text stringlengths 213 24.6k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 1 value | url stringlengths 14 499 | file_path stringlengths 138 138 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.9 1 | token_count int64 51 4.1k | score float64 1.5 5.06 | int_score int64 2 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nigel Spencer, Research and Business Development Manager at the British Library writes:
Do you have access to all the skills, knowledge, experience and perspectives needed to develop innovative products and services within your own organisation?
No matter how large that organisation is, it is highly unlikely that you do. If you seek input from other businesses, often in different sectors, customers, and others you are much more likely to identify innovative ideas and solutions and to build the type of partnerships which will help you turn those ideas into sustainable products and services. This simple premise is the basis of open innovation.
Stefan Lindegaard 15inno says that people should view open innovation as ‘a philosophy or a mindset that they should embrace within their organization. This mindset should enable their organization to work with external input to the innovation process just as naturally as it does with internal input’.
So,you should not look at open innovation as a rigid business or innovation model. It is a shorthand that describes a diverse range of engagement and collabration activity with differing levels of formality and structure. Examples of these include crowdsourcing, online competitions, online jams and more closely facilitated relationships. There are many examples of global corporations that have applied open innovation methods. These include ‘Orange’, Procter & Gamble, Boots, Lego and Virgin Atlantic but the growth in social media and online open innovation platforms like Innocentive, mean that anyone can find a way of applying open innovation principles.
However, if you are looking to embrace the world of open innovation, or even dip your toe in the water, a number of perceived and genuine barriers and challenges may make you hesitate. Some of these are:
- How to make the contacts needed with external organisations and people and develop long-term mutually beneficial relationships. This a particular concern if the businesses are of differing sizes.
- How to overcome the internal organisational cultures which may be uncomfortable with the kind of openness, transparency and perceived loss of direct control which are involved in applying these ideas.
- How to protect ideas and creative outputs when these are being shared and an uncertainty as to how intellectual property fits into an open innovation environment.
On 29 November 2011 the BL is hosting a half-day conference which looks at these challenges head on. It is called ‘Open Innovation: The Challenges & Solutions’.
More information and booking on the event: http://goo.gl/Hl3G5. The event is part of an EU-funded Interreg IVB NEW project called The Open Innovation Project. | <urn:uuid:33e22be5-bb0d-4f57-a314-84a277e36ade> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/managementresearch/2011/11/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944825 | 519 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Questions (updated May 2013)
Q: How will the study recommendations be implemented?
A: Implementation of the selected alternative would require Congressional legislation. If Congress does not pass legislation to implement the study’s recommendations,
then the study would simply remain as a recommendation. If Congress passes legislation addressing the San Gabriel area, the legislation would be the guiding policy for
the park unit, and would supersede the recommendations of the study report.
If Congress establishes a national park unit, the NPS would begin implementing the Congressional legislation. One of the first steps that the NPS would take would be to work with area partners on a management plan, including a broad vision for the park unit and more detailed guidance for implementation. This management plan would be completed with public involvement and appropriate environmental compliance.
Q: Why is the preferred alternative different than what was presented in the draft study special resource study?
A: The special resource study process provides for the NPS to “identify what alternative or combination of alternatives would in the professional judgment of the Director of the
NPS be most effective and efficient in protecting significant resources and providing for public enjoyment.”
Because of the increasing fiscal constraints faced by the NPS, the NPS leadership worked hard to find the most efficient way to provide the greatest benefit in the NPS final
In refining the selected alternative, we also were able to take advantage of the Service First authority, which was authorized on a permanent basis in December 2011, to achieve
some of the goals of the draft alternatives in new ways.
In this case, the selected alternative is primarily a combination of recommendations included in draft alternatives A (San Gabriel Mountains National Recreation Area, managed
by the USFS) and D (San Gabriel Region National Recreation Area as a unit of the NPS). The main difference is that a new designation has not been recommended for the Angeles
Instead, the selected alternative recommends the same recognition, tools, and support to the Angeles NF that were recommended in alternatives A and D of the draft special resource study, and direction to the USFS and NPS to work together through the Service First authority and other mechanisms to accomplish the goals that were previously part of alternative D.
Q: Why didn’t the National Park Service recommend a separate national recreation area for the San Gabriel watershed and mountains as was considered in the draft study report?
A: The NPS determined that management of a San Gabriel unit by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) would be the most effective and
efficient method of NPS management given the close proximity of the San Gabriel area to the SMMNRA and the long-term experience of the SMMNRA in developing partnerships and
cooperative management approaches. In addition, the Service First authority introduced new opportunities for the NPS and the US Forest Service to share their workloads without
sharing a boundary.
The selected alternative includes many of the recommendations for the San Gabriel watershed and mountains that were included in alternatives A
(San Gabriel Mountains National Recreation Area) and D (San Gabriel Region National Recreation Area) as presented in the draft special resource study.
The only differences are the mechanisms for how these recommendations would be implemented.
Q: How would management of the Angeles NF differ under the selected alternative, vs. what was considered under
A: There is very little difference between the alternatives in how the Angeles NF would be managed. Under both alternatives, the Angeles NF would continue to be managed by
the US Forest Service, under US Forest Service policies. Both alternatives allow for the National Park Service, at the invitation of the US Forest Service, to work
collaboratively within the Angeles NF to protect significant resources and provide high quality recreation and education opportunities.
Q: Is a more detailed map of the San Gabriel Unit available?
A: Yes, the NPS has posted an 11x17 map with more detailed information on the study website, Selected Alternative Map – Detailed 11x17.
Q: Will the NPS make copies of the full final study report available?
A: The final study report consists of three separate documents, the draft study report (2011), errata/or technical corrections to the draft study report, and the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).
These documents will not be combined into one final report. A summary of the study findings and recommendations is available as well as a CD-ROM that contains all three
Q: Was additional environmental review completed on the selected alternative?
A: Because the selected alternative is comprised of actions which were fully analyzed in the draft study report as components of the No Action alternative and alternatives A, C
and D, the NPS determined that no additional environmental review was necessary under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Based on analysis of the effects of No Action
and alternatives A, C, and D, the NPS has determined that the selected alternative would have no significant adverse
effects on biological resources, cultural resources, recreation resources, socioeconomics, land use, or water resources.
Q: How did public comments on the draft special resource study factor in the NPS decision on the selected alternative?
A: The NPS received over 12,000 comments on the draft special resource study/ environmental assessment. Most of the comments came in the form of organized campaigns in support of
alternative D (San Gabriel Region National Recreation Area). The primary reasons cited for support of alternative D included their beliefs that NPS expertise and management would
enhance the protection of the San Gabriel watershed and mountains and the opportunities for public enjoyment; would provide other avenues to fund resource protection and recreational
opportunities; and would help protect wildlife corridors and provide close to home recreation opportunities in urban areas. The selected alternative includes recommendations for each
of these desired elements.
Public comments also indicated that having both the NPS and the US Forest Service manage portions of the same national recreation area might be confusing and duplicative.
Such comments expressed concern about reconciling differences between the NPS and USFS management policies under one designation. Many of these commenters preferred no designation
for the Angeles National Forest based on fears that existing uses might change, impacting current recreational users. The selected alternative provides a mechanism for the NPS and
USFS to work together without applying a new designation to the existing national forest.
Q: What is the Service First authority and why wasn’t it considered in the alternatives presented in the draft study report?
A: The Service First authority provides a mechanism for the NPS, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and US Fish and Wildlife Service to work with each other on common
interests anywhere in the country. The law creating Service First gives the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture the authority to establish programs involving certain land
management agencies to:
The Service First authority was not referenced in the alternatives in the draft special resource study because it was only authorized on a permanent basis in December 2011,
after the draft special resource study was released for public review. However, Service First now provides the same authorities for the NPS and the U.S. Forest Service to engage
in agency partnerships and cooperative management agreements as were recommended in alternatives C (San Gabriel Watershed National Recreation Area) and D (San Gabriel Region
National Recreation Area) as part of a national recreation area designation.
- Conduct activities jointly or on behalf of one another;
- Collocate in Federal offices or leased facilities; and
- Make reciprocal delegations of their respective authorities, duties and responsibilities
- Make transfer of funds and reimbursement of funds on an annual basis, including transfers and reimbursements for multi-year projects.
Q: How would the selected alternative affect existing regulatory authorities (e.g. local governments, other federal and state agencies) and private property rights?
A: The NPS selected alternative is only a recommendation to Congress. Implementation would require Congressional legislation. An NPS designation, as proposed in the selected
alternative, would not establish additional regulatory or land use control over existing authorities and local governments. NPS land management regulations and policies would
only apply to lands that the NPS acquires or owns. The NPS would only acquire land by donation or from willing sellers.
Q: If I own a home or business inside the yellow area, what does it mean for me? What kind of restrictions would there be on the land? What kind of opportunities
might there be?
A: There would be no change in regulations or ownership. The National Park Service would not have any authority over lands which it does not own. Private homes and businesses would still be
regulated by local land use zoning. There may be new opportunities for close-to-home recreation or conservation.
Q: How would establishment of a San Gabriel unit affect the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area?
A: Establishment of a San Gabriel unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) would place new responsibilities on SMMNRA staff, and would also provide
new opportunities to reach out to urban audiences.
The special resource study identifies the funding and staffing levels needed for SMMNRA to manage the San Gabriel unit, however, Congress would determine actual funding levels.
Q: How would SMMNRA manage the San Gabriel unit?
If legislation is passed to establish the San Gabriel unit of the SMMNRA, that legislation would provide the guiding policy for the new unit. It is likely that some staff
would be stationed at the San Gabriel unit, while other staff would be shared with SMMNRA. Management details would be determined later, but it is likely that similarthat
similar management approaches would be used in both areas. If established, a management plan would be developed for the San Gabriel Unit in partnership with agencies and
organizations that own/manage land within the area and with opportunities for public involvement. Such a management plan could provide a vision and guidance for management
of the San Gabriel Unit, identify collaborative opportunities with the U.S. Forest Service in the Angeles National Forest, and identify NPS technical assistance opportunities in the
Q: Are there other national parks with geographically separated units?
A: Yes, numerous parks have geographically separated units. Perhaps the situation that is most similar to proposed San Gabriel unit of the SMMNRA is Gateway NRA in the New York City metropolitan area.
Gateway NRA has three separate units separated by densely populated urban areas: the Staten Island Unit and Jamaica Bay Unit in New York, and the Sandy Island Unit in New
Q: How will this final recommendation affect the Rim of the Valley Special Resource Study (SRS)?
A: The NPS will continue to prepare the Rim of the Valley SRS, addressing the public comments submitted this past fall in response to preliminary findings and alternatives,
and writing the draft study report. The study team will adopt the findings of the San Gabriel SRS for the overlapping portions of the study area, and may modify the draft Rim
of the Valley SRS alternatives in response to the recommendations of the San Gabriel SRS. The Rim of the Valley draft special
resource study and environmental assessment are expected to be available for public review and comment in early 2014.
Q: What is a
Special Resource Study?
In a special resource study, the National Park Service (NPS) evaluates
the natural and cultural resources of an area, and identifies
opportunities for public enjoyment and recreation. Upon completion
of the study, NPS provides a report to Congress and the local
community with recommendations for the protection and public enjoyment
of significant natural and cultural resources.
Q: Why is the
NPS conducting this study?
Congress directs the NPS to conduct special resource studies through
passing a law. In this study, the San Gabriel River Watershed
Study Act (Public Law 108-042 - July 2003) directed the NPS to
conduct a Special Resource Study of (1) the San Gabriel River
and its tributaries north of and including the city of Santa Fe
Springs, and (2) the San Gabriel Mountains within the territory
of the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains
The Act also directs
the NPS to consult with the RMC and other appropriate federal,
state and local government entities, and to consider regional
flood control and drainage needs and publicly owned infrastructure
such as wastewater treatment facilities.
Q: Are there
national parks in urban areas?
When people think of national parks what comes to mind are the
large and mostly natural “traditional” parks like
Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the national
park system includes many types of sites including national historic
sites, national monuments, national preserves, and wild and scenic
rivers. Many are smaller “nontraditional” parks located
in urban areas, which rely on partnerships and may have little,
if any, federal landownership or management. The NPS also offers
grant and technical assistance programs that help local communities
achieve their goals for conservation and recreation. | <urn:uuid:8b07b859-1e36-45d5-9638-a05e046ca70c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/pwro/sangabriel/faqs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931694 | 2,676 | 2.234375 | 2 |
More Companies Think That Windows 8 is a Gaming Catastrophe
Three days ago we reported that Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Software called Windows 8 a "catastrophe" for gaming. Now, Blizzard executive vice president of game design at the Diablo 3 studio, Rob Pardo, has agreed with him in a tweet, "nice interview with Gabe Newell - "I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space* - not awesome for Blizzard either"
So, that's two major games companies just slightly less than keen about Windows for gaming, to put it mildly. Back in March, Stardock, another major player in PC gaming, made its thoughts known too. Stardock president and CEO, Brad Wardell, wrote an editorial damning the Windows 8 desktop experience and by extension, gaming. At the bottom of all this is the Metro interface and the way it closes off the platform by forcing all software purchases to be made through the Microsoft Store, which Microsoft takes a massive 30% cut of all sales. With all this negativity from major players, it's not looking too great for Windows 8, is it?
"There's a strong temptation to close the platform," Newell said, "because they look at what they can accomplish when they limit the competitors' access to the platform, and they say, 'That's really exciting.'"
This appears to reference to the Windows Store in the Microsoft operating system, which could restrict companies' options to sell their software directly. Microsoft will take a 30 per cent royalty cut of every sale made through this store.
Posted by | Sat, Jul 28, 2012 - 08:09 PM | <urn:uuid:bbc78045-2fa3-4a8b-8185-9cfb75a1ca57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legitreviews.com/news/13744/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953985 | 336 | 1.5 | 2 |
S = I ?29 October, 2012 at 11:10 | Posted in Economics | 3 Comments
For those still having problems with understanding the nuts and bolts of what’s wrong with textbook versions of the savings and investment nexus, perhaps this little lecture might help:
Q: If consumers spend less and save more, does this mean investment must increase?
A: Absolutely not. Someone increasing their saving does not automatically imply that some firm will decide to buy more capital goods.
Q: But surely savings equals investment by identity in the national accounts.
A: Indeed. Total output = total income = total expenditure = Y. In the most simple model of a closed economy without government, income (Y) = consumption (C) + saving (S), but also expenditure (Y) = consumption (C) + investment (I). So S=I by definition. But here investment includes what is called ‘stockbuilding’ or ‘inventory accumulation’, which includes goods that firms wanted to sell but could not. To make this clear, lets split measured investment (I) into these two components: I=DK (buying new capital goods) +DS (stockbuilding). So if people consume less (C falls), but investment in new capital (DK) stays the same, measured investment rises because firms accumulate inventories of the goods that consumers did not buy (DS rises).
Q: But this situation cannot continue, as firms may be losing money.
A: Exactly. They will cut back on their output, incomes will fall, consumption may fall further, and savings will also fall, cutting back on the initial increase that we started with.
Q: When will this process stop?
A: When firms stop accumulating inventories i.e. when DS=0. Then, and only then, will S=DK.
Q: But how can this be? We have assumed that DK stayed the same, and we started with an increase in S?
A: You have not been paying attention. Each time firms reduce their output to match lower demand, incomes and savings fall. Eventually the initial rise in savings is reversed, because overall income has fallen.
Q: Got it. But textbooks make a big thing about aggregate savings equalling investment. If it is just an accounting identity, why is it important?
A: What the textbooks really mean is that we eventually end up with a position in which S=DK. And that is important, for the reasons we have just discussed. It is called the paradox of thrift. A desire by consumers to increase savings ends up just reducing output, and savings do not increase at all. (Of course they are still saving more of their income: S/Y has gone up, but because Y has fallen, not because S has increased.)
Q: But I thought with all this ‘just in time’ production stuff, firms did not hold many inventories any more.
A: Well we could short circuit the story by forgetting about inventories and having firms accurately forecast what demand will be, and therefore what their output should be. In practice what we call involuntary inventory accumulation can still be important when looking at quarterly movements in national output.
Q: But is it realistic to assume investment – I mean DK – stays the same if savings are initially higher? If there are more savings around, it becomes cheaper to borrow, which will encourage investment, right?
A: It might, but it might not. In particular, if output is falling, firms may be reluctant to add to their capital stock.
Q: But won’t interest rates keep falling until they do? After all, the asset market has to clear.
A: Savers have an alternative, which is to just keep their savings as money.
Q: But they will put the money in a bank, and the bank will lend it.
A: Maybe, but the bank may just decide to hold on to the cash.
Q: It seems to be really important what people do with their additional savings.
A: Perhaps. But I think the key point is that, most of the time, the person doing the saving is different from, and has different motives to, the person doing any investing. A highly complex financial system links the two. And in that system, there will be lots of opportunities for the additional savings to be parked as money.
Q: Money seems very important here. It is why the extra saving does not have to find its way into more investment.
A: I think that’s right.
Q: If people hold the extra savings as money, will that not increase money demand. What happens if the central bank keeps the money supply fixed?
A: People hold money not just as a way of saving, but also to buy and sell things. And if less is being consumed, there is less need for money on this account. It is difficult to predict what will happen to the total demand for money, which is why central banks nowadays focus on determining short term interest rates rather than the money supply.
Q: That’s not what it says in my textbook. It says the central bank fixes the money supply.
A: Yes I know. I’m afraid it’s a bit out of date. Don’t ask me why.
Q: So if the central bank determines the interest rate, why don’t they ensure the interest rate is low enough to encourage firms to buy more capital goods?
A: That is what they would like to do. There are two problems. First, it may take some time for the monetary authorities to work out what is happening, and what the right interest rate is. (I could talk about real and nominal rates here, but let’s leave that for another day.) Second, nominal interest rates cannot go below zero, and maybe we would need negative interest rates to persuade firms to raise investment enough.
Q: My textbook also says that the classical model assumes interest rates adjust so S=I, by which I assume they mean S=DK. Does that mean the classical model is wrong?
A: Only if you think it applies at all times, and that there is no other reason why output cannot fall. However if we assume that the monetary authorities eventually are able to chose the right interest rate, then the classical model is fine when thinking about economies over a long enough time horizon.
Q: This all seems like common sense. I feel a bit stupid not to have understood this before.
A: Don’t worry, you are not alone. | <urn:uuid:6db4e184-5a9b-44db-ad4f-aded05904e19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/s-i-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966325 | 1,358 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By David Lusseau
Are you working on a complex context of resource use, involving ecological, economic and social dynamics? Do you want to better understand how this complex system reacts to changes like increased harvest, higher market demand, or climate change?
We are coming to realise that in order to sustainably manage the, direct or indirect, exploitation of natural resources we cannot look at economic and environmental aspects in isolation. Sustainability is defined by our ability to maintain an economically viable activity while preserving the ecological integrity of the natural resources it uses as well as the socioeconomic welfare of the communities involved. Isolated management of these socio- economic- ecological systems leads to societal conflicts that are difficult to inform in a rational manner. To bridge this gap we have classically evaluated the economic outputs of services provided by ‘pristine’ natural resources and altered macroeconomics models to account for these incomes. However, this approach limits our abilities to account for indirect human effects on ecosystems as well as indirect ecosystem contributions. Importantly, it maintains a notion that people and their environment are separate entities.
Socioecological systems as complex adaptive systems
Alternatively, we can see these systems as complex adaptive systems composed of many agents of different types that are interacting in different contexts (see Figure 1, below, for an example). This approach is appealing for two reasons. Firstly, it recognizes that people and their environment are part of the same system. Secondly, it simplifies the application of our original view of sustainability to a system-wide management aim. In such a system, sustainability is achieved when all components can be sustained (economic viability, ecological integrity, socioeconomic welfare). The emergence of this notion of socioecological systems has developed concurrently with new analytical advances in applied statistics and mathematics that improved our ability to model complex systems and fit such models to data. These advances have led to a recent shift in approaches to analysing socio-ecological conflicts using socio-ecological modeling techniques. This method, in brief, models the mechanisms linking economic, social and ecological capitals in study systems. We can use computational simulations in which actors and their interactions and actions are mechanistically modeled (agent-based models), informed by real data, to determine the emergent dynamics and behavior of the system. We can therefore assess whether such system can remain viable or will perish under given conditions. Using these mechanistic models, we can understand under which socioecological conditions we can sustain present infrastructure and ecological capitals. We can also simulate scenarios to predict likely sustainability impacts of proposed developments or exploitation intensities, and therefore inform management actions. Crucially, we now have techniques to assess the sensitivity of outcomes to uncertainties in the model’s parameters or structure.
Many studies are now underway in isolation focusing on particular socioecological model case studies. Greater coordination would promote the development of insights in this burgeoning inter- and multi-disciplinary venture. Secondly, many of these efforts are taking place in developed countries where funding is available because modelers often lack connections with less favoured countries. There is a need to improve the connectivity between socioecological modelers and systems where their skills would be greatly beneficial; particularly in guiding development scenarios. Such connections would also provide great opportunities for capacity building. Finally, most of our socioecological models now only focus on infrastructure and ecological capitals (economic-ecological models) and these models still largely do not account for societal/cultural impacts. Yet, we know that social and cultural mechanisms can have profound effects on the sustainability of natural resources exploitation. We therefore need to develop a forum in which anthropologists and social scientists, that have insights in key conflicts on which IUCN is focussing, can engage with socioecological modelers in finding ways to integrate these dimensions in socioecological models to define sustainability solutions.
The potential role of SULi SG
I think that the broad spectrum of representation that the SuLi Specialist Group offers by spanning SSC and CEESP, along with the clear terms of reference it was given by IUCN, provide the perfect forum for meeting these challenges. This could be achieved with the creation of a modeling for sustainability working group within the SG of which the remit would be to take forward the three urgent tasks highlighted above, namely:
- Act as forum to develop methodological and conceptual insights by contrasting case study models;
- Act as a networking center to foster:
- access to people with technical expertise for communities needing assistance,
- socioecological system approach to pressing global development challenges,
- capacity building in modeling skills;
- Engage in model developments to integrate local socioeconomic and cultural aspects in socioecological systems by fostering interactions between individuals of all relevant disciplines.
If you have any thoughts or comments feel free to contact me.
Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland and Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK. E-mail: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:684e9c31-ccb3-4998-9185-195fcccbdcd8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/sustainable_use_and_livelihoods_specialist_group/sulinews/issue_1/sn1_modeling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934873 | 1,013 | 2.796875 | 3 |
||The "Waltz in D flat major", opus 64, No. 1, popularly known as the "Minute Waltz" is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. The piece is given the tempo marking "Molto vivace". He wrote it in 1847 and published it in Leipzig the same year, as the first of the opus 64 Trois Valses, dedicating it to "To Mme. la Comtesse Delphine Potocka". Since the second waltz is in the key of C-sharp minor, the "Minute" waltz contrasts by being in the enharmonic parallel major key (D-flat major). Despite its nickname, a typical performance of the work will last between one and a half and two and a half minutes; this is because Chopin's publisher, who coined the nickname, intended the "minute" to mean "small". | <urn:uuid:63fd19da-3c78-4f2b-b95d-474b2bed98d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phonezoo.com/ringtone/33108454/minute-waltz-chopin.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936202 | 201 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Want to look 10 years into the future, and see how your health is holding up? Thanks to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, you now can. They developed a checklist, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which fairly accurately predicts a senior's chance of surviving another decade, providing a unique opportunity for patients and physicians to work together to lessen key health risk factors and improve seniors' quality of life, they say.
The UCSF analysis used a nationally representative cohort of U.S. adults over age 50. Point values were assigned to each factor in the mortality index (the higher the points, the worse the risk). A risk score was then calculated for each participant based on their self-reported health indicators. In the end, there was a dramatic difference: Participants with no risk factors had a 2.8 percent chance of dying over 10 years, while those with the most risks had a 96 percent chance of dying.
Although a single health risk factor isn't enough to predict longevity, researchers caution, a host of attributes taken together can say something powerful about your future health. See how your risk factors stack up.
CREDIT: Scott Indermaur/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:b2df9978-b6c0-44ed-a52d-9825c0fa28ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/senior-health-pictures/things-that-can-shorten-your-life.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95826 | 244 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Perish the thought
- Selected Poems by Derek Mahon
Penguin, 213 pp, £9.99, November 2000, ISBN 0 14 118233 4
In his undergraduate days at Trinity College Dublin in the early 1960s, Derek Mahon cast a spell over his contemporaries, as he would cast a spell over his early readers. He had wit, taste and a literary knowledge beyond his years; his distinctiveness as a Belfast poet was crucially accentuated by his study of French literature, which Irish poets had been slow to explore. Fellow students who are now also famous poets have recorded how intimidating his presence, and poems, could be. ‘I was taken aback by the sheer verve of his idiom,’ Eavan Boland writes, ‘the attack of his syntax, his brat-pack stance as poète maudit.’ Michael Longley ‘felt overwhelmed and wanted to withdraw to a safe distance’. It was obvious that, as a young poet, he dominated the university scene. It was not so obvious that the university would dominate him.
Of the Northern Irish poets who emerged in the 1960s, Mahon was the most technically gifted. The early poems show a mesmerising assurance immediately established, for example, in the opening of ‘Early Morning’, the first section of the sequence ‘Breton Walks’:
No doubt the creation was something like this –
A cold day breaking on silent stones,
Slower than time, spectacular only in size.
The loftiness of that ‘No doubt’ instantly lifts the passage. The voice affects to be bored by the Creation, in the process framing a wide-angle picture, a God’s-eye view which, as in Auden’s poetry, undergoes a chastening contraction, brought about here by an old woman’s theatrical entrance:
She calls good-day, since there are bad days too,
And her eyes go down. She has seen perhaps
Ten thousand dawns like this, and is not impressed.
The poem is a performance confidently carried off, and it is this confidence we react to.
‘Early Morning’ makes an important distinction between creation and work, a distinction on which his poems will continue to insist. In Mahon’s poetry, creations have more life than their creators. The poet tends to establish the scene and then take up his position, usually that of a passive observer, as in the following prescient lines from an early version of ‘Beyond Howth Head’:
And will the year two thousand find
Me still at a window, pen in hand,
Watching long breakers curl on sand
Erosion makes for ever finer?
At heart, Mahon’s poetry is about a literary consciousness profoundly turned in on itself; its deepest feeling is for the state of desire which the widening horizons of literature make possible, a desire for desire. Because of its self-reflexiveness, however, the true subject and feeling of his work is sometimes obscured. Most of the early writing about Mahon emphasised how glamorously well-travelled the poems were. Night-Crossing and Lives, his first collections, with their versions and translations of Villon, Breton, Rimbaud and Baudelaire, were seen as bringing a fresh idiom into Irish poetry. Here were poems of the Existentialist outsider, of anonymous points of departure, of endless lonely railway stations and hotel rooms. The critic Brian Donnelly, an early fan, recalls that Mahon’s face – unsmiling and goateed – on the cover of Night-Crossing, seemed to be ‘suggestive of things foreign and exotic’. | <urn:uuid:13d9c393-70ea-41f2-990e-ebdb973c0dd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n03/john-redmond/perish-the-thought | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9799 | 784 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Can you really get out of chronic pain without medication or surgery? For the 100 million people who live with pain, I have good news. There’s a simple solution that you can do on your own, at home, to get out and stay out of pain.
Regardless of what initially seemed to cause your pain – illness, disease, surgery, pregnancy, injury, or perhaps you are just assuming your pain is caused by aging – I believe the reason your pain became chronic is the same for everyone.
I’ve spent more than a decade helping people get out and stay out of chronic pain by addressing the source of the problem. I believe chronic pain is caused by dehydration of your connective tissue system. The problem is, most people don’t know what this is, so they don’t know how to resolve this common issue.
What’s important to understand is connective tissue dehydration happens to everyone, regardless of age or activity level – every day. Even if you don’t have chronic pain, you’ve likely experienced what I call a “pre-pain signal.” Have you ever felt a little stiff or achy when you get up in the morning, but once you start moving around the stiffness subsides? That’s what I have concluded to be connective tissue dehydration.
Daily repetitive movements and postures cause connective tissue dehydration, and over time, "stuck stress" and inflammation. What starts out as a small ache can escalate into sleeplessness, digestive issues, anxiety or depression, and ultimately a chronic state of disarray. It’s a complex molecular and cellular issue that diet and exercise don’t address and medication can actually make worse. I believe that when you address the dehydration, your body stops sending cries for help to your brain in the form of pain.
MELT directly addresses stuck stress in your body. It’s a simple self-treatment anyone can do at any age – even my mom MELTs! There are three quick and easy sequences you can do to get out and stay out of pain, and feel better every day.
Choose one 3-minute MELT, or for added benefit combine all three. MELT when it is convenient for you and feels good – first thing in the morning, or anytime during the day up to an hour before bedtime. You will need a soft body roller and a soft treatment ball. If you don’t have a roller yet, you can try a rolled-up beach towel or a traditional, firm roller wrapped in a towel, blanket, or yoga mat. For best results, drink water before and after you MELT. | <urn:uuid:2eaaa3a7-de0c-4ee1-9040-bf3341d27842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/melt-method-naturally-end-your-pain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949646 | 557 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Hourglass was a newsletter put out for employees of the Apex Manufacturing Company. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center contains a series of Hourglass newsletters published from 1943 to 1948. Apex manufactured washing machines in Sandusky in the 1930s and 1940s. During World War II, millions of dollars worth of materials were manufactured by the local Apex plant for the war effort. Miss Lillian Chapman from the purchasing department created the Christmas cover design for the December, 1947 Hourglass. The upcoming Apex Christmas party was a featured topic in this edition.
The party was to be held at the Sandusky Junior High School at 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 20, 1947. Elmer Rife’s “All-Apex Music Masters” was one of the groups scheduled to provide entertainment. Kay Lutes and her Million Dollar Dance Revue was another.
The Apex Manufacturing Company and its predecessor, Holland Rieger, provided jobs for hundreds of Sandusky area men and women for many years. Inquire at the Reference Services desk to view copies of the Hourglass newsletter from Apex. | <urn:uuid:5e0e332c-fa62-45e4-95c6-96463fb8cc78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas-1947-edition-of-hourglass.html?showComment=1357566867722 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959714 | 223 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Gardening classes for those who just can't wait for spring will begin Sunday, Jan. 13. Cutler Master Gardener Pat Lane begins the classes in the First Unitarian Universalist Church by sharing her knowledge and love of early-season seed preparation and planting.
Lane, one of Washington County's first Master Gardeners under the Ohio State University Extension Service program, weaves nearly eight decades of gardening knowledge with many personal stories about how gardening has affected her life. She also shares seeds - especially cherry tomato - that she has lovingly preserved.
The free gardening classes are being offered from 1-2 p.m. Sundays in the church fellowship hall at 232 Third St. (Third and Putnam streets). Classes will run five or six weeks, depending upon interest and participation. More than 150 people from throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley participated in last year's sessions.
In addition to Lane's early-season planting classe, Jim Couts will share new information learned about worm composting and organic gardening with the compost. Another class will explore the development of homemade solar domes for raised beds. The solar domes allow earlier season plantings for those hoping to jump start outdoor gardens. Another discussion involves the possible recycling of Marietta College Parson Hall window screens into community garden greenhouses.
After Lane's introductory class Jan. 13, gardeners will be invited on Saturday, Jan. 19, to help demolish an Oak Grove barn and later transform its boards into garden tables and other raised garden beds for those with health or accessibility issues.
For suggestions about additional gardening class ideas or questions: Roger G. Kalter at 373-1784 or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:c3cc7fb4-c6af-457d-943f-0b75271b8e5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/548888/Gardening-classes-will-be-offered.html?nav=5008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918941 | 346 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Xavier is recognized by Hamilton County Solid Waste District as an Outstanding Organics Recycler
Xavier was noted for reducing its waste stream and increasing its composting efforts.
Xavier received Hamilton County Recycling and Solid Waste District’s award for Outstanding Organics Recycler. The award was presented at the Eighth Annual Recycling Awards Ceremony and Breakfast on Nov. 15 at the Millrace Lodge in Winton Woods.
Since 1997, communities across the country have gathered on Nov.15 to celebrate America Recycles Day. It is a day to educate and motivate neighbors, friends and community leaders to improve recycling efforts year-round.
Xavier was recognized for its achievements in waste reduction and organics diversion. Since 2011, Chartwell’s, the University's food service provider, has managed Xavier’s composting process, collecting pre-consumer food waste and post-consumer scraps in the Hoff Dining Commons. Everything from onion peels, carrot skins and meat trimmings to the scraps students leave on their plates goes into 64-gallon compost bins, which are wheeled into the compost cooler once filled.
“We have consistently diverted around 5,000 pounds of compostable organic material each week since the program started,” says Ed Devoid, director of residential dining. “Future Organics comes twice a week to pick up from our dedicated compost cooler in the dining services kitchen.”
In addition to the compost program, Xavier has eliminated Styrofoam from the Hoff Dining Commons by replacing disposable to-go containers with reusable Green To-Go containers.
“More than 400 students take advantage of our takeout option daily,” Devoid states, “so that simple change eliminated 30,000 Styrofoam containers from the local landfill last year.” | <urn:uuid:c5a43555-343d-4670-b262-1467d2cb35a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xavier.edu/news/Xavier-is-recognized-by-Hamilton-County-Solid-Waste-District-as-an-Outstanding-Organics-Recycler.cfm?grp_id=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940315 | 380 | 1.890625 | 2 |
No one knows of any other planet where you can do this simple thing.
Other planets and moons in our solar system have atmospheres, but none of them could support life as we know it. They are either too dense (as on Venus) or not dense enough (as on Mars), and none of them have much oxygen, the precious gas that we Earth animals need every minute.
So how did our atmosphere get to be so special?
Some scientists describe three stages in the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere as it is today.
Earth’s original atmosphere was probably just hydrogen and helium, because these were the main gases in the dusty, gassy disk around the Sun from which the planets formed. The Earth and its atmosphere were very hot. Molecules of hydrogen and helium move really fast, especially when warm. Actually, they moved so fast they eventually all escaped Earth's gravity and drifted off into space.
Earth’s “second atmosphere” came from Earth itself. There were lots of volcanoes, many more than today, because Earth’s crust was still forming. The volcanoes released
- steam (H2O, with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom),
- carbon dioxide (CO2, with one carbon atoms and two oxygen atoms),
- ammonia (NH3, with one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms).
Much of the CO2 dissolved into the oceans. Eventually, a simple form of bacteria developed that could live on energy from the Sun and carbon dioxide in the water, producing oxygen as a waste product. Thus, oxygen began to build up in the atmosphere, while the carbon dioxide levels continued to drop. Meanwhile, the ammonia molecules in the atmosphere were broken apart by sunlight, leaving nitrogen and hydrogen. The hydrogen, being the lightest element, rose to the top of the atmosphere and much of it eventually drifted off into space.
Now we have Earth’s “third atmosphere,” the one we all know and love—an atmosphere containing enough oxygen for animals, including ourselves, to evolve.
So plants and some bacteria use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, and animals use oxygen and give off carbon-dioxide—how convenient! The atmosphere upon which life depends was created by life itself. | <urn:uuid:33db6731-124f-451a-b0dc-da02d9a14387> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scijinks.nasa.gov/atmosphere-formation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963437 | 464 | 3.9375 | 4 |
For 100 years, a unique and open culture of TCM flourished in Shanghai, welcoming and adapting schools from around the country, as well as western medicine. Doctors even shared once jealously guarded family prescriptions, reports Tan Weiyun.
Like Shanghai itself and its cosmopolitan haipai (Shanghai style), the traditional Chinese medicine that took root and flourished in the city for around 100 years is notable for its practitioners' open mind and their willingness to embrace, adapt to many styles of both TCM and Western medicine.
To recognize the city's unique TCM heritage, the municipal government has a two- to three-year plan to renovate and reopen 15 historic sites, such as the residences of masters, old pharmacies and compounding workshops. The aim is to promote Shanghai's special, eclectic healing traditions.
"Shanghai TCM is unique in combining not only a wide variety of medical styles from around China but also opening its doors to Western medicine since the middle of 19th century," says Yan Shiyun, a TCM master and professor at Shanghai University of TCM. "Tolerance, absorption and mixture are the key words of haipai TCM."
With the opening of the Shanghai port in the mid-1800s, the city known as the "Paris of the Orient" and center of the nation's economy and culture, also attracted TCM practitioners from all parts of the country.
It featured acupuncture therapies from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, massage from Shandong Province, pediatrics from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province and internal medicine from Chengdu in Sichuan Province, among many others.
In 1927, famous acupuncturist Lu Shouyan (1909-1969) from Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, opened his acupuncture clinic in Shanghai.
At the time many critics who were not familiar with TCM, considered the ancient practice to be witchcraft, and so it was dying out.
Lu started writing a newspaper column to explain the principles behind acupuncture, compiled medical books with his wife Zhu Rugong, and wrote many articles on how to cure disease and ailments with acupuncture.
In 1916, Zhu Nanshan (1871-1938) started to practice in Shanghai, the TCM he studied in Jiangsu. An expert in gynecology, Zhu was skilled in treating menstrual problems, such as pain, as well as infertility, and habitual miscarriage. His reputation spread and he treated around 200 patients a day.
"A striking feature of Shanghai-style TCM is that doctors respected and learned from each other," Yan says.
Gynecologists Cai Xiangyun and He Hongfang exchanged views and shared experience; pediatrician Xu Xiaopu learned from Zhu Weiju and even sent his son to study from Zhu. Ding Ganren took Wang Shilian and Tang Rongchuan as his teachers.
"Many TCM doctors coming to Shanghai at that time were very open-minded and pioneering," says Dr Shang Li, director of the Shanghai TCM International Trade in Service Promotion Center. It's a government-backed organization that promotes the TCM industry to the Western world.
In 1916, Ding Ganren, a TCM master from Menghe, Jiangsu Province, set up China's first TCM educational institution, which broke with the centuries-old tradition of keeping TCM in the family and not sharing its "secrets" and prescriptions with outsiders.
He was also believed to be the first TCM practitioner in China who introduced Western medicine to his students, including anatomy, physiology, pathology and other fields.
With his efforts, more than 40 TCM schools were founded during the early 1920s. Almost 80 percent of the famous modern TCM doctors in China today graduated from these schools.
Jiangsu-native Lu Yuanlei (1894-1955) was dedicated to combining ancient Chinese therapy with Western medicine. The master, fluent in English, German, French and Japanese, introduced many Western medical works to China.
Top 10 hottest Chinese athletes of 2012
Who is the most beautiful bride?
Rare photos of China's last emperor Puyi
A glance at 20 promising Chinese artists
Sexy 2013 FC Barcelona Calendar
Top 10 most popular foreign writers in China
Heartwarming!Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat
Top 10 glamorous flight attendants in China
Really? Is marriage the grave of love? | <urn:uuid:de5d065b-44d1-423d-ba9d-a1e4b72328a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/8044723.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962794 | 905 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Olivier Knox; 19/6/09
The US Senate approved a fiercely worded resolution formally apologising for the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery” of African-Americans. The unanimous voice vote came five months after Barack Obama became the first black US president, and ahead of the June 19 “Juneteenth” celebration of the emancipation of African-Americans at the end of the US Civil War in 1865. The non-binding resolution now heads to the House of Representatives, where a similar resolution passed by voice vote in July 2008, only to wither in the upper chamber. House approval, which could come as early as next week, would make it the first time the entire US Congress has formally apologised on behalf of the American people for one of the grimmest wrongs in US history. | <urn:uuid:d4334d43-fbeb-4a1d-944d-d8b814da088a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.missionandjustice.org/us-senate-approves-apology-for-slavery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956158 | 173 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Soon, families might finally be able to get clear and upfront information on college costs and what their debt will be.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education have teamed up to launch the “Know Before You Owe” student loan project. The agencies have drafted a one-page shopping sheet to help students better understand the type and amount of financial aid they qualify for, and to allow them to compare college offers.
The form is similar in concept to the federal Truth in Lending Act mortgage disclosure form, which is intended to give borrowers fundamental information about their home loans.
Part of the student loan form aims to help students determine how much it would cost each year to attend the selected college, including tuition, housing, books and transportation. The drafted form also includes information on grants, scholarships and work-study options. Most important, a box provides not only the total loan amount borrowed but also the total estimated monthly payment for federal and any private loans. This one section should serve as shock therapy for students who don’t end up getting lots of grants or scholarships.
“In these tough economic times, the stakes have never been higher for students and their families to clearly understand the costs and risks of student loans,” said Raj Date, special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury for the CFPB.
Additionally, to give families a comparison guide, the drafted form would include information on the average cost to attend public and private schools. More specifically, the form would provide graduation rates and retention ratess — as well as the percentage of students from the selected school who have defaulted on their federal loans within the first three years of repayment.
This shopping sheet is quite significant. It has the potential to force families to consider the full cost of college and maybe lead them to make choices that won’t bury them in debt for decades. But here’s the thing. The Department of Education doesn’t have the authority to mandate use of the form. And the department might not push for it as a requirement unless there is public demand. “We want to see what feedback we get from students and families before we move down that path,” said spokeswoman Sara Gast.
Congress should step in and require institutions to provide families with a standardized financial aid disclosure form. We can’t wait for the schools to voluntarily use the form because many won’t. If more students fully understood how much they would owe, it would probably dissuade colleges from allowing costs to spiral. The College Board just released its annual “Trends in College Pricing” report. State budget cuts, most noticeably in California, helped cause the average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges between the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years to rise 8.3 percent. Tuition and fees rose 4.5 percent at private, nonprofit colleges.
The financial aid shopping sheet is available to view and download at www.consumerfinance.gov. Weigh in with your suggestions if you think it could be improved. For example, Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a great Web site for college financial aid information, suggests changing the shopping sheet to include loan repayment rates instead of default rates.
I recommend including a separate breakout for total parent loans that would be needed and the monthly payments for those loans. Additionally, I’d like to see a section with an example of how student debt can soar when a borrower postpones payments by receiving an unsubsidized deferment or forbearance after leaving school.
The conventional wisdom that a college education — and the debt it costs to obtain it — is a guarantee to a good life doesn’t always hold true, especially in an economy with high unemployment and many low starting salaries.
For decades, parents and prospective college students have been told that school loans are good debt. But this awful advice has helped push many families to assume more debt than they can afford.
Please take the time to study the financial aid shopping sheet. Families need a push to know what they will owe before it’s too late.
Readers can write to Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20071. Or e-mail: email@example.com. Personal responses may not be possible. Please also note comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer’s name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated. | <urn:uuid:d15acbc9-2b44-4b72-ba1e-315983efe50e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/form-helps-calculate-college-student-loan-costs/2011/10/24/gIQAifvJTM_story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959513 | 935 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Sandwiched between the Westfalianschinken and Lachschinken is possibly Albany's most popular locally-made ham. And for something that is sliced so thin, it really is a mouthful.
It's a lot easier to say once you learn that sometimes one impossibly long word is simply three words squeezed together. In this case it's Schwarz (Black), Wälder (from the word for Forest), and Schinken (ham). From there, if you take it slowly, the pronunciation is straightforward.
Recently I chatted with Glen Eggelhoefer, who owns Rolf's Pork Store with his brother Edgar and sister Rita. He helped me make sense of the many German hams and wursts at their store in Albany, and explained why his products are so damned good.
So, who is Rolf?
Rolf was Glen's father, who was a butcher over in Germany and opened the store on the corner of Lexington and Sheridan Avenues in 1968. But even before it was Rolf's the building was a meat store for the better part of a century. Glen claims that the store is the oldest existing meat market in upstate New York.
Glen and his brother took over 24 years ago. "Everything I learned was from my father. I never changed anything. Everything my father did, I still do the same way."
Rolf's Schwarzwälderschinken is wet cured and hot smoked. That would be different than the dry cured and cold smoked version made in the Black Forest region of Germany. But that's okay. Its light smoke and low salt content give this ham an enchanting aroma and delicate flavor. Glen tells me this is the most popular of the hams he sells.
It is sliced very thin and enjoyed on its own. In theory I suppose you could make it into a very special ham sandwich, but somehow I always seem to devour my stash on the car ride home.
So what's the secret?
"It's what I do to them. The way we cut 'em. The way we trim 'em. The way we cure 'em. It's my content. I use the lowest salt possible to cure a ham, and make it so it's preserved, yet I use no preservatives."
In short, it's salt, smoke and generations of craftsmanship.
Glen clearly takes a lot of pride in his work. "I totally believe in my product. I believe the reason I look like this at 50 years old is because of what I eat. I'm a big meat eater. I do not eat vegetables." He also doesn't exercise or work out.
To be fair he's on his feet forty hours a week at the store, and while there, Glen's lifting thousands of pounds of meat every day.
Still, his products may be difficult for those who are not of German descent to navigate.
Glen acknowledges: "The American people, everybody knows what prosciutto is for some reason. Holiday Lachschinken, Bauernschinken, Westfalianschinken, they are all very similar to prosciutto, it's the same idea."
So we already learned that Schinken is ham. Bauer is farmer and the implication is that it was made on a farm. The one at Rolf's is imported from Germany and is most similar to prosciutto, except that it is also smoked. Sometimes the modifier is to denote the style of a region, like Westfalian (for the German region of Westfalia). Although in this case, the ham comes from New York City, and like prosciutto is dry cured. The Westfalianschinken has a much deeper smoke flavor than the Scwarzwälderschinken.
Other names are assigned based on what the product looks like. Lachs means salmon, and the lachschinken, at least in theory, is supposed to resemble smoked salmon.
Wurst is sausage. Brat is something you fry. Weiss is white. Knack is to crack, or the sound of biting into a Knackwurst. Frankfurters come from Frankfurt. Teawurst is served with tea.
Speaking of Teawurst, this is certainly not for everyone, but it's a raw pate of pork and beef that is lightly smoked. It comes either coarse or smooth, and you spread it on rye. Rolf's makes this in house, by freezing the meat for thirty days at a temperature of -10 degrees Fahrenheit, which apparently kills all the harmful bacteria. If you are a little bit adventurous you've got to give it a try.
Top chefs all over the country are curing and smoking their own meats these days. At Rolf's this isn't anything new. It's what they have done for generations. I have the sense that a lot of people do not quite realize how lucky we are to have an institution like this in our midst.
Glen reminds me about Rolf's, "We've got no competition, everyone else went out of business," but "as long as we have someone to take over [the store], it'll stay here." The good news is that Glen's nephew is already in the back learning the business.
Hopefully this helps demystify the place for you. And now you can pick up some dynamite ham for your holiday hors d'oevers spread. The Teawurst is totally optional.
Daniel B. is the proprietor of the Fussy Little Blog.
Rolf's Pork Store
70 Lexington Ave
Albany, NY 12206
We'd really like you to take part in the conversation here at All Over Albany. But we do have a few rules here. Don't worry, they're easy. The first: be kind. The second: treat everyone else with the same respect you'd like to see in return. Cool? Great, post away. Comments are moderated so it might take a little while for your comment to show up. Thanks for being patient. | <urn:uuid:9c5c8ca4-401f-4f3f-83e9-c1247da96e10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/12/13/schwarzwalderschinken-at-rolfs%0A | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971702 | 1,258 | 1.5 | 2 |
The holidays are a great excuse for a party. But overindulging in holiday cheer could lead to heart trouble. Ice cream, liquor, and shaved chocolate. That's certainly enough to get some people in the holiday spirit.
But over-do the spirits and you might end up in the hospital. "It comes not necessarily from binge drinking, but just from going out and partying a little too much," said Dr. Tom Tallman, with the Cleveland Clinic.
Dr. Tallman estimates about a third of patients who come into his emergency room between Thanksgiving and New Year's have something called "holiday heart syndrome." It affects those who aren't used to drinking very much, who then over-indulge in alcohol during holiday get-togethers.
Their heart rate speeds up and becomes irregular. According to Dr. Tallman, "blood pressure can drop, and you can get lightheaded, as well as having the chest pain or shortness of breath." Feeling like they're having a heart attack, they head to the e-r only to discover, it was the alcohol that caused the problem. | <urn:uuid:95705e18-c8f2-4d01-aa77-d879b6528eea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.ky3.com/2011-11-21/holiday-drinking_30427146 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96966 | 226 | 2.015625 | 2 |
"Now, that said, let me ask: is there any epistemic value in the concept of common design other than co-opt evidence for evolution?"
i) This is a beautifully anachronistic statement of the issue. The concept of common design doesn't "co-opt" evidence for evolution. For one thing, the concept of common design goes back to the Judeo-Christian concept of divine creation, which antedates the evolutionary debate by centuries and millennia.
All I've done is to apply a traditional teaching to a new issue.
ii) In addition, to say it's co-opting the evidence for evolution begs the question of whether the evidence singles out evolution.
"I think there is not. In practice, the invocation of common design is clear in its utility; as Steve Hays says, why can’t any evidence for common descent simply be evidence for common design? The answer is… it can!"
Which is why the evidence for common descent is not, in fact, evidence for common descent. It's consistent with common decent, but it's consistent with common design. At that level, both explanations are empirically equivalent.
"And that’s precisely the problem. Common design is an infallible, unfalsifiable hypothesis, even in principle, and therefore useless scientifically."
Several more problems:
i) Science is not the sole gateway of truth.
ii) Not all truth is hypothetical.
iii) Why assume that reality is always engineered for the convenience of a scientist? Indeed, that would be a design concept.
"The natural response would be: Ok, what would be evidence that doesn’t support common design? Obviously, not all creatures are exactly alike, so common design allows for differentiation and specialization. What then, would argue against common design as an “explanation” for observed similiarities, functional or no? I don’t see that common design could possible be discounted; it can account for anything, as it invokes an unidentified but infinitely capable Designer."
i) The concept of design antedates ID-theory. And the Judeo-Christian concept of creation does not invoke an "unidentified" Designer.
ii) But suppose this were a debate over ID-theory. T-stone's problem is that because he's a dogmatic theistic evolutionist, he can't even stand the watered-down theism of ID-theory. And that's because some, but not all, ID-theorists are opposed to evolution.
"Such is the poverty of ad-hoc creationism."
The traditional, Judeo-Christian doctrine of divine creation is "ad hoc"?
"If you’re undisciplined in you epistemology, “Goddidit” becomes a reflex, and especially useful as a dismissive defensive weapon."
Notice how t-stone, who poses as a Christian, never takes into consideration the possibility that there are times when, in fact, "Goddidit" is the correct answer. He's a functional atheist.
He doesn't ask, "What is true?" but only "What is scientific?"
He'd rather believe something that's "scientific," but false over something that's true, but "unscientific."
"Vitamin C deficiencies shared across primates? No problem, it’s easily explained by common design, much easier than by common descent, by the way. Homologies? Evidence of common design, just like any other similarities you can name!"
Notice, once again, that he never allows himself to entertain the possibility that even some commonalities might be due to common design. As I say, he's a functional atheist.
Although he poses as a Christian, he regards it as utterly illicit for a Christian to ask himself: "If there is a Creator who designed the world and brought it into being, then what would such a world look like?"
To him, a Christian must never begin with revealed truths.
Instead, a Christian must act as if there is no God, as if we inhabit a godless universe. That's the only "scientific" way of doing science.
"We might suppose we have fine grained transitional evidence for evolving morphology and constitution from one species into a markedly different species."
Except that we don't.
"Would that be enough? No, because every evolved step in the sequence can be accounted for by an intervening miracle, a bit of special creation on God’s part rather than the product of variation and natural processes."
He erects a straw man argument to burn it down.
Incidentally, special creation doesn't disallow natural variations. That's another straw man argument.
"Is it wrong, then, to invoke the idea of 'common design in scientific inquiries like this?"
i) He's assuming that this can only be a "scientific" inquiry.
ii) And he defines science in systematically atheistic terms.
"I won’t say it’s wrong, but I will say that brings the inquiry to a stop in terms of science."
No, just the opposite. If you think something was designed, then that encourages you to look for an explanation rather than treat it as a brute fact or surd event. Belief in design is an impetus to scientific discovery. You only seek a rational explanation if you believe that a rational explanation is available, which assumes the rationality of nature.
"If common design is the reason for the similarities, than science can’t hope to account for them by natural mechanisms; the isomorphisms as the product of arbitrary intelligence, and thus beyond the ken of science."
So the mind of God is equivalent to "arbitrary intelligence."
"Steve Hays can wave away the compelling evidence for our common ancestry"
If, according to t-stone, common descent and common design are empirically equivalent, then there is no compelling evidence for common ancestry. Indeed, by his own admission, there would not even be any *distinctive* evidence for common descent, much less *compelling* evidence.
"In that respect, common design is a recapitulation of the idea of “mature creation” that YECs have adopted in response to the lopsided scientific evidence against their beliefs."
Yet another anachronism. Belief in mature creation was not adopted in response to modern science. This is simply an application of a traditional belief to a modern issue.
"Sure, the universe looks old, but God just created it to look and act billions of years ago, even though He created it all just a few thousand years ago."
i) As I've said before, the universe doesn't look any particular age.
ii) As I've also said before, a theistic evolutionist like t-stone believes quite passionately in a gap between appearance and reality as far as the age of the universe is concerned, only—for him—it's in the opposite direction.
For him, stars look younger than they really are, rather than older than they really are.
"Forced into a bind by the evidence for common descent, creationists invoke common design in the same way they invoked the idea of 'mature creation' when vexed by the overwhelming evidence for an old earth and universe."
i) But if, by his own admission, mature creation is empirically equivalent to the alternative theories of establishment science, then there is no "overwhelming" evidence for an old earth and universe. Indeed, there's no *distinctive* evidence for either.
ii) What t-stone does is to equate achronometic, natural processes with chronometric, artifactual processes, in a completely anthropomorphic fashion.
In t-stone's preschool universe, a rooster exists to tell us the time. And if the rooster doesn't wake him up in time for work, then God is a fraud.
"But they are both the epitome of the ad-hoc “just so” story, appealing to God’s plenary powers as a way out of the evidential vise they are in."
If you want examples of ad hocery, study the many versions of cosmology and evolutionary biology. | <urn:uuid:db5a7329-1b30-497f-8ead-d6c943d62eda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2006/12/common-design.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952566 | 1,712 | 2.171875 | 2 |
at the Canadian Museum of Civilization
August 10 to 16, 2009
Activities are free with Museum admission, unless otherwise indicated.
Coffee and Conversation: Mythical Meanings in Inuit Art
Thursday, August 13
1 p.m. (English)
Dr. Norman Vorano, CMC curator of contemporary Inuit Art, describes the mythical beasts found in Inuit art, and explains their meaning, symbolism and cultural importance.
An Egyptian Souk
Saturday, August 15
1 to 4 p.m.
Your senses will come alive as you see, hear, smell and taste life in a bustling Egyptian market. Meet and mingle with Middle Eastern artisans, dancers and musicians, and create your own market jewellery!
Experience History: Dramamuse
The Museum’s Theatre Company
No Power Greater by Lib Spry
Wednesday, August 12 at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. (English)
and 2:30 p.m. (French)
Thursday, August 13 at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. (English)
and 5:30 p.m. (French)
Canada Hall, The Union Hall “Labor Temple”
No Power Greater will take you to the front line of the 1919 Winnipeg general strike. Meet strike leader Mrs. Helen Armstrong and three young men with very different opinions about the strike.
Duration: 25 minutes
Beaveriffic by Stephanie Burchell and Dramamuse
Every day except Wednesday
1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (English)
2:30 p.m. (French)
In this Dramamuse play for families, you’ll meet Castor Canadensis, the famous beaver that appeared on the first Canadian postage stamp. Join this Three Penny Beaver for exciting stories about the stamps displayed in the exhibition Her Majesty’s Stamps, presented by Canada Post.
Canadian Children’s Museum
(Located in the Canadian Museum of Civilization)
Piggery Jokery — Hand to Mouth Theatre
Tuesday, August 11
11 a.m., and 1 and 2:30 p.m.
Join us in the Theatre for an entertaining performance by England’s Hand to Mouth Theatre, fresh from their appearance at the Puppets Up Festival in Almonte. Piggery Jokery is a whimsical stroll through the seasons, as narrated by the Green Man and his hurdy-gurdy-playing Drone Crone and their troupe of rag-bag puppet characters.
Wednesday, August 12
10:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.
Grab your hardhats and get ready to buil | <urn:uuid:27b876f5-e7da-4105-a3fe-58eb939ced8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.civilization.ca/media/news/next-week-at-the-canadian-museum-of-civilization-august-10-to-16-2009/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912489 | 567 | 1.84375 | 2 |
A federal judge in Denver has ruled that the Stolen Valor Act is "facially unconstitutional" because it violates free speech, and he dismissed the criminal case against Rick Strandlof, a man who lied about being an Iraq war veteran.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Blackburn issued his decision Friday and rejected the prosecution's argument that lying about having military medals dilutes their meaning and significance.
"This wholly unsubstantiated assertion is, frankly, shocking and, indeed, unintentionally insulting to the profound sacrifices of military personnel the Stolen Valor Act purports to honor," Blackburn wrote. "To suggest that the battlefield heroism of our servicemen and women is motivated in any way, let alone in a compelling way, by considerations of whether a medal may be awarded simply defies my comprehension."
The Stolen Valor Act prohibits people from falsely claiming they have been awarded military decorations and medals. The act, signed into law in 2006, carries a punishment ranging from fines to six months in prison.
U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Democrat from Manassa, introduced the legislation in 2005.
"This is an issue of fraud, plain and simple," Salazar wrote in an e-mail Friday. "The individuals who violate this law are those who knowingly portray themselves as pillars of the community for personal and monetary gain. The Stolen Valor Act has been upheld by other courts and I am confident this decision will be overturned on appeal."
Blackburn's decision only set precedent in the District of Colorado, and further prosecution of the law isn't likely to happen here unless a higher court strikes down his ruling.
Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the Colorado U.S. attorney, said the Department of Justice is reviewing the ruling to determine whether an appeal should be filed.
Strandlof, 32, was charged with five misdemeanors related to violating the Stolen Valor Act — specifically, making false claims about receiving military decorations.
He posed as Rick Duncan, a wounded Marine captain who received a Purple Heart and a Silver Star. Strandlof used that persona to found the Colorado Veterans Alliance and solicit funds for the organization.
Actual veterans who served on the board were suspicious of his claims and reported him to the FBI.
Robert Pepin, Strandlof's attorney; the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado; and the Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties group, all filed briefs with Blackburn contesting the Stolen Valor Act.
They argued that simply lying is not illegal.
Pepin said that he and his client were pleased with the decision and that Strandlof is doing well.
Attorney Chris Beall, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the ACLU of Colorado, said the decision is remarkable.
"The First Amendment protects speech we don't like," he said. "We don't need the First Amendment for speech people like. The government cannot criminalize a statement simply because it is false, no matter how important the statement is."
Beall points out Strandlof wasn't charged with stealing money meant for the veterans group, adding that laws are already in place for those crimes.
"That's plain-old, regular-vanilla everyday fraud, and we do prosecute that every day," he said. "Congress does not need a special statute to prevent people from using false claims of valor in order to prevent fraud."
John Wagner, executive director of the Warrior Legacy Foundation, a veterans group that lobbied for Strandlof's prosecution, said he will push for an appeal.
Wagner said the ruling means he can put on a police officer's uniform and a badge and walk around lying to people about his bravery and arrests to gain favors from others, such as a free cup of coffee or a round of drinks.
"I would be trying to extract benefits I wouldn't otherwise deserve," he said.
Military fakers across the country have been prosecuted under the act, but Strandlof's case and the prosecution of Xavier Alvarez in the Central District of California are the only cases based on speech alone.
In Alvarez's case, the district judge upheld his prosecution under the Stolen Valor Act, but an appeal is pending before the 9th Circuit Court.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or email@example.com | <urn:uuid:a6b35244-6806-4bcc-bde3-1002d76a4b00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15536854?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964933 | 908 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A crowded room filled with supporters and detractors watched Wednesday as Kent City Council members approved a $15,000 loan to further the restoration project of the Wells-Sherman House.
The loan will fund part of the relocation and restoration of the Wells-Sherman House, a project created by the sustainability group, TransPORTAGE. The group aims to preserve the Wells-Sherman home because it was a gathering place for the Kent family in the 1800’s.
Although council reached a final decision, it is clear community members are still divided about the best usage for the vacant lot near Scribbles Coffee, on North Water Street, where the home will be relocated.
Many speakers at the meeting pleaded with the council to reconsider the land’s use, near Standing Rock Cultural Arts, current use as a green space and garden.
“I have two children who are involved with a lot of the Standing Rock Cultural Arts programs,” said Kent resident Jennifer Kline.
“It seems like from what I’ve been reading and hearing that two community organizations are being sort of pitted against each other, and being told that we need to cooperate,” Kline said. “But it really sounds like Standing Rock is being asked to do some unfair compromising at the hands of Kent State’s schedule.”
Kent State's Esplanade Extenstion project, which will directly link the university with downtown Kent, is the primary reason for the hasty pace of the Wells-Sherman relocation. The Wells-Sherman house sits on one of the properties that will be demolished for the Esplanade Extension.
At a council meeting earlier this month, TransPORTAGE said Kent State will extend support for the Wells-Sherman project, through funding and collaborations, pending a finalized plan and support from city council.
Preservationatists for both the Wells-Sherman building and the green space at Standing Rock Cultural Arts are fighting to keep mainstays in Kent, but this particular battle puts them on different sides.
Other Standing Rock supporters see the preservation of a building at the price of destroying a green space as counterproductive.
“This land has been used for 20 years by Standing Rock Cutlural Arts,” said Jeff Ingram, the director of Standing Rock Cultural Arts, in a letter he submitted to the council. “Through the years, we’ve built rain gardens, prevented soil erosion, erected soil panels, and planted a garden, which has a variety of fruits and vegetables.”
Councilmembers Wayne Wilson and John Kuhar were the only dissenting votes against the measure to grant the loan to TransPORTAGE, citing financial burden for the council’s budget as the primary reason.
“The main reason I’m voting no is because when this first came to council, we were going to give moral support for this whole project,” Kuhar said. “Now, it’s turning into financial support.”
Councilwoman Tracy Wallach proposed an amendment to the original motion to turn the proposed $15,000 loan to TransPORTAGE into a match grant of the same value, but the motion was denied by a majority of the council. Councilmembers Robin Turner and Michael DeLeone were the only other affirmative votes on Wallach’s proposal. | <urn:uuid:567d64d2-0a49-4253-a7d4-d22d5d6063c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kent.ohio.com/kent-blog-1.275353/kent-city-council-approves-loan-for-wells-sherman-house-restoration-1.315502?localLinksEnabled=false | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953015 | 686 | 1.585938 | 2 |
On April 12, 1945, the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt died, 9-year-old Betty Cullar helped her mother write a letter about the tragedy to her brother, Sergeant Lewis Cullar.
Lewis was 19, fighting on the Italian front of World War II.
They wrote about how sad they were that Roosevelt was dead and how bad things were back in the states. They hoped he was well in Italy. They hoped he would be home soon.
Betty Culler, now Betty Roberts, still has that letter. It was returned to her family, unopened, along with Lewis Cullar's personal belongings.
Cullar died on April 11, 1945, in a barrage of machine gun fire from German Nazis. He left behind a 21-year-old wife, Evelyn, and a 16-month-old son, Dennis Cullar.
Lewis Cullar grew up in Mount Harris until he was 10 years old, when his family moved to Steamboat Springs. He spent his teenage years in the railroad section foreman's house that once sat across the tracks from what is now the Depot Art Center. He graduated from Steamboat Springs High School and enlisted in the United States Army with his childhood best friend, Jerry Reynolds. Reynolds survived the war and returned to Steamboat where he married Lewis' sister, Judy.
The Reynolds both passed away in the past decade. If Lewis Cullar had lived, he would be 84 years old.
There is no family or friends left in Steamboat to tell Lewis Cullar's story on the 60-year anniversary of his death. There is only a four-paragraph article in the April 26, 1945, issue of the Steamboat Pilot and the memories of the son who never met his father.
When Dennis Cullar, a probation support specialist in Lakewood, read the story of Sherri Lawton, a Hayden resident who lost her husband in Iraq, his heart went out to her two sons.
"I wrote her a letter letting her know that I've gone through what her kids have gone through," Cullar said. "I told her that time helps and support and encouragement.
"I told her that I turned out OK. I managed. I had my moments, but I survived. But even to this day, I think about it."
Although little is known about Lewis Cullar's death, he earned a page in the history books and a Silver Star Medal for his bravery during another battle.
The book "History of The 363d Infantry: One Regiment of the 91st Division in World War II" by Ralph E. Strootman dedicates a page to Cullar's act of heroism.
Strootman writes, "Comp-any E's route of approach was from around a knoll, which offered some cover, across a 200-yard long fire-swept draw, then across 400 yards of plowed field to the houses. The platoon looked on the impending disaster helplessly. There seemed no way to give a warning of the trap which the company was about to enter. From his position in the house, Private Lewis B. Cullar, one of the riflemen in the 1st Platoon, could see the head of the company come around the curve of the knoll ready to enter the draw. Leaving the house, Cullar started running across the 400 yards of mud and furrows of the open field while the enemy's bullets followed him.
"'Get back, goddamnit, get back,' he shouted. Somehow Cullar got across the field without getting hit. The scouts saw him, heard his frantic warnings and halted the company in time. Many men of Company E owe their lives to Cullar's courage."
In a press release from the Army, Cullar said about his feat, "Many times I stopped and turned another way -- you can't help it when bullets hit at your feet. In a ravine, I threw my arms about me and collapsed, tired and scared."
That was Oct. 11, 1944. He would die six months later and be buried in the American Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
"After my dad died, my mom took off," Dennis Cullar said. "I grew up in New Jersey. I would have grown up in Steamboat Springs if my dad had lived, but she had to get away from everybody."
Dennis Cullar, now 61, started asking questions about his father when he was 7 years old.
"It mainly came out because of school," he said. "The other kids had dads, and I didn't." His mom sat down with him and told him that she was proud of her husband, that he was a war hero.
"My mom never remarried," Cullar said. "She devoted her life to me, and I to her. I was 31 when she died."
He learned from his uncle, Jerry Reynolds, that his dad liked to hunt and fish. He was told that his life would have been different if his dad had lived.
"I would have been a Colorado country boy instead of a New Jersey city slicker," he said. With an image of his father in his mind, Dennis Cullar enlisted in the Navy four days out of high school.
"Because of my dad's influence, I always idolized the military," he said. He spent four years in the Navy and 16 years in the Air Force.
After he retired from the military, Cullar went back to school to study history. Even there, at Metro State College, his father continued to influence him.
He wrote two papers about the Italian campaign in World War II.
"Even as old as I was -- I was in my 40s -- I wrote a paper on what I would have done differently if I were the commanding general at that battle."
Sixty years after the death of his father, who was a man he never knew but thought about his entire life, Cullar wants to make sure people here continue to hear the stories of veterans like his father.
"I'm proud of what he did," Cullar said. "It's important to know about the people who sacrificed their lives. He fought so his son wouldn't have to. I think Mark Lawton probably felt the same way."
-- To reach Autumn Phillips call 871-4210 or e-mail email@example.com | <urn:uuid:fc935849-c9d3-4f44-8610-a7b5e446c72f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2005/apr/09/a_son_still/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991569 | 1,310 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Then they would be going on a hiring spree for men. As would hospitals and schools but that’s a local and provincial matter.
My column from this morning’s Sun Media papers is generating quite the reaction from people sharing their stories of reverse discrimination to me being called a bigot. I mean, I must be a bigot, I believe we should hire on merit and not let factors such as race or sex enter into the hiring process.
Some people mistakenly think the federal government is a place filled with only white, English speaking males. Not true. Far from it.
The feds own numbers show that they have what would be deemed an over representation in three of the four protected employment equity groups. This chart shows that only visible minorities are not at or above what they deem the workforce availability of each group.
The chart also shows that women, disabled and Aboriginals have been over represented for years. So why are they still protected employment equity groups? Shouldn’t there be a program to ensure men are represented at the same level their workforce availability?
Meanwhile on the language file it turns out that Francophones are over represented as well. Page five of this report (page 13 in the PDF) shows that in the core public service Francophone are heavily over represented.
Regarding equitable participation, the proportion of Anglophones in federal institutions subject to the Act was 73.2% in 2009-2010. The proportion of Francophones was 26.8%. For the core public administration, these rates were stable at 68.6% and 31.4% respectively. Based on the latest data from the 2006 Census, employees from both official language communities were relatively well represented in federal institutions subject to the Act. The distribution essentially resembles the percentage of Francophones and Anglophones in Canadian society, that is to say 74.8% of Canada’s population who reported English as their first official language and 23.6% who reported French.
I’m not saying the feds should stop hiring women, Aboriginals, the disabled or Francophones yet if they believe in employment equity that is exactly what they should be doing.
Otherwise they should change the law and try doing something radical such as treating everyone the same regardless of race, ethnicity, sex etc. | <urn:uuid:c2b7a7b4-2def-4cda-afe9-83d0803a4222> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.canoe.ca/lilleyspad/general/if-the-feds-really-believed-in-employment-equity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962662 | 470 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Opening of Bonne Carre Spillway to affect seafood fishermen
POSTED: Friday, May 6, 2011 - 6:19pm
UPDATED: Monday, May 9, 2011 - 2:51pm
Baton Rouge, La (NBC33) — The Bonne Carre Spillway will be opened on May 9, and fishermen are facing a possible blow.
The clock will be ticking for fisherman, as shrimp, crab and oysters are all facing a new loss with the opening of the spillway.
The spring shrimp season opened yesterday, which is early, to allow shrimpers to catch the larger adult shrimp.
As for oystermen, the fresh water could cripple beds that avoided damage during the oil spill.
The damage will all depend on how much water they let in, and for how long.
Unlike most, crawfish farmers in the basin are welcoming the coming water, saying it will make for the best crawfish season in years.
NBC33 spoke with John Day of Seafood International, and he said this will be a major boost for the area.
This time of year, most crawfish comes from that location. So far the season has been tough, due to the low water levels in the basin.
As the water rises, crawfish will be shocked and dig into the mud, but once things stable out, the season will be a good one, with more crawfish available and lower prices.
Day says we will probably see the lowest cost per pound that's been seen in years. | <urn:uuid:52ed5618-65f5-4e8f-990f-edc5771cdf23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/mississippi-rising/opening-of-bonne-carre-spillway-to-affect-seafood-fishermen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953596 | 317 | 1.757813 | 2 |
56° 05' / 23° 58'
Translation of the Linkuva chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Lita
Translation of the Linkuva chapter from
Written by Dov Levin
Published by Yad Vashem
Published in Jerusalem, 1996
Published by Yad Vashem
Published in Jerusalem, 1996
Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem
This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot Lita: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Lithuania,
Editor: Prof. Dov Levin, Assistant Editor: Josef Rosin, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
(Pages 360 - 362)
Written by Josef Rosin
Translated by Shaul Yannai
A county town in the Siauliai district.
Apparently, Jews settled in Linkuva at the beginning of the 18th century. About 300 Jewish families lived in Linkuva before WWI. They made their livelihood from commerce, labor and agriculture. In June 1883, a big fire broke out in the town and about 100 Jewish homes burned down. Among them was the synagogue which was made of wood. 150 Jewish families lost all of their property. Jews from neighboring towns sent bread to the poverty stricken Jews in Linkuva. A resident of Linkuva by the name of Yitzkhak Kapuler published a request in the Hamelitz on July 13, 1883, asking to help the people whose homes burned down. Aharon HaCohen, the Rabbi on behalf of the government, added his certificate of approval.
During the period of Independent Lithuania, the number of Jews in Linkuva decreased by half. In accordance with the law of autonomy for the Jews, a ruling committee of 7 members was voted for in Linkuva. The committee was active for a few years in most areas of Jewish life in the town. One of its first activities (in 1922) was to organize a day which was called The Flower Day, whose goal was to collect money for the hungry children in Russia and the Ukraine. The fundraising was done by youth in Linkuva who were affiliated with the Zionist Socialist and the Young Zionist parties. In total, they raised and transferred for that purpose 30,000 marks.
During the period under discussion, the Jews continued to engage in commerce, labor and agriculture. In 1922, the artisans' union in the town had 23 members, and the small merchants' union had 86 members. 3 km from Linkuva was the village of Pamusis (also called Pamuse), whose residents were Jewish farmers. The big yearly fair and the markets days, which were held on Mondays and Fridays, contributed to the livelihood of the town's Jews. In 1934, the town had a number of incidents when Lithuanians harmed their Jewish neighbors.
According to the 1931 Lithuanian government census, Linkuva had 24 stores, 23 of them (96%) were owned by Jews. The division into business branches is shown in the table below:
|Branch or Type of Business||Total||Owned
|Crops and flax||6||6|
|Butcher shops and cattle||3||2|
|Clothing, furs and textiles||5||5|
|Leather and shoes||1||1|
|Sewing and house utensils||1||1|
|Medicine and cosmetics||1||1|
|Radios, bicycles and electrical equipment||1||1|
|Tools and iron products||1||1|
According to the same census, there were 17 factories in Linkuva, 8 of them were owned by Jews (47%), including a power station, a sawmill, a few flourmills, a bakery, a barber shop and others.
The Jewish Popular Bank (Folksbank) was established in Linkuva in 1922. It had an important contribution to the town's economic life. In 1927, it had 164 registered members. The bank provided loans to impoverished artisans who returned from Russia after the war so they could buy equipment and raw materials for their work. The petty traders and the farmers also enjoyed benefits from the bank. Linkuva also had a branch of the Credit Union of Jewish Farmers. In 1937, the town had 14 Jewish artisans: 4 tailors, 2 tinsmiths, 2 butchers, 2 Tapars (Hebrew, tapar, which refers to a craftsman in shoemaking who makes the uppers), a baker, a hat maker, a photographer, and a potter. In 1939, there were 50 telephones in the town; 12 of them were owned by Jews.
When the Hibat Zion movement was established, and later the Zionist movement, the Jews of Linkuva became active in aiding to settle Eretz-Yisrael. The lists of donors for that purpose, which were published in the Hamelitz in 1886, 1898, and 1903, show the names of many Jews from Linkuva. The delegates were Yitzkhak Kapuller and Y. M. Kapuler. The 1909, list show the names of 16 Jews from the town. A few of Linkuva's Jews emigrated to Eretz-Yisrael before WWI. One of them was Josef Berlovitz, who established in Petakh Tikva a factory that burned bricks and roof tiles. He also established in Petakh Tikva the Akhiezer Union of Artisans. Another emigree from Linkuva was Tsiyon Zetler, who settled in Kefar Saba in 1905. Many of Linkuva's Jews belonged to the Zionist camp during the period of Independent Lithuania and participated in voting for the Zionist Congresses. The division of votes to the various parties is shown in the table below:
The synagogue burned down during the big fire and was not rebuilt. What remained in the town were the Bet Midrash, which was built of bricks, and the Kloiz (prayer house). The Rabbinate in Linkuva was headed by a number of well known Rabbis. Among them were: Rabbi Joel-Yitzkhak Katzenelenbogen, who most important book was Zera Yitzkhak (The Seed of Yitzkhak); Rabbi Meir HaCohen Rabinovitz; Rabbi Tsvi-Hirsh HaCohen Rabinovitz; Rabbi Tankhum-Shraga Revl; Rabbi Tsvi HaLevi Levitas; Rabbi Natan-Yerakhmiel Litvin; and Rabbi Yekutiel-Zalman Levitas, who was the community's last Rabbi. The latter two perished during the Nazi occupation.
Among the natives of Linkuva were: Rabbi Dov Revl (1885-1940), who had a Phd in Philosophy, was the head of the Yeshiva in Brooklyn named after Yitzkhak Elkhanan, and was the first president of the Union of Rabbis of the United States; Tsvi-Hirsh Rabinovitz, who published in Hebrew many books on the subjects of mechanics, physics and chemistry; Rabbi Yisrael-Hillel, the son of Rabbi Khaim Kaplinski, who was murdered in Khevron during the pogroms of 1929.
In the summer of 1940, when Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, the factories and shops, most of which belonged to Jews, were nationalized. The middle class, who were mostly Jews, were severely hurt and their standard of living declined gradually. All the Zionist parties and youth organizations were disbanded.
On June 23, 1941, a day after the German army invaded the Soviet Union, the Jews of Linkuva also started fleeing towards the east after discovering that the Soviets were retreating from Lithuania. Lithuanian Nationalists began their activities on that very day. They waited in ambush for the fleeing Jews and shot a few of them. While the Jews were fleeing eastward, Jews from Siauliai and from towns in the surrounding areas arrived in Linkuva. Thus, on Saturday, June 28, 1941, the day the Germans entered Linkuva, there were about 1000 Jews in Linkuva. Lithuanian police ordered the Jews to assemble in a stable that was owned by Y. Kapuler and in the warehouses that were owned by A. Kahn, S. Girsh, and L. Ber. Many of the Jews assembled there and were immediately locked up and were tortured; they had their beards cut off, and in spite of the hot summer, were not given any water or food. On June 30, 10 young people ages 10-18, were taken out of there and were murdered on that very night by being shot to death. The following day, Lithuanians took out many Jewish men and murdered them in a forest, about 3 km from the town. Between July 2 and July 23, Lithuanians murdered a few hundred other Jews from Linkuva and from among the refugees who got stuck in the town. The massacre took place near the village of Dvariukai. 57 men were taken out of their homes, were led to Siauliai, and were kept in the local prison in the most humiliating conditions. 30 of them, the stronger ones, were forced to dig pits in the Kuziai Forest. Those pits were later used as the large mass grave for the Jews of Siauliai. The remaining 27 men, who were not taken to work, were shot on July 10. The 30 men who dug the pits were placed in the Siauliai ghetto after it was established. Their fate was the same as the fate of the other Jews from Siaulia. After the ghetto was liquidated, the surviving Jews were transferred to internment camps in Germany. On July 23, 1941 (28 Tamuz, 5701), the remaining Jews, who were imprisoned in the cowsheds of the estate owner, David Davidson, about 700 souls, were taken to the Atkucionai Forest, where they were all shot to death.
At the beginning of May, 1945, only 4 of Linkuva's Jews were fortunate to be liberated by the American army. After the war, a memorial was erected near Dvariukai for the 200 murdered victims.
Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, M-9/15(6).
Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, files 55/1788, 55/1701, 13/15/131, Z-4/2548.
Hamelitz [The Advocate] (St. Petersburg), 25.3.1879, 13.7.1883.
Kamzon, The Jews of Lithuania, pp. 161, 171.
Der Yiddisher Kooperator [Jewish Cooperation] (Kaunas), 1922, #'s2-3; 1930, #1.
Yiddishe Shtime [The Jewish Voice] (Kaunas), 9.8.1922, 16.3.1923, 16.10.1928, 15.6.1932.
Yizkor Book Project JewishGen Home Page
Copyright © 1999-2013 by JewishGen, Inc.
Updated 28 May 2011 by LA | <urn:uuid:80d36315-b882-4a34-9b89-edc877b16aa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/Pinkas_Lita/lit_00360.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968724 | 2,399 | 2.125 | 2 |
If you are building a fence and you try using a hammer rather than a shovel to dig the postholes, progress will be slow if not nonexistent.
The Federal Reserve is supposed to maintain the value of the currency and keep the banking system sound and stable — which it has not done (more on that below). Yet, in 1978, Congress passed the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act, which, in part, also gave the Fed some explicit responsibility for maintaining full employment but did not provide the tools to do so.
The Fed does have the tools to increase or decrease the money supply, which means it can control the rate of inflation or deflation. However, the Fed has done a poor job of maintaining the value of the currency, as the dollar is now worth only about 1/22 of its 1913 value. The Fed also was supposed to maintain a sound and stable banking system; however, since the Fed was created in 1913, bank failures have been at a higher rate than during the pre-Fed period.
Despite its record of failure, the Fed (as noted) was given the additional responsibility to maintain full employment. Washington operates differently from the real world, where failures are punished. In Washington, failure by an official is often accompanied by a promotion, and an agency that fails often receives a larger budget — the Department of Education being exhibit A.
At the time the Fed was given the responsibility for maintaining or creating full employment, the conventional but erroneous wisdom was that an expansion of the money supply (which again, the Fed does control) could lead to a permanent, higher level of employment.
What we now know is that a big expansion of the money supply is likely to lead to a much higher level of inflation, not a permanent increase in employment. When the monetary brakes are put on — as they must be to stop the inflation — unemployment always soars.
The Fed has been trying to tackle unemployment by reducing short-term interest rates to virtually zero. The idea is that this will encourage banks to borrow from the Fed and lend money to businesses, thus fueling an economic expansion. But the banks are not lending because they are finding a shortage of credit-worthy borrowers.
Most of the credit-worthy borrowers do not need the money because they are barely expanding because of the slow growth of the economy. The banks are also increasing their reserves as demanded both by the regulators and market conditions — thus the Fed is doing nothing more than pushing on a string.
Only Congress and the Obama administration have the right tools to bring down unemployment. Yet, at the moment, they are doing almost everything they can to discourage employers from hiring workers.
Employers don't know what tax rates they will be facing as of Jan. 1. They don't know the costs of the new healthcare regulations, the new financial regulations, and all the new environmental regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of promulgating.
Given this uncertainty, coupled with a weak economy, it is no surprise that employers are not hiring. It almost appears as if the elected officials are trying to sabotage the economy. A foreign enemy of the United States would have a difficult time doing more damage to the U.S. economy than the folks in Washington, who are supposed to make the lives of their fellow citizens better.
The Fed is in an impossible situation. It has been given multiple targets — i.e., a constant-value dollar, bank stability, consumer protection and full employment — plus being required to outguess the market. At times, these targets are in conflict with each other, and the people at the Fed cannot see the future with greater clarity than anyone else.
Before the creation of the Fed, the economy went through a number of recessions, most of which were short-lived, and the economy bounced back on its own without persistent inflation. Students of economic history are aware that a Fed-type central bank is just not necessary and often entails more costs than benefits.
The dollar needs to be defined by the U.S. government, perhaps as a quantity of gold (as in the past), a basket of commodities, or something else in order to make payments and collect taxes. Once the dollar is defined, the private sector is perfectly capable of creating the necessary quantity of money — as it did before the advent of central banks.
If you are skeptical about abolishing the Fed, just consider the following question: "Would those who voted for the Fed in 1913 have done so if they had known that:
- After having a 125-year period of relatively stable money when the dollar was still close to its value in 1790, the dollar would be worth less than 5 cents at the end of the century?
- The longest and severest Depression the country had ever experienced would occur a mere 20 years after the creation of the Fed and that the Fed had a major responsibility for the disaster?
- And the number of bank failures would increase and not decrease?"
The answer clearly would have been "no." Why are we keeping a failed institution?
Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC | <urn:uuid:e7d312a0-0bdf-4855-93a6-3f0f49bf2ba8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneynews.com/RahnMN/Rahn-Fed-inflation-employment/2010/12/07/id/379225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975373 | 1,060 | 2.953125 | 3 |
US warns Security Council Blue Nile and South Kordofan situation could deteriorate to famine
Susan Rice, the US Ambassador to the UN, has warned the situation in Blue Nile state and South Kordofan could reach famine, if Khartoum continues to refuse humanitarian aid.
After a meeting of the UN Security Council Rice in a press statement said there is a severe humanitarian crisis taking place in areas next to the border with South Sudan.
If aid doesn’t enter the area by March, she warned, both areas would be on their way to suffering from widespread famine.
The Ambassador said the Sudanese authorities should treat the situation with more urgency.
She also held them responsible for the worsening crisis in the region, for their refusal to allow non-governmental organizations, international aid groups and UN agencies to provide assistance to the region, as well as their part in continuing confrontations and unresolved political issues.
Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN rejected the US accusations, saying the humanitarian situation in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state is ‘normal’.
He condemned Rice’s statements describing them as 'crocodile tears' and saying there is nothing unusual happening. Osman stressed the Sudanese government will cooperate to ensure humanitarian supplies to those in need in those areas, except those where rebels are based.
A Sudan People’s Liberation Movement spokesman in Blue Nile, Suleiman Osman Hamid, said the Sudanese ambassador is lying and in denial of what is happening on the ground.
In an interview with Radio Tamazuj, the spokesman said tens of thousands of Blue Nile state citizens were living under only trees for shelter in Blue Nile as well as Ethiopia and South Sudan.
He said the rejection of aid organizations to enter the region helped the Sudanese government to cover up their crimes of looting, rape, burning, killing and displacement of civilians.
The UN estimates violence in the region has already forced 417,000 people to flee their homes, with more than 80,000 arriving in South Sudan.
Rights groups say refugees and local populations are periodically subjected to air raids and fighting. | <urn:uuid:27bbaefc-ecc8-4e23-97f3-a785795df53f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://radiotamazuj.org/en/article/us-warns-security-council-blue-nile-and-south-kordofan-situation-could-deteriorate-famine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9496 | 451 | 2.125 | 2 |
April 23, 2010
'Crucial That We Not Lose Our Singing Voices'
So says Pepperdine Provost as his university prepares to host sacred song symposium
Pepperdine University is gearing up to host The Ascending Voice II, an international event celebrating sacred a capella music. The mid-May symposium will feature some of the world's leading authorities on this rich style of music, while the daily concert lineup includes performances by top college choral groups, the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble, and Grammy-winning men's choral group Chanticleer.
I especially appreciated some of the comments from Pepperdine Provost Darryl Tippens leading up to the event:
"Many people think that group singing is in danger of extinction in America," Tippens said. "As financially strapped schools cut arts programs denying children the opportunity to sing; as we become a somewhat passive, listening culture, accustomed to highly produced professional musical recordings; and as mega churches employ bands and orchestras, thus replacing congregational singing with performance, there is a real question as to whether group singing by ordinary people will survive. This concern must be squarely faced—not through complaint, but through action. This is the purpose of The Ascending Voice.
"We think it is crucial that we not lose our singing voices. There is no substitute for the exquisite beauty and power of the human voice joined in harmony with others. Unaccompanied (a cappella) singing is as old as the human species, and long a distinctive feature of Christian worship. We believe it is worth preserving and enhancing.
"Singing has a transformative effect on both the singer and the listener. Group (or congregational) singing has been central to Christian worship for 2,000 years. While it has taken vastly different shapes in different cultures over the centuries, in the East and West, among Protestant and Catholic, charismatic and liturgical traditions—still, it has the power to resonate deeply and move us to tears, to joy, and to action.
"Singing lay at the heart of the Reformation. Singing was central to the Civil Rights Movement (“We shall overcome. . . .”), to the anti-war movement of the 60s. It retains this same transformative power today, but one has to hear it and do it to fathom fully its life-changing power.
“'Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise,'” said Martin Luther. In the words of Karl Barth, the great 20th century theologian, 'Singing is the highest form of human expression. . . . the community which does not sing is not the community.' Art and the sacred have always been intimately acquainted. Sacred music is perhaps the greatest expressions of this truth."
Amen, and amen. | <urn:uuid:fe02336d-b72a-483e-8bd5-6364e7584463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctentertainment/2010/04/crucial-that-we-not-lose-our-s-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959425 | 586 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Despite national guidelines aimed at improving sexual health services for teenagers, most sexually active boys — even those who report high-risk sexual behaviors — still get too little counseling about HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during their visits to the doctor, according to a study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
The study, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Adolescent Health, analyzed data from the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males and the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, found that only 26 percent of teens who reported high-risk sex — such as having sex with a prostitute or an HIV-infected person or having sex while high or drunk — said they received HIV/STI counseling at the doctor's office in the year preceding the survey. Twenty-one percent of all sexually active boys, regardless of risk, said they discussed HIV and other STIs with their doctors.
The study also found no improvement in how well teenage males were screened for STIs and HIV between 1995 and 2002, even though in the early 1990s, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics both issued guidelines urging physicians to make sexual health counseling and related services part of the regular exam for teenagers.
The researchers say their findings signal the need for better STI counseling of young male patients in order to minimize risky behaviors.
"If guidelines alone can't change what is being done at the doctor's office, then the million-dollar question becomes how to get doctors and nurses to talk with their patients about sexual health," says lead investigator Arik Marcell, M.D., M.P.H., a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at Hopkins Children's.
Marcell and colleagues say the first step to better counseling is the use of evidence-based, uniform guidelines to reduce confusion among providers. And, they say, it is critical to understand what prevents providers from counseling and devise ways to eliminate any such barriers.
In the meantime, pediatricians on the frontlines should ACT: ask, counsel, test. "Ask the patient if he is sexually active, counsel him about risk and test accordingly," Marcell says.
Other findings in the current study:
- In 1995, less than one-fourth of male teens said they had discussed STIs and HIV with a doctor or a nurse, compared to less than 22 percent in 2002.
- In 2002, less than 18 percent of males reported ever discussing birth control with their doctors. The 1995 survey did not include birth control questions.
Explore further: Aid group urges Spain to scrap 'dangerous' healthcare reform
More information: CDC data on STDs: www.cdc.gov/std/stats07/adol.htm | <urn:uuid:d989a18e-5c58-481e-8ffc-9171a57e4734> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news190462784.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95232 | 552 | 2.375 | 2 |
Spokane's Literary Landmark...Your Personal Bookseller
Raising Cain: The Life and Politics of Senator Harry P. Cain (Paperback)
Decades ago, Harry Cain warned, "It is possible to become so safe that nobody can be free."
Still the conflict rages on between individual freedom and national security. C. Mark Smith's
Raising Cain profiles a complex and controversial public servant who remained true to one
goal supporting the rights of the individual. Cain opposed the internment of Japanese American
citizens during World War II, defended provocative figures as a U.S. Senator, worked for civil
rights in Florida, and in the controversy that destroyed his public career, defied his president and
his party to protect the freedom of thousands of Americans threatened during the McCarthy era. | <urn:uuid:a9b7965e-beef-4e58-8634-8ce9110fc993> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.auntiesbooks.com/book/9781935359654 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940779 | 162 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Seeking peace. Striving for justice. Together.
November 20 brings the World Day of Prayer and Action and Universal Children's Day. The Presbyterian Office of Child Advocacy and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations invite you to join people around the world and celebrate on that day or on Sunday, November 18 or Sunday, November 25.
Here are some ideas for prayer:
Hold a Prayer Vigil for Children
Tips and suggestions on planning your own prayer vigil for your congregation from the PC(USA) Office of Child Advocacy
2012 National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths Manual
A Multi-Faith Resource for Year-Round Child Advocacy including prayers and worship ideas
Intercessory Prayer for Children
Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Their mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods.
A Prayer for the Day
You have called us to work for true justice in our communities
and to be messengers of freedom
for all who are not treated as your children.
We pray that you will give us grace to put our faith into action
to end the violence and cruelty that overshadows many children’s lives.
Jesus taught us to welcome children and learn from them.
May we use our imagination to put ourselves in children’s shoes
and learn to teach and guide them with wisdom, gentleness and understanding.
Let us treat each child as we would treat the Christ child. Amen
Thanks to Sera Chung for working on this post. | <urn:uuid:c8b5167c-1649-4d73-8328-2e1ce92b72c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcusa.org/blogs/swords-plowshares/2012/11/7/ideas-prayer-world-day-prayer-and-action-and-unive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917757 | 330 | 2.375 | 2 |
Report: Are virtual holidays going to replace real ones?
- Apr 26, 2010
A generation of ‘Go-Nowhere Gamers’ could turn their back on out-of-home leisure in favour of gaming, social networking, and ‘always on’ media unless the travel industry responds to their needs, says a report commissioned by lastminute.com.
The Future of Free Time report, produced by the online travel and leisure retailer in association with think-tank Future Foundation, looks at how travel and free time will change over the next five to 20 years, and says that the travel industry must cater for an increasingly connected generation.
The trend can already been seen in Japan; Ian Yeoman, author of Tomorrow’s Tourist and a consultant on the report comments: ‘What they’ve seen in the last ten years – because they’ve had deflation and also the Japanese consumer has gone inward – is that they’re spending more now on in-home entertainment and technology rather than travelling the world. That’s an indicator of what could happen.’
In Britain, out-of-home leisure contracted during the recession, but sales of in-home electronics grew and since 2000, in-home leisure expenditure has increased by 2.5 times in real terms. Looking ahead to 2015, the report predicts in-home leisure will recover at a faster rate than out-of-home leisure (fig. 1). Research for the report also reveals that since 2007 it is in-home activities such as playing video games and surfing the internet which have seen the biggest increase in consumer value perceptions (fig. 2).
To engage young people with travel and leisure, the industry will have to make real life experiences more interactive, innovative and engaging. This report suggests interactive movies, visual mobile devices replacing audio tours in museums, more real-time hotel tours available at the point of booking, and increasing the prevalence and usefulness of augmented reality applications.
Looking to 2030 the report asks whether virtual reality experiences could ever replace real travel, experts however, are sceptical: ‘Something like virtual travel will be available’ says William Higham author of The Next Big Thing ‘but I do not believe it will replace real holidays – it will simply be another leisure option.’
‘Since launching in 1998 lastminute.com has been at the forefront of travel innovation’ said Patrick Hoffstetter, vice president at lastminute.com. ‘We all have a natural inclination to travel and explore, but the industry must remain innovative and embrace technology to remain exciting for a younger generation.’
When compiling the Future Free Time report, lastminute.com consulted with a range of experts from bodies such as Visit Britain, Which? Travel, travelmole.com, and author of Tomorrow’s Tourist, Ian Yeoman (Wellington University). The report also rigorously surveyed consumers gathering both quantative and qualitative data and utilised the Delphi method to gain further insight into the suggested theories and focus on only the most likely possibilities. | <urn:uuid:cd4fc2d5-82e5-41b2-a5df-74554c59653f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netimperative.com/news/2010/april/report-are-virtual-holidays-going-to-replace-real | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921703 | 632 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|How Does a Bill Become a Law in the USA?|
What does Congress, Senate and House mean?
The Congress, which is divided into two chambers, a Senate and a House of Representatives.
The Senate is composed of two members from each state as provided by the Constitution. Its current membership is 100.
Membership in the House is based on each state's population, and its size is therefore not specified in the Constitution. Its current membership is fixed by statute at 435.
More information about the houses can be found here
How can a bill be introduced in the house?
An excellent reference for this is this article again at wikipedia
In a nutshell, any member of Congress (House and Senate) can introduce a bill in the Congress. If its a house bill, it has a number like HR.4437 or if its a senate bill, it is given a number like S.1932. Once a bill passes one chamber, it has to be approved by the other chamber too. The other chamber need not pass the exact same bill. If modifications are made to the bill in the second chamber before passing it, the bill now has to go through a conference committee made up of a few members of both the houses that negotiate to come up with a common bill and then this is sent to both the houses for a vote . If it passes in both houses, it is sent to the President for his signature.
|< Prev||Next >|
|When will I get my Greencard?|
|Create/Edit FREE profile here.|
|The Immigrant Exodus: By Vivek Wadhwa||Immigration: By Stuart Anderson| | <urn:uuid:70272b8e-336d-4e8d-920e-7e0b2dc09a06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php/index.php/forum/forum/forum/tracker/tracker/forum/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959276 | 342 | 3.75 | 4 |
Like a locksmith with a master key, Carlos Guestrin has created a computer algorithm that can do everything from figuring out the best way to detect water contamination to revealing which political blogs do the best job of staying on top of the news.
The Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor's work landed him on this year's "Brilliant 10" list created by Popular Science magazine, showcasing some of the nation's top young researchers.
The key to Mr. Guestrin's algorithm, which is a recipe that a computer uses to solve complex problems, is that it can assemble the maximum amount of information with the least effort.
Mr. Guestrin, 33, began work on the project four years ago when he was doing research for Intel in Berkeley, Calif. Scientists there wanted to measure the climate variations under the soaring canopies of the redwood forests by installing a network of wireless sensors.
"I said to them, 'How will you decide where you're putting the sensors in the forest?' And they said, 'Oh, whatever looks good, we'll use our intuition.' "
But Mr. Guestrin thought he could come up with a more logical approach.
"I thought maybe I'd do a project where I'd work with them a month on this, and four years later, we're into something much bigger and more elaborate and interesting than I thought I could possibly get into."
In a simplistic sense, Mr. Guestrin's algorithm figures out the best place to put the first sensor in a complex network, then the best place for the second-best sensor, and so on down the line until there is not much incremental value in adding another sensor.
"If I've put out four sensors," he said, "putting out a fifth one might help me a lot, but if I've put out 100 sensors, the 101st will help me less, and if I put out 1,000, the 1,001st will help even less."
Knowing the minimum number of sensors needed to get optimal information can be especially important when the measurement devices are expensive.
That was a key issue when the federal Environmental Protection Agency wanted to know the best way to detect contamination in an urban water system. In the model his team was working with, Mr. Guestrin said, there were 12,000 possible locations to put sensors, but even the cheapest sensor cost $14,000.
Using his algorithm, he was able to show that officials could get a good answer on water contamination by using just 19 strategically placed sensors.
Mr. Guestrin's algorithm is part of a broader effort under way in computer science known as machine learning, which he defined as "computer programs that can improve their performance based on experience." Machine learning programs, in other words, can discover new information on their own.
The scientist grew up in Rio de Janeiro and got his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Sao Paulo. He attended graduate school at Stanford University, worked for a year at Intel after getting his doctorate in computer science, and then joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 2004.
He is now working on long-range projects to develop algorithms that would allow people to make better decisions using information from the Web and to allow computers to do a better job of divvying up tasks to solve large-scale problems.
By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Television commentary, reviews, news and nonstop DVR catch-up.
Manhattan-based free-market urban bloggers bringing original political content with fresh, young voices
Musings of a bilingual, agnostic, combat veteran and jewelry maker.
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall
NRA kicks off annual convention | <urn:uuid:9f818cc6-3480-45ff-b44d-57a601088538> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/3/project-shows-best-way-to-start/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949278 | 790 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Oppose Paul Amendment
June 21, 2005
On Thursday, June 23, the House of Representatives is scheduled to consider legislation funding the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for FY 2006. During debate on this important measure, Representatives Ron Paul (R-TX) is expected to offer an amendment to bar federal funding for screening and early intervention programs targeted to children and adolescents with mental illness. NAMI strongly opposes the Paul Amendment and strongly encourages advocates to contact their House member and urge them to vote against this misguided proposal.
Advocates should contact House offices and urge a NO vote on the Paul Amendment to the FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. All House offices can be reached by calling 202-224-3121 or by e-mail through the http://www.congress.org website.
Background on the Paul Amendment
NAMI strongly opposes an amendment that will be offered by Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) that would prohibit the use of federal funding for mental health screening.
Mental health screening will save lives. The early identification of mental illnesses in youth through screening helps prevent tragedies including youth suicide, youth locked in juvenile detention centers, school dropout and failure and immeasurable suffering. Mental illnesses are involved in over 90% of the 30,000 suicides in this country every year.
Contrary to claims by some, no one is calling for universal or mandatory mental health screening without parental consent. Not President Bush, not President Bush's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and certainly not mental health advocates -- no one.
Attacks on mental health screening are grounded in stigma and prejudice. This amendment targets mental illnesses and threatens to drive up stigma. Stigma is one of the greatest barriers to individuals accessing treatment for mental illnesses. President Bush and other national leaders have called for an end to stigma. This amendment must be defeated to avoid further stigmatizing mental illnesses.
Our nation has a public health crisis in unidentified youth with mental illnesses. We only identify 20% of youth with mental illnesses -- thereby failing to identify and intervene with services for 80% of youth with often tragic consequences.
Click here to learn more about Paul sponsored anti-screening legislation. | <urn:uuid:8273eb6c-1f0a-401a-9ef4-753ab0df2019> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nami.org/TextTemplate.cfm?Template=/ContentManagement/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=24124 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947319 | 449 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Congressional debate continues this week on plans to extend the Social Security tax cut, unemployment benefits and other expensive provisions that are about to expire. Last week the Senate again voted down earlier Democratic and Republican proposals that would have reduced the Social Security payroll tax next year, with a number of GOP lawmakers rejecting their leadership’s plan.
On Friday House Republicans released a proposal to extend this year’s 4.2 percent rate on workers’ taxable income, which is two percentage points below the normal rate for Social Security taxes.
The House GOP legislation included extended unemployment benefits and postponement of a steep reduction in Medicare payments to health care providers, something Congress has repeatedly done in the past. The legislation also included provisions opposed by many Democrats, including a measure to hasten a large pipeline project.
Democrats have sought a 3.1 percent Social Security payroll tax rate next year and disagree with Republicans on how to pay for the proposed tax cuts and other year-end measures. The proposed tax cuts -- like this year’s cut -- would not affect Social Security benefits. But the loss of this payroll tax money increases Social Security’s reliance on general government revenues.
Members of Congress are also considering an adjustment in the alternative minimum tax to again protect middle-class taxpayers from what was originally intended as a measure to ensure reasonable taxes on high incomes.
The Concord Coalition has long argued that the government can provide effective short-term support for the economy through measures such as extended jobless benefits while still putting long-term fiscal reforms in place to hold down government debt in the future. | <urn:uuid:49b8b695-205d-4231-af94-a6beafe7f148> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.concordcoalition.org/print/publications/budget-reports/updates/2011/1213/debate-continues-payroll-tax-cut-other-proposals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962237 | 321 | 1.5625 | 2 |
|Tuesday's agreement aims to boost trade, security and cultural links between Afghanistan and India [EPA]
The president of Afghanistan has sought to ease concerns in Pakistan about an agreement with India, saying it will not affect relations with Islamabad.
Hamid Karzai used a speech on Wednesday, as part of his two-day visit to New Delhi, to outline the strategy behind his foreign policy.
"Pakistan is our twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement we signed with our friend will not affect our brother," he said.
"This strategic partnership [with India] is not directed against any country, this strategic partnership is to support Afghanistan."
Ties between Kabul and Islamabad have come under increased pressure following Afghan and US allegations that Pakistan's ISI Intelligence service was linked to groups who killed Karzai's peace negotiator, the former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, last month.
Karzai and Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, sealed an agreement on Tuesday that spanned closer political ties to fighting terrorism.
It signals a formal tightening of links that may spark Pakistani concerns India is increasingly competing for leverage in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's first such pact with another country, deepens already friendly ties and aims to boost trade, security and cultural links between the two countries.
Indian involvement in Afghanistan is sensitive because of the delicate and often deadly power games in South Asia, with Pakistan vehemently opposed to its arch-foe meddling in what it considers its backyard.
New Delhi, fearful of the return of a Taliban-style regime in Kabul, has poured more than $2bn in aid into the country to gain influence, helping fund highways and the new national parliament building.
The agreement with India is one of several being negotiated by Kabul, including one with the US, that are part of an Afghan bid for greater security as NATO troops head home.
|Abdul Ali Seraj tells Al Jazeera Pakistan should stop being paranoid about Afghanistan's relations with India
"It is a hugely symbolic visit for India because Karzai's visit comes at a time when relations with Pakistan are at an all-time low and Pakistan has consistently denied India a role in the post-conflict Afghanistan situation," Al Jazeera's Prerna Suri, reporting from New Delhi, said.
"The Indians are grabbing onto this opportunity, possibly by getting a more meaningful role with this visit."
Moeed Pirzada, a Pakistani columnist and TV journalist, told Al Jazeera that Pakistan was not too concerned at the moment about Karzai's visit to India.
"There is a clear understanding in Islamabad that Karzai is on the spot and has to make adjustments because of recent developments," he said.
The assassination of Rabbani and accusations of close relations between Pakistani intelligence and the Taliban-linked Haqqani network had forced Karzai "to show a certain level of hostility towards Pakistan," Pirzada added.
With regards to details of security co-operation between Afghanistan and India, Pirzada said Pakistan was "waiting to see the fine print".
"If they are only concerning the police, they [the Pakistanis] are not really worried. They are not expecting Karzai to cross any red lines that Pakistan is sensitive over."
In a primetime national address on Monday, Karzai accused Pakistan of "pursuing a double-game", saying Islamabad was not co-operating in the battle against armed groups to establish peace in Afghanistan.
No positive response
Karzai acknowledged that his efforts for peace had failed as his overtures were met with more violence and targeted killings, most recently of his chief peace negotiator, Rabbani.
"The killings show that our call for peace has not seen a positive response. One-sided desire for peace will not bring a resolution. Peace can only be achieved with those who believe in it."
"We have to fight decisively against those who do not believe in peace."
Karzai's comments follow Pakistan's criticism by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, who accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency last month of playing a role in the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
The Haqqani network has denied links to the ISI and also involvement in last month's assassination of Rabbani.
Afghan officials have blamed the Taliban for the September 20 turban bombing, saying Rabbani's killer was Pakistani and that the attack was plotted by the Afghan Taliban's leadership body, the Quetta Shura, in Pakistan. | <urn:uuid:2b741d4a-f056-4576-9911-0ef01bb226f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2011/10/201110592543994924.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970002 | 918 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Real earnings in December 2004
January 24, 2005
Real average weekly earnings rose by 0.5 percent from November 2004 to December 2004 after seasonal adjustment.
This was due to a 0.1-percent increase in average hourly earnings, a 0.3-percent rise in average weekly hours, and a 0.1-percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
Average weekly earnings rose by 3.3 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2003 to December 2004. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 0.2 percent.
These earnings data are from the Current Employment Statistics Program. These data are for production and nonsupervisory workers in private nonfarm establishments. Earnings data are preliminary and subject to revision. Find out more in "Real Earnings in December 2004" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-100.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Editor's Desk, Real earnings in December 2004 on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2005/jan/wk4/art01.htm (visited May 19, 2013).
Spotlight on Statistics: Productivity
This edition of Spotlight on Statistics examines labor productivity trends from 2000 through 2010 for selected industries and sectors within the nonfarm business sector of the U.S. economy. Read more » | <urn:uuid:937558d8-dc4d-417f-8c6d-4332185f692b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2005/jan/wk4/art01.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927701 | 301 | 1.898438 | 2 |
For more than 60 years, the Jewish Diaspora and the government of Israel have enjoyed a largely monogamous “Jewish identity relationship.” The emergence of an Israeli Diaspora, with an estimated 500,000 Israelis building a communal life abroad, is shaking the Jewish boat. Most of these Israelis make little effort to engage with the local Jewish community and see little value in investing in organized Jewish life. This changing Jewish world requires strong leadership within the institutionalized Jewish community and from the organized Israeli community.
Last June, the authors of this article — both of us from the Reut Institute — conducted a study visit in Toronto as part of a process to formulate a conceptual and operational framework on the role of the Israeli diaspora within the context of the changing relationship between Israel and the Jewish world. This project, funded by the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, was designed to assist Jewish communal organizations, the Israeli government and Israeli leaders abroad to assume an active role in building thriving and sustainable Israeli-Jewish community.
Like other national immigrant communities in Toronto, many Israelis, particularly in the first phase after arrival, search for the familiar. This search gave birth to a “Little Israel” in which Israelis can socialize in Hebrew, watch Israeli television and drink iced coffee at the Aroma Espresso Bar. For Israelis, Diaspora Jewish communal life represents something that is both entirely foreign and suspicious as well as strangely comfortable. Similarly, while “Little Israel” is smack in the heart of the Jewish community, Israelis are under represented in organized Jewish life.
The presence and growing strength of Israeli communities abroad presents a significant ideological and organizational challenge as well as opportunity for local Jewish communities and the State of Israel. And while each of these players has begun to recognize the presence and value of Israeli communities outside Israel, efforts to engage these communities have been ad hoc, at best.
Just as Israeli emigrants were often viewed as “deserters” back in Israel, so too did the North American Jewish community close its doors to them. However, the attitudes of Jewish communal leaders and organizations toward Israeli immigrants are shifting with vigor. In Toronto, the local Federation has become the leading Jewish communal organization in North America in prioritizing and investing resources in the “Israeli community” issue. Apart from a desire to broaden potential sources of funding, the Jewish community there has much to gain from a strong connection to its Israelis, particularly a strengthened connection between the local Jewish community and Israel – including Israeli culture, the Hebrew language and entrepreneurial spirit.
In conjunction with these developments, a growing number of Israelis have come to recognize the limitations of the Israeli identity container abroad. The leaders of this group, which we call North America Jewish Sabras (NAJS), are driven to ensure a hybrid identity that can be transmitted to the next generation and is composed of a strong connection to the local Jewish community and a Jewish education (be it day school or supplementary).
However, while the doors to the Federation have been opened and Israelis are beginning to value a Jewish identity for their children, few Israelis have responded to the invitation. Israelis are still unlikely to volunteer their time, energy or money toward organized Jewish life.
It is not necessarily “the lack of Israeli leadership,” a recurring argument that we heard from Jewish professionals and lay leaders, that prevents this engagement, but rather resentment, suspicion and a thorough lack of understanding of the model of Jewish communal organization.
This entrenched resentment is unlikely to change overnight. It requires local Jewish leaders and the Israeli government to work together with the local Israeli leaders to cultivate strong Israeli communities characterized by their hybridism and with the long-term vision of becoming part of the local Jewish community. While, the burden of the responsibility for doing that lies with the local Israeli leadership, Jewish communal organizations can support and incentivize the creation of an Israeli social space in which their uniqueness within local Jewish life can find expression.
Such “hybrid” programs already exist is Toronto and elsewhere. In these programs Jewish and Hebrew education are offered, strong connection to the local Jewish community is emphasized, and a vibrant connection to the state of Israel and Israeli culture is celebrated. Yet, the scope of these programs remains modest, and there is still a long way to go before the Israeli diaspora will be an integral part of the organized Jewish community.
Eran Shayshon and Alissa Breiman are from the Reut Institute. Reut and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto will host a workshop on this issue at the General Assembly (GA) of the JFNA in mid-November, with leaders of both the Jewish and Israeli communities of North America. | <urn:uuid:a3ad28f6-6a39-4d27-831f-085828cfc21d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesofisrael.com/expanding-the-tent-to-include-half-a-million-israeli-expats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95268 | 953 | 1.929688 | 2 |
North County (Massachusetts)
The Montachusett Region (also known as North County) is a region comprising several cities and towns in the north-central area of Massachusetts surrounding Fitchburg. As it has no legal standing in state government, definitions of the region vary.
The terms, which are used interchangeably, are usually understood to refer to the area economically tied with the cities of Gardner, Fitchburg and Leominster. The "North County" label—the county referred to is Worcester County—is often used to emphasize the area's distance and separate political identity from the county seat at Worcester.
The region is sometimes defined as including Fitchburg suburbs in the northwestern corner of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The region's leading daily newspaper, the Sentinel & Enterprise, is published in Fitchburg. Another, the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, publishes a "North County" daily edition and Montachusett T&G semiweekly insert, both of which cover most of the areas usually considered parts of the North County and Montachusett regions.
Montachusett-North County towns include (towns in Middlesex County marked with *):
See also
|This Massachusetts-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:8ce026b9-7793-47a5-89c4-afe6aad1b458> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_County_(Massachusetts) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943186 | 259 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Submitted by Sandi Ochsner
|Theme:||God takes care of His people|
|Object:||God’s people must trust and obey|
|Scripture:||Moses answered the people. Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. …and Moses stretched out his hand over he sea and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong wind and the people crossed on dry land. Exodus 14:15-22|
After the 10 plagues had come upon the Egyptians, Pharaoh had finally had enough. He went and told all the Israelites to leave and go worship their GOD. So God’s people left quickly before Pharaoh could change his mind again. They all walked — 1000’s and 1000’s of people followed Moses to their new home.
But how would they find it??? God gave them a cloud by day to follow, because it was very hot in the dessert in the daytime and a flame by night so they could see because it was VERY dark out in the dessert at night.
OK, all seems good, right???? Oh no, Pharaoh starts thinking, "What have I done? Who will do all our work we don’t want to do? Lets go get those slaves back!!!"
So, he got his best fighters and his finest, fastest chariots and away they went after the Hebrews. And don’t forget, what was the Hebrew’s transportation??
That’s right their FEET. So it wouldn’t take the Egyptians long to catch up.
Oh no! Another problem for Moses and God’s people. There was water in front of them and the Egyptians behind. They ask Moses if he brought them out here to die. Moses said, "Don’t be afraid. God will take care of us." Do you think HE will??
Now God moved the cloud that was leading them to the back of His people and it turned dark so the Egyptians couldn’t see them. Then He told Moses to raise his hand over the water. Do you know what happened?? That’s right God made a big wind come and the water parted and God’s people walked through on dry land. What do you think the people might have seen in those big waves on both sides of them?
About now the Egyptians found the tracks of God’s people and followed them on what was dry land. But strange things began to happen. The wheels on their chariots fell off and the horses couldn’t pull them and they were afraid. Then do you know what happened? The water came rushing back washing all the bad people away. While God’s people were safely on the other side.
Do you think they were happy? Do you think they knew God had great power? Do you think they would listen to Moses said from now on?Well they were very happy and all sang a song to God maybe like this:God is so good He’s so good, do you know that song? Sing it with us.
God is so good, Halleluiah God is so good, Halleluiah God is so good, He’s so good to me.
Used by Permission | <urn:uuid:bc95041b-c62a-47b7-9c6b-3faeca52d26f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sermons4kids.com/waters_part_ochsner.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983496 | 687 | 2.96875 | 3 |
SYDNEY: Indian business icon Ratan Tata urged stronger trade ties with Australia, particularly in technology, saying there are major growth opportunities for both countries.
Receiving an honorary degree from the University of New South Wales, the chairman of India's largest corporation also said citizens of both countries needed to become more familiar to each other.
“The two countries have reason to do much more together than they have done,” Tata told an audience in Sydney late Tuesday.
“Australia is at the forefront in many high tech areas and India seeks some of that technology.”
Tata, whose Tata Group's products run from automobiles to software, said there was huge scope for Australia to export products to India, where the 300 million-strong middle class could reach as high as 600 million people.
Trade between Australia and India has soared over the past decade, growing from Aus$3.3 billion (US$3.1 billion) in 2000 to more than Aus$20 billion in 2011.
Demand for Australian commodities such as coal, wool and copper is driving the trade, but education is also a large and growing aspect of the relationship.
Tata stressed the importance of the education market, saying it was an opportunity to create life-long ties by student exchanges and internships.
“Our two countries have to be more familiar at a citizen level,” he said.
In a recent report on the Asian Century, Canberra said India now stands at the front rank of Australia's international partnerships and deeper bilateral, regional and global cooperation was being pursued in many fields.
Tata took over the family business in 1991 and is credited with building it into an international behemoth.
He won headlines as the driving force behind the creation of the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest “people's” car, as well for the purchase in 2008 of luxury British carmakers Jaguar and Land Rover.
He is due to retire at the end of December when he turns 75. | <urn:uuid:347201be-73b1-441f-b0ab-be1b17c30247> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beta.dawn.com/news/767338/indias-ratan-tata-urges-closer-business-ties-with-australia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972025 | 409 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Aligning all your parts in vocational harmony © 2004
Excerpt- P Is For Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day
I would like to discuss this month some practical thoughts on how to align and put together your plan to move towards more of what you want in your vocational life. First, as you start down the path to your perfect vocational day, it's important to eliminate the things in your life that are not adding value. You have to decide what they are.
These are the little things in life that seem to eat up one, two or three hours a day on a regular basis. Maybe these are trivial tasks that just don't need to be done any longer. Perhaps these are unhealthy behaviors that are no longer useful for you. Eliminating unhealthy behaviors (only you know what these are) will both lift your spirits and move your energy back into more useful areas. Your energy level will increase. Just as the memory on your computer freezes when there are too many files open, so do you when there are too many things going on in your life.
Where you place your focus each day is where you will see progress. It's also important to examine your processes. Establish a routine for yourself each day. Perhaps you currently have a demanding job and schedule and only have an hour a day, or even less, to focus on your vocational passion journey. It's important to establish a pattern and process for this. Whatever time you reserve, make sure it's consistent and protected. That is, figure out a time and place each and every day when you won't be distracted.
I believe it is also important to select a few people who already are living similar perfect vocational days. If you can actually talk to them, that would be ideal. Otherwise, perhaps you can observe how these people spend their day so you start to have ideas how others who are already living their perfect vocational days are doing. It has been the focus of my doctoral studies to understand how people who have followed their vocational passions are actually spending their days and how this has impacted the quality of their life experiences. Knowing this can help give you the extra motivation on those challenging days which you will experience along your journey.
Find a strategy to measure your progress. It's doesn't have to be a sophisticated method, just something which helps you gauge whether you are moving forward or not. That's the beauty of written plans; you have something to constantly refer to. One of the nice things about aligning your long term, short term and daily goals with what you prize most, is that you constantly have meaningful and relevant plans to measure yourself against.
There will be days when your internal language does not benefit you. You'll wake up in the morning and ask yourself questions, which are not helpful. Questions like, "What will happen to me when this plan fails?" or "Maybe everyone else is right when they tell me I have gone off the deep end". Your mind does not like a vacuum and will rush to answer these questions with equally negative statements, which are not useful to you. You'll find answers like, "Well, when this plan fails, I'll feel completely worthless and hopeless". "Now that I am indeed off the deep end, what will I do?"
Of course these ideas are not useful. Remember, on those particularly challenging days, ask yourself questions like, "Why is this journey important to me and how can I enjoy more of what I already have along the way?" You might find yourself getting more useful answers. You might respond with, "Because I know what it's like to experience a boring job and I need to move beyond this to experience more of my life." I can make sure to take the time each day to enjoy the world and those around me, content with myself that I am on a path toward greater meaning and purpose in my life''.
As you start to create your new path, it's equally important to develop confidence. Think of yourself as a product with great features and benefits. In this economy, it is very important to have this free agent mentality. By thinking of yourself as a product with services to sell, you'll begin to focus more on what you already have which is uniquely you. If you were to make a list right now of what your best features are and what the benefits of these features would be, what would you write?
Finally, once you have this list, it's important to match up these features and benefits with the right niche audience, who will not only buy but also appreciate and find these services useful. This will help as you begin to align what's most important to you in your vocational life.
The more you can define and talk about what's important to you, and act out your new vocational role, the faster you will begin the transformation. If your plan is to own your own pet store but your current job is a clerk, that's OK. Start to think about yourself as a pet storeowner and start to experience how this will feel. Make following your vocational plan one of your top daily priorities. Make sure not a day goes by that you haven't at least thought about it. Over time, you will develop a quiet confidence that what you are doing is right for you. Each day you will have less fear, more meaning, and more fun.
When I arrive at the start of a marathon race, it's that quiet confidence which brings me to the starting line. I know I have done the right training, followed the right diet and have the right mental attitude to give it my best. The same is true for getting to your perfect vocational day. It takes practice.
With practice you can begin to align all your parts in vocational harmony.
I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines as you go!
Note: For your personal copy of P Is For Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day, click here to purchase and get free shipping !
return to index | <urn:uuid:36df7443-13a0-4332-8d54-e3b09c4faaf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thevocationalcoach.com/_archives/_articles/aligning_may04.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97437 | 1,204 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Nanobarcodes-based Bioassays for Tracing Consignments of Meat and Bone Meal
Dr. Bhushan Jayarao
Use nanobar technologies to trace commodities for contamination and/or purity.
Nanobarcodes particles consist of cylindrical shaped metal nanoparticles, approximately 5 microns long and 300 nanometres in diameter. The particles themselves have stripes containing different metals such as platinum, gold, silver and nickel. The width and composition of the stripes can be varied similarly to conventional bar codes to provide individual tags. They can be read using an optical microscope also in a similar manner to conventional bar codes. This technology is suitable for multiplexing, or the simultaneous analysis of large numbers of biological samples. The detection of a BSE cow in the United States has resulted in a cascade of policy changes to how animal by products such as meat and bone meal are handled and processed. This has created new challenges to animal agriculture in Pennsylvania and will have serious long term effects on the animal agriculture and animal feed industry not only in Pennsylvania but the whole of United States. To ensure proper use of rendered products, the first step would be to have a reliable technology to trace the products. In this study we propose to develop, optimize and implement nanbarcode technology for monitoring and tracking meat and bone meal consignments. This would allow the state and federal agencies to maintain records and have the unique ability to track and trace consignments of animal rendered by products. | <urn:uuid:0aa3ede0-0393-4cdf-bc57-6dbfc23b7c84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vbs.psu.edu/extension/research/projects/nanobarcodes-based-bioassays-for-tracing-consignments-of-meat-and-bone-meal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916299 | 302 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The Golden Nugget That Makes Traders Wealthy Trading AAPL, RIMM And Gold StocksNovember 23rd, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I know most Apple enthusiasts will be rolling their eyes with my analysis and that’s fine because the rest of us need people to buy our shares as we unload long positions or sell Apple short .
All joking aside, the charts below clearly show some very interesting information you cannot afford to overlook. At minimum, take a quick glance at the charts which tell the full story on their own…
The Four Stages of AAPL & RIMM
Markets are cyclical in nature. There is a constant process of expansion and contraction, rally and decline that continues as the market determines the theoretical fair value of a security. The sum of these moves forms an unquestionable cyclical pattern consistent within all time frames.
During a cycle a stock enters different phases of support, from irrational exuberance typically found before its peak, to periods of widespread discontent where its price is continually punished. However there are never distinctly good or bad stocks.
Every “good” stock will eventually become a bad one and vice versa. There are however good trades; trades that reward an investor who has correctly anticipated a move and positioned himself accordingly.
It is important to note that this works with commodities like gold and silver which are trading at a VERY interesting point in their life cycle. Looking at various time frames in GLD and SLV you can see this.
Classic economic theory dissects the economic cycle into four distinct stages: expansion, trough, decline and recovery. A stock is no different, and proceeds through the following cycle:
- Stage 1 – After a period of decline a stock consolidates at a contracted price range as buyers step into the market and fight for control over the exhausted sellers. Price action is neutral as sellers exit their positions and buyers begin to accumulate the stock.
- Stage 2 – Upon gaining control of price movement, buyers overwhelm sellers and a stock enters a period of higher highs and higher lows. A bull market begins and the path of least resistance is higher. Traders should aggressively trade the long side, taking advantage of any pullback or dips in the stock’s price.
- Stage 3 – After a prolonged increase in share price the buyers now become exhausted and the sellers again move in. This period of consolidation and distribution produces neutral price action and precedes a decline in the stock’s price.
- Stage 4 – When the lows of Stage 3 are breached a stock enters a decline as sellers overwhelm buyers. A pattern of lower highs and lower lows emerges as a stock enters into a bear market. A well-positioned trader would be aggressively trading the short side and taking advantage of the often quick declines in the stock’s price. More times than not all of stage 2 gains are given back in a short period of time.
While these stages are historically defined over long time periods they actually exists in all time frames, allowing traders to take advantage of a cycle regardless of their trading time frame. Fortunately this phenomenon, known as a “fractal”, exists within all security markets. A fractal is simply a rough geometric shape that can be subdivided into smaller parts that have the same properties; a smaller version of the whole.
This is important to understand because through technical analysis as we are often analyzing multiple time frames. In the short term, the four stage model may repeat itself many times. The combination of these short term cycles form a medium term cycle, and the combination of multiple medium term cycles form a long term cycle. Recognition of these cycles is paramount in trading success.
The Four Stages Profile: This signature profile happens over and over again in the market and all the great leaders eventually become laggards.
REAL LIFE PROFILES:
Variety in Trading
Investment securities (stocks, ETF’s, options, futures) can be described as being similar to different types of athletes, each with their own unique style and personality. Some can be characterized as sprinters, participating in quick bouts of movement but tiring quickly. Others could said to be more similar to a marathoner, enduring prolonged courses in one direction without pause or interruption.
When I look to make a trade I look for sprinters as historically I have had the most success with them. Other investors like pension and mutual funds are more interested in the long term marathoner that provides steady performance. There is no one way to trade; each method can be equally profitable or unprofitable. It ultimately comes down to what style works best for you, and the only way that can be determined is through trial and error.
Different phases, different strategies
As noted above, the market alternates between periods of trending activity and periods of consolidation. In a trend (stages 2 and 4) there will be an expansion of the price range in one direction. An uptrend will have a series of higher highs and higher lows (stage 2), while a down trend will produce lower highs and lower lows (stage 4). In a consolidation there will be a contraction of price range prior to a reversal in trend. This neutral stage is avoided by trend traders.
A stock in stage 1 or 3 is typically correcting itself after having experience a prolonged move in one direction. These corrections are found after periods of extreme movements that often conclude with emotional and undisciplined trading at peaks and troughs. Trading these two stages is quite different than 2 and 4, and this book will teach you how to manage your risk and trade these stages responsibly.
A short term consolidation within a primary trend is one area where we want to study the price action of a security for clues as to whether there will be a resumption in the trend, continued consolidation, or reversal. Sometimes however it is difficult to identify any order or consistency on any given time frame.
If you are a trend trader these periods should be avoided. Trading has enough inherent challenges already and at all times a successful trader will only be searching out those trades that have a high probability of being profitable.
Trading is all about finding an edge or an advantage and exploiting it for maximum profit. If there is no such edge than there is no reason to be involved. I will say this now and again many other times: Sometimes the best trade is no trade!
Naturally, regardless of the stage a stock is in or your conviction of its direction, risk of financial loss is always inherent in trading and this is critical to always keep in mind. The most successful traders are not immune to this and they too will have unprofitable trades. The key is to minimize those loses by only trading those stocks that have the highest probability of being profitable. This is what separates the profitable and professional traders from those that lose money.
Emotions and Lifecycle Analysis
History has an uncanny ability to repeat itself. Whether it’s the rise and fall of an empire or the rise and fall of a stock, there are clear cycles that are prevalent throughout history.
People may change, but human nature, and our ability to act, react and overreact is simply an innate part of our being. This predictability is what forms the basis of technical analysis and provides a trader with an edge with which to trade upon. When we are analyzing cycles we really are analyzing emotions, trying to gain insight as to how market participants are behaving.
Upon conducting such analysis it can at times seem that markets are be behaving “irrationally” and out of order. Undisciplined traders often fall victim to their emotions and lose control of their objectivity. As people behave irrationally, so too does the market, and unfortunately these conditions can persist for long period of times.
John Maynard Keynes is often quoted for suggesting that “The markets can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” This is a harsh reality and puts great emphasis on the importance of discipline, risk management, and a keen eye for price action.
Emotions are what separate the successful traders from those that lose money. They can be regarded as a relentless opponent, often showing up without warnings and striking you at inopportune times. The successful trader is able to recognize their presence and maintain objectivity, constantly assessing their own strengths and weaknesses.
There will ultimately be times where you can’t control your emotions; however you can always control how you respond to them. Any time you recognize that your emotions are influencing your outlook you are already one step ahead of the average market participant. It is at this point that you step back, refocus your perceptions, examine the price action, and then take the appropriate action.
An understanding of herd or mob mentality is important in trading and can provide you with an edge over the average participant who doesn’t contemplate what is happening around them. In a mob or riot, we never know what the feelings and motivations are of all the individual participants.
There are however certain emotions that seem to appear at distinct times and a certain predictability in their development. A stock’s price action is no different. While we never know the underlying feeling and motivations of all participants, there are distinct emotions that are shared by the herd at various stages of a stock’s life. An understanding of these emotions and their implications on the price action of a stock is an advantage that the profitable trader maintains.
The Stock Market Lifecycle could be explained in much more detail, but this report gives you the foundation of stock / index trading cycles. I will be covering this topic in a future video with much more detail.
The Apple Money Tree Is Losing Its Leaves…
The Fruit War – Apples Top While Berries Bottom
It is very interesting that AAPL shares topped the same week rim shares bottomed. Could the BB10 be the turnaround for Research in Motion? Either way the market is somewhat predictable as traders and investors buy the rumor that BB10 will be good, and they sell the news once it arrives no matter the outcome good or bad. Jan 30th is when it’s unveiled so we could see RIM shares continue to claw its way out of the grave.
RIM – Daily Chart Look of Price Pattern
Knowing this information is crucial to survival as this cycle happens on all time frames (1 minute chart all the way up to yearly charts). Harnessing this information for trade selection and timing greatly reduces the amount of trades you take, while focusing only on new leaders which have massive upside potential. You can see some of my trade ideas which are in Stage 1 Accumulation mode getting ready for takeoff here: http://stockcharts.com/public/1992897
Judging from the recent price action in the broad market (SP500, NASDAQ, DOW, IWM) along with AAPL shares which have a large impact on index price direction. I feel the market is setting up for a strong Santa Clause rally in the coming week.
2013 looks like it will be a VERY exciting year for trading and investing as several sectors, stocks, and foreign country indexes are in Stage 1 Basing patterns about to start a new bull market. These major plays will become part of my trading alert service at www.TheGoldAndOilGuy.com from this point forward. | <urn:uuid:205a9b31-0bf1-45c2-ab20-3d7f1fec73a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thegoldandoilguy.com/articles/collapse-of-apple-rise-of-the-blackberries-stock-market-cycle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950401 | 2,316 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Posted on Mon, April 13, 2009 by Jerusha Klemperer
0 Comments | Categories: Contaminated Food, Farms and Farming, Labeling, Meat,
I’ll subtitle this post “How to look underneath a news story.” When I read the op-ed in the Times last week claiming that a new study has revealed that free range pigs are more likely than industrially raised pigs to carry dangerous bacteria, I was confused, maybe a little suspicious. Everything I have ever read—including the brand new Righteous Porkchop—has clearly and scientifically laid out how industrial hog farming is some of the dirtiest stuff around. I read through the piece, trying to keep an open mind and trying to make it jibe with what I already know. I struggled.
When I got to the end of the piece, I read the author’s bio, including the title of his upcoming book, “Just Food: How Locavores Are Endangering the Future of Food and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly. Locavores endangering the future of food? This I gotta see.
First question: who funded this study?
Second question: What does Marion Nestle have to say? I trust her implicitly on questions of food-borne illness; she is a scientist first and foremost, and I look to her to get to the scientific heart of the matter. From Dr. Nestle I learned that the author isn’t quite interpreting the study—funded by the National Pork Board—correctly. She concludes: “My point, as always, is that sponsored studies are invariably designed in ways that produce results favorable to the sponsor. In this case, the sponsor represents industrial pork producers.”
Third step: I checked out the excellent piece over at CivilEats.com, where Paula Crossfield asks “The question is, then, how do we reclaim the media, and disseminate real information to consumers?” and states the importance of our movement gaining strength and articulation from these conversations with our detractors.
[Late addition: Keep peeling away the layers, and let things be complicated. The Atlantic Monthly Food Channel invited McWilliams to explain and retort. Also, check out Kurt Friese’s post on Grist, and the Slow Food Columbus Blog] | <urn:uuid:1923cbad-8a6c-49c4-88a2-42bbf22b9e3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/free_range_pigs_wont_kill_ya/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943656 | 481 | 2.09375 | 2 |
For a few short weeks last September, the Northwest and Northeast passages through the Arctic Ocean were simultaneously ice-free from end to end, the first such clearing in the time that satellites have monitored the region. Merchants have long sought routes through the ice packed waters that link the pacific and Atlantic. But researchers at the Naval postgraduate school in Monterey, California, say that we could now see an entire Arctic Ocean, not just passages along the coasts, with icefree summers, as soon as 2016.
That is a bleak environmental scenario. but it also means that cargo ships could shave thousands of miles off their journeys. Already, Russia is touting the Northeast Passage (a.k.a. the Northern Sea Route), which hugs its Arctic Coast, as a shorter, safer alternative to the pirate-infested waters near Egypt’s Suez Canal. The country’s fleet of for-hire, icebreaker escorts are on duty, and more are on order. although the major container shipping lines have yet to test the icy waters, more local cargo ships and tankers have been traversing the passage recently.
Equally desired is a shipping lane through the less-developed Northwest passage on the Canadian side of the Arctic. Although a labyrinth of frozen islands makes transit more challenging, China could get goods to the East coast of the U.S. without a lengthy detour through the Panama Canal or an overland trip by railroad. Similarly, travel between the Northwest U.S. and Europe would be 2,300 miles shorter. Many climate scientists say the Northwest could become passable on a regular basis by 2020.
Designers such as Aker Arctic, a Finnish firm, are developing ships that could travel the new routes even in the off-season, including icebreakers that can move sideways to blast channels for big cargo ships, and container ships with reinforced sterns that plow through ice rearend first so they don’t need an icebreaker to accompany them. Meanwhile, the Arctic Regional Hydrographic Commission, formed last October, is coordinating efforts to map the more than 90 percent of Arctic waters for which nautical charts are decades out of date or nonexistent.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more. | <urn:uuid:77da14a4-30b9-49cf-954f-0ac417ea92df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-07/global-warming-opens-long-sought-shipping-route-through-arctic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954436 | 497 | 2.90625 | 3 |
The bulletin of Atlanta University
|Previous||1 of 4||Next|
Loading content ...
Number 179 Atlanta, Georgia February, 1908 Gleanings from the Inauguration Exercises Dr. Hall on Negro Education Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall has twice had the distinguished honor of the Haskell lectureship, which has taken him to India to deliver courses of lectures on the Christian religion. In his opening remarks as presiding officer of the inauguration exercises, he gave expression to certain convictions which have grown out of his experience with the races in India. He firmly believes that each race has its peculiar mission in the fulfilment of God's purposes for His kingdom on earth. There is a certain parallel between the Indian and the Negro races, each having been for fifty years under the influence of English education and training. All that is best and most noble of English literature and culture has been, through the government schools, placed within the reach of the educated Indian. The same is true, through the service of institutions like Atlanta University, with reference to the educated Negro in America. Dr. Hall has observed that as a result of his English education the Indian is not less but more loyal to the traditions of his own race and people. He is more of an Indian than ever. Carrying out this idea with reference to the Negro race in America, he believes that the highest opportunities of education should be given to them in order that they may have the greatest incentive and encouragement in contributing to civilization those things which, by inheritance and nature, they are better able to contribute than any other race. Being, as they are in this country, a nation within a nation, they should attempt to realize their own national possibilities and constantly develop and increase racial self-dependence and racial self-respect. The Bond of Unity Pres. James G. Merrill, speaking on behalf of sister institutions, expressed the common purpose of these institutions and Atlanta University in the figure of a cord with three strands, by which we are all bound together. The first strand is belief in the education of the whole man, the cultivation of the head, the hand and the heart; the second strand, loyalty to humanity, which means a full recognition of the brotherhood of man, but which does not prevent a belief in the aristocracy of learning. "The third strand in this threefold cord," said President Merrill, "is our loyalty to Jesus Christ; not the Christ perhaps Of our fathers, who knew Him as divine and ignored His humanity; not perhaps the Christ of today, where the emphasis has been placed upon His humanity, but the Christ who is both God and man, whose name is inscribed upon all our institutions of learning, whose power is felt not only in Atlanta University but in all her sister institutions as the source of all modern learning." Education of Individuals Chancellor David C. Barrow of the University of Georgia addressing his remarks as an old teacher, to President Ware as a young teacher, reminding him that the mortality of college presidents was greater than that of any other profession, urged him to take care of his health, and amidst his endless duties, to cultivate the spirit of serenity and peace. He concluded with the following advice, in view of the peculiar problems which confront the teachers of the Negro race, "Don't let any theory about the race question come into your dealing with your pupils. What they need is to realize that they are individuals. Whatever you do, recognize the individual. Don't undertake to educate a race, a class, a section of a class. Educate the individual in your school. That is what I want you to do." Yale University to Atlanta University New Haven, Conn., Dec. 19, 1907. To the Board of Trustees, Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia. Gentlemen: Yale University sends its special greeting to you on the occasion of the inauguration of the Rev. Edward Twichell Ware as President. Yale has always taken a special interest, in Atlanta owing to the fact that both its first President, Rev Edmund Asa Ware, and his successor, Rev. Horace Bum-stead, D. D., were honored , graduates. The University is glad to feel that this special reason for interest is to be continued because of the election of Rev. Edward Twichell Ware, a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1897, as Dr. Bum-stead's successor. The authorities of the University sincerely hope and believe that Atlanta will have a successful administration under the new president and that it will continue to be a powerful force in the upbuilding of the people to whose development it is consecrated. I am, in behalf of the University, Very truly yours, Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., Sec. Through some unaccountable oversight in the list of institutions represented at the inauguration, Hampton Institute was omitted. We were delighted to have with us, as the representative of Hampton on that occasion, Mr. William Scoville, the son-in-law of Gen. Armstrong. An Institutional Church for Atlanta The Saturday evening talk, January 11th, was given by Rev. H. H. Proctor, D.D., of the First Congregational Church in this city. He recently returned from a successful trip in the North, the purpose of which was to complete a fund of $25,000 for the erection of an institu- tional church. One of the most encouraging features of his effort is the fact that over half of the money needed has been subscribed by the citizens of Atlanta, a large part of it by the members of his own church. The building, soon to be erected, will be provided with all of the facilities of an up-to-date institutional church and it is expected that hundreds of the young people of the Negro race will by this means be diverted from places of evil influence and have all their energies directed in wholesome and uplifting channels. When Dr. Proctor left on his trip for the North he remarked that over half of his congregation were Atlanta University people, and in many places he has found that this fact has quickened the interest of his audiences. We have a natural pride in the success of this church, whose history from its establishment has been so closely connected with that of Atlanta University.
|Title||The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1908 no. 179|
Universities & colleges
|Description||The bulletin of Atlanta University was a publication sent to faculty, friend and alumni of the institution; Telling of the institution's progress and present needs. This issue is February 1908, no. 179.|
|Holding Library||Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center| | <urn:uuid:e92e9474-fec8-410c-8f1d-e2e4b89c4fa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/rwwl/id/1451/rec/11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974236 | 1,347 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Safety is the most important job at the gas dock. When you pull up to the gas dock have all passengers step off the boat and on to the dock. Turn off your engine and all electrical equipment. Be sure to extinguish all smoking material and open flames. Close all the windows, doors and hatches so that fuel vapors do not enter your cabin or bilge.
During fueling, maintain contact between the gas nozzle and fill pipe to stop static electricity. Know approximately how much fuel you will need and be suspicious of a problem if it takes more. Make sure you attend the fuel nozzle at all times and listen to the change in sound of the vent as the boat becomes full. Do not top off your tank. If you are filling a portable tank remove it from the boat and fill it on the dock to avoid spills in the boat. Avoid overfilling and allow 5 percent for expansion from the heat. Wipe and clean all spills immediately.
After you return the nozzle to the pump, run your blower for at least 4 minutes and physically check your bilge for fuel or vapors before starting your engine. Open all hatches, windows and doors that you closed.
If you accidentally pump fuel into the wrong tank or a hose in the fuel system breaks or leaks, notify the attendant immediately and call the fire department in aiding you to remove the gas from the bilge. Do not turn on any electrical blowers or pumps as a spark may ignite the vapors from the excess fuel.
he excess fuel must be removed professionally into drums and removed from the boat. Leave all hatches open to vent the vapors from the area. If the fuel is pumped overboard accidentally you must call the National Emergency Response Center at 1-800-424-8802. Failure to report a fuel spill will subject the owner of the boat to fines.
SAVING MONEY ON FUEL
Gas is starting to creep up to $3 plus per gallon at the fuel dock. Here are a few steps you can take to get the most out of a tank of gas.
Do not overload your boat with unnecessary equipment. Balance the load and use your trim tabs if your boat is so equipped.
Keep your boat tuned-up with new spark plugs, wires and distributor cap.
Make sure your prop is in good condition, not dinged or out of pitch. Ten percent of a boat's power can be lost by using a damaged or improper sized prop.
Keep your boat's bottom clean. Barnicles and slime slow the boats movement and cause you to use more fuel.
Use the tide to travel long distances. Always try to travel with the tide.
Take the time to learn your boats most economical speed)both on and off plane. Excessive speed burns more fuel.
Keep a log book of running hours and fuel consumption and look for variances that may indicate problems. | <urn:uuid:61bbae72-1bb6-4723-b607-b7189c662c2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.silive.com/sports/advanceonsports/index.ssf/2009/06/safety_is_the_key_at_gas_dock.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911853 | 589 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Singapore conducts an amazing eco trail
To impart the sense of home eco-friendliness in the young cubs and to foster team work and family bonding in a uniquely Scouting way, the Singapore Scout Association (SSA) organized the Amazing Eco-Home Trail on 26th June 2010.
Now in its fifth year, this amazing trail event which was in partnership with Home-Fix DIY Stores, had more than 300 Cub Scouts and their parents/guardians who grouped under different teams and scoured the entire island of Singapore to locate Home-Fix retail shops where they carried out activities and performed specific assignments related to home eco-friendliness. Participants and their accompanying parents/guardians traveled by public transport as part of the educational efforts to convey the values of thrift and energy conservation.
With this event, participants demonstrated the two key elements of the Scout Method – learning by doing and adult support which is also in line with the strategic thrust of SSA encouraging the involvement of parents and the community in Scouting under the themes ‘Scouting builds Families’ and ‘Scouting builds Community.'
Flagged off at the Henry Park Primary School Hall, winning teams were selected based on points earned during the trail. The trail culminated in a prize presentation at a family oriented and community bonding gala dinner laced with creative performances by the groups’ very own Cub Scouts.
Mr Malcolm Tan, Assistant Chief Commissioner (Programme)/NPC of the SSA officiated the gala dinner which was attended by many Assistant Chief Commissioners and District Commissioners.
Organized by the Henry Park Pelican Scout Unit, a Cub Scout unit strongly supported by parent volunteers led by Mr Robert Koh, the event was fully managed by a group of dedicated & committed volunteer leaders with diverse backgrounds, ranging from a banker to an airline pilot.
-- by Caleb Cheah, Director (Corporate Affairs)
The Singapore Scout Association | <urn:uuid:d949b163-e885-4126-9d4e-3aa5a659cb49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scout.org/ru/v_mire/azia_tihookeanskij/novosti_i_publikacii/novosti/2010/singapore_conducts_an_amazing_eco_trail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967466 | 384 | 1.5 | 2 |
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, announced Friday that he is stepping down from President Barack Obama's Cabinet and is "eager to return to California" and an academic life of teaching and research.
With Chu's departure, which had been expected for some time, Washington will lose its most prominent geek. A vocal advocate of clean technology and nuclear power, Chu strongly represented the role of science in combating global climate change.
But Chu's tenure was not without controversy. The Energy Department's support of Solyndra, the Fremont solar manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy, became a political lightning
In Silicon Valley, however, many credited Chu, a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics who previously ran the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with bringing science back to the forefront after years of neglect during the George W. Bush administration. Chu did not say if he would be returning to UC Berkeley.
"The fact that science matters again is one of Chu's biggest accomplishments," said Steve Vassallo, a partner at Foundation Capital in Menlo Park. "He elevated science and technology and the importance of doing the math.
In a lengthy farewell letter to department employees, Chu stressed that he has been inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., who urged America to judge people "by the content of their character."
"In the scientific world, people are judged by the content of their ideas," wrote Chu. "Advances are made with new insights, but the final arbitrator of any point of view are experiments that seek the unbiased truth, not information cherry-picked to support a particular point of view."
When Congress passed the landmark stimulus bill in 2009, more than $90 billion was targeted to energy projects -- the largest investment of federal dollars in the energy sector ever. Nearly $3 billion was awarded to the Bay Area from the Department of Energy alone.
The infusion of money came at a critical juncture, filling a void when the recession and global financial crisis made other sources of funding hard to come by.
The money ranged from a $1.37 billion loan guarantee to Oakland-based BrightSource Energy, which is nearing completion on the massive Ivanpah solar power plant in California's Mojave Desert, to manufacturing tax credits and dozens of direct grants to local cleantech companies, universities, labs and cities. San Jose used stimulus funds to replace 1,500 streetlights with energy-efficient and programmable LED lights.
Steve Westly, managing partner of the Westly Group, praised Chu for bringing in a strong team from the private sector to quickly invest stimulus funds, and for his continued support of research at the national labs and the SunShot program, designed to drive down the cost of solar energy so it can compete with fossil fuels.
"Secretary Chu is probably the best secretary DOE has ever had," Westly said. "He is the first secretary to combine world-class scientific expertise with the management ability necessary to lead such a large department."
During the past four years, the production of renewable energy from wind and solar has doubled. Last year, 42 percent of the new energy capacity in the United States was from wind. Solar installations, once a rarity, are increasingly mainstream. Electric vehicles are on the market.
Chu also played a key role in the government's response to both the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in Japan.
Because the United States lacks a cohesive national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, whether through a carbon tax, cap-and-trade program or renewable energy standard, many observers say the next energy secretary must be politically savvy and better able to work with Congress.
Obama is also under growing pressure to diversify his Cabinet picks so that they are not all white men.
Cathy Zoi, the former assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the DOEwho is now at Silicon Valley-based growth equity firm Silver Lake Kraftwerk, is often mentioned as a possible replacement, as is former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and Susan Tierney, an expert on energy policy and economics.
Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull. | <urn:uuid:2d19e798-002b-49a0-9689-80677e4430c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.siliconvalley.com/green-energy/ci_22499849/energy-secretary-steven-chu-steps-down | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958691 | 864 | 1.90625 | 2 |
It′s Time to Get Smart about the Use of Antibiotics
CDC campaign aims to draw attention to the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance
For Immediate Release: October 2, 2008
Contact: CDC Division of Media Relations, Phone: (404) 639-3286
What do sinusitis, most sore throats, bronchitis, runny noses and the regular cold have in common? They are upper respiratory tract infections usually caused by viruses that can′t be cured with antibiotics. Yet, each year, health care providers in the U.S. prescribe tens of millions of antibiotics for viral infections.
To bring attention to this increasing problem, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be observing the Get Smart About Antibiotics Week October 6-10, 2008. The campaign will highlight the coordinated efforts of the agency, states, non-profit partners, and for-profit partners to educate the public about antibiotic resistance and the importance of appropriate antibiotic use.
“Antibiotic overuse is a serious problem and a threat to everyone′s health,” says Dr. Lauri Hicks, medical director of CDC′s Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work program. Over-prescribing antibiotics, using a broad-spectrum therapy when a more specific drug would be better, starting and stopping medications, giving leftover medications to a friend who appears to have the same ailment you had, all contribute to the problem of antibiotic drug resistance, according to Hicks.
“As we enter this year′s cold and flu season, we ask parents to not insist on getting antibiotics when a health care provider says they are not needed,” says Hicks. “If you have a cold, or the flu, antibiotics won't work for you.”
According to Hicks antibiotics kill bacteria, not the viruses that cause colds or flu, most coughs and bronchitis, sore throats not caused by strep, and runny noses. Taking antibiotics when you don′t need them or not as prescribed increases your risk of getting an infection later that resists antibiotic treatment. If the health care provider’s recommendation is to wait- wait. People need to be patient and let the body do its work.
Hicks also asks health care providers to take the time to educate their patients about antibiotic resistance and the possibility of having serious side effects. For example, allergic reactions to antibiotics, such as rash and anaphylaxis, send thousands of patients to the emergency room each year, according to a recent study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases Journal.
The campaign will reach out to parents and health care providers through advertisements, fact sheets, brochures, posters, radio and print public service announcements, podcasts, and mainstream media interviews.
For more information or to download free campaign materials, visit www.cdc.gov/getsmart.
- Page last reviewed: October 2, 2008
- Page last updated: October 2, 2008
- Content source: Office of the Associate Director for Communication
- Notice: Links to non-governmental sites do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.
Get e-mail updates
To receive e-mail updates about this page, enter your
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd
Atlanta, GA 30333
TTY: (888) 232-6348
- Contact CDC-INFO | <urn:uuid:e8485f4a-65f5-45a9-8a52-86980997a209> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2008/r081002.htm?s_cid=mediarel_r081002 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904013 | 698 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Welcome to the gay '90s. There isn't a glory hole left in Manhattan or a single bathhouse in San Francisco. The largest Gay Pride contingent now marches behind the "Clean and Sober" banner. "How to find a husband" workshops and multiple daily support groups for "sexual compulsives" are held at gay community centers. Several U.S. cities have sponsored mass ceremonies where hundreds of same-sex couples are married in herd. The Advocate, the oldest national gay publication, has ghettoized all sex-related advertising in a separate magazine. Meanwhile, the safety net for men cruising outdoors in gay meccas has been rent by a growing police crackdown. In New York City, there are unprecedented arrests of gay male sex workers advertising in bar rags-inside their own homes. At private safe-sex parties, participants must strip before entering in order to weed out vice cops.
Nothing less than a revolution in the way we live and love is taking place. We've been burying friends, partners and family members for 16 years, and no one understands the excrutiating cost of AIDS better than gay men. Now we hear in Sexual Ecology that "HIV continues to saturate the gay male population at the same rate it always has," and that the community must confront the urgent task of discouraging promiscuity and rewarding monogamy. For Gabriel Rotello, the revolution hasn't gone far enough. But for a slut like me, having sex without taking risks for AIDS means staying alive--and that's the reward I need.
As finally reported by the media this year, cases of AIDS have been declining since 1993. Many were aware, but few publicized it. Some advocates thought it would jeopardize desperately needed funding; others thought if gay men were told, they would fall back into unsafe sex. Yet during this time the fear of a second wave of AIDS was transformed into a "fact" by gay journalists who sensationalized the findings of several studies. This served as the justification for calling in the state to crack down on sex establishments in order to protect the negatives from the positives-even as it denies all of us basic civil rights.
It's surprising that Rotello never mentions his activism in his book. In 1993, he used his New York Newsday column to urge the New York State Commission on AIDS not to remove oral sex without ejaculation from its list of unsafe sex acts legally banned in sex clubs. He had passionately exhorted ACT UP and GMHC to act on his conviction that too much unsafe sex among gay men was occurring and that oral sex, "condoned" as low risk by AIDS educators, was contributing to a second wave. When these efforts failed, he joined fellow gay journalists and others to form GLHPA in 1995. Their stated goal was "to prevent HIV transmission in sex establishments," dubbed by Rotello "the killing fields of AIDS." GLHPA took tabloid reporters into one club to hunt down unsafe sex; outraged columns and editorials were the product. In the face of gay men's refusal to use condoms for sucking or stop going to sex clubs, GLHPA resorted to public shaming and government intervention. The group held a closed-door meeting with top officials of the Republican Giuliani administration urging them to shut clubs where "unsafe" sex was occurring. With the decision to keep oral sex banned by the state sanitary code, incidences of oral sex reported by a posse of health department monitors were used to raid and padlock a dozen sex venues. This spring, gay bars have also been targeted.
To commemorate the 15th year since AIDS was first recognized, the gay press ran "major achievement" stories. Remarkably, none I saw even mentioned the invention of safe sex. Yet if there's on achievement that should have gay men holding their heads high, it's safe sex. Why don't we recognize this? It's time for gay men to speak out in defense of safe sex and to celebrate the enormous success we've had in curbing HIV and STDs. The keystone of sound prevention is individual responsibility; force and punishment are never effective. Like it or not, monogamy isn't the answer for everyone. We're human, we're not perfect, and not all of us can be saved.
In the way that only tragedy can, AIDS has united many in the gay community. But when it comes to our freedom of sexual expression, we've lost faith in ourselves and one another; instead we should be dancing in the street. Gabriel Rotello wants what we all want--for the plague to end and for gay men to be healthy and happy. But amidst the reactionary, assimilationist backlash against AIDS and sex, we must not lose sight of an important part of what we have to teach America: We're not all the same, and we don't have to be. | <urn:uuid:4dc31404-e8c0-451a-9ce2-8a44c4d0338a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poz.com/articles/241_12377.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973355 | 985 | 1.625 | 2 |
US Army Corps of Engineers Deploys Complex MathPosted December 13th, 2011 by Linda Bell
Today, we’re pleased to have a guest blog from Lindsey Christensen, Marketing Project Manager at PTC, which delivers Product Lifecycle Management and design software solutions.
Most people don’t think about the complexity behind the electricity that’s supplied to their home or work. We flick a switch. The lights go on or off. Simple, right? Well, not quite. As covered in the November 7th Forbes article “The High-Stakes Math Behind the West’s Greatest River”, there’s an enormous amount of data and complex calculations that go into meeting that demand for power. Harold Opitz, hydrologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s Northwest River Forecast Center, told Forbes, “I can never have too much data.” That’s because if Opitz doesn’t have enough data, and his calculations aren’t accurate, it could mean lights-out for millions of American households.
The Northwest River Forecast Center is one organization in a larger group, headed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, helping to manage over 100 large dams and hundreds of smaller installations along the mighty Columbia River. Together these structures provide a number of functions, but the chief one is hydropower generation to feed our electricity demand. In fact, the Grand Coulee Dam is North America’s largest power plant, not only providing 600,000 acres of irrigation to the Pacific Northwest, but generating nearly 7,000 megawatts of electricity at full capacity. To put this in perspective, just one megawatt can power 5,000 computers.
Effective operation of these giant dams depends on precise forecasting of weather, river and dam behaviors. It has to be incredibly accurate. As reported by Forbes: “As large as the dams are, their margins of error are miniscule and operating them takes unerring foresight and subtle management: let too much water fill reservoirs and a rainstorm might flood Portland; keep the reservoirs too empty and you’ll parch farmers. Send too much water over a dam’s spillway and you’ll suffocate fish with dissolved gases; send too much through its turbines and you’ll overload the electrical grid.”
Calculating the impact of natural and man-made factors on the Columbia River’s 27 major dams has become its own science, as engineers measure the pulse and elevation of the water in various locations along the river, the amount of fish that migrate through, how much electricity that will be demanded, snow melt from the Rocky Mountains, wind, and more. It has been an evolutionary process for the organizations involved.
It all begins with a daily report from the River Forecast Center to the Army Corps of Engineers which includes both short-term and long-term outlooks. The Corps then takes this information and applies a refined statistical model based in large part on historical data. The results from these models are fed back to the River Forecast Center and an operation plan is defined.
Forbes notes that in yesteryear the Corps relied on more of an oral tradition for decision-making around dam operation. Think lab notebooks or engineering journals. Today, from the Hydrological Engineering Center, it is able to use sophisticated mathematical analysis and calculation software for more accuracy, better analysis, and more collaboration. The software is called HEC-ResSim, a system developed in-house. Engineers are able to apply 70 years worth of stored historical data like rainfall, temperature and water levels to projected scenarios and evaluate the outcomes in ways they have never been able to do before.
All organizations seek accurate forecasting and secure management of IP and knowledge. The right engineering calculation software enables engineers to easily solve, document, share and re-use calculations and design work. It’s used when knowledge capture, data reuse, and design verification are too important for an Excel spreadsheet. The result can be faster time-to-market, higher product quality, easier compliance, and much more.
Do you have complex engineering projects that span across organizations? What calculation framework do you use? How is this analysis documented, exchanged, and stored? | <urn:uuid:9e3c99c9-742a-4a83-b535-ff9013c10e47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greentechbriefs.net/blog/?p=1772 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942413 | 874 | 2.96875 | 3 |
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in your eye. The lens, located just behind the iris, or the coloured part of your eye, works like the lens of a camera.
The human lens, made mostly of protein and water, can become clouded preventing a clear image from forming on the retina. Eye injury, certain diseases, or even some medications can cause the clouding as well. By Definition, this is a cataract, and over time it may grow larger and cloud more of the lens, making it more difficult to see. However, in over 90% of cases, clouding is caused by the aging process.
A cataract can be the reason sharp images become blurred, or seeing things at night becomes more difficult. It may also be why the eyeglasses or contact lenses that help you read, or do other simple tasks, no longer help.
Has become one of the safest of all surgeries, due to advances in clinical technique and surgical technology. Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure and nearly 98 percent of all cataract surgeries are performed each year without serious complications.
The cloudy cataract is removed and is replaced by an intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Lens replacement has been used for many years and has an excellent success rate. In most cases you will spend just a few hours at the site. Because your eyes will be treated with anesthetic, you should feel no pain but may experience brief pinching and pressure sensations during the procedure.
Often you will be expected to visit the office at the end of the day or the next day for a follow up examination. This will not take long but is a necessary step in ensuring the best visual outcome.
Although most patients see an improvement, some do not, usually because of other factors e.g. retinal aging, macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetes, injury or a “lazy eye”. Also, some operations prove to be more difficult as no two eyes are identical from a surgical standpoint. Uncommon complications such as infection (1/1000), hemorrhage, vitreous or retinal problems can happen. In less than 1% of cases a different IOL insertion technique may be required due to anatomical variations. In these rare cases, the IOL would be implanted as part of a second procedure at a later date. The chance of serious problems have been significantly reduced with the advent of surgical technique, IOLs and equipment. | <urn:uuid:4e877779-22fb-41d0-9c3e-9bea7b69148b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drkevinparkinson.com/cataracts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952237 | 510 | 3.21875 | 3 |
In the latest evolution of its Linux push, IBM has added to its non-x86 Linux server line with the introduction of new dedicated Power 7 rack and blade servers that only run Linux. “Hah!” you say. “Power already runs Linux, and quite well according to IBM.” This is indeed true, but when you look at the price/performance of Linux on standard Power, the picture is not quite as advantageous, with the higher cost of Power servers compared to x86 servers offsetting much if not all of the performance advantage.
Enter the new Flex System p24L (Linux) Compute Node blade for the new PureFlex system and the IBM PowerLinuxTM 7R2 rack server. Both are dedicated Linux-only systems with 2 Power 7 6/8 core, 4 threads/core processors, and are shipped with unlimited licenses for IBM’s PowerVM hypervisor. Most importantly, these systems, in exchange for the limitation that they will run only Linux, are priced competitively with similarly configured x86 systems from major competitors, and IBM is betting on the improvement in performance, shown by IBM-supplied benchmarks, to overcome any resistance to running Linux on a non-x86 system. Note that this is a different proposition than Linux running on an IFL in a zSeries, since the mainframe is usually not the entry for the customer - IBM typically sells to customers with existing mainframe, whereas with Power Linux they will also be attempting to sell to net new customers as well as established accounts.
So, other than to be able to say that Linux runs on every server platform, what does IBM expect to accomplish with this offering? IBM contends that Linux on Power has already exceeded their expectations because of the inherent strengths of the Power architecture, and that this offering will be exceptionally competitive, with performance from 60 percent to well over 100 percent performance advantages versus similar x86 systems. IBM is initially targeting workloads in three segments - big data and analytics, ISV applications such as SAP, and open source infrastructure services such as PHP, Apache, MySQL, etc. Aside from raw performance, the ability to run more VMs and mixed workloads (IBM’s highest competitive performance claims are for multiple VMs running multiple workloads, far in excess of 100 percent improvement) will enable software such as SAP to be deployed using a simpler physical infrastructure.
Will IBM succeed with this initiative? Hard to predict the exact shape of things to come, but with the investments they are making in the ecosystem, development tools, and partner enablement, it is a serious program, and the price-performance advantages are significant enough to at least force a serious evaluation of this alternative by many Linux users. My guess, and not a particularly difficult conclusion to come to, is that this will a successful program in current IBM accounts and will also meet with modest success outside of their installed base.
Power will not seriously perturb forecasts for x86 Linux, which are probably in the order of a couple of million systems this year, but even if they account for 2 percent of the market that would represent a $500 million or larger line of hardware revenue at a minimum and will certainly drag a multiple for that value along in service and software revenues, resulting in a nice tidy billion-dollar or larger incremental franchise for IBM.
If this program shows signs of developing along the lines I outlined above, it is almost a forgone conclusion that they will expand this to larger Power systems and offer the equivalent of an IFL for Power - a dedicated hardware module that will run only Linux at a preferential price, assuming that they can convince the mainframe crowd that this won’t imperil IFL on Z sales.
All in all, a smart move by IBM, and customers with high-performance Linux requirements would do well to evaluate this platform option. | <urn:uuid:2f814543-cbfc-4c2f-95d0-5d4c0dc673a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/infrastructure-and-operations/2012/05/ibm-rounds-out-its-linux-offerings-with-power-linux-1/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944095 | 786 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Do animals have culture? If you’re talking about chimps and you’re asking Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf of Lincoln Park Zoo, she’ll tell you yes. It’s an unorthodox and somewhat controversial opinion in her field of primatology but it’s a professional opinion she’s developed after years of studying chimps in her lab and in the wild.
When Lonsdorf spoke recently at Northwestern University she talked about observations she and her colleagues have made about tool use among chimps. Before Jane Goodall, the godmother of chimp research, observed her charges using long strands of grass to extract tasty insects from a large anthill, it was thought that only humans made tools.
Lonsdorf’s group has taken Goodall’s research a step further by identifying differences in tool use among various chimp populations, differences that can’t easily be explained by geography, or access to resources - differences she’s inclined to label as cultural.
They may not be discussing Satre or writing poetry, but you may be surprised at what these little guys are up to. You can hear Lonsdorf’s descriptions of some startling (and ballsy) chimp behavior, and her argument for why that constitutes culture, in the audio excerpt above.
Dynamic Range showcases hidden gems unearthed from Chicago Amplified’s vast archive of public events and appears on weekends. Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf spoke to an audience assembled by the Chicago Council on Science and Technology in April. Click here to hear the event in its entirety. | <urn:uuid:462d8815-3002-4719-bc9b-3db41e9b6f27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/story/scientist-concludes-animals-not-just-humans-have-culture-87034 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930176 | 333 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Several years ago my Pastor preached a sermon titled, "What kind of Shoe Are You?"
Lining the platform of the church were various shoes, each one typified a lifestyle for Christ. Oh! it was the greatest of sermons. I don't remember each point, so if I may take liberty with his topic and illustration, I'll make up a few of my own, and from it, you'll get the jist.
There was a dress shoe - It was shiny and polished, and certainly had it's place. It looked much nicer than the others, but in the Lord's service, did it measure up? It was beautiful, but what happened if the weather was rough. The sole was very smooth. It hadn't seen a lot of wear and tear, after all it only came out on Sunday! (We call them Smo's- Sunday Morning Only folk) If the path got a little slippery, it would make it rough to remain standing.
There was penny loafer - It looked pretty too, and loved displaying (and holding tightly) to it's money, but did little else. And again, those slippery soles will get you into trouble.
There was a regular loafer. The comfortable type. A shoe that you just like wearing around when you're not planning on doing anything. It was pretty common, I'd say every church ( I mean closet) has a few pair.
There was an athletic shoe - A runner! If it could slow down long enough, you might be able to see what it could do. But it was always so busy. Someday it would get involved with the work, but not today... it had entirely too much to do, too much to do....see you later!
One of my favorites was the sneaker! It was a pleasant shoe, everyone liked it. And it looked pretty good. Sometimes it was even a little flashy! But it wasn't always what it appeared to be...
I'll bet you can think of a few shoe analogies of your own. But my very favorite was the work boot! It's the one that I hope typifies my life. It's not the best looking and isn't always suitable for every social affair. But when it comes to the work, it's the best choice. It's always ready to get down in the trenches. It's not afraid of getting a little muddy, so long as it's done in the name of the Lord, and when all is said and done, it comes clean. By that I mean, let them say what they will why I'm in the trench, because I can knock the mud off and look as good as new when the Lord's done with the job.
I'm not saying that the work boot is the only suitable footwear for the church. There has to be a great many people doing a great many things to keep a ministry going. And everyone has different talent and abilities, and shoe styles!
No matter your shoe type, God has a place for you in the ministry. Perhaps you're skilled labor. You've got a refined gift that is unique. That's wonderful... what are you doing with it? | <urn:uuid:39237973-a328-4535-8a8f-4e7b61b60a77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sharijohnson.net/index.php?p=1_5_The-Boots.. | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990375 | 650 | 1.523438 | 2 |
1-2-3 Magic, Part 2
Always be on the lookout for opportunities to offer praise: "Good job on the spelling test, Amy!" or "You cleaned your room up beautifully! And I didn't even have to remind you. Wow!" or "You got ready for school so fast today!" Ideally, says Dr. Phelan, you'll praise your child about four times more frequently than you criticize her. Show, by your words and actions, that you believe your child can manage himself - and he probably will. Discipline should become less of a problem.
Praise is especially beneficial for children with ADD, who may face relentless criticism from teachers and friends, as well as from their parents. And being more generous with praise helps you enjoy your relationship with your child.
"1-2-3 Magic reminds us not to neglect the positive aspects of parenting," says Becky, a Detroit mom who moderates a support group for parents of ADD kids. "I used to talk only when I was annoyed. Now I try to speak up with praise or make positive connections when things are going well."
As you praise more, fight the urge to "over-parent." That's the term Dr. Phelan uses to describe the pattern of needless correction, supervision, or disciplinary commentary that parents often fall into - things like "Tie your shoes!" or "Put on your coat!" or "Chew more slowly."
Despite your good intentions, comments like these irritate and demean your child - and undermine her ability to take care of herself. Your central "message" to your child becomes, as Dr. Phelan puts it: "I have to worry about you so much because you're incompetent; there's not much you can do on your own without my supervision and direction."
Often, it's better for children to learn "start" behaviors on their own - and if they make mistakes, so be it. "There are times when staying out of problems is the best thing," says Dr. Phelan. "Let the big, bad world teach the child what works and what doesn't." If your daughter keeps forgetting her coat in the winter, for example, maybe you should let her be cold. If she neglects to put her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, she can go to the party in a soiled dress. If your son forgets his homework, let the teacher keep him late after school to make it up.
In each case, you're letting the consequences of your child's mistakes teach him or her the important lesson without having to say a word.
Why the system is so effective
Dr. Phelan's system works, in part, because it helps parents avoid two common mistakes: Talking too much and showing too much emotion. After all, says Dr. Phelan, children are not "little adults" who can be persuaded to change their behavior. Yelling at or otherwise showing anger to a child does little but escalate the confrontation, leading to what Dr. Phelan calls the "talk-persuade-argue-yell-hit syndrome."
Parents often assume that the more information they give their kids, the more compliant their children will become. The opposite is usually true. Dr. Phelan explains: "When Mom wants Tommy to stop teasing his sister, for example, the simple warning, 'That's one,' is clearer and more attention-getting than a recitation of five reasons why teasing is bad. Parental lectures and nagging not only confuse children, they also irritate them - thus reducing the chances of cooperation."
There's another reason 1-2-3 Magic is so effective with kids who easily become confused or overly excited. "Moms and dads often share these same characteristics with their children," explains Dr. Phelan. "Mom and dad, in other words, get mixed up by too much talking, and they get upset too quickly. When a challenging child is involved, these parent-child similarities make the task of reasonable discipline almost impossible."
This article comes from the April/May 2006 issue of ADDitude. | <urn:uuid:7b66cdea-ff0b-4aec-89fe-2df381a27caf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/771-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970181 | 844 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Kit 3, our new core resource for ages 7-8 is now available! The kit coversNational Curriculum Level 3 and comprises:
• Engaging problem-solving activities set in real-life contexts supported by extensive practice activities.
• Activities grouped into themes to show progression, structure and to offer flexibility for teachers’ planning.
• Assessment guidance on what to look and listen for as children engage with the activities.
You can now download a Kit 3 brochure which will explain what's included. We also have preview activities available. Kit 3 Numbers and the Number System 3 will give you a first look at the resource and includes all activities in this group, plus the photocopy masters. Enjoy!
We also have our Investigations with Numicon resource. This contains 10 challenging open-ended mathematical investigations with a low threshold and high ceiling. Aimed at KS2 maths and extendable to KS3 levels, for pupils aged 8 to 11.
This resource will help pupils move beyond number facts and calculating and encourages investigations and mathematical thinking.
For a full list of what's in Kit 3, please see our Kit 3 contents page.You can now order Kit 3 online!
Oxford University Press, Educational Supply Section
North Kettering Business Park, Hipwell Road, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN14 1UA | <urn:uuid:ffbc6735-a0ad-4e00-8384-da939484c7a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://numicon.com/numicon_for/KS2.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907983 | 275 | 2.625 | 3 |
Very early in the Eagle program, McDonnell Douglas had proposed an RF-15 reconnaissance version of the Eagle. The RF-15 would have been equipped with a new nose containing cameras, side-looking airborne radar, television cameras, and a multi-spectral scanner. This proposal was rejected by the Air Force, and no dedicated reconnaissance version of the Eagle was ever built.
As a private venture named Project Peek Eagle, the second TF-15A test vehicle (71-291) was modified with a conformal centerline pod equipped with reconnaissance cameras, imaging equipment, and data link. However, the project was not pursued beyond the test stage.
In 1995, an F-15D (82-046) was modified to carry a Loral-Fairchild ATARS multi-
sensor pod on the centerline. Two test flights were carried out, but the
system was not adopted for the F-15. | <urn:uuid:b58a1b18-83eb-4962-a11d-bb191a94c410> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/f15_24.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961295 | 188 | 2.78125 | 3 |
For , define oto be the highest exponent to which a prime divides it. For instance, . Prove that exists.
Previous Result: The cardinal of: is where is the floor function and is the Möbius function.
Consider: , the cardinal of this set is, by inclusion-exclusion:
But: thus note that we can write: but we want and the rest follows.
At this point, note that every number that is free of squares, is free of cubes ... and so on. Further, if a number is free of cubes, but not of squares, then
Thus we get: (This is already very suggestive)
Mmmm, here I've not been able to finish it formally -it gets quite nasty-, but I do think that: -remember and - | <urn:uuid:1c800339-f276-419c-8a55-8e8c43c127d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathhelpforum.com/number-theory/92678-exponents.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938354 | 165 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Red China Remains a Threat
11:00 AM, Nov 26, 2011 • By JOSEPH A. BOSCO
The Obama administration has moved to assert America’s Asia policy by vigorously engaging Southeast Asian nations concerned about China’s recent posture. On his trip to the region earlier this month, the president affirmed that the United States is, and will remain, a Pacific power. He made the point in dramatic fashion by announcing the stationing of 2,500 Marines in Australia.
America’s renewed commitment to the region is in response to a series of worrisome Chinese statements and actions in the South China Sea. This is the same area where Chinese actions spurred similar action by President George W. Bush.
Just two months in office, Bush faced his first challenge from Beijing when a Chinese fighter jet harassed and collided with a U.S. unarmed, slow-moving EP-3 reconnaissance plane flying in international air space in the South China Sea. The Chinese pilot was killed and the U.S. plane had to make an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island. China detained and interrogated the American crew for over a week and, after a couple of humiliating U.S. apologies, only allowed the plane to be dismantled, crated, and moved months later.
With that reality check on Chinese intentions and behavior in the region, President Bush seemed to reflect a toughening American posture when he declared a few months later that the United States would do “whatever it took” to defend democratic Taiwan against Chinese Communist aggression.
But Osama bin Laden’s attack on New York and Washington instantly shifted America’s attention to the emerging danger that administrations of both parties had largely ignored or underestimated over the previous decade. Overnight, China became America’s ostensible ally in the war on terrorism, though its actual contribution to fighting non-Uighur and non-Tibetan “terrorists” was mostly rhetorical.
Nevertheless, Washington policymakers managed to convince themselves that on counter-terrorism, as well as on counter-proliferation and the growing North Korea nuclear threat, China was a committed, reliable, and essential partner—a “responsible stakeholder.” What China was doing to prepare for war against Taiwan, and against the United States should it come to Taiwan’s aid, largely became a back-burner issue. The same was true of China’s complicity in proliferating dangerous weapons and materials to the world’s most dangerous states, including North Korea and Iran.
As China’s own military capabilities grew, so too did its confidence and its regional pushiness. It clashed with Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines in their territorial waters, and with the United States in international waters, harassing ship movements, seizing fishing boats, cutting sonar cables, and threatening dire consequences to all who dared resist its dramatically expanding maritime claims to virtually the entire South China Sea.
It seemed that Beijing had made a conscious decision to abandon Deng Xiaoping’s prudential counsel not to alarm others as China built its economic and military power: “Hide your capabilities, bide your time,” Deng had advised. This was China’s “peaceful rise.”
More recently, those in the Chinese military, political, and intellectual establishment, whom Henry Kissinger has called “the triumphalists,” succeeded in advancing a disturbing new strategy for China: flaunt your capabilities, alarm your neighbors, intimidate the small countries, provoke the large powers, and alert the world to the rising China threat.
In response, countries throughout the region have begun to build up their own militaries, especially their naval forces. But they know that China’s foreign minister was right when he brusquely reminded his Asian counterparts that "you are small and China is big.” They cannot resist or challenge China one-on-one, so they are enhancing their multilateral cooperation through joint planning and exercises.
More importantly, other nations have made clear that they earnestly seek a strong American presence in the region, militarily as well as economic. And they complained at a recent Washington conference on maritime security in the South China Sea that government officials should stop referring to China’s “assertiveness” and should call it what it is—“aggressiveness.”
After some initial hesitation, Obama administration officials have responded admirably. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Pacific commander Robert Willard have all called China out and asserted that the United States cannot accept any erosion to the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea or other international waters of the region. As former Pacific commander Timothy Keating succinctly put it, “We don’t need China’s permission to go through the Taiwan Strait.”
The West has reawakened to the growing peril posed by a Chinese government that has grown wealthy and powerful under the benefits of an international system it appears still to resent despite forty years of generous Western engagement. President Obama has discovered what President Bush discovered earlier, then seemed to forget: China’s Communist government remains a threat to the values and interests of the West.
Joseph A. Bosco served in the office of the secretary of defense as China country desk officer from 2005 to 2006 and previously taught graduate seminars on China-U.S. relations at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is now a national security consultant. | <urn:uuid:d5220338-e8eb-4ed7-a3e7-c472c73d4334> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/red-china-remains-threat_610158.html?nopager=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957229 | 1,138 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Ever been driving on the highway and thought to yourself - wouldn't it be cool if this was like Tron and this highway was totally glow-in-the-dark?
Well, if you live in the Netherlands - that just became a serious possibility!
The idea behind it is that during the winder roads can become very dangerous.
The glow-in-the-dark designs theoretically eliminate this danger by making everything easier to see when temperatures decline.
Wow - so cool.
Ch-ch-check it out by clicking PLAY directly (above) !!! | <urn:uuid:7c42e305-9b38-4740-be9c-1f1ae995bdb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://perezhilton.com/tag/infrastructure/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971566 | 116 | 1.75 | 2 |
By DANA SMITH
Tribune Staff Reporter
THE number of reported crimes so far this year has fallen in comparison to the same period last year.
Police statistics show rape, murder, burglary and housebreaking are lower than last year, but robbery and armed robbery are up.
The data measures reported crimes from January 1 through April 24 of this year compared to January 1 through April 24 of last year.
Overall findings indicate that in the first four months of the year, there has been a drop in the number of crimes against property and a one per cent increase in the number of crimes against persons.
As of April 24, the murder count stands at 40, in comparison to 42 in April 24 2011. Attempted murder has also dropped to three, from five.
There have been no reported cases of manslaughter, on par with last year.
Rape reports also took a slight dip to 33 from 35 and unlawful sexual intercourse investigations stand at 60, in comparison to 63 in 2011.
There have been 347 reported armed robberies, compared to 333 last year, and 120 reported robberies compared to 111.
There have been 14 attempted robberies reported, the same number as in 2011.
In all, there were 619 reported crimes against the person so far in 2012, compared to last year's 612, representing a one per cent increase.
Burglary took a dip to 86 reported cases from last year's 88, while housebreaking stands at 932 compared to last year's 1,102.
Shopbreaking reports fell to 236 compared to 328 and stealing fell to 558 from 596.
The number of reported thefts from vehicles, however, is higher than last year.
There have been 830 reported instances of theft from a vehicle compared to last 740 in 2011.
Reports of actual stolen vehicles have fallen to 367 from 389.
There were 3,009 reported crimes against property for the first few months of 2012, in comparison to last year's 3,243, representing a seven per cent decrease.
Overall, reported crimes between January 1 to April 24 have decreased by six per cent over that period last year - to 3,628 from 3,855. | <urn:uuid:e99c7ac7-0277-4e2d-ae7f-db3b550c2a23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tribune242.com/news/2012/apr/26/total-number-of-crimes-down-on-last-year/?news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969828 | 446 | 1.617188 | 2 |
POTENTIAL MISCOMMUNICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Some forms of miscommunication relate to issues of self esteem, attachment difficulties or other significant issues. In those cases seeing a therapist would be beneficial. Other forms of miscommunication result from our being rushed, not being as clear as we thought, or assuming the other person knows what we are thinking. This article focuses on the latter forms of miscommunication and serves as a reminder of things you probably already know but forget to apply.
1. Many miscommunications occur because either person does not give complete information or enough detail to clarify what they are trying to communicate.
Unclear, incomplete or vague information in a discussion can result in each person coming away with different interpretations of the conversation. For example, “I thought we were just brainstorming.” “When I said ‘Right’ I was just agreeing with you, I was not saying I would do it.”
It is helpful to organize your thoughts ahead of time when something important is being discussed and have a clear understanding of what you want resolved by the end of the conversation. If you are the listener, make sure you summarize any conclusions and clarify any generalities. If you are the speaker, it is best not to assume the other person fully understood what you meant.
2. Miscommunication occurs because people do not double-check to make sure there is agreement between them and what they are agreeing to.
So many times someone will say “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that; weren’t you?”
Or “I didn’t know you wanted that, also.” Or “I thought I was going to pick you up at the stop sign, not by the restaurant.”
Clarify the specifics of a communication by asking questions, such as:
It is important in the initial conversation that no one is rushed, that the critical information is not embedded in a lot of details, that you are looking directly at each other, and that one of the parties says “So we are agreeing that…” In some situations, it is best to write things down — e.g., a shopping list, or an e-mail, or a checklist of responsibilities.
3. Miscommunication can happen when one of the parties “turns off” their attention during the communication and then just agrees at the end, even though they have not listened.
This can occur because the listening party may be preoccupied. Or, the speaker may be angry and the other person is feeling attacked; or the listener may not really want to discuss this issue.
It is valuable to monitor your feelings, are you angry or anxious? Sometimes people feel they can cover their feelings, but their nonverbal communication – such as verbal tone or body language displays it anyway. It is best under such circumstances to choose a better time. If there is no better time, then be honest about your feelings and ask the other’s help in being constructive.
By asking for the help, it is more likely the other person will be an active participant and not tune out the discussion. If you are the person who tunes out, be aware the other person may not recognize this and believes an agreement has been reached, for which you will later be held accountable. It is better if you express that you are not ready to have the conversation at this time, or need some adjustments by the other person in order to be ready.
These examples may seem obvious, but miscommunication occurs frequently and the suggestions offered here may be very helpful in reducing friction in relationships.
Dr. Malcolm Miller is a Clinical Psychologist practicing in West Los Angeles and Torrance and is a member of the Independent Psychotherapy Network. He may be contacted at 310-822-9998 or email@example.com.
Copyright 2012 by Malcolm Miller, Ph.D.
Copyright Independent PsychotherapyNetwork ©2008-2013 | <urn:uuid:38e5ee12-e3ba-439e-a84f-4eb132613f2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.therapyinla.com/psych/psychApr12.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964477 | 821 | 2.84375 | 3 |
When we plant new churches, we reach new people and new cultures.
Although some churches can remain relevant to emerging cultures, planting new churches is the primary way the church adapts itself to an ever-changing culture.
When we plant new churches, we empower new leaders.
Leadership emerges when there is room to grow. Churches that are top heavy in leadership have a hard time empowering young leaders, but new church plants enable church members to become the next generation of leaders.
When we plant new churches, we plant seeds of social transformation.
From new church plants spring new opportunities and creative ideas to serve the needs of communities and cities and see them transformed by the gospel.
How Every Nation Supports Church Planting:
We support church planting through our ABC3 program—Assessment, BootCamp, Coaching, Consulting, and Clusters.
Assessment: The Assessment Center is open to any potential church planter who plans to plant their church in the next 12-18 months and is designed to help them discern their calling to church planting by affirming their strengths and identifying weaknesses.
BootCamp: The objective of the Church Planter’s BootCamp is to give church planters practical skills that will help them break through current statistical norms by planting healthy, vibrant, and growing churches.
Coaching: The objective of coaching is to help pastors and new church planters to develop their leadership skills in order to succeed in their given church context.
Consulting: Once a church plant has been established, Every Nation provides trained consultants to help pastors grow healthy churches and develop strategies to effectively engage their cultures.
Clusters: Clusters are regional gatherings of pastors and church planters with the aim of imparting vision, discussing best practices, and deepening relationships. | <urn:uuid:2acc25ea-b505-4404-8e74-182abb6182a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everynation.org/church-planting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9491 | 361 | 1.601563 | 2 |
It was nearly 34 years ago that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. A generation ago. And too much has been forgotten.
The children alive on that April 4 in 1968 have themselves grown up and have had children of their own. But those children -- an entire generation -- never saw the great civil rights march on Washington on the evening news. For them, now, it is only part of a history lesson.
They were never mortified by the news magazine images of Americans set upon by dogs and their racist police handlers as they tried to register to vote. For children today, the rights struggles of the 1960s are as much ancient history as the Civil War or even the Revolutionary War.
They were not alive to hear what was going on in Birmingham when it happened. Today, King's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" is a reading assignment in English textbooks -- not a call to action.
New holiday: The young men and women who graduate from high school this year would not have observed a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on the third Monday in January: unless they lived in California, the first state to honor the great human rights leader in 1970.
For it wasn't until Jan. 20, 1986, that Americans across the country celebrated the Monday nearest Dr. King's Jan. 15 birthday of as a national legal holiday.
These days, schools, civic organizations, religious groups and government agencies do their best to honor Dr. King's memory. But honoring an abstract concept with speeches and the flying of Old Glory is not the same as honoring the work of Dr. King by acting to perpetuate it.
Dr. King died for civil rights, for peace and for economic justice. We honor his memory best when we live for those ideals. | <urn:uuid:760dd8be-3b89-42da-9903-fa9664788a6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vindy.com/news/2002/jan/21/new-generations-must-know-and-value-the-rev-dr/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976925 | 360 | 3.03125 | 3 |
John F. Kennedy House
This home became a landmark when the boy became President and a poignant gift to America, when he died.
E-mail This Page to Your Friendsx
A link to %this page% was e-mailed
This charming, unpretentious home is where John F. Kennedy was born. Rose Kennedy, JFK's mother, personally recreated his auspicious beginnings by filling the nursery with JFK's original christening gown, favorite books and the family's heirloom bassinet. The home today is a loving tribute from mother to son.
Rose Kennedy repurchased this home they had left more than 40 years before to turn tragedy into tribute. In the nursery, Rose recreated the room where her first four children played, including JFK's favorite books
A sense of pride and history can be felt throughout the house, where Rose moved into as a young bride.
The massive Glessner House turned its back on all things Victorian and ushered in a new era of ground-breaking design. | <urn:uuid:be7f9d7f-cff5-4702-a28a-0bfd42c4dcad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hgtv.com/home-improvement/john-f-kennedy-house/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953519 | 209 | 2.125 | 2 |
- Infowars - http://www.infowars.com -
Only 24.6 Percent Of All Jobs In The United States Are Good Jobs
The American Dream
Aug 3, 2012
Do you want to know why it seems like good jobs are very rare in the United States today? It is because good jobs arevery rare in the United States today.
According to a paper that was just released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all American jobs qualified as “good jobs” in 2010. Over the past several decades, there has been increasing pressure on corporations to reduce expenses and increase corporate profits. One of the biggest expenses that any corporation faces is labor. Large corporations all over the globe are in an endless race to gain a competitive advantage by pushing labor costs as low as possible. Sometimes this is done by using technology. Computers, automation, robotics and other forms of technology have eliminated millions of jobs in the United States and those jobs are never coming back. Millions of other jobs have been eliminated by offshoring. In our globalized economy, American workers have been merged into one giant labor pool with everyone else. That makes it very tempting for big corporations to move jobs from areas where workers are very expensive (such as the United States) to areas of the world where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. When big corporations do this, corporate profits go up, but the number of good jobs in the United States goes down. As a result, there is increased competition for the jobs that remain in the United States and this drives down wages. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up. So millions of American families have fallen into poverty in recent years, and millions of others have gone deep into debt in an attempt to survive. This dynamic is absolutely shredding the middle class in the United States.
So how exactly did the authors of the paper mentioned above come to the conclusion that only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs?
Well, they had three criteria for what a “good job” is….
#1 The job must pay at least $18.50 an hour. According to the authors, that is the equivalent of the median hourly pay for American workers back in 1979 after you adjust for inflation.
#2 The job must provide access to employer-sponsored health insurance, and the employer must pay at least some portion of the cost of that insurance.
#3 The job must provide access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
Using those criteria, the authors of the study found that only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are good jobs.
So why are there so few good jobs in this country?
Is it because we aren’t educated enough?
No, the authors of the study found that 34 percent of all U.S. workers had a four-year college degree in 2010, while only 19 percent of all U.S. workers had a four-year college degree in 1979.
So what is the problem?
Sadly, the truth is that in a global economy U.S. workers are viewed as very expensive liabilities.
In the United States today, hiring a worker is a very complicated and expensive proposition. There are thousands upon thousands of laws, rules and regulations that must be complied with, and more are constantly being added. In addition, there are a bunch of taxes that must be paid for each employee in addition to the salary and benefits that they are owed.
So for big corporations it makes a lot of sense to move jobs to countries where there is very little red tape and where you can pay workers next to nothing.
Neither major political party is doing anything to stop our economy from bleeding good jobs, and so it will continue happening.
To get an idea of just how bad the unemployment situation has gotten in the United States, it is important to look at the U-6 rate which is often called the “real” rate of unemployment.
The U-6 rate includes “discouraged” workers that have given up on looking for a job and it also includes those that have part-time jobs but that really would like full-time jobs.
When you look at the U-6 rate, the increase in unemployment from just 5 years ago is absolutely staggering. The following is from a recent CNBC article….
Consider: Nevada’s U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.
Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.
Those often being hit the hardest are those just entering the labor market. For example, about 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year.
Most of the jobs that are available for young college graduates (or for the rest of us for that matter) are crappy low paying jobs that often come with no benefits.
In the United States today, one out of every four workers makes ten dollars an hour or less.
So can you pay the rent and support a family on ten dollars an hour?
Of course not.
But these kinds of jobs are becoming more of a part of the labor market in the United States than ever before.
Three decades ago, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.
Now, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
Will it soon be 50 percent?
Sadly, many Americans are just thankful to be able to find any job at all. There are millions of workers out there that have become so frustrated that they have given up on finding a job entirely.
The U.S. government says that the number of Americans “not in the labor force” rose by 17.9 million between 2000 and 2011. During the entire decade of the 1980s, the number of Americans “not in the labor force” rose by only 1.7 million.
Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Well, if the economy is not producing enough good jobs, could starting your own business be the answer?
Unfortunately, our politicians absolutely love to swamp our small businesses with taxes, rules and regulations.
If a small business can somehow survive our politicians, then it must also somehow find a way to survive competition from the giant predator corporations that ruthlessly dominate our economy.
When you consider how much is stacked against our small businesses, it becomes easy to understand why they are doing so badly today.
For example, it was recently revealed that the U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession.
But small businesses did not just suffer during the recession. The truth is that they have been hurting for a long, long time.
In fact, the percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010.
And small businesses are creating jobs at a much lower rate than they did previously.
In 2010, the number of jobs created at new businesses in the United States was less than half of what it was back in the year 2000.
So needless to say, we are facing some major problems.
The way that our economic system is structured is absolutely killing American workers and it is absolutely killing small businesses in the United States.
If we continue on the path that we are on, things are going to get even worse.
Do you have a solution for these problems? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….
Article printed from Infowars: http://www.infowars.com
URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/only-24-6-percent-of-all-jobs-in-the-united-states-are-good-jobs/
Copyright © 2013 Infowars. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:7bd85ae0-bd5e-4174-a1f3-364c2ec9f394> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infowars.com/only-24-6-percent-of-all-jobs-in-the-united-states-are-good-jobs/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971878 | 1,687 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Strong lamb prices and low supply mean that many producers are keen to build flock numbers, but what’s the best way to do it?
Sheep CRC postgraduate student Cesar Rosales Nieto is looking at whether joining Merino ewes earlier, at 8–10 months rather than the traditional 18 months, may provide the solution.
Cesar’s research is aimed at developing guidelines to achieve consistent and cost-effective reproductive performance from Merino ewes joined at 8–10 months.
“My research is important because it addresses an aspect of the production system that has the potential to improve efficiency for sheep producers,” he said.
“The sheep industry needs to improve the reproductive efficiency of the ewe flock to meet current and future demands for replacement ewes for flock rebuilding, slaughter lambs, mutton and live export.”
His research project started in 2009 and is funded by the WA’s Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA), MLA and the Sheep CRC, and also involves Murdoch University and the University of WA.
Cesar began his research journey in Mexico, his country of birth. With a bachelor degree (honours first class) from the University of San Luis Potosi (Faculty of Plant and Animal Science), he studied the relationship between reproduction and nutrition in Creole goats for his honours project.
He worked at Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP) as a researcher until 2004 when he went to Texas A&M-Kingsville to undertake a master’s degree in Animal Science. He was accepted for his PhD in 2009.
“Basically my research interests are in reproduction and nutrition of small ruminants.
Since I started working here in Australia my interests have expanded to different areas such as genetics and this combination fits perfectly with the Australian industry,” Cesar said.
“Previous research has shown that it is possible to mate Merino ewe-lambs at 8–10 months of age but the results are highly variable. It is therefore important to develop management guidelines to improve the likelihood of success.
“Our research shows that under the right management conditions fertility rates above 75% can be achieved.”
To reach these high fertility rates Merino ewelambs need to be more than 45 kilograms at the start of joining as well as gaining more than 100 grams per day during the joining period.
This requires good nutritional management as well as the right genetics for good growth rate. Lambing a year earlier, through joining at 8–10 months of age, can increase the lifetime reproductive performance of a ewe by around 20%.”
Back to News Headlines | <urn:uuid:1feafec2-9bac-463d-8c27-a3c3e0e3d090> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/010812/australia___sheep_fertilitry_.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95296 | 564 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Monday, March 12, 2012 at 3:00 PMWebmaster level: All
Crawl errors is one of the most popular features in Webmaster Tools, and today we’re rolling out some very significant enhancements that will make it even more useful.
We now detect and report many new types of errors. To help make sense of the new data, we’ve split the errors into two parts: site errors and URL errors.
Site ErrorsSite errors are errors that aren’t specific to a particular URL—they affect your entire site. These include DNS resolution failures, connectivity issues with your web server, and problems fetching your robots.txt file. We used to report these errors by URL, but that didn’t make a lot of sense because they aren’t specific to individual URLs—in fact, they prevent Googlebot from even requesting a URL! Instead, we now keep track of the failure rates for each type of site-wide error. We’ll also try to send you alerts when these errors become frequent enough that they warrant attention.
Furthermore, if you don’t have (and haven’t recently had) any problems in these areas, as is the case for many sites, we won’t bother you with this section. Instead, we’ll just show you some friendly check marks to let you know everything is hunky-dory.
URL errorsURL errors are errors that are specific to a particular page. This means that when Googlebot tried to crawl the URL, it was able to resolve your DNS, connect to your server, fetch and read your robots.txt file, and then request this URL, but something went wrong after that. We break the URL errors down into various categories based on what caused the error. If your site serves up Google News or mobile (CHTML/XHTML) data, we’ll show separate categories for those errors.
Less is moreWe used to show you at most 100,000 errors of each type. Trying to consume all this information was like drinking from a firehose, and you had no way of knowing which of those errors were important (your homepage is down) or less important (someone’s personal site made a typo in a link to your site). There was no realistic way to view all 100,000 errors—no way to sort, search, or mark your progress. In the new version of this feature, we’ve focused on trying to give you only the most important errors up front. For each category, we’ll give you what we think are the 1000 most important and actionable errors. You can sort and filter these top 1000 errors, let us know when you think you’ve fixed them, and view details about them.
Some sites have more than 1000 errors of a given type, so you’ll still be able to see the total number of errors you have of each type, as well as a graph showing historical data going back 90 days. For those who worry that 1000 error details plus a total aggregate count will not be enough, we’re considering adding programmatic access (an API) to allow you to download every last error you have, so please give us feedback if you need more.
We've also removed the list of pages blocked by robots.txt, because while these can sometimes be useful for diagnosing a problem with your robots.txt file, they are frequently pages you intentionally blocked. We really wanted to focus on errors, so look for information about roboted URLs to show up soon in the "Crawler access" feature under "Site configuration".
Dive into the detailsClicking on an individual error URL from the main list brings up a detail pane with additional information, including when we last tried to crawl the URL, when we first noticed a problem, and a brief explanation of the error.
From the details pane you can click on the link for the URL that caused the error to see for yourself what happens when you try to visit it. You can also mark the error as “fixed” (more on that later!), view help content for the error type, list Sitemaps that contain the URL, see other pages that link to this URL, and even have Googlebot fetch the URL right now, either for more information or to double-check that your fix worked.
Take action!One thing we’re really excited about in this new version of the Crawl errors feature is that you can really focus on fixing what’s most important first. We’ve ranked the errors so that those at the top of the priority list will be ones where there’s something you can do, whether that’s fixing broken links on your own site, fixing bugs in your server software, updating your Sitemaps to prune dead URLs, or adding a 301 redirect to get users to the “real” page. We determine this based on a multitude of factors, including whether or not you included the URL in a Sitemap, how many places it’s linked from (and if any of those are also on your site), and whether the URL has gotten any traffic recently from search.
Once you think you’ve fixed the issue (you can test your fix by fetching the URL as Googlebot), you can let us know by marking the error as “fixed” if you are a user with full access permissions. This will remove the error from your list. In the future, the errors you’ve marked as fixed won’t be included in the top errors list, unless we’ve encountered the same error when trying to re-crawl a URL.
We’ve put a lot of work into the new Crawl errors feature, so we hope that it will be very useful to you. Let us know what you think and if you have any suggestions, please visit our forum! | <urn:uuid:07e541af-ed10-42a2-aae4-b92a264f3c4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/03/crawl-errors-next-generation.html?showComment=1331800979055 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925159 | 1,225 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Mount Sinai Researchers Find Promising New Target in Treating and Preventing the Progression of Heart Failure
Roger J. Hajjar, MD, Director of Mount Sinai's Wiener Family Cardiovascular Research Laboratories, identified a new drug target that may treat and/or prevent heart failure.
Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a new drug target that may treat and/or prevent heart failure. The team evaluated failing human and pig hearts and discovered that SUMO1, a so-called "chaperone" protein that regulates the activity of key transporter genes, was decreased in failing hearts. When the researchers injected SUMO1 into these hearts via gene therapy, cardiac function was significantly improved. This research indicates that SUMO1 may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of heart failure. The data are published online in Nature.
Led by Roger J. Hajjar, MD, Director of Mount Sinai's Wiener Family Cardiovascular Research Laboratories, and the Arthur and Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the team has been evaluating the transporter gene SERCA2a in patients with severe heart failure as part of the CUPID (Calcium Up-regulation by Percutaneous administration of gene therapy In cardiac Disease) trial. When delivered via an adeno-associated virus vector—an inactive virus that acts as a medication transporter—into cardiac cells, SERCA2a demonstrated improvement or stabilization with minimal side effects. However, they found that while injection with SERCA2a restored cardiac function, over time the new SERCA2a became dysfunctional. This indicated that something else upstream from SERCA2a was causing the dysfunction in the heart.
Changwon Kho, PhD and Ah Young Lee, PhD, two postdoctorate students in the study of cardiac proteins at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, identified SUMO1 as the regulator of SERCA2a, showing that it enhanced its function and improved its stability and enzyme activity. Dr. Hajjar and his team studied human and animal models and found that when SUMO1 was decreased, SERCA2a became dysfunctional, showing that SUMO1 plays a protective role. When the team injected SUMO1 as a gene therapy, they found that it protected SERCA2a from the oxidative stresses and dysfunction that are prevalent in heart failure.
"Our experiments over the last four years beginning with the discovery of SUMO1 as an interacting protein of SERCA2a have shown that it plays a critical role in the development of heart failure," said Dr. Hajjar. "In fact, SUMO1 may be a therapeutic target at the earliest signs of development, and may be beneficial in preventing its progression, a much-needed advance for the millions suffering from this disease."
Led by Dr. Hajjar, the Mount Sinai team discovered the landmark potential of SERCA2a in 1999, and has been pursuing its potential as a treatment delivered via gene therapy in state-of-the-art custom built laboratories at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Furthering their efforts to bringing critical therapeutics from bench to bedside, Dr. Hajjar's team will test the effects of SUMO1 in a preclinical model of heart failure in pigs. Similar to their efforts in the CUPID, they will explore the delivery of SUMO1 via gene therapy. Additionally, the research team has developed a cellular test to screen for compounds that may increase the interaction of SERCA2a with SUMO1, evaluating SUMO1 as an adjunctive therapy to SERCA2a.
"Dr. Hajjar and his team at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Mount Sinai are fundamentally changing how we think about and treat heart disease," said Valentin Fuster, MD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "Mount Sinai has led the charge in cardiovascular translational research, and this breakthrough exemplifies that commitment to bringing research breakthroughs from discovery to therapy."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 5.8 million Americans suffer from heart failure, and 670,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. One in five people who have heart failure die within one year of diagnosis. Heart failure is most often treated with aggressive medical and device therapy, but has no cure. The most common symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath, feeling tired, and swelling in the ankles, feet, legs, and sometimes the abdomen.
The CUPID Trial is funded by Celladon Corporation. The company was co-founded by Dr. Hajjar who has an equity interest in Celladon Corporation and participates on an Advisory Board. SUMO1 is under patent as a therapeutic target by Mount Sinai.
About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News & World Report.
The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 16th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation’s top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Of the top 20 hospitals in the United States, Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and U.S. News & World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.
For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org/. | <urn:uuid:0c6feb09-1386-4983-8f96-3078d292cb1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://icahn.mssm.edu/research/centers/cardiovascular-research-center/news/mount-sinai-researchers-find-promising-new-target-in-treating-and-preventing-the-progression-of-heart-failure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941446 | 1,303 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Some of the Museum's most historically significant space artifacts will be removed from display this year and inspected, cleaned, and restored.
The spacesuits worn by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin on the historic Apollo 11 Moon mission are part of this effort. A fourth suit, worn by the last astronaut to walk on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, is also scheduled to be examined.
"A common misconception about spacesuits is that because they went into space they were built to be tough and last a long time," Young said. "But in truth, they were not built to last long, and we have to display them in a way that will minimize deterioration."
The Apollo 11 spacesuits have been on display in the Museum on the National Mall since the building opened in 1976. The Collins suit was visible inside the command module, Columbia, located in the Milestones of Flight gallery. This presentation allowed visitors to see the seating arrangement of an astronaut inside the cramped quarters of the space capsule.
The suits worn by the first two humans to step on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, have been displayed in a standing position in a glass-front diorama simulating the Moon's surface. Part of the Apollo to the Moon exhibit, the diorama features dramatic lighting and reflections of the American flag visible in the astronauts' helmet visors.
The Cernan spacesuit stands in a similar display nearby, alongside an authentic test "Moon buggy", of the same kind the astronaut drove on the Moon surface.
The Museum's spacesuit collection, some 200 or so, is the responsibility of Museum Specialist Amanda Young. She considers them to be some of the most authentic artifacts in the Museum's collection. "They are exactly as they were when they were in use," Young explains. "Nothing on them has been replaced. Also, these 'miniature spacecraft' kept our astronauts alive in the most extreme circumstances, which is quite a significant feat."
On March 15, Young supervised a team of Museum experts who, acting with great care, extracted the Michael Collins suit from Columbia. Of all the spacesuits being moved, this one presented the biggest challenge, given the suit's seated position in a confined space. After removal, which took a couple of hours, the suit was transported to the Museum's Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Md. There it will undergo the necessary restoration and be placed in environmentally controlled storage. At this time, there are no plans to place the Collins suit on display again.
The Buzz Aldrin suit was removed one week later. After restoration, estimated to take a couple of weeks, Young will place the suit on a new mannequin, and then back in Apollo to the Moon. One aspect of the display will be changed, however. "The helmet and gloves will be placed on stands next to the suits," Young explained. "This will allow more air to circulate through the suits, which will be better for them in the long term."
The Armstrong and Cernan suits are next on Young's list. Eventually, She will focus on other spacesuits in the collection, such as John Glenn's, exhibited in the Space Race gallery.
Young is clearly enthusiastic about her role as keeper of the spacesuits. "I made the decision to look after these objects about ten years ago when I took over the collection, and with a great deal of help from some wonderful people have managed to improve their storage and display conditions," she said. "Hopefully our efforts will make a difference in the long run." | <urn:uuid:4bc09e54-f0af-48db-93ca-501584339679> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum41/HTML/000054.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960409 | 732 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Long-term scarring of hysteresis on employment
Imagine having a fever so bad that it permanently raised your body temperature. Now think of the current unemployment crisis, with new numbers being announced today of a steady 9.6 percent unemployment rate, functioning at the same way.
Thinking in terms of "natural" is very, well, natural to us. Some think we are hard-wired for it. And it is a useful concept in many ways. Our body has a natural body temperature. We get shocked by disease and sickness. This raises our body temperature, but eventually we'll heal and our temperature will go back to the "natural" rate.
This type of thinking piggybacks onto our thinking about unemployment. It is standard that economists now believe there is a "natural" rate of unemployment. Our economy takes a shock from a financial crisis, a shift in demand, etc., and the unemployment rate rises. But eventually we'll heal and our unemployment will go back to the "natural" rate.
But what if it doesn't? What if periods of high unemployment scar the economy in such a way that it raises the permanent unemployment rate? What if periods of high unemployment lead to reduced wages and higher unemployment years down the line? This is what is known as hysteresis. (Ezra has written about hysteresis here.)
The economy right now is performing an experiment in this very thing, and the results are not promising. Let's look at a few key charts on this from the Hamilton Project's "An Economic Strategy to Renew American Communities" (pdf).
It starts by reproducing this chart from "Long-Term Earnings Losses due to Mass Layoffs During the 1982 Recession," a 2009 paper by von Wachter, Till, Jae Song and Joyce Manchester.
And this summary of some of the ill effects of hysteresis and unemployment:
Figure 1 summarizes evidence from a study that compares the earnings trajectories of workers who lost their jobs in a sudden mass layoff in the early-1980s recessions to workers who maintained their jobs throughout those recessions (von Wachter, Song, and Manchester 2009). Prior to the recessions, the earnings of displaced and nondisplaced workers followed a similar pattern. After the recessions, however, displaced workers faced devastating long-run earnings losses. Even in 2000, almost twenty years after the 1980s recessions, a sizable earnings gap remained. According to the study, the net loss to a displaced worker with six years of job tenure is approximately $164,000, which exceeds 20 percent of the average lifetime earnings of these workers. These future earnings losses dwarf the losses associated from the period of unemployment itself.
Beyond its effect on workers’ earnings, job loss also has negative economic and noneconomic effects on workers health, their families and their communities. Men with high levels of seniority when they are displaced from their jobs experience mortality rates in the year after unemployment 50 to 100 percent higher than otherwise would be expected (Sullivan and von Wachter 2009). These elevated rates of mortality are still evident even twenty years after the job loss and may reduce these workers’ life expectancies by twelve to eighteen months for a worker who loses his job at age forty.
The children of these workers also appear to suffer. Children whose fathers were displaced have annual earnings about 9 percent lower than similar children whose fathers did not experience an employment shock (Oreopoulos, Page, and Stevens 2008).
Young people are penalized for entering the work force when their local labor market has high rates of unemployment. Students entering the labor market during times of economic distress earn considerably less than their peers elsewhere, even ten years after leaving school (Kahn 2010; Oreopoulos, von Wachter, and Heisz 2008).
Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney continue to look at other measures of the 1982 recession by location. What they find is that areas that are hard hit never come back.
They also provide the economic theory with what is supposed to happen to make these values converge, and how it breaks down:
Blanchard and Katz (1992) describe the adjustment process in technical terms: “Shocks to labor demand first lead to movements in relative wages and unemployment. These in turn trigger adjustments through both labor and firm mobility, until unemployment and wages have returned to normal.” But, in more personal terms, the story is that when good jobs disappear, local wages stagnate and fall behind wages elsewhere. Workers looking for better jobs search more broadly for work and relocate for work, taking their families with them. The population falls and ages: families leave, young workers graduating from school move to new communities to start work, and older workers and retirees stay put. As workers leave and put their homes on the market, land prices depreciate relative to elsewhere.
An optimistic view is that these changes -- declining wages and falling land prices -- will ultimately spark a renaissance by attracting new businesses and providing new residents with better homes at lower costs. Indeed, in cities like Buffalo it is economic factors like these that are attracting businesses and families, especially those looking for more-affordable homes and a lower cost of living. But this path of adjustment is clearly a costly one, and stabilization takes
many years. That a recession could temporarily cause these impacts is not surprising. The fact that its toll remained and by some measures was greater a quarter-century later, however, is sobering.
And the unemployment we are going to be seeing over the next few years could leave a generation of Americans permanently scarred, with what we grow to consider "natural" far below the potential for the economy. | <urn:uuid:a34a27a6-5386-4aa3-8251-db2259e7d27f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/11/the_long-term_scarring_of_hyst.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957882 | 1,157 | 2.28125 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — Lisa Banks feels hopeless. She's lost an essential part of her identity: Her status as a proud full-time employee is gone.
Ever since the 44-year-old Germantown, Md., resident was laid off from her job as an administrator for a federal contractor in May 2009, she's sent out hundreds of resumes, but only had four interviews. She says she's depressed enough to try to seek out psychological help. But no luck there either: She doesn't have insurance to pay for it.
"I've worked all my life. I've been a decent person," she said. "(But now) I feel as if I'm invisible. Like I'm not worth anything to society anymore."
The one consolation she can take is that she's not alone. Statistics show that 14 million unemployed Americans still suffer the effects of the recession. Of the jobless, more than 44 percent have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, a time frame the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers long-term.
The average unemployed American has been out of a job for a record 40.4 weeks, a figure that's grown steadily in the past three and a half years — from 17.5 weeks in January 2008.
As Americans such as Banks struggle to find jobs, long-term unemployment is wreaking a psychological toll across the United States, with experts and a number of studies saying the jobless are especially at risk of depression, increased anxiety and physical ailments.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy group, said in a March report that a cumulative $1.8 billion from mental health services was cut in 32 states and the District of Columbia from 2008 to 2010.
"As a result, we've seen increasing burdens on other systems that are left to respond to people in crisis, like emergency rooms, like law enforcement and jails and prisons and homeless shelters," said Ron Honberg, the group's director of policy and legal affairs.
"Really the impact has been very negative. We're talking about extremely vulnerable people," he added.
He said states hadn't made it easy for people, especially low-income residents, to find easy access to information about their mental health services, which he called "so fragmented" and "incredibly difficult to understand, let alone navigate."
"Lots and lots of people with serious mental health illnesses fall through the cracks. and we see the evidence around us all the time," Honberg said.
Officials in the federal government who handle mental health issues echo his group's concerns. They saw the psychological effects of the economy begin to pick up in December 2007.
Katherine Power, the director of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, said that around a third of the 62,000 monthly calls to the 143 suicide-prevention telephone call centers that her agency supports around the United States were related to economic distress.
Calls about financial anxiety to those centers have increased around 5 percent to 10 percent annually in the past three years. She also said she was concerned about the negative ramifications of state budget cuts for mental health services.
"It's very significant in terms of state revenues not being available to fund services, and at the same time the need for services is clearly evident," Power said.
Congress has extended unemployment benefits repeatedly in recent years, up to 99 weeks, though further extensions aren't likely as lawmakers wrestle with huge budget deficits.
Experts on the psychology of unemployment said America was falling short on addressing the issues raised by those out of work. Experts also warn that if the United States ignores the issue, the country will pay a price in the future with increased costs for mental health coverage.
"When you have 14 million people who are unemployed and you extrapolate those figures going forward to the future, we're going to have a lot of health problems, a lot of psychological health problems to cope with," said Bob Leahy, a psychologist and the head of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York.
Jerald Jellison, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, said that when people lost their jobs, they tended to withdraw from society, shy away from seeing friends and stay holed up at home.
"Even when you meet old friends, they're probably going to be asking you, 'Have you found a job yet'? And even if they've learned not to ask you that, you know that's what's on their mind," he said.
"And so rather than face that embarrassment and awkwardness, that's one of the other forces that drives people to withdraw and not participate in social activities," he added.
But that behavior is usually self-defeating, because often the best way to get back into full-time work is by reaching out to friends and contacts to scope out promising leads.
A further complication for many unemployed people is that the longer they haven't been earning paychecks, the harder it becomes to find work, as employers often look down on people who don't currently hold jobs.
"Employers really do favor people who have jobs," said economist Sophia Koropeckyj, a managing director for Moody's Analytics.
Mitchell Hirsch, the online campaigns coordinator for the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for lower-income workers, denounced that practice and said "employers are literally discriminating against people who don't have jobs."
The inability to find work doesn't just hurt those out of a job. It also affects everyone else, because it hobbles the economy and crimps consumer spending, Koropeckyj said.
"The more unemployed people there are, that means that's a weight for the whole economy because they are not spending as much," she said.
Meanwhile, unemployed Germantown resident Lisa Banks has exhausted her unemployment benefits. Her car has been repossessed, so she can't even drive to the grocery and store or take her 19 year-old daughter to college this fall.
Banks, who lives alone, said her relationship with her two kids had suffered because of her job status. She spent the first six months after she lost her job applying for new ones and trying to kill time, primarily by walking her dog and reading. She then took out school loans and now also takes online classes to get a business administration degree in hopes of restarting her career after she graduates.
But it's still tough out there for her.
Fighting back tears, she said, "All I try to do is try to keep my head up, and every day it's harder and harder because nothing seems to be getting done about this situation. Nothing."
ON THE WEB
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY | <urn:uuid:64d8231b-ac7c-417a-907f-4f4926c8850a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/08/15/120763/long-term-unemployment-wreaks.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980186 | 1,384 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Professional Science Master's
Your Stepping Stone to Professional Advancement
Are you interested in leadership roles in industry, government, or non-profit organizations?
Are you seeking career advancement?
Are you a highly motivated scientist interested in further developing your skills and knowledge in science and business?
The Professional Science Master's option in environmental sciences is designed for you.
PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE MASTER'S
The Professional Science Master’s (PSM) option in environmental sciences serves the needs of scientists who want to improve their skills in business. The PSM program is designed to fill a management need for technology-based companies, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations. The business training is complemented by advanced science training in pertinent fields such as agriculture, biology, chemistry, and engineering. The U.S. is on the verge of losing its lead as an innovative and technological leader in the world, because it is not generating an adequate highly-trained workforce. The increasing global population and per capita natural resource usage has predictable outcomes. The Environmental Sciences PSM is part of the solution.
Are you a corporate entity, governmental agency, or not-for-profit organization looking for synergistic partnerships? We are looking for you!
A professional internship is required of all PSM students. Teams of students can be built to help solve problems. Environmental sciences are diverse. For example, biologists, chemists, engineers, and physicists participate in our program.
For information on internships or sponsoring students or programs please Contact Us. | <urn:uuid:d9a7c23b-9bd8-4b63-ae09-45ca11455d23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csuchico.edu/psm/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932539 | 313 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Ever tried to paint on top of silicone? After a few hours, the paint will peel off. Annoying. Silicone is a so-called low surface energy polymer, well known from flexible baking forms: A synthetic material that has an extremely low adhesion or "stickiness". Teflon is similarly non-sticky and well known from frying pans. Researchers of Kiel University (Germany) have now developed the first technology which is capable of joining these two "unjoinable" materials. The technology applies passive nano-scaled crystal linkers as internal staples. The nano staples open up solutions to a large number of technical challenges, for example in medical engineering.
The work carried out within the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center 677 "Function by Switching" was published today in the scientific journal Advanced Materials.
"If the nano staples make even extreme polymers like Teflon and silicone stick to each other, they can join all kinds of other plastic materials", says Professor Rainer Adelung. Adelung is leading the functional nano materials group at the Institute of Materials Science in Kiel and lead the research project from the materials science side. The new technology of joining materials without chemical modifications can be used, according to Adelung, in a variety of everyday life and high tech applications. The technique is easy to use and does not need expensive equipment or material.
The linkers are micro and nano scaled crystals made of zinc oxide. They are shaped like tetrapods, where four legs protrude from the point of origin. Large-scale tetrapods are known for their ability to interlock and form strong bonds, for example in coastal protection.
During the joining process, the zinc oxide crystals are sprinkled evenly onto a heated layer of Teflon. Then, a layer of silicone is poured on top. In order to join the materials firmly, they are then heated to 100°Celsius for less than an hour. "It's like stapling two non-sticky materials from the inside with the crystals: When they are heated up, the nano tetrapods in between the polymer layers pierce the materials, sink into them, and get anchored", explains Xin Jin, the first author of the publication, who is currently working on her PhD thesis. Her colleague and supervisor, Dr. Yogendra Kumar Mishra, explains the adhesive principle: "If you try to pull out a tetrapod on one arm from a polymer layer, the shape of the tetrapod will simply cause three arms to dig in deeper and to hold on even firmer."
In high technology businesses such as medical engineering, there is a strong demand for innovative ways to make polymers, particularly silicone, stick to other materials, for example to further develop breathing masks, implants or sensors. Medical applications require materials that are absolutely non-harmful, i.e. biocompatible. Many joining methods involve chemical reactions, which may change the polymers' properties and can cause injurious or even toxic effects on organisms. The tetrapod stapling, on the contrary, is a purely mechanical process. Therefore the Kiel team assumes it to be biocompatible.
With the tetrapod staples, the scientists have achieved a stickiness—the so-called peel strength—of 200 Newtons per meter, which is similar to peeling sticky tape off glass. "The stickiness we have achieved with the nano tetrapods is remarkable, because as far as we could verify, no one has ever made silicone and Teflon stick to each other at all", says co-author Lars Heepe, PhD student from the Zoological Institute of Kiel University, who precisely measured the adhesion and described what the stapled material looks like on the microscopic scale. "Measuring adhesion quantitatively is not as easy as it looks, precise experiments have to be carried out in order to prove the function of the linkers and rule out all errors", says Professor Stanislav Gorb, leading the group Functional Morphology and Biomechanics.
Explore further: Insects use bubbles to walk underwater
More information: X. Jin, J. Strueben, L. Heepe, A. Kovalev, Y.K. Mishra, R. Adelung, S.N. Gorb, A. Staubitz (2012): Joining the un-joinable: Adhesion between low surface energy polymers using tetrapodal ZnO linkers. Advances Materials, DOI: 10.1002/adma201201780 | <urn:uuid:db97c4b9-9fa6-4853-b3cd-36bcd78ac4e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phys.org/news/2012-08-un-joinable-polymer-linking-technology-based.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919743 | 943 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Hollywood is losing too many of its icons this year: Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, Adam Yauch — and now, The Jeffersons star Sherman Hemsley. The actor passed away at his home in El Paso, Texas, according to TMZ. He was 74.
Hemsley — born Sherman Alexander Hemsley on Feb. 1, 1938 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — dropped out of high school and joined the Air Force. He stayed with military service for four years before leaving to start work at the U.S. Postal Service. Hemsley took acting classes at night and eventually moved to New York, landing the role of Gitlow in 1970's Broadway adaptation of Purlie. Soon after, Norman Lear called and asked Hemsley to take on the role of George Jefferson on the sitcom All in the Family.
The problem? He didn't want to leave theater, so Lear kept the role open for him and he joined the show in 1973. Hemsley — along with co-star Isabel Sanford — had such great chemistry that they landed a spinoff show, The Jeffersons, just two years later. The show lasted for 11 seasons before being canceled in 1985. Hemsley continued to work steadily throughout recent years, including a role as Earl Sinclair's grumpy boss on the ABC live action comedy Dinosaurs.
The actor never married or had children, leading many to suspect over the years that he was gay. He never confirmed or denied the rumors, but a 2007 VH1 article alleges that his homosexuality caused problems between him and Sanford on The Jeffersons set.
We'll always remember Hemsley for his work on a television classic. Rest in peace, Sherman.
Image courtesy David Livingston / WENN | <urn:uuid:8710d3d0-60f7-4cff-8d98-310f3e96d168> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/967035/sherman-hemsley-from-the-jeffersons-dead-at-74 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973681 | 358 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Google censored its homepage logo in the US to protest against two bills that could damage the Internet and destroy its core values. "Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA," explains Google.
Google's homepage also includes a link that asks users to "tell Congress: please don't censor the Internet." The censored logo is only available in the US, but the link is also displayed outside US.
While the new bills may seem to be well-intended, they're easy to abuse and they'll not stop piracy. "These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters. We know from experience that these powers are on the wish list of oppressive regimes throughout the world. SOPA and PIPA also eliminate due process. They provide incentives for American companies to shut down, block access to and stop servicing U.S. and foreign websites that copyright and trademark owners allege are illegal without any due process or ability of a wrongfully targeted website to seek restitution," mentions a Google blog post.
Google's suggestion is to cut the funding for pirate sites. For example, ad services would be required to stop providing ads for sites created to infringe copyright and payment services would no longer be allowed to intermediate transactions between US residents and the company that owns the pirate site. I'm not sure that's a great idea because this law could also be abused. | <urn:uuid:4dc40ff3-47f2-4151-9876-f88bcb772a86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://googlesystem.blogspot.jp/2012/01/googles-censored-logo.html?showComment=1326973214112 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962133 | 337 | 2.265625 | 2 |
The World Malaria Report 2005 is the first comprehensive effort by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to take stock of where the world stands in relation to one of its most devastating diseases. It reveals that the tide may be beginning to turn against malaria as control and prevention programmes start to take effect.
During the past 5 years real progress has been made in scaling up malaria control and prevention efforts.
Over 3 billion people live under the threat of malaria. It kills over a million each year – mostly children. But the means to turn this tragedy into a global success story could now be made available to those in need. | <urn:uuid:f10cb5e3-8864-44d7-8cc5-7c969cda96aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/wmr2005/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938267 | 123 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Retirement as we know it is broken! Nowadays, your “golden years” may be more like bronze years. Today’s retirees cannot rely on Social Security to be enough. Even worse, future retirees cannot rely on Social Security—period. In 2003, the Social Security board of trustees issued a news release stating, “Social Security is not sustainable for the long term.” According to a 2012 NPR report, the Social Security trust will not have enough money in 2033 to fully fund all benefits—scary to say the least.
To make matters more complicated, people are living longer. Thirty years ago, it was uncommon to know someone over the age of 90. Today, we all know someone over that age. My own mother is 90 years old. At her 90th birthday party, there were a handful of my mom’s friends over age 90 and even two people over age 100. According to CNN, if you are a married couple over the age of 65, there is a 30.6% chance you will live to age 95.
All of this means we have to make sure we protect our retirement. No one else is going to. Here are three things you must consider:
Secret 1: Have a reason to wake up everyday.
Sure, going fishing, golfing and playing tennis are great. But for most of us, there needs to be more. Maybe it’s a part-time job? Be sure to have a strong social network and support. Studies have shown social interaction has a positive effect on maintaining mental health and physical health. According to AARP, 70% of boomers continue to work in some capacity.
Secret 2: Make sure you don’t run out of money.
Who’s better off? The brother that retired with $1,000,000 in the bank and no pension or the brother that has $150,000 in the bank and a pension of $30,000 per year? Maybe years ago it was about the “big number.”
With a shaky economy and next-to-nothing interest rates—how do we safely generate enough income from our savings even if you have the million bucks? It’s hard if not impossible! One option is to have a guaranteed stream of income from a fixed annuity and create your own pension. Today, that same 70-year-old brother with $1,000,000 in savings would need to set aside $500,000 to generate $30,000 a year guaranteed for life. Based on today’s rates, if he left the $1,000,000 in the bank, he would be lucky to get $15,000. Twice the money for only half the income—not smart.
Secret 3: Plan to protect your spouse if you need time in a nursing home or require home health care.
According to Genworth Financial, the cost of a private room in a Massachusetts nursing home in 2012 is $127,750 per year. Who can afford that and not go broke? Our suggestion is that people should first have a solid estate plan that includes an updated will, power of attorney, and a health care proxy. People that are concerned about protecting their money and homes should also consider trusts. In addition to that, look at long-term care insurance. Today, there are many choices, from traditional long-term care insurance to which you pay annual premiums, to policies where you can put down a one-time payment and never pay another premium. If no benefits are paid out for nursing home care or home health care, the policy pays a tax-free death benefit to the named beneficiaries when the insured dies. There is also the “I changed my mind” factor. If you cancel the policy, you get all of your money back. This is good stuff.
About the author:
Sam Liang is the managing partner at his firm, Rubino and Liang, LLC, in the greater Boston area. Along with his partner, Richard Rubino, they host the radio program “Protecting Your Wealth Radio” on two of Boston’s largest talk radio stations, WBZ AM1030 and WRKO AM680. You can learn more about Sam Liang at www.justdontlosethemoney.com. | <urn:uuid:2b335423-671f-4102-84d0-e96a2915a061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/10/01/3-secrets-to-worry-free-retirement/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961243 | 886 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Hearing Examiner Decisions
Hearing Examiner decisions from 1990 to the present are maintained by the City Clerk and available online. Current cases are posted monthly (e.g., January decisions are posted in February, etc). Please read the search instructions or go directly to search decisions.
Searching by File Number
You can search for a decision in a number of ways. If you know the file number, you can find the decision by placing the file number in the field on the search screen entitled "Hearing Examiner File No." Please be careful to include the dashes in the file numbers (e.g., B-99-001: if you type B99-001, your search will be unsuccessful).
Searching by Type of Decision
If you are looking for decisions of a particular type, you can choose one of the subject areas included in the "Type of Decision" field. Within that field, you have seven (7) choices:
- Landmarks & Special Districts
- Council Land Use Actions (Includes Hearing Examiner recommendations to the City Council on rezones, major institution master plans, and Council Conditional Uses)
- Conditional Uses & Variances
- SEPA, Environmentally Critical Areas
- Subdivisions, Short plats
- Land Use Code Interpretations
Searching by Words in Decision
You can also search based on keywords. For instance, by typing the word "variance" in the "Words in Decision" field, the computer will search for decisions that include the word variance.
Searching by Department Reference Number
Many of the matters that come before the Hearing Examiner have been assigned a reference number by the department that made the decision being appealed. For instance, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) typically assigns each application a project number. If you have the departments reference number, you can enter it in the Department Reference Number field to help your search. | <urn:uuid:3d967b1a-5a8e-4911-9453-0e06024eeb1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattle.gov/examiner/disclaimer.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911 | 392 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Researchers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, and Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville have flight-demonstrated a small-scale aircraft that flies solely by means of propulsive power from an invisible, ground-based infrared laser.
Flights of the lightweight, radio-controlled model airplane inside a large building at NASA Marshall are believed to be the first time that a plane has been powered only by laser energy. The demonstration was a key step toward the capability to beam power to an aircraft, allowing it to stay in flight indefinitely -- a concept with potential for the scientific community as well as the remote sensing and telecommunications industries.
During the flight demonstration in September 2003, an engineer manually directed the laser's energy beam from a central platform at infrared-sensitive photovoltaic cells carried on a panel on the bottom of the aircraft to power the motor as it flew circles inside the large building.
A similar demonstration using a large theatrical spotlight was flown in the summer of 2002 at NASA Dryden, proving that beamed visible light could be used to power the 11-ounce aircraft. The spotlight beamed power to a solar panel attached underneath the aircraft frame that converted the light into electrical energy for the tiny, six-watt motor.
An aircraft was flown using microwave energy 20 years ago, but these were the first known demonstrations of beamed light energy to fly an airplane. The lightweight model aircraft used for these demonstrations was controlled using the same over-the-counter radio control instrumentation available to model aircraft hobby enthusiasts.
Beaming power via a laser to an aircraft is just one concept being explored by NASA to enable solar-electric powered aircraft to fly through the night when solar energy is not available. Another promising technology that is well along in development would use either regenerative or non-regenerative fuel cell systems to achieve the same purpose.
Beamed Power Project Home Page | <urn:uuid:0c02f069-4da3-42d3-a106-92a5c5e535ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Power-Beaming/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94275 | 396 | 3.9375 | 4 |
Most Active Stories
KRWG.ORG-The Region's Home Page
Mon November 12, 2012
No Answers Yet For Substance Responsible For Santa Teresa Evacuation
Authorities say the origin of a substance that led to the evacuation of an industrial park near the New Mexico-Texas state line and sickened about 200 people remains unknown.
Capt. Rich Libicer of the New Mexico State Police tells the Las Cruces Sun-News that investigators are trying to pinpoint a possible location for where the substance may have come from at the complex of factories and warehouses in Santa Teresa, N.M., near the Mexican border just northwest of El Paso, Texas.
A 1-mile area surrounding the Dona Ana Industrial Park was evacuated on Oct. 29.
People in the complex complained of difficulty breathing, light-headedness, nausea and dizziness. Some reported a burning sensation on their skin, but no serious injuries were reported.
Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:2198000a-963a-4aee-9b72-114283ae618e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.krwg.org/post/no-answers-yet-substance-responsible-santa-teresa-evacuation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925479 | 208 | 1.664063 | 2 |
From the International Herald Tribune:
Google, the Internet search and advertising giant, is increasingly looking to the energy sector as a potential business opportunity.
From its beginning, the company has invested millions of dollars in making its own power-hungry data centers more efficient. Its philanthropic arm has made small investments in clean energy technologies.
But in recent weeks, Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, has hinted at the company's broad interest in the energy business. He also joined Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric's chief executive, to announce that they would collaborate on policies and technologies aimed at improving the electricity grid. The effort could include offering tools for consumers.
Meanwhile, engineers at Google are hoping to unveil soon tools that could help consumers make better decisions about their energy use.
And while the company's philanthropic unit, Google.org, has invested in clean energy start-ups like one that uses kites to harness wind power, Google is now considering large investments in projects that generate electricity from renewable sources.
"We want to make money, and we want to have impact," said Dan Reicher, director for climate change and energy initiatives at Google.org....MORE | <urn:uuid:a6d7d2d8-c3a8-409a-9447-6c85ce3a5176> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://climateerinvest.blogspot.com/2008/10/financial-aspect-to-googles.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956302 | 239 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Going Green Could Mean More Money In Your Pocket
With all the environmental disasters we've been facing lately, it's easy to feel helpless about the state of our world. You may feel frustrated and even compelled to protest the big picture issues we've been experiencing. But rather than fall into this mood, I'd like to suggest that we take a look at those things we have a bit more control over.
How about we revisit those things that we can actually do in the name of going green? I'm hoping that in some capacity, the small actions may add up. Having control over some things may help assuage some of the frustrations we feel. After all, we've already covered a few ideas for going green and saving money at the same time. How about a few more simple moves that we can do around the house?
Watch Those Energy Bills
Let's start with the obvious. Your electricity bill: if there were things you could do to go green that could also bring your utility bill down, wouldn’t you want to do them? But of course! So let’s get started in that direction right now.
First, you need to get in the habit of turning your thermostat down. Even doing this by just a couple of degrees can make a dent in your electricity bill, and you'll hardly notice the difference in your house. But in case you do, you can always throw on a sweater until you become accustomed to it.
You can also choose to unplug your electronics, particularly "energy vampires," or appliances that are heavy energy users. While it's been reported to save only around 30 to 60 kilowatt hours a month in an average house, you may want to do this more for the sake of reducing CO2 emissions. Something as simple as using a power strip may simplify how you're able to control your energy usage.
When it comes down to where your energy hogs are at home, don't look further than your home office. It's the perfect place to use an eco-socket (or power strip). There are several versions of these available at hardware stores but the basic idea is that the strip has one switch on it that automatically powers off everything that is plugged into it. You could have ten things plugged into one panel (easy to do in a home office when you think about it) and they will all switch off in one hit.
You can also buy various appliances nowadays that save energy all on their own. Even kitchen items and other household objects are now being manufactured with the environment in mind. You can buy kettles which have an eco-switch on them which allows you to boil at slightly lower temperatures. You can use more energy efficient light bulbs or install light dimmers to allow you to use less power altogether.
Go Green Around The Yard
Another way to save is to recycle as much as you can at home. Get a compost bin and start chucking all your garden rubbish in it, as well as some of your compostable kitchen rubbish as well. For those who use compost, making your own can add to your savings.
If you've got a garden, then you can also try growing your own fruit trees and vegetables, which can be quite rewarding. One great benefit? It allows you to grow produce that is truly organic and free of pesticides and other additives. Plus, there's the convenience of having them ready to hit your kitchen without a trip to the store.
And if you're so inclined, buying things secondhand from yard sales and online sites like Craigslist and eBay is another great way to promote recycling. I personally love shopping for gently used items, as I've found a lot of my favorite treasures this way.
So have you got any tips for saving money and the environment that have worked well for you? While the politicians and big companies worry about the big picture, I'm all for doing what I can in my little corner of the world to help with keeping things clean and green. | <urn:uuid:9d4fb0e4-ab95-4b3f-93a9-1192d459231a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisebread.com/going-green-could-mean-more-money-in-your-pocket?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97399 | 810 | 2.1875 | 2 |
The College of Osteopathic Medicine Faculty consists of approximately 50 full-time basic scientists and clinicians. In addition, several hundred clinicians serve as mentors, visiting faculty and clinical faculty.
The faculty is organized into several departments:
- Biomedical Sciences
- Emergency Medicine
- Family Medicine
- Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
Faculty members teach preclinical and clinical courses and are actively engaged in several research projects. | <urn:uuid:79c01576-3d5f-4933-895a-4d2cd0665887> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://libbys@nyit.edu/medicine/faculty/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953476 | 85 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Unearthed Sessions From A Saxophonist Who Dropped Out
Nowadays, Gigi Gryce is not as well remembered as he might be, given his crafty composing and tart playing. He's one of a few alto saxophonists who came up with their own styles after absorbing Charlie Parker's fleet swing, unvarnished tone and knack for quoting other tunes while improvising. Gryce had plenty of ideas as a player and a writer, and he'd pack a lot of them into a short solo.
The live and studio sessions on Doin' the Gigi span 1957 to '61, and showcase Gryce as a swinging saxophonist, a writer of quirky melodies good for launching improvisations, and a promoter of catchy tunes that he published, written by his colleagues. There's also Gryce the arranger for punchy small groups. For one 1960 session, he wrote a few cleverly modernized takes on swing-era standards, but not so clever that they slowed the players down. Gryce worked with some great trumpeters, and his foil on most of these dates is spitfire Richard Williams, who threatens to play rings around everyone in "Take the 'A' Train." But Gryce's arrangement sets him up.
A new Gryce sampler honors a musician who vanished from the scene, as well as a vanished era when live jazz turned up on commercial radio and TV. There's a 1961 radio broadcast from Birdland, hosted by disc jockey Symphony Sid like it's still the '40s. The band gets to stretch out there. But in a 1957 segment on an early version of The Tonight Show, Gryce's quintet squeezes five pieces into 11 minutes. One breakneck blues clocks in under 1:20, and still finds room for solos by Gryce, Cecil Payne on baritone, pianist Duke Jordan and drummer Art Taylor.
Jazzers would be moaning soon enough about the British invasion killing the business, but Gigi Gryce dropped out before The Beatles landed. The music publishing business he ran to help musicians take control of their lives wreaked havoc on his, partly owing to friends' high expectations and the ill will it earned him in the record business. Gryce gave it all up, began using his Muslim name Basheer Quisim, and started a second career teaching music in New York schools; P.S. 53 in the Bronx is named for him. Like other artists who deserved better, Gigi Gryce hasn't really been forgotten, thanks to bands that play his music, biographers, discographers, collectors and plucky independent labels. Say this for jazz nostalgia: The community has a long memory for the good stuff. | <urn:uuid:5c238538-38fc-4d81-b628-c7c9e1bf5ebe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kanw.com/post/unearthed-sessions-saxophonist-who-dropped-out | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975571 | 554 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Thirty years ago, Kilmer McCully, MD, discovered that cholesterol and clogged arteries are not the culprits, but rather the symptoms, of heart disease. McCully's pioneering 1969 theory that linked homocysteine—an amino acid that accumulates in the blood—and heart disease was not embraced by the medical community. In fact, he was banished from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital and denied a new position for more than two years because of his research. His observations went head-to-head with the accepted medical theory of the day—that cholesterol and lipids cause heart disease.
Times have changed for McCully. The cum laude graduate of Harvard Medical School has received numerous awards for his research, including the 1998 Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award and the 1999 Burton Kallman Science Award from the National Nutritional Foods Association, Newport Beach, Calif. He is currently a clinical associate professor of pathology at Brown University and a pathologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, both in Providence, RI. His most recent book, The Heart Revolution (HarperCollins), outlines how vitamin B6, B12 and folic acid deficiencies can elevate homocysteine levels and lead to arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries.
McCully first made the connection between homocysteine and heart disease while studying cases of children afflicted with arteriosclerosis, a rare childhood condition, which led him to question the underlying cause.
Bucco: What happened when you discovered the connection between homocysteine and arteriosclerosis?
McCully: At that point, I recalled a series of studies published by a pathologist in the late 1940s, showing that severe deficiency of vitamin B6 in the diet causes arteriosclerosis in monkeys. I realized the monkeys must have had elevated homocysteine. I also found another classic animal model of rats deprived of the compound choline. These rats also developed arteriosclerosis and cancer. I concluded the rats must have had elevated homocysteine levels because of failure to convert homocysteine to methionine by folic acid and vitamin B12. This has also proven to be true. With this observation I was able to explain two of the most interesting and important animal models in the medical literature.
Bucco: So you discovered the correlation between heart disease and a deficiency of B vitamins and published these finding in the American Journal of Pathology in 1969?
McCully: Yes, in that first paper I described these findings and suggested that elevated homocysteine was likely important for people even without genetic defects but who might have dietary deficiencies of the B vitamins. I still remember mailing the manuscript and thinking something will probably come of this. I wasn't sure what, but I thought this was a very significant observation. I had no idea I would spend the rest of my career working on this problem.
After publication I was astounded to find that research scientists around the world who had read the paper were asking me for reprints because they were looking for another explanation for the cause of arteriosclerosis.
Bucco: What led to you being denied tenure at Harvard?
McCully: For about six or seven years I continued work on this project. I made a number of observations and discoveries in homocysteine metabolism. In the early and mid-1970s I published quite a number of papers presenting evidence that supported the observation that homocysteine had something to do with vascular disease.
Then in 1976, the chairman of my department at Harvard retired and the new chairman told me the elders at Harvard felt I had not proved my theory, and unless I could support my salary from grant money I would be cut off and have no position. They moved my lab into the basement where I had no contact with other people. They made the situation so unpleasant I decided I couldn't work there.
I left in January 1979 and tried to find another position. For the next 27 months I was unable to find a position anywhere in North America that would allow me to continue this work.
Bucco: Why is it the medical community became so resistant to your work nearly 10 years after you published that first paper?
McCully: During the first two or three years, my work was presented to the scientific advisory board of Massachusetts General Hospital as a great example of a new observation made by someone who had the correct background. The board knew exactly what I was doing.
They told me later they didn't want to have Harvard or Massachusetts General Hospital associated with my theory because it appeared to contradict the conventional wisdom that cholesterol and fats were the causes of heart disease.
I knew what I was proposing was significantly different from what was accepted in the [conventional medical] literature. My suggestion was that the cause of arteriosclerosis in the general population was an underlying deficiency of certain B vitamins—B6, B12 and folic acid. The role of cholesterol and fats was secondary. This was too much for the establishment to take.
Bucco: Do you think the initial skepticism about your theory has changed in light of all the supporting evidence collected in the last 30 years?
McCully: Yes. I think the climate has totally changed, and now there is wide acceptance of this concept. Every day a new article about homocysteine is published. Many of these articles cite my original data from 1969. People have really given me the credit for pioneering this concept.
Bucco: Let's talk a little about homocysteine. What is its normal function in the body?
McCully: Homocysteine is an amino acid that's normally produced in the body in small amounts from the amino acid methionine. We know now that the normal role of homocysteine in the body is to control growth and support bone and tissue formation. When I began to study this question, homocysteine's medical and nutritional implications were almost totally unknown. My colleagues and I showed that homocysteine is also involved in the normal human growth process.
Bucco: What elevates homocysteine levels?
McCully: Homocysteine becomes elevated in the blood when there is a deficiency of the B vitamins—B6, B12 and folic acid. Other factors also play a role. For example, homocystine levels may rise due to normal aging, menopause, thyroid conditions, kidney failure, cigarette smoking, a number of different drugs and certain industrial toxins.
Genetics also play a role in the development of high homocysteine levels. There's a fascinating genetic defect called thermolabile reductase deficiency. About 12 percent of the population have this hidden defect.
Bucco: How are elevated homocysteine levels related to heart disease?
McCully: When homocysteine levels rise, they begin to damage the cells and tissues of arteries and stimulate growth of arteriosclerotic plaques, which lead to heart disease.
Bucco: So how can we prevent homocysteine from reaching these dangerous levels?
McCully: I'm a strong believer in dietary improvement because I believe the high incidence of arteriosclerosis and heart disease in our population can be traced to diet.
Both folic acid and vitamin B6 are chemically unstable vitamins that are often lost during food processing. It's been shown that the population is not getting enough of these vitamins and this, in turn, leads to elevated homocysteine levels.
The way to get these vitamins is to eat fresh whole foods—fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and dairy products. We should also eliminate foods that contain highly processed ingredients, such as white flour, sugar and oils. If we do this, we can vastly improve the quality of our diet and increase the intake of these important vitamins.
If a person has been eating a nutritionally depleted diet their whole life, it may be difficult to correct this abnormality just by improving diet. Supplemental vitamins may also be needed. Anyone who has a high risk for heart disease, either from family history or poor nutritional background, or who has early signs of heart disease, probably should take vitamin supplements to control their homocysteine levels and stop the arteriosclerotic process.
Bucco: Are homocysteine levels being routinely tested today?
McCully: Oh yes. You can request a homocysteine test from a simple blood sample. Recently, several new tests were introduced that bring the cost of homocysteine testing down and make it available at any hospital. Many people in the field believe it's going to be at least as important, if not more, than cholesterol testing.
Gloria Bucco is an independent journalist and editorial consultant who specializes in alternative medicine and natural health.
Illustration by: Alicia Buelow | <urn:uuid:3b46ba8c-055f-41f1-a09e-8ae67e00c4e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deliciousliving.com/health/heart-matter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967644 | 1,806 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Ship Naming Vote Set for Harvey Milk Day
San Francisco supervisors are set to vote on a resolution in support of naming a Navy vessel after slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk next week as the state celebrates Milk’s birthday.
At its meeting May 14 the Board of Supervisor’s City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee recommended on a 2-1 vote that the supervisors endorse the proposal. LGBT leaders in San Diego, in conjunction with Milk’s family and several friends, are urging Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to designate a ship the USS Harvey Milk.
The former San Francisco supervisor served in the Navy during the Korean War and was stationed in San Diego. Milk was a diving instructor and was discharged in 1955 at the rank of lieutenant, junior grade.
"He would have loved this and would have thought this was the greatest thing that could happen," said gay retired Naval Reserve Captain Bob Dockendorff, who knew Milk and is a former president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. "I think he would have considered this a great honor."
But other progressive leaders are against having a warship named after Milk due to his opposition of the Vietnam War. Their arguments led bisexual District 5 Supervisor Christina Olague to vote against the resolution this week at the committee hearing. (District 7 Supervisor Sean Elsbernd and District 4 Supervisor Carmen Chu voted in support.)
"I received quite an outcry," explained Olague, who has suggested the navy instead name a vessel after Leonard Matlovich, a gay Air Force member who came out in a 1975 Time magazine cover story about the military’s anti-gay policies.
As reported in last week’s Bay Area Reporter , the concerns raised by progressives led gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos to also withdraw his support of the resolution submitted by gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener.
Olague introduced a separate resolution calling on Congress to declare May 22, Milk’s birthday, a national holiday. Her resolution was unanimously approved by the board at its meeting Tuesday, May 15.
The board will take up Wiener’s resolution at its meeting next Tuesday, which falls on Milk Day this year. California celebrates May 22 as a day of special significance in honor of Milk, who gained international notoriety after being killed by a former board colleague in 1978.
"Some have questioned the appropriateness of naming a warship after Harvey Milk. I respectfully disagree," said Wiener.
The proposal would not only honor "one of the most prominent gay men to serve in our nation’s military," said Wiener, but would also be "inspirational" for LGBT service members.
It is up to the Navy secretary to decide the names for naval ships. Just last week Mabus announced the names for a Navy destroyer and two high-speed ferries.
"Every year the secretary of the Navy’s office receives hundreds of recommendations from members of Congress, citizens, military members and retirees, industry leaders and others suggesting names for U.S. Navy ships. Secretary Mabus appreciates the interest of all who participate in the ship naming process and gives careful consideration to all inputs prior to designating ship names," Captain Pamela Kunze, a naval spokeswoman, told the B.A.R. | <urn:uuid:ed8f24e0-9449-4620-befb-980e7e9e6f02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edgesanfrancisco.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=local&sc3=&id=133196&pf=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972486 | 665 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Dozens dead in US heat as relief rolls inAgence France-Presse
WASHINGTON – A crippling heat wave that has held large swathes of the United States hostage gave way slightly on Sunday – but not before leaving dozens dead in several states, officials and local media said.
After days of sweltering highs around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) in the central and eastern parts of the country, forecasters said that cooler air was slowly swooping south from Canada.
“Temperatures will drop, bringing some much needed relief,” the National Weather Service said.
The relentless heat sparked health warnings and sent people to makeshift cooling shelters, shopping malls and overcrowded swimming pools to cool off.
But the oven-like temperatures took their toll all the same, with the elderly and infirm especially vulnerable.
The eastern state of Maryland has recorded at least 13 heat-related deaths since June 8, with 11 of the victims aged over 65, Ed McDonough, a spokesman for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, told AFP.
“We are hoping that this is it,” he said in reference to the extreme weather.
In Ohio, three seniors with heart problems perished due to the heat after a fierce band of firestorms tore across several states on June 29, leaving them and millions of others without much-needed air conditioning after power cuts.
“I can confirm three heat-related deaths,” Tamara McBride of Ohio’s Emergency Management Agency told AFP. “However, there may be more.”
In Chicago, where temperatures sank Sunday to more comfortable levels, the number of confirmed deaths linked to the record-setting weather soared to 18, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Officials in Illinois could not immediately confirm the figure.
In Indiana, meanwhile, an infant died after being left in a stiflingly hot car, according to the indystar.com website.
Deaths related to the stifling temperatures and heat-fueled storms were also reported in Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, local media said. | <urn:uuid:bb83a1c3-9d42-4029-b3aa-b0590aa61e1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/225744/dozens-dead-in-us-heat-as-relief-rolls-in | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952611 | 425 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Information use in research
Interacting with information is at the very heart of your research. A new booklet is available about all aspects of working with scholarly information in your research.
This interesting booklet "The informed researcher" is publishesd by a consortium of British organizations. You can find this booklet on their website. | <urn:uuid:190d86fc-5304-4ca3-90c3-b1afef4b6ea3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.leiden.edu/education-research/library-research/library-research/informedresearcher.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941868 | 63 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Dealing with insects is a given for anglers and hunters as our activities regularly put us in bad bug situations. West Nile virus, Lyme disease and allergic-reaction-causing stings are all potential dangers inflicted by biting and stinging insects, but they shouldn't stop us from enjoying the outdoors. Learning more about prevention through precaution and protection is the best safety measure you can follow this bug season.
Mosquitoes and West Nile Virus
West Nile virus (WNV) is passed to humans via the bite of an infected mosquito. Most individuals who contract WNV have mild flu-like symptoms, while others show no symptoms at all. Individuals with fragile immune systems or chronic diseases could face serious health problems if they contract the virus.
Proper clothing is your first line of defense against mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are attracted to dark colors, so wear light colored clothing and cover as much skin as possible. When mosquitoes are swarming, increase your defenses by wearing bug shirts, mesh head nets, and insect-repellent clothing.
Proper clothing is your first line of defense against mosquitoes.
Bug sprays containing federally approved ingredients will protect uncovered skin. For most anglers and hunters, using sprays with DEET is standard in heavily infested bug areas. The concentration of DEET in repellants provides users with varying quantities of protection; the higher the percentage of DEET, the longer the protection. A DEET concentration of 15% will provide roughly five hours of protection, while 5% will offer you two hours of armor. Most repellants come in spray bottles, but towelettes are a relatively new alternative and are easily stored in tackle boxes and glove compartments.
Black Flies, Deer Flies and No-See-Ums
Many spring fishing trips corresponding with the arrival of black flies have turned ugly, causing unprepared anglers to swat themselves silly and turn the air blue with words unmentionable in this article. Although black fly bites aren't painful, the post-bite itch screams for scratching, and their incessant swarming will test your mental resolve. The best protection against black flies is wearing the same light-colored, full-length clothing you would wear to ward off mosquitoes and to apply insect repellent to exposed skin.
Deer flies are just as tenacious as black flies; however, they pack a painful bite as well. Covering skin and using repellants can sometimes deter deer flies, but not always. In this case, the Tred-Not Deerfly Patch is a simple, chemical-free counter-strike to these pesky bugs. Place the patch on the back of a hat with its sticky, flesh-colored side up. The flies are attracted to the patch's skin color and become stuck to the patch once they land. As flies often attack the highest flesh-colored area on their victims, the patch should always be placed on the back of your hat. Two patches constitute a week's supply.
No-See-Ums are frustrating foes. They include sand flies, biting midges, and other miniscule bugs that inflict a painful bite. Small enough to pass through screens, these bugs can quickly ruin a great trip once they start biting. Applying insect repellants and covering as much skin with fine mesh clothing will fend off these critters.
Ticks and Lyme Disease
Lyme disease is transmitted to humans from the bite of an infected deer tick. Early symptoms may seem flu-like, but if left untreated or undiagnosed, Lyme disease will affect many of the body's systems: brain, nervous, cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, and musco-skeletal. Not all ticks are infected, and only those that carry the Lyme spirochete, or bacteria, in their saliva can transmit the disease. In some areas Lyme disease is considered endemic. In these areas, Lyme disease is established and cycling in nature. That doesn't mean non-endemic areas aren't affected though. Each year, infected ticks are distributed randomly to northern areas, transported by migratory birds from southern endemic areas.
Ticks reside in natural corridors and moist, leafy or wooded areas, waiting to latch onto a host for a blood meal. Covering skin is a must. Tuck pants into socks (some seal this joint with duct tape) and wear high fitting boots. Long-sleeved shirts with tight fitting cuffs and gloves will protect the upper body. Applying repellants to exposed skin will reduce the chances of tick bites.
Permethrin sprays can be applied to clothing and tents and will kill ticks (as well as other bugs) on contact. When applied to clothing, Permethrin will bind to the fabric reducing the risk of over-exposure to the skin. Permethrin should not be applied to skin. To increase the longevity of the repellent's protection, store Permethrin-treated clothing in plastic bags between uses.
Once home, perform a tick inspection and remove ticks immediately if located. In the spring, ticks will be the size of a poppy seed and by late summer they can be the size of a sesame seed. The best way to remove a tick is with a very fine-nosed set of tweezers, so make sure you carry these in your first aid kit. Using the tweezers, grab the tick as closely to your skin as possible and pull away from your skin. Do not twist the tick or pull too hard to separate it. Once removed, clean the area with antiseptic. Keep the tick in a container. If you experience symptoms of Lyme disease (headache, fever, muscle or joint pain, light sensitivity, or a bulls-eye skin rash) see a doctor immediately, and bring the tick with you for testing.
Hornets, Wasps and Bees
Avoidance is the best practice around stinging bugs as insect repellants do not deter them. Keep clear of nests and hives. Accidentally disturbing these domiciles can result in being attacked and stung. Many people also get stung when these bugs become trapped in clothing, and then sting out of panic or fear. To avoid picking up these stingers, tuck in pant legs and wear shirts with snug-fitting cuffs.
Individuals with severe allergies to stings should carry EpiPens, which is an auto-injector that administers epinephrine to prevent anaphylactic shock. These individuals should use EpiPens directly after a sting and get to a hospital immediately. If you or someone in your party gets stung, it's important to monitor them and watch the speed and severity of the body's reaction. This is important as many people will develop allergies as they age.
Insect repellants do not deter stinging bugs.
Severe reactions require immediate hospital attention. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, swelling of the tongue and skin eruptions. An intermediate reaction usually involves swelling that travels from the sting site to other areas of the body. If swelling travels to the neck and affects breathing, it's vital to get to a hospital.
Redness, swelling and pain in the sting area are normal, even for those not allergic to stings. The sting site can be treated with a thick paste made from baking soda and clean water. Bread can also be used. Cover the paste with gauze and allow it to dry. The drying process will actually draw out toxins from the sting or bite. An ice pack or cold compress can also be used to reduce swelling, but be careful not to wet the paste.
For the most part, bugs are mere annoyances that occasionally pack a painful bite. But West Nile virus, Lyme disease and the allergic reactions to stings are good reasons for safeguarding yourself against bugs this season. Just be sure to carry the proper gear to prevent bites and handle stings. Knowing you possess the skills and tools to counter such "buzz kills" will allow you to enjoy the outdoors instead of fretting over those pintsized pests. | <urn:uuid:0a2a308b-6c15-48cc-90bf-13e173f6d5d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPage?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&mode=article&objectID=30772&cat=&subcatID=0&objectType=article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940748 | 1,653 | 2.75 | 3 |
Ethics of Child Circumcision
Including Current Statements from British Authorities
Last updated on 22nd June 2003It has become common among those who express flippancy or enthusiasm for circumcision to declare that the procedure offers unspecified "health benefits". This has been used as a way to coerce hesitant parents into agreeing to the procedure. The British Medical Association has recently made its position on such things very clear:
The medical benefits previously claimed, however, have not been convincingly proven, and it is now widely accepted, including by the BMA, that this surgical procedure has medical and psychological risks. It is essential that doctors perform male circumcision only where this is demonstrably in the best interests of the child. The responsibility to demonstrate that non-therapeutic circumcision is in a particular child’s best interests falls to his parents.
Consent for any procedure is valid only if the person or people giving consent understand the nature and implications of the procedure. To promote such an understanding of circumcision, parents and children should be provided with up-to-date written information about the risks.
In all cases, doctors should ask parents to confirm their consent in writing by signing a consent form. [The law & ethics of male circumcision - Guidance for Doctors, BMA, 2006]
NORM-UK regularly discovers cases of doctors in the UK performing circumcisions on young boys without either providing up to date written information to the parents or obtaining written consent*. We do not believe that this should be allowed to continue and are actively involved in trying to improve the situation. Neither do we believe that it is appropriate for the NHS to use taxpayers' money to subsidise any medically unnecessary surgery simply for religious or personal preference.
"It is a matter of concern that it appears that a considerable number of surgical interventions are being performed on children and young people unnecessarily. This is not only costly but is bound to be the cause of unjustified distress to some of those who are the most vulnerable. We recommend that the DoH should conduct urgent research in this area and then issue guidance to all those involved in the treatment of children." [From: "Hospital Services for Children and Young People" (128-I)]
Ultimately many do not believe that parents should have the right to make this choice. There is every reason to believe that amputation of part of a sexual organ has an irrevocable effect on the future sexual experience of the individual, and without compelling evidence to prove that this is not the case it seems irresponsible to perform it. Furthermore, if the child is left alone he will be free to exercise his own choice as an adult, whereas surgery will take that choice away.
"Surgical interventions should only be performed when clinically necessary, especially in children. The setting of clinical guidelines and standards for clinical practice are, of course, a matter for the appropriate surgical professional bodies. Clinical audit arrangements should a always be in place to assist in the application of good practice."
[From: (Cm 3793), November 1997 Government Response to the Reports of the Health Committee on Health Services for Children and Young People, Session 1996-1997: "The Specific Health Needs of Children and Young People" (307-I) Health Services for Children and Young People in the Community, Home and School" (314-I); "Hospital Services for Children and Young People" (128-I); Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (26-I).].
"The right to physical and personal integrity, that is to protection from all forms of inter-personal violence, is a fundamental human right which extends fully to children, who are entitled to special care and assistance.
The Convention [on the Rights of the Child] establishes the right to protection from 'all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse' while in the care of parents and other carers (Article 19); from 'inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment' and unlawful or arbitrary restriction of liberty (Article 37); from harmful traditional practices (Article 24.3), and from all forms of exploitation (Articles 34 and 36). In particular the Convention emphasises that this right to freedom from all forms of violence must be available to all children without discrimination. Forms of violence to children cannot be justified on grounds of; for example, religion, culture or tradition."
"To receive health care on the basis of your clinical need..." [The Patients' Charter]
...it remains our position that unless it can be unequivocally proven that a surgical procedure will not inflict long-term harm on the patient, it is irresponsible and unethical to perform it without a clear and pressing clinical need. [Dr John Warren, New BMA Circumcision Guidance Given 'Cautious Welcome', NORM-UK, 8th April 2003]
*For example: The case of Doctors Michael Harbinson and Peter Silverstone [Circumcision doctors 'abused position'. BBC News, London, 21 August 2001.] | <urn:uuid:ba6252a9-a64f-4a15-9ac2-2034a635fe84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.norm-uk.org/child_circumcision_ethics.html?action=showitem&item=1308 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936658 | 1,021 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Paul Mooney's Toothpaste
"I say 'nigger' 100 times every morning; it keeps my teeth white." - Paul Mooney Before I got the Good Times DVDs, I bought Sanford & Son. Looking at the credits for the second season, I saw something that really tripped me out. Richard Pryor and Paul Mooney collaborated on two episodes. I never knew that Richard Pryor had written any episodes of S&S. It had never even occurred to me that he might do something like that. Anyway, when I looked back at the episodes Pryor and Mooney had collaborated on, I found a common occurrence. In both episodes, Fred said "nigger." For about 12 or 13 years, I've had serious ambivalencies about 'nigger/nigga.' Back in '94, I wrote a paper where I pegged out a specific instance in which it had a positive connotation without really dealing with the negative aspects of it. I'm not going to rehash all that here, but I will say that it's a very interesting word. Randall Kennedy called it "troublesome." It's that too. More than anything, it's whatever the speaker and the hearer make of it. If it only has currency as a negative, then it's negative. If, between individuals, it has the potential to be a term of endearment, then it can be that sometimes. To give this some perspective, last week, I did some writing on Blackness; what it is and whatnot. I didn't come to any firm conclusions because I think Blackness as an existential state is very liquid. I don't know that there is a way to be Black just like I don't know that there is a way to be a man. That is to say, in most people's vernacular, having a 'y' chromosome and achieving 18 years does not qualify one for manhood. That's the basis, but there are other variables in the equation. In my family, it's stuff like paying your bills on time and being responsible to get things that need doing done. I don't know that defines a man so much as it defines an adult; there is no gender-specific element at play. Some other people I know are hesitant to use the term "man" to describe a gay male. Likewise, there are people who seem to think that having conservative politics means that a person is not Black (or maybe not Black enough). Last year, after Rush Limbaugh (what was ESPN thinking in the first place?) made his pronouncement that Donovan McNabb is overrated (could be true) and that the Liberal Media Machine had an agenda to make Donovan look better than he really is (Limbaugh must have never been to Philly. There is no such thing as a free ride for an athlete in Illadelph.), Outside the Lines had Armstrong Williams on there with some Africana Studies professor from a California school (USC?) discussing the whole incident. Well, somehow, the word nigger came up and the professor cat spouted off that old line about how it's a term of endearment. So of course, Armstrong started talking about how he doesn't use it as a term of endearment, then the professor dude starts talking about how it's used within the Black family, of which Armstrong is not a part, and it just went downhill from there. Luckliy, for my stomach and Butterscotch's ears (I go off for 20 minutes at a time when I hear nonsensical arguments like that) I had somewhere to go. My whole thing is this: that word is totally contextual. Especially nowadays, with the prevalence of hip-hop as a global marketing force/product. So, for instance, people are quick to trot out that term of endearment story. Well, that's true, but that's not the whole story. The same two people can have a conversation and refer to each other as nigga five times each and some of those times it will be positive and sometimes it will be negative. I would even argue that sometimes it's neither. Sometimes, it's just a word. And that's just with two Black people talking. What about those times when it's a Latino cat and an Asian cat referring to each other as nigga in a friendly way? Or two white cats? (I've observed it with my own eyes and ears.) What then? For instance, Ambra has a post referring to another post about those t-shirts that say, "Jesus Is My Homeboy." Well, knowing the vernacular, that shirt could hypothetically read, "Jesus is my nigga." I don't think anybody would print it, but putting aside questions of blasphemy or whatever, I don't think the word 'nigga' in that context would a) reflect an overriding racial element or b) be construed as a pejorative. I think that some people would find it offensive on its face but in the same way that the word 'homeboy' is not negative, 'nigga' wouldn't be either. Having said that, I partially agree with the Nationalists who believe the word should be dead by now. To the extent that it's a relic of pure racism, I would agree that it probably has no place in the 21st century vocabulary. I generally try not to say it, especially in mixed company. (Sometimes I don't care, though. I think it may have something to do with sunspots.) Even knowing that everybody who uses the word is not necessarily using it in its racial context, I just get uncomfortable hearing white people using it. Especially when I hear some white right-wing types talking about, "They say it, so why do they get upset when we do?" On one level, that might be a legitimate question, but I tend think that question is disingenuous. Knowing that the word is contextual, there are certain contexts in which its use is just not permissible. That's one of them. Unless the Black person who you use it around knows you very well, I just don't think it's a good idea. Of course, that had me feeling awful funny when "Straight Outta Compton" was new and a white friend of mine was reciting the lyrics to "Gangsta Gangsta." (Do you realize that the -sta ending, which has now gained mainstream currency, was invented by an 18 year-old Ice Cube?) But what did I think he was supposed to do? Was he going to say "Here's a little something about a 'n-word' like me?" "...a 'n' like me?' "...a brother like me?" I didn't like it but there was nothing I could really say. He was just quoting Cube. And knowing that he really liked the record, it wasn't like I could tell myself that he was just looking for an opportunity to say 'nigga.' So I just had to deal with it. Even with all that, I still don't have that big a problem with it. It's just a word. Having been an English major, and a postmodern one at that, I know that words are not neutral. I know that words are one of the most fundmental means of exerting power and all that good stuff. I'm hip to all that. And I'll still say nigga if I get ready. In my own idiolect, it's gone through several uses. At one point, when I was in high school trying not to cuss, everything that had previously been "a motherfucka" became "a nigga." So if it was really cold, it was "cold as a nigga." In that case, I wasn't even using it as a euphemism. It was just a placeholder. And actually, I think that swap is a decent parallel. Every time somebody says m-f, it's not invective. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. It just depends on who's doing the talking, who's listening, and what they're talking about. But then again, I'm not a prescriptivist when it comes to language. Wait until I talk about cussin'. I think I'll probably formulate some more thoughts on this and write a little more sometime soon. Maybe I'll talk about cuss words, too. In a lot of ways, 'nigga' mirrors cuss words, so they make good running mates. | <urn:uuid:4952547b-c4f0-41ac-ae25-b6ee14d556d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://averytooley.blogspot.jp/2004/04/paul-mooneys-toothpaste.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985654 | 1,732 | 1.640625 | 2 |
In Friday's WaPo, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford once again demonstrates why he is the real deal:
An ever-expanding scope of federal commitment and power is not what made this country great. Expanded power in one place comes at a cost in other places. American cornerstones such as individual initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit -- born in free and open societies with private property rights and the rule of law -- have never fit particularly well within the context of an ever-growing federal government.
For 200 years, the "business model" in our country has rested on a simple fact: that while one may reap rewards from taking risks, one should also be prepared to face the consequences of those risks. Some of the proposed actions with regard to the credit market turn that business model on its head -- absolving those who took too much risk, or bought too much house, from the weight of their own choices. If Congress passes the proposed bailout, we will be destined to have far greater problems in time, leaving those who are prudent in their finances to foot the bill for those who are not.
And he warns:
Many of the "cures" that are soon to be offered will have one thing in common -- telling us what others did wrong. Instead of listening to these, each of us as taxpayers must admonish those in Washington to get their own financial house in order. Washington is the master of creative and unsustainable finance, with $50 trillion in unfunded promises.
We will be told of bailouts that "won't cost anything." We should caution policymakers that this has never been the history of bailouts, and remind them of Milton Friedman's suggestion that the capitalist system never works without loss. Investment titans recently featured in Vanity Fair trading $60 million beach homes should never be sheltered from this old-fashioned concept.
We will be told of "temporary" funds and programs. We should remind our leaders of Ronald Reagan's words that the closest thing to eternal life is a government program.
We will be told "trust us" on pricing assets, and we should not -- because no matter how pure one's intentions, no one watches your money like you do. This makes transparency and open bidding incredibly important.
Any read through history demonstrates how essential limited government is to preserving freedom and individual liberty. What life experience shows us is that limited government is equally important in both making your economy flourish and in enabling citizens to get the most for their investment in government.
Let me be clear up front that in the long run the only way to make government truly efficient is to make it smaller, and this seems to me to be the real clarion call in highlighting the importance of privatization efforts. Efficiency and government are mutually exclusive in our system, and if our Founding Fathers had wanted efficiency I suppose they would have looked more closely at totalitarian systems. They wanted not efficiency, but checks on power in our republic.
We could use a lot more like him. | <urn:uuid:164f8437-b4c5-4e35-b1cf-61c4850b1842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.org/blog/show/gov-sanford-expanding-federal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965433 | 602 | 1.835938 | 2 |
We are all fated to die. Such is our fate, our condition. That, in and of itself, does not necessarily mean our lives are determined, although that is a subject worthy of debate. We may “determine” that walking down the east side of Fifth Avenue today is preferable, although the Barneys store window across the street looks particularly inviting with its provocative window displays of sexy, flirty, diaphanous come-hither summer clothing. And our crossing the street, therefore, already determined by our need to be sexually attractive … desirable. Sigh.
Ah, the meaning of life. I am one of those, you know, those who believe that human meaning is an individual construct. Those indoctrinated with religious dogma will find meaning spelled out for them — a comfort I well understand. Most of us prefer certainty, myself included. But I find the “structural” inconsistencies, superstition, historical cruelty and absurdity associated with organized religion too big of a laughable hurdle for me to “jump.” Is it particularly important how you’ve arrived (what metaphors you embrace) at being a “good” human being? I think you can arrive at such a juncture without the benefit, nay, in spite of any religious upbringing.
I’ve thought for years that the biggest gift one generation can give the next is to let go of the shopworn ideas that informed that “age.” Look at how far we’ve come (and we have) regarding race relations or sexual preferences or what is expected of women. In spite of the ignorance and intolerance of older Americans (boomers on up), America is inexorably moving to a better place when it comes to viewing humanity as incredibly, richly and fortunately diverse. It is.
I was prompted to write today on fate vs. luck by a recent conversation and the subsequent notes I took — you know what Abe Lincoln said, “The faintest ink is better than the fondest memory.” Are we lucky or is it fate? Does luck exist? Does fate? Do bad things happen to good people because their luck ran out or because the fates interceded?
Is fate the same as determinism? Is every human act the inevitable consequence of antecedent actions? We shouldn’t confuse determinism with pre-determinism where “all” was decided during the big inning — hah! — in the beginning. Love dat gospel!
The ancient Greeks were big into the “fates.” The Romans adopted, fawn-like, the Greek gods and ideals, but fate, over time, became Fortuna, more of a goddess of luck than fate.
So where are we today in this fate vs. luck discussion? I ask, “What is the luckiest thing that can happen to a (any) human being?” Consider that for a moment. Some will convincingly argue for “one’s” attitude, that regardless what life pitches, one’s attitude sees it as either — to use the shopworn — a lemon or an opportunity to make lemonade. I like that. I do. However.
We’re fated to have parents. It cannot happen otherwise. Biological, involved, even absent. But the complete luck of the draw is to whom one is born.
There is no bigger gift in life than catching the lucky train of good parents, specifically the good mother. We do not ask to be born. So when we arrive — pop! — into the arms of a loving, nurturing mother, fate may have determined your arrival. But not to whom. Luck did. | <urn:uuid:c8897564-d210-4be3-a61b-ab1011795c9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wpmobserver.com/news/2011/jun/08/perspectives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953319 | 767 | 1.6875 | 2 |
A Survey of General Relief Recipients: Housing, Utilization of Systems of Care, and Employability Status
The General Relief (GR) Program serves as the final government safety net for individuals who are facing extreme poverty or homelessness in Los Angeles County. General Relief is a County
funded welfare program with a current caseload of approximately 60,000 people. The program is mandated under California Welfare and Institutions Code section 17000, which requires every county to “relieve and support all incompetent, poor, indigent persons.”
In order to be eligible for General Relief, an applicant must have no more than $50 in a bank account or $500 in personal property, and may not own a car worth more than $4,500 or a house
worth more than $34,000. Such strict eligibility criteria limit receipt of General Relief benefits to the poorest and most vulnerable. General Relief provides a monthly cash grant of no more than $221 that is usually accompanied by $100 - $135 in federally funded food stamps. In addition, the program provides welfare-to-work services, transportation assistance, supportive service referrals, medical care, and other assistance.
Type of Resource:
Los Angeles, CA | <urn:uuid:26ceba75-b4c7-4854-a568-3858810eff51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pathprogram.samhsa.gov/Resource/A-Survey-of-General-Relief-Recipients-Housing-Utilization-of-Systems-of-Care-and-Employability-Status-19551.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919675 | 249 | 1.84375 | 2 |