protocols or not having the right resources in place can detract from the culture of security that organizations want to cultivate in order to protect themselves and their clients from fraud."
Perhaps most distressingly, the report found that the percentage of small businesses that lack any protocol for storing or destroying data increased from 38 percent in 2011 to 42 percent in 2012.
Industry experts widely agree that businesses of all sizes should implement thorough document protection strategies to protect their intellectual property and their clients' privacy. These strategies can include the creation of a firewall, PDF protection and educating employees to follow best practices for data security.
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| 249
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By Katherine Hobson
Food Safety: Federal public-health officials said yesterday that the safety of the U.S. food supply isn’t threatened by the Japanese nuclear power plant disaster, the WSJ reports. While fish with higher-than-normal radiation levels have been discovered in Japan, there are no contaminated fish in the U.S. or in U.S. waters, and officials from the FDA, CDC and EPA said a monitoring system was in place to detect any such contamination in domestic and imported fish.
Trying for a Relaunch: Novartis is trying to bring back its Prexige pain medication in Europe, four years after the drug was pulled over concerns about liver damage, Bloomberg News reports. The pharma company is asking the E.U. to approve the drug under a new name, Joicela, BN says, adding that Novartis had once also planned to re-submit the painkiller in the U.S. Novartis and the FDA wouldn’t comment on the drug’s current status here.
Timing is Everything: The hormone replacement therapy picture is even more complicated now that a large NIH-funded study has shown that taking estrogen alone is potentially harmful to older, but not younger, women who have had hysterectomies, the WSJ reports. Women who began taking estrogen in their 50s appeared to suffer no ill effects, according to the study of more than 10,700 women who had their uterus removed, while those who started in their 70s showed a higher risk of chronic diseases, colorectal cancer and early death, the paper says.
Value of Screening: New stats that show 1 in 44,000 NCAA athletes die each year from sudden cardiac death — more than previously thought — could add to the case for screening at least some student athletes with an electrocardiogram, the Los Angeles Times’s Booster Shots blog reports. Last year, a study put the cost of screening high school and college athletes at $42,900 per year of life saved, similar to kidney dialysis or public defibrillators, but the new data would mean that cost would be lower, the LAT says.
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