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A.K.A.: Also Known As helps you find all the pseudonyms that your favorite author may have writen under.
BookBrowse: BookBrowse is a book recommendation service that gathers together all the information to help you decide if a book is right for you, including an excerpt, the range of media reviews (abbreviated to each reviewer's essential opinion to minimize repetition and plot spoilers), author biography, and an author interview and discussion guide.
BookPage: Recommends the best books for readers of all types, whether you're interested in literary fiction or romance, history or science fiction, cookbooks or children's books. They focus on new releases and tailor their reviews for the true booklover always on the lookout for the next great read.
Fantastic Fiction: Fantastic Fiction is a useful tool to find all the books written by your favorite authors. This website is especially useful for finding the order of books in series.
Guardian Books: Book news, book reviews, and author interviews from British newspaper, The Guardian.
Kirkus Reviews: The world's toughest book critics.
Nancy Pearl: Book reviews from Nancy Pearl, former librarian and author of the “Book Lust” books.
New York Times Book Reviews and News: Get all the latest news about your favorite books and authors, find out what’s new, and search New York Times book reviews back to 1981.
NPR Books: Book reviews, book news, and author interviews from National Public Radio.
NoveList Plus: NoveList Plus allows you to search among hundreds of thousands of popular fiction and readable nonfiction titles, and also to retrieve author read-alikes, book lists, book discussion guides, and more. To access this database from home, click here and then enter your Chatham Area Public Library card number.
NoveList K-8 Plus: Designed especially for elementary and middle school students, NoveList K-8 Plus is an online database with fiction and nonfiction titles chosen specifically to support the school curriculum as well as the pleasure reading needs of students. To access this database from home, click here and then enter your Chatham Area Public Library card number.
Overbooked: Providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction.
Read Alike: Wondering what to read after you finish every book by your favorite writer? This website can help.
What Should I Read Next: Type in the name of a book or author, and get a list of similar books, based on lists of favorites contributed by real readers.
What’s Next: Books in Series: Find out the complete order of books in your favorite series.
Costa Book Awards: Formerly known as The Whitbread Awards, the Costa Book Awards is one of the UK's most prestigious and popular literary prizes and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. It’s unique for having five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.
Man Booker Prize: The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year.
National Book Awards: The National Book Awards are the United States' preeminent literary prize. The Awards are given to recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. The goal is to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans, and to increase the popularity of reading in general.
National Book Critics Circle Awards: The National Book Critics Circle honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature.
Nobel Prize for Literature: On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As described in Nobel's will one part was dedicated to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”
Orange Prize: Launched in 1996, the prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a 'Bessie,' created by the artist Grizel Niven.
PEN/Faulkner Award: The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is a national prize which honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year.
Pulitzer Prize: The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories.
The Audies: Awards recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association (APA).
Audiobook Update: The best audio book reviews on the web, and news about trends in the audiobook industry such as the latest and greatest mp3 players on the market.
AudioFile Magazine: AudioFile, the magazine for people who love audiobooks, is indispensable for anyone who enjoys spoken-word audio. We review nearly 400 audiobooks every 60 days and feature narrator and author profiles.
Books for Ears: We have set out to share reviews of the audio books we are putting in our ears so you can find the perfect next selection for your listening pleasure.
Odyssey Award: This annual award is given to the producer of the best audiobook produced for children and/or young adults, available in English in the United States.
Christian Fiction Book Reviews: Connecting readers with Christian fiction through book reviews, interviews, and commentary.
Christian Fiction Review: This page is dedicated to reviewing some of the best Christian fiction titles currently available.
Christian Book Awards: Since 1978 the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association has recognized quality and encouraged excellence by presenting the ECPA Christian Book Awards (formerly known as Gold Medallion) each year.
The Christy Awards: Honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction.
Tracy’s Book Nook: Interesting articles, author biographies and reviews of Christian, inspirational, romantic, and historical fiction.
Eisner Awards: The Eisner is the premier prize awarded to American comic books.
Great Graphic Novels for Teens: Great Graphic Novels for Teens is a list of recommended graphic novels and illustrated nonfiction for those ages 12-18, prepared yearly by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association.
Grovel: A British website dedicated to providing balanced reviews of graphic novels in English.
No Flying, No Tights: A website devoted to graphic novel reviews specifically for those who read them the most — mainly teens — and for those who might be involved in distributing them to teens — namely teachers, librarians, and parents.
Shelf Abuse: Comic book, graphic novel, and movie reviews.
Historical Fiction: A website dedicated to reviews, news, and discussion of historical novels.
Historical Novel Review: A website dedicated to candid reviews of historical fiction novels from all eras, also featuring author interviews and book giveaways.
Historical Novels: Over 5000 historical novels listed by time and place, including more than 300 reviews.
James Fenimore Cooper Prize: A biennial prize awarded by the Society of American Historians to the best historical novel on an American theme.
Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction: A British literary award given to British or Irish historical novels.
Buried: Billing itself as “everything that is horror,” this website features horror movie and fiction reviews.
Hellnotes: A website dedicated to bringing you the best information on horror movies, horror fiction, horror comics, horror writers, and more.
Horror Books with the Undead Rat: A horror book review website with convenient author, series, and theme lists.
Horror Fiction Review: A horror fiction review website with the tagline “by the fans, for the fans.”
Horror Writers Association: Check out the Bram Stoker Awards, the Bram Stoker Reading List, and other information about horror books and writing on the Horror Writer Association’s official website.
MYSTERY & SUSPENSE
Mysterious Reviews: Mysterious Reviews, in partnership with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is your source for current mystery, suspense, and thriller book reviews.
Mystery Book Awards: There are numerous prizes awarded annually for mystery books and stories. This website compiles lists of winners of all of these awards.
Mystery Librarian: Reviewing classic and contemporary “whodunit” books.
The Mystery Reader: TMR is a website featuring candid reviews of mystery, thriller, and suspense fiction.
Stop, You’re Killing Me!: Stop, You’re Killing Me! is a resource for lovers of mystery, crime, thriller, spy, and suspense books. It lists over 3,700 authors, with chronological lists of their books (over 42,000 titles), both series (4,200+) and non-series.
100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction: Essays, memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, travel writing, history, cultural studies, nature writing--all fit under the broad heading of creative nonfiction, and all are represented here: a list of 100 major works of creative nonfiction published by British and American writers over the past 80 years.
All TIME 100 Nonfiction Books: Politics and war, science and sports, memoir and biography--there's a great big world of nonfiction books out there just waiting to be read. Time Magazine has picked the 100 best and most influential written in English since 1923.
The Guardian’s 100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books: 100 best nonfiction books, chosen by the Guardian’s book editors, and organized by category.
Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books: Two lists of 100 greatest non-fiction books, as chosen by Modern Library and their readers.
Pultizer Prize for General Nonfiction: The Pulitzer Prize is a very prestigious award that has been honoring achievement in journalism and the arts since 1917. Check out past finalists and winners of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction here.
ROMANCE & CHICK LIT
All About Romance: A website dedicated to fair and candid reviews of romance novels.
Candy Covered Books: From Chick Lit Book Reviews to those of Women's Fiction, we are determined to make choosing your next book a breeze. We gather reviews from a wide variety of sources and average them into a single rating so you don't waste valuable time reading anything less than fabulous.
Novelicious: Novelicious is a website dedicated to women's fiction in all its wonderful incarnations. Chick lit, hen lit, YA, bonkbusters, romantic comedy and lad lit that's mostly read by girls, whatever your women's fiction tastes, visit Novelicious for up to date news, reviews, exclusive author interviews and competitions!
Romance Junkies: RJ is the place to read reviews, learn about new authors, and discuss your favorites with other romance junkies.
The Romance Reader:Our mission is to provide a back-fence atmosphere, a sense of community for lovers of romance novels, to provide honest, thoughtful and entertaining material in order to promote intelligent and diverse discussion about romance novels, and to help readers determine how best to spend their romance novel dollar:
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
Fantasy Book Review: Fantasy Book Review is dedicated to reading and reviewing the very best fantasy books for children and adults. Featuring interviews, the latest fantasy news, audio-book reviews and competitions; FBR aims to provide fantasy fans around the world with a useful, interesting and informative guide to the genre.
Hugo Award: The Hugo Awards, presented annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award. The Hugo Awards are voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. Find a list of nominees and
Nebula Award: The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Find a list of nominees and winners here.
SF Book Reviews: SFBook is a non-profit book review website designed to showcase the very best fantasy, sci-fi, and horror fiction.
SFF World: SFF World is one of the largest sci-fi and fantasy websites on the internet. It provides reviews and discussion of sci-fi and fantasy books, movies, games, comics, and more.
Read West Foundation: The ReadWest Foundation has the sole mission of increasing awareness of Western literature and its diversity through annual readers’ conferences, book signings, and online promotions.
Western Fiction Review: WFR features reviews of western novels, along with interviews with western authors and cover artists.
The Western Online: A website featuring fiction, book reviews, artwork, historical articles, and more, all focusing on the Old West.
Western Writers of America: Check out Roundup for the latest news and reviews, and the Spur Awards, given annually for distinguished writing about the American West.
Women Writing the West: Home of the Willa and Laura Awards. The Willa Award honors outstanding novel featuring women’s stories set in the west, while the Laura Award is focused on short fiction. | <urn:uuid:ddfdc5ee-f7e3-4363-8df2-e8f2b6a564ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chatham.lib.il.us/drupal/content/readers-advisory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922652 | 2,830 | 1.703125 | 2 |
ISAAC observes Jupiter Occultation
A few days after the "First Light" of the VLT Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) at the first 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (UT1), cf. ESO Press Release eso9856, the ESO Team of astronomers and engineers at Paranal have succeeded in observing a lunar occultation of Jupiter with the new instrument. During this event, that took place on 28 November 1998, the dark rim of the Moon's disk moved in front of the planet, covering it from view. Somewhat later, Jupiter reappeared behind the opposite, illuminated rim.
The ISAAC Team made use of this occasion to perform further test observations with ISAAC and the 8.2-m VLT UT1. For this, short exposures were made at the ISAAC Long Wavelength arm through a narrow band (1.5%) filter centred at wavelength 3.2 µm. They lasted 4 sec during the early phase of the occultation and decreased to 0.8 sec, then 0.4 and finally 0.08 sec, as progressively brighter areas of the illuminated part of the Moon's surface moved into the field-of-view.
The infrared frames are presented here as two video clips.
This second sequence consists of frames taken between 00:47:38 and 02:01:09 hrs Universal Time (UT) - it also includes the ingress sequence shown in ESO Press Video eso9860a. During this period, the telescope followed the motion of Jupiter, while the Moon moved in front of the planet.
The visual effect is that of a "flight" over the Moon's surface. The sequence begins at the dark side and soon moves over the terminator that separates "day" and "night" on the Moon. Here the shadows are long and the lunar surface relief is particularly well visible. Various craters pass by as the surface brightness continues to increase. At the end, Jupiter re-emerges (the egress phase) behind the bright Moon rim. Due to the sudden change of illumination, exposure time problems were encountered at this moment. | <urn:uuid:d0b239e9-23ae-4056-9748-3ae7c917332d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clagos@eso.org/public/videos/eso9860b/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937396 | 443 | 2.546875 | 3 |
NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXXIX. 1936. "'^ THE ANTHRIBIDAE OF MAURITIUS. By dr. KARL JORDAN, F.R.S. (With 13 text-figures.) EARLY in 1935 I received from Mr. Jean Vinson, Mauritius, a collection of Anthribidae obtained in recent years by himself, Mr. Ray. Mamet and Mr. G. Morin at various places on Mauritius. The collection was most welcome, as only a few species were known from that island. Of the six species described from Mauritius I have seen the types of Tropideres lessellatu-s Bohem. 1859 and Caranistes variegatus Bohem. 1859, which Dr. 0. Lundbeck kindly sent me for inspection, the type oiDimphrni^ mauritius Jord. 1924 is at Tring, and the remain-ing three species I have identified from the descriptions. As explained hereafter, D. mauritius is the same as D. dorsatus Fairm. 1901, and Apolecta filicomis Fairm. 1903 the same as Caranistes variegatus, while Eucorynus clavator Fairm. 1903 is identical mth the common Oriental Eucorynus crassicornis Fabr. 1801. In 1914 I recorded Phloeobius gigas cervinus Klug 1833 from Mauritius, and Mr. J. Vinson in 1934 Araecerus fasciculatus Degeer 1775. Mr. J. Vinson records also " Phloe-obius nigroungulatus GyU. and Phi. longicornis F."; but both names refer in this case very likely to ? and ^ of Phi. g. cervinm. The number of Mauritian species hitherto known is therefore reduced to six. The collection submitted to me by Mr. J. Vinson contains no less than 20 species, of which 17 are new, one of which, a small Araecerus Schonh. 1825, I have left unnamed, as it is represented by a single specimen in incUfferent condition. The only distinct species described from Mauritius which is not in the collection is Trop. te,s.sellaius. The 22 species here recorded may be taken as representing the majority of Anthribids inhabiting the island. A number of small species other than those obtained must be expected to occur, forms more or less distantly related to those known from Rodriguez and the Seychelles. But such new discoveries will hardly invalidate the conclusions to which the 22 species point. I had expected to find in Mr. Vinson's collection some of the 10 species recorded from Rodriguez,' but the anticipation was not reahzed. Analysing the distribution and relationship we arrive at the following results. 1. Eucorynus crassicornis and Araecertis fasciculatus are of Oriental origin and probably of quite recent introduction. The second Araecerus (left unnamed and not listed) is of Oriental affinity and may also be a recent arrival. 2. Phloeobius gigas cervinus is the Malagassic representative of the Oriental Phi. gigas, which is widely distributed in the Oriental Region from India to the Pacific. The occurrence on Rodriguez, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar and the Seychelles is evidence that the insect has been in the Malagassic Subrcgion for a considerable time, during which the sUght differences have been acquired that distinguish this subspecies from its Oriental co-subspecies of Phi. gigas. 3. The remaining 19 species are peculiar to Mauritius, showing affinities to the Anthribids of either Rodriguez, Reunion, or Madagascar : Caranistes, of which we record 3 species, is abundantly represented on Madagascar, and one species is known to occur on Reunion (Palazia aranea Coquerel 1866). ^ 1 Nov. Zooi.,, xxxi, p. 227 (1924). | <urn:uuid:837d0586-18ee-4c55-abde-7bec086ceeea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://biostor.org/reference/95497 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928273 | 857 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Life and Death of Andy Warhol
The Life and Death of Andy Warhol by Victor Bokris is a great read about a complicated character who truly went from rags to riches with a whole lot of weirdness in between. This biography is rich in detail, and Bokris covers Warhol’s life from beginning to end without glossing over the quirks that went over the top. The book provides a lot of insight into a scene that was very much part of a changing urban landscape and paints a vivid picture of New York over three decades. This is an easy to digest primer on the post abstract expressionist America and the early days of pop art.
Paperback, 536 pages. Fourth Estate Classic House, 1998. $32.20 at Amazon. | <urn:uuid:f4d423c8-6bb7-4d6b-ba1a-416e7d8b6312> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/004584.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934305 | 156 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Why Being Sleepy and Drunk Are Great for Creativity
Here’s a brain teaser: Your task is to move a single line so that the false arithmetic statement below becomes true.
IV = III + III
Did you get it? In this case, the solution is rather obvious – you should move the first “I” to the right side of the “V,” so that the statement now reads: VI = III + III. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of people (92 percent) quickly solve this problem, as it requires a standard problem-solving approach in which only the answer is altered. What’s perhaps a bit more surprising is that nearly 90 percent of patients with brain damage to the prefrontal lobes — this leaves them with severe attentional deficits, unable to control their mental spotlight — are also able to find the answer.
Here’s a much more challenging equation to fix:
III = III + III
In this case, only 43 percent of normal subjects were able to solve the problem. Most stared at the Roman numerals for a few minutes and then surrendered. The patients who couldn’t pay attention, however, had an 82 percent success rate. What accounts for this bizarre result? Why does brain damage dramatically improve performance on a hard creative task? The explanation is rooted in the unexpected nature of the solution, which involves moving the vertical matchstick in the plus sign, transforming it into an equal sign. (The equation is now a simple tautology: III = III = III.) The reason this puzzle is so difficult, at least for people without brain damage, has to do with the standard constraints of math problems. Because we’re not used to thinking about the operator, most people quickly fix their attention on the roman numerals. But that’s a dead end. The patients with a severe cognitive deficit, in contrast, can’t restrict their search. They are forced by their brain injury to consider a much wider range of possible answers. And this is why they’re nearly twice as likely to have a breakthrough.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should take a hammer to your frontal lobes. Being able to direct the spotlight of attention is a crucial talent. However, the creative upside of brain damage — the unexpected benefits of not being able to focus — does reveal something important about the imagination. Sometimes, it helps to consider irrelevant information, to eavesdrop on all the stray associations unfolding in the far reaches of the brain. We are more likely to find the answer because we have less control over where we look.
This helps explain a new study led by Mareike Wieth at Albion College. The scientists surveyed 428 undergrads about their circadian habits, asking them whether they were more productive and alert in the morning or evening. As expected, the overwhelming majority were night owls, which is why they studiously avoided 9 a.m. classes. Then, the scientists gave the students a series of problem-solving tasks. Half of these tasks were creative insight puzzles, in which the answer arrives suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere. Here’s a sample insight puzzle:
A man has married 20 women in a small town. All of the women are still alive and none of them are divorced. The man has broken no laws. Who is the man?
And here’s another classic puzzle:
Marsha and Marjorie were born on the same day of the same month of the same year to the same mother and the same father, yet they are not twins. How is that possible?
Did you solve these brain teasers? (The answers are, respectively, priest and triplets.)
The other half of the problems given to the students were standard analytic problems, such as long-division and pre-algebra equations. These questions don’t require insights. Instead, they benefit from ordinary focus, as people grind out the answer and check to make sure it’s right. The subjects were given four minutes to solve each problem. Half of them were tested early in the morning (8:30 a.m.) and half were tested in the late afternoon (around 5 p.m.).
The results are a testament to the creative virtues of grogginess. When people were tested during their “least optimal time of day” — think of that night owl stumbling into the lab in the early morning — they were significantly more effective at solving insight puzzles. (On one problem, their performance increased by nearly 50 percent.) Performance on the analytic problems, meanwhile, was unaffected by the clock.
The larger lesson is that those sleepy students, like a brain-damaged patient, benefit from the inability to focus. Their minds are drowsy and disorganized, humming with associations that they’d normally ignore. When we need an insight, of course, those stray associations are the source of the answer.
One last piece of evidence: A brand-new study by scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago compared performance on insight puzzles between sober and drunk students. (They were aiming for real intoxication, giving students enough booze to achieve a blood alcohol level of 0.075.) Once the students achieved “peak intoxication” the scientists gave them a battery of word problems – they’re known as remote associate tests – that are often solved in a moment of insight. Here’s a sample problem. Your task is to find the one additional word that goes with the following triad of words:
Cracker Union Rabbit
In this case, the answer is “jack.” According to the data, drunk students solved more of these word problems in less time. They also were much more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight. And the differences were dramatic: The alcohol made subjects nearly 30 percent more likely to find the unexpected solution.
Once again, the explanation for this effect returns us to the benefits of not being able to pay attention. The stupor of alcohol, like the haze of the early morning, makes it harder for us to ignore those unlikely thoughts and remote associations that are such important elements of the imagination. So the next time you are in need of insight, avoid caffeine and concentration. Don’t chain yourself to your desk. Instead, set the alarm a few minutes early and wallow in your groggy thoughts. And if that doesn’t work, chug a beer.
Image: Rachel Carter/Flickr | <urn:uuid:07cd4f4b-5abb-41f4-815a-c409fb62bcfb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-sleepy-and-drunk-are-great-for-creativity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968467 | 1,337 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Golan v. Holder Is the Public Domain Really Permanent?
Article Date: Saturday, June 04, 2011
Written By: Doug Ferguson
In case you've grown tired of modern copyright battles-Internet fair use, online leaks of upcoming major films, and rampant digital piracy-there's now a battle in progress over old, obscure works that most people have never heard of. On March 7, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Golan v. Holder. The case pits a 1994 law restoring copyright to certain foreign works whose U.S. copyright has expired against the Constitution's Progress Clause and the First Amendment.
The converse effect of restoring a defunct copyright, of course, is to remove that work from the public domain. It is this effect which most impacts those who rely on public domain materials – for example, artists who perform public domain compositions and companies that trade in public domain films. It is also the effect that has created the greatest objection to the law.
The statute that creates copyright restoration, Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), was an effort to bring United States copyright law into compliance with treaty obligations. Up until 1978, the U.S. copyright regime required certain formalities not present in other nations' copyright laws, such as registration, deposit with the Copyright Office, and timely renewal. Foreign authors, unfamiliar with the specifics of American law, were prone to lose their U.S. copyright protection due to noncompliance with one or more of these formalities. As part of an agreement that was to include enhanced enforcement of American copyrights abroad, Section 514 restores copyright in most foreign works that 1) have at least one foreign author, see Joyce, Craig et al, Copyright Law 7th Edition, Matthew Bender/LexisNexis 2006, at 337, and 2) have once been copyrighted in the United States, but which copyright has lapsed due to noncompliance with some U.S. formality. A copyright that has expired – that is, has reached the end of its statutory term – in either the United States or the work's country of origin is ineligible for renewal. In other words, the effect is to reverse copyright lapses due to noncompliance with technicalities, and restore works to their status had the lapses never occurred.
Renewal is automatic under the law. However, those who have relied on a work's non-copyrighted status ("reliance parties") are entitled to notice of enforcement and a one-year grace period before enforcement begins. Copyright owners intending to enforce were permitted to serve notice via public announcement in the Federal Register between 1997 and 1998; after that time, enforcement has required an owner to contact a reliance party directly. Even when enforcement comes into effect, a reliance party may continue to make use of the work after negotiating an unspecified "reasonable" royalty to the owner.
"Petitioners relied for years on the free availability of works in the Public Domain, which they performed, adapted and distributed. Petitioners … once performed Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Peter and the Wolf, Shostakovitch's Symphony 14, Cello Concerto (Op. 107) and Piano Concerto (Op. 35), and Stravinsky's Petroushka; The restoration of copyrights in these works now prevents them from doing so...."
Golan v. Holder, Petition for Certiorari,
at 3 (hereinafter "Pet. App.").
The case presents two questions: whether the Constitution's Progress Clause prohibits Congress from passing any law that removes material from the public domain; and whether the treaty requirements implemented by Section 514, by restricting free expression of again-protected works, violate the First Amendment. Intersecting both these questions are the plaintiffs' assertions that the law operates limit the public's free speech rights for the economic benefit of others, and that the "public domain" is a bright-line legal area from which nothing can be removed. While it's clear that some individuals and companies that rely on public domain materials can and have been impacted by Section 514, the impact described by plaintiffs may be overstated.
"Private Economic Windfalls"
One effect of the legislation, according to plaintiffs, is to "create an economic windfall for foreign authors of existing works", by reviving their U.S. copyright. Furthermore, by its stated purpose to induce corresponding protections for American authors in foreign jurisdictions, "[S]ection 514 takes away important public speech rights... simply to put more money in the pockets of U.S. authors whose works were created long ago." Id. at 27-28. The ultimate effect of removing First Amendment privileges for private gain, the argument goes, is to violate the Public Purpose requirements of the Progress Clause.
A valid copyright is indeed a form of property, but when one examines the practical effects of the Section, "windfall" may not be the most apt term. The plaintiffs list some names noted for artistic merit – Stravinsky, H.G. Wells, Fellini, Hitchcock, M.C. Escher – but it is also true that a large proportion of work in the public domain is obscure and of limited economic value. Id. at 3. It is difficult to imagine how holding the copyright on a forgotten work that used to be freely available is going to generate significant revenue.
Indeed, one of the few litigated cases to date implicating a restored copyright concerned a high-profile film, and failed to generate so much as a return for the purported owner, let alone a windfall. Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita was "indisputably in the public domain in the United States prior to 1996". International Media Films, Inc. v. Lucas Entertainment, Inc., 703 F. Supp. 2d 456, 458 (S.D.N.Y. 2010). International Media Films (IMF), alleging that Lucas Entertainment's adult-themed version of the film infringed its newly restored copyright, was unable to overcome a challenge that often strikes (purported) owners of old copyrights – demonstrating that ownership in the face of incomplete records and imperfect memories. IMF produced several documents and testimonial statements, but was unable to show a chain of ownership to the District Court's satisfaction, and was unsuccessful in asserting rights to the film.
If the ownership of landmark films is sometimes unclear, the ownership of many obscure films must be completely intractable. Here, again, it is unlikely that a party who might be in a position to assert ownership would find it economically feasible to do so.
Compromising the Public Domain
"Public domain" is a loaded term. Its plain meaning is "freely available," but in U.S. copyright law, it means simply "not subject to copyright protections." See, http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html. This is not the same as being freely available. Works of the federal government, for example, are usually designated public domain from a copyright standpoint, but may not be publicly available – for instance, classified military information.
Under U.S. Copyright law, there have historically been two routes for a copyrighted work to become public domain: its protections can expire, or it can pass into the public domain due to a failure to comply with technicalities of registration. (Under U.S. Copyright law, an attempt to release your own work to the public domain may not even be legally enforceable. There is no provision that explicitly permits one to do so, and 17 U.S.C. § 203 gives an author or his successor in interest the right to terminate any transfer after 35 years. Whether committing your work to the public domain constitutes such a terminable "transfer" has not been tested). As discussed above, Section 514 of the URAA concerns former U.S. registration formalities, since done away with; and is designed to return the state of those otherwise non-expired works to where they would be had the formalities been complied with.
This key objection, the unprecedented practice of removing material from the public domain, figures largely in the plaintiffs' arguments. (See generally Pet. App., referring to the government's allusion in Eldred v. Ashcroft (537 U.S. 86 (2003)) to a "bright line" for leaving public domain materials undisturbed). However, the phenomenon of intellectual property slipping into the public domain only to be later retrieved by its former owner is not unheard of. The Supreme Court noted in 1896 that Singer Manufacturing Company no longer held an exclusive right to the "Singer" name, and that the name "could not be taken by the Singer Company out of the public domain by the mere fact of using that name as one of the constituent elements of a trademark." Singer Manufacturing Company v. June Mfg. Co., 163 U.S. 169. After nearly 60 years of Singer's persistent use of the mark, the Fifth Circuit declared that "Singer . . . has recaptured from the public domain the name 'Singer' . . . . [It] has thus become a valid trademark of complainant and is entitled to protection as such." Singer Mfg. Co. v. Briley, 207 F.2d 519 (5th Cir. 1953).
Interestingly, the plaintiffs reject the idea that there is a distinction between entering the public domain due to accidental formality noncompliance or due to scheduled expiration, while at the same time insisting that there is a distinction between extending an existing copyright term and reviving a copyright term after a gap. See, "By drawing distinctions based on how material reached the Public Domain and when, Section 514 creates complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity where there was none." Petitioners' Reply, at 6., and Pet. App. at 22, (comparing the extending/reviving distinction as applied to copyright periods and statutes of limitations).
Idea vs. Expression
The Internet Archive, in an amicus brief for petitioners, declares that the public domain is important in that it contains "knowledge, truths ascertained, conceptions, and ideas . . . ." Amicus Brief from Internet Archive, at 5 (quoting Int'l News Serv. v. Assoc. Press, 248 U.S. 215, 250 (1918)). But copyright protects expressions, not ideas. Nothing in Section 514 restricts the flow of ideas, nor prohibits continued use of any particular expression that's beneficial to both parties. It is true that when material leaves the public domain the public loses something; Golan's plaintiffs now face the challenge of proving that loss outweighs U.S. treaty obligations under Section 514.
Golan v. Holder is scheduled for the Court's October 2011 term.
Doug Ferguson is an attorney and software developer in Durham, NC.
Views and opinions expressed in articles published herein are the authors' only and are not to be attributed to this newsletter, the section, or the NCBA unless expressly stated. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all citations and quotations. | <urn:uuid:4fc0c5d3-b70b-41e5-9deb-abc11cbe9b01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://intellectualpropertylaw.ncbar.org/newsletters/iplinksjune2011/permanentpublicdomain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941786 | 2,267 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Landmark Baptist Church began as the First Missionary Baptist Church founded by Bill Edmonston in November of 1958. The first meetings were held in the local VFW. God blessed the church, and in July of 1959, they moved into their own building with 50 charter members. The Lord called Pastor Edmonston to another work and during the next ten years Jimmy Walker and then Paul Crouch served as Pastor. In 1967, Pastor Edmonston returned and the following year a new auditorium was completed. In the fall of 1970, the Lord led Pastor Edmonston to take a church in Tallahassee.
On Wednesday night, December 23, 1970, Mickey Carter was unanimously voted as Pastor. On Pastor Carter's first official Sunday, January 3, 1971, the Sunday school attendance was 37. (To read Dr. Carter's full account of how God called him and Sonja to Landmark Baptist Church click here.)
In the late summer of 1972, the decision was made to start a Christian day school. Just a few weeks later, the school opened in classrooms adjacent to the east side of the main auditorium, with approximately 30 students from kindergarten through 3rd grade.
With attendance growing almost weekly, a new auditorium was built in 1974 on property adjacent to the east side of the old auditorium and day school. Attendance the first Sunday, August 11, was 706.
The plans to start a summer youth camp were presented at the Watch Night service that year. Ten acres had been donated by a longtime member of Landmark for this purpose and Pastor Carter and members of the church began to clear the land on New Year's Day. The first camp session at "Camp Glory" was in August of 1975. Later the church had the opportunity to purchase 40 adjoining acres. Before the first payment was due, a member of the church paid the note. The camp now occupies 50 acres located a few miles northeast of the main church property. Junior Camp is held during the third week of June for 2nd - 6th graders and Teen Camp is held during the third week of July for 7th - 12th graders. Many young people have been saved or surrendered their lives to Christ through this outreach.
The Christian day school program was extended through the 12th grade by the start of the 1975 - 1976 school year. The summer of 1976 brought two miracles for our school ministry: 1) previously unavailable (and much needed) land adjacent to the east side of the main auditorium became available and 2) on one day, Sunday, June 6, $100,000 was raised to make the down payment on the property and build the gymnasium and classrooms.
In 1979, First Missionary Baptist Church's name was changed to Landmark Baptist Church. This change was based upon Proverbs 22:28, "Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set."
During that same year, Pastor Carter was burdened to establish a college dedicated to the same principles upon which the church was founded. The college was originally housed on the property east of the main auditorium.
1979 also brought the start of an outreach program to the senior citizens of our area. Originally called Super Sixties, the Senior Patriots meet each Saturday from November through March for preaching, singing, fellowship and lunch. There are also opportunities to go on day trips to local attractions. This ministry encourages both physical and spiritual activity throughout the "golden years."
The radio ministry began in 1971 with a 15-minute question and answer series each Sunday morning on a local AM station. In 1973, Dr. Carter began broadcasting the morning worship service. In the early '80's the radio station came under new management and Landmark was forced off the air. The new station did not last long and was eventually purchased and given to Landmark through the generosity of one of our members. On April 6, 1986, WLVF (We're Landmark's Voice of Faith) began to broadcast at 930 on the AM dial.
Landmark Baptist Christian Retirement Village was started in 1985. The village property is on the west side of the church and includes 78 privately owned homes and a chapel where Bible studies and special events are held.
The balcony of the auditorium was extended in 1987 to accommodate the continued growth of the church membership.
In 1989, the church added a much needed fellowship hall adjacent to the back of the auditorium which included a commercial size kitchen and cafeteria for the day school.
In 1990, the 90.3 FM frequency was added to the radio ministry, and Gospel 90.3 became a favorite in Central Florida.
The Spanish ministry was started in 1992, Iglesia Bautista Landmark.
As the Lord blessed and attendance continued to grow, the auditorium was once again enlarged to its current size in 1996.
In 1997, Landmark Baptist College moved forward in growth and expansion. The historic, ten-story Palm Crest Hotel in downtown Haines City was obtained and renovated for use as a college campus. The radio station's broadcast studios were relocated to this property as well. The building is one mile west of the church facilities on Hinson Avenue. Since then, LBC has also obtained the two buildings of the former Holiday Motel (directly across the street from the Palm Crest Hotel) as well as the former First Presbyterian Church campus. These facilities have provided a greatly increased number of dorm rooms, classrooms, a beautiful chapel, Christian bookstore, social parlor, snack shop and recreation room.
In August of 2001, Gospel 90.3 began to broadcast worldwide on the internet at gospel903.com. This was done, in part, to enable many of our winter residents to listen year-round. It also provides an excellent source of good music for the missionaries supported by Landmark Baptist Church, most of whom do not have a conservative gospel radio station in their field of service.
The Christian school continues to grow and on Sunday, March 16, 2008, Landmark Baptist Church and Christian School held a ground breaking ceremony for a new gymnasium in honor of the late Rich Lemon. Brother Rich Lemon was a graduate of Landmark Christian School and Landmark Baptist College. He served on the Landmark Baptist Church staff and was the youth leader when he went to be with the Lord in 2004.
- Sunday School 10AM
- Sunday Morning Service 11AM
- Sunday Evening Service 7PM
- Wednesday Evening Service 7:30PM | <urn:uuid:2d88c48a-4446-4b5c-aa47-d8ffdd84e110> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.landmarkbaptistchurch.org/our_history.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980742 | 1,315 | 1.898438 | 2 |
e-Sullivan will help deaf-blind people to communicate by converting all types of printed materials into Braille. e-Sullivan is a handheld portable communicator for hearing and vision impaired, not only it can convert into Braille, but also provide assistance with such computer-related tasks, such as instant messaging and web browsing.
This device is very slim, you can carry it anywhere, protected by a sturdy outer shell composed of a rubber and plastic resin, no worries when you accidentally drop it. Hearing and vision impaired people can get help from e-Sullivan for reading store product information and prices without any assistance. Its simple surfaces and minimal number of buttons emphasize tactile interaction for straightforward usability. The middle, ring and little fingers operate Braille input buttons, and the thumbs are used for the scrolling wheel and the mode button. Index fingers operate the scanning button. Taeho Wang, the genius designer, has created e-Sullivan concept with hope to be able to lower the wall between deaf-blind people and the world.
Designer : Taeho Wang and Seungho Chung | <urn:uuid:343a02b3-d6ec-44a8-8006-16d9ca8d66ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tuvie.com/e-sullivan-portable-communicator-for-deaf-blind-people/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906904 | 219 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Video from Science Nation
In this video, Dennis Hong shows off the amazing robots that he and his team have built at his lab, RoMeLa, at Virginia Tech. His work could have dozens of practical applications including cheaper prosthetics and robots that can assist firefighters. For his work in robotics, Hong was named one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 in 2009, which recognizes 10 young scientists for their contributions to their fields.
To see a more in-depth demonstration of Hong's robots, click here. | <urn:uuid:0037f2c2-fda5-46ef-acb8-1a9caae33837> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencefriday.com/blogs/12/29/2010/dream-job-roboticist.html?interest=7&audience=1&series=12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978215 | 102 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Accent walls, once the go-to decorating accent for every room created on design TV, are not always the perfect design solution. In fact, sometimes they are just plain wrong. Read on to find out my tips for deciding if an accent wall is the best solution for your home…
An accent wall is a wall that has been painted a different color or different shade from the rest of the room, or one that has been otherwise changed from the other walls in the space – through the installation of wallpaper, tile, stone, wood or other design feature.
While accent walls can be an inexpensive way to perk up a boring space, they aren’t the right solution for every room. Following are my rules-of-thumb concerning accent walls:
- Does your room have a wall that should be featured? An accent wall should reinforce the focal point of the room, not compete with it. So, in a room with a fireplace, which is the natural focal point, the accent wall should serve to enhance the fireplace – not take focus away from the fireplace. The accent wall, therefore, should be the wall on which the fireplace is located. Other likely accent walls include walls with large, beautiful windows, walls with other architectural details (exquisite cabinetry, art niches, architectural trim, etc) or the wall behind a bed (in the case of a bedroom). If your room doesn’t have a definite focal point, an accent wall can be used to create one; just make sure the wall you choose makes sense. An accent wall should not be a wall that doesn’t have any business being a focal point in the room. Examples of walls that shouldn’t typically be highlighted include walls leading upstairs or downstairs, walls with numerous doors and other nondescript areas such as hallways.
- Is your room large enough to support an accent wall? Surfaces of the same color tend to make a room look larger and more expansive. So, painting all the walls in a space the same color typically makes that room look bigger. Painting one wall a different color breaks up that continuity, making the space feel chopped up and smaller. In a huge space, this can be the desired effect – to break the room up and keep it from feeling cavernous. In a small powder room, however, it can simply serve to make a small space feel even smaller. Small bedrooms can also be poor candidates for accent walls, while larger spaces such as great rooms or family rooms can offer great options for adding accent walls to your home.
- Does your room need additional color, pattern or texture? In spaces with numerous solid surfaces – painted walls, solid color carpet, plain ceiling, solid-color furniture – the addition of pattern and texture may be just the shot in the arm you need to inject life into your space. In this case, consider adding wallpaper, architectural stone, slate tile, wood planks or other materials to your accent wall. While this is a more permanent accent wall solution, the addition of textured or patterned wall materials enhances the focal point of any room – provided you choose the right wall to accent (see rule #1).
- Remember that dark colors on a wall will tend to bring that wall into the room visually. Again, this can be a positive effect in some cases. Painting the end wall in a long, narrow space a dark color will serve to shorten the space visually, as the dark paint will make the wall feel closer to you. However, the effect can be overwhelming in a narrow room if you paint the wrong wall in a dark color, making it feel even narrower than before!
- If you choose to paint an accent wall in a darker shade of the color you are using on the remaining walls, be sure that your accent color is at least 2 shades darker than the original hue. If you choose a color too close to your main wall color, your eye will likely not decipher the difference due to natural shading and shadows in the room.
- If you would rather paint an accent wall in a completely different color than what you have on the remaining walls, look to the decorative accents in the room for cues. You could use the fabric on a decorative pillow, a color in your area rug or a hue from a favorite painting as inspiration for the color of your accent wall.
- Remember, too, that design rules are meant to be broken. If you aren’t sure whether an accent wall will be right for you, give it a try! Start with paint as a test run if you plan to install wood, stone or another permanent material on your accent wall. Paint the accent wall a hue similar to the material you will install to give you a good idea of how the new wall will change the look of the room. It’s much easier to change a coat of paint that to change a permanent installation!
What do you think about accent walls? Let us know how you have created style in your home with accent walls – or without!Pin It | <urn:uuid:747ad5d2-7964-42d9-99c9-2bdc4a708175> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alittledesignhelp.com/accent-wall-love-it-or-leave-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93134 | 1,024 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Temporal shift in nutrient input to cold-seep food webs revealed by stable-isotope signatures of associated communities
Limnol. Oceanogr., 55(6), 2010, 2537-2548 | DOI: 10.4319/lo.2010.55.6.2537
ABSTRACT: A pattern of succession has been demonstrated at Gulf of Mexico cold seeps proceeding from a high-biomass endemic community dominated by grazers to a diverse community of endemic and nonendemic species in multiple trophic levels to a low-biomass community comprising primarily nonendemic predatory species. We test the hypothesis that these shifts in community structure are due to a decline in the availability and reliance on local chemosynthetic productivity. Isotopic signatures were measured in 134 individuals from 34 different species in three tubeworm aggregations in different stages of succession. The average stable isotope delta values of the fauna were more positive in the older aggregations, suggesting a decreased reliance on local chemosynthetic productivity. These trends were also apparent in the species that were present in all three aggregations and for the grazer trophic group as a whole. The proportion of biomass in the lower trophic levels declined in the older aggregation. Food webs were reconstructed on the basis of variable trophic shifts and included the error in stable isotope measurements. The majority of potential trophic links supported by carbon and nitrogen isotopes alone were rejected when sulfur stable isotope values were included. Food webs consisted of relatively few trophic links overall, with the most complex food web in the more diverse community of the middle aggregation. These results suggest that many of the species in the tubeworm aggregations are generalists, and these species may feed on prey outside the aggregation, especially in the older aggregation, where few trophic links could be detected. | <urn:uuid:fb9dfa68-0a60-4116-acb9-26ce6285ffc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_55/issue_6/2537.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956033 | 384 | 2.046875 | 2 |
A Nigerien woman digs a trench to collect rainwater near the village of Tibiri in the southern Zinder region of Niger on May 28, 2012. Ten percent of children under five in Niger suffer from acute malnutrition and 44 percent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition, according to the UN World Food Program.
Photos by Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images
Nigerien farmers arrive near the village of Tibiri.
Nigerien farmers receive two-week's pay for work in the village of Tibiri. | <urn:uuid:e6535a3a-270b-406c-83ab-3cbf9ede57bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/21/12343731-farmers-trap-water-in-famine-ridden-niger?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931475 | 106 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Halloween is so close…it’s scary!!! Time for just one more Halloween craft and this one is for the little guys. Cut out the ghost and bats below to act out this fun song:
This ghost is a great way to practice cutting with the younger kids. They work wonderfully as decorations and you can hang them up for a really nice effect. Bring this song to life with a tree. Click on the picture to go to the template.
Cut out these five bats on black construction paper. Hang the five bats (upside down of course!) from a tree (you can make that too) and have your kids use the ghost to scare those bats, one by one, out of that tree. Click on the picture to go to the template.
Linking up here. | <urn:uuid:76fc805a-a182-470f-a184-8a093cffbf01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.momontimeout.com/2011/10/five-little-bats-hanging-from-tree/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945689 | 162 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Markham Apartments, 1924.
A series of impressive apartment buildings were constructed in Durham neighborhoods during the 1910s-1930s. Many of these still survive, primarily in Trinity Park, although a few in Old North Durham and the West End still persist.
These apartment buildings were a new alternative to the more common rooming house, subdivided house, or hotels that people who did not own their own homes lived in at the turn of the century. Often they supplanted earlier single family homes on the site as neighborhoods grew.
The 8-unit Markham Apartments at 123 Broadway St. were built in the 1910s, adorned with decorative brick facing, balconies with turned balusters, and a metal faux-terracotta tile roof. It remained at apartment building through the 20th century, and was quite worn out by the 1990s. It was purchased by TROSA and renovated as housing for TROSA residents in 2001-2002. I'm not always a fan of TROSA's renovations, but they did a decent job on this structure. I'm never a fan of fake muntins and standard-issue Home Depot metal doors, but at least the other structural elements have been preserved.
Looking southwest, 06.23.08 | <urn:uuid:6b7f76fb-0042-4c48-862a-52ebbc38a510> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2008/07/markham-apartments.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986679 | 257 | 1.921875 | 2 |
These are simple daily life things that you can do to boost your brain power and abilities. Start today and don’t hesitate to contact me/ or leave a comment if you have any other tips you want to share it with Palscience readers.
What’s Your Eating Habit?
Food plays an important factor in people’s daily life, in order to start with a fresh body and mind it’s advised that you eat a healthy breakfast. Several studies showed that people who eat breakfast improve their ability to learn, concentrate, better mood and memory. High-fiber cereal in the morning according to a study by Cardiff University in Wales showed a10 percent reduction in fatigue, lower depression, and better cognitive sills. Why fiber? The secret behind it is that fiber helps slow down the absorption of food n the stomach, so you have more energy for a longer period of time. Just a quick note here, try your best to avoid junk food and eat more green. Allylic Sulfieds, Found in Garlic, onions, and leeks, these plants may play a role in protecting against the loss of brain function in aging and enhancing memory, according to a number of studies.
What Foods Boost Brain Power?
Well, there are many foods, herbs and supplements that can improve your memory help you improve your memory. Let’s begin with whole food, Eggs is essential source of good fat “Essential fatty acids or EFAs. Oily fish, such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel are very high in the EFAs known as Omega-3 fatty acids. Soy is a great source of protein. Protein triggers neurotransmitters associated with memory, which definitely helps your memory. In the past decade, scientists have discovered a cornucopia of new substances in food that have some amazing disease-fighting properties. They are called phytochemeicals, which means “plant chemicals”. You can get all the disease-fighting power of phytochemical by simply eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains and LOTS of them.
Deep Breathing and Water:
More air means more oxygen in the blood and therefore in your brain, try to breathe through your nose not your mouth. You will notice that your diaphragm expands more than breathing from your mouth. Moreover, deep breathing helps your to relax therefore you would have clear thinking. Water has also the same function on your brain, when you drink water it would moisturize the small air sacks in your lungs and when blood passes through its able to grab more oxygen and take it to the brain. Water is the secret behind creative thinking, try it when you study you would notice that you are able to synthesis the material faster with shorter amount of time.
Get Out Of your Comfort Zone:
Most of us like watching a certain TV show, or eating a certain food, or reading a certain magazine. Most of the times we feel comfortable and satisfied doing these things; this is what’s called your comfort zone, every one has a comfort zone. The main point is that when you defined and find your comfort zone, and you want to grow and develop your brain, you have to get out of your comfort zone. That’s where learning takes place. You need to try different things, for example read a different magazine or watch a different TV show.
According to different resource, Ginkgo Biloba is great of increasing your blood flow to your brain. Again, more blood with oxygen to the brain the better. This plant is one of the most popular herbs in the United States. It has been used for a wide variety of things, such as memory enhancement, altitude sickness, premenstrual syndrome etc…
Relax your body and calm your mind:
Listen to your body, if you feel tired go and relax and rest for a while. Don’t force against nature, because it will win. Your brain will not function properly if you are sleepy, tired, angry or sad. So, take a time for your body. You also can control your mind and calm it down by regular mediation. Yoga is one suggestion, praying is another one. Before you embark on improving your mind power, you need to be emotionally ready. This involves feeling confident and good about yourself.
Brain Puzzles, Sudoku, Crosswords and IQ quizzes
Such games are intended to make you think, analyze and make decisions. They enhance your ability to process information faster and power up your brain. Here are some suggestions for online games to power your brain:
Train your brain with physical exercise:
Exercise is not only smart for your heart and weight, but it can make you smarter and better at what you do. “Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being.” John J. Ratey, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. When you exercise you can think more clearly, perform better, and your morale is better. This is pure science, stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level. In a study reported in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness in 2001, 80 young male and female volunteers were tested for mood and then did aerobics for an hour. Of the 80, 52 were depressed before the exercise. That group was the most likely to benefit, reporting a reduction in anger, fatigue, and tension. They also felt more vigorous after the workout.
Brainstorming is great exercise to boost your brain power naturally. It would help your brain to think quickly, react faster and sharpen your mind. You can use brainstorming to come up with your own 100 item list. Meaning, think of 100 electronic items found in your house, or 100 things you like about yourself, or top 100 of your favorite songs. these only some suggestions.
Learn new things and challenge yourself:
Learn a new language; learn to play a musical instrument. I know that these are challenging tasks, but if you continue to learn and challenge yourself, your brain continues to grow, literally. A recent research shows that learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new brain cells.
Laugh & Humor:
How many times did you hear the expression “Laughter is the best medicine”? By laughing, your stress level decrease significantly. Humor stimulates the part of our brain that use the “feel Good” chemical messenger dopamine which according to researcher it improves memory.
Again, please leave us a comment if you have tips to share with Palscience readers. | <urn:uuid:134ab017-beb9-4dc9-9bdd-dc1a2abafd9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://palscience.com/health-medicine/12-natural-ways-to-boost-your-brain-power/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950703 | 1,363 | 2.375 | 2 |
So much have been written about Bloom’s taxonomy; one click in a search engine will flood your page with hundreds of articles all of which revolve around this taxonomy. Only few are those who have tried to customize it to fit in the 21st century educational paradigm. As a fan of Bloom’s pedagogy and being a classroom practitioner, I always look for new ways to improve my learning and teaching, and honestly speaking , if you are a teacher/ educator and still do not understand Bloom’s taxonomy then you are missing out on a great educational resource.
The following article is a summary and a fruit of my long painstaking research in the field of Bloom’s taxonomy. The purpose is to help teachers grow professionally and provide them with a solid informational background on how to better understand and apply Bloom’s taxonomy in classrooms in the light of the new technological advances and innovations.
Bloom’s taxonomy of learning as Wikipedia has put it is “ a classification of learning objectives within education proposed in 1956 by a committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom ”. Although it received little attention when first published, Bloom’s taxonomy has since been translated into 22 languages and is one of the most widely applied and most often cited reference in education.
Bloom, being convinced of the importance of thinking behaviors in the processes of learning, had spearheaded a group of brilliant educational psychologists to undertake the task of classifying educational goals and objectives. They first came up with a general framework which later on turned into a taxonomy of three domains:
1 – The cognitive : The intellectual or knowledge based domain consisted of 6 levels . Associated with the verb to THINK
2 – The Affective : Emotional or attitudinal based domain and consists of 5 levels. It is associated with the verb to FEEL
3 – The Psycho motor : The physical skills based domain and consists of 6 levels.
Bloom created different levels for both the cognitive and affective domains but never fully detailed the psycho-motor domain leaving it for others to complete the task.
Let us now go through the different domains stated here. Apart from the diagram I created , all the other pictures and diagrams are taken from different sources. When you click on a picture it will direct you to its source.
1 - The Cognitive Domain
It involves knowledge and development of intellectual skills from Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS ) to Higher Order Thinking Skills ( HOTS ). They are arranged below in an increasing order from lower to higher order.
2 – The Affective Domain
Skills in this category describe the way people react emotionally and their ability to feel each another . The five major affective categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex.
3-The Psycho-motor Domain
Bloom did not create subcategories for the psycho-motor domain but others such as Simpson, Harrow, and Dave have. They have added:
- Perception: The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity
- Set :Readiness to act. It includes mental , physical and emotional sets.
- Guided Response : Adequacy of performance is achieved by practicing.
- Complex Overt Response : The skillful performance of motor acts that involve complex movement patterns.
- Adaptation : The individual can modify movement patterns to fit special requirements
- Origination : Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem
In each of the three domains, Bloom’s taxonomy is based on the premise that categories are ordered in degree of difficulty. An important premise of Bloom’s taxonomy is that each category or level must be mastered before progressing to the next. Accordingly:
- Before we can understand a concept we must remember it.
- Before we can apply the concept we must understand it
- Before we analyze it we must be able to apply it
- Before we can evaluate its impact we must have analyzed it
- Before we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analyzed and evaluated.
Blooms Revised Taxonomy ( BRT )
During the 1990s a new group of cognitive psychologists, lead by Lorin Anderson ( a former student of Bloom ) and David Krathwohl updated the taxonomy reflecting relevance to 21st century education. In 2001, they published Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy with some changes. The changes occur in 3 main categories:
1 – Terminology
They changed the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms
2 – Structural Changes
Bloom’s original cognitive taxonomy was one dimensional form but with the addition of products , the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy becomes a two-dimensional table
3 – Changes in Emphasis
The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy places emphasis upon its use as a “ more authentic tool for curriculum planning, instructional delivery and assessment.” This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate.
With the advance of technology into our lives and particularly into education , we started to talk about new emerging skills and competences that Bloom’s first taxonomy did not include. Below is a diagram i have created to include these new skills which corresponds to the 21st century learning.
Blooms Taxonomy for iPads taken from iPad Applications in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Google tools to support Bloom’s Taxonomy taken from Bloomin Google
Here is a model of learning objectives taken from Iowa State University
- Bloom’s Taxonomy Learning Domains
- iPad Applications in Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Analyzing Apps with Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Bloom’s Taxnomy
- Bloomin’ Google
- Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy
- A Model of Learning Objectives
- Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains
- Research Skills
- Bloom’s Taxonomy Review
- Bloom’s Taxonomy ; The University of Georgia
- Bloom’s Taxonomy : Wikipedia | <urn:uuid:829d3162-78ca-439a-97a5-23ed9237fe03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/09/blooms-taxonomy-21st-century-version.html?showComment=1318478604604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930371 | 1,240 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Zoe Leonard: Observation Point - Camden Arts Centre
THIS SPRING, New York artist Zoe Leonard (b. 1961) will transform Gallery 3 at Camden Arts Centre into a ‘camera obscura’.
Daylight will filter in through a lens projecting an image of the world outside onto the floor, walls and ceiling, creating a spatially immersive experience. Alongside this, Gallery 1 will be filled with a new series of photographs depicting the sun together with a sculptural installation of found images in Gallery 2.
Across all the galleries this major exhibition engages three distinct forms of photography – experience, image, object – and in doing so pushes at the boundaries of photography as practice and medium.
Zoe Leonard: Observation Point runs at Camden Arts Centre from March 31 to June 24, 2012.
The experience of Leonard’s camera obscura is durational in a way that invites comparisons with film and video. As the ephemeral panorama unravels continually inside the space the viewer’s attention is drawn to the shifts in movement and light – some dramatic, others barely perceptible.
The north-south axis of Gallery 3 will provide constant light throughout the day, giving rise to a continually shifting, cinematic event. Leonard is harnessing the phenomenon of the camera obscura to think about ways of looking, recording and experiencing time and space as well as broadening current conversations about what photography is or can be.
Leonard’s new series of photographs of the sun defies one of the cardinal rules of traditional photography – not to shoot into the sun – and challenges the possibilities of photographic representation.
Photography customarily depicts the colour, form and spatial extension that the light of the sun allows us to discern, rather than the sun as subject itself. These images combine subject and process, retaining the glare and flare on the lens, the grain of the film in the enlarged print and the evidence of the artist’s work in the darkroom.
The third work, an installation of found postcards, continues Leonard’s practice of attending to the world around her as a source of material, reframing or representing already existing images so as to refresh our own act of looking.
Tying all Leonard’s work together is her constant concern with perception and visual experience. She explores photographic seeing, how we relate to the mediated image and how we perceive the world around us and that affects our emotional, political, or psychological experience.
The camera obscura (meaning dark chamber) predates photography, and is a natural phenomenon. From ancient times until the 18th century it was used as a tool by draftsmen, artists, architects and scientists to understand perspective and the physical laws of light. In this way, the camera obscura connects photography not only to the physical sciences, but to drawing, painting and architecture.
Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday: 10am – 6pm, Wednesdays late 10am – 9pm, closed Mondays and Bank Holidays.
Easter Opening Hours (April 6 – 9): Good Friday: 10am – 6pm, Easter Saturday: 10am – 6pm, Easter Sunday: 10am – 6pm, Easter Monday: closed.
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee opening hours: Bank holiday Monday (June 4): closed, Diamond Jubilee holiday (June 5): 10am – 6pm.
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London, NW3 6DG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7472 5500
The first UK solo exhibition of work by German artist Hanne Darboven continues at Camden Arts Centre until March 18, 2012. | <urn:uuid:75c1fdb2-465a-4582-9243-48e39135b6ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Events-Review/zoe-leonard-observation-point-camden-arts-centre | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932159 | 747 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Typically, a property is placed on the program after an inspector identifies a potential fire hazard on the premises. Fire Departments and other public agencies also submit complaints to the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.
All property owners are required to maintain their property free of fire hazards throughout the year.
This is a monitoring program and our primary objective is voluntary compliance. Click on the General Information tab for further.
Your property will be monitored by the program for three consecutive years of compliance. If no hazards are found and abated by the county during that time, you property may be removed from the program.
Inspectors use the most current copy of assessors map on file with the County assessor’s office to identify property. Inspectors also take a gps reading and record the coordinates in our program database.
There will be no cost to you if the Minimum Fire Safety Standards (MFSS) are met by the given deadline and maintained through the fire season. If work is required by the County contractor, you will be charged for the contractor’s services plus a County administrative fee. Our goal is to ensure that the MFSS are met at the lowest possible cost to the property owner.
If the County contractor performs abatement work on your property, the charges will appear as a special assessment on your next property tax statement.
The county contractor will use either one of, or a combination of discing, mowing, or hand crew weedwhacking to complete abatement. The county contractor does not and will not use any type of spray to control or eradicate any hazards.
Grass, weeds, or piles of combustible debris have been declared a public nuisance by your jurisdiction. Abating hazards in the spring to minimize volume of combustible material helps us to be more effective during the peak fire season.
Property owners are responsible for preventing fire hazards on their property. If the MFSS have been met, but further work is necessary, the owner will receive an on program letter indicating that further work is needed prior to the county contractor performing the work. We will also attempt to contact the owner by phone at the number listed on their Return Reply Form. If the MFSS have not been met, a green 15 day notice postcard will be sent as a courtesy prior to any abatement. The 15 day notice and/or on program letter are sent to the legal address on file with the Tax Assessor’s office. It is the owner’s responsibility to keep this information current. If you have moved or recently sold your property, it is recommended that you check the address on file where your tax bill is sent.
Inspectors photograph the conditions of each parcel that work is ordered on. The county contractor takes a photo before and after each job to document what the parcel looked like before and after he performed the work. The photos are stored in our database as part of the parcel’s program record.
Weed Abatement contractors can be found in the yellow pages under “weed control services” or “discing services”. You may have the county contractor perform the necessary work. The prices are included with your initial program packed you received in December. You can also refer to the Documents section of our website and download a copy of the list we have compiled. The contractors listed are not specifically recommended or endorsed by the county, but listed as a convenience from research and property owner referrals.
Weed Abatement Inspectors are available to assist you and answer your questions. Please call our Weed Abatement Service Request line at (408) 282-3145 or email us
to schedule an onsite consultation with the program staff or to obtain additional information. | <urn:uuid:7f3bf749-87de-47de-806f-7201e67d9e5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sccgov.org/sites/ag/Weed%20Abatement%20Program/FAQ's/Pages/FAQ's.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941773 | 759 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Turkey Announces UNSC Candidacy - Opinion
This attitude does not extend to Cyprus, however, where Turkey has stationed 40,000 troops since 1974 in an occupation which continues to divide, intimidate and interfere with the local communities here.
And for its policy of zero problems with its neighbors, what about its refusal to recognise the Exclusive Economic Zones agreed upon between Israel and Cyprus' governments? Israel has already said that any country which tries to stop it from exploring and exploiting undersea oil and gas reserves will face war. That's...a problem.
At the very least, the UN should hold Turkey accountable for ignoring the many resolutions demanding that it removes its troops from Cyprus. If the country wants to become a non-permanent member of the UNSC, it should first make a genuine gesture and take out some or all of its troops.
The basic condition for holding a position on the UNSC should at the very least be that the candidate should respect UN resolutions. | <urn:uuid:6b211ce0-334d-4522-9322-253a65de65e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/4112 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95818 | 198 | 1.53125 | 2 |
City of Johannesburg puts up costs of all services
And promises ensure better service delivery to residents
THE City of Johannesburg is to increase tariffs by up to 14.5% with effect from July.
This was announced yesterday by the City's member of the mayoral committee for finance Geoff Makhubo, who said electricity tariffs would increase by a whopping 14%, water, sewage and sanitation by 14.5%, and property and refuse removal rates by 6% and 6.7% respectively.
This means households will pay hundreds of rands more for all five services, an amount the city punted as being the lowest among all other metros.
Makhubo said the hikes were driven by the cost of bulk buying from power utility Eskom and Rand Water.
"In determining these tariffs, we had to ensure that they are affordable yet at the same time contribute to the sustainability of service provision," he said ahead of the delivery of his budget speech.
"All inputs from consultation processes were considered."
He said the hikes were influenced by guidelines from the National Energy Regulator of SA, and the need for the city to invest in its network infrastructure with the aim of reducing R1.2-billion in distribution losses.
Most of these tariffs are aligned to inflation which currently stands at 6%, he added.
The City of Johannesburg has grown its 2012/13 budget allocation from R28.3-billion to R37.6-billion, in a bid to ensure better service delivery to residents.
A chunk of the budget, R12.6-billion, is allocated to City Power for day-today expenditure including an additional R953-million for big projects.
"This dominant focus is to improve the quality of supply and quality of service.
"We will be investing in infrastructure to reduce technical and non-technical losses in electricity as well as new service connections and public lighting."
The city's immediate intention was to stabilise its financial position and rebuild cash reserves to improve its capacity to invest, he said.
There are plans to extend the Rea Vaya BRT system to other areas and R955.8-million has been set aside for the project.
Close to R2-million will go into the Johannesburg Metro Police Department's coffers for crime prevention, and traffic and bylaw enforcement.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency has been given R274-million for the construction of new roads and to fund new projects, while another R548-million will go towards routine maintenance like potholes and other road improvements. | <urn:uuid:d1167ab4-472c-4d0a-8420-0981a0d6284c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2012/05/24/city-of-johannesburg-puts-up-costs-of-all-services | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966343 | 523 | 1.5 | 2 |
Vietnam preps for future landslides
Sep 21, 2011
With heavy rains continuing in Vietnam, disaster officials are prepping the nation for impending landslides, IRIN reports.
"With more rains expected, the likelihood of further landslides is strong," Dang Van Tao, disaster risk reduction manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the news outlet.
Tao's predictions come just one day after the Vietnamese government declared that hundreds of homes and agricultural areas in the Mekong Delta area were in grave danger as torrential downpours ensued.
According the Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control Department, since August there have been nine landslides in seven of the country's 35 provinces.
"The north and central provinces are the most affected," Bui Viet Hien, programme officer for disaster risk management for the UN Development Programme, told the news outlet. "Seven people were killed in Nghe An and Binh Thuan [provinces]. The region is also prone to mudflows and flash floods."
With no sign of the rain slowing down in the near future, officials and humanitarian groups are working to evacuate citizens from certain areas and to bring aid to those in need. | <urn:uuid:51739dee-f433-4f1e-91f5-95f94ec30cf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thehungersite.com/clickToGive/ths/article/Vietnam-preps-for-future-landslides397 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944338 | 251 | 2.4375 | 2 |
|XP is just a number|
OK. If you're on Linux, then the tn5250 app is reading from stdin. You should be able to drive it as a child process via IO::Pty (or open2/open3)and send it the same escape sequences that it expects to see.
e.g., to simulate pressing an up arrow to tn5250, you'll send a short character sequence to it's standard input.
You can work out which chars to send by hitting the docs or just running tn5250 under 'strace' and seeing it reads from fd 0 (the read(0, "...") bit when you hit the key.
You'll get the screen contents back from the stdout of the tn5250 process. These will contain escape sequences suitable for the terminal which tn5250 thinks you're running (probably vt100), which you could interpret and write the data at the appropriate offset in a screen buffer.
So, you'll end up emulating keystrokes to the tn5250 and understanding the escape sequences it sends back, so not a trivial task. It's perhaps also one which is prone to deadlock, if you're doing blocking reads from the app, so you'll probably want to use nonblocking reads if you can.
Maybe I've misunderstood, but I think that's what would be required. (Well, or re-implementing the 5250 network protocol your console app uses, or pulling apart the console app so you can call into it as a C API wrapped in XS, or adding (or finding) an existing scripting mechanism for this app, or...
Ah...CPAN goodness, there's Term::VT102 which might help a lot. | <urn:uuid:5d4bef44-d174-4d98-88c1-08f06fa04aeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perlmonks.org/?parent=730129;node_id=3333 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944967 | 366 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Representing towns and schools from Ajo, Ariz., to Zap, N.D., these mountain landmarks were created by locals with hometown pride or students full of school spirit. According to author Evelyn Corning, some letters have been around for more than 100 years. Many have a story to tell, and all are beloved community icons that boldly declare to all within their view: We are here. This is our place, our school, our home.
Hillside Letters A to Z: A Guide to Hometown Landmarks spells out in detail this distinctive western phenomenon, exploring its origins, customs, and controversies, as well as some of the nuts and bolts (or ABCs) of letter building. Adults and children alike will enjoy an engaging collection of stories featuring 60 letters from fourteen western states.
Sixteen of the stories are about Utah communities including a number in southern Utah such as the G in Moab, Escalante's E, the T and BV in Tropic, the V in Orderville, the K in Kanab, and the D in St. George. The book also features the controversy involving Moab's block G being painted over with brown paint, then being repainted by locals Guy Johnston and David Stewart.
Color photographs illustrate the featured letters, and a map shows letter sites nationwide. The book lists all 426 known U.S. hillside letters, noting where they are located, and what they stand for. Hillside Letters A to Z is available at Arches Book Company. | <urn:uuid:d732c35e-3f82-4235-a3de-b206feb94ccf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moabtimes.com/view/full_story/69249/article-Big--G--featured-in-Hillside-Letters-book | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967491 | 308 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Few Differences for New Nuclear Plants
WASHINGTON — The new-generation nuclear reactors being talked about after a pause of three decades are not much different from those of the past, though the designs should make them safer, more efficient and easier to build.
Two designs likely to be pursued adopt a passive safety system requiring less involvement by operators to shut the system down and ensure that the reactor core doesn’t overheat. A third design would have more redundant and isolated safety systems than current reactors plus a double-walled concrete containment dome better able to withstand an airplane crash.
Still awaiting Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, all three designs are "evolutionary" advancements from the "light-water" reactors in use in the United States and Europe today. These reactors use ordinary water to slow, or moderate, the fission process as well as for emergency cooling if needed. A Generation IV gas-cooled reactor would be the next step in design advancements, probably after 2030, in the United States.
The three reactor designs attracting the most interest are being developed by Westinghouse, a subsidiary of the British company BNFL; General Electric; and the French conglomerate AREVA, whose Framatome subsidiary designed France’s reactors. All three manufacturers say their new designs have been simplified to increase safety and have fewer moving parts, valves and pumps.
Here are some characteristics of each of the top three light-water reactor designs and a next-generation gas-cooled reactor:
The Westinghouse AP1000:
This would have one-third fewer pumps, half as many valves, and more than 80 percent fewer pipes than current reactors. It can be built using modular units manufactured in a factory and transported to the reactor site, cutting construction time to three years.
It relies on a largely passive safety system. The cooling water for use in event of a buildup of excess heat is above the reactor core and uses gravity and natural circulation for emergency cooling if needed. In current reactors, cooling water must be pumped into the core.
General Electric’s ESBWR:
This has a 1,500 megawatt boiling water design, meaning the cooling water is not under pressure and is allowed to boil with steam passing over the top of the reactor into the turbines.
ESBWR stands for "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor," reflecting that its design removes many complexities of current reactors. It has 25 percent fewer pumps, valves, motors, piping and cabling and is designed to respond more quickly to a loss of coolant situation. Modular construction and a smaller plant size allow for faster construction.
A 1,500 megawatt pressurized water reactor that’s an evolutionary design based on the French and German reactors designed by Framatome and Siemans. It is a simplified design using existing technologies, with fewer parts.
While it maintains an active rather than passive safety system, the EPR has a number of design improvements, including a double-wall concrete containment dome for greater protection against an aircraft crash. The design also extends the dome over the spent fuel pool and two of the four safety buildings.
If there is a severe accident and meltdown, the reactor vessel is designed to capture the core melt in a cavity below the containment building.
Generation IV reactors:
These reactor technologies reflect a "revolutionary" step from the "Generation III" and earlier design light-water reactors. Development for commercial use won’t occur until 2030.
They produce more heat and less waste with different cooling mechanisms than the light water reactors, and would be able to produce hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels to power everything from cars to electric lamps. An international effort has been under way since 2000 to examine various technologies, using a gas such as carbon dioxide, water, liquid metal or even molten salt for cooling.
A gas-cooled reactor known as the pebble bed is being developed in South Africa and was touted for the U.S. market until Exelon, the Chicago-based utility, pulled out of the project. Instead of fuel rods, the pebble bed uses coated graphite pebbles filled with uranium fuel. The decay heat is transferred to helium, an inert gas, that eventually moves to a gas turbine to produce electricity.
The Energy Department is planning a $1.25 billion program to build a gas-cooled Generation IV experimental reactor in Idaho. It would produce both hydrogen and electricity and could become a prototype for future commercial reactors. | <urn:uuid:5bb426db-b745-409b-8833-c6d16452bd53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/155388/few_differences_for_new_nuclear_plants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951242 | 917 | 3.140625 | 3 |
POETRY DISPATCH No. 368 | April 18, 2012
Struck down a shadow, stood up a man.
Trees eavesdrop on trees, birds eavesdrop on birds; when a viper stiffens and attacks a passing human it becomes human.
You examine your face in the mirror, affronting a stranger.
The law sayeth: any man to loot a burning house shall be put to death, any man to sell dogmeat as mutton shall meet with retribution, any man to cast glances east and west shall find a snare at his feet, any man of chicken gizzard pettiness shall be spit upon. But I must supplement this, as I have seen monkeys on the fast track just as capable as men on the fast track, their muscles equally developed, their methods equally unscrupulous.
So the sunflower really is a flower!
Why have cats and not tigers become our pets?
Small little pain, a feeling like sand gushing into the eye—who will compensate me?
A book will change me, if I want to grasp ii; a girl will change me, if I want to praise her; a road will change me, if I want to go its distance; a coin will change me, if I want to possess it.I change someone living beside me, and I am changed; my single conscience makes us both suffer, my own selfish distractions make us both blush.
The truth cannot be public, echoless thoughts arc hard to sing.
Wrath makes incantations malfunction.
Why give a compass to a sailor in distress on the seas?
Don’t demand too much of the world. Don’t hold on to your sleeping wife while dreaming of high-yield margins. Don’t light lamps in the daytime. Don’t smear people’s faces. Remember: don’t piss in the wild. Don’t sing in a cemetery. Don’t take promises lightly. Don’t be annoying. Make wisdom something useful.
Static shadows can be scorned but veneration for shifting shadows must be maintained.
Sunbirds strive to fly, but who’s chasing them away?
What kind of good luck can end your left eyelid’s incessant flitting?
[from: NOTES ON THE MOSQUITO, Selected Poems, New Directions, 2012] | <urn:uuid:0bc9cd04-7d3e-4ace-9ae2-5dd4f0032d36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/xi-chuang-exhortations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911422 | 502 | 1.648438 | 2 |
In a healthy human eye, the focusing is done by the
1 To and fro movement of the eye lens
2 Changing curvature of the retina
3 Change in the convexity of the lens through ciliary muscles
4 None of these
How long can the Prime Minister remain in office?
(a) Till the President wants him to remain so
(b) Till he enjoys the confidence of the majority part in
(c) Till he remains MP and the leader of the majority party
in Lok Sabha
(d) Both ?b? and ?c? | <urn:uuid:d9832375-bdce-4c78-96b7-d363506a3356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allinterview.com/showanswers/26732.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929084 | 118 | 2.34375 | 2 |
The Right Reverend and Right Honourable George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton, PC (born 13 November 1935), was the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1991 to 2002. He was the first modern holder not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge University. His time as Archbishop saw the Church of England allow the ordination of women priests. It also saw polarisation of attitudes to homosexuality at the Lambeth Conference of 1998, in which he supported a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". This resolution is at the heart of current divisions within the Anglican Communion on the issue..
Search Quotations Book | <urn:uuid:b4e73eb1-5b04-457a-9686-7f6f3d7b251b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://quotationsbook.com/quotes/author/1307/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966468 | 129 | 2.140625 | 2 |
THEME: No theme today—Just a themeless Saturday puzzle framed with a slew of seven-letter answers
Have we talked about pangrams here before? The dictionary will tell you that a pangram is a sentence or verse that contains every letter of the alphabet—"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog," for example. The crossword community also applies the word to a puzzle that contains all 26 letters, like today's crossword by Barry Silk. Barry has a habit of including a lot of what I call "Scrabbly" letters, so when you see his byline, it's usually a good idea to suspect that he'll include words containing Q, X, Z, J, and K. Today, he worked two Qs, two Zs, and two Ks into the mix.
I dunno about this puzzle. Usually I enjoy Barry's puzzles quite a bit, but this one didn't do it for me. Maybe I'm just tired. Or maybe it's that crosswords with this sort of grid—tons of seven-letter answers but not much in the Really Cool Long Answers department—seldom delight me. When Saturday rolls around, dang it, I want Really Cool Long Answers.
Crosswordese 101: ESTE has the most solid crosswordese credentials of any word in this puzzle. 23A: Ferrara ruling family is today's clue. The most common clues for ESTE include Villa d'___ as a fill-in-the-blank, Renaissance family name, Italian noble surname, and city near Padua. You could read all about the House of Este at Wikipedia, but the article's packed with all sorts of information that...will never show up in a clue. I'm not curious enough about this topic to read further. The Villa looks pretty, though.
Here's the lowdown on some tough or interesting answers and clues:
- 22A: ConAgra spray (PAM). Eww. Makes it sound like a pesticide rather than a cooking spray, doesn't it? I'll stick with butter and olive oil, thanks. (And I'll pass on the OLIVE PIT, or 33D: Salad leftover.)
- 27A: They usually lose at war (TREYS). Treys are playing cards, the three of diamonds/spades/hearts/clubs.
- 29A: Low-fat breakfast brand (SPECIAL K). Terrific crossword entry...but as stomach entries go, I prefer Frosted Flakes.
- 44A: "Saga of the Greenlanders" hero (LEIF). Who doesn't like Vikings? Not those subjected to Viking pillaging, I suppose. Anyone in their 40s now thinks of just one thing when they see the name LEIF:
If he was "made for dancing," why is this dancing so uninspired and...wan? The 10- to 12-year-old boys at my son's day camp last-day talent show yesterday, they were workin' it. You might think boys that age would be shy about dancing in public, but they each took a turn to showboat. They were much better than the girls were.
- 50A: Name from a Hebrew word for "God is with us" (EMANUEL). What? A name meaning clue when Rahm EMANUEL is currently so well-known?
- 52A: Of more interest to a nitpicker (PETTIER). It's awkward to clue those -ER and -EST comparative words. Coincidentally, potential mistakes in crossword clues are of great interest to nitpickers.
- 55A: Brobdingnagian (IMMENSE). IMMENSE is a less-than-thrilling word, but Brobdingnagian? Love it! It's from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Brobdingnag, one of the many fictional lands Swift concocted, is where giants live. Lilliput is home to the wee Lilliputians. The Houyhnhnms are horses, superior to humans, a.k.a. Yahoos.
- 56A: Some small suits (SPEEDOS). Ah, swimsuits. Business suits, playing card suits, executives, lawsuits—all other kinds of "suits" I thought about here.
- 7D: Bookstore section (SELF-HELP). Hey! I wrote one of those books. But they put it in the puzzles and games section and not over in self-help. (Gratuitous self-plug. Ain't I a stinker?)
- 21D: Northernmost national capital (REYKJAVIK). Ah, Iceland. Poor, bankrupt, formerly prosperous Iceland. I love its capital city for the nutty assortment of consonants.
- 51D: Nuremberg negative (NIE). Okay, I took German, ja, and I got stumped here. Nein means "no." Nicht means "not." And neither of those is three letters long! The crossing answers eventually took me to NIE, which means "never."
Everything Else — 1A: Tops (BETTERS); 8A: Grows fond of (WARMS TO); 15A: City WNW of Cheyenne (LARAMIE); 16A: Sister of Iphigenia (ELECTRA); 17A: Predictably (AS USUAL); 18A: Ceremonious event (BANQUET); 19A: Peels (ZESTS); 20A: Réunion attendee (FRERE); 24A: Heat unit (THERM); 25A: Style (MODE); 26A: Caribbean export (RUM); 28A: Hood of "Our Gang" fame (DARLA); 31A: Bit of gossip (MORSEL); 32A: Place where a customer may be taken? (CLIP JOINT); 34A: Gel cap alternative (TABLET); 37A: Urban scavenger (ALLEY CAT); 41A: Miscalculated (ERRED); 42A: Like bighorns (OVINE); 43A: President of Pakistan, 1978-'88 (ZIA); 45A: Sunday outing (DRIVE); 46A: 1950s-'60s TV quiz show host (MARX); 47A: Internet annoyance (LAG); 48A: Product of a fault (QUAKE); 49A: Helvetica's lack (SERIF); 54A: Emit (RADIATE); 57A: Test the concentration of, in chem lab (TITRATE); 1D: Apparel with insignias, at times (BLAZERS); 2D: Backs off (EASES UP); 3D: Words to a skeptic (TRUST ME); 4D: Decorator's asset (TASTE); 5D: Layers of green eggs (EMUS); 6D: River valley formation (RIA); 8D: Units of magnetic flux (WEBERS); 9D: Elevator button (ALARM); 10D: Filmmaker Clair (RENE); 11D: 1974 John Wayne title role (MCQ); 12D: Dazes (STUPORS); 13D: Old sewing machine part (TREADLE); 14D: Common haggis ingredient (OATMEAL); 24D: Baldness, e.g. (TRAIT); 25D: Best Picture of 1955 (MARTY); 27D: Like many a backsplash (TILED); 28D: Charitable organization, e.g. (DONEE); 30D: Symbol seen in viola music (C CLEF); 31D: Creator of Heffalumps (MILNE); 34D: They have a lot of bills (TELLERS); 35D: Garmin display (AREA MAP); 36D: Fighting force (BRIGADE); 38D: Winter Palace resident (CZARINA); 39D: Least substantial (AIRIEST); 40D: Exempt, in a way (TAX-FREE); 42D: Papal vestments (ORALES); 45D: Because of (DUE TO); 46D: Coin collector? (METER); 48D: Beyond stereo (QUAD); 49D: Acct. summary (STMT.); 53D: One of the "big four" record labels (EMI). | <urn:uuid:59657a67-f734-42e9-a263-d6ec634eb346> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latcrossword.blogspot.com/2009/08/saturday-august-1-2009barry-c-silk.html?showComment=1249140365879 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90094 | 1,761 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Welcome to one of the most unique aquariums on Earth - the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium is a modern marvel, a place where the ocean literally flows through the walls and sustains more than 35,000 animals and plants in presentations of complete habitats. Each of the animals here has a story to tell - from the anemones, which scientists suspect can live forever, to the jellyfish, bred and studied at the aquarium's "jelly farm." But of all the animals to be seen here, of all the stories to be told, there is one animal in particular whose presence is drawing world-wide attention - a great white shark. The great white has long been the Holy Grail of the aquarium world, but no one has succeeded in keeping one alive in captivity for more than 16 days, despite more than 50 years of trying. Can the Monterey Bay Aquarium be the first to discover how? And if so, for how long?
Oceans in Glass is also a fun exploration of how the aquarium creates its virtual worlds and cares for its marine residents. What are the secrets behind its stunning displays? And in addition to the work inside the aquarium, the film will also take viewers to the front lines of the aquarium's conservation research. California's sea otters, once rescued from the brink of extinction, may be in trouble again. What could be plaguing these charismatic creatures? What can we learn from tuna that might help us to protect them? And what important lessons can be learned from a guest great white shark? Spending an hour with this remarkable cast of creatures from the sea will change the way you think about aquariums - and about life in the ocean. | <urn:uuid:cc937e4e-361c-4c66-ba58-5703beced7af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shopthirteen.org/products/29594-oceans-in-glass-behind-the-scenes-of-the-monterey-bay-aquarium | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93618 | 340 | 2.625 | 3 |
In 10 years time, can you afford your taxes? The choice is OURS.
Fairfield’s overall budget has grown 104 percent cumulatively over the past 14 years, 2.6 times that of inflation which was up 40 percent. (Was your household income up 40 percent since 1999?). The key drivers, doubling spending over that period were employee pensions, employee healthcare costs, a population growth in our school system and poorly managed capital projects (Fairfield Metro Station and Penfield Pavilion being just two examples). This year’s proposed tax increase is 6.4 percent, accelerating to over three times the inflation rate.
Let’s look at what will happen over next 10 years -- based on choices WE taxpayers are making. If Fairfield’s annual budget grows like it has historically (call this “business as usual”) our taxes will sky rocket. Shown below are, the forecasted 2024 budget levels and taxes assuming our budget grows at the historic 2.6 times inflation, assumed at 2 percent annually for this illustration. Also shown is what we’ll call a “Frugal Alternative”: what the budget will be if, somehow, Fairfield is able to curb its spending and hold budget growth at the 2 percent assumed rate of inflation. (See the attached graph).
Neither case -- “Business as Usual” or “Frugal” -- is particularly good news for taxpayers, unless one’s income growth nicely exceeds the inflation rate – something that is difficult in today’s economy.
What does all this mean for YOUR taxes? As shown in the table below, under the “Business as Usual” scenario taxes on today’s Fairfield home will rise 67 percent from today’s level. For example, the $8,705 tax bill on a $500,000 home will jump to $14,537 in ten years. “Frugal” spending will lead to taxes of $10,968, a 26 percent rise from today:
Budget Growth Result on Property Taxes2023 "Bus. As Usual" "Frugal" Home Price 2013 (2.6 x Inflation) (1 x Inflation) $500,000 $8,705 $14,537 $10,968 $800,000 $13,927 $23,258 $17,548 $1,500,000 $26,114 $43,610 $32,903 $3,000,000 $52,227 $87,219 $65,806
We all know it’s not easy to hold our town’s spending down. Citizens want more services. Many contractual obligations, unless changed, will continue to drive our spending higher -- most likely at a rate well beyond inflation. That makes it imperative that we help our town find efficiency in all aspects its operation -- from education to police, firemen, public works, recreation, etc. And, we need to make clear to our elected officials what town services we no longer find of value.
The choice is ours. But, most important, let’s make sure we have a plan -- enabling us to make a conscious decision as to where we are going as a town. It is all about what we choose to pay for and what services we value. Stay tuned to Fairfield Taxpayer's website for how our community thinks spending can be reduced. We are close to a first step in uncovering much needed answers.
Finally, come speak out at the Board of Finance meeting on Saturday, March 23 at 9:30 a.m. at the Fairfield Senior Center, 100 Mona Terrace. It’s the last chance for citizens to be heard before the BOF votes on the budget.
– Fairfield Taxpayer | <urn:uuid:18dfe315-1708-4060-8f3d-c9eb4461609c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fairfield.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/letter-in-10-years-can-you-afford-your-taxes-the-choice-is-ours | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933463 | 788 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Before going to Harvard Law School, 26-year-old Obama went to Kenya to visit his dead father's grave. He also visited his grandparents and half-siblings, and he faced the shocking poverty of his father's homeland.
The overall experience helped Obama further understand his father and why he had returned to Kenya instead of staying with him. This father and son pair had many similarities, including high goals of helping poverty and their own people, according to the A&E video."
The work I was doing was directly connected to my own family and their own struggles," Obama said. "It helped to unify my outward self with my inward self in an important way."
'We Just Clicked'
Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. After his first year, he worked at a summer internship in Chicago, where he met his wife, Michelle Robinson, his mentor and lawyer at Sidley and Austin.
"We just clicked," Michelle Obama said. The couple married on Oct. 3, 1992.
In February 1990, Obama was elected the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, and he began to receive a lot of media attention. He graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in 1991.
Beginnings of Political Career
After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also lectured at the University of Chicago Law School.
Obama became director of Illinois Project Vote in 1992 and helped organize and register about 100,000 new voters during Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, according to the A&E video.
His success in the project placed him on Crain's Chicago Business Top 40, Under 40 Outstanding Young Leaders in Chicago that year.
Obama's mother passed away in 1995 after losing her battle against ovarian cancer. Also that year, Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," was published. At the time, it received mediocre reviews and went quickly out of print. However, he later won a Grammy for the audio version of the book.
Ultimately, Obama's advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat, and he was elected in 1996 from the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park.
In 1998, Michelle and Barack had their first child, Malia Ann. Their second daughter, Natasha, was born in 2001.
By 1999, Obama's success and hard work had established him as a politician with charisma and drive, according to the A&E video.
However, Obama had a political misstep when he was running against incumbent Bobby Rush for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Important gun control legislation was going to be voted on in the state Senate, and a close vote was foreseen. Although Obama supported the bill, he was in Hawaii and decided to stay with his ill daughter instead of returning when the bill was put on the floor.
Without Obama's vote, the bill did not pass, and Rush used Obama's absence against him in his own campaign, saying, "there was no excuse for missing a pivotal vote."
Obama lost the election to Rush but returned to the state Senate and passed 27 pieces of legislation over the next four years.
In 2003, Obama entered the race for the U.S. Senate. He won the 2004 Illinois primary after his main opposing candidate Jack Ryan dropped out because of exposed scandals.
Obama made the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. This defining moment in his career made him one of the United States' premier black leaders, said Mendell.
On Nov. 2, 2004, Obama became the fifth black senator in the U.S. Senate, at the age of 43.
Once in office, Obama was the first to raise the threat of avian flu on the Senate floor, speak out for victims of Hurricane Katrina and push for alternative-energy development and improved veterans' benefits. | <urn:uuid:1d28af33-4a65-46d3-85f1-dac31ed4cb84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news8000.com/news/politics/Obama-skinny-kid-with-a-funny-name/-/1032/11084/-/item/1/-/9htquhz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986505 | 809 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Ideals and principles are some two very interesting concepts which are not bad of themselves. It is therefore quite interesting to note that northern Nigeria is a society which harps quite strongly on some fundamental religious principles and ideals. The predominant language which is Hausa has a lot of derivatives from the Arabic language, and so it is not strange to say that Islam is the core religion of this society. Albeit dedicated proponents of Islam say that it is a religion of peace, and I do not disagree because I have seen a lot of them and lived among some. They can be quite nice and very peace-loving. With this background already established, it is pertinent to point out that to every principle and ideal, interpretation is always a key factor and where you have the balanced perspectives, you cannot run away from the fact that there will also be divergent views which could border on the extreme. Put in drama parlance, at this point enters the Boko-Haram sect. There have been various religious sects in northern Nigeria over time and there are still many more which hold very strong and extreme views up to the point of radicalization.
Before we go on, it would be quite helpful to interpret the word ‘Boko-Haram’ for those who do not speak Hausa or anything close to Arabic. It means ‘Western education is an abomination’. The sect accuses western education as the principal factor behind the ills currently experienced in the society, and they advocate a return to the tenets of ‘basic Islamic education’ such as is common in ‘medrasas’ or Arabic schools in northern Nigeria. Boko-Haram is only one of many sects but one that has distinguished itself over the last two years as a pain the side for governments of key northern states in Nigeria, and in turn the Federal government. In putting this together, I would be writing with an insider perspective, especially having lived in Maiduguri the capital of Borno, a major state in northern Nigeria for a whole year and this happens to be the core base of the radical sect. I must mention that the Boko-Haram sect is not a new one, because it has been around for sometime in excess of six years but until now it has been managed as an in-house issue. Reliable sources say that they have had cause to parley with the government at different times allowing for some compromise over the years and that effectively kept the whole issue under check.
The above, I had to mention in all fairness to them, because they have not always been this violent and that is why a large percentage of interested parties in this whole issue have not heard about them until very recently. Whilst the finest details of the ‘Government-Radical Sect’ parley are not totally known, it must be mentioned that the recognised leader of the sect, a man named Mallam Mohammed Yusuf had been invited for questioning by government agents at different times, and later let of the hook after some lengthy quiz. He was also said to have been warned at different times and his activities were monitored. All of these went on until the group felt that the government had reneged on some of their agreement and in their view, it had wholly embraced the dictates of western education. They felt it was an action that had led to the ‘fast declining moral standards in the society’, one which was unacceptable. After a couple of skirmishes which some members of the sect had with the authorities more especially, the police as regards issues like: compulsorily putting on helmets, double standards and corruption, they declared all-out war. In principle, they also defined their targets being the police, soldiers and any other proponent of the government of the day. They kept assuring members of the public, the fight was not against civilians but against the government, so technically barring accidents any other persons could go about their activities without fear. An explanation, they seemed to have stuck too not regarding a few who began to interpret it as a war against people of other faiths, something you can never discount when issues such as this arise.
All of these continued, and finally got to a head in June, 2009 when the whole issue degenerated in to a full-scale riot that spread across at least five states in northern Nigeria, namely Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Borno and Kano. For close to ten days, there were real blood-shed and heavy casualties on both sides. According to the news, it was common sight to encounter body piles scattered across the various cities especially Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, where the leader of the sect was based and their battle strategy marshalled from. Not quite long, the leader was captured and in no time the uprising came to an abrupt end. If this was a victory for the government and for ‘peace’, it was soon to turn sour by the very despicable style of crisis management shown by the authorities. Less than two days after arresting the sect leader, rumours filtered out that Mallam Mohammed Yusuf had been murdered in cold-blood, the subject of a gory and most unreasonable extra-judicial killing. Pictures flew around on mobile phones of captions while he was arrested alive, and now shots taken of his bullet-ridden body. The blame game began, with soldiers accusing the police of carrying out the killing, because they had taken him alive and handed him over to the police for prosecution. The police did not have much to say in their own defence, possibly with the thought that this would just be another case swept under the carpet, at least the target had been eliminated and seemingly sanity had returned.
Anyone who could study these trends would have known that definitely the issue was far from over, and there was bound to be reprisal attacks. Some human rights groups protested against the killing, but it all largely went unheralded. The group trailed off for almost a year, launching a few attacks here and there, but that was all that was there to their names for that period. For neutral people who thought that was the end, they had something else coming. The sect regrouped and declared total war, this time around, not just on the government but a wide range of targets which included schools, churches, clerics who spoke out against them, families they had issues with and a whole lot of others. All of these they carried out in their crude manners largely until after Nigeria’s Independence Day bombing which suddenly made them tech-savvy. They realised that they could also introduce the use of bombs with much farther-reaching consequences and that was the point the whole issue blew out of proportion. Now it is not news anymore to hear of an average of four bombs going off on a weakly basis. Scary you would say, but that exactly is what the situation looks like at the moment, not forgetting that even the police headquarters car park was fire-bombed and I even heard of a church that was attacked on the same street that housed the offices of the state security service in Borno state.
Two wrongs they say never make a right. The government has a fair share in the blame, so does the radical sect. The question therefore arises “how do you deal with a sect which says it is fighting the cause of its god and death is an inevitable option?” The dilemma remains to negotiate or to fight them in return. Which would be the most reasonable option? The answer remains to be seen, but the world is growing restless at the number of innocent citizens falling prey and the United Nations is being constantly questioned about the state of events going on in Nigeria. One solution would be to engage the use of effective intelligence by the security services to get to the root of this issue which some have also tied to the fall-outs of the April general elections. Whatever it is, the unanimous chant is that this whole madness must stop and everyone who could do something had better gotten involved while the chance remains else we might soon be sharing a different story, a tipping point many would prefer we stayed away from. | <urn:uuid:5ea23dcf-48ab-4433-bc10-87840fbfe1ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dekynsiv.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985528 | 1,654 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Idea of Europe
The European Union has turned out to be not that different from the American neoliberal economic model.
Cross-posted from JohnFeffer.com. John is currently traveling in Eastern Europe and observing its transformations since 1989.
HANKYOREH -- Back in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the countries of East-Central Europe all had a common vision. They wanted to join the Europe Community. Some wanted to join immediately; others wanted to join eventually. After half a century yoked to the Soviet Union, the people of this region saw membership in the common European home as a guarantee of democratic governance, economic prosperity, and social stability.
Twenty years later, membership in the European Union comes with no guarantees. The economic crisis that convulses the continent shows no signs of abating. The region of East-Central Europe struggles with corruption and a new brand of authoritarianism. And extremist intolerance continues to plague Europe east and west.
It‘s not just the European economy that is in crisis. The very idea of Europe has lost its shine. “Europe” once meant a more egalitarian and more tolerant model than the free market orthodoxy reigning in the United States. In this age of globalization, however, Europe has become more and more like everywhere else.
This leaves the countries of East-Central Europe in a difficult position. They are finally joining an exclusive club. But the perks of membership are no longer quite so exciting. It’s not surprising that Euroskepticism has crept into the hearts of eastern Europeans. After all, even the inhabitants of the original core group of member countries are having second thoughts.
Of course, Europe still means something. On the positive side, new members of the European Union have access to funds to modernize their infrastructure. I recently drove back and forth across Bulgaria, and next to construction sites I saw many signs with the European Union logo. Repairing the major east-west highways in Bulgaria is not just important for tourists eager to race from Sofia to the Black Sea coast. Good roads – and good rail lines – are essential for getting Bulgarian goods to markets and also to take advantage of Bulgaria‘s geographic location for transshipment.
Also, on the positive side, membership in the European Union has served as a means of leverage to bring the political standards of candidate countries up to European levels. Whether it’s securing the rights of minorities (ethnic, religious, sexual) or ensuring a properly functioning judiciary, the European Union requires potential members to meet a long list of criteria. Since powerful domestic lobbies oppose many of these requirements, reformers can use this external pressure – the European form of gaiatsu* — to push through changes that might otherwise take decades or might not happen at all.
There are certainly other benefits to EU membership, from visa-free travel to lower barriers to trade. But there are now some considerable downsides as well.
The most important challenge that faces EU members and potential candidates is the austerity package that virtually all governments are expected to implement. It was once the case that new members saw a tremendous expansion of their social welfare systems to meet European standards. They also had access to much more generous adjustment funds so that they could close the gap between themselves and the richer members of the community. In this way, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland rather quickly became equal partners in the grand European economic experiment.
Today, new members like Slovenia have to find ways to cut government spending to meet the EU‘s fiscal demands. Candidate countries like Croatia have to do the same. They are not alone, of course. The governments in Greece and Spain and Italy are all expected to push through unpopular austerity packages.
The European Union, in other words, has turned out to be not that different from the American neoliberal economic model after all. Eastern Europe is in fact facing a second round of government downsizing after the initial dismantlement of communism in the early 1990s.
Twenty years ago, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries embarked on a new era of democratic governance. Membership in the EU was to make this process irreversible.
It turns out, however, that the process is not entirely irreversible. In Hungary, the right-wing party FIDESZ has cracked down on the media, centralized authority, and focused on the rights of ethnic Hungarians to the exclusion of all others. European authorities have lodged their protests. But Hungary remains an EU member in good standing. Other political parties in the region with similar political programs are watching Hungary’s experience very carefully.
And then there‘s the resurgence of intolerance throughout Europe. Racist and Islamophobic political parties have gained ground in virtually every country, including areas once known for their tolerance such as the Netherlands and Sweden. In East-Central Europe, anti-Roma sentiment remains high despite more than two decades of concerted effort by NGOs to integrate this often marginalized population. This month, the Serbian government again cancelled a planned Gay Pride march. Domestic groups pointed out that the cancellation was unconstitutional; EU authorities warned that Serbia would have to meet European standards for human rights to have any chance of future membership.
The current trends are not inescapable. Europe could weather the current economic crisis and return to its emphasis on the social component of their social-market economies. A new wave of civic activism could drastically reduce the support for authoritarian parties. And an invigorated civil rights movement by and for minorities, supported by strongly enforced European regulations, could push racists and Islamophobes to the fringes where they belong.
Much depends on the Europe’s newest members and countries like Croatia that are on the verge of accession. Beginning in 1989, the people of these countries unshackled themselves from tyranny. They are now realizing their earlier dream of becoming part of the European Union. But this is not the final step. They can help make the European idea mean something other than austerity and intolerance. They can make “Europe” once again translate into justice, equality, and prosperity.
*gaiatsu n. Foreign pressure; pressure applied by one country onto another. | <urn:uuid:d794734d-5d76-4313-ad6b-fb6c5e00925b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fpif.org/blog/the_idea_of_europe?q=Tag%3Anational+defense+authorization+act | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957183 | 1,250 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Patients' Skin Cells Yield Research Model for Alzheimer's
MONDAY July 16, 2012 -- Aiming for insights into Alzheimer's disease, scientists have developed a new cellular model for research -- one that's sourced from the skin cells of patients but genetically reprogrammed to mimic diseased brain cells.
The scientists say their approach might draw on the stem cells of people with Alzheimer's disease as a virtually limitless supply of different types of diseased brain cells for laboratory study.
The results were to be presented Monday at the Alzheimer's Association annual meeting in Vancouver.
Theoretically, the innovation could improve upon the current method of study, which primarily relies on mouse-based models. Researchers say that such animal research, while often fruitful, falls short of fully representing the disease environment found in human patients.
"Current animal models of Alzheimer's are highly engineered to express elements of the disease and, while valuable for research, incompletely represent how the disease forms and progresses in people," William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer for the Alzheimer's Association, said in a news release from the meeting's organizers.
"In order to develop better therapies and eventually prevent Alzheimer's, we need better, more accurate animal and cellular models of the disease," Thies added. "This newly reported research is a significant step forward in that direction."
The study was led by Andrew Sproul, a postdoctoral associate at the New York Stem Cell Foundation in New York City. Sproul and his colleagues noted that the telltale amyloid protein plaques that build up in the brains of human Alzheimer's patients also differ from those found in mice.
With that in mind, the authors worked with cells from 12 Alzheimer's patients along with several healthy family members. All the patients had been diagnosed with the most common form of a rare type of an early-onset form of Alzheimer's disease (representing just 2 percent of all cases) that is known to be inherited.
After extracting skin cells from the study participants, the team used genetic engineering to prod the cells into developing into several kinds of "electrically active" brain cells -- forebrain nerve cells, neural stem cells and glial cells.
The team noted that because most Alzheimer's patients suffer from a different, late-onset type of disease, more work will have to be done to broaden this new approach so that it covers that form of the disease.
"Over the next few years, we expect to provide substantial insight into Alzheimer's and valuable tools to help create the next generation of therapeutics," Sproul noted.
Research presented at medical meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
For more on Alzheimer's disease, visit the U.S. National Institute on Aging.
Posted: July 2012 | <urn:uuid:f3e3d5ee-f0d7-4dd9-86f2-5bca44369432> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.drugs.com/news/patients-skin-cells-yield-research-model-alzheimer-s-39290.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963062 | 572 | 3.0625 | 3 |
A federal judge in California ruled Wednesday that Proposition 8—which legally defined marriage as between a man and a woman—violated the U.S. Constitution. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said Proposition 8 violated the 14th Amendment, which calls for equal protection under the law. "Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians," Walker wrote in his decision. But victory, almost two years after voters approved the measure, is not guaranteed: Supporters of Proposition 8 have filed an appeal.
Gay Marriage Jeff Chiu / AP Photo | <urn:uuid:25d2ce04-7512-405f-80c0-40b3508ffa91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2010/08/04/judge-declares-prop-8-unconstitutional.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97373 | 119 | 1.78125 | 2 |
"Fifteen months before the midterm congressional election, health care is appearing in candidate stump speeches and interviews — particularly by Republican challengers… running in districts recently claimed by Democrats," USA Today reports. "That dynamic helps explain why a $1 trillion-plus health care bill stalled last week in Congress. … Obama has said he wants lawmakers to finish health care by the end of the year, in part because it could become mired in election-year politics. All 435 members of the House and 36 members of the Senate are up for election in 2010."
And "candidates across the country are raising the issue and putting pressure on incumbents. Among the talking points: A government-run health benefits program will put private insurers out of business. 'Having the government involved in health care to that degree is really counterproductive,' said Steve Chabot, a Republican running to reclaim the Ohio seat he lost to Democratic Rep. Steve Driehaus last year. Driehaus responded with an argument Democrats are likely to use in races across the country: Complex legislation like health care requires votes that won't make everyone happy" (Fritze, 7/27). | <urn:uuid:321467bc-9059-49eb-8279-64a5f84cbe0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2009/July/27/Cong-Politics.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964249 | 232 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Wood Pellet Stoves
The Ever Functional Wood Pellet Stoves
Since the 1980, wood pellet stoves have always been efficient in providing warmth for families. Though its appearance has evolved to into a more sophisticated and stylish unit, wood pellet stoves are still as functional as ever.
Wood pellets are the source of fuels for these stoves. They are made from compressed sawdust that are generally sourced from various lumberyards or sawmills. In compressing the sawdust to make pellets, no glues or chemicals are used. That is why it is 100% natural. A bag of wood pellets typically cost around $5, an absurdly low price for fuel compared to propane, natural gas or a bundle of wood. If you want o go lower than $5, buy wood pellets in bulk. Most manufacturers offer discounts to buyers who buy in large quantities. Wood pellets are not only cheap, it is very environment friendly. Not to mention, very effective in heating homes longer compared to other source of fuel.
Wood pellet stoves are generally small in size, though there are much bigger models which are used to heat wider and larger areas. These stoves operate on electricity and are very environment friendly. Using wood pellet stoves mean less smoke pollution, minimal deforestation, low waste production and super high warming efficiency.
How does the wood pellet stove continuously provide warmth that could go on and on for weeks without interruption? The technology behind the wood pellet stove is ingenious. A lift mechanism automatically feeds more wood pellets to the fire once it has been exhausted: eliminating any need to stoke the fire or constant replenishment of fuel. This is a true convenience to the user who only gets to exert effort by placing wood pellets into the stove’s hopper portion. In addition, the wood pellet stove has a built-in fan that blows air out while sucking in oxygen-filled air for maximum fire efficiency. Wood pellet stoves are so cost efficient because no pellet is wasted since it is completely combusted. Also, it doesn’t any extravagant and costly masonry chimney. A simple metal flue is just what it needs just to get rid of what little smoke it emits.
40 pounds = 1 cup. This isn’t any groundbreaking formula, but just a simple explanation of how much waste 40 pounds of wood pellets can produce. Yes, one cup. This is another advantage for wood pellet stove users because they can continuously use their stoves without constant emptying of ashes or cleaning the system.
Wood pellet stoves come in a wide array of designs, styles and finishes. Other wood pellet stoves follow the contemporary, modern design while some are more traditional in appearance, hence more ornate embellishments and such. Above all, it doesn’t matter which design you choose as long as they match your current home decor since they are appealing and beautiful. Consider purchasing a wood pellet stove for your home now and enjoy all the savings you get from low fuel and energy cost. Not only that, you can truly say that you have done your bit in helping the environment. | <urn:uuid:5f57327b-bc11-4de9-a0dd-78a3792e89a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pelletstovesforsale.org/wood | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949663 | 642 | 2.140625 | 2 |
back to TEACHING / COURSES
LIFE'S BIG QUESTIONS:
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELF
The Daniel Fox Youth Scholars Institute is a week long summer program, where outstanding high school students get a college-like experience by taking a non-credit college course from an LVC professor in a course of their choice. LIFE'S BIG QUESTIONS: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELF is a program offered as part of th is program.
Who am I?... What does it all mean?... How can I be happy?...
These are important questions, and the way in which people pursue answers to them provides remarkable insight into human psychology. Indeed, psycholgoical research indicates that identifying who you are and finding meaning and happiness is a vital and uniquely human process. Moreover, these questions raise related and even more complex questions. For example, does your perception of who you are differ from how others' perceive you? How do others interpret your behavior?
In this workshop, we will address several questions related to identity (e.g., do others see me as I see myself?), meaning (e.g., where do people find meaning?), and happiness (e.g., can money buy happiness?). Many of these research findings may surprise you. For example, while high self-esteem is typically viewed as essential, there are unexpected consequences related to high self-esteem. While meaning is psychologically valuable, it can also be responsible for hate and violence. While we would all like to be happy, we are not very good at knowing what will make us happy.
While psychological research is unable to unlock all the secrets of life, it does indicate that finding identity, meaning, and happiness are crucial and uniquely human psychological processes.
In summary, Life's Big Questions: The Psychology of the Self introduces the field of psychology by addressing some of life's most interesting questions. In this workshop, students will engage in lively class discussions, watch interesting films, participate in class experiments, and explore their own interests in research projects with their classmates. Overall, this workshop provides students with a college-like experience on a topic intended to promote personal growth and understanding, as well as intellectual curiosity. | <urn:uuid:d80f214d-2f0f-4775-a941-bdee9cb662a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personal-pages.lvc.edu/kitchens/page/youthscholars.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934833 | 454 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Hello everyone! Liam and I were fortunate enough to get a tour round the Stow Maries Aerdrome which is an amazing place and is worth a visit for WW1 and aviation enthusiasts! (A blog post will be coming soon) After looking around the site, we had a couple of hours free to look around the area so we planned to visit the Woodham Ferres ROC post. The only ROC post that we have been to before is the Canvey Island one which has been capped with mud meaning we cannot get in however this one was open and waiting for us!
What are ROC posts?
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a defence warning organisation operating from 1925. It was created to provide a system for detecting, tracking and reporting enemy aircraft over Britain. They played a very important part during World War Two. The end of the Second World War brought with it the new and terrifying prospect of nuclear war. In Britain the public would have had a mere four minute warning of the approach of nuclear missiles and it was the job of the Royal Observer Corps to warn the public of the impending attack, report the explosions and plot the path of the deadly nuclear fallout. From 1955 the Corps operated from 1563 ROC underground monitoring ‘posts’ about 7-8 miles apart from each other throughout the UK. In 1968 the Corps was re-organised and about half of the posts were closed. In September 1991 the remaining 872 posts were stood down and were abandoned.
The image below shows the diagram of one. This site is very useful if you want to know more about ROC posts.
Woodham Ferrers Post
We had to walk up quite a steep hill to get there with amazing views looking far and wide in different directions. The first bit that we came to was this, a ventilation shaft. Although posts already had one vent shaft attached to the hatch area, a second one was constructed at the far end of the post, this one lead into the main observers room while the first on the hatch lead to the smaller toilet room/area, metal or wooden louvered vents were attached to either side.
After this we headed over to the main beast which was a few steps in the opposite directions. I was the first to go down and armed with just a headlight, I was petrified of finding some black spider crawling towards me and I’m pretty sure I am more scared of it that it is of me! I conquered the ladder which was actually no problem and apart from the odd cobweb down below (I wasn’t going to stand and look for spiders!) I couldn’t see any other lurking surprises.
Straight after the ladder, when you have gone down, you are standing on a “sump and sump grill” with the obvious use for this being a place for the people to dispose of liquid waste.
^There is small room opposite which would have been the toilet. Most of the doors opened inwards due to space which is what the main room one did.
Apart from the odd burnt bit on the table things were in a reasonable condition considering the post wasn’t locked up.
The ‘book shelf’ bit at the back would have been used for holding jerry cans which would have been full of water. The metal that remains today would have acted as hooks.
The image above shows a cupboard and a fir blanket dispenser. Posts were equipped with a large cupboard to store items such as medical kits and the stain removing Glitto! The fire blanket holder would have held asbestos fire blankets which were kept in posts in case of fire.
A video will be coming to BTP TV soon on the post and also the WW1 aerodrome however for the meantime our photos can be found here and why not visit/sign up to our forum as we want to get it used a lot more! | <urn:uuid:5c02b0f8-bebe-432f-ad91-c1f7fd705b37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beyondthepoint.co.uk/tag/urban-exploration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982933 | 799 | 2.375 | 2 |
Alkali Basin/East Sand Dunes WSA Location: Sweetwater County
Nearest Town: about 21 miles northeast of Point-of-Rocks
BLM Acreage: 12,800 acres
Recommended for Wilderness: 0 acres
Primitive & Unconfined Recreation:
This area is conducive to unconfined recreation such as horseback riding, hiking, backpacking, nature study and wildlife photography. Hunting in the Alkali Basin/East Sand Dunes WSA is mostly for pronghorn antelope and sage grouse.
The Alkali Basin/East Sand Dunes WSA encompasses 12,800 acres of BLM-administered land with no private or state inholdings. The study area includes a portion of the Killpecker Sand Dunes. The dunes present a rolling topography with the draws and ridges of Alkali Creek providing topographic relief. Sagebrush and bunchgrass are the principle vegetative species.
The study area is adjacent to the Red Lake area on the eastern boundary, accessed by County Road 4-21 on the east. The East Sand Dunes are part of the largest active sand dune region in Wyoming and contain beautiful scenery of the Killpecker Sand Dunes as well as lakes formed by ice-fed ponds.
The area has potential for natural gas production.
The Alkali Basin – East Sand Dunes WSA is essentially a natural condition. There are some minor intrusions including three abandoned well sites, a shut-in gas well and two two-track trails. At the time of the intensive inventory, the two-track trails, one of the abandoned well sites and the shut-in gas well were insignificant to the overall natural character. The other two abandoned well sites were temporary disturbances allowed under BLM Interim Management Policy.
There is opportunity for solitude in the southern portion of the WSA but it is not outstanding. Many large sand dunes, draws and ridges in this area provide natural screening from sights and sounds of others. Opportunities for solitude in other portions of the WSA are marginal since there is little natural screening provided by topography and vegetation.
The Killpecker Dunes, the largest active sand dune region in Wyoming, traverse the WSA. This WSA includes a remnant of the Red Desert area of the Great Divide Basin. The region may be of scientific value for the study of active sand dunes, their movements and how they are stabilized. Valuable pronghorn antelope habitat is found within the WSA, and the Sands elk herd occasionally inhabits the WSA during the winter months. | <urn:uuid:03292774-28ac-4b22-af29-28977c5ec2f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/programs/nlcs/wsa/hdd/alkalibasin-eastdunes.print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929617 | 535 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Captured in 1919 by World War I American Forces from a Communist Party office were documents on how to secure Germany for Communism. The first thing mentioned was “To destroy the ruggedness of the People”. (Plato said, “The beginning of truth is to wonder.”) Now, ask yourself WHY?
Can you find what word is missing in the below verses?NEW BIBLES
Nestle-Aland Greek-English New Testament 26th edition l979 (Used as textbook in Roman Catholic Seminaries.)
1 Cor 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, not idolaters, not adulterers, not sexual perverts, GǪwill inherit the kingdom of God.”
The New American Bible with Nihil Obstat Stephen J. Hartdegen, O.F.M.,S.S.L. Christian P. Ceroke, O. Carm., S.T.D. Imprimatur: Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle, D.D. Archbishop of Washington l987
1 Cor 6:9 “Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes not practicing homosexualsGǪwill inherit the kingdom of heaven.”The Orthodox Study Bible
with Joseph Allen, Th. D.; Jack Norman Sparks, PH. D.; Theodore Stylianopoulos, Th. D.; Archbishop IAKOVOS, Metropolitan THEODOSIUS. 1993
1 Cor 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, not idolaters, not adulterers, not homosexuals, nor sodomites, will inherit the kingdom of God.OLD BIBLES
The New American Catholic Edition The Holy Bible Imprimatur Francis Cardinal Spellman l958
1 Cor 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unjust will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites,GǪwill possess the kingdom of God.”
The King James Bible
1 Cor 6.9 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, not idolaters, not adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankindGǪshall inherit the kingdom of God.
What is this word Effeminate
? How come modern Bibles don’t have this word in it but older Bibles do?
In the original Greek there are five activities mentioned, but in a scholarly professional work of a 26th edition, only four of the five words are translated into English. They use the word ‘sexual perverts’. The Greek is clear on its own meaning. The two Greek words are “malakoi” and “arsenokoitai”. “Arsenokoitoi” in the literal translation of the Greek means “men who lie with men” and the literal translation of “malakoi” is “soft” and when applied to a man means “effeminate”.
At the college I attended, I reread Plato’s Republic in which Socrates remarks that “Too much music effeminizes the man”. I thought this an odd comment until the fundamentalist Protestants on campus began a campaign amongst themselves to push other Protestant Christians to use only The King James Bible. Their contention was that modern Bibles mistranslate quite a few verses and that the only Bible to trust is the KJV. When I picked up their material, 1 Corinthians 6:9 jumped out. My Roman Catholic Bible, The New American Bible, did not have this same verse. My friend in the classical department pointed out the Greek. The King James Bible was correct and my version was in error.
What are they trying to hide? What is so important that this word is left out of one Bible and mistranslated in others but not mistranslated in old Bibles? What is going on?
Words have meaning. They convey ideas. Lose the word, society loses the idea and the concept. When is the last time or have you ever heard the word, “effeminate” or “effeminization”? This word like manliness is gone completely out of our vocabulary and our educational system. The idea of manliness and effeminancy is totally lost on modern society. Ask yourself, is it by chance or by design?
“The one producing a temper of hardness and ferocity, the other of softness and effeminacy.” To the answer of an exclusive devotion to gymnastics and the exclusive devotion to music. (III Republic, pg 118 Translator B. Jowett, M.A., Vintage Books.)
In a paraphrase, “Too much music effeminizes the male.”
Plato’s Republic is an educational treatise. Though it is a discussion of the State, many of Socrates discussion centers around education. Education deals with culture and Culture defines politics.
Does “too much music” turn a boy into boy prostitute or a sexual pervert? The word does not have a sexual context to it. It means soft, tender.
Herodotus Loeb Classical Library Pg 197 Book 1 155-157“But let the Lydians be pardoned; and lay on them this command, that they may not revolt or be dangerous to you; then, I say, and forbid them to possess weapons of war, and command them to wear tunics under their cloaks and buskins on their feet, and to teach their sons lyre-playing and song and dance and huckstering (the word “retail” in one translation). Then, O King, you will soon see them turned to women instead of men; and thus you need not fear lest they revolt.”
This is an appeal from King Croesus, the king of the Lydians, a Greek city and people on the West coast of Turkey, to the Persian King. What the defeated king proposes is to inculturate softness in order to make them docile and servile. Here is the principle “Culture defines Politics”. Evil men and Good men read this both. A good man prevents the effeminization of men while an evil man (i.e. a socialist) seeks to effeminize the men (or is deceived into doing it.)
Crudens Complete Concordance pg 755 “Weak and ineffectual men are sometimes spoken of as women”. First published in 1737.
Isa 3:13 (Masoretic Text)
“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.”
Isa 19:16 (Septuagint)
“But in that day the Egyptians shall be as women, in fear and in trembling because of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall bring upon them.”
Nah 3:13 (Septuagint)
“Behold, thy people within thee are as women: the gates of thy land shall surely be opened to thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.”
“The warrior of Babylon has failed to fight; they shall sit there in the siege; their power is broken; they are become like women; her tabernacles have been set on fire; her bars are broken.”
Clearly, the Old Testament realizes this same concept. The Greeks have a word for this and it is called “malakoi” effeminate.
Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, David W. Bercot, Editor pg 445
“A true man must have no mark of effeminacy
visible on his face, or any other part of his body. Let no blot on his manliness, then, ever be found either in his movements or habits.” St. Clement of Alexander (c. 195, E), 2.289.“And let not men, therefore, spend their time in barbers’ shops and taverns, babbling nonsense. And let them give up hunting for the women who sit nearby, and ceaselessly talking slander against many to raise a laugh.” St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.289
“What is the purpose in the Law’s prohibition against a man wearing woman’s clothing? Is it not that the Law would have us to be masculine and not to be effeminate
in either person or actions--or in thought and word? Rather, it would have the man who devotes himself to the truth to be masculine both in acts of endurance and patience--in life, conduct, word, and discipline.” St. Clement of Alexandria (c. l95, E), 2.365.
“Therefore, we also reckon that the woman should be continent and practiced in fighting against pleasures, too.GǪ Women are therefore to philosophize equally with men, though the males are preferable at everything, unless they have become effeminate
. To the whole human race, then, discipline and virtue are a necessity, if they would pursue after happinessGǪ” St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.419, 420
“It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the church, not to teach, baptize, offer, or to claim to herself a lot in any manly function, not to mention the priestly office.” Tertullian (c. 207, W), 4.33
I picked up an old book on education at my college library. In it was the phrase, “How can we educate without effeminizing
?” To this day I kick myself for not keeping a reference of this.
In my humble opinion, this word, “malakoi” is the most important word in the whole bible. Why else would they mistranslate the word so improperly? Because it is a dangerous word. It is a dangerous word because of the concepts and ideas that it entails. The sin of Adam was that he was effeminate
. He was weak and ineffectual. St. Paul blames Adam not Eve for the falling away. Adam was responsible. Not Eve. The principle, ‘culture defines politics’, is more clearly defined in Plato’s Republic. It is the principle of microcosm/macrocosm; what goes in the little part, so goes the whole. As the man is effeminate, so is the state. As the man is effeminate
, so is the church. As the man is weak and ineffectual, so is the church weak and ineffectual.
Christianity can not survive in effeminat
e men. Self government only existed among the Greeks because of their manliness. It was this major factor that made them free and self governing. The Persians and other asiatics lived under tyranny. The one word that the Greeks described the asiatics and the Persians was the word, “malakoi”.
CONNECT THE DOTS.
Effeminacy and Thought
Xenophon, Econ. IV, 3 as quoted in “The Greeks” by Kitto“Men do indeed speak ill of those occupations which are called handicrafts, and they are rightly held of little repute in communities, because they weaken the bodies of those who make their living at them by compelling them to sit and pass their days indoors. Some indeed work all the time by a fire. But when the body becomes effeminate the mind too is debilitated. Besides, these mechanical occupations leave a man no leisure to attend to his friends’ interests, or the public interest. This class therefore cannot be of much use to his friends or defend his country. Indeed, some states, especially the most warlike, do not allow a citizen to engage in these handicraft occupations.”
Thomas Jefferson, Foley, ed., Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, p. 318
“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walk.”
The Ancients did not divorce the body from the mind. 2200 years later, Thomas Jefferson recognized the same thing. The body is not separate from the mind. There is no compartmentalization. Weak body, weak mind. Strong body, strong mind.
To strengthen the argument of the “mechanics”, Thomas Jefferson, furthermore, said pretty much the same thing:
“The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human bodyGǪ.I consider the class of artificers as the panderers of vice, and the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned.”
(quoted in Liberty or Equality, Erik von Kuenhelt-Leddhin, pg 6, reference from “Works”, ed, Washington [New York: Derby and Jackson, 1859], I, 403.)
One can have all the academic excellence in the world but if the man doesn’t have boldness in proclaiming it, what’s it worth? St. Augustine said, “It is not enough to be good, it is necessary to fight evil.” “To Fight” requires manliness and boldness. What good is faith without manliness?
When is the last time a minister or priest taught on this subject?
Last Six Months?
Or is the answer Never?
Are Our people deceived? Are Our texts translated by fervent Christians or by deceived or evil individuals? Do we let socialists, liberals Communists tell us what is in Scripture? | <urn:uuid:1507ac03-ea26-4297-9538-86c996503fc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=4252.0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939152 | 3,227 | 2.59375 | 3 |
As some of my regular readers may be aware, I was commissioned earlier this year, by the new social history imprint of Pen and Sword Books, to write a book about the impact of the first world war on the nation’s mental well-being. Shell Shocked Britain (a working title) is due to be published in 2014, marking the centenary of the beginning of WW1. I am honoured to be part of this new ‘stable’ and have been determined to do the very best job possible.
So I have been researching, pulling together reading lists and then actually getting down to some reading and yes, even writing. The book is framed by the story of my Great Uncle Alf Hardiman, who slit his ex-girlfriend’s throat and then turned the razor on himself in 1922. (I tell the story on this blog in An Unsound Mind) At the inquest it was heard that he had been involved in an air raid on London and had spent a year in hospital, never fully recovering.
That ‘first blitz’, overshadowed as it is by the horrors of the bombing in WW2 will be the focus of a chapter in the book; far from maintaining the ‘good old British blitz spirit’, Londoners, when the first novelty of seeing Zeppelins over London turned to horror as death came from the skies, were frozen with fear and then panicked. Learning more of how the population was then affected by the new phenomena of planes able to travel long distances with the intention of creating a carpet of fire (quite unsuccessfully as a rule) has been fascinating. People were said to literally die of fright and were affected for many years afterwards. As today, opinions were formed by the media. At that time it meant the newspapers, who were instrumental in fuelling the panic and demand for reprisals; for bombs to level German cities. This at a time when our commanders in the field were still convinced reconnaissance could best be undertaken by cavalry.
I have been fortunate enough to receive a gift from Historic Newspapers a company that owns the largest private archive of British newspapers in the world, dating back to 1685. They offer genuine, original newspapers that can be given as presents on birthdays or anniversaries for example. I hasten to add here that I have not been sponsored to write this post. It simply isn’t my ‘thing’ to offer advertisements on No Wriggling. The two newspapers I have in my possession are no substitute for a research trip to the newspaper archives. However, they are wonderful. Having undertaken quite a lot of reading around the subject now, it is quite clear that the Daily Graphic from June 14 1917 and the Daily Sketch from May 21 1818 were by turn feeding the terror felt by the British population at the time and showing photographs that were designed to whip up patriotic fervour. Losses were shocking but actually lighter than imagined and our air defences were fragile almost to the end of the war. To hold in my hands a paper, yellowed but otherwise perfect, full of photographs, comment and adverts offering life insurance against personal accident arising from aircraft for 20/- is a treat. There is even a name pencilled on the top for the paperboy….
I am reading a lot of books, articles and papers relating to the impact of the Great War on the British population. Ranging from the poetry and prose of Vera Brittain to psychotherapeutic research into transgenerational trauma, all of life – and history – is there. But there is little that can replace a genuine artifact from the time itself. To know what our relatives were reading in the press and the images that were presented to them of loss, destruction and grief offers an insight that can take us behind the words of historians and academics and into all the horrors imagined by those living in a world where all the old certainties were literally being crushed before their eyes. | <urn:uuid:81732a83-2771-488e-aec2-8bd0c4673c13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nowrigglingoutofwriting.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/on-receiving-some-wonderful-old-news/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=428bad2630 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979939 | 800 | 1.773438 | 2 |
|Written by Administrator|
|Friday, 13 August 2010 19:47|
Adobe Flash has historically been called Shockwave Flash and more recently Macromedia Flash but has come to be simply Flash. Flash is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems since December 2005, when Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.
Adobe Labs (previously Macromedia Labs) is a source for early looks at emerging products and technologies from Adobe-Macromedia, including downloads of the latest software and plugins. Flash 9, Flex 2, and ActionScript 3.0 are discussed on the labs.adobe.com website.
is an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.
refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution.
also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing or e-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.
is a form of contextual advertising where specific keywords within the text of a web-page are matched with advertising and/or related information units. | <urn:uuid:7a140991-d68c-4d65-9b84-09fe3ccf9a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webxl.org/flash-design | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92516 | 321 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Curb Institute Fellows Learn Spiritual History
Publication Date: 6/18/2007
The first five fellows of the Mike Curb Institute of Music at Rhodes have immersed themselves in the history of music in Memphis and the Mid-South, researching topics as diverse as a federal music project in the Bluff City during the 1930s and the stylistic features of Memphis rap music today.
Last week visiting lecturer Paul T. Kwami, who holds the Curb-Beaman chair at Fisk University, spoke to them on the topic, “Music within the African-American Church.” In the process he recounted the moving history of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, which he directs.
The Curb Fellows and their projects are:
- Lindsey Cloud ’08, the only music major of the group, who is looking into the WPA Band that was part of the federal project referenced above.
- Brian Darrith ’08, a neuroscience major, hopes to discover the intersection of secular and spiritual themes in the blues.
- Sarah Eldridge ’09 intends to build an archive of the music of Burnet Tuthill, a Rhodes legend who was also a founder of the National Association of Schools of Music.
- Cord McLean ’09 is researching gospel quartet music in Memphis. He is an anthropology/sociology major.
- Laura Vansickle ’07 , an English major, is tackling the Memphis rap style challenge.
The fellows are pictured here with Mr. Kwami and Rhodes president Dr. William E. Troutt. | <urn:uuid:30fb5fbd-8f88-4d31-a11b-d6a867708a7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rhodes.edu/7842.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926918 | 327 | 2.03125 | 2 |
ccasionally, at some kind of conference or expo or gathering or what-have-you, somebody asks me to take off my goofy Magic-developer-dragon hat (you should check it out sometime?it's sorta like Mickey's in Fantasia, only "edgier," in accordance with our style guide) and speak in broader strokes about game design as an intellectual discipline. Today, I want to do something similar.
Often here at DailyMTG.com, we talk about the process of making Magic. But we don't really say very much about game design more broadly. In truth, though, the field of game design is exploding. Recently I spoke at a high school career fair?study hard, eat your vitamins, topdeck savagely?and was absolutely floored to see the results of the survey where the principal asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. Answer number one? Doctor, sure. Saving lives, yeah yeah yeah. But just below that?
We've come a long way from sixteen-pixel spaceships and line-dancing aliens. Nowadays, the principles of game design are being applied to fields as diverse as policy analysis, applied biochemistry, developmental psychology, and education. In other words, the volume of information out there about game design is proliferating at an incredible rate. And we in R&D do our best to keep our fingers on the pulse.
I'm often asked what are the best game design books I've ever read. There are several, obviously, and if you asked ten different people in R&D you'd probably get ten different answers. Two of them, however, stand out especially to me: Jesse Schell'sThe Art of Game Designand Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken.
Any summary I offer here of either of these books is going to fall wildly short of the mark, so I'm not going to even attempt to generalize what either is about. But I do want to examine a common takeaway from both: the idea that games are primarily valuable due to the emotional responses they evoke and the experiences they engender in their players. Today's article is going to draw heavily from both sources. Specifically, I want to take a look at the two responses that, I believe, games sculpt better than any other media. One is called flow, and the other, fiero.
What a Feeling
Before I dive into each of those experiences, though, I want to examine this notion of emotional engagement. It's not at all intuitive, after all, that how a player feels should be a central concern of a game's design. Aren't many games highly abstract, existing in a different dimension entirely than the primal, visceral, sense-engaging stimuli of most other modern media? Can't it even be argued that the absence of authorial control?players drive the narrative paths of games, after all?conflicts with the very idea that a game designer can create and share a core emotional experience with an audience?
Everyone has to agree, though, that people play games for some reason. After all, one of the defining attributes of any game is that it is, in a some sense, voluntary work. There is almost always a problem to resolve. Almost always, the resolution of that problem requires some kind of directed engagement?or at least the illusion of directed engagement, which is sometimes even more powerful. And coming up with the right way go about that engagement almost always requires effort. It is not at all easy to propel a ball in a high arc through a hoop ten feet off the ground, or to lob a grenade across the map into a sniper den while evading a hailstorm of gunfire, or to reduce an opponent from 20 life-points to 0 by (a) selecting sixty cards from a library of thousands and thousands to form a deck and then (b) memorizing hundreds of arcane rules that tell you how to deploy those cards.
Jace, Memory Adept| Art by D. Alexander Gregory
When they do things that require effort, human beings require payoff in order to render that effort worth it. When you're doing something like going into work every day, that payoff comes in the form of money and benefits?and even then, the brain hates extrinsic rewards. But millions of people invest millions and millions of hours into games they have to give up money in order to play. Either we're all idiots or we're all getting something out of it!
What this means for you as a game designer is that if you're going to ask people to do voluntary work, you have got to make sure they're getting something out of it. The single biggest mistake I see from amateur game designers is that they create a system and then expect people to marvel at the cleverness of the system once they participate in it. But if that system isn't engendering an experience, you aren't doing your job.
Furthermore, you have to make sure the experience you're engendering plays into a strength the media you're working in does a good job of maximizing. As an example, I think one of the lessons we learned from the Weatherlight story is that card games aren't an effective vehicle for linear narrative. Conversely, as a literary author, I've taught a class at Richard Hugo House here in Seattle about the types of experiences fiction is good at conveying. Linear narrative is one of them, as are constructive introspection, empathic perception, and a whole host of other things. But?to get back on track?fiction is actually quite bad at relaying (for example) experiences of flow and moments of fiero. Games, by contrast, are excellent in those respects.
I'm not going to ignite a debate over whether games are, or are not, an art form. I am, however, going to observe that if the process of creating art involves the maximization of resonant experience in a given medium, there are certain experiences for which the medium of gaming excels at replicating. Flow and fiero are chief among those.
So, uh. What are they, exactly?
Get in the Zone
Most of the time, people don't talk about games using overly wrought language of "maximized resonant experience." They say they're having fun. But "having fun" is rooted in "play," for which my favorite description is "intense, optimistic engagement with the world around us."
It turns out that you can design "play" along something called an engagement curve, which basically means that (as a game designer) you present challenges to people in roughly the order they're equipped to handle them. In the moments where the challenges we face match up almost exactly with our ability to overcome them, we can be said to be in flow.
The flow experience is one of the most universally euphoric experiences human beings enjoy. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines it as "the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning." In fact, he dedicated almost a decade of his life to researching flow. Where can we find it? Why do we enjoy it so much? And what are the secrets to getting more of it?
Csikszentmihalyi found that central to the flow experience were three factors: clear goals, rigidly defined rules of engagement, and the potential for measured improvement in the context of those goals and rules.
Hive Mind| Art by Steve Argyle
Why does that work?
Inside that environment, we feel powerful?we feel capacitized as people. This is what we mean when we say we're in the zone. Quickly, we're able to overcome our weaknesses and learn from our mistakes, and we reap the rewards of that learning by triumphing over obstacles. Given that our ability to learn rapidly is one of our defining traits as a species?indeed, it might be the attribute most responsible for our ability to dominate the planet?it makes sense that the psychological reward for intensely rapid learning is so pronounced.
Pump the Fist
If flow represents the height of the human capacity to learn?and therefore to triumph?fiero is the payoff that happens once we do that.
According to Dr. McGonigal, fiero is "possibly the most primal rush we can experience." It's the feeling we get when we conquer an obstacle that, for whatever reason, is emotionally important to us. It's the weird and surreal force that leads to touchdown dances, fist-pumps, and the compulsion to scream "GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" when someone scores in a Premier League football match.
The harder the challenge, the more severe the payoff. We love, after all, to confirm our own narratives of exceptionalism. But the obstacles we overcome must feel genuine. If I've just taught someone Magic, something is wrong with me if I just relish the opportunity to bash in that player's face by playing every match like it's the finals of the Pro Tour. On the other hand, a masterfully sculpted game like the recent Kibler-Finkel semifinals feels like a well-choreographed dance, and the moments where we win such games feel viscerally like they mean something. The root of that meaning is the fiero impulse, which inspires optimism by evincing mastery?and mastery helps us feel capable of meeting the most intense challenges of our lives.
Presence of the Master| Art by Ciruelo
When something pushes us to our limits, but we rise to face it, that victory feels fundamentally and inherently substantial. It's a powerful motivator; indeed, researchers at Stanford's Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences have hypothesized that it's why we ventured forth from the safe huddles of our caves to go out and conquer the world!
Flow and fiero, then, are two emotional responses that games are extremely good at creating. But how does Magic engage them?
Let's take them one at a time.
As mentioned before, flow depends upon three things: goals, rules, and improvement. The more straightforward and clearly defined each of these are, the more conducive to flow the overall experience becomes. Moreover?due to the engagement curve we talked about earlier?each of these variables needs to be robust; that is, as your investment into the game deepens, the challenges put forth to you should rise correspondingly in proportion to your burgeoning understanding.
In terms of goals, then, it's clear that Magic succeeds. At its most basic level, you need to accomplish one thing: reduce the opponent's life total from 20 to 0. That's it. Now, the game provides you an endless potential of ways you can do that, but the goal remains very clear. Eventually, as you play more and more, your goals evolve. You learn you can run opponents out of cards or poison them ten times. You learn about card advantage, and how it's a goal in and of itself, and you start to keep a count of who is up by how many cards at any given time. You learn about the mana curve, and develop yet another goal of deploying a threat on every turn of the game. The goals emerge in proportion to the extent of your understanding of the game.
Increasing Ambition| Art by Volkan Baga
You'll see a similar pattern in the rigidity of Magic's rules. Like many popular, dynamic games, Magic's rules are very complicated. But embedded into that complexity is a kind of confidence: there is always a correct answer to any interaction, however bizarre. So you're always aware of the system inside which you operate, what you can and cannot do. That's vital to create flow. In real life, we're not always confident about how we can act to affect our environment, and that makes us feel lost and helpless. In a system of clearly defined rules of interaction, we feel capacitized and imbued with agency. Again, as you grow to understand Magic more, your understanding of its "rules" moves beyond the set of legal game actions. Systems like the color pie become more and more important?you learn the limits of a strategy or color combination, and you learn to test those limits. You develop heuristics about when to attack and when to block, loose sets of "rules" that you learn to bend and modify when situations change. That learning experience, again, is powerful. It helps us feel like we're always moving forward.
That last example alludes, finally, to the need to improve. Yet again, on a very basic level, the initial complexity of Magic means that in the beginning almost every situation that arises improves some understanding you have of the game. "Oh, that's what an instant does." "Oh, that's why flying is powerful." Deck building contributes very powerfully to this sense. "Wow, this Walking Corpse is a lot better than this Mindless Null." "Wow, this Doom Blade is awesome?I should definitely play four copies of it in my deck." As you improve in skill, your enhanced understanding is met with new opportunities to maximize value. "I should trade 3 damage for 4 damage here because my creature has evasion, and it's far more likely that I'll draw a chump-blocker or removal spell that can interact with my opponent's creature than it is she'll draw one to interact with mine." "I should play a single copy of Revoke Existence because my Delver/Snapcaster deck looks at a lot of cards, and the marginal value of having access to an effect is huge relative to the real-estate it occupies in the decklist." And even more arcane sentences than that! It spirals deeper as you dive into the rabbit-hole.
Fiero moments are harder to quantify. McGonigal describes it as "a craving for challenges we can overcome, battles we can win, and dangers we can vanquish." Obviously, every time an opponent summons a Craw Wurm, it's a little mini-quest to embark upon. And the entire framework of a game of Magic is constructed as an embedded series of battles, strings of small victories that culminate in a conquest.
Conqueror's Pledge Art by Kev Walker
Really, though, I feel like the fiero impulse is rooted in the same reason that so many Magic players fall into the "Timmy" category. It's not just about challenges, battles, and conquests, after all?it's about meaningful challenges, battles, and conquests. Fiero, to me, is driven by the desire to participate in something epic, something imbued with narrative significance. And Magic might be the best vehicle to regularly experience narrative events on the planet. Every time I meet players, I'm overwhelmed by epic story after epic story, all brought upon through their game experiences. The crazy combos. The all-out attacks. The 50,000 Saprolings and the 216,000/216,000 Chameleon Colossus. Every Rite of Replication ever cast and kicked. It all comes together in a kind of victorious symphony, a testament to superlative experiences. Everyone has their fiero story?oftentimes entire collections of them. Few other experiences produce so many, so quickly, so regularly. They're epic, they're genuine, and they're real.
A lot of non-gamers approach games with a kind of confusion, a deep perplexity as to why so many people would spend so much time on experiences that are so totally artificial and so totally constructed. That's a natural response. As I've spent more and more time working on games, though, I've realized that they're popular precisely because they address real human needs. They evoke real human emotions in ways other art forms address, but occasionally cannot touch. Flow and fiero are two of the most straightforward of those. | <urn:uuid:f84fec19-82a6-4cb7-a8af-f733db4f15c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/184 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964891 | 3,278 | 1.71875 | 2 |
SUNFEST at Penn
AMPLIFICATION CIRCUITS AND PATTERNING METHODS OF ORGANIC FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS
Advisor: Cherie Kagan
Abstract: Organic transistor technology holds great promise for creating a conformal, human-safe electronic neural interface. These interfaces must amplify the low, microvolt-range brain signals so they can be utilized in analog and digital applications. Brain signals from sensors must be relayed to the transistor’s gate through the dielectric and semiconductor layers, as well as through an encapsulant which keeps the device shielded in the aqueous brain environment. In order to test their amplification gains, silicon wafer-based ambipolar organic transistors with a pentacene semiconductor were tested under nitrogen in amplifying configurations including common source and cascode. Gains for common source amplifiers with resistors were up to 3.5V/V. Gains for the cascode setup revealed the same results as common source. Both the common source and cascode topologies exhibited very low bandwidth with -3dB points of 35 and 25 hertz, respectively. Parylene C, a biologically safe polymer, is a leading candidate to encapsulate pentacene transistors and serve as a dielectric layer between the devices and sensing electrodes. We tested etching of this parylene as well as the dielectric materials benzocyclobutene (BCB) and spin-on-glass (SoG) using both oxygen and SF 6 plasma etching. Parylene was etched at a rate of 0.2μm/min with O 2 plasma. BCB and SoG did not exhibit useful etching under O 2 or SF 6 plasma. View Paper | View Slides
AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL HEART MODEL FOR FORMAL AND FUNCTIONAL MEDICAL DEVICE VERIFICATION
Advisor: Rahul Mangharam
Currently, there is no formal method for the development and testing of medical device software, such as that used in pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD). A large majority of device recalls are due to failures in the software that went undiscovered during product testing. For example, safety recalls of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators due to firmware (i.e. software) problems between 1990 and 2000 affected over 200,000 devices, comprising 41% of the devices recalled. In order to preempt these failures, the device companies and the regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, need a better way to formally and functionally verify these devices before bringing them to the market. The heart model outlined in this paper is a tool used to simulate, test and validate these devices across multiple modalities in a plug-and-play manner. By synthesizing a large number and variety of intra-cardiac electrogram and derived external electrocardiogram signals, the model will create a database well beyond the scope of the MIT-BIH ECG database, the current standard for most cardiac medical device algorithm testing. This heart model allows for more extensive formal and functional testing of pre-market cardiac medical devices to detect flaws before the devices are implanted in patients. View Paper | View Slides
AUTONOMIZATION OF A MOBILE HEXAPEDAL ROBOT USING A GPS
Advisors: Daniel E. Koditschek, Galen Clark Haynes
An important step in the autonomization of robots specifically designed for mobility is autonomous navigation: the ability to navigate from a current position to a programmed point, without the manual control of a human user. The object of this summer research was the autonomization of the robot RHex, a highly mobile hexapodal robot built in the GRASP lab of the University of Pennsylvania, which was accomplished by the integration of a global positioning system (GPS) module into the robot. The GPS module gave the robot the ability to follow a “breadcrumb” path of GPS way-points. Once the GPS data was parsed, the coordinates of both the robot’s location and the path of waypoints were converted into flat-earth approximate Cartesian coordinates, and then inputted into a linear control system. Once this was accomplished, the robot had the ability to “know” its current position and navigate from it to any programmed point, providing there were no obstacles in its path. View Paper | View Slides
PEDIATRIC PHYSICAL ACTIVITY DYNAMOMETER
Advisors: Dr. Jay N. Zemel, Dr. Babette Zemel
ABSTRACT: Developing strong bones early in life reduces the risk of osteoporosis in the future. Various types of physical activity have been reported to produce osteogenic effects in children. However, current tools used in bone development research are unable to provide convenient and accurate measurements of the loads experienced in long bones throughout a child's regular daily physical activity. We have devised an inconspicuous system that can be embedded in a child's shoe to monitor and store force measurements during the course of a child's normal wakened activity. This in-shoe physical activity dynamometer, Foot-PAD, has been in development since the summer of 2004. The last model prior to the current research consisted of a circuit that amplified and converted electrical signals from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric film sensors into digital force measurements. PVDF sensors are most sensitive to horizontal forces along the surface of the foot rather than forces directly transmitted to the foot. Repeated efforts to convert the normal force to a horizontal force were unsuccessful in the past. The Emfit Ltd. piezoelectret sensor has been developed with similar charge displacement properties but with the ability to measure vertical forces. The primary accomplishment of this development phase, therefore, was the incorporation of piezoelectret sensors into the system and appropriate modification of the circuit design. Tests with a custom-made mechanical testing device and squat jumps confirmed that the piezoelectret sensor could accurately measure vertical forces. View Paper | View Slides
STABILITY CONTROL SYSTEM FOR THE BIOLOID HUMANOID ROBOT
Advisor: Dr. Daniel D. Lee
A key characteristic in any autonomous system is stability. Without stability robots could not work properly. To achieve stability first the robot needs the means to know its position with respect with its original so that a correction in position can be obtained if necessary. This is true for the type of INS (inertial navigation system) known as dead reckoning. In this INS the current position of the robot or system is calculated from measurements of the acceleration and knowledge of its original position.
Some IMUs (inertial navigational units) consist of a couple of accelerometers and gyroscopes. With this IMU acceleration can be obtained. On Strap-down navigational system, this IMU are directly attach to the system so that their measurements correlates with those of the system, so that they can be used to calculate the position of the system. Throughout this document a method on how to obtain the necessary measurements from the IMU and how to apply them, will be discuses. View Paper
AUTOMATED GAIT OPTIMIZATION FOR A CENTIPEDE-INSPIRED MODULAR ROBOT
Advisors: Dr. Mark Yim and Dr. Daniel E. Koditschek
Manually tuning a robot's gait so that it can walk quickly and efficiently is a time-consuming and tedious task. For this project, CKBot (a modular robot system) has been configured into a centipede-inspired configuration with six legs. The project started with a few manually tuned gaits which follow an alternating tripod pattern. The purpose of this project is to automate tuning of the robot's gait such that it optimizes a factor such as specific resistance, speed, or power. Most of the effort in this project has gone into setting up the framework for such optimization trials. Each optimization trial runs the centipede back and forth and adjusts the six parameters that change the robot's gait by using the Nelder Mead optimization method. The end result after optimization is a gait with minimal specific resistance, maximum speed, or some other optimal factor. View Slides
MODULAR PHOTOVOLTAIC-MILLIFLUIDIC ALGAL BIOREACTOR SYSTEM
Advisors: Jay Zemel, Jorge Santiago, David Graves, Michael Mauk
ABSTRACT: Photovoltaic cells and biofuel technologies have never been fused together to the best of our knowledge. The long term goal of this project is to use these two technologies to develop a prototype to convert the sun's radiation to different forms of power. The purpose of this present study is to design a PBR that provides light and dark periods the algae need in their photosynthetic process to increase algal growth. For this reason, light shielding (dark regions) was supplied by separated solar cells placed periodically over the PBR. Flat PBRs were constructed. A control PBR without photovoltaic cells provid ing dark periods was set up and exposed to sun radiation. Data obtained was compared with the one that had solar cells upon it. Cell concentration decreased in the system without solar cells (control) on a sunny day. Preliminary observations suggest that the Light/dark period PBR system led to an increase of cell growth under the same conditions. Yet, because of minimal data acquisition and presence of limiting factors such as CO2 depletion, feedstock supply, degassing system, and temperature control, future investigation will be needed. Further studies, in which photovoltaic cells will be used with this dual purpose: converting light into electrical energy and provide the light shielding the algae need to improve growth, will need to be done.
ANALYSIS OF DARK AND LIGHT CYCLES ON CHLORELLA GROWTH
Advisor: Jay Zemel, Jorge Santiago, David Graves, Michael Mauk
ABSTRACT: Photovoltaic (PV) cells and photobioreactors that grow algae for the production of biodiesel have never been combined in a hybrid system even though they both use the sun as a source of energy. The goal of this study was to design a photobioreactor that combines modular PV panels for dark and light (DL) periods to increase algal photosynthesis. Simultaneously, the PV panels produce electrical energy that will power the system and any excess power could be fed to the electrical grid. Two bioreactors were constructed. One reactor was not covered by solar cells and served as a control for the experiment. The second reactor had 90% of its surface covered by solar cells to provide dark periods. One goal was to reach comparable or higher yields for the DL reactor in comparison to the uncovered reactor. Another was to examine whether short, cyclic DL periods increase growth. Data acquisition was minimal, but preliminary results show that the system without DL periods had a longer doubling time than the one with the DL periods, proving that the cycles increase growth.
MICROMECHANICAL IMAGING ANALYSIS OF BULK VS. LOCAL PROPERTIES CONCERNING MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL HETEROGENEITY
Advisor: Dr. Robert Mauck, Graduate Student: Megan Farrell
ABSTRACT: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) harvested from bone marrow tri-differentiation potential into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes along with portraying a variety of phenotypes. MSCs are a promising cell source for cartilage tissue engineering, but MSC seeded constructs have yet to match the mechanical properties of chondrocyte seeded constructs. The basis of this study is to use imaging techniques on MSCs that have already been developed to analyze chondrocytes and native articular cartilage to provide information on matrix production, cell response to load, and cell mechanical properties. This paper displays two studies. The first study used micromechanical analysis with florescent microscopy on MSCs and cartilage to study the local and bulk mechanical properties and development of the cells’ extra cellular matrix (ECM). The hypothesis was that comparing the local mechanical properties to the bulk properties of MSCs and chondrocytes will explain why the MSC constructs are weaker than the chondrocyte constructs. The second part of the study used confocal microscopy to analyze cell deformation as a function of matrix production over time. The cell deformations were analyzed via a customized Matlab (Mathworks) program to act as a standardized analysis method. Analysis when complete of cell, local, and bulk tissue mechanics is expected to provide insight into the subpar bulk mechanics found in MSC constructs and determine the heterogeneity of local matrix properties. View Paper | View Slides
VIBRATIONAL ENERGY HARVESTING USING MEMS PIEZOELECTRIC GENERATORS
Advisor: Gianluca Piazza
ABSTRACT: In recent years, energy harvesting using piezoelectric materials has become a very popular research topic. Various device sizes and structures have been tested, but it is difficult to compare power measurements as device fabrication and experimental methods vary from paper to paper. In an effort to standardize comparisons in spite of these changing parameters, the dependence of generator power output on device dimensions has been investigated.
Though MEMS scale devices have been produced, comparatively little work has been done using aluminum nitride (AlN). This project utilizes AlN due to its ease in processing and potential for on-chip integration. By operating at a MEMS scale, the benefit is that arrays of piezo generators can be placed on the same die. With the process advantages of AlN, a long term goal of an integrated power-harvesting chip becomes feasible.
However, theoretical results of scaling predict that raw power output and even power per unit volume will decrease with scaling. This indicates that a single large generator, taking up the same area as several small generators, would produce a noticeably larger power output.
Due to time constraints, no new generators could be fabricated within the time span of the project. An existing piezoelectric cantilever was used to verify the theoretical predictions of resonant frequency and static deflections under applied voltage. These predictions agreed quite closely with the observed results. However, no measurable electrical response could be found while exciting the beam with an electromagnetic shaker device. A similar experiment was performed using an AFM to directly excite the beam, but again the electrical response was difficult to characterize.
While the results of the experiments were not optimal, the difficulty in measuring the electrical response of the beam demonstrates the design challenges involved with energy harvesting on a small scale. Piezoelectric generators rely on resonance to generate useful quantities of power, and power output is highly sensitive to the frequency of the physical vibrations applied. While generators of this type could be useful if targeted to a specific application if the frequency of environmental vibrations is known, a more versatile approach would use a different design to reduce the frequency sensitivity. Broad-band designs, using either non-resonant or self-tuning structures, would be able to harvest energy much more efficiently in changing environments. View Paper
MIMOSA: Mine Interior Model Of Smoke and Action
Advisors: Norman I. Badler and Jinsheng Kang
ABSTRACT: The team goal for the summer is the simulation of underground coal mine fires, and the study of the physiological reactions occurring during evacuations. I undertook the task of searching for new ways to modify the map creation tools used by the original crowd simulation software using the Crowds with Aleatoric, Reactive, Opportunistic, and Scheduled Action (CAROSA) framework. I also modeled the mining equipment used to simulate a more realistic coal mine situation. First, a literature search on the web was done for software called Level Editors and Game Engines. Then, modeling the mining equipment, rigging the miner mesh model with a skeleton and animating both equipment and miner was done. These tasks used two pieces of Autodesk software; Maya and Motion Builder. Additionally, Maya was used to create the cell-portal mine map that the virtual miners use to move about in the space. Once the models and animations were created, they would be used for the simulation. With the simulation results we can validate a study made by U.S. Department of Health and compare the physiological models visualized in the simulation with the results of the study.
DESIGN OF A SYSTEM TO STUDY HUMAN INTERNAL DISC STRAINS IN TORSION AND COMPRESSION MEASURED NONINVASIVELY USING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
Advisor: Dawn M. Elliot, PhD
ABSTRACT: Many people suffer from lower back pain, which can be caused by disc degeneration. We are studying the properties of non-degenerated and degenerated human lumbar intervertebral discs. The overall objective of this study is to quantify strains in the disc when it is under torsional and compressive loading, simultaneously. This will be done by using magnetic resonance images of discs before and after loading and advanced normalization tools, which is an image normalization technology. For this summer, the objective is to design a device that will load the specimen as previously described and be compatible with the magnetic resonance imaging machine. The protocol will consist of incrementally torquing the specimen while in constant compression. The torque and the compressive force will be monitored via a load cell throughout the test. We expect displacement results to agree with previous studies that have been done in standard mechanical testing equipment. We also hypothesize that the outer annulus fibrous will be the stiffest part of the disc, and that the posterior region will be stiffer than the anterior region. The strain results that we expect to obtain do not have a previous test to compare to; this is the first study that will quantify internal disc strains while the disc is in torsion. We expect the results to provide useful information about the properties of the human intervertebral disc. View Paper | View Slides | <urn:uuid:3fdbed84-8995-424b-a8f0-944c92b74ffc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seas.upenn.edu/sunfest/alumni-projects-09.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927109 | 3,771 | 2.484375 | 2 |
by Anai Rhoads
Two hormones must be produced for normal ovulation to take place. The mature egg is stimulated by two hormones secreted by the pituitary (follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH).
How you can detect ovulation? The following table gives methods of detecting ovulation:
|Menstrual Cycle||The first day of your cycle begins on first day of bleeding. Count from that day until your next period. If you see a regular pattern, you can determine ovulation from the 11th to 14th day of your next period|
|Temperature Chart||You may use a BBT (Basal Temperature Chart) to track the times you have ovulated. It is important to remember that a BBT chart will only show when you have already ovulated.|
|Endometrial Biopsy||This is a standard procedure done just before your period starts. It can be done in your doctor's office or hospital on an out-patient basis.|
|Progesterone Blood Test||This test is performed one week after the suspected date of ovulation. (on or around the 21st day). The progesterone in your blood is measured to confirm that ovulation has taken place. If there is a high level of progesterone in your blood, there is a good chance that you ovulated.|
|Curettage (D&C)||The cervix is dilated and the uterine cavity curetted (scraped). D&C is performed to collect tissue that may indicated whether a woman is ovulating or not. D&C is also used for missed miscarriages. This procedure may weaken your cervix for future pregnancies. Many women opt to let nature take it's course in some cases.|
|Ovulation Prediction Kits||Unlike BBT Charting, Ovulation kits can detect LH in your urine before ovulation has occurred. You ovulate usually 12 to 36 hours after the test shows positive for LH surge. Many with infertility problems or irregular cycles benefit from these kits, as they can pinpoint exactly when they ovulate before it happens.|
|Blood Tests||You may ask your doctor to take frequent blood samples to measure the LH level a few days prior to time of ovulation to predict when the follicle is ready for ovulation.|
|Symptoms||Just before ovulation, your cervical mucus is thin, clear and stretchy, somewhat like raw egg whites. When ovulation is completed, the mucus becomes thicker.|
|Ultrasound||Your doctor will first request that you empty your bladder for this procedure. The ultrasound is performed to track the follicle. It is a painless procedure that takes less than 10 minutes to complete.|
|Types||Cycle||Chance For Ovulation|
|Normal Cycle||24 to 36 days. Same length each month||90%|
|Irregular (oligomenorrhea)||Every 3 to 7 months||30%|
|No Period (Amenorrhea)||None||10%|
Ovarian failure is where the ovaries fail to produce eggs. This disease is uncommon, occurring in only about 10% of women with amenorrhea (lack or absence of menses).
Ovarian failure may be genetic (Turner's syndrome, a chromosomal disorder) or may be acquired following chemotherapy or radiation for cancer. | <urn:uuid:9ea287a7-12d2-4ce3-a566-faba428cb8e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pregnancy.org/article/ovulation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917071 | 714 | 3.578125 | 4 |
The Unified Field Theory
by Robert Fritz
Albert Einstein coined the phrase unified field theory in his elusive quest to find the way everything fits together. What is interesting is the two parts of Einstein’s creative life. In the first part, he made his most revolutionary discoveries, special relativity that described gravity, and general relativity, which described spacetime. These magnificent breakthroughs came from Einstein’s ability to begin his thought experiments without a frame of reference, past ideas, or a hypothesis. But later in his life, he came to a conclusion, especially in reaction to the discoveries of quantum electrodynamics in which linear order seem to be overturned. Einstein’s famous comment against the new quantum ideas was, “God does not play dice with the universe.” And so, the second chapter in his creative life began with the notion that behind it all, the universe has rules that tie everything together. This was in direct contrast to his most creative period in which he began his process by observation, and by allowing his imagination to lead him into unknown territories, guided by finding the truth of whatever there was to find.
In some ways, this is a sad story. One can imagine what he might have found if he didn’t have belief in a unified field theory.
In physics, it is good and proper to look for basic connections, the latest being string theory, which comes closer to finding the “key” to everything. But that is physics. And the best discoveries in physics, historically, have come from pure research without a cause to uphold. Simply, “What are we seeing,” rather than, “Here is what I expect to find.”
Throughout the ages, people have attempted to construct their own unified field theories, although usually not based on the mathematical rigors of science. The quest to tie everything together is a human instinct. We want to know that there is rhyme and reason in the universal design. We want to know our part in it. We want the great mysteries to be explained and made clear.
And so, people adopt plausible sounding ideas that are generalized theories which say, in one way or another, “look, it all fits.”
If you have a field theory about your life, you might feel more of a sense of place, but you will reduce your creative attitude. Moreover, and more importantly, you will dampen your creative spirit, that of looking without an agenda, of imagining without a concept that demands adherence.
Your mind will make connections, even when there are none to make. Your mind hates not knowing. Your mind will invent answers to questions that have no answers. This is its structural makeup. But the down side to this is the illusion of certainty. When we think we know something we don’t actually know, we fail to explore the unknown territory. Instead, we insist. Some wars and strife are about territory and power. But more often they are about one unified field theory against another. I know that is an odd way to put it, but I think there might be some insight gained.
Is there an inherent conflict between religion, science, and the creative process? NO, especially when you don’t try to tie them all together. Each realm has it special place. And when you try to mix them, you do not do justice to any of them. But, your mind wants them to fit a consistent blueprint. The discipline and wisdom required is to understand them as unique elements in life, better respected in their own domain and by their own terms. If you don’t insist on a notion of a unified field theory, new worlds open that may not fit conveniently into anything you’ve seen before. And, like Einstein’s first creative period, the most unbelievable things become available. | <urn:uuid:294bbde6-6d74-464d-9372-4c211b266b3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opensourcereligion.net/forum/topics/the-unified-field-theory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970849 | 785 | 2.75 | 3 |
Leadership & Management
Building leadership talent is THE most significant capability-building challenge facing employers today. According to the annual IBM Human Capital Study building leadership talent keeps 80% of CEOs awake at night. In 2009 study by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, management and leadership skills were a priority for 80% of organisations.
Working with the people behind some of the best-selling business books around, we have developed a range of workshops designed to quickly develop behaviours that effective leaders need to achieve organisational goals. Each workshop gives learners a powerful set of tools to enhance their own and their team’s performance. They can also be combined and integrated into a wider programme or built into an accredited programme through the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Contact Us for more details
Based on the bestselling book, The One Minute Manager, the Management Essentials workshop gives new managers the basics of managing people and helps them give feedback, develop goals and monitor performance.
Implementing your strategy means that your leaders and managers need to understand how to get people to do things differently. This full-day work session focuses on the strategies and ideas that your leaders need to make it happen.
The TalentDevelopment® programme is a fresh approach to developing and managing high performing careers. With an emphasis on immediate contribution, individual responsibility, professional growth and long-term employability, we help people take charge of their careers and organisational influence using their Talents and Passions combined with Organisational needs (TOP®).
An organisation's competitive advantage rests squarely on its ability to quickly develop leadership capability throughout the entire workforce. Coaching is the most powerful vehicle available for achieving results and building organisational capability. Coaching helps you increase the level of contribution within the organisation and at the same time helps the individual grow and develop. Based on the Four Stages of Contribution Model, the Talent Coaching gives managers the skills to coach their employees to higher levels of contribution and success. | <urn:uuid:7ab95b2c-ac4d-4546-bb3d-43558d3f982c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emenex.co.uk/Development/leadership.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951066 | 397 | 1.5 | 2 |
Cater-Steel, Aileen (2004) An evaluation of software development practice and assessment-based process improvement in small software development firms. PhD thesis, Griffith University.
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[Abstract]: As software becomes increasingly important to all aspects of industry, there is a need to encourage practitioners to adopt best practice so as to improve the quality of the processes in use, and therefore achieve targets relating to time, budget and quality. The software development industry in Australia is dominated by a myriad of small firms. This presents a challenge in terms of determining the current practices of industry participants, and in devising improvement initiatives which are feasible for small organisations. Currently, the level of adoption of best practice among local software developers is unknown. To help improve the software industry, it is necessary to determine the current status of use of practices and techniques. Furthermore, the effectiveness of assessment-based software process improvement for small organisations needs to be evaluated. The objective of this research is to understand the extent of software development practices currently in use, and to evaluate the effectiveness of assessment-based software process improvement initiatives for small firms. To achieve this objective, an extensive mail survey of the Queensland software industry was conducted to identify and compare best practice in software development with current practice. The survey was based on the software best practice questionnaire used by the European Software Institute. Following on from this, a detailed evaluation of a process improvement program in 22 small firms was carried out. The program used the Rapid Assessments for Process Improvement for software Development (RAPID) model and method. RAPID is based on ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE) and includes eight processes: requirements elicitation, software development, configuration management, quality assurance, project management, problem resolution, risk management, and process establishment. The evaluation analysed the process capability of the firms as reported from one-day software process assessments and also the extent of improvement as recorded at follow-up meetings held 7 to 16 months after the assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used to analyse the assessment reports. The study confirmed that there is wide variation in the extent of adoption of software development best practice in terms of the individual practices, as well as the organisations. While project management planning and customer involvement practices are widely adopted, the use of metrics for estimating and testing are barely used by the organisations that responded to the survey. Overall, practices of a technical nature are more widely adopted compared to techniques related to support and management. Organisations involved in developing commercial off-the-shelf software have higher adoption than firms which do not develop such systems, and adoption of best practice is associated with the size of the development group. The leaders in adoption have significantly better practices when compared to the laggards for 40 of the 44 practices included in the survey. Furthermore, organisations from the finance, insurance and utilities sectors exhibited higher adoption of best practice compared to organisations from other sectors. The overall adoption of 48 percent implies that the organisations which responded have adopted, on average, almost half of the best practices in the questionnaire. While this overall adoption rate places the Queensland software industry in a competitive position compared to adoption of firms in European countries, there is scope for improvement. The process improvement assessments of 22 firms also confirmed that the capability of technical processes is higher than that of management processes; and suggested that higher capability is associated with the proportion of experienced staff and the proportion of staff with post graduate qualifications. Higher process capability is also associated with firms undertaking projects of lengthy durations. Most of the processes were rated at the lowest levels. Almost one third of all the processes were rated as incomplete (level 0) and 46 percent were rated as performed (level 1). The evaluation of the process improvement program was conducted by analysing the 22 assessment reports, and the 20 final reports from the follow-up meetings. The extent of improvement is associated with the proportion of technical staff and the proportion of formally qualified staff. The evaluation revealed that assessment-based process improvement programs are effective for small firms, regardless of the maturity of the processes at the time of the assessment. As well as detailing the process capability of 22 small software firms, this study provides an interesting insight into the actions, reasons for inaction, and reactions of the firms as far as implementing the recommendations from the assessments. Analysis of the reactions of the participants of this program suggests that for small firms, mentoring, training and organisation stability are important factors, while senior management support may not be an issue of concern. The study indicates that small firms can benefit from a low cost process improvement program with a restricted scope, a short time frame to evaluation, and mentoring from external assessors/consultants. It is also crucial that the firm is not disrupted by internal or external events during the course of the software process improvement program. Furthermore, this study provides a contribution to assessment methods by validating the RAPID model and method, and providing recommendations to improve the RAPID method. The outcomes from this research have the potential to better equip practitioners and consultants to undertake software process improvement, hence increasing the success of small software development firms in domestic and global markets.
|Item Type:||Thesis (Non-Research) (PhD)|
|Additional Information:||Doctor of Philosopyh (PhD) thesis, Griffith University.|
|Uncontrolled Keywords:||software process improvement, ISO/IEC 15504|
|Fields of Research (FOR2008):||08 Information and Computing Sciences > 0803 Computer Software > 080309 Software Engineering|
|Subjects:||280000 Information, Computing and Communication Sciences > 280300 Computer Software > 280302 Software Engineering|
|Socio-Economic Objective (SEO2008):||UNSPECIFIED|
|Deposited On:||11 Oct 2007 10:38|
|Last Modified:||20 Jun 2012 10:33|
Archive Staff Only: edit this record | <urn:uuid:643d0be2-1533-4142-9d80-1e86a482e9d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eprints.usq.edu.au/1256/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930712 | 1,264 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Filed under: History, Law, Statism, Terrorism, The United States | Tags: Mass Murder Across the World, No Easy Answers, Sandy Hook Elementary School
In Israel, serious people respond to serious threats.
When there is an act of senseless evil, like the murder of small children at Sandy Hook Elementary, or of blowing up a commuter train, or flying planes into the twin towers, how much of the planning and organizing the act is dependent on the renown that will come from international attention on television? Such acts seem to have been much more rare before there was television’s “in depth” coverage.
In the wake of a mass murder, it is natural to search for answers: ban guns, encourage more concealed-carry permits, open more psychiatric hospitals, end laws that make it difficult to commit people, send disturbed people for treatment, more police, more guards, more security, do something about the media, and so it goes.
We are now in the obligatory “ban the guns” phase. For some, a demand for drastic action seems a more noble response to the tragedy of others — than mere compassion. It is the do-something, I’m in charge, impulse. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is a remarkable example of this kind of response. Unfortunately his position guarantees him access to a microphone.
The senseless shooting of small children seems somehow worse than anything else, but each tragedy calls up all previous mass shootings. Consulting Wikipedia is depressing, for they list the many kinds of mass murder, and there are many. Even school shootings have occurred all over the world, in many countries.
This article from Reason deserves your attention, an excerpt quotes journalist Lenore Skenazy who recalls that the deadliest school massacre in U.S.history took place in Michigan in 1927, when a disgruntled school-board official blew up 38 people including himself. She writes that the real difference between now and then is the immediacy of the media, which shrinks the distance between victims and the rest of us. It creates the conditions for an overreaction that will ultimately be little more than symbolic.
I expect we will now demand precautions on top of precautions. More guards. More security cameras. More supervision. We will fear more for our kids and let go of them even more reluctantly. Every time we wonder if they can be safe beyond our arms, these shootings will swim into focus.
Will this new layer of fear and security make our children any safer? Probably not, but for a reassuring reason: A tragedy like this is so rare, our kids are already safe. Not perfectly safe. No one ever is. But safe.
That’s a truth the folks in 1928 America understood. We just don’t feel that way now.
Matt Lewis rounds up some of the more execrable media reactions and irresponsible reporting. This wouldn’t be a bad set of guidelines for journalists in what not to do. As we have all noticed, basic manners have been victim of the cultural decline.
At the Volokh Conspiracy, the author responds to the question if civilians armed with guns ever capture, kill or otherwise stop mass shooters? Well, yes they do. And Doug Ross, from whom I borrowed the picture at the top, also contributed this simple, fairly clear, comment. He has a number of excellent posts on the murders and reactions.
Mass murders have taken place all over the world, in many times and many circumstances. We have such compassion for the families, for we know it could have been us. President Obama has announced that “We have to change.” We? The picture of the president hugging the woman who lost everything in the Sandy storm surge is still up on the White House website. It was an especially good photo-op. The help from FEMA that the president promised would come immediately, has of course, never happened.
There will still be mass murder and terrorism, with TV coverage or not. Mayor Bloomberg has already drummed up a bunch of liberal gun-banners to march on the National Rifle Association. Does he have no trusted confidant who can tell him that he’s making a fool of himself again?
Whatever our instant impulses are, they are probably the wrong thing to do. Instant impulses, the “do-something” syndrome, is not the path to averting tragedy.
7 Comments so far
Leave a comment | <urn:uuid:05f8b8d0-dde3-4680-ba96-1c6b106320c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americanelephant.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/would-there-still-be-terrorism-and-mass-murder-if-there-was-no-tv/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=8e2032a0fe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951259 | 907 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Science subject and location tags
Articles, documents and multimedia from ABC Science
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Racehorses that stay in the pack longest have the best chance of earning prize money, say scientists.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Scientists say they have confirmed the theory that Australian racehorse legend Phar Lap was killed by arsenic poisoning.
Friday, 6 November 2009
While most of the nation has this week been focussed on which horse crosses the finishing line first, scientists announced that they have completed mapping the horse genome. | <urn:uuid:cb3728ad-f93d-496c-a755-d35bdb08efb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/science/tag/browse.htm?topic=health&tag=horse-racing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96234 | 108 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Physicist: A normal rainbow is created when light enters a water droplet, bounces once off of the far side, and comes back out.
Diamond “droplets” however don’t make rainbows. In order to get a rainbow that exists, and isn’t in a tiny ring right around the sun (where it’s drowned out), the light has to bounce three times inside the droplet. By then it’s so dim that it’s unlikely anyone could see it. But if you could: it would form an arc about 50° from the “anti-solar direction” (the direction exactly opposite the sun; where your shadow is). For comparison, an ordinary rainbow is an arc about 40° around the anti-solar direction. If it doesn’t make plenty of sense why a rainbow is angle-dependent, why not swing by the first rainbow post?
You can figure out where rainbows should be by thinking about how light bounces in a sphere and applying “Snell’s law” (named after the horrifically named “Willebrord Snellius“). Then you can figure out what direction the light will ultimately go by adding up how much it turns from each interaction.
Turn 1: When light enters the droplet it turns because of “refraction“. The exact amount is given by Snell’s gross-sounding law. If the index of refraction of the air is NA and the index of refraction of the water is NW, then: . It so happens that NA = 1 (well… 1.0003) and NW ≈ 1.3. NW is slightly different for different colors, which is ultimately what gives rise to rainbows. It takes a minute or two of pondering, but the light beam will turn to the right by an angle of . First, imagine that is zero, so the beam is pointing straight at the center of the drop. That’s a turn of angle (by opposite angles). Now increase and the amount of the turn decreases. .
Turn 2: Since the radius of the droplet is fixed, the path of the light and the radial lines form an isosceles triangle. There’s another ! Since the incoming and reflected angles have to be the same you get one more . If the beam were to have come straight back on itself that would’ve been a turn of 180°. But it falls short of that by . So, the second turn is to the right again by an angle of . If there are R reflections then the total turning angle will be .
Turn 3: Snell’s did-you-sneeze-or-are-we-talking-about-optics law works the same way forward and backward. That is; the angles are the same going in or coming out. So, turn 3 is also by an angle of .
The total angle, A, is the sum of the three turns: . Snell’s law can then be used to solve for :
So, the total turning angle is:
And allowing R reflections:
, by the way, mostly just describes where on the drop the light initially hits. In a second there’ll be a colorful graph that doesn’t make much sense. So consider this:
If a beam turns 180°, it’ll come right back at you. If it turns 120° it’ll form a 60° arc, and if it turns 240° it’ll still form a 60° arc. That’s a little confusing, so when you want to figure out how big a rainbow will be, quickly draw a picture to see what kind of angle the rainbow will make around the solar direction (toward the sun) or anti-solar direction (away).
Now check this out!
The index of diffraction is different for different materials, but it also changes for different colors of light (different frequencies). For water you can find them here. By graphing the total turning angle (vertical axis) vs. (horizontal axis) for several colors you can immediately see at what angle the rainbow will show up. In the graph above the red curve bottoms out lower than the other colors, so at 138° you’ll find red and nothing else. A little higher and you have mostly greens and not much else.
To see this, enlarge the picture above, get a pencil, and, holding it level, move it up the graph. You’ll notice that at various angles one color will be in contact with the top of the pencil for a far greater range than the other colors. Hence, at that angle a particular color will be far more common than the others.
In general, in these graphs, a rainbow will show up whenever there’s a minimum (for a maximum you’d need a really weird material that doesn’t follow Snell’s law). So, without graphing lots of colors, you can still spot the rainbow-angle where the curve hits a minimum.
So, here’s the curve for water turning-angle, alongside the curve for diamond (which has an index of refraction of about 2.4, but that depends on color too):
So: case closed. No diamond rainbows. But what about secondary rainbows?
You can bounce more than once inside of the droplet before coming out. Each time a beam of light hits the side of the droplet most of the light exits but some of it is reflected back in. One reflection gives you the standard rainbow, but two reflections gives you a second rainbow (hence: double rainbows).
Three reflections? Sure!
I got very stoked about this question. So for all you other backyard rainbow-and-math enthusiasts who want to figure out when and where rainbows will show up in different materials, here’s a list of some indeces of refraction, and the equation:
Where A is the turning angle, R is the number of reflections, ND is the index of refraction of the Droplets, and NS is the index of refraction of the Surrounding material. , again, isn’t terribly important. Graph it, look for a minimum, and figure out what angle in the sky that corresponds too.
By the way: did you know that Titan’s atmosphere is almost all nitrogen (N=1) and that it rains liquid methane (N=1.29)? Just saying.
I haven’t included anything about light intensity and reflection coefficients, but in general: three reflections is a bit much, and you can pretty much ignore what happens when is close to 90°. | <urn:uuid:6ccda216-100c-412f-9f21-ebb4f6499f1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.askamathematician.com/2011/05/q-if-you-suddenly-replaced-all-water-drops-in-the-sky-with-same-sized-spheres-of-polished-diamond-what-would-happen-to-the-rainbow/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904249 | 1,405 | 4.125 | 4 |
Joe Hewitt, a top developer who works for Facebook, recently tweeted that Google’s Android was not open and that caused an argument around the twitworld and blogosphere. Today, he has written a blog post to clarify things.
Here’s the post below:
There is no doubt that Android is the most open of all major mobile operating systems, and they are to be commended for this. Coming from iOS, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much more configurable Android is. The fact that you can replace the home screen with a third-party launcher or even make your own app store is a clear sign that Google’s heart is in the right place. However, there is clearly something keeping them from being even more open. That something is probably the carriers, and not Google’s management philosophy.
It’s clear to me that the only reason Android has enjoyed so much success is that Google has given the carriers pretty much everything they could ask for, and the carriers have responded with the ton of marketing dollars and subsidies that Google needed in order for Android to have any shot to compete with the iPhone. While I can criticize Google for compromising Android in an effort to please the carriers, I have to admit that if they hadn’t done this, Android would very likely be irrelevant today.
If you want to see a better representation of Google’s values, look at Chrome OS. It hasn’t even shipped yet, but you can already follow the daily progress in their source repository and install your own build on a PC. The Chromium and Webkit projects it is based on are also full open source, and you can earn commit privileges and contribute to them today. It remains to be seen if Chrome OS will have any success, but my fear is that a lack of support from carriers and manufacturers will keep it from rising as fast as Android has.
Unfortunately, the term “open” has so many meanings in computing today, it’s probably futile for anyone to bother criticizing the way it is used as I did yesterday. My emotional response had a lot to do with my background. I cut my teeth in the software industry working on the Mozilla open source project, so when I hear others talk about openness, but see them omitting important facets like a public source tree and outsider commit privileges, my bullshit radar goes off. Mozilla’s commitment to openness is about as genuine as you can possibly get, but then, the world of desktop browsers is hard to compare with the world of mobile operating systems. If Firefox had required subsidies and advertising to reach 20% market share, Mozilla may have had to make compromises too.
Having said that, much of what I said yesterday still stands. It kills me to hear the term “open” watered down so much. It bothers me that so many people’s first exposure to the idea of open source is an occasional code drop, and not a vibrant community of collaborators like I discovered ten years ago with Mozilla. I am hoping that at some point it becomes practical for Google to move Android towards the Firefox model of open source, because I am sure that they want to.
Some interesting points I must say, but then he works for Facebook! Facebook is nota name synonymous with Open! | <urn:uuid:b08eec73-3d62-424d-a2e7-9f2e019dfeea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webtrendsng.com/blog/joe-hewitt-explains-why-android-is-not-open/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967343 | 678 | 1.546875 | 2 |
From coast to coast, marriages are suffering because of the failed economy. Women are speaking like this wife of twenty-five years, whose husband lost his job; she is quoted in an article in New York Newsday: "We fight all the time now. The littlest thing sets us off....My husband is...depressed. He's angry....We're at each other's throats all the time. Sometimes, I wonder if we're going to make it." The Newsday article is an instance of the boycott of Aesthetic Realism by the press — which, while writing of people's pain, keeps from them the kind, beautiful answer to it.
In 1970, Eli Siegel, the great American educator and founder of Aesthetic Realism, explained that an economy based on contempt for people, on using them for profit, has failed. Aesthetic Realism also shows that the very same thing which has made our economy fail is what causes marriages to fail: contempt for the world and another person — for the purpose of marriage is to like the world. In the article "Ethics — the Only Answer for the Economy!," printed as an ad in the New York Times, Ellen Reiss and the Aesthetic Realism consultants and consultants-in-training say:
That is what women are learning in Aesthetic Realism consultations — and their marriages are becoming kinder, passionate, really succeeding.
I Changed the Way I Saw People
I began to work in a factory, and got a little sense of what people had to endure: up to 120 degree heat; speeded-up assembly lines; husbands and wives working different shifts so one of them could take care of the children, and hardly seeing each other. This was in Motorola's Franklin Park plant, and there was no union. In the summers of 1963-65, I was paid, as I remember, first $1.62 and later $2.62 an hour. In 1964, the color TV sets we made were selling for at least $695, and the line of about 24 people made ultimately 20 sets an hour. We did not see that money. Some stockholders and owners, who never lifted a solder gun, did. People often fainted because of the heat; and one day we heard that a man's leg was caught in a conveyor belt and he died. Yet even as I experienced firsthand what an unjust economic system does to lives, the scorn with which I saw people didn't change.
Then, on May 22, 1970, one week after I attended my first Aesthetic Realism class, I heard Eli Siegel, the kindest man who ever lived, explain:
Mr. Siegel explained: "There is a great reluctance to give an inside life to other people. We feel we're the only persons who have an inside. That has made for a great deal of pain....Do you feel that you give [others] as much internal mystery as you have?" I did not; and I love Eli Siegel for freeing my mind to see what other people feel!
A Wife Becomes Kinder through the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel
We heard in Mrs. DiCarlo's voice a tired sadness; and we asked: "Do you think you have been using [what you're meeting] to feel life is too much — to go into yourself and feel that is the most comforting place?" She answered, "I've done that. You hit the nail on the head — I have tears in my eyes."
For Mrs. DiCarlo, and thousands of wives, this question is raging: how will I use prices rising, the mortgage payment being due, the baby needing new clothes? — to retreat contemptuously, or to have more feeling about the world and what other people endure? Mrs. DiCarlo told us, "I've been angry; because with the baby — trying to get him to the baby-sitter's in the morning — I did say to my husband, 'Oh, I wish I didn't have to work.' I feel I need a lot of encouragement." "Right," we said, "but do you also need to give a lot of encouragement?" As she answered, Mrs. DiCarlo's voice was hopeful for the first time: "Yes, I do!"
We read her these sentences from "Ethics — the Only Answer for the Economy!" by Ellen Reiss:
We asked something every wife should hear: does she want to understand what her husband feels, or get revenge on him for not making her life easier?
"Do you think about your effect on your husband as you speak to him — whether you are making him stronger or weaker? When you said you wished you didn't have to work, what was your purpose: to make him more sure of himself or less?"
Mrs. DiCarlo answered, "Less sure....I love my work."
"Wives," we explained, "often hint to a husband, "'You disappoint me because you can't furnish the [material] things I want.' This is no way to see the man we marry!"
In an Aesthetic Realism class, Ellen Reiss said passionately that, with the profit economy hurting marriages so much, "the only way you're going to use another person to like the world is to take that thing that is hurting you and ask: is it fair to all people?" We said to Mrs. DiCarlo: "Do you think you and your husband could have a wonderful time really asking, 'How can we use what is happening to us to have deeper feeling for other people?' — including many people your husband must know who are very worried....What [your husband] brings home in terms of money is important, but just as important is the need to feel that both of you are doing all you can to be fair to the world together."
Said Mrs. DiCarlo, "I thank you so much. After forty-five minutes on the phone, I feel so different! I'm so grateful."
An American Conversation
For information you may contact the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation, where the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel is taught: 141 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012, (212) 777-4490; www.AestheticRealism.org.
Barbara Allen is an Aesthetic Realism consultant and teaches the monthly Aesthetic Realism and Marriage class with Anne Fielding and Pauline Meglino. This article was first presented at a public seminar titled, "How Can Marriage Succeed in a Failed Economy?" | <urn:uuid:42b6ff71-2b78-443c-a4ae-a87f7e9555f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barbaraallen.org/Marriage.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979176 | 1,353 | 1.757813 | 2 |
10 Tips for Writing the Perfect Paper
Like a gourmet meal or an old master painting, the perfect college paper is carefully constructed – not thrown together the night before it’s due. Each part is just right, and the pieces are assembled to form the clear and convincing whole. We should know. We’ve read thousands of papers and we can tell you it’s easy for the prof to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly. Wanna avoid the bad and the ugly? Read on.
1. Get started right away. When the professors gives you, say, a week to write the paper, he or she is assuming you’ll be spending the whole time thinking out what you’re going to say, doing whatever research is necessary, and then actually writing your finished product. You can’t go through the required intellectual steps if you don’t give your mind enough time to do them. Always use all the available time.
- 5-Start Tip. Expect to write drafts. Nobody gets it perfect the first time around.
2. Decide what the expectations are. Turns out that at college there are many different kinds of papers: analytic papers, research papers, papers that draw on your own experience, summaries of some body of literature, and many other types. Be sure you know exactly what kind of paper you’re being asked to write. Good sources of information: the syllabus, the paper assignment (be sure to focus on any verbs telling you what to do, e.g. compare and contrast, defend, evaluate, summarize), and anything the professor or TA says as they hand out the assignment. If in doubt, ask before class or in an office hour.
3. Always answer exactly the question asked. Professors spend large amounts of time forging the question(s) for their papers. Rather than having some preconceived notion of what they should be asking, answer what they are asking.
- 4-Start Tip. It’s generally not a good idea to construct your own question, even if that’s an option. Usually, the professor has picked out time-tested questions that are designed to work, whereas you might pick something you’re interested in, but might be undoable given the literature or the difficulty and/or generality of your question.
4. Be sure to fill the space. Most professors, when they give a range for page length (for instance, five to eight pages), are expecting that the good papers will fall toward the top of the range. If your paper comes out too short, consider probing an issue in more detail, giving an additional example or illustration, or raising an associated point. Often, the additional length and depth can vault your paper from a B to an A.
5. Make sure your paper has a point – one. One of the hallmarks of an excellent paper is that it has a single point that structures the paper and gives it unity. Usually, that point is explicitly – and simply – stated in the first paragraph of the paper, sometimes even in the first sentence. Less good papers read like a “laundry list”: many points, all of them perhaps true or even important, but with no real single point to the paper.
6. Give your paper direction. Once you’ve figured out what the main point of your paper, you need to organize your points so that they all work together to support your main idea. Be sure to carefully consider the order of the points to be introduced. An excellent paper has structure and direction: the reader can understand why the points are coming when they do, and how each works to advance the point of your paper.
7. Write for a reasonably intelligent person – not the professor. One of the most common mistakes in college paper writing is to assume that the reader already knows the answer and, hence, it’s enough if you just gesture at your points. A good paper, on the other hand, explains the points fully and clearly enough so that someone who didn’t know the answer could understand your view just from what’s written on the page.
Extra Pointer. Be sure to explain any technical terms, or terms not being used in their ordinary English meaning. Never assume that the prof or TA will understand such terms just because he or she used them in class.
8. Have a quote quota. Unless instructed otherwise, you should not have elaborate quotes as parts of your paper; often a brief citation of the main few words or sentences (with proper footnotes) is more than enough. That’s because what the professor is looking for is how you understand the material. This is best demonstrated when you explain in your own words (with only brief quotes) what some author is saying – and meaning.
9. Reach a conclusion. One of the things a professor likes to see is a firm conclusion at the end of a paper. Students sometimes are shy about taking a stand; but the paper is asking you to give your answer to what’s asked. This doesn’t mean you should be dogmatic or opinionated, or refuse to consider arguments or evidence that goes against your view. But it does mean that you shouldn’t just list considerations on both sides and leave it to the reader to figure out what the answer to the question really is.
10. Deal the professor in. You might be surprised to hear that many professors enjoy thinking, and talking, about the question asked – especially if the course is in the prof’s field of research. You can join the conversation – and the intellectual exercise – by going to see the professor, or even by emailing or Skyping him or her before you finalize your paper. You’ve paid for this faculty/student interaction. You should use it.
Bonus tip. Be sure to proofread your paper. Even if your professor doesn’t take off for spelling and grammar, he or she can’t help but think less of your ideas if they’re expressed with bonehead spelling mistakes or sentences that are grammatically incorrect. Well worth the few minutes of extra time.
If you liked the tips in this article, you’ll love the 637 tips in our book, The Secrets of College Success. You can write us with questions or blog ideas at firstname.lastname@example.org. We’d love to hear from you – really.
© 2012 Professors’ Guide LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:49d5a20c-c9a9-41fb-89eb-6e840c6f4107> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.chegg.com/2012/02/06/10-tips-for-writing-the-perfect-paper/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947904 | 1,348 | 2.765625 | 3 |
What causes recurrent boils on my 3-year-old's bottom?
Toddlers and school-aged children not uncommonly get bacterial infection in the hair follicles on the buttocks or posterior thighs. Small lesions (red bumps with pustules on the surface) are termed "folliculitis," and when these lesions get larger they are called "furuncles" or, when very large, "carbuncles." The latter two are commonly known as boils.
While some children with recurrent disease may have predisposing conditions (like obesity, diabetes, or immune problems), most are otherwise completely healthy. Some may actually carry the bacterium that causes these problems ( Staphylococcus aureus
) in the diaper
area, which accounts for the common occurrence on the buttocks. Treatments include antibacterial soaps, topical antibiotics, and, for severe cases, oral antibiotics. Your son's pediatrician or dermatologist can give you further guidance. | <urn:uuid:6668bf97-b6de-487d-8f0b-20ab0f2a271b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pampers.com/what-causes-recurrent-boils-on-my-3-year-old-s-bottom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935802 | 196 | 3.140625 | 3 |
The Treaty of Alliance (also known as the Klingon Alliance) was the official agreement that established the alliance between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. Vulcan ambassador Sarek (TNG: "Sarek") was one of the key figures behind the negotiations that created the alliance, and his son, ambassador Spock, was the one who proposed the alliance. (VOY: "Alliances") The Treaty was regarded with controversy when first suggested, but later proved to be a cornerstone for peace in the Alpha Quadrant.
The Federation-Klingon alliance represented a fundamental shift in the balance of power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, as the two former enemies united. According to the treaty's terms, each side could request the other's assistance in fighting against its enemies. This clause, in part, forced the Romulan Star Empire to the sidelines, unable to compete against the combined forces of the Federation and the Klingons. As a result, the Romulans devoted considerable resources towards trying to break up the alliance, albeit without success. (TNG: "Reunion", "The Mind's Eye", "Redemption", "Redemption II")
The Treaty allowed the Federation to conduct health and safety inspections of Klingon vessels within Federation space. It also allowed for unrestricted travel by each side in the other's space. (TNG: "Gambit, Part II")
In 2372, the Dominion was able to break the alliance by manipulating the Klingon Empire into an unprovoked invasion of the Cardassian Union, an action condemned by the Federation. The alliance was resumed the following year, after the Dominion joined the Cardassians' war against the Klingons. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior", "By Inferno's Light")
During the war, the Dominion worked with the Orion Syndicate on another way to break the alliance. By using Klingon weapons to assassinate an anti-Federation ambassador, it was hoped Gowron would be implicated and the Klingon people would call for the alliance to end. (DS9: "Honor Among Thieves") | <urn:uuid:a9a3045a-bed6-459e-8389-2bc5da875a77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Federation-Klingon_Alliance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953986 | 424 | 3.09375 | 3 |
"Food and nutritional security are the foundations of a decent life, a sound education and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals"
- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
- Upcoming UN forum highlights vital contribution of forests to food security and nutrition (10 May 2013)
- Genetic resources play crucial role in food security UN agricultural agency (15 April 2013)
- Over $41 million needed to end locust plague in Madagascar, says UN agency (26 March 2013)
- External aid essential for subsistence of millions in DPR Korea UN official (15 March 2013)
- UN expert calls on countries to empower women to tackle hunger and malnutrition (4 March 2013)
- Millions in Africa’s Sahel region will continue to require food aid, says UN agency (20 February 2013)
- UN assessment warns of potential food crisis in Central African Republic (15 February 2013)
"My High-Level Task Force is working to ensure that the UN system, international financial institutions and the WTO are ready to provide robust and consistent support to countries struggling to cope with food insecurity. This is a long-term effort and it will require a comprehensive push to back solid partnerships, strong strategies and well-financed actions that empower communities to become food secure."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
The Task Force is chaired by the UN Secretary-General, with FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva serving as Vice-Chairman. Assistant Secretary-General David Nabarro was appointed Coordinator of the Task Force in January 2009.
Secretary-General's remarks at High-Level Event on Scaling up Nutrition — UN Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2011
Welcome, all of you:
Nutrition leaders from across the UN system.
Our valuable development partners, with your great expertise.
Partners in civil society who reach out across communities.
And executives from the private sector who take an interest in public health.
One year ago, we launched this Scaling Up Nutrition Movement at an event co-hosted by the United States and Ireland.
At that moment, we pledged to make a difference.
Our message was clear and compelling.
One thousand days: change a life, change the future.
That day was the start of what we hope will be a profoundly important movement for change.
Our meeting this year coincides with the first-ever United Nations High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases.
Obesity and malnutrition may seem like polar opposites. But more and more countries are suffering from both. And the answer to both is better nutrition.
Like so many other ailments, NCDs can have their roots in poor nutrition during infancy.
Under-nutrition is a serious and neglected challenge.
The Scaling Up Nutrition initiative has support from more than 20 countries. They understand that food and nutrition security is a human right. They know that food and nutrition security drives economic, social and human development. And they have detailed plans for Scaling Up Nutrition.
Over 100 agencies and organizations have endorsed the SUN Framework that sets out the Movement's approach.
The lives of millions of children are at stake. We can help them realize their physical and intellectual potential.
The magnitude of this problem is most obvious today in the Horn of Africa. Thirteen point five million people there desperately need food to survive. Without proper nutrition the children and pregnant mothers will suffer irreversible damage.
That is why I am pushing so hard for the Millennium Development Goals.
That is why I am urgently appealing for leadership, funds and global solidarity.
That is why we are here today.
The SUN Movement brings together different partners to focus on one shared goal: the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy and a child's second birthday. Proper nutrition at this time is the difference between health and sickness, thriving and deteriorating, life and death.
The initiative is about supporting countries – improving nutritious diets, enhancing nutrition in pregnancy and promoting breastfeeding.
It is also encouraging nutrition-sensitive strategies in many areas, including agriculture, social protection, education, employment and health.
Countries in the SUN Movement will be accountable to those they seek to help.
Different parts of the UN system – including the Standing Committee on Nutrition, the REACH partnership and our High Level Task Force on Global Food Security - are also accountable for supporting this effort.
We plan to put SUN on a stronger footing.
That is why I am counting on you to take a hard look at tasks which lie ahead.
Over the course of a life, the first 1,000 days are all too brief and fleeting.
We have to act before that window closes.
We are here today to make the SUN of better nutrition rise over our entire world.
Thank you very much.
Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture
The following commentary was prepared by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Food Security and Nutrition and Coordinator of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on Food Security
The French G20 presidency invited G20 Agriculture Ministers to meet in Paris on 23 June 2011. Ministers agreed an action plan on food price volatility and agriculture which focuses on stabilizing prices and increasing overall food supplies through sustainable investments in the production of nutritious foods. Their investments will make a comprehensive contribution to overall availability of food in the face of increasing demand, to improving people’s food and nutrition security, and to reducing hunger. They agreed to remove food export restrictions or extraordinary taxes on food purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme: they also agreed not to impose them in the future. This was the first ever meeting of G20 Agriculture Ministers: it builds on a number of regional ministerial processes including the sequence of meetings sponsored by the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and last years’ agriculture ministers’ meeting under the APEC framework in Japan.» Read more | <urn:uuid:556b8da8-1626-4046-908e-93c723626792> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.un.org/en/issues/food/taskforce/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93007 | 1,197 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Education - Dr. Erich K. Ritter Biography
Erich Ritter has a Ph.D. from Zurich University in “Behavioral Ecology” and is the only professional applied shark-human interaction specialist. Ritter's main expertise is the body language of sharks, with a major interest in shark attacks and their causes. Many of the old theories of why sharks attack have been erased through his experiments, and new ideas proposed. He is the only shark attack expert to recreate many of the typical attack scenarios with the respective species. His understanding of potential reasons for shark attacks opened new doors in this field of research.
Ritter is the head of the SharkSchool™, an institution that teaches divers, snorklers, rescue swimmers and others how to interact with sharks, what to look for when entering the water and most importantly how to feel safe among sharks. He is also the executive director of SAVN™, the Shark Accident Victim Nework, and non-for-profit organisation to help shark victims
Ritter developed the first interaction system for swimmers, divers and snorkelers (ADORE-SANE) that allows safe swimming and interaction with any potentially dangerous sharks under different conditions. He has spent the last eight years collecting data from around the world. Besides some reef species, his primary focus is on bull sharks, lemon sharks and great whites. Ritter has been extensively interviewed in magazines and on TV shows promoting and explaining his ways of shark-human interaction, and explanations of shark attacks. Ritter holds workshops in the Bahamas, South Africa and the Maldives on a regular basis. | <urn:uuid:1998e745-bf76-4db4-8f37-039ef0e54b3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sharkwater.com/Dr_Erich_Ritter_biography.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959349 | 331 | 1.945313 | 2 |
“And when the Brits initially kept their distance, Led Zeppelin grabbed America from the opening chord.”
- Barack Obama.
So, is it true that the people responsible for launching the careers of The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix kept their distance from Led Zeppelin? The only test I can think of is to see how well their records performed in the charts. In this, Wikipedia is your friend. And it shows that all of Led Zeppelin’s studio albums did at least as well in the UK as in the US and that Led Zep I (the one with that opening chord) did better. | <urn:uuid:0587bd8d-ae8d-447c-9019-b54abe1d1a06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.samizdata.net/2012/12/fact-checking-t/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975498 | 143 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Alien rats take on prey's role
Invasive rats are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report.
The rats, which are responsible for devastating the native pollinator populations, are attracted to the flowers for their nectar.
The results could mean that the decline of pollinating animals worldwide does not spell the end for all native plants.
Almost 90% of the world's flowering plants are pollinated by animals.
Insect pollination alone is estimated to be worth £141bn ($224bn) each year, and according to a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) bees pollinate over two-thirds of the world's crops.
So the decline of the world's pollinating animals has unsurprisingly sparked concerns about lower yields and serious long-term food shortages among farmers and governments.
Conservationists also predict the loss of many animal-pollinated plants.
"New Zealand offers a really interesting and rare opportunity to look at what the consequences of species extinction [are] for... pollination," explained conservation biologist David Wilcove from Princeton University, US.
"We have this situation where almost all of the native vertebrates in New Zealand - birds, bats and reptiles - have disappeared from the North island... largely due to predation by rats," he added.
But a small patch of pristine New Zealand woodland still exists, affording the researchers the opportunity to investigate the impact of losing key pollinating species on endemic plant species.
Dr Wilcove, and his then Princeton colleague David Pattemore, set out to study three plants: the red-flowered Metrosideros and Knightia, and the purple-flowered Veronica.
What the duo didn't expect to see was that on the mainland, where the plants were no longer visited by traditional pollinating species, rats, and a recently colonising bird, were doing the job instead.
And for two of the three plant species, the invasive species were doing a comparable job to the native pollinators.
"I was quite startled by it," said Dr Wilcove.
He explains that, in general, this type of compensation is more likely to happen for flowering plants that are pollinated by many different animals.
But for plants that rely on a very specialist pollinator, the loss of its sole pollinating animal still spells doom for the species.
Most crops, Dr Wilcove suspects, are pollinated by multiple species, and so there might be room for one pollinator to be replaced by another.
So for crop species, these findings should be encouraging, he suggested.
"I think this result should at least force people to think more carefully about what possible beneficial role the non-native [species] are having... and perhaps develop a slightly different control strategy," he added. | <urn:uuid:7d6bb65f-6d37-4fea-bdf2-18af25d94162> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15738837 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964746 | 578 | 3.3125 | 3 |
IFC to inject $800 million into Iraq’s private sector
The World Bank’s investment arm is aiming to pump about $800 million into Iraq’s energy and banking industries over the next three years to help boost development in the private sector, a senior International Finance Corporation official said Wednesday.
Rashad Kaldany, vice president of the IFC, said between $300 million and $500 million of the capital would go to projects to collect gas that is currently flared at oil fields. “What we are looking to do over a three-year period is to provide financing of about $800 million … this would be our goal,” Kaldany told Reuters in an interview.
Kaldany said the IFC would focus primarily on developing the gas, power generation, banking and construction materials industries, but also the agricultural and housing sectors. Iraq’s infrastructure needs a massive overhaul after decades of war and economic sanctions.
Private industry remains relatively small compared with state-owned enterprises and the government is still the biggest employer almost nine years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Iraq depends on oil exports for 95 percent of government revenue.
The IFC granted a $400 million seven-year debt facility to the Iraqi unit of Kuwait-based telecoms firm Zain in February to help it expand and improve services. Kaldany said the IFC was in talks with another mobile operator in Iraq for a loan.
The IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. It opened its first office in Iraq this year. Kaldany said the IFC was looking at providing between $50 million and $100 million through a combination of loans and taking stakes in power generation projects run by both local and foreign firms. It also plans to dedicate $50 million to $100 million to loans or equity of private banks.
OPEC member Iraq sits on the world’s fourth-largest oil reserve. Its estimated gas reserves are the world’s 10th largest, according to data from the U.S. energy department. But in most of Iraq, people receive only a few hours of electricity a day and suffer from outages during those hours. Kaldany said two of the biggest hurdles in the development of Iraq were bureaucracy and a primitive financial sector.
“What we are looking to do is to support the development of the banking system both through funding but also to help them with the advisory services and to get new financial instruments into the market,” Kaldany said. Iraq has seven state-run banks as well as 23 private and 12 Islamic private banks, both Iraqi and foreign, according to the central bank’s website.
Kaldany said the IFC also planned to sign a deal in the next two weeks to take a stake valued at $25 million in the Commercial Bank of Iraq, in which Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank BSC already has a 49 percent stake. | <urn:uuid:a68e0a13-b5f9-4e30-9926-65bb5d0d02ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/ifc-inject-800-million-iraq%E2%80%99s-private-sector-399903 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972447 | 615 | 1.53125 | 2 |
If you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch, these cool RC toys could be a great addition to your arsenal of gadgets for downtime fun (and to antagonize your spouse/pets)...
Thanks to its on-board Wi-Fi system, you can control the Parrot AR.Drone using an iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad. It was initially designed for the Apple platform and will be also available for Android smartphones pretty soon. You can also control the Parrot AR.Drone from a Linux PC and a joystick with the navigation software supplied. It's easy to fly and thanks to servos and gyroscopes, it auto stabilize so it won't crash if you haven't master the landing technique.
With 74mm in diameter, and featuring inductive charging, this cool robot is controlled via bluetooth with your smartphone. Think of Sphero as an entirely new game platform – one that moves. The ball in you living room now becomes the object in the game on your iOS or Android device. The company is still working hard to fully develop the platform hoping it inspires developers to make tons of games. You can solve a maze rolling Sphero around on the floor, challenge a friend to a head-to-head sumo match or control a device in your friend’s apartment, from your apartment.
AppToyz Mini Heli
This is a micro helicopter that you can control with your iPhone. You just need to use the supplied adaptor to bridge the gap between the heli and your iPhone. The funny part, is that you use the headphone connector (!) instead of the 30 pin at the bottom. Control is easy via the user interface and even that the heli looks small, it has quite a bit of get-up-and-go.
Then, for the DIY'ers out there, if you have the "know how to", you can easily make this one. Control an inexpensive RC Car, with an iPhone. With the NerdKit serving as the bridge between the computer and the R/C Car, it is as an example of how useful microcontrollers can be when they fill the gap that makes complex systems work together, and with an understanding of how the system works, a neat project like this one is achievable as a Do-It-Yourself weekend task. | <urn:uuid:25c95acb-b523-4bec-81df-12c9a0e886cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/use-your-iphone-to-remote-cont-147058 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936258 | 472 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Pump and dump
Pump and dump is slang for an illegal stock manipulation scheme in which a shareholder encourages others to buy his/her stock. Then when the price goes up due to the increased demand, the person sells it.
Pump and dump schemes are relatively simple stock manipulation schemes that occur most commonly in penny stocks. The "pumper" usually acquires stock in a thinly traded , thinly followed publicly traded company either at market price or sometimes at sub-market prices through private equity placements. Then the "pumper" either produces or hires someone to produce misleadingly overly optimistic advertising material hyping the stock. The typical form these ads take are usually fax blasts, paid mailers,message board posts or spam stock touts. Once enough people fooled by the unsolicited ads buy the stock (sometimes dramatically pushing the stock price up due to low floats of thinly traded penny stocks) the "pumper" proceeds to "dump" his/her shares often rapidly depressing the stock price to below the price where the pumper initially purchased the stock. (consulted and ).
According to Academic research done by Laura Frieder and Jonathan Zittrain (see abstract here http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract-id=920553 ) the typical victims of these schemes are unsophisticated investors who have relatively small amounts of investable capital.
The short and distort stock manipulation scheme is a less common inverse variant of the Pump and Dump scheme where the scammer tries to deflate the stock's price through negative unsolicited ad material as opposed to trying to inflate it as the scammer does in the Pump an Dump scheme. | <urn:uuid:c97c2b52-5358-4391-8db4-08dd3cad42ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.fool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pump_and_dump&oldid=22300 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933851 | 347 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The Case for Urban Villages
By Randall Fleming
Reprinted from Linkages Issue No. 8, periodical of the Institute for Ecological Health
Urban villages are a contradiction in place, as they blend the intensity of a city with the intimacy of a village. Urban villages work because they resolve this contradiction by balancing public interaction and personal privacy; enriching outdoor living with passive open spaces and intense urban places; and by providing diverse living, working, and playing opportunities. The result brings a lot of people together in an urban setting that can accommodate diverse personal and community needs.
Urban villages may also be one of the key building blocks of sustainable urbanization. Villages can integrate social, environmental, and economic systems and they can produce multiple benefits from individual system functions. They mix land uses, increase urban densities, encourage pedes-trian travel, and are a pleasure to visit, work and live in.
As compact urban forms, they use land efficiently and reduce development pressures on agricultural lands, ecosystems, and open spaces. They reduce building and travel energy; and they help mitigate regional air quality by reducing automobile trips. Resources, such as land and energy, and supporting infrastructure are used much more efficiently than those required by sprawling development. Successful urban villages also attract people, and as social places they provide cultural and entertainment amenities that offer alternatives to material consumption.
Villages can serve neighborhoods or regions, local residents and visiting tourists. Villages can exist in rural or urban settings, have small to large populations, and house low to high numbers of people per acre. Structural patterns also vary, and can include:
linear main streets (St. Helena, CA),
rectangular grids (Mid Town, Sacramento, CA),
more organic systems (Nevada City, CA),
schemes centered on public squares (North Beach, San Francisco, CA).
Some villages mix uses vertically, such as living units over shops, while others zone uses horizontally. Villages are not franchised or monolithic urban complexes. They have uses, public spaces, architectural styles, and overall patterns that reflect local environments, history, culture, and community needs.
Public Opinion and Housing Markets
There appears to be reasonable market interest in aspects of New Urbanism styled, walkable communities. American LIVES found that 75% of respondents to a home buyer survey wanted to have the option to walk or bike to work or to shops1. Of these respondents, 20% were interested in living in developments that embodied all sustainable principles, including those that increased density and reduced lot size. This response corresponds to a Belden, Russonello and Stewart national focus group study that suggests that renters with no children and empty nesters are more likely to choose a smaller lot in a livable community area where they can walk to stores, etc2. A Fannie Mae survey also found that people believe that a great neigh-borhood is more important than a great house. Public opinion surveys also imply that people value urban village styled development as important places in the urban fabric3. In a study of treasured places in the Sacramento region, downtown areas rece! ived t he highest important urban neighborhood related response (17%), while shopping malls were of much less interest (6%)4.
In the same study, people were also asked what they would want improved to make living in the Sacramento region more enjoyable. Of all improvement responses, 58% focused on providing safe and pedestrian oriented environments that were served by public transit, 38% sought to limit sprawl and improve core areas, and only 6% wanted to build better suburbs and improve vehicular access.
More dense, transit served urban projects have often attracted a younger market. In the SF Bay Area, 65% of the residents near light rail stations are 17 to 34 years of age18. Suburban flight, however, may be a new trend that is attracting empty nesters back to higher density, more active urban areas5. Demographers and real estate specialists contend that their numbers - just a trickle now - may surge dramatically through the next decade. These people are seeking cultural and entertainment amenities, desirable residential neighborhoods, convenient shopping, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, excellent public transport-ation, and relative safety. High-density urban villages, such as the West End in Vancouver, Canada, attract the elderly along with the young.
Given that niche markets appear to exist for village living, the data suggests that the most suitable market may be younger households without children and empty nesters. In Sacramento County, for example, 27% of the population is between 20 and 35 years of age and 16% between 50 and 70 years6. This implies that the approximate market is 43% of the County's population and that some in this market could be attracted to village style living.
Long term environmental protection by urban villages is primarily due to reduced vehicular transit and land use efficiencies. When compared with low density development, vehicle trips can be reduced up to 28%7 and up to 43% less energy can be used for travel8. With mixed uses involving 1 to 1 job/housing ratios, up to 68% less energy can be used and average commute distances have been reduced by 28%8.
Part of making sustainable places is building to sufficient densities to make transit feasible and providing sufficient neighborhood level jobs, services, and shops to make the village district serve all daily needs. With densities beginning at 16 dwelling units per acre, public transit increases significantly and auto usage drops. Villages with adequate jobs, housing, shops, and entertainment that are serviced by good transit appear to be most effective in reducing automobile dependent leisure trips9. In 11 US metropolitan areas, mid to high rise neighborhoods with employment centers, retail, and service areas and 1.5 mile commute distances have at least 25% of the population walking or biking to work7.
The Potential of Urban Villages -
California's Central Valley as an Example
Land use is also much more efficient in urban villages. From a historical perspective, villages and urban places in history have had high people per acre densities. Renaissance Florence, Italy was a compact urban village, about 1,200 acres or 3 times the size of the UC Berkeley campus. From Florence's center, one could walk to the city edge in 15.5 minutes. The town was the work place and home to 54,000 souls10 and had a density of 45 people per gross acre11. Jericho, the world's first city, had a year round population of 166 people per gross acre. Ancient Rome had 150, Pompeii 65, and 97 people per gross acre lived in medieval Venice12.
In comparison, the current average density for communities in California's Central Valley is 4.5 people per acre13. The City of Sacramento has 5.2 people per acre. Davis, one of the denser cities in the Sacramento region, has 8.3 . Laguna West south of Sacramento, a recently built community designed to new urbanism principles, is similar to Davis at 8.414.
With creative planning and design, density can be increased without radically changing the housing options available in the Central Valley. If towns are planned with a diversity in living and neighborhood types, achieving an overall gross density of 16 people per acre with urban villages is quite feasible. Assuming 25 dwelling units per acre, a mixed use urban village serving 25% of the local population and occupying between 5% to 10% of a city's urbanized area, creates citywide urban systems that are 35% more land use efficient than most Central Valley communities in California15.
While not all elements of sustainable urban village theory are substantiated by rigorous research, the literature contains a convergence of ideas that identify the importance of preserving habitat and open space;
building communities that are more land use efficient;
developing low impact personal and public transportation systems;
geographically relating jobs and housing;
balancing resource use with ecological capacity to supply resources;
improving quality of human life.
Public opinion indicates concern with existing development patterns as well as limited interest in new alternatives that explore alternatives to low density single family living. Studies suggest that:
preserving habitat and green space is very important;
maintaining personal safety is one of the highest community objectives;
interest in improving existing cities and managing the negative aspects of sprawl;
access to nearby nature is sought;
youth and empty nesters are currently the most likely market to seek alternatives to low density, single family living.
The considerable growth forecasted for California during the next 30 to 40 years can be an opportunity for positive change. With proper planning, growth can help heal existing central cities and their surrounding low density districts. A more vibrant and diverse urbanization would help increase the quality of life, and help provide for a sustainable future.
Adapted from Integrated Sustainable Design : The Urban Village for the Central Valley. By Randall Fleming and Eric Rowell. Sustainable Communities Consortium, UC Davis. You may reach Randall Fleming at (530) 754-8408 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
1. American LIVES. Survey of 1,650 homebuyers in Florida, Texas, California, Michigan, Colorado, and Washington State.
2. Information presented at a national conference, 1998.
3. A national poll by Beldon, Russonello, and Stewart found that only 9% of respondents wanted to live in a large city.
4. Living in the Region: Survey of Resident's Treasured Places. (Interviews with 88 residents) Randall Fleming and Chris Weiss.
5. San Francisco Examiner, Suburban Flight. January, 1998. 6. 1990 US Census Data.
7. Transit Villages in the 21st Century. Michael Bernick and Robert Cervero. McGraw-Hill. (1997).
8. The Energy Yardstick: Using "Places3" to Create More Sustainable Communities. Eliot Allen and Michael McKeever. Center for Excellence for Sustainable Development. (1996).
9. Preliminary regional modeling studies by Professor Robert Johnston, UC Davis.
10. Public Transportation and Land Use Policy. Boris Pushkarev & Jeffrey Zupan. Indiana Univ. Press. (1977). 11. The people per acre figures are calculated on gross densities, including all urban lands such as roads, housing, parks, schools, open spaces, retail, commercial, manufacturing, and cultural uses. This approach allows a system basis to compare densities.
12. Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World. Chris Scarre. Dorling Kindersley, Inc. (1993).
13. Municipal Density and Farmland Protection: An Exploratory Study of Central Valley Patterns. Alvin Sokolow. Agricultural Issues Center, UC Davis (1996).
14.The Next American Metropolis. Peter Calthorpe. Princeton Architectural Press. (1993).
15. Mathematical land use modeling studies by Randall Fleming.
Linkages is published by the Institute for Ecological Health, 409 Jardin Place, Davis, CA 95616. (530) 756-6455. email@example.com. This periodical provides information, analysis, and viewpoints about California land issues. It explores the needs of different interests and creative solutions. Topics include, planning and economics, development, urban design, conservation, ecology, agriculture and land use practices. Most issues have a special focus on a subject or geographic area. Distribution includes many people in local government, the media and regional leaders, as well as IEH members. Sample copy $3. | <urn:uuid:fd586f93-7691-4941-9c4e-45d9b9057385> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fscr.org/html/2000-01-05.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930586 | 2,362 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Schneier on Security
A blog covering security and security technology.
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June 28, 2006
Applying CALEA to VoIP
"Security Implications of Applying the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act to Voice over IP," paper by Steve Bellovin, Matt Blaze, Ernie Brickell, Clint Brooks, Vint Cerf, Whit Diffie, Susan Landau, Jon Peterson, and John Treichler.
For many people, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) looks like a nimble way of using a computer to make phone calls. Download the software, pick an identifier and then wherever there is an Internet connection, you can make a phone call. From this perspective, it makes perfect sense that anything that can be done with a telephone, including the graceful accommodation of wiretapping, should be able to be done readily with VoIP as well.
The FCC has issued an order for all "interconnected" and all broadband access VoIP services to comply with Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) --- without specific regulations on what compliance would mean. The FBI has suggested that CALEA should apply to all forms of VoIP, regardless of the technology involved in the VoIP implementation.
Intercept against a VoIP call made from a fixed location with a fixed IP address directly to a big internet provider's access router is equivalent to wiretapping a normal phone call, and classical PSTN-style CALEA concepts can be applied directly. In fact, these intercept capabilities can be exactly the same in the VoIP case if the ISP properly secures its infrastructure and wiretap control process as the PSTN's central offices are assumed to do.
However, the network architectures of the Internet and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) are substantially different, and these differences lead to security risks in applying the CALEA to VoIP. VoIP, like most Internet communications, are communications for a mobile environment. The feasibility of applying CALEA to more decentralized VoIP services is quite problematic. Neither the manageability of such a wiretapping regime nor whether it can be made secure against subversion seem clear. The real danger is that a CALEA-type regimen is likely to introduce serious vulnerabilities through its "architected security breach."
Potential problems include the difficulty of determining where the traffic is coming from (the VoIP provider enables the connection but may not provide the services for the actual conversation), the difficulty of ensuring safe transport of the signals to the law-enforcement facility, the risk of introducing new vulnerabilities into Internet communications, and the difficulty of ensuring proper minimization. VOIP implementations vary substantially across the Internet making it impossible to implement CALEA uniformly. Mobility and the ease of creating new identities on the Internet exacerbate the problem.
Building a comprehensive VoIP intercept capability into the Internet appears to require the cooperation of a very large portion of the routing infrastructure, and the fact that packets are carrying voice is largely irrelevant. Indeed, most of the provisions of the wiretap law do not distinguish among different types of electronic communications. Currently the FBI is focused on applying CALEA's design mandates to VoIP, but there is nothing in wiretapping law that would argue against the extension of intercept design mandates to all types of Internet communications. Indeed, the changes necessary to meet CALEA requirements for VoIP would likely have to be implemented in a way that covered all forms of Internet communication.
In order to extend authorized interception much beyond the easy scenario, it is necessary either to eliminate the flexibility that Internet communications allow, or else introduce serious security risks to domestic VoIP implementations. The former would have significant negative effects on U.S. ability to innovate, while the latter is simply dangerous. The current FBI and FCC direction on CALEA applied to VoIP carries great risks.
Posted on June 28, 2006 at 12:01 PM
• 10 Comments
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Folks interested in securing their internet voice communications might be interested in Zfone.
Zfone is an open source application that implements secure peer-to-peer encryption for any voice communication application that uses RTP, which includes most peer-to-peer voice applications (Skype is a notable exception -- it uses its own proprietary and undocumented protocol).
Zfone is highly resistant to evesdropping, and since it does not rely on a carrier to secure your communications, it is not subject to CALEA.
I am trying to determine if this would apply to VoIP PBX systems. If I ran a VoIP PBX at my office and set it up so that employees could use a softphone or IP Handset to connect to the PBX remotely over IP, would I have to be CALEA compliant? Do I have to allow CALEA compliance for a traditional PBX, on calls from one extention to another, so that the Gov't can listen in when the CEO calls the CFO down the hall? Obviously anything that goes out over the PSTN is subject to intercept by law enforcement, but they would do that through the telco, right?
What a strange article. No mention whatever of encryption/authentication, of the Feds playing man-in-the-middle on-site at the VOIP provider, or of the difficulties of breaking into full-up peer-to-peer authenticated and encrypted solutions like Zfone.
They must imagine the government is trying to catch extremely naive terrorists and criminals.
while i feel the agoninzing pain of it all, nevertheless, internet transmissions of almost any sort, are (succedaneous to a myriad of U.S. court rulings), beyond the "pale" of that worrisome "search and seizure" paragraph.
So, I should say, that the "solution" is, not that one should lament the loss of what one never had, but, rather, that one should recognize the current legal landscape for what it is.
Clearly, the "way out" is to write a few programs (easily installable, C++) that send random "encrypted" messages whenever one is not at the console.
Just simply information overkill for the monitors. . . . the observors.
I'm quite serious here. One should have an e-mail add-on that will send latest-version PGP e-mails as often as possible . . . . which include encrypted "doo-doo" words . . . like . . . well, you figure it out.
Just send to randomly generated addresses . . .
The internet is a "royal jungle". They (the royalty, the monarch, sovereign power [whether legitimately constituted, or not, of the will of the people] have the means, legal and technical, to monitor. End of discussion. One must just get over that angst.
The interim solution is to flood them with mega-billions of bits sent into the ethosphere, that suggest almost anything, and, finally, imply everything.
Something I'm wondering about... how'd you make sure that the only calls wiretapped are the ones the FBI has the authority to wiretap? I'm not from the USA, and I'd like to be able to be sure that when I talk to my friends or family (who're also not from the USA) on Skype, for example, that the FBI cannot just listen in whenever it wants without even so much as having to get an OK from a local court...
Imagine trying to enforce this rule at a law firm. Many of them use VoIP. I know this because I install VoIP systems for a living. They won't do it. Why? It is a little something they like to call Attorney-Client privliege. I imagine, with lesser success, that the medical industry will cry HIPAA. Wall Street will cry fudiciary responsiblity & Sarbanes-Oxley.
I think the VoIP genie is out of the bottle and one cannot put it back in. So far the FCC's attempts to regulate VoIP have met with as much success as they've had trying to regulate the Internet.
CALEA is supposed to apply upstream from the location if it is a private network (though this court decision and recent FCC decrees have fuzzed the definition of "private network"), much as it always has been, so (presuming that the intra-office VoIP doesn't fall subject to CALEA) the upstream provider, which can be AT&T, Verizon, or whomever handles the connection to the PTSN, is responsible for the tap capability. This has always been there, and law firms are, on rare occasion, tapped when malfeasance seems to be provable and wiretap evidence is sought as clinching proof. Judges are loath to do this, though, because of the odds of it being overturned on appeal.
"They must imagine the government is trying to catch extremely naive terrorists and criminals."
No the U.S. TLA's tend to adopt a grab it all mentallity which CALEA enforces.
Basically the NSA amongst others gather so much data that is not possible for the plaintext to be analysed in any way shape or form unless there is a very speciffic reason.
Post 9/11 this enabled various agencies to wind back events to try and get back to the principles. This was of limmited success due to many (mainly beuracratic) issues. The result was various ideas and other leftovers where lumped together into the Patriot act etc.
The thing that makes CALEA such a pain is the authorities can require prety much any type of survalence on data (voice video etc etc) and stick the telecom operator with fines that are so large for failier that some pundits warned it could cause the telcos to go bankrupt...
Quite a bit of CALEA on both in TDM and in the IP world was subsidized from the tax payers a few years go. All the work to encode and reduce the size of the voice packet is already done by the conversation endpoints so the technology is capture and store. Even if you don't have the last leg, analysis or data mining, you at least have the raw data.
Encryption is your only tool in this matter as the first poster indicated.
Can't believe some of the normally sane folks will say something like
" ... VoIP, like most Internet communications, are communications for a mobile environment. ... "
Are they all in lala land or just starting inhaling and found the bliss .. 99% of VOIP is STATIC.
IMS .. the biggest thing for IP telephony is quiet ways from deployment .. and mobile networks already have to comply with CALEA .. dah !!!
Have these folks lost their mind totally or politically .. I know a couple of these guys .. and I always thought they were sane .. but this is just plain junk.
Saying something is "not clear" or we are "concerned" about something is like claiming I am concerned about global warming .. SHOW ME where is the issue.
Here political inclinations far outweigh their technical insight .. clearly when 10 guys author a paper like this .. .. the intent is ALWAYS political .. for techical papers they will kill each other to keep them off.
Bruce keeps making political statements... keep doing it and only person reading this blog will be howard dean.
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Results 1 to 15 of 15
04-04-2009, 06:05 AM #1
position of shuttle during smash + j.smash
i dont exactly have proper training with badminton, but i would like to think i'm decent, but still learning, so could someone clear this up for me (as there usually isnt anyone to correct me whenever i play):
i was wondering about the shuttle position while smashing, i usually get a relatively high powered shot with good angle just by weight bearing on the left leg and sort of kicking with the right (almost like a tennis kick serve), when i hit these the shuttle is usually just in front of my body, therefore i get all the momentum and body weight into the shot - i assume every does this? or is there a better way?
also recently i've been trying to learn jump smashes, and i just cant seem to hit them over the net, i can hit them with lots of power, but i cant clear the net, i'm just wondering where the shuttle position should be when i do jump serves. in front of body? directly above body??
that way i can practice the jump smash more correctly thanks, or alter my normal ground smash if theres a better method,
04-04-2009, 09:30 AM #2
Check out some videos on youtube by Rasmussen. It's excellent. I have posted this years ago and have always been told to keep practising - not very useful back then. I think questions pertaining to timing, positioning, as best as anyone can describe here in all possible constituent breakdowns, it is better to keep on trying. I started off by hopping a little for a smash and then eventually going for a real jump whack.
Check out Rasmussen's video first.
04-04-2009, 11:11 AM #3
Personally I wouldn't attempt a jump smash without guidance from either a very good club player or a coach. Rsamussen's videos are excellent, and obviously he knows what he's talking about, but a video can only demonstrate. A coach will correct errors, help with breaking techniques down, offer suggestions for practise, and help you to avoid injury that you might otherwise incur due to poor technique.
Jump smash is an advanced technique.
04-04-2009, 11:36 AM #4
ok so jump smash is just like regular smashing
you have to jump and turn your body alittle bit
go to where you would do a regular smash then turn your body to the right alittle and jump smash using your whole arm
04-04-2009, 05:37 PM #5
oh okays, cools, yea i've chked Ras's jump smash vid, been trying it, he tell us to use both arms to start low and throw them up so it goes with our body momentum to get a high jump, but i always end up just jumping and not hitting it on time, as it takes way too long to bring my arm up and hit it, i usually just begin with the racket arm back already, but i think i might give the little baby jumps and then slowly increase but by the looks of it i should find a coach thanks guys
04-04-2009, 05:39 PM #6
04-05-2009, 07:45 AM #7
my advice is for you to reach a certain level of proficiency with your normal scissor-jump smash first. The description of your smashing technique sounds a little queer to me...maybe you could post a video of yourself..
04-05-2009, 07:51 AM #8
ah yes scissor jump that's the word i was looking for, just googled it up, yea that's the one i usually do, but as said no training thus the dont know terms sorry, i decided to go to one of the cccbadminton socials at aqualink this coming thurs i'll probably find someone to help me out ^^ doesnt appear i can work out a proper jump smash alone
04-08-2009, 06:48 AM #9
try hop smash first. slwoly u will fnd jumping smash 2nd nature
04-08-2009, 07:03 AM #10
04-08-2009, 10:09 AM #11
agree with monster on this one, btw my first quote...horee
i also started the jump smash with the assistance of rasmussens vids. Rasmussen rocks! funny how he speaks (check out the rasmussens footwork too)
What i find most difficult is to get the timing right. if you're too early or too late you have a big chance to smash in the net.
Now i luv forcing high lifts so that i can execute it with powerrrr.
Anyway my suggestion to keep practicing it. ask your partner to give you extremely high lifts so that you have plenty of time to get in the right position. like rasmussen says jump, open up, smash, end in the right position. remember timing is the key and focus on the technique. personally the scissors,back and side jump smash is more difficult and thus for later concern. cheers and goodluck!
"if it bleeds...we can kill it"
04-28-2009, 10:42 AM #12
whats a hop smash?
04-29-2009, 04:35 AM #13
where you jump with lower leg muscles,like skipping, its a hop, if you smsh mid air than its a hop smash
04-29-2009, 08:04 PM #14
04-29-2009, 08:48 PM #15
Try not to jump smash 'defensive clears'. Your racket might have more contact with the feathers and result in a failure. Try to jump smash bad clears or offensive clears =)
By david14700 in forum Techniques / TrainingReplies: 10: 09-17-2005, 06:50 AM
By shawn30_k in forum Techniques / TrainingReplies: 12: 06-09-2005, 09:20 PM
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How many kids can sit behind an SUV without being seen by the driver in the rearview mirrors? This is not a trick question. In fact, knowing the answer could save a child’s life.
According to the consumer group Kids and Cars, as many as 62 children could be in that blind zone and you’d never know it. And that’s a huge problem.
Your driveway is the last place you’d expect a child to get hit by a car. But Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Cars, says at least 100 children are killed there each year in backover accidents. Another 2,400 children are seriously injured this way each year.
It happened just last week in Covington, Wash., near Seattle. Mariana Lopez, an 18-month old girl, was accidentally run over as her aunt backed up her Ford F-150 pickup — a half-ton vehicle with a huge rear blind zone. The aunt couldn’t see the toddler, who was no higher than the tire.
“People need to understand that there’s actually an epidemic going on right now,” Fennell says. “Two children every week are dying because they can’t be seen behind these larger vehicles that we’re driving.”
Like Mariana, most of the victims are toddlers 12 to 23 months old. They have just learned to walk and often try to follow mom, dad or some other relative to the vehicle. They have no concept of the danger involved.
The fact that it’s usually a family member behind the wheel makes this a tragedy within a tragedy.
Bigger cars are taking a tragic toll
“The problem has gotten worse with the increased popularity of SUVs, pickup trucks and minivans as family vehicles,” says Mike Quincy, an automotive expert with Consumer Reports. “Some of the blind spots are incredible.”
During the last few years, Consumer Reports measured the blind zones behind hundreds of vehicles using both short and tall drivers. Here’s the range they found for each category:
- Sedans: 12 feet to 24 feet
- Minivans: 15 feet to 26 feet
- Sport Utility Vehicles: 13 feet to 29 feet
- Pickup trucks: 23 feet to 35 feet
With some of these large pickups, the blind zone can be longer than the driveway.
The 2006 Jeep Commander Limited had the biggest blind spot of any vehicle Consumer Reports tested – a stunning 69 feet with a short driver. With an optional backup camera, that huge blind spot is nearly eliminated.
Is federal action needed to cut the tragic toll?
This may surprise you, but there is no federal standard for rear visibility. Last week, the “Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2007” (S.694) passed the Senate Commerce Committee and is now headed to the full Senate for a vote.
The bill, which covers a number of automotive safety issues, would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to create rules that would expand the required field of vision behind a vehicle.
The bill does not say how this would be accomplished; that would be worked out in the rulemaking process. But it does list some possible options, including additional mirrors, sensors and cameras.
S.694 would also require the Department of Transportation to establish a database of injuries and deaths caused by non-traffic, not-crash accidents. Currently, no federal agency tracks them.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents nine of the major car companies, supports the bill.
“We think it advances safety,” says spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist. “It’s good public policy and good for children. We think all of this makes a lot of sense.”
There’s no need to wait for Congress
Backup cameras are now available — standard or as options — on a number of large vehicles. With that camera the big blind spot in the rear disappears. Some of the safety systems also have sensors that set off an alarm if something is back there.
Janette Fennell, the Kansas mom who founded Kids and Cars, drives an SUV with a built-in backup camera. "I'd never drive a car that doesn't have it,” she told me.
As soon as she puts her car in reverse the camera comes on and automatically shows what’s behind her vehicle in the dashboard navigation screen.
You can also get aftermarket cameras and sensors. Consumer Reports recently tested the VR3 from Virtual Reality Video Labs (under $150). The editors say the wireless unit is easy to install. “Its effective enough to be an alternative to factory systems,” they say.
According to Kids and Cars, 60 children were killed last year in frontover accidents. That's more than one child every week.
Many people who know about the rear blind spot back their vehicles into the driveway. They figure they’ll be able to see anything in front of them as they pull forward. But backing into the driveway does not eliminate the danger.
"Some of the vehicles are so large and you're so high off the ground that you can't see little ones in front of the vehicle," Fennell warns.
That’s what happened to 8-year old Douglas Bransom one year ago this week.
"Douglas was the cautious one," his father, Phil Bransom, told me. "He would always ask if he could cross the street."
Douglas was walking home on the sidewalk in a quiet neighborhood in West Linn, Oregon. Phil Bransom thinks his son dropped a toy at the top of a neighbor’s driveway and bent down to pick it up, just as the neighbor was moving his SUV forward.
Douglas was hit and dragged into the street. He died at the scene.
“It happens so fast,” Douglas Bransom’s dad says. “It only takes a second for your life to change forever.”
Phil Bransom says technology alone won't solve this problem. He says people need to know where their children are when they get into their car.
"Just take the time to slow down,” he says. “Take time to think about your child being in or around the car.”
Bransom always walks around his vehicle and looks around for neighborhood kids before getting behind the wheel. He knows what can happen if he doesn’t.
- Kids and Cars Website
- Kids and Cars Safety Act of 2007
- The Danger of Blind Spots
- Wireless device that can see where drivers don't
- Blind Zone Measurements
- Blind Zone Measurement: Best and Worst
- Backup Systems
© 2013 msnbc.com. Reprints | <urn:uuid:2b07399f-17a6-47ca-b156-47a5ba8a36d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18789538/ns/business-consumer_news/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971573 | 1,414 | 2.28125 | 2 |
A Confederate Map 12
It was the weekend of the 4th of July that I set for the treasure hunt. I had taken the old rifle, removed the butt plate and pulled out a folded, yellow piece of parchment. I understood the writing easily. It was drawn to show a point on the East that said Parker, with a line from there going West 1962 ft.
Another point on the map said Indian Mound with a line running South 849 feet. Where they met was the proverbial X with a notation beside it that said 690 feet.
Here is how it looked. Not much of a treasure map I thought to myself. I realized that the point labeled Parker was the grave of Mr. Parker that had originally started the plantation. I also knew from the map exactly which Indian Mound the other point was supposed to be. I bought a good compass, borrowed a survey instrument and I had a hundred foot tape. I set my plan in motion.
I needed help and finally told Mark (Mailrider) who eagerly agreed to help me after reading the journal. Denise was gung-ho to start and I also brought Marian and GuyK into the search after swearing them to secrecy. Cookie was kept in the loop by cell phone.
As friends and bloggers, I thought it would be fun for all of us to write about our experience. They were all invited up for the 4th of July that year.
I wrote all about the fun we had in this post.
The weekend ended, we all packed up to leave and I watched GuyK leave with his camper. Marian pulled out after many hearty good-byes, then we all got in our trucks and left for home too.
An hour later I met my friends in Yazoo City and we headed back to camp for the treasure hunt. Dad and the rest of the family were gone and we opened the camp back up, got the map out and looked it over. Mark and I knew we would have to do most of the walking and measuring but it was thrilling to actually start.
The treasure hunt was on!
Labels: Confederate Treasure | <urn:uuid:78199554-ec52-4911-85ec-140e1a03a7cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bodocktimes.blogspot.com/2009/07/confederate-map-12.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988907 | 433 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Here we have an arm from a cactus that had so many blooms, it broke under the weight. I feel like there could be a fairy tale about the cactus that tried to bloom too much. We could call the cactus Pokey; and the other main character, the cactus that bloomed just the right amount, we’ll call Pimsey.
Maybe we should have an evil Queen, Vordella, and a shining Knight by the name of Silmark. Vordella controls the Cholla Army while Silmark, speaking in cactus, requests the help of the Hedgehogs. A battle ensues, but Pokey is more interested in playing with the snails and slugs and doesn’t realize when Vordella, using mind tricks, convinces him to help the nasty Chollas gain access to the Hedgehog store of gold.
Well, you get the idea. You can finish the fairy tale in the comments. | <urn:uuid:679a1a7f-f35a-469b-87cc-fe28833a8913> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cactusjungle.com/blog/2008/05/30/fairy-tale-cactus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923615 | 200 | 1.523438 | 2 |
U.S., Allies Optimistic Gadhafi's 'Days Are Numbered'
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top diplomats are gathering in Istanbul, Turkey, this week to talk about Libya amid fresh optimism that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi may be looking for a way out.
French officials have said that the Gadhafi regime is "sending messengers everywhere" to explore ways to end the conflict. U.S. officials have suggested that his regime is suffering from low morale and is running out of supplies.
Before setting off to Istanbul, Clinton told reporters that she's seen "contradictory signals" from Gadhafi's camp.
"He has yet to meet the redlines that are set by the international community to cease violence against his people, withdraw his forces, and step down from power," she said alongside her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Wednesday. "Neither of us can predict to you the exact day or hour that Gadhafi will leave power, we do understand and agree that his days are numbered."
Dartmouth College professor Dirk Vandewalle says he has his doubts about the optimistic chatter in diplomatic circles.
"I'm reasonably skeptical because we heard those kinds of reports two months ago already," Vandewalle says. "What we have seen so far gives no indication that the [Libyan] government is running out of steam, so to speak."
Like many Libya watchers, Vandewalle says he is surprised that it has taken this long to force Gadhafi from power. In the long run, he says he's sure Gadhafi will run out of cash and support, but the Libyan leader has proven to be more resilient than anyone expected.
"This could take a little while," he says. "And, meanwhile, what we see is that from a military point of view, the situation remains very much stalemated, with villages changing hands literally almost by the hour."
The Dartmouth professor, who is on his way to Benghazi to help the rebel government prepare for the day after Gadhafi, says everyone underestimated the Libyan leader's staying power.
The president of the American Libyan Council, former journalist Fadel Lamen, is not surprised. He says Gadhafi is playing the international community once again.
"He's just telling them, 'Hey, we can talk about it, let's talk about it,' but he's not committing to anything in writing," he says. "He's not committing to anything that is tangible, that can be discussed."
Lamen says there is a growing sense of fatigue in Washington and "self-made optimism" in Europe. The morale of Gadafi's loyalists may be running low, he says, but "there are people still fighting for him."
Lamen points to troubles with the rebel government saying "the opposition has not come up with a political solution that they can communicate... to the people around Gadhafi looking for a way out."
He says he is worried that as this drags on, the rebels could lose support and more cracks could emerge among big international players. There is another complicating factor, Vandewalle says: More and more countries are trying their hand at diplomacy, and despite this "multiplicity of conversations," it is not clear which country or organization has the credibility to find a political solution or whether the Gadhafi government is really willing to consider these proposals.
So, he sees at stalemate on the diplomatic front as well. | <urn:uuid:bfba7689-009c-4c51-ad02-e85907b7cf97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weku.fm/post/us-allies-optimistic-gadhafis-days-are-numbered | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978701 | 713 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Go Solid with This Solid-state DriveThere are three important characteristics that determine the usefulness of a recording hard drive, which are, without question, data transfer rate, reliability, and low operating noise. The Intel 120GB Solid State Drive doesn't just give you all three of these vital characteristics, it completely embodies them. More than just a mere 120GB hard drive, the Intel 120GB Solid State Drive has no moving parts whatsoever. That means that the physical process required by a regular hard drive to locate and read the information from a spinning cylinder is completely removed from the equation, reducing data access time to only 0.1ms.
What does that mean for you? You get higher track counts, bit depths, and sample rates in your recording sessions, eliminating the most common bottleneck in a typical DAW setup. Another great aspect of drives such as the Intel 120GB Solid State Drive and their lack of moving parts is that it's the moving parts that tend to fail. In addition to their ability to operate for 1,000,000 hours on average, without failing, Intel 120GB Solid State Drives are virtually impervious to shock and vibration. The noise generated by standard hard drives is also a result of moving parts. The sheer number of perfectly good recordings that have been ruined by the helicopter-like sound of a drive spinning up defies the imagination. The Intel 120GB Solid State Drive, on the other hand, produces 0dB of noise, so you'll never have to worry about tracking with your PC in the room.
Intel 120GB Solid State Drive Features at a Glance:
- Data capacity: 120GB
- Access time: 0.1ms
- Operating noise: 0dB
- MTBF (mean time between failures): Over 1,000,000 hours
- Environmental tolerance: Vibration up to 16G (shock up to 1,500G)
- Operational temperature range: 32-158 degrees F
- Interface: SATA - 3GB/second
- Form factor: 2.5" (requires HDAdapter for install into a regular desktop system - see recommended accessories)
- Internal cache: 64MB
- Power supply: 5V (+/-5%) | <urn:uuid:59c9927d-06c6-4cf3-90ac-49b1ce640076> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gearnuts.com/store/detail/SATA120SSD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931085 | 448 | 2.03125 | 2 |
What is computer power management? Computer power management (CPM) features automatically place computers into a low-power "sleep mode" after a period of inactivity. Simply touching the mouse or keyboard "wakes" the computer in seconds. Your network administrator can activate these settings quickly and easily across your entire network.
It is easier than you think. There are many ways to activate sleep settings across computer networks. In addition to recognition for your efforts, EPA provides a number of resources, including free one-on-one technical consultations, to help you determine the best way to activate power management features in your IT environment. | <urn:uuid:b4623ee4-9e60-4440-accb-afeb7b7e824a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_low_carbon_join | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920196 | 125 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Mon October 3, 2011
U.S. Couple In Russia Sends Their Children To Progressive Russian School
LYNN NEARY, host: Now, the story of some students who arrived as foreigners in Russia. When New York Times reporter Clifford Levy and his wife Julie Dressner moved to Russia five years ago they chose to use the time to fully immerse their children in the country, opting for a Russian education over the local international school.
DAVID GREENE, host: And their Russian education began in classrooms where everything was foreign. The children did not speak Russian, even though that's the language everyone around them was speaking. Clifford Levy and Julie Dressner called it their experiment in extreme schooling. And they believed their experiment was successful. When I'm not hosting MORNING EDITION, I live in Russia, and got to know Cliff and Julie in the journalism community there. The couple is back in the U.S. now. Cliff wrote about his children in the York Times magazine. And Cliff and Julie joined me to talk about what they learned.
CLIFFORD LEVY: We have three children. When we got to Russia our youngest son was 4 and a half. His name is Emmett. Our daughter Arden was 7. And our oldest daughter Danya was 9.
Emmett was a sort of a separate case. And we like to joke around that when we first put Emmett in a Russian school at 4 and a half he barely even realized that the teachers were speaking another language. It's really quite stark, the difference between how a 4-year-old can experience this and how a 7-year-old or a 9-year-old can experience this.
GREENE: Julie, you produced a documentary about the family's experiences and I think one thing that comes across is how articulate the kids are.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: So we had heard a lot of things about the Soviet-style schools. All the kids are sitting there very straight. They have to like put one arm up when they want to raise their hands. And it's all very strict and the teachers are not nice and they yell at the kids and call them stupid. I did know that I didn't want to go to a school like that.
GREENE: So the expectations were not great.
JULIE DRESSNER: Yeah, we set out to look for a school that had taken the opportunity to innovate and to keep those parts of the sort of Soviet-style education that made sense to keep, and to jettison the others. And we've found a school that, even on its website, it was as if it was speaking directly to what we were looking for.
GREENE: Well, Cliff, you wrote about the first day when you dropped the kids off at school. It sounds like it was just torturous for a parent.
LEVY: Yeah, there were a lot of days early on when we were in Moscow where we would drop them off and then we would say goodbye to them and give them hugs. And then walk away and say this kind of silent prayer to ourselves that they would make it through the day without falling apart. There were few days when they did fall apart and we had to go to the school to pick them up, or go to the school to sooth them a little bit.
And then there were, of course, many days when they made it through but got home were upset and troubled. This caused a lot of conversations between Julie and I - were we doing the right thing, what are we scarring our children? Well, maybe this is just a huge mistake.
GREENE: One of the scenes in the video is when Emmett, your young son, was in kindergarten being corrected by a teacher.
EMMETT LEVY: Sometimes I actually didn't understand like what I had to do.
(SOUNDBITE OF A VIDEO)
LEVY: I feel like I don't know this. I can't do this. What is this for? Sometimes I just get frustrated.
GREENE: That was Emmett kind of looking back and taking us through the scene. But can you both tell us what you were seeing?
DRESSNER: You see him crumbling his test paper in his face and hiding his face under it, and falling down on the desk. And it takes him a long time before he recovers and hands in his crumpled paper.
You know, the thing that was surprising about watching that was I thought Emmett was the one of the three kids who had had an easy transition.
GREENE: But he now speaks fluent Russian. I mean I've, you know, seen your three kids over the last couple of years and I mean it's extraordinary. They're speaking Russian better than most adults I meet in Moscow.
LEVY: Yeah, that, you know, it has filled is with great pride and it also annoyed us a bit, too, because they correct our Russian or they used to correct our Russian.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LEVY: And we've found ourselves in these situations where we had to ask them for help. So you can understand why it's a little bit humiliating when you have to say to your 8 or 9-year-old child, can you remind me what the word is for this.
GREENE: And, Cliff, your writing these very important stories in The New York Times from Moscow, and your son and that might be helping you with a Russian in translation?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LEVY: Exactly. Exactly, I mean my Russian was pretty good by the end. But I will never and was never able to shed my clunky American accent. Emmett especially, but all three kids have these gorgeous Russian accents. I mean the big issue now is how do we keep up their Russian now they were back in New York. And Julie and I are both kind of trying to figure that out.
New York obviously is a place with a huge Russian-speaking immigrant community; their hundreds of thousands of people here who speak Russian. So we're now looking for ways to keep what they've got. And Emmett especially is in danger of losing his Russian. At that age it's kind of easy come, easy go. He's nine now and so I think if we don't keep him speaking a bit for the next few years, his Russian could really atrophy.
GREENE: So you might be hanging out a lot in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GREENE: That's The New York Times Clifford Levy and his wife Julie Dressner, talking about their family's experiment with extreme schooling in Russia.
Thank you both for joining me. It really was great catching up.
LEVY: Thanks for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:479a2ed1-9d59-4b1b-9243-23e711c14a4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ketr.org/post/us-couple-russia-sends-their-children-progressive-russian-school | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988312 | 1,470 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The June issue of PHP Architect is out. My column this month is on dependency injection, a topic which I’ve been warming up to lately.
First there was CORBA. Then insane complexity of CORBA was supplanted by the intolerable complexity of EJB. Influenced by an agile mindset and the power of Unit testing, a group of java programmers began to construct simpler alternatives to EJB. Thus, the inversion of control frameworks were born. Martin Fowler came along, clarified and renamed the pattern dependency injection. This activity has originated in the Java world, but the pattern applies in PHP as well.
It is heartening to see an industry solve a problem over the course of a decade, moving from complex vendor driven middle-ware to simple patterns. The thing I like most about DI is how dead simple it really is.
Fowler’s article is a must read on the topic. However, I have two problems with most of the introductions to dependency injection. One is the use of irrelevant girl kisses boy style examples. The other is the over-emphasis on the container. The whole point of dependency injection is to move away from invasive component architectures, such as EJB. From my point of view, it is far more interesting to explore what impact dependency injection has on your design than what features your container has.
With that in mind, I tried to write an introduction to dependency injection that avoiding talking about DI containers and that tried to use real, relevant examples. For an example, I started with a typical, run of the mill dependency, torn from a popular PHP library that shall remain nameless, but easy to guess. Then I build on that with a plug-able backend in a common PHP style and then again using dependency injection.
For me dependency injection is relatively new territory, but one that I feel is an important technique. I’d like to see this technique become more widespread in PHP, especially in the current crop of frameworks.
I have a significant bias, but I think you should read the article. I hope you find it useful. | <urn:uuid:2ea9ceb4-e108-45c1-bf58-0ed1f3c5688d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.procata.com/blog/archives/2006/06/26/dependency-injection-in-php/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950798 | 425 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Baseball clinic a hit with kids
Former Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Jack Perconte, talks with young baseball players during a baseball clinic at Triton College, featuring former Major League players. The event was sponsored by the Hanover Insurance Group. | Photo courtesy of Hanov
Updated: July 22, 2012 6:21AM
Video games may be keeping your son from a multimillion-dollar deal, according to men who played baseball at the game’s highest level.
Kids spending their summer on the couch with a joystick in hand instead of in the neighborhood park with a bat in hand is hampering the national pastime, according to members of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association who assembled at Triton College on June 9 for a youth baseball clinic.
When asked what needs to be done to get youth back focused on baseball, former Chicago Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger, who pitched 14 years in the big leagues and made the 2002 National League All-Star team, simply said, “Get rid of video games.”
“I would think the contracts these guys are getting today would get parents initiating their sons getting involved in baseball,” said Milt Pappas, who pitched for the Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves during his 17-year career. “When you see guys making $10 million, $15 million a year, that should be incentive enough.
“When I started in 1957, the minimum salary was $6,000. Now it is $480,000. If you can play one of two years in the Major Leagues, you are set.”
Pappas, the last player to throw a no-hitter at Wrigley Field (Sept. 2, 1972), said he remembers playing sandlot baseball as a youth from morning until the street lights came on at night.
“But there are girls and so many other interests that boys have now,” Pappas lamented. “It’s sad.”
The clinic, sponsored by Hanover Insurance Group, gave Pappas reason for hope though.
“It’s great to see,” Pappas said of the 150 youth gathered for the clinic. “The American youth is still interested in baseball.”
Pappas said by parents promoting the game, it will filter down to their sons. Continuing to follow a Major League team will keep attention on the game within a family and help foster a love of the sport with youth, Pappas stated.
John Martin, who won two World Series titles, was running a fielding drill and complimented Matthew Jensen of Schaumburg on his footwork.
Jensen listened attentively and then went to the back of the line.
“These guys have the experience,” Jensen said, when asked about being praised by a former big leaguer. “These guys have been there, put the work in and know what they are talking about.”
Former five-time All-Star Steve Sax flipped some baseballs to Craig Rowland, 13, and commented that the youth had “pop” in his bat. He then asked the Batavia teen, if we wanted to sign now or go to college.
“I’ve got power. I’ll work harder,” Rowland said referring to what Sax’s comments meant to him. “This is somebody who knows what to do. He can fix things or make you better.”
Sax said parents and coaches need to make baseball the sport for youth.
“They all stay home and play video games,” Sax said of the drop-off in baseball interest among young people. “There are so many options for youth today. You need to get the whole family involved in baseball.”
Bill Campbell, who pitched in the Majors for 15 years and twice was American League Reliever of the Year, said efforts like the Triton youth clinic are invaluable in getting baseball in the forefront of youth’s attention.
“You help kids understand the game, and it helps promote the game,” Campbell said. “We need to get the tide turned back toward the game.
Jack Perconte, an infielder who played seven years in the Majors, including a stint with the Chicago White Sox, said efforts like the clinic are “on the right track.”
“You teach them to hit, to run, to play the game and they will be a fan of the game,” Perconte said. “Get them to try. You get them while they’re young and they’ll follow the game.”
Former Chicago Cub outfielder and pinch hitter Gene Hiser said getting youth playing the game is key. He remembers playing on a team where it was a double-header every Saturday and a triple-header every Sunday.
“We were 77-5 and we followed the (Baltimore) Oriole book (for how to play the game),” Hiser said. “You didn’t have the errors and mistakes that you see now in the Majors.”
Hiser said getting kids to play Wiffle ball with their parents in the yard is a way to start building interest in baseball.
“Let them have fun and play the game,” Hiser said. “That’s a good way to start.”
Keith Lavin, a Glen Ellyn parent, said the clinic is a great way for youth and former Major Leaguers to interact. For him, the clinic, now in its fourth year, has become an annual event.
“I’ve got a picture of Minnie Minoso tying a little girl’s shoe,” Lavin said. “The clinic has become a marvelous family day.”
Evan Werner, 6, of Lombard, didn’t know Bob Miller, who pitched five seasons in the Majors, was the youngest pitcher to ever beat the New York Yankees. He just knew it as a Major Leaguer who signed his baseball.
As he went through the autograph line, Werner looked at Miller and said, “Thank you, baseball player.”
At least for this day, baseball was still king. | <urn:uuid:ea5a661c-711a-4d64-ad65-8948bb7305c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://elmwoodpark.suntimes.com/sports/13183384-419/baseball-clinic-a-hit-with-kids.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97807 | 1,331 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Taking Sharp Pictures with your iPhone or Smartphone
It seems simple enough, hold up your iphone or your smartphone and press the camera button and “viola” beautiful pictures all the time right? Well, not so fast. I had a friend ask me, man how do I get my pictures in focus when I use my iphone? After a little bit of getting to the heart of the issues I found out that he had no idea of how the camera in his phone works at all. It seems like a simple thing but lets break it down.
With most smart phones and specifically an iphone there are two ways to “take” the shot, one is the icon of the camera on the touch screen and, two the volume + button on the left side of the phone. (with the latest iOS software). I’m sure with other smartphones depending on the one that you have there may be a dedicated camera button in a similar location as the volume + button on the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 4s.
Holding the iPhone or Smartphone
If you observe most people using their iPhone or camera on their Smartphone you’ll see that they usually use the “one handed, eye level” method or the “two handed, arms extended” method. The problem with both of these methods, and many other methods are that you have no stability when taking the picture. If you are in “full sun” outdoors and there’s a lot of light, this may not be an issue. The problem is when you get indoors, and you want to take some pictures of your friends, pets, kits, etc. There may not be enough light, and your pictures end up blurry. What happens is when you press the camera icon or the volume up key to take the picture you usually move the camera in the direction you are pressing the button at. Please see the pictures below for an illustration.
Other factors that contribute to blurry images with your iPhone or your Smartphone are the weight of the device. Because the iPhone or your Smartphone is relatively light, it is more susceptible to shaking, twisting, or turning the phone when you take the picture. If you use one of the two methods above to take your pictures you will most likely twist or turn the phone the moment you press the button. Please see the pictures for examples.
The best ways to fix the problem is different for every individual. There are basics, but it can and will change from person to person depending on your body type, how large your hands are, what your subject is, and the location you are taking the picture. The important thing is to learn the basics and understand the theory and you will be on your way to taking blurry free pictures in no time.
Seems silly that your breathing would affect taking sharp images but its true. It’s a one in a handful of factors that may affect the sharpness of your images. So how should we breathe in order to take sharper images? Very slowly exhaling! When you hold your breath even for a short period of time right before taking the picture your whole body starts to shake. Your body starts to shake because your muscles tense up and the strain in the muscle creates the shaking. I’m not saying that your whole body will start to convulse, but it will start as a very small shake and start to increase over time. When taking sharp pictures you want to eliminate as many factors that contribute to the instability as possible to take the sharpest possible pictures.
One of the basics is to brace yourself. What does this mean. Just think of your body and legs as two of the three legs of a tripod. You want to relax your body enough and brace your self against the back of a chair, a table. Use your one hand as a brace and put the other hand on top so that there is more surface area touching the table which in theory should be stable.
Use an anchor
Find an object like a wall or table or the floor and anchor your phone to it. If you anchor to an object that is not moving then you are more likely to stay still. You can try sitting on the floor for interesting low shots. The problem start when you squat and are trying to get a low shot you are basically on two legs of a tripod. Your body will start to sway back and forth and this will cause blurry images.
Use your iPhone ear bud shutter release
This fix is one of my favorites. Use one hand to stabilize the iPhone and use your ear buds with the volume control and use it like a cable release. A cable release is like extending the shutter on button on a long cable and in the iPhone’s case you use the volume up button on the ear buds to take the picture. This is very useful to prevent shake because you don’t have to touch the phone to take the picture. All you need to do is press the volume up on the head phones and “bingo” you just took a picture. In the pictures below I’ve shown a couple of ways that you can use this technique. In the first image you can use a towel or other object to stabilize your iPhone, and use your other hand to take the picture with the ear buds. In the second picture you can just stabilize your hand to the table or other “anchor” point and use the ear buds to take the picture. Come up with your own techniques to use is great feature of the iPhone. Whatever you come up with keep in mind the basic theory and develop good practices.
Now that you know what to look out for and why you get blurry images, you can use the “Fixes” you read about here to create your own techniques to help prevent blurry pictures. I must warn you that it will take some trial and error. Once you start to understand your body, your own limitations and get better at identifying the situations when you get the most blurry images, you can hone your solutions to the problem and get better and better results. Results is what we care about. So go out and take many pictures and hone your skills. Happy Picture Taking!!
Use the comments area to share your techniques and ideas on how to take sharper pictures with your iPhone or Smartphone. | <urn:uuid:2ea01b20-7bf4-4583-bb33-ce893fc2ca84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photoheadonline.com/2012/04/10/take-sharp-pictures-iphone-or-smartphone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927451 | 1,292 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Speech recognition or taking notes is a very common practice depending on your profession or usage. For e.g. it is understood that today's mobile devices offer some kind of speech recognition and application control, whether it is directions or dialing a number or the other most common usage, playing music.
Note taking is another feature that is useful in recording findings in the field for later reference.
The very first step to all of these applications is to be able to capture the audio via the microphone and process it as needed.
So today we will look at the microphone API provided in Mango and we will put together a very simple sample to get you started.
What is involved?
At the very minimum, we need to record the audio and save it for playback. This gives the user the very basic ability to take notes.
The following key points should be noted:
- Microphone class: This is the class provided by the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio namespace that allows us access to the microphone api.
- public event EventHandler<EventArgs> BufferReady: This is an event provided when the microphone is ready to release the buffered audio. We need to handle this event and store the audio for playback.
- Microphone.Start: As the name suggests, we call this to start recording.
- Microphone.Stop: We call this to stop recording. One key point to note here is that calling Microphone.Stop immediately clears out the buffer.
As you will see in the application, we don't call stop immediately when the user toggles the microphone or clicks the play button. Instead we let the microphone raise the buffer ready event at the selected buffer duration to capture the last bit of audio data before stopping recording.
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework-> As you must have guessed from the microphone namespace, we require a reference to the XNA framework. The microphone API is part of the XNA framework and requires simulating the XNA game loop. If you are not familiar with XNA, XNA is a rich framework provided by Microsoft for game and graphics based applications.
Understanding the sample
Prerequisites: Install the Mango tools from http://create.msdn.com. This should give you Visual Studio Express 2010 and the Windows Phone SDK that you need to develop applications for Windows Phone.
1. Launch Visual Studio and browse to the solution file and open it. The application is built using the Silverlight "Windows Phone Application" template. Run the project and deploy to the emulator. You will see the following screen when the application finishes loading:
2. Screen element:
a. The microphone button is a toggle which starts and stops the microphone.
b. The play button is used to playback the recorded sound.
c. There are three slider controls to adjust the volume, pitch and pan of the sound being played back. These properties can be adjusted only before starting playback.
3. How it works:
a. Touch the microphone to start recording. You can stop recording by touching the microphone again or alternatively touching the play button.
b. Adjust the volume , pitch and pan one by one and test the effect of the change by playing the recorded sound.
Understanding the code
Declarations: Here is a screenshot of the declarations.
We will be using an object of the SoundEffectInstance class to playback the recorded audio. We could also have used a SoundEffect however using the SoundEffectInstance class allows us to track the state (playing or stopped).
The other declaration here is for a MemoryStream object. The microphone buffer is constantly written to a memorystream until playback is desired. At that time,we submit the contents of the memorystream to the SoundEffectInstance object to play.
The key point to note here is the game loop we have created using the DispatcherTimer. This loop is essential to capturing the audio from the microphone.
We set the image for the play icon based on the light or dark theme used in the phone.
At this point we also set up the microphone defaults for our application as follows:
The buffer duration is set to 1/2 second and then we use a method GetSampleSizeInBytes and pass the buffer duration to get the right buffer size. This is important to ensure smooth audio capture.
We wire up the buffer ready event and set the default stopped microphone image.
We are ready to start recording!
When the user clicks the microphone button the following code is called:
There are a few things happening here:
1. Microphone is stopped: If the microphone is stopped we need to start it to begin recording. We set the background of the microphone button. Then we reset to MemoryStream to clear out previously recorded audio. We check and stop the recorded sound from playing.
Fairly straightforward steps. At a minimum we need to call Microphone.Start(). The rest of the steps are based on the UI and application design.
2. Microphone is recording: At a minimum we have to stop recording. If you recall the note from above, we cannot call Microphone.Stop immediately as all recorded data has not been flushed to the MemoryStream. So we use boolean varibles to keep track and defer the stop action to DispatchTimer event.
Two things need to happen here. First, we need to let the microphone bufer ready event fire first so we can read the last bit of audio and then we need to trigger playback. We handle it as follows:
In the buffer ready event, we check if recording has been stopped using our boolean variables and then we call Stream.Flush(). This flushes the remaining data to the MemoryStream. Then we stop the microphone.
However we cannot trigger playback in this event. That is handled by the DispatchTimer tick event as follows:
The tick event is called every 33ms. So it will trigger fairly close to the user selecting playback with relatively no indication of a lag. The advantage ofcourse is that we can playback the entire audio rather than letting it get cut off.
We check if it is time to play the recording and whether the stream has been flushed. If so we start a new thread for audio playback. This is an important point to note here.
We are triggering audio playback on a different thread to allow the UI to update. This means any code inside our playback routine that chooses to update UI elements has to do it by calling Dispatch.BeginInvoke as shown below.
We create an object of the SoundEffectInstance class by feeding it the captured audio stream, the sample rate of the microphone and the audio channel.
Since we wish to use the sliders to adjust volume, pitch and pan we have to use Dispatcher.BeginInvoke as they are on a different thread.
Finally we call Play.
So, its fairly simple to create an application to record audio. We can extend this application to save the recorded audio to isolated storage and give it a title chosen by the user. We can add a listview of the recordings from isolated storage and turn this into a note taking application.
The basic steps to record audio are
a) Wire an event to the default microphone to capture the audio.
b) Write the audio to a stream.
c) When the user stops recording, flush the stream and store it or playback.
We can also extend this sample by taking the recorded audio and sending it to a speech translation service and capture commands.
To download a full Windows Phone application that uses all of the code and examples from above, click the Download Code button below.
Tomorrow, Jeff Fansler will be covering the Media Library class, and how we can use it to learn more about a user’s music library on their phone. See you then! | <urn:uuid:e1b86d96-7e7a-477a-86d4-a0b847c07153> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jeffblankenburg.com/2011/11/27/31-days-of-mango-day-27-microphone-api/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909138 | 1,596 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Just recently I bumped into a very nasty bug that I had been unfortunate enough to conjure. Alignment of memory has never been my primary concern when working on the PC. As a typical C++ programmer you often don’t have to think about such things. On the PC this is usually “almost never” (when not optimizing, that is) and in a managed environment this truly should become “never”. On ARM, however, “never” becomes “almost never” again.
Having your memory aligned means storing values of different sizes at addresses that are multiples of a certain number. The typical CPU gives you bonus when you have your memory properly aligned but does not kick you when it’s not. ARM, on the other hand, is not that nice.
Issues arise when you try to write a memory block at a random location by interpreting that location has a value of a given type, as is done in the following example.
void *pMyBuffer = malloc( sizeof( int ) * 2 );
*(int *)( (char *)pMyBuffer + 2 ) = 10;
Malloc returns memory aligned at the worst case boundary so writing at the beginning of the memory block would be ok. Writing an int at a two byte offset means you’re writing at a memory address that’s not a multiple of four. Optimized code on ARM does not like this.
The easiest way around this is writing byte by byte when absolutely necessary. When compiling with GCC, it appears that disabling compiler optimizations might also get you around this issue. I think we can all agree that that’s not the best solution to this problem, however.
The problem I recently ran into was related to this issue but it occurred in a managed environment! I was running Mono on Android and was using a Vector3 structure for which I had explicitly specified the memory alignment by telling the run-time to pack the structure at byte boundaries. The issue arose when I was accessing and instance of the structure embedded in another class.
I was initially puzzled, since I had tested the structure with another class and all had worked fine. After rigorous testing, and fixing the issue by specifying the structure at a different location within the class, I finally figured that it must be a memory alignment issue.
What I find somewhat interesting is that I hadn’t specified the packing of the containing class and thus the run-time should still have been able to align my memory correctly in the containing class while still respecting the layout of my Vector3 instance. This is actually something that led me into believing that there is a bug in Mono. Feel free to comment on this post if anyone has any insight on this.
The lesson that we all should learn from this? Sometimes it helps to know what happens under the hood, even in a managed environment. | <urn:uuid:a78c0829-6333-4838-9bee-5ccb506cb91b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://geekswithblogs.net/raccoon_tim/archive/2011/11/04.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967092 | 592 | 2.03125 | 2 |
A lanyard is a rope or cord often worn around the neck or wrist to carry something. Aboard ship, it may refer to a piece of rigging used to secure objects, or to a cord with a hook at the end which is used to fire cannon. Dragoons would use lanyard (usually called sword knots) to secure their sabres to the wrist, and thus allow the firing of carbine and pistol with the sabre out (hence the French term of dragonne). Pistol lanyard are designed to connect a pistol grip to a uniform on a semi permanent basis. A well made pistol lanyard can be easily removed and reattached by the user, but otherwise will stay connected to the pistol whether it is drawn or in a holster. A good pistol lanyard can be invaluable in an emergency, because it prevents the weapon from being dropped. In addition, some pistol lanyard use an elasticized plastic coil design that may slightly cushion recoil. Lanyard of various colour combinations and braid patterns are also commonly worn on the shoulders of British and Commonwealth military uniforms to denote the wearer's qualification or regimental affiliation. Lanyard have started to appear on consumer electronics devices. With increasing miniaturization, many digital cameras, MP3 players, and USB memory sticks include lanyard, providing easy portability, and insurance against loss or dropping. | <urn:uuid:f5d0f392-5ec5-4c09-869b-778b339ae786> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vandanaexports.com/lanyard.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949473 | 283 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Eight Cousins; Or, the Aunt-Hill (1875)
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140374566, Paperback)After the death of her father, orphan Rose Campbell has no choice but to go and live at the 'Aunt Hill' with her six aunts and seven boy cousins. For someone who was used to a girl's boarding school, it all seems pretty overwhelming, especially since her guardian Uncle Alec makes her eat healthy things like oatmeal, and even tries to get her to give up her pretty dresses for more drab, sensible clothes. Will Rose ever get used to her Uncle's strange ideas and all her noisy relatives? Will there come a day when she can't imagine living anywhere else?
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:51:42 -0500)
Orphaned Rose Campbell finds it difficult to fit in when she goes to live with her six aunts and seven mischievous boy cousins.
An edition of this book was published by Audible.com.
An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.
Is this you?
Become a LibraryThing Author. | <urn:uuid:4115f6d3-8a45-4936-83ed-242acc0fa8a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.librarything.com/work/23802 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945317 | 264 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Michael Ende‘s books, thought up as fables against the spirit of the times, hit the nerve of that same spirit of the times so perfectly that they appeared as wondrous embodiments of it.
Obituary by Adolf Muschg in 'Die Weltwoche'
Disguised as children’s books, they undermined the hustled, worn out brains of adults most of all. (…) Together with us he returned to the sunken chambers of time, in order to find the treasure of our longings and our imagination.
Obituary in 'Frankfurter Neue Presse'
Michael Ende is one of the few writers who have managed with apparently playful ease to make the unfortunate border between children’s literature and adult literature vanish. He persuaded us with his quality and with the power of imagination – just as fairytales are universal parts of our culture, without being stamped “children’s literature”.
Obituary in 'Der Tagesspiegel'
Michael Ende had a dream (...); from those unreal countries of art and imagination he wanted to save something and relocate it into real life. Not to blend it, but to enrich it. A tiny bit of lavish growth for the tidy plant beds of civilisation.
Obituary in 'Frankfurter Rundschau'
What a wealth of interwoven plot ideas, what a cosmos of fantastic creatures, cities and countries!
'Süddeutsche Zeitung' about The Neverending Story | <urn:uuid:ebfc3fd2-eb57-4760-b9b2-296403117c31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.michaelende.de/en/author/press-echo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938526 | 317 | 2.125 | 2 |
IEEE 1584 Working Group Moves Forward with New Modeling and Standard Revisions
On Sunday 1/30/12, members of the IEEE 1584 Working Group met in Daytona Beach, FL to discuss the latest IEEE/NFPA Collaboration Testing report and to discuss changes to the IEEE 1584 Standard. The meeting was attended by approximately 48 engineers and technicians from across the United States and Canada.
The IEEE/NFPA Collaboration Study is an attempt to improve the energy and arc flash boundary equations currently shown in the guide. A significant increase in the number of tests is being undertaken to study the effects of (1) Heat and Thermal effects, (2) Blast Pressure, (3) Sound, and (4) Light hazards. These tests are being done at 600, 2,400, 4,160, and 13,800 Volt equipment. Some tests at 208 Volts have been done in an attempt to determine the minimum size that will sustain an arc flash on the secondary terminals. (See the discussion in previous blog entries and below)
One of the more interesting phenomenons is the extremely high light level that occurs for an arc flash. Tests have shown that some of the arc flash tests had light levels of 120 times that of looking at the sun. This high level surprised the testing group. Future NFPA 70E revisions will most likely add arc flash eye protection similar to welding flash eye protection.
The testing group plans to deliver a draft model (equations) by April 2012 to the IEEE 1584 working group members. It will be our job to try out the model and see how they compare to the past 1584 equations and Lee equations.
After April, the testing group will proceed with DC arc flash testing with the goal of developing a model for DC arc flash energies and boundaries.
The current standard published the equations and provided the user with an Excel Spreadsheet with the equations imbedded. It allowed the user to calculate the energy levels and arc flash boundaries. The IEEE/NFPA Collaboration group feels that equations in the current standard have been copied, used in other computer programs and at times, misapplied.
The new standard will use a “Black Box” method of calculation. The new standard will include an executable program that will allow the user to input the appropriate data and the arc flash energy and boundary will be displayed. Neither equations nor spreadsheet to show what the equations are will be provided. Software companies such as SKM, ETAP, EasyPower, and others will license the “Black Box” function from IEEE. The software companies will imbed this black box program into their software.
The IEEE 1584 Committee has a very ambitious schedule. The current schedule will have the Standard revised, approved, and voted on by the end of 2012.
While the testing group continues their efforts, the 1584 committee members continued to revise the current text.
One of the most controversial items in the current Standard 1584® IEEE Guide for Performing Arc-Flash Hazard Calculations is the exemption for systems less than 240 volts and fed by transformers rated 125 kVA or less. Section 4.2 page 6 states, “Equipment below 240 V need not be considered unless it involves at least one 125 kVA or larger low impedance transformer in its immediate power supply.”
There are two problems with this statement. The first is that IEEE 1584 Standard is for three phase systems only and it is not to be used for single phase systems. A 125 kVA transformer is a standard single phase transformer size and not a standard three phase transformer (the closest standard three phase size is 112.5 kVA)
The second problem is the assumption that there is no serious arc flash hazard for these systems. Testing last spring by the IEEE/NFPA Collaboration group found that some 208 Volt transformer secondaries can sustain an arc flash. Most of the IEEE 1584 working group members feel that 125 kVA is too high but the group could not come to a consensus as to what the lower transformer size should be.
A motion was made and approved to form a subcommittee to continue the discussion and investigation of this very important cut off transformer size. | <urn:uuid:f95edf37-d6d3-43ae-845d-8bc315e5a4f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://powerstudies.tumblr.com/post/16870811388/ieee-1584-working-group-moves-forward-with-new-modeling | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923402 | 850 | 2.25 | 2 |
Meet Reference Man, a kind of hypothetical Ken Doll: a 20-something white male, fit and hearty, out in the park doing a hundred one-armed pushups every morning at 5:30. He’s the guy most radiation exposure standards are designed to protect. But as a stand-in, he’s passé.
Reference Man was born when most of the evidence about the health effects of radiation came from high-dose exposures such as nuclear bombs. But the landscape has changed. Exposure now comes from low and often chronic levels of radiation such as medical technologies, which are the fastest-growing source of radiation exposure. Emerging science is eroding central assumptions about radiobiology. Effects at repeated low doses are different and subtler than those from episodic high doses. And mysterious, intertwining, and sometimes contradictory phenomena hint at both serious health risks and surprising benefits: cells communicate extensively about exposures, taking radiation’s influence far beyond the genome; cancer may not be the only harmful consequence; low-level exposure may enable organisms to build up a tolerance that would protect them from high doses; and healthy cells can give radiation-damaged cells the equivalent of a death sentence to stop the threat of disease.
Continue reading at Is Radiation Actually Good For Some of Us? | <urn:uuid:74c17aa0-327e-48f0-a25b-d11bacbcc684> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/atomicage/2012/02/17/is-radiation-actually-good-for-some-of-us-via-miller-mccuneis-radiation-actually-good-for-some-of-us-is-radiation-actually-good-for-some-of-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935165 | 262 | 2.890625 | 3 |
By OSV Editorial Board - OSV Newsweekly, 2/10/2013
In January, there were three events on the mall in Washington, D.C. The first was the second inaugural of President Barack Obama, which had a crowd of 800,000, according to news reports. The third event was a rally in support of gun control, which had fewer than 1,000 people.
The second rally was the annual March for Life marking the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision allowing abortion on demand. Here is how the Washington Post reported its size: “Police no longer estimate crowd size, so it is difficult to judge how many people attended. The march permit was for 50,000 people, though organizers said the attendance was several times that number.” Once again, reporting skills break down when it comes to the March for Life.
Yet the March for Life is something to celebrate. For 40 years, in the coldest month of the year, many more than 100,000 people — perhaps as many as 400,000 — have braved the elements to protest abortion in our nation’s capital. Even the secular media acknowledged this year that the crowd was full of young people.
Over four decades, the crowds have grown bigger and more diverse, and a new generation of activists is being formed.
So, think for a moment if the pro-life movement had never existed:
Instead of 55 million dead, the toll would likely be in the hundreds of millions, for there would be no alternatives to help scared young women save their babies.
There would be even more psychological damage to women, to men, to siblings touched by abortion. No movements like Project Rachel would help heal the wreckage caused by the killing of the unborn child.
Babies who were near term would be aborted without restrictions, because the partial-birth abortion ban would never have been passed.
We would all be complicit in paying for abortions through federal tax dollars, because there would have been no Hyde Amendment, no restrictions on federal funding of abortions.
Hundreds of state restrictions on abortion would not exist because there would have been no movement to push for such restrictions, no organization like Americans United for Life to provide the legal muscle to write such laws, no local organizations to help get such laws passed, no Planned Parenthood v. Casey to help them pass constitutional muster.
There would be no laws protecting a parent’s rights when a teenager seeks an abortion, no laws promoting alternatives to abortion, no laws requiring that abortion clinics be held to high medical standards. There would be no laws protecting the aborted child who survives the abortion. There would be no restrictions on abortion pills that put the mother at great risk.
Without the opposition to abortion, medical schools may have prepared far more doctors to perform abortions, because there would be no taboo against this practice.
If there had been no pro-life movement, the great insights of the Catholic Church regarding human dignity for the weakest and most defenseless from conception to natural death might have gone unheard, and the dots would never have been connected between abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.
The media may not be able to count the number of pro-life demonstrators, but the nation has been able to count on the pro-life movement for more than 40 years.
Editorial Board: Greg Erlandson, publisher; Msgr. Owen F. Campion, associate publisher; Beth McNamara, editorial director; Sarah Hayes, presentation editor
Please note: Comments left online may be considered for publication in the Letters to the Editor section of OSV Newsweekly.
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Catholic Faith Resources | For Catholic Parishes | Order OSV Products | RSS | Advertise | About Us | Contact Us | Jobs | <urn:uuid:3ebf6a80-5e91-4c1e-a97f-9da4ab915f02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/10464/Editorial-Counting-on-the-prolife-movement.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96697 | 769 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Sunday, December 25, 2011
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A global team of neuroscientists, led by researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, have found the gene responsible for a brain disorder that may be much more common than once believed. In the Dec. 25 online issue of Nature Genetics, the researchers say they identified 14 different mutations in the gene CSF1R that lead to development of hereditary diffuse leukoencephalopathy with spheroids (HDLS). This is a devastating disorder of the brain's white matter that leads to death between ages 40 and 60. People who inherit the abnormal gene always develop HDLS. Until now, a definite diagnosis of HDLS required examination of brain tissue at biopsy or autopsy.
The finding is important because the researchers suspect that HDLS is more common than once thought and a genetic diagnosis will now be possible without need for a brain biopsy or autopsy. According to the study's senior investigator, neurologist Zbigniew K. Wszolek, M.D., a significant number of people who tested positive for the abnormal gene in this study had been diagnosed with a wide range of other conditions. These individuals were related to a patient known to have HDLS, and so their genes were also examined.
"Because the symptoms of HDLS vary so widely — everything from behavior and personality changes to seizures and movement problems — these patients were misdiagnosed as having either schizophrenia, epilepsy, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or other disorders," says Dr. Wszolek. "Many of these patients were therefore treated with drugs that offered only toxic side effects.
"Given this finding, we may soon have a blood test that can help doctors diagnose HDLS, and I predict we will find it is much more common than anyone could have imagined," he says.
Dr. Wszolek is internationally known for his long-term efforts to bring together researchers from around the world to help find cases of inherited brain disorders and discover their genetic roots.
Dr. Wszolek's interest in HDLS began when a severely disabled young woman came to see him in 2003 and mentioned that other members of her family were affected. The diagnosis of HDLS was made by his Mayo Clinic colleague, Dennis W. Dickson, M.D., who reviewed the autopsy findings of the patient's uncle, who had previously been misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, and subsequently, Dr. Wszolek's patient and her father. All members of the family had HDLS.
Dr. Dickson had identified other cases of HDLS from Florida, New York, Oregon and Kansas in the Mayo Clinic Florida brain bank and knew of a large kindred in Virginia with similar pathology, based upon a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neuropathologists. With concerted efforts, Dr. Wszolek and collaborators at University of Virginia were able to obtain DNA samples from the Virginia kindred. Dr. Wszolek also sought other cases, particularly those that had been reported in the neuropathology literature, and he was able to obtain samples from Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, and other sites in the U.S. He and his team of investigators and collaborators have since published studies describing the clinical, pathologic and imaging characteristics of the disorder, and they have held five international meetings on HDLS.
In this study, which included 38 researchers from 12 institutions in five countries, the study's first author, Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., led the effort to find the gene responsible for HDLS. Her laboratory studied DNA samples from 14 families in which at least one member was diagnosed with HDLS and compared these with samples from more than 2,000 disease-free participants. The gene was ultimately found using a combination of traditional genetic linkage studies and recently developed state-of-the art sequencing methods. Most family members studied — who were found to have HDLS gene mutations — were not diagnosed with the disease, but with something else, thus emphasizing the notion that HDLS is an underdiagnosed disorder.
The CSF1R protein is an important receptor in the brain that is primarily present in microglia, the immune cells of the brain. "We identified a different CSF1R mutation in every HDLS family that we studied," says Dr. Rademakers. "All mutations are located in the kinase domain of CSF1R, which is critical for its activity, suggesting that these mutations may lead to deficient microglia activity. How this leads to white matter pathology in HDLS patients is not yet understood, but we now have an important lead to study."
"With no other disease have we found so many affected families so quickly," says Dr. Wszolek. "That tells me this disease is not rare, but quite common." He adds, "It is fantastic that you can start an investigation with a single case and end up, with the help of many hands, in what we believe to be a world-class gene discovery."
The study was funded by a Mayo benefactor and the Mayo Foundation. Additionally, Mayo Clinic in Florida is a Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Journalists can become a member of the Mayo Clinic News Network for the latest health, science and research news and access to video, audio, text and graphic elements that can be downloaded or embedded.
Learn more about becoming a patient at Mayo Clinic in the Patient & Visitor Guide. | <urn:uuid:df015710-19fa-4a26-9ea1-0155c18d6b1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2011-jax/6632.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971537 | 1,148 | 3.015625 | 3 |
These low-fat baked beans can also be cooked in a slow cooker, such as a crock-pot.
Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 6 hrs
Yield: 8 x 1/2 cup servings
Rinse beans in cold water then place in a large saucepan of boiling water. Return to the boil and cook for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, cover and leave to swell and soften for 1 hour. Drain.
Place tomatoes, molasses, onion, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and salt in a large casserole dish. Stir in prepared beans. Cover and place in a 300ºF slow oven for 4 to 6 hours. (Very slow baking allows the full flavor to develop.)
An equal amount of treacle can be used in place of molasses, if desired.
Ingredient suggestion is not included in the nutritional analysis.
If cooking in a slow cooker (crock-pot), make sure that there is sufficient liquid to just cover the beans. | <urn:uuid:6eb3c8de-27ac-404b-b9fd-7e6bc12bad0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calorieking.com/recipes/Salads-and-Vegetables/Vegetable-Dishes/Old-Fashioned-Baked-Beans_Y2lkPTEzJnNpZD0yNyZyaWQ9MjIzJm1lYXN1cmU9bWV0cmljJnNjYWxlPTE.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902941 | 213 | 1.851563 | 2 |
about the exhibition
New Works 98.4
San Antonio, TX
December 10, 1998–January 17, 1999about the artist
Angel Rodriguez-Diaz was born in 1955 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He received his B.F.A. from the University of Puerto Rico and his M.F.A. from Hunter College in New York City. Rodriguez-Diaz has exhibited works throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, including solo shows at Intar Gallery, New York; Oller/Campeche Gallery, New York; Ollantay Center for the Arts, Queens New York; Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburg, PA; and the Museum of Fine Arts, San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work has been included in numerous group shows, including the San Antonio Museum of Art; Blue Star Art Space; San Antonio, TX; Museo del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chicago IL; Art in General, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New York. He has been an artist-in-residence at Arts International, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Yaddo.
Rodriguez-Diaz is an accomplished painter who has pursued the social and political boundaries of portraiture since the 1980’s. His paintings celebrate the diversity of individuals through the use of masterful brushstrokes and dynamic colors. I recent years, Rodriguez-Diaz has experimented with aspects of installation, using found objects and injecting a more direct social content into his work.
about the project
At ArtPace, Rodriguez-Diaz presents two visual environments exploring issues of colonialism and representation titled “Splendid Little War.” In the gallery the artist has painted the walls black and showcases two large-scale, chalk-drawn murals. In the tradition of political muralists, Rodriguez-Diaz collages images drawn from diverse historical and cultural sources, including maps of The Caribbean and Mexico, The Virgin of Guadalupe, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, Uncle Sam, and the Alamo. A curtain of pennies divides the space from the adjacent courtyard. The artist asks that visitors leave pennies in the soldier helmets in the gallery space to benefit San Antonio’s Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.
On the Exterior, Rodriguez-Diaz uses a façade of ArtPace’s building as a canvas for an enormous electric mural. A self-portrait, constructed of thousands of colored light bulbs, flashes the message “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t.” This experimental public art work injects accessibility and humor into a social commentary on cultural history and representation. Acknowledging the centennial anniversary of signing the Treaty of Paris, the piece will be illuminated every evening at 6:00 P.M. | <urn:uuid:d84a8cfe-d7b1-4477-bf99-341d13d09f42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artpace.org/about-the-exhibition/?axid=193&sort=title | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906717 | 608 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Indonesian city of Tasikmalaya in West Java is seeking to implement controversial Sharia based laws which would make it compulsory for all Muslim women in the city to wear headscarfs and criminalise homosexuality.
Homosexuality is not an offence under Indonesia’s national laws. However many local government areas within the country have sought to ban it by including it in local public morality laws.
The Tasikmalaya law was originally passed by councillors from Islamic parties in 2009 but city officials have taken until now to develop the regulations needed to implement it.
The law also outlaws adultery, pornography and the consumption of alcohol within the municipality’s borders.
Tasikmalaya city secretary Tio Indra Setiadi told OnIslam.net that the city would set up a squad of Sharia police to enforce the law like those already operating in Indonesia’s autonomous province of Aceh.
"This bylaw is intended mainly to educate people to live in accordance with Islamic teachings," Setiadi said.
"[But] people intending to report violations of the bylaw will face difficulties if we don't have an apparatus to enforce it.”
The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has the power to throw out the law within 30 days if he believes it conflicts with constitutional human rights protections, or it can be challenged in the Supreme Court of Indonesia.
However recent reports suggest Indonesia’s Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi may be prepared to act to block the law or require the watering down of some components of it.
The news comes less than two weeks after American pop star Lady Gaga cancelled her Jakarta concert after Islamic groups protested against her performing in the country. | <urn:uuid:5661eb06-f100-4ea0-ad31-e14141da4d8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/indonesian-city-seeks-gay-ban-local-sharia-laws090612-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947636 | 350 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Human life expectancy has increased so much over the last four generations that 72 can be considered “the new 30”, according to a study led by researchers from Germany.
The study, published today in US journal PNAS, found that mortality at younger ages is now 200 times lower than that of previous generations, with the bulk of mortality reduction occurring since 1900.
The study used already published data to make comparisons between human populations (past and present), and other species, said Susan Lawler, head of LaTrobe University’s Department of Environmental Management & Ecology.
The findings reveal that hunter gatherers at age 30 have the same probability of dying as Japanese individuals at age 72, with the average mortality of hunter gatherers nearer to chimpanzees than to humans in some industrialised countries.
By comparing the longevity of humans with that of other species, including fruit flies, the researchers make the case that the drop in mortality stems not from modifications to genes, but from the environment.
“We have therefore prolonged human life by altering our environment rather than by adapting to the environment,” Dr Lawler said.
But life expectancy still remains a challenge for some populations, with the study finding a large variation between the highest and lowest mortality populations.
The worst case was 19th century slaves on Trinidad, who suffered death rates at all ages that were higher than those for hunter gatherers.
The authors note that we observe more variation among human populations that we see between species, Dr Lawler said.
“If our mortality in Sweden 100 years ago was not very different to that of hunter gatherers, it is obvious that the rate of change is not evolutionary (however revolutionary), and there are certainly some modern human populations whose life spans remain low. Check the data on modern aboriginal people, and weep.”
The study delivers a novel and quirky comparison of data said Rob Brooks director of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre at University of New South Wales.
“It makes sense that there’s been not just a prolonging of life but a putting off of that increase in mortality rates,” Dr Brooks said.
He added that genetics and environmental issues interacted with one another, meaning genetics were still important to the discussion, with the genes that are killing us now not the genes that killed hunter gatherers.
“Now the genes that are killing us are the ones that kick in our 30s and 40s and especially 80s and 90s – cancer and dementia.” | <urn:uuid:66c27c33-63f4-4ba5-b7dc-2598983b15c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theconversation.com/human-mortality-study-finds-72-is-the-new-30-10162 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959862 | 522 | 3.171875 | 3 |
|The final mechanical design was determined mostly by what
aluminum tubing and pipe product was available. Both local and
"internet mail order" sources were used. No mechanical
computer modeling was employed, although Dave Leeson's "Physical
Design of Yagi Antennas" book was referenced as well as the ARRL Antenna book and
ON4UN's Low band DX ing. Mostly the yagi was built from
"feel" and comparisons to other similar yagi elements. In
many cases, thicker wall extruded pipe was used instead of drawn .058
telescopic tubing because of both availability in Canada and cost.
Drawn tubing can be significantly more expensive than extruded pipe.
Extruded pipe will not telescope fit perfectly, so shims and
"slit and heat fit" methods were often required.
Stainless steel bolts and hose clamps are used at section connections.
1-1/4" solid fiberglass rod is used at the element centre and at the mid element coil splits.
The element-to-boom, and boom-to-mast mounting plates are 8" X 15" X 3/8" extruded plate aluminium.
At left the Yagi at 100' looking East.
Tubing schedule for one half element:
Above: Close up of the element mounting plates. The boom ends have an 8 " steel insert to prevent crushing by the U-bolt clamps.
Left: A view of the OLD reflector feed-point ....before installing the STUB and elastomer cushioned U-Bolts....see below
|Driven element showing the air-core coax chokes for the 40 and 80m feedpoints.|
|The centre insulator is solid 1-1/4 " Fiberglas
The elements are insulated from the boom by grey PVC pipe. The tubing is first wrapped in self amalgamating rubber electrical tape, then a layer of vinyl scotch 88 tape and then the slit PVC pipe is put on. Warning: because the CW loading inductor moves the high voltage point further out onto the element, at kw levels there can be very high voltage at the element mounts. The insulation must be sufficient to prevent arcing to the mounting hardware. Thick PVC pipe is required. Elastomer cushioned U-Bolts are available from Mcmaster-carr. These provide further insulation when combined with PVC pipe.
Stainless steel hardware is used for the element connections.
|Extruded aluminium pipe often needs to be fit
together by cutting a slit in the small diameter pipe and "heat
fitting" the joint together. This method can be very effective
and secure. Small propane torches are usually not hot enough for the
larger diameter pipe, so a larger burner was employed.
The large diameter pipe is exipe is expanded by heating while the small diameter tubing is cooled in snow or ice water. The pieces are then quickly assembled and sometimes tapped together with a mallet.
|How do you cut your tubing ??
Using a metal cut-off blade in the chop saw makes the job easy. | <urn:uuid:55685e3b-56da-4ef3-a9e5-8cfdc0cf7ab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/mech.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934065 | 650 | 1.851563 | 2 |
The copying test brings somewhat better results. The senior models of the 7K250 series are faster in FAT32 than the Deskstar 180GXP, while the difference between the 8MB and 2MB buffer became apparent in NTFS. On the other hand, the old Deskstar 120GXP doesn’t yield to the junior 7K250 models and sometimes outperforms them! The Serial ATA drives are always behind their ATA analogs, which is natural considering that the new interface is realized with the help of a “serializer” chip.
The copying of files from one partition to another gave us a more or less stable picture: the bigger buffer increases the copying speed by more than 50 percent, while the 7K250 models with a 2MB buffer cannot outperform the Deskstar 120GXP! The Deskstar 180GXP has a considerably lower performance in comparison to the senior 7K250 models. We also understand the reason for the Serial ATA models to be slower: the HDS722516VLSA80 was the only drive to be tested on the new version of the driver for the Promise SATA150 TX2 controller and, as you see, it is even faster than its ATA analog.
We can also see the biggest gaps within the same series as the 250GB model copies files from one partition into another at twice the speed of the 80GB model! | <urn:uuid:51368ef7-a705-4025-ae55-1df28da1d77a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/hitachi-7k250_15.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954943 | 285 | 1.820313 | 2 |
That's assuming measures are taken to safeguard the crossing of the endangered peninsular ranges bighorn sheep, whose survival could be threatened by the wall.
In Washington earlier this month, a legislative rider attached to the 2007 defense appropriations bill by Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., calls for spending $2 billion to construct the 370-mile-long wall.
The bighorns, which inhabit parts of the San Bernardino National Forest and thrive on Mount San Jacinto, migrate across the border to mate with herds in Baja California. It fortifies the gene pool enhancing survival of the breed.
"If the California herds are isolated from herds in Mexico, repopulation and genetic flow in both herds will be affected," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
"It caught many people by surprise," said Melissa Waage, legislative director for the biological center. "A lot of people are concerned about fragmentation of wildlife habitat in the area."
Attempts to reach Kyl's staff spokesmen in Washington last week were unsuccessful.
The proposed steel barrier would be "a monumental environmental disaster that will not stem illegal immigration," Patterson added. Besides
The U.S.-Mexican border is a political line that divides what is essentially one environmental region the occupies large areas in both nations, the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife notes in a report on border activities.
"Many activities, including illegal immigration and U.S. border enforcement have enormous impacts on the region's wildlife, landscape and economy," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the organization's executive vice president.
"National security comes first," she added. "But proposed border construction projects, including large-scale fence building, have the potential to severely harm wildlife ...
"Lawmakers advancing immigration and border proposals can and should take into account the effect of these proposals on our nation's wildlife, parks and refuges and work to minimize any damage."
Clark said innovative designs for projects should be used to lessen their environmental impact, new legislation should consider the need to protect the region's natural heritage, and activities of the Border Patrol should include environmental safeguards.
Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it is too early to speculate about the potential impact of a border wall on wildlife migration.
"Agencies proposing projects like this are required to consult with us to find ways to minimize and offset any impacts on wildlife," she pointed out. "If it's determined the project will affect listed species, we will look at ways to minimize these impacts."
In 1998, Fish and Wildlife listed the peninsular bighorn as an endangered species after their numbers dropped from 2,400 in 1971 to 280 in 1997.
"They are slowly recovering, and now number about 700," Patterson said. "They range from Mount San Jacinto through the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south end of the Coachella Valley. If the herd is isolated from sheep in Mexico, their recovery will become more difficult."
About 845,000 acres, extending from the San Bernardino National Forest to the Mexican border, was designated in 2001 as critical habitat for the peninsular bighorn, Patterson said.
"But with the proposed wall, their very survival is threatened," he said.
Michel Finkelstein, executive director of the biological center, said these creatures need to cross their borderland habitat and construction of the wall would crush their ability to survive.
Calling the barrier "a new Berlin Wall," he said President Reagan admonished Soviet leader Mikal Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall in 1987, but now American legislators have launched a move to build a similar barrier along the Mexican border.
Said Patterson, "The only living things the wall won't stop is people. It's a moral low-point for America when the government moves to destroy nature and wall us off from a friendly neighbor."
Through the Endangered Species Act, the peninsular bighorn is recovering in numbers, he said, and "we don't want to see it set back."
What's all this got to do with Homer's Odyssey, one may ask.
One of the perils faced by Odysseus and his men returning from the Trojan War was their capture by the Cyclops, a one-eyed monster who imprisoned them in his cave.
Wanting to get home to the wife and kids, Odysseus blinded and tricked him. When the Cyclops let his sheep out to graze, his captives clung to the undersides of the woolly ovines as the sightless monster only touched their backs.
Today, Defenders of Wildlife calls for setting aside funds for environmental programs within the Border Patrol as a part of efforts toward immigration reform.
"The shared environments of the United States and Mexico require effective and coordinated cross-border management of wildlife and other natural resources," the wildlife group said in its report on border protection.
So if the way is cleared for wildlife crossings, would-be human immigrants unable to gain legal entry had better start perfecting their sheep-hanging skills. | <urn:uuid:5bac5a8c-8955-4c44-ba70-2536a08a2080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4177153 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960469 | 1,044 | 3.25 | 3 |
Familes of children with disabilities are struggling to care for their children while trailing from one place to the next seeking help.
A children’s rights seminar in Wellington tomorrow (Tuesday 23 March), organised by IHC, will put the focus on disabled children – a group who are largely ignored.
“They are an invisible group of children,” says IHC Director of Advocacy Trish Grant.
This is despite the fact that 8.6 percent of all children in New Zealand under nine have a physical or intellectual disability; 25 percent of them live in benefit-dependent households; and 523 children with a disability are under the care of Child Youth and Family.
Trish says these children experience high rates of poverty and family breakdown, and few attend early childhood education. “Parents don’t get the right information; they don’t know what their entitlements are. They are referred to a huge number of practitioners and specialists – many of whom are working in isolation from each other.”
As a result, families are put under increased pressure and the children are denied the effective early support that they need. “The problems revolve around case management and lack of information,” Trish says.
IHC is holding three children’s rights seminars this year – two in Wellington and one in Auckland – to improve the early support to families. Tomorrow’s seminar will bring together government and non-government agencies, with parents, disability and parents’ organisations to find solutions. Seminar participants will hear from Children’s Commissioner Dr John Angus and developmental paediatrician Dr Andrew Marshall.
“Children’s organisations need to increase their capacity to respond to these children’s needs.” Trish says it’s important that everyone identifies what the issues are, where the gaps in services are, and agrees on a plan of action. | <urn:uuid:76fd26f8-834b-41b0-86ff-fe5750d5f3e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=49747 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955258 | 392 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Comments Posted By lgs070
Displaying 1 To 1 Of 1 Comments
Dear all Prabhus and Matajis discussing this article, please accept my humble obeisances.
My opinion is that we should focus more on making our consciousness fully engaged on serving the lotus feet of Krishna and what most pleased our beloved Lord - preaching Krishna Consciousness. This is also what will please the most our spiritual master His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. If we all use the time of making 50 comments for preaching, I think we will have better results in terms of spreading the teachings of Lord Chaitanya. Since we are part and parcels of the lotus feet of the Lord and our initial eternal position is of giving Him our loving service, our only aim must be striving to achieve this 24 hours thoughts and service for Krishna. If we fully engage our mind in Krishna Consciousness and Krishna activities we will lack the time of arguing each other . Krishna Consciousness is simple for the simple and the Gopis are example for that. Is it matter if we will have master degree or we are great philosophers, if we do not have Krishna? The loving service to the Lord is beyond all designations, but we often forget this simple fact. Srila Prabhupada said in his commentaries in Bhagavad Gita that even the Vedas have the only purpose of reaching the lotus feet of Krishna. Srila Prabhupada came to this material world directly from the spiritual one, making this great great sacrifice of delivering us, all the fallen down souls with the knowledge of Krishna. There is no other work in this material world than this of making our consciousness Krishna one and preaching this transcendental knowledge to as many fallen souls as we can.
Your Krishna servant,
Comment Posted By lgs070 On 08.01.2011 @ 16:40 | <urn:uuid:8d44d654-df5b-4438-95ef-d4f2cde5ad35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dandavats.com/?page_id=1638&stats_author=lgs070 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906514 | 392 | 1.515625 | 2 |
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Slang Variant of schnook.
- n. (Yiddish) a gullible simpleton more to be pitied than despised
“Just as, if you think about it, those shaving cream pies "awarded" to the unsuspecting face of game MVPs might one of these days result in some poor shnook winging up on the disabled list after getting poked in the eye.”
“Even though that lifestyle entails risking one's life and enduring lots of drama and conflict, Henry accepts his cost -- like many American's do -- so that he doesn't have to live the rest of his life "like a shnook" as he says at the end of the movie.”
“And most any shnook knows at least a little. it's Yiddish and, according to an article, "Lawsuit, Shmawsuit," in the December issue of the august Yale Law Journal, lawyers 'bookshelves ought to make way for Leo Rosten.”
“For those of you are sic who are non-Canadian, Don Cherry is the very redneck, rightwing loudmouth shnook who hosts Hockey Night in Canada.”
“The Yiddishism shnook is not derived from German Schnucke, “a small or weak sheep.””
“Synonymous with jerk or the more recent nerd, shnook is an Americanized Yiddishism probably derived from the German Schnucke, “a small or weak sheep.””
“And, of course, there's the lovable dough-faced shnook in the front office, Robert "Fall Guy”
“The final image of Hill living out his life in a bland, unnamed suburb chosen by Witness Protection bureaucrats shows us a caged animal who yearns to be free from the mundane American idyll: "I get to live the rest of my life as a shnook," he says.”
“Poor shnook, I would have felt sorry for him but I was fighting just to stay awake.”
“* note: That's not to say I'm taking Blog's side here, I'm not, he's a shnook!”
Looking for tweets for shnook. | <urn:uuid:f3c338ee-ae60-4741-bc02-de723df15984> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/shnook | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960459 | 504 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Utopia is an amazing cave system which can only be describes as a door to the inner side of the earth. After an approximately 30 to 40 minutes boat ride we reach an enormous rock formation where the cliffs reach heights of over 400 meters, we lower the anchor and drop into 12 meters of water. The triangular entry shaped out of solid rock plummets down to a depth of 28 meters where the actual entry to the enormous cave system is located on the bottom of this shaft. Impressive halls appear out of nowhere and the first tunnel leads parallel with the cliffs on the coast until the cave finally leads in to the inner side of the mountain. The system gets larger as you continue all the time getting deeper to its explored limit of 80 meters.
The shape of the cave is almost round and the beam of the primary light hardly illuminates the inner walls of the system. After approximately 25 minutes we reach an impressively large hall which is shaped like a bowling ball and from here the system goes deeper and the bottom reaches a depth of approximately 50 meters where the cave continues its path. This cave system is not suitable for just anyone and should only be visited by the experienced cave diver. The dive should be executed with several different gasses as the limits are reached fairly soon on compressed air resulting in long decompression.
Equipment configuration: Back mount and Stage, sidemount or CCR
Gas: Nitrox or Normoxic Trimix
Max depth: 80m/240feet
Exploration: We are currently exploring in the 80+ meter range..... | <urn:uuid:4292e42f-fb91-4476-9fb2-0854c100c632> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.protecsardinia.com/uk/dive-sites/cave-divesites/utopia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948634 | 315 | 1.851563 | 2 |
As an estimated 10,000 people surrounded the Michigan Statehouse today, an Americans for Prosperity white tent was ripped down and tables overturned, with supporters of labor awaiting action on right-to-work laws inside.
The Capitol in Lansing was ringed with protestors, the stairs at the front blocked by people holding signs such as this one: “Snyder is a turncoat.”
If the Republican-dominated legislature approves the bills and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signs them as promised, Michigan would become the 24th state to enact such legislation, and the second this year after Indiana.
The change would be a practical and symbolic rout in a stronghold of organized labor.
After the tent fell, some state police arrived with batons — refraining from hitting anyone, yet holding them high, forcing people to move. Snow fell at one point, a building thermometer reading 32 degrees Farenheit.
Adoption of these laws, labor leaders and allies said, would lead to further political turmoil.
“There will be blood,” Rep. Douglas Geiss, a Democrat from Taylor, said in debate before a vote.
Bill Bagwell, a 55-year-old United Auto Workers member from Westland, said the measure would create friction at his General Motors Co. plant in Ypsilanti. Members who pay union dues would detest those who enjoy the benefits of the contract but don’t contribute, he said.
“It’ll create civil war,” Bagwell said.
See the full story on Michigan’s labor dispute at Bloomberg.com. | <urn:uuid:297445ca-0753-4903-b3f5-dac1869ede1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2012-12-11/union-member-civil-war-in-michigans-right-to-work-debate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95666 | 331 | 1.507813 | 2 |
If vehicle performance can be judged based on torque and horsepower, and if style can be judged based on exterior and interior designs, then comfort can be judged based the suspension system. Engine performance and aesthetic appeal of a vehicle are meaningless if it cannot be effectively controlled. Without the suspension system, the automobile is just a vibrating and vertigo-inducing contraption. It is not surprising why car manufacturers like the Nissan Corporation have instituted specialized departments that will focus on the research and development of better suspension system. The Nissan Control Arm, for instance is one of the components that was developed specifically to improve the comfort of riding a Nissan vehicle.
Basically, the Nissan Control Arm is present in all Nissan models than utilize air spring or coil spring shocks. Vehicles with suspension systems that utilize leaf springs, on the other hand, have limited use for control arms. The main function of the control arm is to connect the individual shocks to the chassis of the vehicle. The control arm provides the pivot for the shocks and the chassis. Control arms compensate for the roll and pitch that a vehicle may experience. During a bumpy ride, the control arm maintains the mechanical and structural integrity of the vehicle's suspension system.
A control arm is typically V-shaped or A-shaped, depending on how you view it. A typical Nissan vehicle has independent suspension system for each wheel. A pair of control arms (lower and upper) connects the individual suspensions to the chassis and to the spindle of the wheels. A control arm has lubricated bushings and ball joints. It has a sway bar attachment point and a reinforced coil over shock mounting plate. The control arms are arranged in such a way that would give freedom of movement to the chassis as the individual suspensions compensate for oscillation.
Body oscillation may be caused by several factors. One factor is engine vibration. Engine vibration is strongest if the clutch is disengaged from the flywheel. It is typically the only cause of oscillation in a vehicle if the vehicle is at idle mode. On the other hand, if the clutch is engaged and the vehicle is moving, the ground contour is the main cause of vehicle body oscillation. An uneven roan may cause sudden vertical acceleration. Meanwhile, during braking body inertia also causes oscillation. This body oscillation is counteracted by the suspension system which includes the control arm. Here at Partstrain, you have greater freedom. Our catalog offers a wide range of options including the Nissan control arm. We offer automotive parts for every make and model. We guarantee the highest standard of quality. Purchase our special offer package and enjoy discounts on certain products without sacrificing warranty. | <urn:uuid:fa6382e1-1a56-4694-a1fc-7e9e74a06412> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.partstrain.com/ShopByDepartment/Control_Arm/NISSAN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939683 | 530 | 2.328125 | 2 |