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Kate Middleton received a special edition of this Clive Christian No. 1 perfume as a wedding gift. Elegant and as opulent as the price tag would suggest, the perfume is floral with a hint of warm sandalwood—and it is believed to be similar to the scent Queen Victoria (Will's great, great, great, great grandmother) wore. What could be a better way to say "Welcome to the (royal) family"?
An apprentice to the Royal Court's perfumer in 1784, Pierre François Lubin was one of a handful of people with access to Marie Antoinette's secret fragrance. Fortunately, he memorized the recipe, and his namesake company recreated it in the form of Black Jade—a scent that is still sold today. Both musky and floral, the scent is a bit naughty, deeply feminine, and quite rich—much like its original wearer.
Catherine de Medici, queen of France in the 16th century, loved novelties—so much so that she is widely credited for the popularity of everything from handkerchiefs to perfume. During her reign, she commissioned the creation of Acqua Della Regina, or "Water of the Queen." This fresh scent blends citrus with exotic spices, and it's still hand-formulated today in Florence by Santa Maria Novella, the first pharmacy to produce the scent in the 1500s.
When London's Bayleys of Bond Street presented Eau de Cologne Imperiale Russe to the Russian court, it immediately became a favorite of Catherine the Great. The slightly spicey chypre fragrance has been preserved in the form of a soap since 1938.
Allegedly, Guerlain created this scent for Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, to alleviate her headaches. The crisp citrus fragrance apparently worked, as Napoleon and Eugenie promptly named him the court's Official Perfumer. We can't decide which is better: that it relieves headaches or its, ahem, heady combination of orange blossoms and verbena.
In a letter to his brother, perfumer Giovanni Maria Farina likened his newest scent to "an Italian spring morning, of wild narcissus and orange blossoms after a gentle rain." The bright fragrance fuses citrus, herbal and floral notes—and it quickly captured the heart of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and mother of Marie Antoinette. Farina 1709 is still produced at the original factory, now the oldest existing perfumery in the world.
CREED Perfumes created Fantasia de Fleurs for Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who was known for her impeccable beauty and style. After her ladies in waiting brushed the empress's hair (for up to three hours at a time!), they sprinkled it with jewels, then spritzed it which this rich, floral-citrus fragrance.
Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned perfumer Rancé to create two perfumes: one for himself and one for his wife Joséphine. Napoleon reputedly wished for Joséphine's fragrance to mingle with his when they were together, creating a unique combination. But in our opinion, Joséphine's fragrance doesn't need any help: the complex but elegant compilation of floral, wood and musk notes makes a strong impression on its own.
How do you recreate a 2,000 year old fragrance? Chemistry. Blue lotus was at the heart of Cleopatra's perfume, and with a few scientific instruments, Nénufar creator David Pybus captured the flower's exact aroma. Warm notes of almond and nutmeg ground the sweet, floral scent. As a result, it's feminine, sensual and entirely capable of seducing a modern-day Marc Antony.
Prince Rainier of Monaco asked CREED to create this fragrance for Grace Kelly to wear on their wedding day. Meant to complement her bridal bouquet, Fleurissimo is full of heady florals, from tuberose to rose to violet. It mixes the glamour of Old Hollywood with regal maturity—this is definitely not your daughter's perfume.
Some speculated that Kate Middleton would choose this scent when she tied the knot with Will. Why? Dior Diorissimo was a favorite of Princess Diana's—so much, in fact, that she herself wore it on her wedding day. The fragrance seems apt for such an occasion, as lily of the valley (the main note of the perfume) keeps it fresh and delicate.
Behind every great man, there's an even greater woman. For King Louis-Phillipe of France, that was his sister, Princess Adélaïde of Orléans. Smart and influential, she stood out in her brother's court and served as his closest adviser. Quelques Fleurs Royale is a similar blend of femininity and strength. The florals and citrus are romantic, but warm notes of vanilla and musk make it complex.
Crown Bouquet isn't the hyper-feminine, floral perfume you'd expect with such a name. It's actually a sharp, juicy green scent created for Wallis Simpson, an American socialite whose love was so great that King Edward VIII gave up his throne for her. The couple was later named Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but Wallis received her own mark of royalty in the form of this fragrance.
Eva Péron, First Lady of Argentina, inspired a musical, a film and—naturally—a perfume. A voice for the people (and women in particular), she was known for her passion and elegance. Some compare the scent of Ambre Cannelle, a warm and spicy fragrance, to stepping into Evita's embrace.
A court perfumer created this perfume in 1669 for Madame la Maréchale d'Aumont, the wife of the Marshal of France. It reveals that era's most popular scent: florientals. Crown Maréchale 90 is a sensual blend of classic florals (like rose and lavender) and exotic notes, such as cardamom and bergamot. | <urn:uuid:9b34ee87-e44c-4c47-ab6c-0b6858082dc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.more.com/print/370024 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955501 | 1,259 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Allison Kilkenny writes at the Nation:
Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Spain and Greece this week in response to ongoing budget cuts and high unemployment. In Spain, unemployment has passed the 5 million mark for the first time since records began—attracting widespread criticism over the conservative government’s austerity plans. Similarly, Greece, which has served as a laboratory for austerity enthusiasts, has suffered mass poverty, unemployment and suicide since severe budget cuts were implemented by the government.
“Poverty, unemployment, suicides. Enough is enough,” was the slogan chanted on Syntagma square by some 1,500 Greek demonstrators non-affiliated with political parties who were mobilized through social media. The demonstration ended when police shot tear gas at protesters—a police tactic also used during the anti-austerity demonstrations in Athens when the debt crisis began in late 2009.
Earlier this month, three people in central Greece killed themselves on the same day, and analysts said there is a correlation between the rising rates and three years of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that have pushed many people into poverty. | <urn:uuid:dc79b361-8e41-4682-bd8f-99bd764891dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disinfo.com/tag/greece/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968711 | 228 | 1.828125 | 2 |
When insiders go rogue
A security breach at the hands of a trusted insider is one of the most damaging blows an organization can face — a lesson underscored by the WikiLeaks debacle. But those breaches might be a lot more common than you think, given that three-quarters of such lapses are dealt with outside the public eye, according to a security industry study.
The three most common mistakes organizations make are inadequately vetting employees, being sloppy in managing access privileges and failing to spot warning signs in employee behavior, writes by Tam Harbert in Computerworld.
Harbert profiles incidents at three unnamed companies — two in the Fortune 500 — in which once-trusted employees went rogue for personal financial gain or as an act of revenge. Better prevention requires a combination of technical measures and more careful employee monitoring. However, persuading your organization’s high-level executives to invest in those activities will likely be your first challenge.
Celebrating the network revolution
Source: Network World
Twenty-three years ago, Network World covered the federal court decision that allowed the seven regional Bell operating companies formed by the breakup of AT&T to get into the information gateway business.
At the time, Judge Harold Greene said his ruling would stimulate the market and help make information services available to small businesses and residential customers.
As part of its 25th anniversary coverage, Network World recently took stock of our current hyper-connected world and the profound political, social and economic changes that resulted from the expansion of the information services that Greene helped accelerate.
The story also sizes up where that ubiquitous connectivity will likely take us next: Internet-connected devices — from dishwashers and nanny cams to power lines and roadways — will cooperate with minimal intervention to make our society more efficient and productive.
The truth about multitasking
Steve Tobak, writing for Bnet's "The Corner Office" blog, takes issue
with all the recent studies and articles blasting the negative effect
multitasking is having on our productivity and well-being.
So to set the record straight, Tobak offers 10 truths about
multitasking. Among his conclusions: "Interrupting what you’re doing to
constantly check e-mail and tweet isn’t multitasking — it’s distraction,
plain and simple."
Furthermore, "in the real management world, the only definition of
multitasking that matters…is the concept of switching between tasks or
interrupting one task in favor of another," he writes. "It’s how we
prioritize functions and tasks in real time. It’s necessary and critical
to the performance of any management or organizational system."
Barriers to CIOs' progress
TechAmerica released its 21st annual survey of federal CIOs last month. Among other questions, the organization asked respondents to rank the five greatest barriers to increased effectiveness. Not surprisingly, inadequate budgets rose to the top of the list, after three years in third place. Tight budgets bring competition for resources, which is why "conflicting priorities among program units" came in second.
CIOs seemed to have gotten many of the externally directed initiatives — those demands from Congress and the Office of Management and Budget — under control in 2011. But "CIOs continue to complain, as do so many top leaders, of having little time to plan strategically, given daily demands," TechAmerica's report states. "Finally, the pace of technology change has not slowed down in the past few years, so we think that it is lower down the 2011 barriers list simply because the other obstacles have grown so much."
The report offers insight into the complex challenges facing federal CIOs, but the authors write that "if there is a single major conclusion from the 2011 federal CIO survey, it is that success in IT has more to do with leadership and good management than with hardware, software and communication networks. If technology is the future of defense and government service, then it is about time we started managing it better than we do today. | <urn:uuid:a5c7af43-236c-4bb4-b126-0a6e9c638cf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fcw.com/Articles/2011/06/20/HARD-COPY-multitasking--insider-threats.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944232 | 832 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Science of Subwoofing Page 2
Clearly, if a woofer is crossed-over in the midrange, say around 2kHz, as it might be in a two-way system, then its speed does indeed matter if it is to integrate with the upper-range drivers. And just as clearly, if the woofer's output can be confined to the range below 100Hz, then its speed or rise time is no longer critical. But this is hard to do. Too often, shallow crossovers are used so that there is significant contribution from the woofer in the midrange. In which case, the woofer had better be sufficiently fast to blend in with the rest of the system.
Ultimately, audiophiles are polarized into one of two camps. One camp tends to prefer bass quantity at the expense of quality, while the other side almost cheerfully seeks out quality at the expense of tonal balance and/or dynamic range. The situation has come about because so very few speakers out there successfully negotiate both sides of the bass equation. And the ones that do are only affordable by a select few whose lifestyles can soak up $10,000/pair price tags. Few of us can have our cake and eat it too.
What is A Subwoofer?
This is not as simpleminded a question as it first appears. In the mind's eye, a subwoofer is a hippopotamus-sized box with a substantial foot-long or larger driver. Getting a bit more technical, a reasonable definition would be a speaker for the reproduction of the range from 20 to 100Hz. But even this description merely defines the tip of the iceberg and hardly reveals the submerged mass of performance criteria necessary for high-fidelity performance in the subwoofer range. Faithful reproduction of lowest octaves presents the most severe speaker-design challenge, and is the area most often compromised in mass-market loudspeakers.
Nature is pretty stingy in the bottom end. Sidestepping the issue of bass horns, the larger the direct radiator the more partial Mother Nature is toward it. Another way to say this is that the acoustic radiation efficiency of a direct radiator is proportional to its pistonic cross-sectional area. It's a question of having a larger sail to flap into the air: the larger piston provides a better impedance match with the air load and hence a more efficient transfer of energy. A 15" woofer is better in this respect than a 12" woofer, and a 24" woofer is even better. Of course, there's a practical limit to woofer size. It's difficult to make large cones sufficiently stiff to prevent serious buckling from the accelerating forces applied at the apex. And large cones also mean huge moving masses that are very difficult to accelerate quickly.
So why aren't large woofers used routinely in commercial loudspeakers? Cost considerations aside, large woofers are a speaker designer's worst nightmaresimply because they require large cabinets. And that is a serious fly in the ointment; almost nobody likes large boxes. For the same reason they're more efficient in energizing ambient air, large woofers are more efficient in pressurizing the air inside the speaker cabinet. Typically, the cabinet-air stiffness drives the speaker's resonant frequency well above the woofer's free-air resonance. The result is a loss of bass extension and a boomy response characterized by a Q well over one.
OK, large woofers and small boxes don't mix well, but how large does the cabinet have to be to minimize the stiffness of the trapped air? Well, let's look at a commercial example using an 18" woofer with a compliant suspension. The subwoofer in Dave Wilson's WAMM system consists of an expensive 18-incher housed in a coffin-sized affair probably large enough to comfortably accommodate even Andre the Giant. Think of the difficultyread expenseof making such a large box sufficiently stiff to avoid major panel flexure.
(The brave home constructor does have a bit more imaginative flexibility available to him. A closet could be used as a large enclosure. If you've got a basement, floor-mounting the woofer would work very nicely indeed. And finally, by wall-mounting the woofer you could take advantage of the biggest infinite baffle of them all: the great outdoors.)
I have focused on bass efficiency because, to sound loud, bass frequencies must be reproduced at very high SPLs. The ear is insensitive to bass frequencies, the hearing threshold curve rising at about 18dB/octave from 50Hz to about 20Hz. At 20Hz, an 85dB SPL will be just barely audible in an average room.
How loudly a subwoofer will be required to reproduce the deep bass is a crucial design consideration. Louis Fielder and Eric Benjamin have examined this and many other subwoofer performance aspects in a recent milestone paper, titled "Subwoofer Performance For Accurate Reproduction Of Music" (footnote 1). For the first time, all of the pertinent performance aspects of subwoofers were carefully researched, and some new information was brought to bear on the subject. I will lean heavily on this paper in the following discussion.
As Fielder and Benjamin note, how loudly a subwoofer must reproduce the deep bass depends on the desired low-frequency cutoff and the amplitude of the bass information present on the recording. The authors investigated the LF-cutoff requirements by analyzing a sample of CDs for minimum audible frequency at two benchmark SPLs. The discs were selected on the basis of either previous knowledge or by recommendation that they had substantial low-frequency content. Each CD was played back through a player with a 3dB cutoff at 3Hz, and the output was analyzed by a spectrum analyzer. Discs that were found to contain significant bass content below 30Hz made up a final sample for further analysis. These 13 CDs were analyzed in detail for minimum audible frequencies based on the threshold of hearing and maximum peak CD outputs equivalent to SPLs of 110 and 120dB. The results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: CD Possessing Low-Bass Information, Minimum Audible Frequency (Hz)
|16.5/16.5||Dupre||Symphony in g||Telarc/CD-80136|
|15/17.5||Grofe||Grand Canyon Suite||Telarc/CD-80086|
|18/18||Hindemith||Organ Sonata 1||Argo/417-159-2|
|12.5/22||Flim & the BB's||Big Notes||DMP/CD-454|
|16.5/22||R. Strauss||Also Sprach Zarathustra||Telarc/CD-80106|
|22/22||J.S. Bach||Kyrie, Gott helliger Geist||Telarc/CD-80097|
|25/25||Williams||Star Wars Theme||Telarc/CD-80094|
|19/25||J.S. Bach||Toccata & Fugue in d||Telarc/CD-80088|
|29/29||Various||Country soundtrack||Wyndham Hill/DIDX-141|
What this means is that if you want to feel the 10Hz component of the Telarc cannon, you'd better be able to reproduce that track at 120dB peak SPL. If, on the other hand, you care little for Telarc's sonic spectaculars, pipe organs, synthesizers, or sound effects (not necessarily in that order), then civilized SPLs of around 100dB will do just fine. In fact, Fielder and Benjamin offer the following general conclusions: First, recordings with audible bass below 30Hz are relatively rare. Second, these very low frequencies are generated by pipe organs, synthesizers, or special effects and environmental noises. Other instruments, such as bass guitar, bass viol, tympani, or bass drum, produce relatively little output below about 40Hz, although they may have very high levels at or above that frequency.
Footnote 1: Originally presented at the 83rd convention of the Audio Engineering Society, October 1987 (preprint 2537); since published in the Journal of the AES, June 1988. | <urn:uuid:d11ffa9c-0d98-4464-aef8-82b94323548f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stereophile.com/content/science-subwoofing-page-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928574 | 1,701 | 2.609375 | 3 |
BOSTON—A multicenter trial that tested intensity-modulated radiation therapy for patients with early-stage oropharyngeal cancer showed a reduction in long-term salivary toxicity while achieving good tumor control, according to research presented at ASTRO 2008.
The phase I/II trial was conducted by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG 0022) and led by Avraham Eisbruch, MD, from the University of Michigan.
A total of 69 patients were entered in the study during a 4-year period at 14 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Eisbruch and colleagues reported a 2-year locoregional control rate of 91% and a 49% rate of acute salivary gland toxicity ( greater than or equal to Grade 2).
The rate of salivary gland toxicity dropped to 23% at 1 year and 13% at 2 years. | <urn:uuid:d6978e04-be67-4d18-be8b-67d50965a854> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancernetwork.com/news/display/article/10165/1340209 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937625 | 191 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Technique monitors thousands of molecules simultaneously
From some local researchers here in St. Louis. Very interesting work being done here, I think a few members may find this intriquing.
Technique monitors thousands of molecules simultaneously
A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis is making molecules the new-fashioned way — selectively harnessing thousands of minuscule electrodes on a tiny computer chip that do chemical reactions and yield molecules that bind to receptor sites. Kevin Moeller, Ph.D., Washington University professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, is doing this so that the electrodes on the chip can be used to monitor the biological behavior of up to 12,000 molecules at the same time.
Lock and key
The work is motivated by a desire to map the three-dimensional requirements of biological receptors on cell surfaces. Typically, receptors bind small molecules through a lock and key mechanism where the molecule is the key and the receptor the lock. The nature and shape of molecules that serve as keys tells about the binding requirements of the receptor. Traditionally, probing a receptor this way has been done by making a library of molecules, treating it with the receptor, washing away any excess receptor that has not found a key, and then treating the bound receptors with an antibody that recognizes the receptor and is tagged to a fluorescent label. The washing step risks removing a bound receptor if it does not bind the molecular key strongly enough. But, with an electrochemically addressable computer chip, provided in great abundance by one of his sponsor's, CombiMatrix in Seattle, Moeller saw a way of probing the binding of a library with a receptor without the need for washing by putting each member of the molecular library by an electrode that can then be used to monitor its behavior.
The electrochemically addressable chips being used represent a new environment for synthetic organic chemistry, changing the way chemists and biomedical researchers make molecules, build molecular libraries and understand the mechanisms by which molecules bind to receptor sites.
"We believe we can move most of modern synthetic organic chemistry to this electrochemically addressable chip. In this way, a wide variety of molecules can be generated and then probed for their biological behavior in real-time," said Moeller. "It's a tool, still being developed, to map receptors. We're right at the cusp of things."
Moeller published on the technology in a recent article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 28 16020, 2006. He will discuss the work at the 211th National Meeting of the Electrochemistry Society in Chicago, May 7, 2007. The National Science Foundation and the CombiMatrix Corp. in Seattle fund the work.
The Great Wall of China syndrome
Moeller said that the standard problem for synthetic organic chemists has typically been a structural one — how do we build molecules having novel structures?
"We've worked very hard to develop new chemical reactions that allow us to make new structures that are either difficult or impossible to make with the synthetic tools available," he said. "But now for the first time it's not just a matter of structure, but rather a matter of location and scale — a logistical problem."
He offered the Great Wall of China as an example of a classic logistics problem — the structure itself was simple, but getting the tools and manpower necessary for the task to the remote regions it was built in on the scale necessary was "a logistical nightmare."
Getting 12,000 electrodes per square centimeter to selectively do your chemical bidding is Moeller's logistical nightmare. How do you get chemical reactions to happen at just one of the electrodes? Here's how he and his colleagues addressed it.
Scientists at CombiMatrix initially pioneered an approach for covering the chip with a polymer, attaching a substrate to the polymer right above the electrode, and then using the electrode to initiate a chemical reaction that modified the substrate and converted it into a product. Putting a confining agent into the solution destroys the reagent made, keeping it from going to another electrode. This was done for the generation of acids and bases and applied to the synthesis of DNA and peptide polymers. But could this approach be used to make the more difficult to synthesize shaped molecules needed for mapping a receptor? This would require a diverse array of reactions to be compatible with the chips, particularly reactions that capitalized on modern, state-of-the-art metal-based reagents.
Working with his students, Moeller started by running a well-known electrochemical Wacker oxidation reaction, which converts an olefin into a ketone using palladium(II) on selected electrodes on the chip. In order to do this, the palladium(II) reagent needed at a selected electrode was actually made at the desired site using the electrode. This allowed for the desired reaction at only electrodes that were turned on. To keep the palladium(II) from going to a neighboring electrode a second reagent was added to the solution above the chip that destroyed the palladium(II) reagent. In this way, nothing happened at electrodes that were not being used.
Reversing the polarity of things
"The chip is an ongoing battle between active reagent and inactive reagent," Moeller said. "The active reagent is fine — it does the chemistry I want it to do — but as soon as it gets away from the turned-on electrode the reaction that inactivates it needs to take over."
With an overall strategy in place, Moeller and his collaborators are working to expand the scope of reactions that can be done. For example, they have carried out the oxidation of an alcohol to form a carbonyl and then used the carbonyl to put a dye down. They placed a green dye at alternating electrodes in a checkerboard pattern, and then used the alternate set of electrodes to put down a red dye. The result was a red and green chip, Washington University's colors. This, Moeller said, is a striking image of the technique's ability to do chemistry at specific electrodes. "What electrochemistry does best is to reverse the polarity of things," Moeller said. "It takes things that are electron-poor and makes them electron-rich and vice versa; it can take an oxidant and turn it into a reductant; a reductant into an oxidant; a base into an acid and an acid into a base; and so on. In the end, almost any chemical reagent can be made at an electrode and used on the chips."
Moeller said that , along with emphasizing new reactions, he and his collaborators are working to better identify the molecules they make on the chips, and perfect the signaling techniques used to monitor molecules on the chips. He praised the time-of-flight secondary-ion-mass spectrometry work of his Washington University colleague Amy Walker, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry, in the monitoring of his system. | <urn:uuid:f93f5f29-8868-4e7c-9837-fd1a112f4ba5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/yellow_number_five/science/6509 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950433 | 1,417 | 3.078125 | 3 |
October is “National Farm to School Month,” but efforts to link West Virginia school food programs and local farmers have been in full swing for the past year, and proponents are hailing the early results.
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass said the initiative has wide-ranging benefits.
“The obvious benefit is fresher, tastier and more-nutritious food for students that will help them excel in the classroom,” said Commissioner Douglass. “But they also have the opportunity to learn directly about agriculture and where their food comes from. Plus, this program provides tremendous opportunities for West Virginia farmers to tap into a huge market right here in West Virginia.”
He also noted the cooperative nature of the Farm to School Program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) subsidizes meal programs and provides commodity foods to states, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) sets nutrition standards for school meals and oversees the state program, and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) warehouses and delivers foods to counties, as well as helping farmers become certified under USDA’s voluntary Good Handling Practices/Good Agricultural Practices (GHP/GAP) audit program.
The WVDA also provided free delivery of fresh, West Virginia Grown apples to 145 elementary and intermediate schools – along with agriculture-based lesson plans – through the USDA’s fresh fruit and vegetable program to kick off Farm to School Month.
But specific menu and food sourcing decisions are made at the local level, and that’s where the Farm to School philosophy has begun to take hold according to new WVDA Farm to School Coordinator Andrew Pense.
Local beef and produce has been served in Fayette County, Tucker County cafeterias are cooking from scratch, Pocahontas County students planted and picked beans that fed the school for two days, and Cabell County bought four truckloads of corn that were shucked and prepared by four cooks.
In Mason County, WVU Extension Agent Rodney Walbrown spearheaded a project in which the entire county had all-local meals one day. The school system purchased five cows at the Mason County Fair, which produced “the best hamburgers the kids had ever tasted,” said Walbrown. In addition, he scoured the county for every potato he could find – well over a ton for the one-day event.
“I did it just to prove that it could be done,” he told a group of about 45 school food personnel and farmers at a Farm to School meeting organized by Putnam County Extension Agent Chuck Talbott. He said Putnam County spends $2 million a year on school meals – neighboring Cabell County spends $6 million – and he implored farmers to get involved and keep some of those dollars here.
The Farm to School Program is gaining steam in West Virginia at a time when secondary agriculture programs are seeing a surge in student interest. According to Nathan Taylor, Coordinator with the WVDE’s Office of Career and Technical Instruction, FFA membership this year will top 5,000 for the first time in recent memory. A new agriculture program has come online with the opening of the new high school in Buffalo and existing chapters are expanding program offerings. Some are working cooperatively with ProStart – a two-year national culinary education program in place in some schools in West Virginia – to grow and prepare food for fellow students.
At Hampshire High School, a wide range of vo-ag classes are offered throughout the school day. Out of 1,200 total students at the school, nearly half are enrolled in at least one agriculture class. The school is planning to build a dedicated veterinary laboratory and kennels so that students can have first-hand experience working as kennel managers and veterinary technicians. Students produced hundreds of pounds of vegetables and melons for the school salad bar, and are also developing a line of purebred Berkshire hogs that instructor Isaac Lewis hopes to one day market locally and serve in the school.
An obvious limitation to Farm to School in West Virginia is the growing season. However, a host of state and federal agencies have been studying, touting and even helping to fund “high tunnels,” which are basically unheated greenhouses. West Virginia may never grow its own oranges, but the structures can cost-effectively extend the growing season for many types of produce for a month in both the spring and fall. And although West Virginia produces approximately 200,000 cattle a year, there currently is limited local meat-processing capability.
Commissioner Douglass – set to retire from public service in January after 11 terms as West Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture – isn’t worried about any of that, though. “When I was growing up, we were self-sufficient. Just about everything we had was grown and processed locally, except for coffee and sugar, and we’d trade eggs or produce for them. I’m sure we could do that again,” said Commissioner Douglass.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
“The Basis of All Wealth is Agriculture.” | <urn:uuid:d9b27d6b-def5-44d5-8e10-46315ad38980> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvagriculture.org/news_releases/2012/10-5-12.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966657 | 1,117 | 2.4375 | 2 |
John Storms will present a natural history of reptiles and their fascinating and exciting world. Learn how snakes survive without the use of legs, ears, and eyelids. See giant pythons, crocodilians, and other exotic reptiles from around the world. Marvel at poisonous and non-poisonous snakes from around the world.
The program is sponsored by the Boca Grande Woman’s Club and will be held on Tuesday, March 13 at 1 p.m. in the Community Center auditorium. It is free to the public.
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Click for a larger view | <urn:uuid:993ddf70-d553-46bc-ad2b-3440624bedd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bocabeacon.com/news/featured-news/4390-world-of-reptiles-coming-soon?font-size=larger | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930904 | 138 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Thank you for sharing this! This saved me a lot of time and I am sure that my students will love it. I wish your worksheet was in the same file but I will head over to that one next if I can find it! :)
I have been teaching for the past eight years, the majority of which have been in 3rd grade. It was my favorite grade as a student and my favorite grade as a teacher :) I have also taught 2nd and 5th in both the city and now the 'burbs. | <urn:uuid:b0ca33aa-504a-4aa6-9882-9a61036fc9cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Story-Starters-with-Doodles-226031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994125 | 108 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Paris - G20 labour ministers meeting on Monday and Tuesday in Paris face the tricky task of trying to boost job creation in the face of a fast-deteriorating economic outlook without undermining already strained public finances.
With a new global downturn brewing, the Group of 20 economic powers are still 20 million jobs short of returning to employment levels of before the 2008 financial crisis.
But G20 countries face a worsening in the shortfall to some 40 million jobs from 2012 as governments seem to be failing to maintain a nascent recovery in the job market, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) wrote in a report published on Monday.
The labour ministers were meeting under France’s G20 presidency to share notes on fighting unemployment ,ahead of a summit in early November of the group’s heads of state in Cannes.
The employment outlook is darkening across G20 countries with the OECD forecasting earlier this month that annualised growth would average only 0.2% in the final quarter of the year across the Group of Seven most advanced economies.
In the light of the fragile employment situation, the ILO and OECD urged ministers to put job creation programmes squarely at the top of their agendas, even as governments’ finances come under increased scrutiny on financial markets.
Countries with wiggle room in their budgets should not hesitate to step up spending on job-boosting programmes while those with strained finances should focus on the most cost-effective schemes, the OECD’s head of employment policy, Stefano Scarpetta, said.
Hiring subsidies for the most vulnerable workers, apprenticeships for young people and shortened work times could help soften the blow in a new economic downturn, Scarpetta said.
“With a slowdown in the recovery pace, the short-term outlook of the labour market is not going to get any better,” he told journalists ahead of the G20 meeting.
“It’s likely that unemployment will not decline significantly in the rest of the year and possibly going into 2012,” he said.
Spain and South Africa are the G20 nations hardest-hit by unemployment, with jobless rates of 21.2% and 25.7% respectively. France, Turkey and the United States trail behind them with unemployment rates of between 9% and 10%.
G20 ministers are to focus on youth employment because young workers were already the hardest hit in the last crisis.
Young workers were among the first to lose their jobs in the last downturn and since then job opportunities have been lacking. As a result, youth unemployment levels are twice or three times as high as adult joblessness in all G20 countries. | <urn:uuid:eae92162-84fe-4e4f-a3c6-8042c5936e56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fin24.com/Economy/G20-seeks-jobs-boost-amid-gloomy-outlook-20110926 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949513 | 550 | 1.976563 | 2 |
During the 2010/2011 NHL season, Kevin Bieksa played defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks, wearing number 3. He reportedly had a salary of $3,500,000. The total team salary for the Vancouver Canucks was reportedly $70,975,000, so his salary was about 4.9% of the team's total reported payroll. The median salary for a player on the Vancouver Canucks was $2,250,000. The average salary was $2,729,807. During the 66 games that he played that season, he scored 6 goals and had 16 assists - a total of 22 points. If we divide his reported salary by the number of games played, we find he earned $53,030.30 per game played. Kevin Bieksa had a plus/minus of 32, 73 PIM (penalties in minutes), 1 PP (power play goals), 0 SH (short-handed goals), 2 GWG (game winning goals), and took 105 shots. He had a shooting percentage in the 2010/2011 season of 5.70%. If we want to evaluate his performance strictly on offense, we can divide his salary by the number of goals scored, as well as by the number of points (goals plus assists). His salary per goal scored was $583,333 and his salary per point was $159,091.
But then, there are taxes. Each hockey season is played during two calendar years, however, given an annual salary in the U.S. of $3,500,000 we can estimate that he would have to pay $1,200,284 in federal income taxes. That is about the same amount of tax as the tax paid by 147 median high school teachers, 168 median police officers, or 238 median fire fighters. After paying the IRS, he would have $2,299,716 left over. However, he may still have to use some of that money to pay state or city taxes as well. | <urn:uuid:86791a2a-9091-453b-afe4-360a364dc624> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachmefinance.com/Sports%20Finance/Kevin%20Bieksa%20Vancouver%20Canucks%202010-2011%20NHL%20statistics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992002 | 401 | 1.828125 | 2 |
High School Robotics teams square off in a match at the prior FIRST Robotics regional games in San Diego March 12.
FIRST Robotics Update: LnHS has one more chance
Two high school robotics teams supported in part by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center made it to the semi-finals of the FIRST Robotics Competition Los Angeles area regional meet in Long Beach, Calif., last weekend, but neither failed to qualify for the FIRST Robotics national championships in late April.
The Eagle Robotics team from Lancaster High School will have another chance, however, to qualify for the national championship meet in St. Louis at the FIRST Robotics regional competition in Salt Lake City April 7-9.
Lancaster High's Eagle Robotics team was joined by Antelope Valley High School's Robolopes in a three-team alliance with Beach Cities Team from the Torrance area, the 2010 World Champions, in the semi-final round at the meet at the Long Beach Convention Center. The alliance defeated several other teams and alliances to advance to the semi-final round where it competed for the best two out of three. After losing the first game, the alliance battled back to win in the second match, but lost the final match, squashing their chance to advance to the national meet.
Reaching the semi-final round was a milestone for Antelope Valley High's contingent, the highest level the team has achieved in its four years of competition.
Lancaster High's team didn't come away empty, however. The Eagle Robotics squad won the Excellence in Design Award for animation and the Gracious Professionalism Award for assisting a team from Inglewood that needed help with their robots design and programming. Over the course of the two regional meets in San Diego and Long Beach, Eagle Robotics established a record of 19 wins, 11 losses and 1 tie.
"We are now headed to the Utah Regional on April 7-9 to further display the abilities of our robot 'James Bot' and his (mini-robot) companion, 'James Bit,' reported Lancaster High teacher and team advisor Kevin Spoelstra. "We will make Lancaster High, NASA Dryden, and the Antelope Valley proud."
The third team supported in part by NASA Dryden, the Tehachapi High School Cyber Penguins, was scheduled to compete at the FIRST Robotics regional games in Las Vegas March 31 through April 2 in hopes of qualifying for the nationals scheduled for April 27-30 .
Three FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams mentored by Dryden engineers Joe Pahle and David Voracek that use a smaller robot have already won their way to the separate FIRST Tech Challenge national championships. They are Team #452 PHI alpha, Team #4322 PHI omega, and Team #72 Garagebots.
FIRST – an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people, their schools and communities. The robotics program was developed to inspire curiosity and create interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among high school students. Through the NASA Robotics Alliance Project, NASA provides grants for 297 teams and sponsors four regional student competitions to encourage young people to investigate careers in the sciences and engineering.
NASA photos by Tom Tschida | <urn:uuid:4253bce4-547e-4d06-9ffe-109bc5b46af9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/education/robotics_teams_cut.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944613 | 668 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Julie Halpert, The Fiscal Times
Unemployment is leading to trouble in the bedroom. With the jobless rate stuck at more than 9 percent, studies show that unemployment is taking a toll on all stages of relationships - from courting to marriage, and of course, to divorce. Instead of the traditional arch of a relationship, the trajectory of unemployed love looks a whole lot different.
A study in the Journal of Marriage and Family says - not surprisingly - that marriage is sensitive to economic indicators, especially men's earnings, unemployment, and education. According to the research by academics Pamela J. Smock, Wendy Manning, and Meredith Porter, co-habitating men and women want both to be employed to consider marriage, but it is more important for the male to show he can be a consistent "breadwinner." Here's a rundown on how unemployment is affecting decisions of the heart:
MORE: For Richer, For Poorer: The Growing Marriage Gap
No Job? Have That Beer by Yourself.
A recent study by ForbesWoman and YourTango found that 75 percent of women polled would not marry a man who was unemployed. But regardless of this barrier to marriage, singles are dating more than ever during the recession. Online dating site Match.com saw a 30 percent growth in paid users in 2010, despite the $35 monthly fee. Sam Yagan, CEO of OkCupid.com, a free dating site that saw traffic double in 2010, says humans seek companionship and community during hard times. But should singles bring up their unemployed status on a first date?
Patti Stanger of Millionaire Matchmaker says it depends on gender. Men should avoid the topic or wait until they're employed to start dating. "If you're a man and you said [you were unemployed] to a woman, we'd run to the nearest exit," she told CNN. "If you can't take a girl out for dinner or cocktails, or even Olive Garden, you shouldn't be dating." For women though, being unemployed can sometimes be an advantage. "If you're downtrodden, the man wants to rescue you. He wants a woman that doesn't challenge him and doesn't have a better job than him," said Stanger.
MORE: The Worst Retirement Move You Can Make
At Least We've Got a Love Nest.
Once a couple gets past the first few dates and falls in love, they're likely to quickly combine living expenses. But census data show the increase in opposite-sex couples living together comes at a time when unemployment is rising. The number of unmarried couples living together increased 13 percent between 2009 and 2010. Nearly 7.5 million couples were cohabitating in 2010, up from about 6.7 million in 2009. And census data show that the co-habitants are more likely to have at least one unemployed spouse than married couples.
Unemployment's Knottiest Problem.
Unemployment hasn't stopped people from falling in love, but it's delayed their plans to tie the knot. "If you look at the broader trajectory, since the 1970s we've seen a marked reduction in the marriage rate, both in postponing marriage and getting married," said Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, a non-partisan research institute at The University of Virginia that monitors the health of marriage in America. "People tend to postpone or forego marriage when the economic conditions are not good," he said. In addition, nearly 4 in 10 U.S. births are now to unmarried women, a record high.
MORE: The Economics of Marriage: For Love and Money
The Shrinking Guest List.
Many couples are postponing their wedding plans, or radically downsizing their budgets. Dena Davey, a spokesperson for the Association of Bridal Consultants, said couples are moving away from a Saturday night wedding, where rental rates are higher, to a Friday or Sunday wedding. Micki Novak, a wedding planner in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area, who charges $6,000 per wedding, says her business is down a third, from 15 to 5 weddings this year. "Even in Texas, we're feeling it," she said.
A Spike in Pre-nups.
In addition to budget weddings, pre-nuptial agreements, once confined to the very wealthy, are now becoming far more common among the middle-class. A survey by The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported 73 percent of divorce attorneys cited an increase in prenuptial agreements over the past few years. Ken Altshuler, president-elect of the Academy, said the recession is prompting couples to "cling on to the lesser amount that they have." Pamela Smock, sociology professor at the University of Michigan, says "even if individuals haven't been devastated themselves by the economy, they probably know someone who has been, so their approach to life is to minimize uncertainty." Mim King, a 48-year-old money manager living in Lexington, New York, plans to sign a pre-nup before her upcoming wedding next January. "Hopefully the need won't arise, but I've seen too many couples lose years of their life arguing about stuff and money. Neither of us wants to do that."
MORE: The 5 Worst Places to Retire in the U.S.
No Time for Babies.
High unemployment and the growing costs of raising children are creating a baby gap. The birth rate has declined every year since the recession started, falling over 7 percent. Couples are either downsizing their dream family, or skipping out on having children all together. Nearly 20 percent of women today choose not to have kids, up from 10 percent in the 1970s. A 2009 Pew Research Center survey reported that 14 percent of people in their prime childbearing years put off having a child because of the recession. The largest birth rate declines were also in states with the greatest job loss and foreclosures: Arizona, Florida and California.
Andrea Hoffmann, a mother of two in New Jersey, says she and her husband always planned to have three children until they started feeling the financial strains of the recession. "When you want to do things like travel, buy a second home or, you know, have a life, you start thinking three kids isn't really a possibility," she said. At age 37, she's also worried about two life stages coinciding: retirement and paying for college. "You also don't want to retire and have three kids in college at the same time."
When Breaking Up Is Harder to Do.
"There's no doubt about it. In tough times, people hold off on divorce," said Altshuler, of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Census bureau data indicates a rapid decline in divorce rates between 2008 and 2009, the first year of the recession. Rutgers University sociologist Deborah Carr said many unemployed workers are so preoccupied finding a job that they don't have the time or emotional energy to file for divorce.
It's also expensive. Altshuler says that prices vary by state, but an average divorce is around $5,000, though it can often be as high as $50,000. And that doesn't include the cost of setting up an additional household. His members saw a 15 percent decrease in filings for the first six months of 2009. Andra Brosh, who with Allison Pescosolido runs Divorce Detox, a program that helps couples cope with separation or divorce, says financial concerns can force some to remain married even if one spouse is having an ongoing affair.
Arthur, age 58, and his wife depend on each other, but not for love. "We each have our own bedroom on different floors in the town house that we rent. We never talk, eat together, or do anything else together," he said. Arthur, who lives in Westchester County, New York, says he's on disability, the result of severe chronic medical problems including diabetes and kidney problems, and relies on his wife's health care coverage. "If we each had enough money, we would definitely be divorced," he said. | <urn:uuid:a63a7f8d-1585-4bbb-ab50-b859e47562f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/how-unemployment-is-rocking-the-love-boat-2572770.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964957 | 1,668 | 1.664063 | 2 |
As a kid, I loved reading "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Regardless of the topic -- adventures on the high seas, space exploration, historical mysteries, etc. -- the best part was getting to the page where you were given choices such as, "If you decide to head south to the islands that the professor said held the key to Atlantis, turn to page 54," or "If you decide to head west to join the rest of the naval fleet, turn to page 88." It was the highlight because I controlled the story's fate.
Little did I realize that today we'd be able to apply the same general principle in the world of marketing.
The idea that a reader is no longer a passive observer and can instead have a direct impact on a story's unfolding and, ultimately, its conclusion, is both powerful and engaging. That same concept parallels what technology can do for storytellers today: bring audiences into the storytelling process, and as a result, heighten engagement and build stronger, more lasting relationships with them. It works because stories can elicit heartfelt emotions and create substantive meaning for audiences.
The challenge for marketers, then, is how to best use technology to engage the audience in our stories and enhance the experience.
Some recent technologies allow us to tell highly involving and dynamic stories. Increased processing capability and mobile device bandwidth now allow for streaming of data-rich content. Marketers can release dynamic video, and users can easily upload audio, video, and photos, effectively interacting and contributing to the program in real time. High-quality screens and audio enhancing software allow for bright, dynamically pleasing user experiences regardless of screen size.
Most significantly, seamless and evermore user-friendly interfaces give consumers easy-to-understand ways of being part of the storytelling process. This ease of interaction can result in increased engagement and an enhanced user experience.
Here are some ways marketers can leverage this mashup of media and technology to appeal to consumers:
Enlist users in the storytelling process
Create a web-based video series and use online commenting, sharing, and voting to solicit viewer ideas for future episodes. As the unfolding story details the characters' interactions and developing relationships, end each episode with a cliffhanger and allow online viewers to answer questions and vote on what they'd like to see happen next, or submit their own suggestions for future plot changes. Each subsequent webisode then reflects the viewer feedback from the previous week.
Our firm handled digital production on "Away We Happened," a recent web series sponsored by AT&T targeting a young Asian-American audience. The Facebook app, website, and mobile/tablet site allowed fans to view the series, suggest plot twists, and vote on what should happen next. Viewer engagement was strong, with some webisodes receiving more than 2,000 suggestions for future plot ideas. The six-episode web series ended up garnering 12 million views last year, and was renewed for a second season.
Let users put their own images in the stories
Many of us remember the slightly unsettling but fun experience during a recent Halloween season when we uploaded our Facebook images on "Take This Lollipop." That take on digital storytelling has also been applied to brands, where a unique video is rendered in real-time based on Facebook images and data. A baseline video can then be re-rendered to play with specific personal cues throughout.
One successful example of this approach was the multiple Gold Cannes Lion-winning "Museum of Me" from Intel, in which the users' life events are collected and enshrined. The brand followed that with the more lighthearted "Me, the Musical," in which user Facebook images and event milestones are assembled in a cheerful parade.
This approach drives traffic and prolongs engagement because people love to "play director" and see themselves and their friends in the results.
Give users the tools to create, use, and share their own content
Leverage online software tools that allow users to create their own insights, video tutorials, or photo collages.
An early example of that was the Nike True City app. A mobile network of tens of thousands of fans and Nike athletes contributed and shared unique insider content, user insights, and product access related to their specific cities, broadcast in real-time by real people to forge a powerful partnership. Another approach was taken by LEGO and Google to promote Google Chrome. "Build With Chrome" lets users create and share content tied to events such as Valentine's Day using digital LEGO building blocks.
While there are some risks in allowing fans to contribute to the positioning of a brand, our experiences with those types of projects have been overwhelmingly positive, with brands winning over new advocates and increasing brand affinity.
Today's multi-processor, multi-screen, multitasking, multi-location world provides the perfect petri dish for the growth of engaging media formats. In the same way storybooks from our childhoods gave us the chance to choose our own adventures, so too do the newest media and technology tools and platforms provide a similar opportunity to today's online audiences, but in a much more dynamic and exciting way. From what we've seen so far from a marketing perspective, it's both engaging and effective.
David Kwan is managing director at The Famous Group.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.
"Sailor man sailing boat blue" image via Shutterstock. | <urn:uuid:e8975b49-d39a-4bda-9c59-f6cb74dbcdc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33637.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940316 | 1,098 | 1.546875 | 2 |
In a recent article, we reported that Intel is pushing the power envelope with its desktop dual-core processors to a new record level of 130 watts.
As we learned at IDF, Intel's chip development will be turning the corner: The company intends to dramatically decrease power consumption to less than half of the the upcoming Pentium Extreme Edition 840.
Power consumption is certainly a topic that has caught Intel's attention and company representatives of the manufacturer confirmed at IDF, that power levels will decrease again over time.
In the long-term, mainstream desktop processors are targeted at a power envelope of 60 watts, down from a staggering maximum consumption 130 watts of the new Pentium Extreme Edition 840, according to Benson Inkley, a senior procesor applications engineer, with Intel.
The company also updated power consumption for Pentium D (Smithfield). "There will be processors at a level of 90 to 95 watts," Inkley said. The clock speeds of such processors were not specified.
Intel engineers also pointed out that 60 watts would be "on the horizon" and they could not say which products will achieve this power level in which timeframe. Inkley indicated that the Extreme Edition's power consumption would be at the high end of what desktop processors will consume in the near future but said that ultimately consumers will decide which performance they want and what power levels they are willing to accept. | <urn:uuid:ace504fe-5eb6-4156-b589-abd45aea338b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=12825 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956408 | 277 | 2.421875 | 2 |
The Rupp Report: Sustainability: A Road To Success Or Failure?
A Long And Winding Road
Many companies in the textile business, mainly retailers with a global presence, have taken the sustainable trail, with different kinds of difficulties. Some have gone very far; and expressions like "lifecycle analysis," "carbon footprint" or even "from cradle to grave" have become more prominent when talking about the world of textile production. Suppliers have to carry information about the source and production methods of their garments, and, of course, the applied chemicals and dyestuffs they use.
Currently — and it was very obvious at the recent International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) conference in Interlaken, Switzerland — countless labels are in circulation and appear as hang tags on garments around the globe. It would go beyond the scope of this report to name all the labels appearing on the markets, but 50 is not a high-enough number. Some are dealing with the environment; some are dealing with the social wellbeing of the workers too, and ... and ... and. But where is the way to a feasible production process, taking most of the aspects of sustainability into consideration?
One way, with some surprising results, was presented during the latest Narrow Fabrics Conference in Frick, Switzerland. For 12 years, the Jakob Müller Institute of Narrow Fabrics, a subsidiary of the Jakob Müller Group, the Swiss producer of machinery and equipment for narrow fabrics and labels, has been organizing the Narrow Fabrics Conference. For one day, on September 8, the summit of the global narrow fabrics community took place in Frick.
A Road To Success?
Also at this conference, sustainability was somewhat in the focus. Among other presentations was one by Bernd Dannhorn of Triumph International AG, Germany, a leading producer of underwear, swimwear and homewear. Dannhorn opened his presentation by saying, "Triumph is fully aware of the need to produce only such goods that comply with the most stringent user safety requirements." Safety requirements mean taking all aspects of sustainability and environmental consciousness into consideration.
For a manufacturer of products that are worn directly on the body, it is of outmost importance to produce only "clean" articles. After the decision of the top management, Triumph decided to start a campaign titled "Maximum Safety for Consumers" from 1995 to 1997 with the reputable Institute of Textile Technology and Process Engineering (ITV) in Denkendorf, Germany. First of all, a holistic view with a restricted substances list (RSL) was established to reach the Oeko-Tex® Standard 100. "We were absolutely convinced," Dannhorn said, "that this would be the road to success." The company started global communications among its suppliers, the company itself, the trade and the consumers. And now the Oeko-Tex standard has been "mutually advantageous for 20 years," Dannhorn declared. But what about the future if almost everybody has this label today? How does one distinguish its products from those of its competitors?
In very open words, Dannhorn explained that Triumph wanted to go much further. Therefore, the cradle-to-cradle philosophy and the Oeko-Tex Standard 1000 were pursued. "From product to production" was the internal slogan. In cooperation with other companies, a collection of lingerie, made of 80-percent organic cotton and 20 percent biodegradable elastane (spandex) was produced and put on the market. The result was devastating, he explained: It was a total flop. The whole production was virtually unsold and remained in the shelves.
Why this failure, the people involved asked themselves? Was it maybe because the market was not yet ready for acceptance? Maybe because of misleading communication? Did we understand the cradle-to-cradle concept? How about the market acceptance? And what is the future strategy? However, Triumph did not give up and started the next project. A risk management assessment was undertaken with the chemical industry, an audit with the textile industry — and brand protection for the producer and retailer.
Öko-Tex 1000: A Possible Solution
This standard was achieved. Triumph says that Oeko-Tex 1000 is "good for the world and our children." It takes into consideration the following issues:
- child labor
- carbon dioxide
- production material
- exhaust air
- health and safety at work
- social criteria
- alkyl phenol ethoxylates: In Europe these emulsifiers/surfactants are no longer allowed or wanted.
Public relations start at home, as everybody in the communication business knows. So Triumph started its Triumph International Vendor Information (TIVI) activities. Oeko-Tex 1000 is okay, said Dannhorn, but this can't be the end of the road, so they tried to "think crazy, but economical." And they still do. The last chapter of this story is not yet written.
No doubt, there is great demand for sustainable and traceable products. Dannhorn mentioned that "every piece must be traceable to build up and maintain credibility and confidence." Therefore," he emphasized, "all activities must be considered in a team along the production chain and not as a stand-alone project."
To be on a successful road, one has to build up credibility and confidence for the company and its products, and this is only achievable if all production steps are working hand-in-hand. However, Dannhorn argued, today there is still no comprehensive label and standards that are applicable for all markets. To find the right standards could and should be the job of the national associations from the different sectors. They can bring the right people together to establish valuable and trustful global standards for everybody. This would be for the benefit of producer and customer. For one, the manufacturers can rely on sound standards, and the customer doesn't need a manual to read and understand the whole great quantity of hangtags attached to his new buy. Less could be more.
November 6, 2012 | <urn:uuid:c59b795f-14c4-4d32-8d3c-32a19012c78d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.textileworld.com/Articles/2012/November/The_Rupp_Report_Sustainability_A_Road_To_Success_Or_Failure.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964108 | 1,246 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Calling Tuvalu from the United States explained:
- 011 - US exit code; have to be dialed first for all international calls made from the US/Canada number plan
- 688 - international country code for Tuvalu
- US to Tuvalu international dialing format : 011 + 688 + individual phone number
Information about country:
Tuvalu formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls. Its population of 11,992 makes it the third-least-populated independent country in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. It is also the second-smallest member by population of the United Nations. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City 140.44 km Monaco 141.95 km and Nauru 1421 km The telecommunication network is developing fast. | <urn:uuid:48d48a85-5ae0-4587-8d81-0826b5feafae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://international-calling.info/call/tuvalu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915669 | 231 | 2.140625 | 2 |
As Barack Obama prepares to take office, majorities say the country is losing ground on any number of key issues, particularly economic ones. Nearly eight-in-ten (79%) say the country is falling further behind on the federal budget deficit, far more than said that during the mid-1990s when the deficit was a top-tier policy issue, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Fully 72% say the country is losing ground on the availability of good-paying jobs – up 25 points since February 2007. Nearly as many (69%) say the country is losing ground on the cost of living.
Notably, the only issue where most people see progress being achieved is no doubt related to Obama’s historic election: 53% say the country is making progress on discrimination against minorities, compared with just 15% who say the country is losing ground, and 28% who see little change. During the mid-1990s, far fewer people said progress was being achieved reducing discrimination (40% in 1995, 38% in 1994).
The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,489 adults reached on landline phones and cell phones, finds that Republicans and Democrats generally agree that the country is losing ground on the budget deficit and jobs. In addition, majorities of Democrats (59%) and Republicans (54%), as well as 62% of independents, say the country is losing ground in competing with other countries economically.
Read the full report Gains Seen On Minority Discrimination - But Little Else on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Web site. | <urn:uuid:9ed8cace-fb0d-44fe-afc6-888e2ae73eb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=47996&category=296 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958732 | 335 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Men's Basketball Visits Fair Haven School Students
HAMDEN, Conn. - The Quinnipiac University men's basketball team visited Fair Haven School in New Haven Thursday to talk to the kids about the importance of academics. Members of the team met with approximately 25 students, whose classrooms are named after colleges. The purpose of the trip was to show the kids that the collegiate student-athletes need to be strong academically before they can thrive athletically.
The Quinnipiac student-athletes discussed with the Fair Haven students what it takes to be successful in the college classroom. The Bobcats also helped the students realize that they need a strong academic background in the event that athletics don't work out. Finally, the Bobcats greeted the students as they got on the bus to head home for the day. | <urn:uuid:9511e003-64c6-44ee-a1b5-448f10b577da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quinnipiacbobcats.com/sports/mbkb/2009-10/releases/204810186_1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974902 | 164 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Koelewijn, H. P. (1996) Sexual differences in reproductive characters in gynodioecious Plantago coronopus. Oikos, 75, 443-452. ISSN 0030-1299.
|PDF - Published Version |
Restricted to KNAW only
Official URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3545885
In a series of field, garden and greenhouse experiments, the factors contributing to the maintenance of male steriles in natural populations of the gynodioecious species Plantago coronopus were examined. No differences in survival between sex phenotypes (hermaphrodites, partially male steriles and male steriles) were observed. Male steriles produced more (41% to 148%) and heavier (12% to 22%) seeds than hermaphrodites. Partially male steriles were intermediate in seed production between hermaphrodites and male steriles. The observed differences between sex types are interpreted as pleiotropic effects of male sterility genes. Reproductive variation within the group of hermaphrodites was further studied in relation to the cytoplasmic background of the plants used by means of reciprocal crosses. Hermaphrodites having cytoplasmic type 1 produced about 15% less spikes than their hermaphroditic relatives having cytoplasmic type 2. This result, in combination with genetic studies with the same plants, is interpreted as evidence for the cost of restoration. [KEYWORDS: Cytoplasmic male-sterility; lanceolata l; seed size; maintenance; evolution; selection; hermaphrodites; polymorphism; inheritance; genetics]
|Deposited On:||25 Nov 2011 01:00|
|Last Modified:||24 Apr 2012 16:39|
Repository Staff Only: item control page | <urn:uuid:6dfd853d-5ab3-40ea-ac7f-fd4243e4189d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://depot.knaw.nl/10411/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905384 | 392 | 2.5 | 2 |
SIMCOE COUNTY - Simcoe Muskoka Medical Officer of Health Dr. Charles Gardner has issued a declaration of community-wide influenza.
“The declaration comes after assessing the flu activity in the community, a process that looks at emergency department visits, lab-confirmed cases of influenza, institutional outbreaks and doctor reports of fever and influenza-like illness,” the unit noted in a media statement.
Widespread flu activity has been reported since last week.
Dr. Gardner said the declaration, which includes informing the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care of the local situation, “serves as a signal to health care partners of a need to enact policies and strategies to control the further spread of influenza.”
It also stresses the need for the general public to protect themselves against influenza. Protection measures include: being vaccinated annually against the flu, frequent handwashing, healthy diet and exercise, staying home when ill and avoiding visits to the hospital unless symptoms worsen.
More information about influenza is available on the health unit’s website at www.simcoemuskokahealth.org, or by calling Your Health Connection at 705-721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520 weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. | <urn:uuid:42758005-b32b-45cf-bdbe-65e709d455ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simcoe.com/news-story/2017747-flu-declaration/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932355 | 267 | 1.84375 | 2 |
It’s been so much fun getting to know everyone and reading your stories on how & where your children are inspired to create.
I’ve noticed a common trend in all of our children being inspired by the simplest of things, and nature in particular. It really is quite fascinating.
We had a lively discussion on our Facebook page:
- My son (age 5) loves making paper sculptures using paper, markers, scissors and scotch tape…his imagination just runs wild…I love it! ~ Carolyn
- My son tends to gravitate towards his Legos and animal toys. Lots of pretend play and story telling goes on with those items. ~ Trisha
- Reading books, pulling out the puppets in places they will find them, making forts, painting…. these are the kinds of things that get my boys in creative mode. ~ Mari
- My son’s imagination really runs wild during pretend play. We have many “props” and items within reach for him and he uses anything that he can find around the house as well. It’s amazing to see such creativity from a 2.5 year old! ~Gina
- Dirt, rocks, paint, water, markers, sticks, grass, chalk, fabric, yarn. Too many to name. My kids make lots of “experiments” with water and ______. (Fill in the blank!) ~ Jennifer
- The recycle bin, tape, scissors ~ Janine
Join our page today, and you can become part of the action too!
Many parents mentioned keeping a box or cabinet filled with random supplies and things we’ve collected along the way <- we do this too! And most of us wanted to make sure our children had their very own space to create ,and plenty of open ended supplies on hand.
Before I leave you this week, I wanted to share a few creative spaces and projects that will leave you inspired:
Are you on Instagram? If so, you won’t want to miss the #creativetable project, it’s full of all sorts of goodness!
And finally, I can’t wrap up a week on kids or creativity without mentioning Jean’s new book, the Artful Parent: Simple Ways to Fill Your Family’s Life With Art & Creativity! I’m so excited for the release of this heartfelt book, and even more thrilled to tell you if you order your copy before April 9th, you will also receive a free copy of her latest spring craft ebook. I have the fall, winter and spring version of these e-books and they are 100% wonderful!
Grab your copy today. | <urn:uuid:8f859f68-9405-49b4-8701-b7d3412ba7e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://giving.innerchildfun.com/2013/03/inspiration-all-around.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945131 | 555 | 1.78125 | 2 |
What More Do You Want?
We've all had moments in our lives when we've thought, "Something is missing. There must be more to life than this." It is this sense that often brings people to the practice of Zen. By turning to Zen, they acknowledge that this "something" lies not in externals, but rather in seeking to transcend desire and attachment. The journey toward that transcendence begins with questioning, and questions will be part of the path until awakening is attained.
In What More do You Want? a fascinating new book by renowned Zen master Albert Low, he addresses some of the questions students have posed about the practice of Zen: Why do we practice? Why should we seek to understand our reasons for practicing? How can we distinguish between true and false practice? What is awakening? In addition, Low shares with his readers four teishos—talks that comment on a text or koan in order to enhance meditation practice—on zazen or seated meditation, on pain and suffering, and on the very nature of practice itself. Finally, Low shares with readers an experience of satori, a glimpse into Buddha nature.
All readers, both novice and longtime practitioners, will encounter in this book new answers, and new questions, to the what, why and how of Zen practice. | <urn:uuid:f17f3de1-1e5e-4259-ba1b-67ff89dbf403> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albertlow.ca/home | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949394 | 268 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In Khmer, there are multiple independent vowels, which are not commonly
used--mainly, they occur in words from Sanskrit or Pali. They cannot, as
far as I have ever seen, take dependent vowels.
There is one letter which, like the independent vowels, permits a vowel
sound without an associated consonant. The letter, represented as "q" in
the transliteration used in the series of Khmer books by Franklin Huffman,
represents a glottal stop, and appears in the alphabet along with all the
consonants. It is considered a consonant, not a vowel.
It has been years since I studied Tibetan, and regrettably I have
forgotten a lot, but I seem to remember that the letter which you are
referring to, below, as an independent vowel, is actually like "q" in
Khmer--a symbol for a glottal stop, which by itself you don't really hear
so much, but which permits the dependent vowels to exist independent of
the other consonants. As I seem to recall, it, too, is regarded as a
To the best of my recollection, then, I think it's fair to say Tibetan
has no independent vowels, and that Khmer has independent vowels which
dependent vowels cannot be attached to. I would expect the other Brahmic
scripts to preserve the distinction between dependent vowels, independent
vowels, and the glottal stop that Khmer preserves, though that expectation
could be easily disproven by one example of a language which doesn't
preserve the disctinction.
On Wed, 14 Oct 1998, Michael Forgey wrote:
> At 10:28 AM 10/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
> >> This also seems quite exceptional for a Brahmic language;
> >> attaching dependent vowels onto an independent vowel. Is that even allowed
> >> in Unicode?
> >Happens in Tibetan, too. There is only one independent vowel, and it takes
> >various vowel signs.
> > Rick
> So then, it's not "illegal" to combine independent vowels with dependent
> vowels; though, it is not often done?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jul 10 2001 - 17:20:42 EDT | <urn:uuid:b6d5fde3-10a5-4b23-a381-47b7352b04e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/unicode-ml/Archives-Old/UML013/0433.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950462 | 502 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Miranda Rose is a PYP enthusiast who has worked in PYP schools in Asia, the Middle East and currently works in Africa. She has been a classroom PYP teacher as well as taught French and PE. At present, Miranda is the PYP Coordinator and ES Assistant Principal at Lincoln Community School in Accra, Ghana. She is passionate about inquiry-based learning. She loves learning about the world and how it works from, and with, both students and colleagues. She is a PYP online and face-to-face workshop leader.
“In our elementary school at LCS we aim to facilitate differentiated, learner-driven professional development (PD) that is connected to personal and school-wide goals as well as the IB standards and practices. It is personal, it is powerful and it is inquiry-based.
How do we do this?
We start with the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and the priority vision points decided upon by our senior administration and the board of trustees.
1. We look at our self-evaluation data that has informed our PYP action plan and see where these intersect.
2. Based on the SIP and our PYP Action Plan, we select IB Standards and Practices that are in need of stronger implementation
- C 1.1 ‘The PYP essential elements support the a transdisciplinary nature of our programme.’
- C 3.8. ‘Teaching and learning demonstrates that all teachers are responsible for language development of students.’
- C 4.5 ‘The school has systems for recording student progress aligned with the assessment philosophy of the programmes.’
3. We tune teachers into these IB Standards and Practices as if they are our central ideas.
4. We create ‘tension’ and ‘wonderings’ about practices in our school that is related to the selected practices.
5. We ask teachers to come up with questions to pursue in relation to our selected practices.
6. We ask teachers to form a personal goal related to these ‘wonderings’.
7. We sort ourselves out into inquiry groups based on the IB practice upon which our personal question is based (or if a teacher is new to the PYP, you inquire into your question within a programme induction group facilitated by the PYP coordinator and PYP workshop leader).
8. We find out more about our topics; we sort out new information; we apply new learning to practice; and, refine our tools, questions and ideas based on our experience.
9. We track the process and progress of our inquiries on PYP Planners and in a Summative Assessment Tool which guides our supervision and evaluation meetings with our principal.
10. We reflect on our learning and we share what we have developed, discovered, and explored.
The elementary school teachers become responsible for their own learning. They own their questions, their goals and their learning. They take on the role of learner in an inquiry-based setting. They are developing their own professional practice based on their own needs framed within our PYP Action Plan and our School Improvement Plan.
Check out what we shared after 4 weeks of inquiring.
Thanks to the Elementary School Learning Council for facilitating and supporting such rich PD for their colleagues.”
Miranda Rose tweets here. | <urn:uuid:b4368c7c-5a96-40ab-8d57-6c9fa6313a8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2013/01/22/from-sip-to-professional-inquiries/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960015 | 685 | 2.046875 | 2 |
In a new twist to an old Halloween favorite, residents of neighborhoods surrounding the University of Pennsylvania will be treated to candy and information about recycling and composting in Philadelphia as well as energy-conservation tips in a “reverse” trick-or-treating event.
Members and friends of the Penn Environmental Group, dressed in Halloween costumes
1-3 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 31
West Philadelphia neighborhoods in the area bounded by 38th Street, 43rd Street, Baltimore Avenue and Chestnut Street
As the students carry their message of environmental awareness, they will also distribute recycling bins to residents who provide their addresses in advance. Residents can also sign up for bins with the students.
Residents needing a recycling bin may contact Laura Boudreau at email@example.com to get on the trick-or-treat list. PEG can provide one bin per house or apartment.
Additional information on Penn’s energy initiatives and other Energy Awareness Week activities and tips to curtail energy use is available at www.upenn.edu/sustainability. | <urn:uuid:2e19713a-dd3c-428e-a095-4d42668a0fae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-students-mix-candy-environmental-awareness-reverse-trick-or-treat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917171 | 224 | 2.203125 | 2 |
About This School
Morton Elementary School made AYP in 2011. Under No Child Left Behind, a school makes Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) if it achieves the minimum levels of improvement determined by the state of Michigan in terms of student performance and other accountability measures. See Morton Elementary School's test results to learn more about school performance.
In 2011, Morton Elementary School had 15 students for every full-time equivalent teacher. The Michigan average is 18 students per full-time equivalent teacher. Learn more about Morton Elementary School's students and teachers. more
Elementary Schools Nearby
|School Name distance||TestRating||Community Rating|
|Mildred C. Wells Preparatory Academy 0.6 miles|
|McCord Elementary School 0.7 miles|
|MLK Academy 0.8 miles||n/a|
|Calvin Britain Elementary School 0.8 miles|
|Benton Harbor Charter School 1.2 miles|
Enrollment (2011)Total: 262
Student Economic Level (2011)In 2011, Morton Elementary School had 92% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch programs. Michigan had 45% of eligible students for free or reduced price lunch programs. Eligibility for the National School Lunch Program is based on family income levels.
Student Ethnicity (2011)
Benton Harbor District Spending
In 2011, Morton Elementary School had 15 students for every full-time equivalent teacher. The Michigan average is 18 students per full-time equivalent teacher.Compare to other schools in Benton Harbor School District
About the MEAP
What is it?
The Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) is an annual test administered in the fall of the school year and used to assess a student's mastery of the state's grade-level academic standards.
Which Grades and Subjects?
Students are assessed in grades 3 through 8 in math, reading, and writing, in grades 5 and 8 in science, and in grades 6 and 9 in social studies.
How is it Scored?
Students are rated at one of four levels:exceeded standards (level 1), met standards (level 2), basic (level 3) and apprentice (level 4). The goal is for all students to score at or above the state standard (levels 1 and 2). | <urn:uuid:32eaef3f-cf14-41b1-873e-98469d9b8a43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/michigan/benton-harbor/morton-elementary-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923871 | 473 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Tell me, how often do you actually “shut down” your computer? More often than not, do you put it to sleep? Lock it? What if someone else consistently uses the computer after you? Wouldn’t it be nice to just log off?
That’s a lot of questions with one relatively easy answer!
Just right-click your Start button and select “Properties”. Under the Start Menu Tab you’ll see a selection that says “Power button action:” and a drop-down box next to it. Simply drop that box down and select the action you most commonly use with your computer and hit OK.
Now whenever you click the Start button you’ll see the action you chose instead of the usual “Shut Down option!.
If you don’t like it, just follow the same steps and re-select “Shut Down” | <urn:uuid:d6363c8e-82d8-4ea1-941f-4e91866eb252> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldstart.com/customize-your-win7-shutdown-button/ | 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 | 0.915842 | 191 | 1.976563 | 2 |
Childbirth Preparation Class
By: Rick Gray
Here are some notes from the 6 week class my wife and I took prior to the birth of our son. This is not an article written as such, it’s just a collection of my notes and thoughts from the class...( read full article )
5 Potty Training Tips That Will Make You Smile
By: Aruni Gunasegaram
They each had a couple of night time accidents and we had a few more sheet changes with our son, but overall a less traumatic experience than I was bracing myself for. We did the following with our kids...( read full article )
Five Effective Parenting Tips Because Your Kids Deserve Your Best
By: Len Stauffenger
Your kids deserve your very best all the time. You've only got one chance to mold them into the kind of adult who is productive, thoughtful, enthusiastic, visionary and hardworking...( read full article )
The Terrible Twos - How to Stay Sane When Your Child Is Not
By: Megan Hazel
If you have a little one who is anywhere between the ages of two and four, some days can seem like they last forty eight hours instead of twenty four...( read full article )
14 Table Manners Every Child Should Know.
By: Elena Neitlich
After interviewing for an exciting employment opportunity, the young candidate was rejected, "When I asked for real feedback, the interviewer told me...( read full article )
Your Kids and Money - Teach them today or live with them tomorrow.
By: Elisabeth Donati
Are you concerned about your kids moving back home after college because they’re in debt up to their eyeballs? You should be!...( read full article )
Children's Television Pros & Cons
By: Michael Kabel
There's been talk of the benefits and dangers of children watching television virtually since the medium's beginnings in the late 1940s. Parents wishing to allow their children to enjoy television's virtually...( read full article )
How To Let Creative Juices Of Your Kids Flow
By: Sarika Kabra
Music is a great hobby or a vacation for most of us. But do you realize that it can be one of the better options to indulge your kids? Feeling amazed? Well, music is...( read full article )
Parental Internet Safety Tips
By: Kelly Liyakasa
Like most families in 2007, your family probably has at least one computer in the home, if not more. Many children and teens have workloads in school that require excessive PC-usage...( read full article )
Choose Your Parenting Style
By: Paul B.
Your parenting style is likely to impact the way your child grows up. Being responsive to your children, and...( read full article )
Advice for Expectant Dad
By: Paul B.
When Sophia was born a week ago today, I knew I was in for quite an experience. Everyone has heard the horror stories of how exhausting, yet exhilarating...( read full article )
By: Arnold Cafe
When I was a kid, I thought that rearing a child was easy.But now it has changed, when I become a father myself of two children, a boy and a girl. I realized both...( read full article )
18 Hilarious Parenting Quotes to Celebrate Parents' Day
By: Noel Jameson
Parents' Day is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate than with some funny and humorous parenting quotes?...( read full article )
October 21, 2008
Zig Ziglar's newsletter publishes Dadsworld.com blog post, "Celebrate Diversity? How About UNITY!" ( read letter )
September 11, 2008
West Linn Tidings letter to the editor
"One of our main goals with Dadsworld is to create a movement so that Dad’s everywhere feel like they are a part of something special..." ( read letter )
April 24, 2008
Tigard man chases dreams on the fast track
Dadsworld Dad of the Month, Todd Harris, featured in Tigard Times article that mentions Dadsworld.com ( view article )
February 11, 2008
KSFO Morning Show interview with Rick Gray, Dadsworld.com founder. ( download audio clip )
The Lee Rodgers & Melanie Morgan Program on KSFO Radio is among the most listened to morning radio programs in the Bay Area.
January 29, 2008
AM Northwest interview with Rick Gray, Dadsworld.com founder ( watch video ).
AM Northwest is a long running and popular morning show in Portland Oregon. | <urn:uuid:36e040f3-e68e-4d9f-a655-e01cb0770c13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dadsworld.com/articles/articles-directory.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933525 | 961 | 1.960938 | 2 |
If your baby is disabled in some way, you will be coping with a muddle of different feelings – love mixed with fear, pity mixed with anger. You will also need to cope with the feelings of others – your partner, relations and friends – as they come to terms with the fact that your baby is different. More than anything else at this time you will need to have a person or people to whom you can talk about how you feel and information about your baby’s immediate and future prospects.
There are a number of people to whom you can turn for help – your own GP, a paediatrician at your hospital, or your health visitor.
Once you are at home you can contact your social services department for information about local voluntary or statutory organisations. Many are self-help groups run by parents. Talking to other parents with similar experiences can often be the most effective help.
Worries and explanations
Always ask about the treatment your baby is being given and why, if it’s not explained to you. It is important that you understand what is happening so that you can work together with hospital staff to ensure that your baby receives the best possible care. It is natural to feel anxious if your baby is having special care. Talk over any fears or worries with the staff caring for your baby.
The consultant paediatrician will probably arrange to see you, but you can also ask for an appointment if you wish. The hospital social worker may be able to help with practical problems.
Information provided by Health Promotion England. | <urn:uuid:16e5f6a6-406a-4e85-af24-c3b684f87ce0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surgerydoor.co.uk/advice/pregnancy/babies-need-special-care/baby-with-disabilities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96187 | 314 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Informed consumers can be a powerful force for better environmental governance. According to a 2001 survey, 79 percent of consumers take corporate citizenship into account when making their purchasing decisions, and 36 percent consider it an “important” factor (Hill and Knowlton 2001:3; SRI World Group Inc. 2001a). In 1999, another survey of 25,000 consumers worldwide found that 1 in 5 had either rewarded or punished companies in the past year based on their perceived social performance. That means they avoided a company’s products or actually spoke against the company to others (Environics International Ltd. 1999). (See Figure 6.3 Public perceptions affect the bottom line.)
Even if consumers exaggerate their activism when polled, other analysis suggests that perhaps 10-15 percent of consumers truly integrate environmentalism into their lives and are regularly willing to pay higher prices for green products (Frankel 1998:140). At least for some companies, in some sectors and countries, an environmentally conscious public is driving change in company behavior.
The worldwide surge in organic food sales is a case in point. Consumers are sending a clear signal to food producers that they are willing to pay a premium for foods that are not contaminated with pesticides and are grown in ways that don’t harm ecosystems. In 2000, global organic agriculture sales were worth about $20 billion, and growing 25 percent annually in major markets like the United States, Europe, and Japan (CSD 2000:6). This provides farmers with a real incentive to consider reducing their pesticide use and investing in soil and biodiversity conservation to increase their earnings.
But consumers are only able to use their market power-and, in turn, influence corporate environmental behavior-if they can make an informed choice when they shop. They need to be able to easily identify products that have been produced responsibly-such as organic food or sustainably grown lumber-and to distinguish between valid and spurious claims of producers. To meet this need, some independent organizations and governments have begun to certify and “eco-label” goods produced using sustainable practices (WRI and USEPA 2000:12).
While governments are behind some eco-labeling programs, other well-known programs are privately sponsored. Typically, an independent organization-often a coalition of stakeholders including environmentalists and industry representatives-crafts an environmental standard that becomes the basis for product certification and labeling. One well-known example is the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood Program. Using environmental, social, and economic standards established by the Forest Stewardship Council (an NGO), accredited certifiers assess the management of forest lands. This third-party certification helps ensure the SmartWood label’s credibility. Forest products coming from areas managed in accordance with the standards can carry the SmartWood logo. That logo helps consumers, architects, manufacturers, woodworkers, builders, and municipal governments locate sustainably grown wood for everything from furniture to flooring, and musical instruments to picture frames (SmartWood 2003).
Clearly, certification and labeling programs can benefit the environment. The West German government credited the Blue Angel program with reducing the amount of household paint solvents entering the waste stream by 40,000 tons. The program also spurred industrial changes to meet its environmental criteria and capture a larger market share (Salzhauer 1991:11-12). In several developing countries, eco-labeling schemes have reduced the intensity of fertilizer and pesticide use in the production of cut flowers (Grote 2002:289).
But, as a source of information to guide consumer decisions, eco-labels can still improve. Avoiding confusion and broadening consumer confidence in eco-labels are two continuing challenges. For example, there are more than 100 regional or national standards for organic products worldwide, meaning many products labeled as organic will not have met identical standards (CSD 2000:12). Which labels should consumers trust? In this instance, standardization is already beginning to occur among labels. Widely adopted guidelines issued by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture and the 1999 FAO/WHO “Codex Guidelines” for the production, processing, and labeling of organically produced foods have helped reduce the differences between these eco-labels (CSD 2000:14). But bringing clarity and consistency to other product areas will require continued effort.
Assuring equity among producers worldwide is also a significant challenge. Some producers in developing nations complain that labeling and certification programs can be costly, and sometimes require access to technical knowledge and organizational capacity that they lack. That can put them at a disadvantage, and reduce their ability to compete in the burgeoning market for green products. In the case of organic agricultural exports, for example, many developing-country producers lack information about regulatory requirements, prices, quality factors, and logistics (UNCTAD 2001:6, 8). Similarly, small-holder or community-based producers of forest goods find the costs of obtaining certification to be prohibitive, especially in remote areas. Addressing these concerns will help widen the acceptance of and participation in eco-labeling programs. | <urn:uuid:d4f19ed5-7185-47e5-9061-f455094630e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wri.org/publication/content/8541 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93799 | 1,021 | 3.125 | 3 |
May 23, 2013
Your search for Deaths (Obituaries) in Evolution returned 3 articles
Dr. Van Valen was a scientist whose most famous hypothesis — which sought to explain why there are two sexes — was named for the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass.”October 31, 2010, Sunday
Dr. Ernst Mayr was known as an architect of the evolutionary or modern synthesis, an intellectual watershed when modern evolutionary biology was born.February 05, 2005, Saturday
Dr. G. Ledyard Stebbins Jr., one of the leading evolutionary biologists and foremost botanists of the 20th century, died on Wednesday at his home in Davis, Calif. He was 94. Dr. Stebbins was one of the architects of the period during which knowledge from the study of fossils, genetics and the evolutionary history of organisms was incorporated into the theories of Charles Darwin, creating what is now evolutionary biology.January 21, 2000, Friday
SEARCH 3 ARTICLES ABOUT EVOLUTION:
Evolutionary biologists and historians of science comment on Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”
Sean B. Carroll discusses the science of evolution and the growing field of evo-devo.
A tour of the new Hall of Human Origins at the American Museum of Natural History.
From the Archive
Now, browse the expanded New York Times Archive back to 1851. Articles are available as PDFs. | <urn:uuid:cbcf981d-f897-4fca-8006-ae1740e2f1ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/evolution/index.html?query=Deaths%20(Obituaries)&field=des&match=exact | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943549 | 306 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Gun Control In Vermont: Not This Year
Many State Legislators Explain They Don’t Want to Rush Law
As Vermont lawmakers today mark the unofficial halfway point in the legislative session, advocates have all but given up hope that any gun control bills — even one that a state senator dubbed the “least ambitious” gun law that could be proposed — will be enacted this year.
The lack of action comes despite recent developments that would seemingly bolster the case for gun control:
■ A recent poll from Castleton State College showed that 61 percent of Vermonters favored banning the sale of assault weapons, 66 percent favored banning high capacity ammunition clips, and 75 percent supported closing the so-called gun show loophole.
■ A Town Meeting resolution urging lawmakers to pursue gun control passed — by sometimes overwhelming margins — in 6 of the 7 towns where it was proposed.
■ Even the United States Senate, maligned as a bastion of dysfunction, has taken action: The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday passed an assault weapons ban that would forbid sale of firearms and limit clips of high capacity ammunition to 10 rounds.
But in Vermont, lawmakers have failed not only to pass any gun laws or even take a vote, but also have failed to advance any gun bill for a committee hearing.
“The minute you walk into the Statehouse, it’s almost a forbidden topic,” said State Rep. Linda Waite Simson, D-Essex, a veteran gun control advocate. “That’s the way it’s always been. It’s very discouraging to see that. I was in a small meeting where a representative said, ‘Please don’t make me vote on guns, it’s worse than civil unions.’ That’s how a lot of representatives are feeling — vulnerable.”
Next Year, Maybe
Today is Crossover Day in the Statehouse, when non-spending bills must be voted out of one chamber and sent to another to have a chance of being enacted this year. But lawmakers and advocates say no gun control bill will come up for a vote until the next session, at the earliest.
State Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Bethel, entered a bill earlier in the session that would make it a crime for failing to safely secure firearms inside homes with children. That bill hasn’t received a hearing, and none is scheduled. In a recent interview, McCormack could not even recall which committee had jurisdiction over his bill.
“It’s admittedly the least ambitious of all gun related bills, and it’s not getting a lot of action,” McCormack said. “There has not been much interest in my bill.”
But McCormack said that he understood lawmakers’ reluctance. Before a few years ago, McCormack, generally one of the more liberal members of the legislature, said that he told voters during his re-election campaigns that he would not pursue any gun control laws. For much of his political life, McCormack said he did not believes that guns were a serious problem in Vermont, and that pursuing any legislation would stir large opposition in hopes of solving a relatively small problem. Over time, as the U.S. has seen more mass killings and as Vermont guns have been blamed for shootings in other locations, McCormack said he evolved to support some gun control measures.
“My position was based mainly on the idea that we’re a very safe state and so there wasn’t a problem in need of fixing,” McCormack said. “There wasn’t a need so great to justify a fight. I’m not afraid of a fight, but I’m not a masochist. I’m not going to invite public hostility for the fun of it. (But) we are only one lunatic away from that argument blowing up in my face, and I don’t think I could live with myself. We’re becoming the arsenal of the thugs of New England and New York. I think we have to take some responsibility for that. ”
On Town Meeting day, voters in six Upper Valley towns — Strafford, Bradford, Woodstock, Norwich, Hartland, and Thetford — approved resolutions urging lawmakers to enact gun control laws, including mandatory background checks for all gun buyers, a ban on assault weapons, and enhanced penalties for so-called “straw purchasers.”
State Rep. Jim Masland and Margaret Cheney, Democrats who represent Norwich, Sharon, Strafford, Thetford, said that while they supported the background checks and the straw purchaser crackdown, they have some reservations about an assault weapons ban.
“It’s problematic in that it’s easy to say, ‘I know one when I see one,’ but if you actually define them in words, it becomes difficult,” Masland, of Thetford, said.
“We have to define what an assault weapon is,” Cheney, of Norwich, said. “I don’t favor banning guns per se. We have to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and were we to ban military style things designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. But (some) semi-automatic rifles are used to kill deer.”
Nonetheless, Masland said the Town Meeting votes sent a strong message, at least for some legislators, that their constituents supported a gun control crackdown.
“That’s a clear message that Vermonters want something done about gun violence,” Masland said. “All of us in the Legislature recognize ... the legitimate pleadings of our constituents who have had guns in their family for generations and never hurt anyone. I’m not trying to evade the issue. ‘Yet to be seen,’ that’s a good way to put it. It’s a two-year biennium, and if it doesn’t happen this year, it doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It takes quite a while for a lot of things to go through the Legislature when they are important.”
Norwich resident Laurie Levin, who helped petition the gun control article onto the Town Meeting ballot, said her loose-knit coalition will spend the next few months trying to organize gun control groups in more communities, with an eye toward pushing legislation in next year’s session and awakening what she believes is a “silent majority” of residents in Vermont who favor gun control.
“There hasn’t been a big open debate on the floor of the House and Senate, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future. It’s something people are talking about,” Levin said. “What we have to do is let (legislators) know that they don’t have to be afraid, that there are a majority of Vermonters who support them, and they don’t have to worry about losing their positions. We have to have that silent majority speaking up.”
A slew of bills were introduced this year, including measures that would require background checks for gun show purchasers, ban semi-automatic weapons, ban silencers and require a 48-hour waiting period for gun sales. None merited a hearing.
Evan Hughes, vice president of the Vermont Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, said that is for a good reason: The proposed laws were based on emotion, he said, not sound policy.
“That’s the committee process — they take up the bills in the priority that they place on them,” Hughes said. “There’s a lot of emotionalism about this issue, and legislation passed in emotional arguments is not sound public policy.”
Hughes said state lawmakers should defer to the federal government so that the 50 states can have uniform gun laws.
Message Being Heard
State Rep. Alison Clarkson, D-Woodstock, who introduced in the House the gun safety bill that McCormack entered in the Senate, was more optimistic that lawmakers would take action, and said the poll results and the Town Meeting votes would help build momentum for gun control measures.
“I think the support for the article combined with the Castleton poll will send a message to the legislators and governor,” Clarkson said.“There’s lots of conversation about it. There’s plenty of discussion going on. I think the House is ready for this. I have some hope. A bill is just a starting point for a committee. We’re limited on time and hope. We’re not limited on courage. I would be disappointed if the Legislature took no action this session.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Shumlin merited a 92 rating from the National Rifle Association last year, and said that he did not support a ban on assault weapons or high capacity ammunition or closing the so-called gun show loophole. Shumlin recently said, however, he would support a federal assault weapons ban.
Vermont is one of four states that allows residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.
The inaction in Montpelier comes as the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has approved gun control legislation in recent weeks. Yesterday, on a 10-8 vote, the committee chaired by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, approved a bill banning the sale, transfer, manufacture and importation of certain assault weapons. (The measure is given little chance of passing the Senate, let alone the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. )
In recent days, the committee has approved three other gun control measures introduced in the wake of the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children dead. Included is a bill that, for the first time, made it explicitly illegal yo engage in straw purchasing, buying firearms for a person who is prohibited from obtaining one.
“What we have accomplished in our committee work has been difficult, but we have not accepted that as an excuse to do nothing,” Leahy said. “We have listened to heart-wrenching testimony. We have opened the process to input from all, and we have proceeded methodically to search for commonsense answers to the recurring tragedy of gun violence.”
Mark Davis can be reached at email@example.com or 603-727-3304. | <urn:uuid:8272dc1f-98ac-401a-9787-e53ca7734459> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vnews.com/news/4933082-95/gun-control-bill-vermont | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95926 | 2,198 | 1.804688 | 2 |
If you are thinking about pursuing web design as either a career or a hobby, you must be able to do more than simply design a pretty page. Professional web designers are experts in programming and coding as well. The most talented web designers are those that can adequately balance both their creative and artistic sides with their love of technical coding. Continue Reading →
Just as there are fantastic web designs launched every year, there are even more websites launched that are atrocious and go too far with design. What are the parameters for an artist or web design creator on knowing when to step on the brakes with their design?
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Logos have always been an integral part of a company. In fact, many consumers mistakenly assume that a company’s logo is their brand. Branding is a huge marketing movement right now and the logo is only a fraction of what makes a company’s brand. However, to the ordinary customer a logo speaks volumes. It is a first, and sometimes last, impression. It is the single, mainstream representation of what you do and you will be judged by it. Therefore, it is important to spend time, effort and money to be certain that your logo does not suck. Continue Reading →
Graphic designers understand their way around the Internet. With branding and graphic design becoming more and more important for companies, it is also becoming more highly competitive. To keep up with new software, new techniques and trends, graphic designers read design publications and network online at forums, blogs and design communities. One of the ways design websites encourage traffic is to offer designer freebies. Free fonts are an excellent way to offer valuable content and motivate graphic designers to subscribe to what the site has to offer. Continue Reading →
The year 2010 is more than halfway through, and while there are amazing new website designs being launched regularly, the trend for the year has been established. Before the end of 2009, there were already predictions on what the 2010 top website designs would be. One of the predictions, if it could be called that, was that websites would turn minimalist. Continue Reading →
Negative space is an important element of marketing and design. With logo design and other print design, the use of negative space takes thought and planning. It is not something to be overlooked or avoided. Great design works takes all the space into consideration, both used and used elements. Continue Reading →
CSS which stands for Cascading Style Sheets is a language to give better look and feel to the pages created on any markup languages like HTML, XHTML, and XML etc. CSS was first introduced in December of 1996. The purpose to launch the CSS is to make the presentation of the HTML and XHTML pages more attractive, easy and understanding. HTML here stands for Hyper Text Markup Language which was first launched in 1991, and was introduced by Berners-Lee. So from 1997 onwards these both the languages works together to make websites more perfect and eye catching. At present there would not be any website on the web which would not be using CSS, whether it is using HTML or XHTML or XML or any other markup language, it’s the different thing. But thinking about the website without the work of CSS is second to impossible. Continue Reading →
When I was first introduced to CSS, my mind exploded with possibilities that CSS created, which lead to thoughts of what it could provide me as a web designer. CSS provided the bridge between web designers and web developers. We have all seen situations where a developer created almost the perfect website, yet it didn’t have the appeal that a good front end designer could present. Now with CSS, you could have both in a seamless creation of perfection. Continue Reading → | <urn:uuid:d425a271-6d25-4508-93cf-677933365051> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://designreviver.com/author/john_u/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962241 | 759 | 1.914063 | 2 |
If you're feeling hungry now, you can find out where to eat California cuisine.
What Is California Cuisine?
An overview of California cuisine and where it began.
California's Best Ocean-View Restaurants
We've rounded up a selection of great places to have a meal in California, all of them with a beach or ocean view.
California Food Festivals
All the great fruits and vegetables grown in California form the basis for the cuisine, and we've got a festival to celebrate every one of 'em, from artichokes to zucchini.
Chocolate may not be distinctively California cuisine, but creative San Franciscans are taking the confection to places it's never been before. We'll tell you where to find an award-winning chocolatier, how to tour a chocolate factory and where to find the most beautiful chocolate bowls you've ever seen.
Vintage California Cuisine
They're not exactly new California cuisine, but this collection of recipes from 19th and early 20th century cookbooks give an idea of what California cuisine was like a century ago.
Yosemite Chefs' Holidays
Three-day sessions held at the Ahwahnee Hotel feature up-and-coming chefs and give you a chance to see them do their stuff and collect a few recipes. The accompanying Gala Dinner is an option if you'd rather just eat than learn how to cook. Even though the food isn't all what you might call "California cuisine," it's always a treat. | <urn:uuid:fe3c1abf-3e9c-48c5-b0d8-f4c85c8d6068> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gocalifornia.about.com/od/californiacuisine/California_Cuisine.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942303 | 312 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Description: Camp Kelowa and Camp Singing Trail, located in Lake Huntington, California, were camps for Jewish boys and girls directed by by Louis and Emma Blumenthal in the 1930s. Louis and Emma (nee Loewy) Blumenthal played central roles in Jewish communal life in San Francisco during the middle of the twentieth century. Louis served as executive director of the YMHA from 1924 until 1933 and then as co-founder (with Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel) and executive director of San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center from 1933 until his death in 1959. Emma Blumenthal spent 39 years as associate director of the JCC. Both Louis and Emma were engaged with issues relating to youth, camping, child health, and social work. Louis was the author of multiple books on group work and camping and served on national and regional camping organizations. This film was produced by Louis and Emma Blumenthal to provide a glimpse of life at both Camp Kelowa and Camp Singing Trail in 1936.
Rights: Rights are owned by The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Copyright Holder has given Institution permission to provide access to the digitized work online. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP) supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of these organizations and no official endorsement should be inferred. | <urn:uuid:87df91fa-c57f-4ecb-97d1-3ce1ae62a4fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.org/details/cbm_000011?start=224.5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949434 | 401 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Daniel Chamberlain, Spanish and Italian
Daniel Chamberlain, a professor in the Department of Spanish and Italian, has been named a member of the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) delegate assembly.
The MLA is the largest and most important association dealing with the study of language and literature in North America, and its delegate assembly includes representatives from different regions of Canada and the United States.
“We discuss the challenges language, literature and the humanities are facing today,” says Dr. Chamberlain. “I think it’s very important that representatives from Canadian universities and Canadian academia be present in this assembly. Canadian institutions are facing unique challenges, and our solutions need to be unique, so our voice has to be there.”
Dr. Chamberlain was born and raised in Marathon, Ontario, a small town on the north shore of Lake Superior. After high school, he traveled to Mexico in search of adventure and fell in love with the country, its people and its culture. He decided to stay to do his undergraduate degree in Spanish and ended up living in Mexico for 12 years.
“Mexico in those days was a beautiful country,” says Dr. Chamberlain. “I loved the richness of the language, and it was a very exciting environment of painters, writers and sculptors. I wanted to learn more.”
It was there that Dr. Chamberlain began studying comparative literature, completing an undergraduate thesis that compared William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury to a novel by Spanish novelist Miguel Delibes.
“I wanted to develop a literary theory that could accommodate tremendous differences between works of literature and celebrate those differences,” says Dr. Chamberlain.
It was also in Mexico that his interest in oral literature was sparked. He is currently working on a project through the International Comparative Literature Association that examines the lack of recognition of oral traditions in literary histories. Scholars from all over the world are involved in the project.
For more information on the MLA’s delegate assembly visit the website. | <urn:uuid:0ab3488e-285b-43dd-8a38-6c32dec961d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/profiles/daniel-chamberlain-spanish-and-italian | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974454 | 418 | 2.015625 | 2 |
This article appears in the April 17, 2001 issue of Science magazine.
BERLIN--Ambitious and controversial, Edelgard Bulmahn has been a major force in German science and higher education since becoming research minister in 1998. A member of the "Red-Green" coalition government, Bulmahn has proposed an overhaul of Germany's university rules--seeking merit pay and "junior professorships" that would free young scientists to pursue independent research--that has polarized the academic community (Science, 6 April, p. 30). She has also pushed efforts to reverse Germany's brain drain by beefing up fellowship programs and other incentives to attract expatriates and woo international scientists.
But Bulmahn, a political scientist and former member of Parliament, has not restricted herself to academic reforms. She has waded into the debate over embryonic stem cells, emphasizing the use of adult stem cells for now. Bulmahn also is the key negotiator in trying to convince Bavarian state officials to convert a new research reactor to a uranium fuel that could not be diverted by terrorists for making nuclear weapons. In a 9 April interview with Science in her Berlin office, Bulmahn discussed these and other topics in laying out her vision for German research. What follows has been edited for clarity and length.
Science: On becoming minister, you set some ambitious goals to reform the university system and the science system as a whole. In what areas have you made the most progress?
Bulmahn: We have started to modernize our research system to handle today's challenges. ... We need to give our young scientists and scholars more and better opportunities to do their research independently within the framework of their universities or research institutions. ... We haven't finished everything we started, but that is always the case if you want deep reforms. ... Science and research have been priorities of this government. We have increased the budget by 12.5% in the last 2 years, even while the overall federal budget has been decreasing.
Science: More than 3700 professors recently signed a petition complaining about your proposed university reforms, which would allow a performance-oriented salary system, phase out the post-Ph.D. Habilitation requirement to become a professor, and establish "junior professors." How do you respond to their concerns?
Bulmahn: People have become used to this German public-service system after more than 100 years, so of course some people are afraid of these changes. You will always face opposition when you try to change traditional systems.
In their public arguments, opponents have distorted the reform proposals. ... They have used the argument that, in the future, young scientists would get a so-called monthly "starting salary" of DM 8500 [US$4200]. That is not true. The starting salary of a young scientist or young professor would be negotiated by them and the university. ... As a young scientist, you could get much more money, depending on your performance and on the success of your research.
The opponents also said that the Habilitation (a process for becoming an independent researcher) would be forbidden. ... That is not true. The Habilitation won't be forbidden, but it will no longer be the major factor needed to become a professor. For example, if you have published papers in Science or Nature, that is a much more reliable measurement of scientific excellence than the Habilitation.
The opponents don't like the junior professorships. They argue that young scientists--people between the ages of about 32 and 35--still need guidance from an older professor. I think they need the older professors as partners, not as their boss who is telling them what to do. That is one of the major discussion points at the moment. A lot of young scientists support these reforms because they think the traditional system works against young scientists.
Science: When do you think the Parliament will take up your proposal?
Bulmahn: This year, and I am very hopeful it will be approved.
Science: Stem cell research is a hot issue now. What role should the government have in overseeing such research?
Bulmahn: Germany has an Embryo Protection Law, one of the first worldwide. [The law prohibits interference with an embryo's development unless it benefits the embryo.] We should keep this law, at least for the moment.
Science: What does the law say about importing embryonic stem cells, which some scientists would like to do?
Bulmahn: It is not expressly forbidden, so it is allowed. The question is whether it should be funded by public money or not. ... This question is being decided by the DFG [basic research granting agency]. I personally think we should emphasize research with adult stem cells, as we already do now, because this is not ethically problematic. It is too early to decide which way may be the most successful. ... My opinion is that we should continue doing experiments with embryonic stem cells from animals and look very carefully at the results.
Science: Will Germany establish a bioethics council?
Bulmahn: The Chancellor [Gerhard Schröder] has proposed creating one. ... We plan to establish this council in May. It will have an advisory role, giving recommendations, but it also will play an important role in the public discussion. Members will include scientists, theologians, philosophers, lawyers, and representatives from important science organizations. The council will make its recommendations to the government.
Science: You are the main federal negotiator with Bavaria about the question of converting the fuel used by the FRM-II research reactor in Garching from highly enriched to medium- enriched uranium, to meet nonproliferation concerns. Do you expect a compromise that will allow it to go on line this fall?
Bulmahn: It depends on the Bavarian government. We are willing to come to such a compromise. And if the Bavarian government accepts the change to medium-enriched uranium, then we can reach a compromise. But we have to set a precise date for the conversion, and that can't be in 10 years.
Science: Twelve years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is still a two-tiered system of payment of scientists, with former East Germans being paid less. When will this disparity be phased out?
Bulmahn: It is a problem even in this ministry, where former East Germans working here get paid less. This very much depends on [the German states]. As the federal research minister, I can do nothing about it. What I did ... is to change the salary system and personnel structure for all scientists in the federal government.
I can't change it directly by saying they should get the same salaries as the West Germans. But I will try to change it indirectly.
Science: Are you satisfied with the progress of science in the former East Germany?
Bulmahn: We have made a lot of progress in research, but we need more progress in the application of that research. That is why we started the InnoRegio program to promote the applications of science. ... It is difficult for the researchers to find partners in their regions, so they have to find partners in the western region of Germany.
Science: What has been done to improve the basic research system outside of the universities?
Bulmahn: We had a systematic evaluation of research organizations and institutions. One suggestion was to improve the cooperation between universities and our research organizations. The Genome Research Network [which will channel $175 million over 3 years into universities, Max Planck institutes, and national research centers (Science, 6 April, p.29)] will increase this cooperation. I think that it is absolutely necessary to link those who do the basic research in functional genomics with those who are in the medical field. ... In awarding increases, we concentrated especially in a couple of fields: biotechnology (in which we increased genome research, for example, by more than 400% over the last 2 years) and information and communication technology. Within Europe, Germany now has the highest number of biotech companies. With regard to public funding in the field of genome research, we are now second worldwide, behind only the United States.
Science: The most recent evaluation of the national research centers recommended changing the funding and organizational framework and also extending cooperation with German universities.
Bulmahn: I have been negotiating with the national research centers--transforming the financial and legal framework--for nearly 18 months. We have almost finished the process, and we have agreed to change it to a "program-oriented" funding system, which was recommended by the Science Council. The funding will be by research programs rather than by institutions. The goal is to increase competition among centers in similar research fields and, also, to increase cooperation. In the future, for example, two or three centers can apply together for a common program. ... We will also make it easier for these institutions to spin off new research companies.
Science: Are there any major problems in the relationship between Germany and the United States with regard to science and higher education?
Bulmahn: We have good relations in science and research. But there is one major issue: Germany continues to contribute to the scientific strength of the United States by sending it so many talented researchers. I would like to see more of a two-way street, with more American students coming to study here. | <urn:uuid:ba3883a0-a649-4a72-9860-ba671a12fb2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2001_04_27/nodoi.7872940534370428514 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961516 | 1,910 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Federal Need-Based Grants and Work-Study
To apply for need-based financial aid, you must complete the steps in the Financial Aid Checklist.
The following programs are distributed to students on the basis of need. Grants need not be repaid. You may qualify for federal loan programs, which may be included in your financial aid package. Work-Study is awarded on the basis of need and is applied to your account or paid to you as you earn the funds based on hours worked.
Consideration for these awards is automatic upon completion of the FAFSA and the Financial Aid Checklist, as instructed above.
||Deadlines and notes
|Federal Pell Grant
|Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG)
||Up to $1,000
|Federal Work-Study: FWS is awarded based on need and is paid directly to the student in the form of a check once all required forms are completed (W4, I9, etc.) and time sheets are submitted. Students may choose to make payments on their student accounts using their FWS wages
||Limited Availability; five hours per week average; complete Federal Work-Study Application if this is included in your financial aid package
|Federal Teacher Education Assistance for College & Higher Education (TEACH) Grant
||Up to $4,000 per year
||For students who intend to teach in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families; subject to designated high-need fields; requires 3.25 GPA or designated ACT score | <urn:uuid:386528f0-b20a-4046-8674-e90574daa05d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://huntingdon.edu/futureStudents.aspx?id=1730 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944376 | 314 | 1.71875 | 2 |
'But I'm not flexible. I don't have the right clothes. And I might look silly."
These are the inevitable concerns of the new yoga student, and with good reason. Just Google "yoga'' and you're likely to find some lithe young thing bending her body in ways you had no idea the human body could move. Or you'll find the shirtless Adonis with the stoic face, balancing on one arm, his legs in the air.
Yes, these things are possible with years of dedicated practice. But where does the beginner start? In an effort to demystify the contortions, misconceptions and perceptions of a yoga practice, I bring you, the new student, the following misconceptions to reconsider:
Yoga is Too Hard: It can be. It can also be easy. The beauty is, yoga is whatever you make it. Find a beginner's class and you're likely to join a group of people in the same place you are, finding their way into their bodies, hearts and souls. It's a process. Trust it.
Yoga is Too Easy: It can be. It can also be hard. The beauty is, yoga is whatever you make it. I can't say it enough. Try that beginner's class anyway. There always is more to learn, like developing a relationship with your breath, discovering the innate grace of movement and the peace of starting, doing and finishing.
I'm Not Flexible: Ah, yes, a common concern. Here's the simple answer: Yoga gets you flexible. Consider this: You don't get a driver's license and suddenly know how to drive. You get behind the wheel, you listen to direction, you stay in parking lots awhile and pretty soon you're cruising the highway. Yoga works like that. We'll give you the keys.
I Don't Have the Right Clothes: Is there a Walmart nearby? Great. Get some sweat pants, a loose T-shirt and you're good to go. Unless you've got a photo shoot scheduled for the cover of Yoga Journal, you don't need to shop at expensive retailers. Unless, of course, you want to.
I'll Look Silly: Of course you won't, but even if you think you will, no one will care. Yoga is one on one. You, and you. Give yourself time to get to know your own body and you will be rewarded with the realization that silliness is totally a state of mind.
FIND YOUR WAY
Here are some tips to make that first class the one that starts an amazing journey, and keeps you coming back.
Expectations: Don't have any. It's that simple. Expectations usually disappoint us. Go with an open mind, and soon you'll find an open heart.
Talk to your teacher: He or she gets it, or at least they should. Talk to them about your concerns, medical conditions or limitations they should know about, and any reservations you may have. Your teacher will help you modify and adapt. If they don't help or insist you try something you know isn't right for you, don't give up on yoga, but do find another teacher.
Cut Yourself Some Slack: Nothing comes to us the first time. Remember your first time behind the wheel? You might have hit a curb, bumped into a trash can or dinged the side mirror. Although we try to keep the curbs and trash cans out of your way, allow yourself to be human and trust the evolutionary process. Remind yourself that wherever you are is exactly where you're supposed to be.
Have fun, find joy: Yoga isn't about twisted postures. It's about finding joy in whatever you do. Try not to take yourself too seriously. We practice breathing through discomfort, facing our fears, overcoming obstacles, connecting to inner peace and becoming a more balanced person. Who can't use those skills off the yoga mat? It's a process, a journey, one that can be filled with utter joy and render a new outlook on life. All this from yoga, you ask? You betcha.
Diana Reed is a yoga teacher, writer and co-owner of Gaya Jyoti Yoga in Hernando County. She can be reached at (352) 610-1083 or gayajyotiyoga.com. | <urn:uuid:14b54e5e-2ff2-4d46-9a96-9d7ddcd6887d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tampabay.com/features/fitness/new-to-yoga-relax-and-enjoy-your-journey/1228277 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964837 | 892 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Commentary: Water, water
There are other ominous signs of an impending water crisis, such as:
- Falling lake levels. Both Lakes Michigan and Huron, two of the world’s largest bodies of fresh water, are at all-time record low levels—all of the Great Lakes are at historically low levels—due, scientists say, to a combination of a severe drought last summer and higher average temperatures that have increased summertime evaporation rates.
- Middle Eastern crises. In nearly all of the countries across the Middle East—Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and Iraq—oil dollars have brought increased affluence, which means far greater water consumption. Despite extensive desalination projects, the need for increasingly larger amounts of water for farming, commercial and industrial uses is severely and rapidly depleting the region’s once-vast underground aquifers.
- Virtual water exports. Consider that a significant percentage of wheat, corn, beef, pork, cotton, rice and sugar—much of which is produced in drier regions of the world, like Australia, Argentina, western Canada, Egypt and Pakistan—all represent significant water consumption that ends up getting shipped out the producing country.
All of this is complicated by what we know—the increase in global population—and by what we don’t know—the impact of climate change. It adds up to a potentially disastrous situation for farmers and ranchers.
With the energy crisis, we’re learning to re-think our lifestyles and consumption patterns, and we have the option of investing in alternative, renewable sources of energy that someday could replace much of the fossil fuels upon which we currently depend.
With the world’s dwindling supply of fresh water, the reboot won’t be nearly so straightforward.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator. | <urn:uuid:1278e625-0410-41a7-bcd8-684e0c737a0b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agprofessional.com/news/187500701.html?cmntid=112164021&email=yes&page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911145 | 393 | 3.046875 | 3 |
(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment)Add Blizzard Entertainment to the long list of video game companies that have been hacked in the past 18 months.
Mike Morhaime, president of the company behind titles such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III, announced the breach of the company's Battle.net servers in a note to users late Thursday afternoon, urging them to change their passwords.
"Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun," he wrote. "This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened. … We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened."
While Blizzard says it appears no financial information (including credit card numbers) was breached, the attackers did obtain some other data, including a list of email addresses for Battle.net users as well as the answers to personal security questions. Information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators was also accessed.
The company is encouraging users to change their passwords and is prompting players to update their security questions.
Blizzard has an enormous database of players. World of Warcraft alone has 9.1 million active accounts, and at least another 4 million players likely still have log-ins from closed WoW accounts. An unknown number of other accounts are also likely affected for players of the company's other games.
Blizzard, however, stressed that it believed its security protocols will prevent the hackers from directly accessing people's accounts.
"Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts," said Morhaime.
The company did, however, warn users to be on the alert for phishing emails, which could trick them into divulging login information.
And, of course, Sony's hacking last May kicked off the flood. That attack reportedly cost the company more than $170 million. | <urn:uuid:b8a4a0ab-b895-4c1b-83c2-f4a0a1e0baad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/world-warcraft-diablo-starcraft-players-risk-major-server-161825882.html?ugccmtnav=v1%2Fcomments%2Fcontext%2F9418ba01-064a-385f-93ba-addc8d0313df%2Fcomments%3Fcount%3D20%26sortBy%3DhighestRated%26isNext%3Dtrue%26offset%3D20%26pageNumber%3D1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972445 | 421 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Quality Resource and Usage Reports (QRURs) are the first reports to use performance measures that may be included in the Physician Feedback/Value-based Modifier Program the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to begin in 2015.
The Value-based Purchasing (VBP) initiative, part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, requires differential Medicare payments for physicians or physician groups based on the quality of care they furnish, as compared to the cost of that care. The driving concept behind VBP is that health care buyers, including consumers and third-party payers, should hold providers responsible for both the quality and the cost of care. To implement this concept, CMS will apply a yet-to-be-determined, value-based payment modifier (VBPM) to physician services billed under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). By 2017, the VBPM will be applied to claims for most or all physicians who submit claims under the MPFS (see the accompanying information, “Value-based Payment Modifier Timeline”).
The QRURs are designed to:
- Make physicians aware of their resource use and total cost per beneficiary;
- Put forth the idea of being paid for both quality of care and the amount of resources expended;
- Inspire care coordination across various specialties; and
- Help work out the bugs with physician feedback before the program is initiated and your payments are affected.
In March 2012, CMS distributed 23,730 QRURs to physicians in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. The QRURs were derived from 2010 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) claims data and claims-based reports for any physician in the above four states that billed at least one claim through the MPFS. They did not include PQRS measures reported electronically or through registries. The reports were confidential and for use only by the individual physicians, at that time. They were removed from the website July 13, 2012 and will be replaced by new reports containing 2011 data in the fall of 2012 for nine states (California, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin).
What QRURs Tell You
QRURs inform providers where they stand compared to other providers of the same specialty regarding quality measures reporting and the cost of care. CMS designated 28 quality measures and 13 sub-measures (41 total, including preventive care, cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions) to determine whether the beneficiary received the indicated treatment during 2010 for primary care and preventive services. The National Quality Forum (NQF) is working on additional measures for chronic diseases (asthma and chronic pulmonary disease) and other conditions (pneumonia and hip and knee replacements).
The QRURs separately identify services that the physician:
- Directed (the physician billed for 35 percent or more of all of the patient’s outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) visits;
- Influenced (the physician billed fewer than 35 percent of the patient’s outpatient E/M visits, but accounted for 20 percent or more of the professional cost of care); and
- Contributed to the (physician billed for less than 35 percent of the patient’s outpatient E/M visits and accounted for less than 20 percent of the patient’s total professional cost of care).
For each category, the actual Medicare costs of care were assigned per beneficiary, and were risk-adjusted by medical history and patient demographics. Percentages were provided for higher or lower cost per care, per physician, compared with peers and whether their quality of care was better than, equal to, or worse than average for the particular quality measures.
CMS provides the template used for the QRURs on its website.
CMS distributed the QRURs to a few states first, allowing these physicians to look at the overall quality of care received by patients they cared for using the PQRS measures noted, even though the physician might not have provided the measures him- or herself. It also allowed physicians to compare the number of PQRS measures they reported versus their peers, and provided them with an overview of the true total cost of care for each of their patients.
The QRURs also provided a way to analyze individual physician involvement with each of the patients treated. This type of data has not been previously available. It is hoped that physicians will use this data to think about the way they practice, and how they can coordinate resources with other physicians and hospitals to reduce overall costs. They can look at the reports and see where they excel in providing efficient care, and where they can make improvements in quality and/or cost by using resources better.
QRURs Foretell Value-based Reimbursement
A practice that currently is not using PQRS might want to consider which measures are applicable to their practice, and implement their use to show the quality of care they are actually providing as individuals. Remember: In 2015 there will be a payment penalty from CMS for not reporting quality measures.
The new proposed rule for the 2013 MPFS (CMS-1590-P) notes that participation in PQRS will affect the way in which the VBPM is applied.
For physician groups with 25 or more eligible professionals that have met satisfactory reporting criteria for PQRS, the value-based payment modifier would not affect payments (it would be set at 0.0 percent)—unless they choose an option to earn an upward payment adjustment for high performance, “high quality and low cost.” This option would, however, place the group at risk for a payment adjustment for poor performance, “low quality and high cost,” with a maximum downward payment adjustment of -1.0 percent, initially.
For those physicians that have not met PQRS reporting criteria, or do not participate in PQRS, their value-based payment modifier would be set at -1.0 percent, in addition to the -1.5 percent for non-participation in PQRS. CMS is seeking comment on whether this should apply to physicians in solo practice or groups with less than 25 eligible providers.
Over time, other measures will be included in the QRURs, such as Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measures, Medicare EHR Incentive Program measures, and patient satisfaction scores. Another area in development is an “episode grouper” to include episode-based costs, including clinical-related data to apply to an episode of care (a specific period of time from the onset to conclusion of care). An example of this would be a hip or knee replacement surgery that includes all related services and costs for that episode (inpatient and/or outpatient surgery, physician visits, home health, rehabilitation, skilled nursing facility (SNF), etc.).
See the MPFS proposed rule of 2013 at: www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-16814_PI.pdf
As new programs replace the existing fee-for-service (FFS) payment model, providers will need to pay more attention to the various demonstration projects and initiatives being started. It will take a lot of time and effort, but comments on the new models from current providers will aid Medicare in making provider-friendly choices in the future as they modify their system designs.
If your practice is in one of the four states, and you have received a report and wish to comment, you can email CMS at CMS_Medicare_Physician_Feedback_Program@mathematica-mpr.com, or participate by asking questions and providing feedback at any upcoming conference calls yet to be announced. CMS is enlisting your feedback now as they work to improve the process.
If your practice is not in the states where QRURs have been distributed, go to the CMS website to learn what is in store for you when your geographic area is accessed, and to ask questions or comment on ways to make the process more valuable. For more information, go to www.cms.gov/physicianfeedbackprogram.
You may also comment on the regulations for the VBPM found in the proposed rule at www.regulations.gov.
Learn the new acronyms. Join the discussion. Be a part of the process early in the game!
Lynn Berry, PT, CPC, had over 35 years of clinical and management experience before beginning a new career as a coder and auditor. She later became a provider representative for a Medicare carrier. She now has her own consulting firm, LSB HealthCare Consultants, LLC, furnishing consulting and education to diverse provider types. She is also a senior coder and auditor for The Coding Network and a pilot tester for CMS web-based training courses. She has held several offices in her local AAPC chapter and continues as one of the directors of the St. Louis West chapter. | <urn:uuid:61a25e67-862e-4644-aa27-16beba933dea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.aapc.com/index.php/tag/national-quality-forum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958751 | 1,841 | 1.507813 | 2 |
I had a chance tro attend the Chicago pre-release of Waiting for Superman. It was a terrific opportunity. Attached is my review which is also posted here on examiner.com. I’d like to know what you think.
Waiting for Superman is a powerful place to start a conversation.
Darrell Polk attended the Chicago pre-screening of Waiting for Superman on September 28. The following article is his review of the documentary.
Early in the documentary, Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim reminds the audience that he produced two other documentaries that focused on the need for great teachers. His documentaries, Teach and The First Year were acclaimed by teachers and teacher unions. Guggenheim should not expect any similar acclaim for Waiting for Superman. Poor teachers and the unions that protect them are indicted throughout the movie.
It is unfortunate that defensiveness may keep some people away from a great message and a powerful call to action. We have entered a time in this country where antagonists take polarized, black and white positions. They can’t allow shades of gray because the concept of sharing power for the good of all seems intractable to them.
Waiting for Superman is a must see for anyone who cares about education in this country – and that should be everyone. The documentary presents the stories of five kids and their families and their quest for a better education. Each child has a chance at a better education if they can make it through a lottery system for the few seats available in local charter schools. You will find yourself becoming attached to the kids and their families as they hope for the chance at something better than their current lot.
The phrase, Waiting for Superman, is articulated by one of the heroes of the film, Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harvard Children’s Zone. Canada reminisces about how distraught he was when his mother told him that Superman wasn’t real. Canada was a young kid at the time and was upset because he learned that, “Neither Superman nor anyone else would be coming with enough power to save us.”
Throughout the touching stories about the students, Guggenheim intersperses statistics and interviews with thought leaders that illustrate our nation’s failure in addressing the problems with public school education. Some telling points:
- Since 1971, per student spending has increased from $4,300 to $9,000. That’s adjusted for inflation. Reading and Math proficiency has stayed flat. That’s nowhere near a favorable return on investment.
- Steve Barr, Founder of Green Dot Public Schools, talked about Locke High School in Los Angeles. Barr estimates that 40,000 out of 60,000 Locke students have dropped out without graduating over the nearly 50 years the school has been in existence. That means that two out of every three adults over the course of five decades is not modeling the value of education to their children or the neighborhoods’ children.
- In Pennsylvania, the average to secure, house, and feed a state prisoner is $33,000 per year. Over an average four-year sentence, that’s $132,000. With that same $132,000, you could send a student to a high performing private school from kindergarten through high school and still have about $24,000 left for college.
- Teachers unions are largest donors for federal offices. More than the UAW. More than the Teamsters. On the federal level, 90% of their donations go to Democratic candidates. At the state and local levels, a high percentage goes to Republican candidates.
- It is hard to terminate a bad teacher. The documentary showed that, where possible, principals and administrators transfer underperforming teachers between schools, recycling poor teachers rather than firing them. Union contract stipulations – it was argued – make it nearly impossible to terminate the teachers. In Wisconsin they call this maneuvering the “Dance of the Lemons.” Other states call the dance, “Pass the Trash” or “The Turkey Trot.”
- New York City had the “The Rubber Room.” Underperforming teachers were sequestered in rooms at the district office away from the classrooms – sometimes for months – until their situations were reviewed. The teachers were in effect on leave with full pay. The costs? Around $100 billion dollars. (In April of this year NYC eliminated the “rubber room” and teachers either went to the administrative offices for work or stayed home. They are still paid – just not as conspicuously).
- There are 876 school districts in Illinois. Only 61 districts have attempted to terminate a poor performing teacher. Only 31 have been successful. In Illinois, an average of one out of 57 doctors loses his medical license. An average of one in 97 lawyers loses his law license. Only one in 2,500 teachers loses their credentials, because of union rules.
The movie is not just about poor performance but also Guggenheim presents some success stories. One of many positive stories presented is about Canada’s Harvard Children’s Zone. The results of the Harvard Children’s Zone are truly amazing. Canada’s charter school zone – formed from of the historically worst performing schools in the city – now performs better in proficiency testing than every other school, not just public schools, but other charter schools.
Skeptics argue that it is because of Canada’s charisma – which he surely has – but other schools that follow the HCZ model have similar results. Canada’s team has a relentless focus on achievement and college, longer school days, more work, greater accountability, parent involvement, and great teachers. As Canada says, “You can’t have great schools without great teachers.” Canada boils things down to his radical approach by asking, “What if we never let our kids get behind?”
There’s much more to the movie that won’t fit here. Pay close attention to the parts on Randi Weingarten and Michelle Rhee Throughout the movie, you will find yourself shocked, amazed, saddened and impressed. But you will also find yourself caught up by Guggenheim’s story telling. Guggenheim wraps up the documentary by asking, “We’ve proved that it can be done, now what’s the excuse?”
If we care about this education in this country then we must:
- Be willing to engage together
- Push aside the status quo and our own agendas
- Admit that we have a problem
- Recognize that it is hard work and commit to it for the long haul.
Waiting for Superman is a powerful place to start a conversation. Watch the movie and draw your own conclusions. It is not the conclusion. It is not a panacea. It is a great place to start. | <urn:uuid:16192820-a3bd-465f-9e14-a602b917e0e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.polkk12consulting.com/bizofedblog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967246 | 1,414 | 1.859375 | 2 |
This week kicked off the first session of summer trainings with the High School Explainers. We led three workshops on squishy circuits on different days hoping that as many Explainers as possible could try out this activity. The workshops started with the challenge of using the playdough and batteries to turn on an LED and then progressed to free exploration with all the materials. As we’ve noticed with Summer Camp and with visitors, the basic materials that people choose remain fairly similar, but the approaches to how people use them are varied. Some Explainers took the problem-solving approach, wanting to discover how many lights they could turn on, how long a wire of playdough they could make, or figuring out how much voltage was lost to the dough. Others made sculptural creations that were fun, whimsical, and inventive. A few brave souls even tried testing the 9V batteries on their tongues to make sure they still worked (talk about a squishy circuit).
Stay tuned for the next round of workshops with the High School Explainers! | <urn:uuid:49a83459-0ae3-4252-90e9-c0eafe6fe073> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/tinkering/2011/07/22/squishy-circuits-with-the-high-school-explainers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980159 | 212 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Michigan citizens want more support for educators, survey says
Three-quarters of Michiganders say providing stronger support for educators is "critical" or "important" if the state is to improve student learning, according to a new survey released this week that attempts to find out what Michigan citizens want when it comes to improving K-12 education.
Michiganders overwhelmingly favor developing "a stronger support system for educators once they're in the classroom, according to the survey, released by the Center for Michigan, a centrist think tank based in Ann Arbor.
"Options include more intense mentoring to help new teachers and administrators master their craft, ongoing in-depth training and evaluation of educator performance and development of more master teachers -- true experts in the performance of their craft," the Center for Michigan said in its survey report.
Improving teacher preparation is also extremely important to citizens, who want to "raise the bar for entry into education degree programs, require deeper mastery of the subjects teachers teach and institute tougher standards for teacher certification," according to the report. The public's strong support for teacher certification serves in stark contrast to policy proposals that weaken or remove teacher certification requirements.
A vast majority of Michiganders also strongly support expanding early childhood education and reducing class sizes, the survey found.
Strengthening support for educators, improving teacher preparation, reducing class sizes and expanding preschool are all significantly more important to Michigan citizens than other "reforms" like expanding school choice or launching more cyber schools, according to the survey.
In fact, expanding cyber schools and school choice ended up at the very bottom of the list of reforms supported by Michiganders, according to the survey.
"We find considerably less enthusiasm for expanding school choice -- an approach under intense consideration in Lansing," the Center for Michigan said. "In both our community conversations and polls, fewer than one in five participants say it is 'crucial' to expand school choice."
"Likewise, we do not find clear public urgency to expand online learning opportunities," the Center for Michigan report said. "In short, the public is somewhat skeptical -- especially if it means replacing traditional brick-and-mortar schools with more online-only schools." | <urn:uuid:a88007bc-65f9-473d-bf75-9aa4dc8e0ec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mostertag@mea.org/michigan-citizens-want-more-support-educators-survey-says | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949739 | 444 | 1.890625 | 2 |
|Home Dan Blazer Md Aging Well Dr Dan Blazer Part 4 Geriatric Depression|
Aging Well with Dr. Dan Blazer, Part 4: Geriatric Depression
“Depression causes more disability than any other psychiatric disorder,” Laity Leadership Institute senior fellow Dan Blazer, M.D. said his 2005 book The Age of Melancholy: Major Depression and Its Social Origins. In fact, depression is as disabling or more disabling than diabetes and hypertension, he said, and the World Health Organization estimated that it will be the second leading contributor to the “global burden of disease” by 2025.
Although those born in the later part of the 20th century suffer higher rates of depression than those born earlier, roughly 15 percent of the elderly experience significant symptoms.
A Crossword Puzzle Case Study
When The High Calling interviewed Dr. Blazer last fall, he talked about a patient who is close to 90 years old. The man had called Blazer a few weeks earlier to say he was feeling “terrible,” that he wasn’t sleeping and was losing weight, all of which are symptoms of depression.
The patient also said, “I’m not doing my crossword puzzles.”
“He had been doing crossword puzzles for 80 years,” said Blazer. “All of a sudden he wasn’t doing them. That signals loss of interest, which is another symptom of depression.”
Blazer prescribed medication. When he talked to the patient a few weeks later, he said he was feeling much better.
Blazer asked, “Are you doing your crossword puzzles yet?”
“No,” he replied.
The doctor knew then that the man wasn’t well yet and increased his medication dosage.
“He was sleeping better and his had appetite has returned, but, I’ll know he’s well when he starts doing his crossword puzzles again,” Blazer explained.
“If I were a family member and I had seen him doing crossword puzzles every day for 70 years, and then he stopped doing them and was just sitting in a chair, even though he might say he feels fine, I would be concerned about him,” he added.
Recognizing Social Causes in a Biological Age
In The Age of Melancholy, Blazer said that 70 percent of those who take antidepressants respond, and those who relapse do well with a combination of medication and psychotherapy. But he also warned that “something in therapists’ understanding and treatment of the disease is missing.” That something is insight about “the connection between the way we feel and the world around us.”
In working with younger colleagues to sketch a geriatric psychiatry research agenda for the future that focused on major depression, Blazer suggested including a study of prevention along with studies of brain imaging and clinical trials of new drugs.
“The social stressors of late life, such as the lack of economic resources or the fear of crime, seemed obvious topics to study,” said Blazer, but his colleagues were skeptical.
“No one had yet proved that changing the living conditions or the social context of an older adult would prevent late-life depression. But we were setting a research agenda for the future, not summarizing findings from the past. Could my colleagues believe that such an intervention was not even feasible? Could they totally discount the context of late-life depression and refuse to add explorations of the social origins of depression to the agenda? Yes, they could!” Blazer wrote.
He realized, to his dismay, that “social psychiatry had all but disappeared from the view of most modern psychiatrists.” Social psychiatry thrived during the 1960s, Blazer said, but has since been eclipsed by the medical model.
“Psychiatrists, it seems, have come to believe that if they label the person with a diagnosis such as major depression, they have said it all,” he explained.
Gulf War syndrome is an example in which specific physical toxins, such as oil well fires, are seen as the cause of a mental health problem.
“Although it should be noted that multiple factors can contribute to war syndromes, perhaps the most significant factors are ignored because they are not specific--that is, they are societal rather than physical,” Blazer said.
Other examples are smoking, obesity, and heart disease, all of which are now recognized to have social causes, as well as biological and psychological ones.
“Depression must be viewed as more than an interaction between a biologically vulnerable person and his or her behaviors toward a unique environment. Regardless of biological vulnerability, most first episodes of major depression are closely associated with a stressful life event, events often out of control of the individual,” said Blazer. “All cultures place individual experiences into agreed-upon social categories. Americans increasingly project the mood of depression onto biological processes, such as a chemical imbalance, and then turn to biology to validate that mood as natural and unique to the individual.”
The problem with this, he wrote, is that “major depression as a medical diagnosis effectively shapes and limits the explorations of its causes.” So, when clinicians diagnose someone with major depression, “they make a sharp distinction in a span of otherwise indistinct emotional suffering.”
Recognizing and Treating Symptoms
This narrow perspective contributes to the suffering of the elderly, many of whom don’t seek out mental health services, even when they perceive a need for them.
In Depression in Late Life, Blazer said that “if they are seen by a primary care physician or social agencies, the depressive symptoms may be overlooked or may not be diagnosed as a depressive disorder and therefore are not counted.”
For those who do manage to have their symptoms counted, “multiple interventions, if orchestrated effectively” are likely to be effective.
“Recognize the symptoms early and try to get help as early as you can. That, to me, is absolutely critical,” Blazer told us.
In a 2009 Christianity Today article, "The Depression Epidemic," he said, "Major depression is diagnosed when an adult exhibits one or both of two core symptoms (depressed mood and lack of interest), along with four or more of the following symptoms, for at least two weeks: feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; diminished ability to concentrate or make decisions; fatigue; psychomotor agitation (cannot sit still) or retardation (just sitting around); insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too much); significant decrease or increase in weight or appetite; and recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation."
He described this definition as "sterile," however, and insufficient.
"Deep depression is embodied emotional suffering. It is not simply a state of mind or a negative view of life but something that affects our physical being as well," Blazer explained.
If you or a loved one experiences this kind of pain for more than a couple weeks, it may be time to reach out for help.
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Your Fellow Citizenship
Have you ever been present when people become citizens of a country? Perhaps you were an immigrant who became a citizen of a country. Or perhaps you attended a naturalization ceremony in support of... Read More + | <urn:uuid:6b186999-d597-42eb-8093-9d67e60373b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehighcalling.org/dan-blazer-md/aging-well-dr-dan-blazer-part-4-geriatric-depression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970622 | 1,577 | 1.960938 | 2 |
“How do you like being told what to do? If someone tells you to do something you find enjoyable or fulfilling, you may not mind. What if you are told to do something contrary to what you would choose for yourself? What if the government was the one telling you to do it? Adam Smith, the philosopher and father of economics, talks about a “man of system,” a central planner who believes he can orchestrate the lives of others, like chess pieces that can be moved at will. As Professor James R. Otteson illustrates, society suffers when the man of system attempts to force his desires on the lives of individuals in ways that contradict their own desires. According to Smith, people are not chess pieces to be moved on a board; they are living and thinking and have their own wills. Individuals pursuing their own desires will constantly be in conflict with the desires of any central planner.”
In Kansas, we see the rise of central planning in several ways. Officials believe they can plan and guide our economic development efforts, and the results have not been successful.
All these are examples of the problem explained in the video. | <urn:uuid:2ac7e7b4-fac2-4ffd-8837-76679623afb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state-politics.com/states/kansas/central-planning-are-we-humans-or-pawns/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969667 | 234 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Voter Photo ID and Privacy
- Federal Court Panel Blocks South Carolina Voter ID Requirement: A special panel of federal judges in Washington, DC has barred the state of South Carolina from enforcing new voter identification requirements in the upcoming November elections. The court was "unable to conclude" that South Carolina could implement its voter identification law in a way that would "suffice under the Voting Rights Act" before the upcoming elections. The court did grant preclearance to implement the law after the November elections citing the "extremely broad interpretation of the reasonable impediment provision," which allows South Carolina voters to still vote if they complete an affidavit affirming their identity and state the reason for not having obtained photo identification. EPIC has previously argued that voter ID requirements impermissibly burden the right to vote. For more information, see EPIC: Voter ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (Oct. 15, 2012)
- Pennsylvania Judge Blocks Voter ID Requirement: A Pennsylvania district court barred the state from enforcing voter identification requirements in the upcoming November elections. Following guidance from the state Supreme Court, Judge Robert Simpson issued a narrow preliminary injunction. He ordered that Pennsylvania may not require photo IDs to vote in November. Election officials may ask voters for identification, but those without ID may still cast regular ballots. Judge Simpson explained that the state Supreme Court identified "the essential offending activity as voter disenfranchisement, not a request to produce photo ID." EPIC has previously argued that voter ID requirements impermissibly burden the right to vote. For more information, see EPIC: Voter ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (Oct. 3, 2012)
- Pennsylvania to Reconsider Voter ID Law: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that a lower court must determine whether the State's strict voter ID can lawfully be implemented before the national election on November 6. The Supreme Court said that the "disconnect between what the law prescribes and how it is being implemented" raises questions. EPIC has previously argued that voter ID requirements are an impermissible burden on the right to vote. EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (Sep. 21, 2012)
- 2012 Democrat Platform Endorses Internet Privacy: The 2012 Democratic National Platform supports the administration’s Internet Privacy Bill of Rights to protect consumer privacy. Separate provisions in the platform call for privacy protections for broadband deployment, intellectual property enforcement, and cybersecurity laws; the Democratic platform opposes voter identification laws. However, the platform is silent on the Fourth Amendment, and retreats from the 2008 Democratic platform that opposed surveillance of individuals that were not suspected of a crime. In 2008, Candidate Obama promised to "strengthen the privacy protections for the digital age and to harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.” The 2012 Republican Platform was released last week. The Libertarian and Green Party platforms are also available. For more information, see EPIC: Privacy and Consumer Profiling, EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy, EPIC: National Security Letters, and EPIC: Cybersecurity Privacy Practical Implications. (Sep. 4, 2012)
- Federal Appellate Court Strikes Down Texas Voter ID Law: The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated a Texas law that would require voters to present a photo identification in order to vote. Calling the law “the most stringent in the country,” the court held that “record evidence suggests that [the law], if implemented, would in fact have a retrogressive effect on Hispanic and African American voters.” Therefore, the court held, the law violates section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5 requires “covered jurisdictions” to show that new voting procedures, such as Voter ID requirements, are nondiscriminatory before those changes can be put into effect. The ruling came after the Department of Justice previously blocked the law through the Section 5 preclearance process. EPIC has argued that unreasonable voter ID requirements are an impermissible burden on the right to vote. For more information, see EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (Aug. 30, 2012)
- 2012 Republican Platform Addresses Privacy and Government Surveillance: The 2012 Republican Party Platform calls for strong Constitutional protections for privacy and new safeguards for personal data held by businesses. "We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties," the platform states. The platform also criticizes TSA screening procedures and calls for warrant requirements for most law enforcement-operated drones. However, other provisions endorse voter identification laws and increased disclosure of personal information to the government for cyber security. For more information, see EPIC: Privacy and Consumer Profiling, EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and Body Scanners, EPIC: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Drones, EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy, and EPIC: Cybersecurity Privacy Practical Implications. (Aug. 29, 2012)
- Second Wisconsin Judge Strikes Down State Voter ID Law: In a second challenge to Wisconsin's voter ID requirement, Judge David Flanagan has held that the ID law imposes an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. The law "tells more than 300,000 Wisconsin voters who do not now have an acceptable form of photo identification that they cannot vote unless they first obtain a photo ID card," wrote Judge Flanagan. The opinion follows a similar ruling earlier this year by Wisconsin judge Richard Niees. For more information EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (Jul. 23, 2012)
- Senate Judiciary Holds Hearing on Voter Suppressions: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Prohibiting the Use of Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Tactics in Federal Elections." The Senate is considering new legislation to address the problem of deceptive practices and voter intimidation. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy cited "burdensome identification laws" as one of the obstacles to public participation in federal elections. A new report highlights similar problems in the recent Canadian national election. EPIC has published reports on deceptive campaign practices and filed briefs in opposition to unnecessary voter ID requirements. For more information see EPIC Voting Privacy and EPIC - Crawford v. Marion County. (Jun. 27, 2012)
- Federal Appeals Court Backs Justice Department in Voting Rights Dispute: The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion rejecting Shelby County, Alabama's constitutional challenge to the preclearance requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Court held that Section 5 of the Act, which requires "covered jurisdictions" to show that new voting procedures, such as Voter ID requirements, are nondiscriminatory before those changes can be put into effect, is constitutional. Shelby County challenged the preclearance requirements after Congress reauthorized Section 5 in 2006. The Department of Justice recently blocked Voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas through the Section 5 preclearance process. EPIC has argued that unreasonable voter ID requirements are an impermissible burden on the right to vote. For more information, see EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy and EPIC: Crawford v. Marion County. (May. 18, 2012)
- District Court Panel Admonishes South Carolina in Voter ID Case: A three-judge panel overseeing a critical voter ID case, State of South Carolina v United States of America, set out an unusually detailed requirements in an Scheduling and Procedures Order issued today. According to the concurring statement of Judge Bates, joined by Judge Kollar-Kotelly, the state has engaged in delaying tactics even as it has urged a swift resolution of the matter, concerning new voting ID procedures adopted by the state. The court cited South Carolina's lack of responsiveness to the Department of Justice, "despite repeated requests" for the "final versions of the implementing procedures" for provisions of the law. The court expects to issue a final ruling in early September 2012., prior to the fall Presidential election. For more information, see EPIC: Voter Photo ID and Privacy. (Apr. 26, 2012)
In the US, voting civil rights advocates are locked in a struggle with federal, state and local authorities over more restrictive voter identification and authentication requirements. This clash over poll place practices and voter ID requirements was initially triggered by the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which increased federal election requirements for first-time voters who register to vote by mail. These requirements include that voters provide a form of identification prior to voting in person for the first time. According to the Act, acceptable forms of identification could include a photo ID, “utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.”
While new ID requirements might appear minor to most voters, they threaten both privacy for all US voters and civil rights for marginalized voter populations. Similarly, while the states raise barriers to in-person voter participation through the new requirements, they leave the gate wide open to actual voter fraud threats posed by absentee voting.
EPIC has a long history of working on voter privacy issues, which this government issued photo ID requirement strongly affects. In a arch 2007 statement to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, EPIC cautioned against new photo identification and proof of citizenship requirements for federal elections. Absent evidence of an actual problem, EPIC warned that the requirements could discourage legal voters. EPIC noted that Congress has already provided for provisional ballots for instances when there are doubts about the status of voters seeking to cast ballots in public elections.
In 1992, EPIC filed a voter registration privacy case in Greidinger over the state of Virginia's practice of collecting Social Security Numbers and making them publicly available. In that case EPIC prevailed by the decision of the court to prohibit the state of Virginia from requiring citizens who wish to register to provide a Social Security Number.
In 2007, EPIC filed a brief in the Crawford v. Marion County, strict voter government issued ID case to protect voting privacy rights of Indiana voters. Challenging the position of the state that the government issued photo ID requirement would add security to state elections. Further, the state of Indiana's poll worker training material on photo ID's used by the state to educate poll workers on acceptable and unacceptable photo IDs was questionable.View image
As of early 2012, 19 US states (CA, IL, IA, ME, MD, MA, MN, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, PA, VT, WV, WY) and the District of Columbia have no voter ID laws.
Voters in seven states (AL, FL, HI, ID, LA, MI, RI (note: starting in 2014 RI will only accept government issued photo IDs), and SD) are requested to show a photo ID, but if they do not hold one they have several other options, including providing other forms of personal information or signing an affidavit of their identities, or another voter with a photo ID can attest to the identity of a voter without a photo ID.
Eight US states have so-called "strict voter photo ID laws," which restrict voting rights to those who hold a government-issued photo identification document. In early 2011 only two states, Georgia and Indiana, had enacted "strict voter ID” laws. During 2011, Kansas and Wisconsin, which previously had no voter photo ID laws, enacted them. South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas made changes to existing non-photo ID voting laws to restrict voting to only those with a government issued photo identification document. Mississippi citizens voted in favor of a ballot initiative to create a strict voter photo ID requirement, which will need legislative approval prior to going into effect.
In December 2011 the US Department of Justice rejected South Carolina’s request for approval of its new voter ID law. Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, South Carolina must receive Department of Justice approval when making changes to poll place practices.
In 2012, new voter ID laws are introduced in Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and West Virginia. There are still bills pending that would strengthen existing voter ID laws in the states legislatures for Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Voting in the US was initially limited to white male landholders, but this civil right was gradually extended to include non-landholders, persons of color, women, and 18-20- year-olds. Historically, however, each extension of voting rights was not always welcomed by local and state officials due to the legacy of slavery, ethnic codes, and other laws that limited the civil rights of women, poor whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and new citizens.
Union Army occupation of the South following the Civil War instituted civil rights reform that allowed former slaves to vote, which made possible a large number of free black citizens to hold local, state, and federal office. However, predominantly Southern states were particularly creative in establishing “Jim Crow” laws to restrict the voting rights of former slaves. These laws focused on establishing polling place practices intended to prevent certain voters from participating in public elections. These measures included “Grandfather Clauses,” “Intelligence Tests,” and “Literacy Tests.” Many tests were impossible to answer, such as: “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?”
To further remove minority and poor white voters from the voting process, local governments imposed “poll taxes,” which required voters to pay a fee to vote in public elections. These practices, joined with violence against those who challenged these polling practices, effectively removed from public office every black Congressional office holder elected during Reconstruction.
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s dismantled the “Jim Crow” laws. Congress passed the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution on August 27, 1962 and the Amendment was ratified by two-thirds of the nation’s state legislatures by September 23, 1962. The 24th Amendment prohibits a state or the federal government from requiring a “fee” from voters in order for them to cast a ballot in federal public elections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 provided additional tools to protect voters from discrimination and violence, by establishing the Department of Justice as the federal agency with the power to sue states that restricted the voting rights of minorities.
Increased voter identification requirements oblige voters to obtain at least one form of identification for which the state typically collects a fee. Some states allow persons who cannot afford a card to obtain one for free; however, this method can require documented proof of identity, state residency, citizenship and indigence or income. Voter registration applicants are often required to apply for such cards well in advance of an election. The current economy will place additional burdens on a larger number of voters than at any time in recent history, as well as added expenses to states, at a time when state, local, and personal budgets are under extreme stress. States also must provide transparency to voters regarding voting changes, and offer adequate resources to meet the rush of demand for photo identification or other forms of acceptable documents that can be obtained in time for voters to participate on the Tuesday, November 6, 2012 general election.
Increased voter identification requirements oblige all citizens presenting themselves at voting locations - the vast majority of whom presumably arouse no suspicion - to disclose not only their names but also all information that appears on their form of government-issued photo identification. Further, voters are required to present the cards not to police but to poll workers, most of whom are neither professionally licensed in law enforcement nor permanent government employees. Voting ID requirements mandate self-identification not in the context of criminal apprehension but as a condition to an innocent person’s exercise of the constitutional right to vote.
The most common form of government-issued photo identification is a driver’s license, which includes the voter’s name and photographic likeness but also may include such information as the voter’s age, height, weight, driver’s license number, restrictions owing to disability or impairment (such as for imperfect vision or a prosthetic limb), and fingerprints. Furthermore, states, rather than voters, have sole control over the information placed into a state-issued ID card, and the applicant for such identification cannot choose to withhold certain data. Changes in the design and content of driver’s licenses and other state-issued identification are also at the government’s discretion. Any changes may not consider the requirements set forth by state laws governing voter ID requirements.
Furthermore, in recent years states have increased the numbers and types of documents required to obtain state-issued drivers licenses or other identification documents. These requirements have proven to be costly and in some cases burdensome because the funds necessary for purchasing them or the underlying documents were impossible to obtain.
The cumulative effects of what many would deem a minor burden on voter rights would be substantial over time because checking papers, according to University of Toledo professor DJ Steinbock, has “an additional subjective effect on a grand scale: the psychic harm to free people of having to ‘show your papers’.... Not only would people forced to go through identity checkpoints experience some degree of fear and surprise, but also knowing that this has become a permanent part of the social fabric would diminish their sense of liberty.”
- Media and Democracy Reveals Source of Voter ID State Laws
- Wisconsin Online Voter ID -- Your Papers Please
- National Conference of State Legislatures
- National Council of State Legislatures: Voter ID Laws
- Multiracial Identity and the U.S. Census: 1900-2000
- Black Elected Officials
- Constitution of the United States 24th Amendment
- Privacy and Human Rights 2006, Voting Privacy, Publication of EPIC and Privacy International
- Help America Vote Act of 2002
- GREIDINGER v. State of Virginia (Use of the SSN)
- Voting Rights Act
- EPIC: 2007 House Testimony on Voting Rights and Privacy
Wisconsin's Online Information on New State Voter Government Issued Photo ID Requirement
Wisconsin has placed information online regarding voter government issued photo ID requirements for different types of voters, in person, absentee military, absentee, elderly absentee, and felon voting. The effort to reach voters must be more aggressive because prior to 2011 voting in that state allowed registration and voting on the same day. The government issued photo ID requirement will disallow voting in this manner for thousands of voters.
The information on the different requirements for each class of voter is outlined by the [pdf] documents hosted on the state's website, which are provided below:
- Election Day Voting Wisconsin’s New Voter Photo ID Law
- Wisconsin Guide for Elderly Voters and the Government Issued Photo ID Law
- Wisconsin Absentee Voting and the New Government Issued Photo ID Requirement
- Wisconsin's Voter Government Issued Photo ID requirement and New Citizen Voting
- Wisconsin Voter Photo ID Requirement and Felon Votingf
- The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters, Jody L. Herman, The Williams Institute, April 2012
- Brennan Center Voter ID Report
- Can we change implicit racial attitudes in the real-world?
- Race-Specific Perceptual Discrimination Improvement Following Short Individuation Training With Faces
- Perceptual Other-Race Training Reduces Implicit Racial Bias | <urn:uuid:006347f4-67f7-4a7f-8a4a-001a0175995f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epic.org/privacy/voting/photo-identification.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936175 | 4,035 | 1.710938 | 2 |
There was a gathering of people in Newtown. It was in someone's kitchen, and it was filled with friends and neighbors who knew they needed to be together. They knew they had to hug each other. Gradually, as they spoke, they also realized something else. They understood that they had a
China's One Child Policy has led to the deaths of tens of millions of girls, simply because of their gender. Due to existing cultural preferences for sons rather than daughters, many Chinese families are abandoning, aborting, or hiding their female children. As a result, there are now 37 million
As a result of gendercide and the One Child Policy, how many more men than women are there in China today?
China's One Child Policy restricts most families to one child each and - because of the underlying cultural preference for sons - parents often prefer a boy. As a result many parents abandon or kill their newborn daughters, while others practice sex selective abortion in hope of a son. Families who
The 36-year-long Nurses Health Study is recruiting women to study cancer risk in the next generation of women. And we need your help! The Nurses Health Study needs 100,000 nurses and nursing students to continue its landmark research on breast cancer. Not a nurse but know a friend? Help us spread
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) claims more than 380,000* lives per year, and is the leading cause of death in the United States. SCA can strike anyone, anytime. *American Heart Association. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2012 Update. Circulation: 15 Dec. 2011 Every day, thousands of people | <urn:uuid:caf5da51-2cb8-45e6-b230-55228885365f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.causes.com/profiles/163651398 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96769 | 333 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Anorexia of Aging
- Thu, 10/6/11 - 4:04pm
- 0 Comments
- 6857 reads
Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging. 19(10):18-24.
Angela Champion, BSN, RN
As people age, they become less active and normal physiologic changes cause a shift in body composition, with an increase in proportion of body fat and a decrease in lean muscle mass and extracellular fluid mass.1 The body typically responds to the decrease in energy needs with a desire for fewer calories. This predisposes older adults to anorexia of aging, a syndrome associated with unplanned weight loss and protein-energy malnutrition (PEM).2,3 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) defines significant unplanned or undesired weight loss as a 5% decline in body weight over 1 month, 7.5% over 3 months, and 10% over 6 months (Table 1).4 Various physiologic, pathologic, psychologic, and sociologic factors (eg, depression, loss of social networks, chronic illness, medications) increase the risk of anorexia of aging and resultant malnutrition.
Although it is widely recognized that maintaining a well-balanced and nutritious diet plays a vital role in maintaining good health during the aging process, malnutrition is becoming increasingly prevalent among the elderly population. Despite its prevalence, undernutrition—defined as protein-energy deficiency that is reversed solely by the administration of nutrients5—often goes undiagnosed in the elderly. Undernutrition is associated with an increased risk of mortality and morbidity, including frailty, pressure ulcers, impaired wound healing, dehydration, and functional decline.4 Failure to assess long-term care (LTC) residents for nutritional status and to document efforts to correct avoidable cases of undernutrition can result in deficiency citations from CMS for Tag F325.4
In addition to discussing the causes of anorexia of aging, this article reviews three validated instruments that are useful for assessing the nutritional status of geriatric patients. Interventions are also examined, with conclusions drawn from the literature about their effectiveness in addressing this syndrome. Understanding why some elderly people eat less as they get older, to the point where they experience unhealthy weight loss and PEM, will help healthcare providers learn how to assess for risk factors associated with anorexia of aging.
Prevalence of Protein-Energy Malnutrition
Elderly individuals often consume smaller meals, eat more slowly, drink less, and take fewer snacks between meals, all of which contribute to a reduction in calorie intake.6,7 One study reported a 25% decrease in daily calorie consumption from 40 to 70 years of age.8 Another study comparing differences in calorie consumption between individuals aged 25 years and 70 years found that older men’s daily caloric intake dropped by 1000 to 1200 kcal and older women took in 600 to 800 kcal less per day.5
A decline in activity and energy expenditure over time means fewer calories are needed to maintain body weight—one study9 estimated that an adult’s daily energy use declines 100 kcal each decade of life—and this helps balance the decrease in calories consumed. Any factor that further affects eating habits or increases energy requirements, however, can upset this balance, leading to significant weight loss or an unsafe decline in body mass index (BMI) and undernutrition.
In developed countries, approximately 85% of LTC residents, between 23% and 62% of hospitalized elderly patients, and 15% of community-dwelling older adults suffer from malnutrition.10,11 A recent meta-analysis of geriatric conditions commissioned by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) noted that the lack of a universal standard for diagnosing malnutrition in the elderly makes it difficult to assess its prevalence.12 The USPSTF study determined that older African Americans were significantly more likely than white people to experience unintended weight loss; and while the authors found no difference in the risk of unintended weight loss between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, older Hispanic women were significantly more likely to have poor nutritional scores than older women who were not Hispanic (30% vs 17%, respectively).12
In the community and LTC settings, many age-related physiologic changes,medical conditions, medication use, mental health issues, and social factors contribute to an increased risk of anorexia of aging (Table 2[click thumbnail]). It has been reported that more than two-thirds of LTC residents aged ≥65 years voluntarily restrict their diet and reduce calorie consumption.7 Some factors may be modifiable, whereas others are not. In those cases, additional measures are needed to halt and hopefully reverse unintended weight loss and undernutrition. | <urn:uuid:2d6d48e2-6033-4dfc-a7e5-81be79c239eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.annalsoflongtermcare.com/article/anorexia-aging | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937819 | 965 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Yesterday, both sides made opening statements in the case of two high school football players accused of raping a 16 year old classmate in Steubenville, Ohio. The judge will continue to hear arguments and witness testimonies today in a non-jury trial. Prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter has argued that the victim was too intoxicated to consent, while the defense argues she was still in control of her actions.
The two football players are accused of raping a 16 year old classmate in August after she became intoxicated at a house party. Witnesses tweeted and posted video of the attack on social media sites, and the case went viral. If convicted, the two football players could face being held in juvenile detention until they turn 21 and would be required to register as sex offenders upon their release.
Media Resources: Reuters 3/14/2013; Associated Press 3/13/2013; BBC 3/13/2013
6/18/2013 Supreme Court Strikes Down Proof of Citizenship Voter Requirements - On Monday, the United States Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship before being allowed register to vote.
In an opinion written [PDF] by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Court ruled that the Arizona statute violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA, also known as the "Motor Voter Law") of 1993, which created a federal form that individuals can mail in to register to vote in federal elections. . . . | <urn:uuid:317df51e-9146-4a2a-bad2-94a7b38d1db4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=14203 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963882 | 285 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Frink, Hon O.H
The following data is extracted from History of Page County Iowa.
Hon. O. H. Frink is one of Page county's representative citizens who has never allowed personal interest or ambition to dwarf his public spirit. His feelings have ever found expression in prompt action rather than in theory and as mayor of Shenandoah lie is now doing effective work in promoting needed restrictive, regulative and constructive measures. He also stands as one who has been prominent in business circles, his previous activity and well directed energy bringing him the competence that makes possible his present retirement.
A native of Indiana, Mr. Frink was born in the city of Elkhart, May 26, 1848, a son of Hannibal and Eliza (Armstrong) Frink, natives of Herkimer county, New York, and of Detroit, Michigan, respectively. They were married, however, in Ohio, to which state they had previously removed. After their marriage they began their domestic life there and continued residence in that state until their removal to Elkhart, Indiana, where the father died in 1848. He was a shipbuilder and carpenter by trade. His widow survived him for only five years and departed this life in Lafayette, Illinois, in 1853.
O. H. Frink, left an orphan when but five years of age, was reared by a guardian in Elkhart, Indiana, and remained with him until the marriage of his elder sister, with whom lie then took up his abode in Kewanee, Illinois. It was there he largely acquired his education in the common schools but when only fourteen years of age lie started out in the business world on his own account, being first employed at farm labor. He was but sixteen years of age when, in 1864, he responded to the country's call for troops, enlisting as a member of Company A, One hundred and Twentyfourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He served through the last year of the war and was transferred from the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth to the Thirty-third Regiment in July, 1865, continuing with that command until he received his honorable discharge in November following. He was but a boy in years but his military service made hint a plan in experience for he had not only suffered the hardships and privations that fall to the lot of the soldier but had also faced danger and death on the battlefields of the south.
When the country no longer needed his aid Mr. .Frink returned to Kewanee, Illinois, where he secured a clerkship in a mercantile establishment, with which he was identified for six years. He then came to Page county, Iowa. He has since been numbered among its residents and as the years have passed his activities and interests have constituted an important feature in the general growth and improvement of this part of the state. He first located on a tract of unbroken prairie land near Shenandoah, purchasing eighty acres, to the improvement of which he gave his energies through many years, converting the place into fertile fields, from which he annually gathered abundant harvests. He became recognized as one of the practical, progressive and representative farmers of the locality and resided upon his land until 1890, when he was elected to the office of county treasurer and removed his family to Clarinda. He filled the position for three terms in most acceptable and creditable manner and throughout that period maintained his residence at the county seat. In November 1895, higher political honors were conferred upon him in his election to the state legislature but prior to taking his seat in the general assembly he removed his family back to the farm. For two terns he was a member of the house of representatives, serving in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh general assemblies and also in an extra session to revise the code. His work as a legislator covered the years of 1896, 1897 and 1898, during which period he served on a number of important committees and was connected with a number of leading regulative and constructive measures which found their way to the statute books of the state.
Following his retirement from office Mr. Frink returned to the farm, where he resided until the spring of 1903, when he sold that property and removed to Shenandoah, there associating himself with C. A. Hamilton under the firm name of Frink & Hamilton for the purpose of conducting a heating and plumbing business. This partnership existed for about four years, at the end of which time Mr. Frink purchased his partner's interest and for about eighteen months conducted the enterprise independently. In July 1908, however, he disposed of his business and since that time has not been actively connected with commercial interests. In the previous years of his identification with agricultural and mercantile affairs he had so managed his business as to win a substantial measure of success and with a comfortable competence he retired to private life.
On the 12th of April 1870, in Kewanee, Illinois, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Frink and Miss Barbara Ellen Minnick. As the years passed ten children were added to the household, of whom seven are yet living, namely: Nettie, the wife of Dr. George O. Cogley, a practicing dentist of Shenandoah ; Elizabeth, the wife of Dr. W. F. Stotler, of Shenandoah; Bertha, the wife of F. M. Stotler, who is superintendent of the public schools of Lebanon, Oregon; Grace, the wife of W. R. Worden, of Fairbury, Nebraska ; O. Harvey, living in Lebanon, Oregon ; Irene, a teacher in the district schools of Page county; and Warren M., who is attending school.
The family attends the Baptist church, in which Mr. Frink holds membership. He is now acting as one of the board of trustees of this church and was president of the building committee at the time of the erection of the new house of worship. In community affairs he takes a most active and helpful part, cooperating in all measures for the general good. He is today as true and loyal to his duties of citizenship as when he followed the old flag on southern battlefields and he maintains pleasant relations with his old army comrades through his membership in Burnside Post, No. 56, G. A. R., of Shenandoah. He stands at all times for progress and improvement and while he holds to high ideals of citizenship, utilizes practical methods for their attainment. His substantial qualities being widely recognized by his fellow townsmen, he was urged by many of Shenandoah's leading citizens to become the republican candidate for mayor in March 1909, and at the ensuing election he was chosen as the chief executive of the city, in which position he is now serving. He has been identified with the republican party almost from its organization, has been an influential factor in its local councils and has done effective work for its advancement. He has served in various township offices in Page county and now as mayor of the city he is giving to Shenandoah a public-spirited and business like administration, manifesting the same quality of energy, per severance and determination which characterized the conduct of his private business affairs. His record, taken all in all, is one of signal usefulness and honor and has brought him merited and high regard from his fellow townsmen.
Source: History of Page County Iowa | <urn:uuid:fd3acce8-39ca-43f1-b928-14f602d9a7e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0010701 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989273 | 1,505 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Chrysler recalls 370,297 pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles over fastener
ReutersDETROIT--Chrysler Group LLC said on Thursday it was recalling 370,297 pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles globally because a loose fastener could cause the rear axle to lock up and make a driver lose control.
February 16, 2013, 12:04 am TWN
The recall, which expands on another recall announced last fall, affects 278,222 vehicles in the United States, 63,321 in Canada, 23,767 in Mexico and 4,987 in the rest of the world, Chrysler said.
Chrysler, which is controlled by Italy's Fiat, said it was recalling some Ram 1500 pickups from model years 2009 through 2012, Dodge Dakota pickup trucks from model years 2009 through 2011, and 2009-model Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango full-size SUVs.
A Chrysler spokesman said the U.S. automaker was aware of 15 accidents related to the recall, but no injuries. | <urn:uuid:b0271683-dbf6-4f5e-8e6f-1da4242696c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/company-focus/2013/02/16/370367/Chrysler-recalls.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942113 | 206 | 1.523438 | 2 |
125 Old Broad Street
This building, originally designed by Llewelyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier-Walker & Bor and opened by HM The Queen in 1972, was the home of the London Stock Exchange until 2004. Brutalist in style and originally clad with concrete panels it was damaged by a terrorist bomb in 1990, which led to the closure of the public galleries. In 2002 it was purchased by Hammerson who instigated a renovation programme. Grimshaw were commissioned to redesign the exterior and obtain planning permission before passing the project over to GMW, who acted as executive architects. As part of the works the exterior envelope was removed and each floor slab was extended out by approximately 2.0m all round, resulting in a significant increase in lettable area, before applying new contemporary curtain wall cladding. The original podium block was demolished and replaced with a new six storey block in the same style. | <urn:uuid:44b1a8e7-8422-4afd-8f62-499db8ba0082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mimoa.eu/projects/United%20Kingdom/London/125%20Old%20Broad%20Street | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964458 | 185 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The College Board provided sobering evidence last week as to why education reform continues to be so vital in this state and nation.
The nonprofit organization that administers the SAT reported that only 43 percent of 1.66 million American students who took the college-entrance exam last year demonstrated that they were well prepared for college.
Critics of standardized testing often argue that the SAT isn't a fair representation of students' ability because of cultural biases or the fact that some individuals, despite sufficient knowledge, struggle with test taking. Still, whatever flaws the SAT (or for that matter the other common college entrance exam, the ACT) may have, college completion rates are abysmally low, here and elsewhere.
The College Board reports that only 44 percent of high school freshmen across the nation eventually go on to attend college. Of those who enroll in four-year schools, only slightly more than half earn a bachelor's degree within six years. And less than 30 percent of community college students receive an associate's degree within three years of starting school.
Indiana's numbers aren't anything to brag about either. According to Complete College America, Indiana's graduation rate at the university level was 56 percent in 2011. The state's two-year schools recorded a 14 percent graduation rate.
Many former college students are caught up in the worst of both circumstances -- no degree and sizeable student loan debt.
Addressing these problems is especially important for Indiana, which ranks 44th in the nation in the education level of its workforce. One necessary step is to ensure that more students are truly prepared for the academic rigors of college. A second is to provide stronger vocational options in high schools for those students who don't have the desire or ability to flourish in a university environment.
What should be clear -- but apparently isn't, given the tenor of the ongoing education debate -- is that our current approaches aren't working. | <urn:uuid:08ccc085-81c5-41c8-bc4d-50d3daf32b7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indystar.com/article/20121001/OPINION08/210010310/?nclick_check=1 | 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 | 0.969171 | 385 | 2.375 | 2 |
Forget what you heard about mild weather at the end of March. This year, that isn't happening. There is a chance of snow showers today and a chillier than normal weekend coming up.
There is also another chance of snow on Monday, forecasters say, in this winter that won't quit. Low pressure is forecast to pass southeast of the area on Thursday. A few bands of flurries or snow showers are expected to move through the state today, said Quincy Vagell of the WeatherXEdge.com. Although accumulations should be light, the first full day of spring could feature some more snow.
"Although the heaviest snow is expected to stay south and east of Connecticut, there is a slight possibility that somewhat higher snowfall totals could reach New London County,'' Vagell said. "The development and intensity of any snow bands will be critical in determining who sees the most snow.''
And that in like a lion, out like a lamb thing? It was actually warmer in Bridgeport on March 1, 47 degrees, that it is expected to be today, with a high of 39, according to the WeatherUnderground.com web site.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for daytime highs of 44 in Bridgeport and 42 in Danbury on Saturday and Sunday. The average high temperature at this time of year is expected to be 50 degrees. | <urn:uuid:0169e031-1b79-41b3-b978-7324645e2d6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/March-may-exit-as-more-lion-than-lamb-4372796.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960535 | 279 | 1.539063 | 2 |
While going thru FM SCAN.org. According to the FCC database, XHLTN is 57.5 kw and 102M, but according to this website, XHLTN is 120kw and HAAT is 272m? Which information is correct? I thought XHLTN transmitter is located next to XETV tower on Mt. San Antonio?
Mexican stations frequently add horizontal and vertical powers for promotional and advertising sales purposes. This is not a "forbidden practice" in that country.
In general, free, third party data sites are not going to be 100% accurate due in part to the sheer volume of data they attempt to provide and also due to the delays and inaccuracies of the the source data, particularly for "developing nations." | <urn:uuid:3cca5828-9be1-4cd6-8041-7abca0d65b7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=207312.0;prev_next=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963438 | 155 | 1.898438 | 2 |
What problem does believing in Jesus solve for you?
It’s a question that asks more about you than about Jesus. I recently posed it to a group of friends and heard back answers reflecting a range of concerns. Theological friends said Jesus solved theological problems. Intellectual friends said Jesus solved intellectual problems. Practical friends said Jesus solved everyday problems. Apparently, Jesus solved what they needed him to solve. But were any of their problems the right one?
We often think of “orthodoxy” as the right answer, but what about the question itself? What if orthodoxy has more to do with having the right problem? The right problem would have to be one to which Jesus is the unique solution, not a merely adequate one—the acceptable answer, not an acceptable answer. A human problem Jesus solves uniquely provides the ground to stake the orthodox claim about Jesus: he is the only way. A problem Jesus solves adequately is the wrong problem because an adequate Jesus is the wrong Jesus.
For people who don’t believe Jesus solves anything uniquely, Christianity is just a benign option. Sure, Jesus can get us through the day, motivate us to help with poverty, provide a social ethic, or resolve intellectual problems. But people use many things to get through the day (including coffee). Indignation motivates crusades against poverty. Pick your social ethic. Theory solves academic problems. While Jesus can solve such problems adequately, an adequate Jesus inspires nobody. So long as people have the wrong problem, they will have the wrong Jesus.
What is a Problem?
Problems are encounters we interpret as inconsistent with our cognitive model of the world (how we think the world works). We reckon with life by assessing our priorities, expectations, and concerns against our model, and a problem is the gap between what we observe and what we expect. Our models thus set up problems that structure the solutions we seek. And there are only two kinds of models: one centers our perspective in the problem whereas the other displaces it.
Some people tend to treat the world as revolving around their perspective—their concerns, priorities, and issues—and thus make their perspective (ego) central to their interaction with the world. Let’s call that the “ego-centric model.” People with ego-centric models tend to identify their problem with the scope of their world’s problem—their country, social circle, or individual life—and scale solutions to fit that scope. Their faith in God is upheld by a theology scaled to resolve those problems.
Others tend to treat the world as displacing their perspective, and thus adopt a posture of openness to new experiences that subvert their perspective. Let’s call that the “subversive model.” People with subversive models tend to invite new encounters that subvert their problem with bigger ones—perhaps on missions trips or in philosophy class—and expand their world in the direction of a bigger solution. Their faith in God opens them to bigger problems that destabilize their theological constructs.
These two models shape the problems we have, which in turn guide our theologizing about Jesus. Theology is how we integrate our beliefs about Jesus into our lives, how we “make solutions” out of him. But using theology to fit Jesus into our problems is a tricky business because our theological constructs are obviously not Jesus himself. They are what we use to get at him, which calls for two caveats: 1) constructs are tools for knowledge, not the object of knowledge itself; 2) we must loosely hold answers that result from our theological constructs. They are the output while models are the input. Thus, replacing theological constructs amounts to replacing answers: our underlying problem—what motivated our interest in looking to theology—remains.
Replacing a Wrong Problem
People change problems when they adopt subversive over ego-centric models of the world.
Changing models is ultimately a way of discarding an adequate Jesus by discarding the wrong problem. Subversive models make us vulnerable to encounters that overturn our understanding of Jesus, surfacing how we use him for solutions and answers we want to get. But that means we must seek such encounters and learn to recognize when we’ve had them. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that our personal experience norms the truth, but that the truth norms us only by our experience of it.
Jesus himself performed ministry this way. He entered the world in a moment of culture war. Competing ego-centric constructs about social problems filled first century Palestine. Pharisees claimed their problem (cultural decline) was the scope of their world’s (Israel’s) problem. Laxity in observing holiness had precipitated Israel’s decline, and so Pharisees wanted to hallow the land because Yahweh was holy: “You shall be holy, as I the Lord your God am holy.” To correct the broken link between God and their world, they proposed a solution of personal and national holiness. And so they responded to Roman subjugation with a rigorous morality, emphasizing barriers between people along an axis of holiness.
Jesus confronted the culture war around him by subverting the boundaries of the Pharisees’ solution by enlarging their problem. Jesus criticized the ceremonial, social, and ultimately exoteric spiritual barriers of their holiness program while enlarging the formal principle—and problem—of holiness. “It is not what enters the mouth that defiles a man, but what proceeds from the heart” (Matt. 15:11). He dedicated his ministry to breaking down spiritual camps and advocated an alternative vision of human community, which was rooted in compassion on all groups that violated the barriers of each (as seen in the Parable of the Good Samaritan). He dealt with people’s hearts—their ego-centric models—by showing that their accepted problems were too small.
Finding the Right Problem
Jesus subverted people’s theological constructs by solving a problem different from cultural decline. He stressed that God’s compassion solved the right problem, while the culture war of the Jews’ holiness code impeded people from discovering it. Our enemies are not the right problem, so defeating them is not the solution. This is why we turn the other cheek to those we consider evil and love those who impede our solutions. Only after people confront the bigger problem will Jesus’s solution seem real enough to accept. How does someone get to the place of having a problem for which there is either no “adequate” solution for anyone, or one unique answer for everyone?
The right problem can be found by displacing our ego from the accepted problem of each of our worlds, narrowly considered. The right problem demands that we expand our world until it encompasses everyone equally. We must all be in the same camp: in other words, we must confront a universal human problem, rather than the problems particular to our concerns, club, or country.
Jesus devoted his ministry not to confronting people with sins and absolving their transgressions, but to proclaiming a kingdom through healing and raising the dead. Of 47 encounters Matthew records between Jesus and the “multitudes” and Pharisees, 28 involve healings or discourses about life and death, but only two involve sin or forgiveness. In Mark’s account, 22 of 38 encounters recorded involve healing and life, while only four mention sin. In Luke, it’s 23 of 43 encounters with four mentions of sin. In John, it’s ten of 20 encounters with four mentions of sin. Jesus’s own response to faith was never, “Your faith has made you sinless,” but “Your faith has made you well.” Death is the fact of sin, and sin’s reality is death.
We are objects of God’s compassion and Jesus’s ministry because we are subject to decay and death, and need his life. The enemies we make are objects of Jesus’s ministry and God’s compassion because they are subject to decay and death, and need his life.
Death is the Orthodox Problem
Jesus saw himself as solving death uniquely with life. His mystical teachings always center on his ability to impart “true life,” “everlasting life,” and the “life eternal,” to anyone who believes, and contemplated his own flesh as the solution given “for the life of the world,” according to John’s account. Matthew (10:39), Mark (8:35), and John (6:53) all record Jesus teaching that anyone who rejects him and clings to their own life will have no life.
The church fathers’ true north in the Christological controversies was a Jesus who solved genuinely the problem of death. He had to partake fully in divinity, fully in humanity. He had to have both natures, both wills. Only then could God become man that man might become god, in the words of Athanasius. Humanity only then could partake of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) through mystical union with Jesus and share in the spoils of his victory over death. The subversive theology of the Incarnation uniquely solves the orthodox problem of death.
Sure, Jesus can meet you where you are and solve the problems you have. But spiritual growth consists in embracing the problem of orthodoxy, and effectively challenging the world spiritually consists in confronting it with death. The orthodox solution is joy unspeakable and full of glory: Jesus came to be the life of the world. And not the sort of life lived as passing through events—as the times crease into our faces—but the positive force of life of being and doing in flourishing relations with others under the expectation that our death is conquered and is the curtain call for the real show.
Nathan D. Hitchen is a professional problem-solver who lives and works in the Washington D.C. area with his wife, and is a 2007 John Jay Institute fellow. | <urn:uuid:39bb8de1-9542-4cae-843d-b5dccb756f3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mereorthodoxy.com/the-problem-solving-jesus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959942 | 2,072 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Mary Ann Irwin, a part-time professor of history at Diablo Valley College since the summer of 1996, has two new books and a journal article that will be published in 2011.
The books are Women and Politics: California from the Gold Rush to the Great Depression (University of Nebraska Press; Robert W. Cherny, Mary Ann Irwin, and Ann Marie Wilson, eds); and The Elusive Eden: A New History of California (McGraw-Hill, coming 2011; Richard B. Rice, William A. Bullough, Richard J. Orsi, and Mary Ann Irwin).
The journal article is “Sex, War, and Community Service: The Battle for San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Special “Gender and the City” Edition (coming in 2011).
Irwin attended San Diego Mesa Community College, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in history from UC Berkeley, and her Master of Arts in history from San Francisco State University. Summer 2010 will mark her fourteenth year teaching part-time at Bay Area colleges, including Diablo Valley College, Chabot College, Laney College, and San Francisco State University.
“In 1974, I enrolled in a course called ‘The Black American in U.S. History’ at Mesa Community College in San Diego,” Irwin says. “It was a two-semester course that started with American slavery and ended with the Watts riots. The instructor was the very entertaining but thoroughly prickly Bob Russell, and I probably alienated him the first time I opened my mouth. But in the end, I found something that I could be interested in forever.
“Before that class, I had thought history was unspeakably boring. That went double for U.S. history. But when I took Professor Russell’s class, I realized my mistake. History wasn’t boring; it was the history books that were boring—all about people doing things I didn’t care about. I realized that I had always been interested in history, but a kind of history I hadn’t known existed, about those who lost the wars, who didn’t write the laws, who didn’t win the White House by a plurality of votes. I didn’t know the term until much later, but I had discovered something called ‘social history.’”
Irwin says she has no illusions about the role of the historian in the grand scheme of things. “The stories I tell aren’t going to save the polar bears or anything,” she admits. “But writing history means a great deal to me, personally. I love being able to throw out my net and find some story that interests me–some person or place or thing that, if others knew more about, they might find interesting too. If I am patient and careful, I can dig these fossils out of their obscurity and reveal them, as an archaeologist might use a fine brush to uncover relics long buried and forgotten.
“Perhaps,” Irwin continues, “I can make a reader say, ‘Oh, I get it—that makes sense,’ or even, ‘Well, that is just the dumbest thing I ever heard.’ Either way makes me happy. I get to be part of this long conversation we call history, a conversation that started long before I showed up and will continue long after I’m gone. It is a very low-key, not-too-flashy kind of immortality.”
Irwin is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, Kappa Phi chapter, the International honor society in history. In 1999 she won the Jensen-Miller prize for Best Article from the Coalition for Western Women’s History, and in 2003 was named one of six fellows for the “Jewish Women Building Community” project of the Jewish Women’s Archive, funded by the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation of San Francisco.
Irwin serves as an ex officio member of the steering committee of the Coalition for Western Women’s History, and is a member of the editorial board of the Pacific Historical Review (University of California Press). She currently is writing a history of San Francisco’s Emanu-El Sisterhood for Personal Service.
Among her published works:
“‘The Air is Becoming Full of War:’ Jewish San Francisco and World War I” (Pacific Historical Review, August 2005);
Women and Gender in the American West: Jensen-Miller Essays from the Coalition for Western Women’s History (University of New Mexico Press, 2004; James F. Brooks and Mary Ann Irwin);
“‘Going About and Doing Good’: The Politics of Benevolence, Welfare, and Gender in San Francisco, 1850-1880” (Pacific Historical Review, 1999);
“White Slavery as Metaphor: Anatomy of a Moral Panic” (Ex Post Facto, 1996).
The St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco plans to publish a trade edition of her Ministers of the Poor: The St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco, 1860-2010, a history she compiled for their 150th anniversary.
Irwin lives in Oakland and volunteers with several local organizations, including Elizabeth House, an East Bay shelter for women and children; Save the Bay, the Bay Area’s oldest environmental action group; and Taproot Foundation, a volunteer-matching groups that connects writers, web designers, and other kinds of professionals with not-for-profits needing their skills. She has two children, son Zachariah and daughter Sarah (both exemplary) and two cats (who are very bad). Irwin says teaching and writing are ancillary to her real mission in life, which is collecting vintage hats. | <urn:uuid:3436e7f1-287a-41b0-b878-58fec5fb768d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvc.edu/news/newsmakersMaryAnnIrwin20100520.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945637 | 1,221 | 2.0625 | 2 |
The political rhetoric from Beijing and from Washington is about a war over leadership in renewable energy.
In his inaugural address this week, President Barack Obama said, “we cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries – we must claim its promise.”
But energy expert Jeffrey Ball says behind that war of words, U.S. and Chinese investors are actually rushing to make deals and invest in each other’s firms.
Ball says it’s a sign that renewable energy is coming of age.
Global investment in renewable energy has surged over the last 10 years. More than $250 billion was invested in 2011 – six times the total investment of 2004.
Ball says the industry is now at a point where it’s possible to begin thinking seriously about scaling up to the levels that would be needed to take renewable energy from a niche to a mainstream source of the world’s energy needs.
Ball speaks before the World Affairs Council of Northern California on Jan. 22, 2013:
- Jeffrey Ball, scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance. He was previously the Wall Street Journal’s environment editor. He tweets @jeff_ball. | <urn:uuid:909afdf3-db21-4a02-a01a-512e80197ac3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/01/25/invest-renewable-energy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944788 | 261 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Returning to the town of her birth the day after an Iowa poll shows her neck-and-neck with that Romney fellow, Michele Bachmann announced, "I stand here in the midst of many friends and many family members to announce formally my candidacy for president of the United States.”
Invoking our rich history, our trust in God, our families and our neighbors, not government, Bachmann went on to address our biggest obstacles we face as a nation.
“We simply cannot kick the can of our problems down the road, because our problem are quite frankly today, our problems are not tomorrow. We can’t continue to rack up debt and put it on the backs of the next generation. We can’t afford the unconstitutional healthcare law that will cost us too much and deliver so little. We can’t afford four more years of failed leadership here at home and abroad. We can’t afford four more years of millions of Americans who are out of work and who aren’t making enough in wages to support a family. We can't afford four more years of a housing crisis, where we continually watch the value of our home devalued in front of our eyes, and we literally see it become impossible for people to purchase a home. We can’t afford four more years of foreign policy with a president who leads from behind and who doesn’t stand up for our friends like Israel and who too often fails to stand against our enemy. We cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama.”
Bachmann said she came to Waterloo today to announce that "We can win in 2012 and we will win" as her appeal grows with people from all walks of life, who find agreement in part, if not wholly, with the pillars of conservatism, which Bachmann confesses her devotion to all: peace-through-strength conservatives, fiscal conservatives and social conservatives, and yes, even the media-vilified tea party movement, to which she described as "a very powerful coalition that the Left fears. And they should, because make no mistake about it: Barack Obama will be a one-term president."
Concluding with a poignant message, Bachmann proclaimed, "Together we can do this. Together we can reign in the corruption and the waste that has become Washington, and instead, we can leave behind a better future for the next generation of Americans. Together we can make a better America, if we stick together. Together we can bring the promise of the future. Together we can; together we will." | <urn:uuid:d26047c8-d227-4545-b1da-9449e004cb9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://anebbandflow.blogspot.com/2011/06/bachmann-makes-her-formal-presidential.html | 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 | 0.955456 | 522 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Today marks the 116th birthday of Russian physicist Leon Theremin, inventor of the musical instrument that bears his name and inspiration to Bob Moog.
Born Lev Sergeivich Teremen, Leon Theremin had an unusual educational background, holding both a degree in physics and a degree in cello performance, it was this unique combination of skills that was the impetus for the invention of the Theremin. The Theremin was born in a scientific laboratory. Leon was working with a device that measured the density of gas and had modified it to not only give a visual readout of the value, but an auditory representation as well. The device would emit a tone that would change pitch as the gas density changed, and Theremin discovered that his body’s proximity to the device would interfere and affect the tone. Using the control learned as a cello player Theremin managed to play a simple tune with the device and based on the delight of his coworkers, decided to develop it into a full-fledged instrument.
The Theremin is played without ever physically touching it, two antennas attached to the instrument emit electromagnetic fields, by interrupting these fields a player can affect the pitch and volume of the instrument creating eerie and ethereal music. Leon Theremin famously demonstrated the instrument to Vladimir Lenin who was so impressed that he sent Theremin across Russia, Europe, and eventually the United States to demo his invention. Theremin intended to stay in the United States for only 6 months, but through continuous extension of his visa ended up remaining here for 11 years. During this period Theremin and his instrument caught the attention of Clara Rockmore who went on to become the worlds greatest Theremin virtuoso. Theremin’s stay in the US proved very fruitful for him, he negotiated a contract with RCA to mass produce his instrument and was able to patent many of his other inventions, but beneath the surface Theremin’s visit served another purpose.
When Lenin sent Leon Theremin on his tour of the world, he did so not only to have Theremin demonstrate his instrument, but also to spy on the world’s engineers. For the 11 years that Theremin was in the United States he was also conducting industrial espionage. By submitting his patents and befriending other inventors, Theremin was granted access to sensitive documents and trade secrets, information that he shuttled back to Russia. This continued until 1938 when Theremin mysteriously disappeared from his New York apartment. It is widely believed that Russian officials extradited Theremin, but many feel that he fled the states of his own volition, either out of fear of his cover being blown or pure homesickness.
When Theremin returned to Russia he was not welcomed as a hero instead he was sent to a work camp where he was forced to create listening tools and bugging devices to be used by the secret police. It was during this period that Theremin created “the Thing” a device that was concealed in a replica of the Great Seal of the United States and presented by Soviet school children, as a gesture of friendship, to the US Ambassador. The device transmitted confidential conversations from the ambassador’s office for seven years until it was accidentally discovered in 1952.
After many years of captivity Theremin was released from the Soviet work camps and was free to live out his life. He went to work at the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he continued to build Theremins and train musicians in the playing of the instrument. Theremin’s last pupil was his grand niece Lydia Kavina, who is now considered one of the best Theremin players in the world.
Theremin died in 1993, but not before returning once more to the United States where he was able to reunite with his first protégée, Clara Rockmore, and the other people from the life he was forced to leave behind. Leon Theremin’s legacy is everlasting, the Theremin is still produced today, and his life and work served as an inspiration to Bob Moog whose career of innovation began by selling hand built Theremins from a basement workshop.
Happy Birthday Leon Theremin.
Your friends at Moog | <urn:uuid:080b92bf-2796-486e-8a4d-e287068483f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://moogmusic.com/news/happy-birthday-leon-theremin | 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 | 0.982791 | 846 | 3.375 | 3 |
Japanophilia is an interest in, or love of, Japan and anything Japanese; its opposite is Japanophobia. One who has such an interest or love is a Japanophile. In Japanese, the term for Japanophile is "shinnichi" (親日), with "親" "shin" (しん) acting as the English suffix 'pro-', and "日" "nichi" (にち), meaning to "Japanese" (as in the word for Japan "nihon" (日本). 日 individually also means 'sun' or 'day', as in the literal translation of "nihon" (日本) as "sun origin", or "Land of the Rising Sun").
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Carl Peter Thunberg and Philipp Franz von Siebold, who stayed in the Dutch outpost of Dejima, helped introduce Japanese flora, artworks, and other objects to Europe. Some consider them to be among the earliest Japanophiles. (This was before the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when Japan became more open to foreign trade.)
Lafcadio Hearn, an Irish-Greek author who made his home in Japan in the 19th century, was described to be "a confirmed Japanophile" by Charles E. Tuttle Company in their foreword to most of his books.
In the first decade of the 20th century, British writers were lauding Japan. In 1904, for example, Beatrice Webb wrote that Japan was a "rising star of human self-control and enlightenment", praising the "innovating collectivism" of the Japanese, and the "uncanny" purposefulness and open-mindedness of its "enlightened professional elite". H. G. Wells similarly named the élite of his A Modern Utopia "samurai". In part this was a result of the decline of British industrial primacy, with Japan and Germany rising comparatively. Germany was seen as a threat close to hand, but Japan was seen as an ally. The British sought efficiency as the solution, and after the publication of Alfred Stead's 1906 book Great Japan: A Study of National Efficiency, pundits in Britain looked to Japan for lessons. This interest ended with World War I.
The United States went through a similar period of Japanophilia starting in the 1980s, anticipated in the 1960s by the writing of Peter Drucker, who pointed to the "consensual decision-making" in Japanese corporations and celebrated Japanese corporate management techniques (even claiming credit for giving this system to the Japanese via his books and seminars). In September 1980, the extremely popular mini-series Shōgun aired, which then made the paperback edition of James Clavell's 1975 novel a best seller. During that period, American students[who?] took Japanese language classes with the hope of doing business with Japan. This was also a decade in which numerous shows from Japan, such as Voltron, were being dubbed and shown on American television. Various American animated produced programs from the 1980s and 1990s were animated overseas in Japan. This phenomenon accelerated in the 1990s with shows like Power Rangers (based on popular Japanese TV program series Super Sentai), Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Pokémon and Digimon. There has since been considerable interest in Japanese popular culture across much of the Western world.
- Japanification: cultural assimilation into Japanese society
- Japanese studies
- "Japanophile". Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster. 2002. Retrieved 2008-01-08. "one who especially admires and likes Japan or Japanese ways"
- Word IQ. Nippon and Nihon - Definition. Retrieved June 6, 2011, from http://web2.wordiq.com/definition/Nippon_and_Nihon
- William R. Johnston (1999). William and Henry Walters, the Reticent Collectors. JHU Press. p. 76. ISBN 0-8018-6040-7.
- Robin D. Gill (2004). Topsy-Turvy 1585. Paraverse Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-9742618-1-5.
- "Lafcadio Hearn, Heather Hale looks at the life of the noted writer". Japanfile, the Website of Kansai Time Out Magazine. 1990-09
- Bruce Cumings (1999). "Archaeology, Descent, Emergence: American Mythology and East Asian Reality". Parallax Visions: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations. Duke University Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-8223-2924-7. | <urn:uuid:a1c7f090-0079-47a1-9201-10d7f6ce0d9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanophile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939526 | 976 | 2.34375 | 2 |
People of faith called to be peacemakers gain greatly from books as politically wise and nuanced as David Rieffs collection of recent essays, At the Point of a Gun. Not long ago, Rieff was an interventionist who supported the efforts of the United States, its allies, and the United Nations in using force against those who commit human rights atrocities and also for humanitarian emergencies. Now he believes the United States should almost always "lean away from war" because there are "not many just wars."
The books 15 essays were previously published in magazines such as The New Republic and The New York Times Magazine, for which Rieff is a regular writer, between 1996 and 2004. A leading journalist and expert on contemporary armed interventions, Rieff has the intellectual and moral courage to publicly change his mind and show how he became convinced - on the streets of Iraq and in hot spots such as Kosovo - that neoconservatives hoping to spread democracy and humanitarians wishing to end ethnic cleansing and deliver food share a false trust in weaponry and a not-so-subtle imperialism. Rieffs changed mind and heart emerge in the prefaces, postscripts, and "afterthoughts" he has added to many of these pieces.
Does altruism justify war? Rieff argues both sides of this question from his own before-and-after writings, which makes for compelling reading and subtle conclusions. He elucidates conflicts - such as in Rwanda - where the "victims were ready, willing, and able to become the victimizers when they got their turn." Nonetheless, Rieff still counts Rwanda with Bosnia as the two warranted exceptions to his new non-interventionist position.
CHRISTIANS WHO rarely read The New York Times international pages might find At the Point of a Gun a slow read but a great primer. Rieff offers pithy overviews and timelines regarding the United Nations and its recent secretaries general, the Kosovo war (the first waged by NATO), war/crimes distinctions, peace accords of the last two decades, and the theology, history, and geography of Iraqs dominant Shia people.
The first half of the book covers the United Nations and international relations before the Iraq war. The second half explores the actual war and its impact on Iraq, the United States, and the world scene, especially regarding empire and imperialism, human rights, and humanitarian possibilities.
In Rieffs preface to his most pro-intervention piece - "A New Age of Liberal Imperialism?" - he criticizes his own "sanguine account of U.S. power," concluding that "From Somalia to Rwanda, Cambodia to Haiti, and Congo to Bosnia, the bad news is that the failure rate of these interventions spawned by the categorical imperative of human rights and humanitarianism in altering the situation on the ground in any enduring way approaches 100 percent. Time and time again, our moral ambitions have been revealed as being far larger than our political, military or even cognitive means."
Others have certainly turned away more dramatically from violence as a given than Rieff. Sixty years ago this month, Father George Zabelka began a three-decade process of changing his mind, completely, concerning the morality of all war. He was chaplain to the pilots and crews of the Enola Gay and Bocks Car who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (killing more than 100,000 people) and Nagasaki (more than 50,000). Zabelka returned to those cities in the 1970s to say, "Im sorry. I was wrong."
Still, both Zabelka and Rieff offer people of faith a measure of hope. In their own ways, both look at global events with honest realism, seeking a better world.
Rieffs book caused me to temper my too-cheery outlook regarding some African governments, the short-term possibilities for the United Nations (Rieff clarifies the United Nations image in many regions as subservient to the United States), and the International Criminal Court (how will it gain widespread legitimacy and relevance?). In the end, Rieffs clear-eyed secular analysis that war is failing repeatedly around the globe deepens my hope, a hope born of a gospel preference for peacemaking and nonviolence.
Robert Roth directs the United Methodist-related Shalom Center for Justice and Peace in Lansing, Michigan.!doctype> | <urn:uuid:d15f6b66-3ff2-4504-a598-0e6940901182> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sojo.net/magazine/2005/09/peace-realistic?quicktabs_top_magazine_articles=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956832 | 903 | 1.929688 | 2 |
We are in a political race and when I hear Mrs. Clinton talk up quality in health care as she did on last night's televised debate, I get really nervous.
I have seen an organization's ratings for patient satisfaction rise from dead last to number 2 in three months. It is a testament to the effort of the organization and its response to poor performance -- as well as to statistical over-sensitivity to minor changes.
We don't really know what quality is in health care, but we know that there are processes that should be paid attention to. Our measures are being used in prime-time, although they show wide variation and are sloppier than slapping a horse-shoe on a seal flipper. We have made great strides, but we are in the infancy of a new field.
We should be unafraid to use the best data available, but we must also retain a sensitivity to the limitations of our data. Sometimes our best data is not really actionable.
Hillary's position sounds sensible, as far as any political platform can sound like anything at all. Quality health outcomes was the passion that motivated my pursuing a higher degree and together with management skills put me in the middle of performance improvement time and again. But awareness of the power and limitations of PI is important.
We are attempting to reduce variation amongst numerous process measures that we know are important to obtaining good health outcomes. But the link between process and biological outcomes remains inferential and subject to numerous additional extraneous influences. The socio-economic obstacles, for example, to patients' participation in their treatment plans affect performance that is over-attributed to physicians. Never-events are really rare "accidents" that can be systematically and impressively reduced, but it is helpful to remember that the random nature of the universe is impossible to deny, even if its effects can be mitigated.
It seems inevitable that a health care plan of some sort is coming, we'd better start looking at details to make sure that political rhetoric does not morph into magical thinking about health care quality. " The other $55 billion would come from the modernization and the efficiencies that I believe we can obtain," Hillary declared.
I certainly hope we can become so much more efficient at work as to save $55 Billion. | <urn:uuid:20e364a9-9c86-4211-bb04-3d35266035f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://executivephysician.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-really-worry-about-quality.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97101 | 463 | 1.648438 | 2 |
But students affiliated with Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES!) are apparently concerned about collective bargaining for their teachers. And their “Bill of Rights” reads more like a list of demand that might be put forth by a labor union.
For whatever reason, Wisconsin State superintendent Tony Evers recently called the document “reasonable” and “well thought out.”
EAGnews has produced a new video which sheds a little more light on the controversial student “Bill of Rights.”
VIEW THE VIDEO HERE.
Among the more outrageous demands in the Bill of Rights (and presumably approved by Evers) are:
• Students have a right to a school environment where all teachers and staff have the right to collectively bargain.
• Students have the right to a focused and peaceful environment through mutual respect between teachers and students. This should translate into equal power dynamics in the classroom…
• Students who are in the process of learning English deserve access to their school’s curriculum with support in their native language.
• Schools must document the demographics of students who are reprimanded by police in school, suspended, or expelled, in order to track and protect against racial profiling.
• Students have the right to beneficial activities aimed at improving their self-esteem, physical well-being and overall person.
• Students who have plans to enter the work force should be provided with worker rights orientation…
It just so happens that YES! is led by several Wisconsin high school teachers with radical left-wing backgrounds. Chances are this document was produced through a lot of suggestions from them.
Why else would students even address collective bargaining privileges for teachers? That’s a union issue, in a state where the legislature recently curtailed collective bargaining activities in schools.
In any case, Students are free to produce whatever nutty, demanding or impractical “Bill of Rights” they choose. But state leaders should be cautious about giving credibility to such demands, unless, of course, they’re interested in putting the full weight of the state government into actually enacting them.
We just wonder, with Evers’ endorsement, whether other radical teachers will use other students to produce and demand attention for similar documents in the future.
Fox News' Roger Ailes: Administration's Excuses Won't Work, Americans Died For Press Freedom | Katie Pavlich | <urn:uuid:e8fefdc5-d26e-42e5-999b-3ba62f179c06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/columnists/kyleolson/2012/12/08/wisconsins_top_education_official_endorses_radical_student_bill_of_rights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954555 | 485 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Democracy at Gunpoint
June 14, 2012 | by Natalie Bakopoulos
Its economy in turmoil, all eyes are on Greece these days, as the world wonders what the country will do next. It is a role Greece has played before, in the 1960s, when a brutal military coup brought one of its government leaders and future prime ministers, Andreas Papandreou, to campus. Author Natalie Bakopoulos explains how the political climate at U-M was the perfect place for the Greek leader to find his footing, and to exact change abroad.
If you peruse old issues of the Michigan Daily or the University Record from the winter term of 1973, you’ll find the stories that dominate are about the conflict in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. You’ll read about a nationwide energy crisis and see stories about proposed tuition hikes. And within these pages you’ll also find articles about student protests around the world, including those in Greece, which was nearing the end––though that wasn’t clear at the time––of a seven-year military dictatorship. One small piece notes a protest at the Athens law school, another about students being arrested at a demonstration at the Athens Polytechnic University—the precursor to a much larger, hugely significant uprising that would take place later that year, in November 1973.
Yet what you might struggle to find, surprisingly, is that former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was a guest lecturer for both LSA’s Department of Economics and what is now the Ford School, where his lectures were a part of the Institute of Public Policy Studies (IPPS).
If you follow Greek politics, you will of course recognize the Papandreou name. Most recently, Andreas’ son George Papandreou was elected prime minister in October 2009 and stepped down at the end of 2011. Andreas had been prime minister twice (1981-1989, 1993-1996). And Andreas’ father, Georgios Papandreou, was prime minister three times (1944-1945, 1963, and 1964-1965).
But let’s turn our focus to before Andreas Papandreou’s time as prime minister and before his time at the University of Michigan. In Athens, Greece, in April 1967, elections were just a month away. Andreas was running to re-secure his parliamentary seat, and the beloved Georgios, head of the Centre Union party, was running again for prime minister and slated to win. But the political situation in Greece was not exactly stable.
Breaking Glass, and Just One Bag
In the early morning hours of April 21, 1967, just weeks before the national elections, a right-winged group of colonels in the Greek army seized power of Greece. Tanks barreled through the streets of Athens, lines of communication were cut, and major streets into and out of the city were blocked. Thousands were arrested in the middle of the night, including the elderly Georgios Papandreou, in his late seventies and ill. Andreas, asleep in his house in Psychiko, was woken by his American, Chicago-born wife, Margaret, who heard gunshots and people trying to break into the house. Soldiers.
Andreas grabbed his gun and went to the study on the house’s third floor. From the terrace his son George helped boost him to the roof. “At fifteen,” Andreas writes in his book Democracy at Gunpoint, “with his athletic build and his manly calm, George had no difficulty. I climbed up on the roof of my study, lay down, and loaded my gun. I was ready.”
He continues his description of the moment: “There was a sound of breaking glass,” he writes. “And then there was the sound of heavy, rhythmic footsteps, boots on marble and then on wood.”
From the roof Andreas could hear angry voices, and soon he could see the soldiers in their black berets and bayonets. When they asked teenage George, with a pistol to his head, where his father was, Andreas jumped the 12 feet down to the terrace. And then he was arrested.
So how did Andreas Papandreou find himself, several years later, giving seminars to students at the University of Michigan? First, Andreas spent eight months in Averoff prison, where his wife would stand outside and smoke cigarettes, so he would see them lit and know she was there. He was released on Christmas Eve as part of a general amnesty, and shortly afterward, one night in January, Andreas woke up his children and told them to pack a bag of clothes: not their comic books or other personal things. Just one bag. They left for Paris and then moved on to Sweden before finally ending up in Canada, where Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau granted them political asylum. Andreas was offered a position at York University in Toronto, Ontario, as a professor of economics.
While at York, Andreas often traveled to the States to speak to both Greek Americans, students, and activists against the colonels’ junta and the situation in Greece. He often found himself in Detroit and Ann Arbor talking about the coup. Much of the resistance movement against the dictatorship was coming from abroad, and Andreas was at the forefront of this activity. On August 14, 1971, the colonels deprived Andreas of his Greek nationality for his anti-regime activities abroad. Even from afar, he was still a major threat.
And he was certainly influential. For instance, on April 21, 1972, the five-year anniversary of the military coup, Andreas appeared along with actress/activist Melina Mercouri at the Manhattan Center in New York, at a rally organized by the United Hellenic Front, an organization that provided assistance to Greeks exiled because of the dictatorship. He said at this rally: “Our struggle for freedom will inevitably proceed to a confrontation with the junta, no matter what the cost.” Nineteen months later, when students at the Athens Polytechnic University staged an insurrection that was brutally, violently repressed (and in hindsight, seemed to mark the beginning of the end of the dictatorship), Andreas’ words proved correct. At the time, though, he didn’t know when he would go back to Greece. His exile seemed indefinite.
The Michigan Influence
The University of Michigan student body was a major voice of protest against the war in Vietnam and an advocate for social change. Students for a Democratic Society held their first meeting on U-M’s campus in 1960. The Port Huron Statement, its political manifesto originally drafted by Tom Hayden, was adapted in 1962. Andreas and Hayden shared a mutual admiration, and though the two didn’t meet until much later, after both had long left Michigan behind, Andreas was certainly influenced by the Students for a Democratic Society’s rhetoric and ideals. And even as recently as 2009, Hayden, in a speech delivered in Athens and later published in The Huffington Post, mentions Andreas Papandreou. Hayden notes that the resistance to the dictatorship that was happening abroad, particularly in the United States, introduced a generation to a new face of Greece. It was no longer only the face of Vice President Spiro Agnew, but of poets and actresses, activists and composers, filmmakers and politicians: “of Ritsos, Mercouri, Theodorakis, Lambrakis, Costa-Gavras, Pappas, and Andreas Papandreou.”
While at the University of Michigan, Andreas was casual and forthcoming with the students, making note of the 10-minute “Michigan time” and occasionally stopping the class to ask a student for a cigarette. He didn’t just lecture and leave; he opened up each session to include a question and answer period and encouraged the students to interrupt him if they wanted to ask something or add or disagree with a point. Per his request, the atmosphere was to be informal and engaging. For IPPS, he delivered four talks that were centered around the dictatorship: the events leading to it and the situation in Greece during the rule of the colonels. For the students, whose political imaginations and engagements were most likely directed toward Vietnam, these seminars were surely eye-opening.
During one of these talks, Andreas discussed his feelings after his arrest: “. . . I was somewhat damaged and not really paying too much attention. I really don’t think there is such a thing as clear-cut fear in such circumstances; fear comes later. It’s like when you’re in a car accident: you’re not so much afraid as you are dazed. It’s neither courage nor lack of it.”
This feeling, being not so much afraid as dazed, seemed to affect the entire nation. The surprising silence with which the junta was met might seem shocking, but it was perhaps the very alarm of it that allowed such silence. The fear did arrive as well, and among the Greek populace it was huge and palpable. During the dictatorship, not only in the days after but as it persisted for weeks, months, and years, it seems that most of Greece lived with this shock. They knew the dictators were there but the situation was almost impossible to understand. As Andreas notes in the first of his IPPS lectures (on Valentine’s Day, 1973): “We expected the coup to be the King’s coup…. The atmosphere was very tense, so that a coup, when it came . . ., did not surprise us as such. Still, such things are always a shock, even if somewhat expected. That is, you can expect it, but you don’t necessarily have to believe it.”
And not believing it might have been a way to cope. While some resistance movements have been organized and executed right in the face of the oppressor, most of the resistance to the Greek junta came from abroad. In fact, it’s interesting to note that the University of Michigan’s Hatcher Graduate Library, within the Labadie Collection of Social Protest Literature, contains “The Pyrros Papers: A Collection on the Anti-Junta Struggle,” possibly the largest collection of English-language materials about the Greek junta. The materials were compiled and donated by Detroit native James Pyrros, a Greek American activist in the Greek anti-junta effort in the United States and keenly involved with the U.S. Committee for Democracy in Greece (1967-1974). This collection contains correspondence, including personal letters between Andreas’ wife, Margaret, and James Pyrros between 1965 and 1968. It contains all sorts of other resources, such as legislative materials, magazine and newspaper clippings, transcripts, reports, press releases, pamphlets, and reports.
It’s interesting to wonder what might have happened had Andreas accepted a full-time position at U-M. In fact, he was offered a position for the fall of 1974, but when the junta finally fell in July of that year, he returned to Greece and founded the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which was one of Greece’s major parties until the most recent elections in May 2012. Andreas became prime minister in 1981. The rest, of course, is history.
“The fight for freedom is really a global fight,” Andreas said, on April 21, 1972, in his address in Manhattan. What’s happening in Greece now isn’t so very different: It’s a global crisis, after all, not simply a Greek one, and where Greece goes next will decide far more than its own national history.
Natalie Bakopoulos received her M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Michigan in 2005, and she is currently a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature. Her debut novel, The Green Shore (Simon & Schuster, 2012), centers around the Greek coup of 1967. She has received an O. Henry Award, a Hopwood Award, and a Platsis Prize for Work in the Greek Legacy. She is a contributing editor for the online journal Fiction Writers Review.
“Greek exile sees clash with Athens.” The New York Times, April 24, 1972. Hayden, Tom. “Greece and the Global Sixties.” The Huffington Post, December 20, 2009. Papandreou, Andreas. Democracy at Gunpoint: The Greek Front (Doubleday, 1970). Papandreou, Andreas. “Under the Colonels.” The New York Times, April 21, 1972. Papandreou, Andreas. Michigan IPPS Lectures. February 14, 1973. Transcript. Archives of the Andreas Papandreou Foundation, Athens, Greece.
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Shaping the town’s future
A NUMBER of residents have taken advantage of the first workshop to discuss the Local Plan.
The meeting was held at Brighouse High School sixth form and attended by nearly 20 residents who asked questions about the future of Brighouse.
Phil Ratcliffe, development strategy officer for Calderdale Council led the meeting. “It is helpful to understand peoples’ views about where we are going and what we are taking forward,” he said. “The number of people at the meeting showed me just how much interest and why the engagement is important.”
Calderdale has to produce a local plan so there will be no uncontrolled development. If a plan is not put in place there is the potential that houses could be put anywhere, he told the meeting.
“We want to be able to plan the infrastructure and the support development that would go alongside that development,” he said. “If we get a published plan out by this time next year we only have six months of where the threat is potentially there. The Government is saying that we need to have an advanced plan by March 14 next year. We are hoping that they consider a preferred plan that has been returned almost as a draft plan.” The Local Plan is for the future development of the local area. It will identify allocations for new sites such as housing, employment and open spaces and set out policies against which planning applications will be determined.
Calderdale must build 800 houses a year between 2008 and 2029 in order to reach their target of 16,800. There are already 2,483 houses built and planning permission for 2,846. There is also up to 2,562, classed as windfall through unexpected planning applications.
That means land needs to be found for between 8,379 to 10,941 homes. Out of that, 2,100 homes need to be built in Brighouse.
Calderdale also needs to find 98,000 sq metres of land for office work, 35,000sq metres of which will be in Brighouse and out of the 215,000 sq metres for warehouse/industry jobs, 40,000sq metres will be in Brighouse. That is 526 jobs per year that needs to be found throughout Calderdale.
Road improvements could be made in Brighouse as part of the West Yorkshire Transport Fund including a by-pass from Bailiff Bridge up to Huddersfield Road. There could also be improvements to the Caldervale line through Brighouse, improvements at Ainley Top and along the A58 at Stump Cross and Hipperholme.
As part of Kirklees Local Plan improvements could be made at the motorway junctions at Cooper Bridge and one provided at the top of Brighouse towards Huddersfield.
A railway station at Hipperholme could also be included.
People are encouraged to comment on the plans by visiting www.calderdale.gov.uk All the documents can be found at the libraries.
- GCSE results for Brighouse High
- Calderdale Heritage walks reveal estate’s historic past
- Former RAF man drank 12 pints before London Marathon
- Former Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher dies - Sir Bernard Ingham calls her the “outstanding 20th century Prime Minister”
- High UK child death rates unfairly blamed on GPs
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Weather for Halifax
Thursday 23 May 2013
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: North west
Temperature: 7 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 28 mph
Wind direction: North east | <urn:uuid:4ef0ef84-dab4-4b0f-8672-b446da9b5190> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brighouseecho.co.uk/news/local/shaping-the-town-s-future-1-5108548 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962041 | 770 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Never having a cat before, we were happy to get help with his injuries. The gal at Garden Grove was so sweet!
— Mark Rinehart and Johnny
Common Veterinary Emergencies & Symptoms Requiring Attention
If your pet exhibits any of the following symptoms, you should seek immediate veterinary assistance:
- Convulsions or tremors
- Difficulty breathing
- Difficulty urinating
- Not eating
- Increased water consumption
Orange County Emergency Pet Clinics offer the expertise, state-of-the-art equipment, and experience to treat all pet emergencies, including:
- Pet hit by a car
- Pet fractures
- Pet poisoning
- Eye injuries and eye conditions
- Gunshot wounds
- Allergic reactions
- Dog fight injuries and bite wounds
- Pet seizures
- Chemical and other burns
- Internal and external bleeding
- Pregnancy and delivery complications.
In emergencies, immediate urgent veterinary care can make the difference in your pet’s recovery and could save his or her life. | <urn:uuid:beb1ca39-9a99-47f3-9d1e-5cce24ea8249> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.er4yourpet.com/common-emergencies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920853 | 208 | 1.867188 | 2 |
What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as:
- When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects?
- What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science?
- How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity?
- What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning?
- How can teachers be taught to teach science?
The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of science--about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science education--teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn. | <urn:uuid:a384a98f-b5e6-43fb-85f3-8787b2bd93df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11625 | 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 | 0.939657 | 273 | 3.78125 | 4 |
For older campers, one of the most profound and lasting advantages of camp is the opportunity they have to focus on being boys and girls. Many summer camps also strengthen the safety of the camp setting by offering exclusive programs that help teenage campers gain a better understanding about how to best grasp the transition from being girls to being women and from being boys to being men. Such programs provide non threatening forums for teenage girls and boys to address sensitive issues and topics as well as help them prepare for their later teen years as they near college and adulthood. These programs also have their own rites and traditions that serve as progress points for individuals as well as groups and as the basis for the point at which camp friends become a lifelong support network.
Many camps, even co-ed ones, also operate separate programs for boys and girls regardless of age. They have their respective sides of camp, their respective program areas, and their respective activities. However, they come together for meals and many evening camp activities. Many believe this approach is a bit part of why children are afraid to relax and even be silly while at camp. Being with children of the same gender frees them of stereotypes that may be placed on them elsewhere. Spending exclusive time with other girls or boys creates a non threatening environment, particularly for adolescents and early teens already going through awkward changes as they begin to maneuver the sometimes tumultuous teen years. Girls can get down and dirty in an intense game of flag football and boys don’t feel the need to look over their shoulders while bouncing around in the camp’s gymnastics area or putting together some choreographed moves in the dance studio because it’s all just a part of camp.
The first week of the 2011 season has been packed full of action and fun. Our 8th and 9th Graders will be pulling into camp soon, after awesome adventures at Acadia National Park and Whitewater Rafting on the Kennebec River. Our first “S” Day was a rousing success as Saco/Kineo had a blast at Splashtown, the Allagash/Baxter Beach In-Camp “S” Day and Beach Party was one for the ages and the 7th graders had a ball at Sea Coast Fun Park. Of course everyone enjoyed Bumper Tubing all day long with Roger driving one of the Mastercrafts. We’re on for a great “A” Day tomorrow: Baseball, Tennis, Lacrosse, Mountain Biking, Climbing, Crafts, Crew, Theatre, Fitness and so much more! It’s hard to believe that we’re a week into the season…and there’s all kinds of fun ahead!
Even though we arrived just a short time ago, the action is in full swing at Laurel South! After our annual Moosestomp Day, we were knee-deep into full program. We had our first rotation of “A” and “B’” Days, and we can’t wait for our first in-camp “S” Day!!! Tomorrow, our 8th Graders head out to Acadia National Park for an awesome camping trip…our CIT’s are getting ready for their exhilarating White Water Rafting experience…Intercamp games and Tournaments have begun and, of course, the sun is shining. It’s a beautiful day in the state of Maine!!!
Another Amazing Laurel South season has begun!!! After an incredible First Session, we were excited as could be to greet our wonderful new and returning campers for Second Session. Thursday was Arrival Day, and what a day it was. Campers arrived in cars, buses and planes from all over the United states and the world until, finally, we were reunited on the shores of Crescent Lake! After an awesome Cookout Dinner, each campus headed out for their own active Evening Program. Friday is Moose Stomp Day. Schedules will be created, bumper tube rides will be given, auditions for the two camp musicals will take place as well of a host of other activities. Of course, the best part of the day will be spending time with old friends and meeting new ones. The day will be capped off by our Opening Ceremony Council Fire celebrating fun and friendship. Saturday programming will begin and the summer is on!!! Oh what a beautiful day in the state of Maine!!!
We had an amazing First Session! It’s hard to believe so much fun and excitement could be packed into less than a month. Departure Day was wonderful, as many of our families had the chance to visit with us and meet friends, campers, cabin-mates and counselors. While we were sad to see our First Session campers depart, the excitement for Second Session couldn’t be higher. We’re counting down the hours until our Second Session family is reunited on the shores of Crescent Lake. See you soon!!!
There is something about singing that brings people together. Perhaps that’s why singing (and music in general) is such an important part of camp. The silly or sometimes sentimental words of a “camp song” can set a mood, evoke a feeling, and create atmosphere. Music is a universal language that everyone understands. Perhaps this is why so many American summer camps open and close their summers with sing-alongs. Sing-alongs are fantastic ways to say both “we’re together again” and “until next time.”
Ask campers to name some of their most favorite moments of summer camp and, most assuredly, they’ll name more than one that involves singing in some way…that first exciting night of camp, campfires, zany and often spontaneous dining room rituals, fun times with fellow campers and counselors inside the bunk, and saying goodbye at the end of the summer. More importantly, ask any current or former camper to sing his camp alma mater and he’ll do it as if it’s second nature. The words of a camp’s alma mater are magical—a way to instantly transport one back to camp and those summers filled with fun and friends.
Many parents say that their children even sing camp songs constantly throughout the winter as a way of remembering their time at camp. Some of them even admit that they can’t resist the temptation to join in.
Tuesday night was one of the best nights of the summer….our First Moosebowl!!! This exciting football game between the Rattlesnakes and the Black Bears of Rangeley became far more than just a game. It was an event to match the Super Bowl! While the two teams battled it out on the field, we tailgated, had balloon animals, tee shirt slingshots, dancing, singing, half time contests and more. In the end, the Black Bears prevailed 18-13, and the men of Rangeley all felt victorious knowing they were the pioneers of a game which will only grow in stature for years to come!!!
Wednesday was our first ever Laurel South Invitational 5-K, as friends from many camps arrived to race the fastest campers Laurel South has to offer. We all enjoyed ourselves and raced admirably. Thursday we headed to Funtown for our final incredible “S” Day of the Session. We are down to our final “A” and “B” day of the season and busy preparing for our Dance and Gymnastic Shows. Where did the time go?
What an amazing day we all had at Canobie Lake Park! The weather was beautiful, and we all had a blast. From the exhilarating rides (Untamed was awesome!) to the snacks, from the musical entertainment to spending time with friends, an awesome time was had by all. Sunday was the 5 Year Club Trip, and they all enjoyed lunch and a movie. Tonight is our second Council Fire, and we are so excited to showcase the talents of both campers and staff. Tomorrow…it’s Baseball, Soccer, Tennis, Waterskiing, Crafts and so much more!! It’s hard to believe First Session is over in a week…
Parents, do you ever log onto your computer to check out the camp photos for the day, see your child painted in blue from head to toe or maybe wearing a crazy wig and big nerdy glasses and wonder, ‘What in the world?’ The answer probably has something to do with your summer camp’s special events and evening activities. For fifty plus nights (and some days) summer camps entertain your children with some of the zaniest games and wackiest contests that they can come up with. Why? Because it’s fun to be painted in blue from head to toe…seriously. Or at least it is when your cabin is performing a dance to the Smurfs theme in front of the entire camp and you’re Papa Smurf—or Smurfette. And seeing images of your children and their counselors slipping, sliding, and splashing around in what appears to be multi-colored goo…it’s a camp thing…a really fun camp thing. Eye patches are always fun. So is spending a day pretending to be pirates and searching for buried treasure. Becoming a secret agent and collecting clues to decode a message or pretending to be wild animals is also a great way to spend that occasional non-program day. From trivia contests to talent contests and everything in between, some of the greatest moments of summer camp happen during the crazy days and wacky nights!
If you know Camp Laurel or Laurel South, you’re familiar with Mount Vernon or Casco. You might think of them as way stations on your way to or from camp – but they’re much more than that.
Mount Vernon is a gem in the Kennebec River valley. The tiny beach next to the community center; the former church with Victorian stick-work; the 200-year-old gristmill; the brick general store selling everything you could possibly think of (from bait to pesto) – all make it worth more than drive-through on the way somewhere else.
Filled with artists, writers, educators, farmers and retirees, it’s got a quirky, eclectic but very real community feel. It’s also got plenty of history. Elizabeth Arden built a health spa here. Her guests included Eleanor Roosevelt, Judy Garland and Ava Gardner.
Mount Vernon has a “hippie sensibility” – really a spirit of independence and self-reliance – that dates back to the 1700s, Downeast Magazine has written. With only 1,500 residents – along with moose, deer and bald eagles — the town packs a lot into its hilltop meadows, wooded valleys, ponds and lakes.
If you have time for only one thing in Mount Vernon, head to the Olde Post Office Café. It’s the unofficial town center for breakfast or lunch. You won’t regret it.
Casco, in the Sebago Lakes Region, also dates its founding to the 1700s. It too was a mill town. In the 1840s, steamboats on Sebago Lake and the canals carried tourists and freight. The lake – since 1938, part of a state park – helps shape the town’s character, and provides plenty of recreational opportunities.
Point Sebago Resort offers many of the amenities of Laurel South (for those who are not of camp age), while the town itself – about the same size as Mount Vernon – has a variety of good restaurants. One of our favorite stops is Webbs Mills Variety just down the road from camp. It’s meatloaf sandwich is a favorite. And how about Crescent Lake? It is truly one of southern Maine’s most beautiful. There’s really nothing like it.
You also can’t leave Casco without a quick stop at Blacksmiths Winery for a sip on the famous Porch or in the Tasting Room.
Casco’s not far from Portland – providing a nice counterpart to city and ocean tourism for anyone heading back and forth from Laurel South.
So, join us at camp this summer for a visit…and get a taste of the local color in Mt Vernon or Casco. | <urn:uuid:89dedf3f-8c02-4001-ae4c-6d1127801b14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.camplaurelsouth.com/blog/2011/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960025 | 2,549 | 1.648438 | 2 |
TRACY -- Why did the shark fall across the road? And what was it doing on the center lane of a rural road in Tracy?
Animal control officers are still scratching their heads over the bizarre find Tuesday of a 3-foot leopard shark on rural Chrisman Road near the Tracy Defense Depot.
The dead shark was smack in the center of the road, on the painted line.
"This may be the oddest animal we have had at the shelter," said Ben Miller head of Animal Services for Tracy. "We suspect that someone may have caught the shark in the bay while fishing and perhaps changed their mind while driving back home and tossed it into the street."
Animal Services Officer Brittany Pasquale retrieved the shark after hearing the strange "object in the road" report on a radio commute traffic report.
"I couldn't believe there was a shark in the middle of the road," said Pasquale. "That's something you wouldn't think Animal Services would ever see, especially out here.
"It appeared to have been there only a short while. There was an injury in its mouth, possibly from a hook, and it was bleeding from the gills. The shark was not hit by a car."
A full-grown leopard shark can reach up to 4 or 5 feet in length, and can take up to 10 years to reach maturity.
The Tracy Animal Shelter is no stranger to calls for unconventional service. A few years ago, Animal Control officers picked up a 200-pound male tortoise that had been
Officers have also retrieved an injured live seal found wandering the road near the shelter. The seal was released to the care of the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County that same day.
Animal Shelter workers said they also receive a fair number of livestock found out for a stroll -- horses, cows, goats -- that are reunited with their owners. And the shelter takes in ferrets -- illegal to own in California -- that are shipped to rescue groups in states where they can be kept as pets. | <urn:uuid:0bff0080-5149-4b68-b01b-9d87d5a8b199> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mercurynews.com/gary-bogue/ci_22697597/why-did-shark-fall-across-road | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981535 | 412 | 1.875 | 2 |
In the disputed border area between Ethiopia and Eritrea, tensions have been high all year but neither side appears willing to break the stalemate. Instead, both countries have been amassing troops in neighboring Somalia in what appears to be a proxy war. The build-up threatens to tip the entire Horn of Africa into a regional war (CSMonitor). Such a conflict appears increasingly imminent: Somalia’s Islamists set a December 19 deadline for Ethiopian troops to leave the country, and shortly after its expiry, clashes erupted (Independent) in several locations throughout the country.
Ethiopia—a Christian-led nation with a significant Muslim population—sent troops into Somalia in support of the country’s weak, but internationally recognized, transitional government. Since the Islamists’ seizure of Mogadishu in June and the expansion of their area of control, Addis Ababa has been concerned their influence could inflame Ethiopia’s Muslims. Eager to support the enemy of its enemy, Eritrea has provided arms and troops to support the Somali Islamists, as well as other anti-Ethiopian forces in Somalia.
The proxy war in Somalia marks a substantial escalation of the longtime conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia refuses to recognize and implement border demarcations brokered in the 2000 Algiers Agreement, which ended a bloody and futile two-year war between them. Eritrea continues to send troops into the disputed area—patrolled by UN troops—and threaten war. An International Crisis Group report warned in December 2005 that peace between the two countries was “fraying dangerously,” and since then the situation has only become more precarious.
If war breaks out in Somalia, Eritrea will benefit from Ethiopia’s preoccupation with the Somali front, which might tempt it to adopt a more aggressive posture on the border region. War would also allow Somalia’s Islamists to drum up Somali nationalism as well as attract further external support. While the Ethiopia-Eritrea border dispute and Somalia’s internal power struggle are linked, the United States should work to resolve them separately, says a new Council Special Report. If it doesn’t, the report says, Ethiopia “may drag Washington into a conflict that will be framed in many parts of the Muslim world as another U.S.-sponsored attack on Islam.”
A U.S.-backed Security Council resolution passed on December 6 strengthens the link between Washington and Addis Ababa. The United States said the resolution—which authorizes the deployment of an African peacekeeping force to support the transitional government—aims to halt the expansion of Islamist influence and prevent full-scale war. Yet war is exactly what the Islamists promised (VOA) if the resolution passed. Instead of promoting African peacekeeping troops in Somalia, Washington should push for peace talks between the Islamists and the transitional government, a strengthened arms embargo, and the withdrawal of foreign forces, says the Council Special Report.
“Washington’s new Somalia policy is not just self-defeating: it is inflammatory,” writes Somalia expert Matt Bryden in the CSIS Online Africa Policy Forum. “The apparent determination of the United States to approach Somalia as a new front in the Global War on Terror is well along the path to becoming a self-fulfilling policy.” A November report from the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia suggests the Islamists already receive help from various African and Middle Eastern nations. Experts believe only two terrorist groups—including a small al-Qaeda cell—currently operate in Somalia, but as this Backgrounder notes, conditions are ripe for the country to become a significant terrorist haven. | <urn:uuid:dfeba9a3-32f0-4c5d-9b2b-f92771a5a1c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cfr.org/ethiopia/proxy-war-africas-horn/p12225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946561 | 745 | 2.5 | 2 |
The question, "What is sacred music," put to the average Catholic, will no
doubt elicit the answer that "sacred music is hymns." And in the lived
experience of most Catholics today, that is the extent of what they know to
be sacred music. On Sunday, they sing four hymns at Mass. In most parishes,
is there anything else?
For those people who attend symphony orchestra concerts, and those who
have an interest in recorded music, there is the possibility of developing
a knowledge of and an appreciation for the vast repertory of sacred music,
the inheritance of centuries and a veritable treasure house of beauty,
because many of these compositions, written originally for the Church, have
become standard repertory in most concert series and record catalogs. Some
may have sung one or the other great choral masterpiece of religious music
in college choral ensembles, and even some high school groups have
performed a few challenging selections.
The II Vatican Council clearly ordered the preservation and fostering of
the great treasury of church music, beginning with the Gregorian chant up
to the most modern compositions. This is to be done within the setting of
liturgical worship, not merely in concert form. Most of this vast repertory
that spreads across centuries of human achievement demands trained groups
of singers and instrumentalists to perform. It is art and demands skill and
training in the musicians needed to perform it. It is the highest form of
human artistic endeavor, worthy of God and His worship.
The Vatican Council did, indeed, order the singing of the congregation in
all those parts of the liturgy that truly belong to the competency of all
the people. This order is not in contradiction to the other decree of the
conciliar fathers demanding the fostering of choral music. The same body
cannot be in opposition to itself in its decrees. Both the singing of the
choir and the singing of the congregation have their proper places in
It is a strange spirit (perhaps the "spirit of Vatican II"?) that has led
to the dismissal of choirs, the abandoning of polyphonic music, especially
in the Latin language. In order to justify such a position, some (Rev.
Frederick McManus, for example) have announced that the treasury of church
music is to be fostered "in concerts." Others (Fr. Joseph Gelineau, for
example) have simply stated that polyphonic choral music is not intended
for use in the liturgy, nor should church music even attempt to reach the
perfection one might well expect in concert performances.
Thus the hymn has replaced the settings of the Mass texts; the
congregation has been substituted for the choir; the vernacular has
superceded the Latin language; the guitar and piano have pushed aside the
pipe organ and the orchestra. What is left of the treasury of sacred music
for the parish liturgy? Four hymns!
Sadly, this is the present state of church music, its study and its
performance, not only in the parishes, but in the schools, especially those
for the training of future priests. Again, a direct violation of the
conciliar decrees on sacred music by seminary authorities, done knowingly
and willingly, has deprived the Catholic people and their future priests of
their rightful inheritance.
One keeps asking "why?" The first and most charitable answer is always
that those who are implementing the conciliar decrees in this country are
ignorant of the treasury of sacred music, a terrible indictment of
professional educators. There is no question that many seminaries
functioning before the council had inadequate music programs of study and
performance, headed by incompetent instructors, but at least the norms were
acknowledged even though the efforts to fulfill them were inadequate.
But another reason for the attack on sacred music as we have known it for
fifteen hundred years is an anti-Roman position that wants to eliminate the
ancient Roman liturgy and all it has professed and taught, especially what
was transmitted through the medium of sacred music. The liturgy is the
greatest teacher of the faith. Those who wished to change that faith
understood that the changing of the liturgy (and its music) would result in
the "protestantizing" of the Church. If one admits that the results of the
liturgical reforms of the past twenty-five years can to some extent be laid
to the ignorance of those in this country who made the rules following the
council, it cannot be denied either that there was also a degree of
hostility toward sacred music involved in the process.
The attack on the "sacred" was aimed directly at sacred music. Many denied
the existence of anything that could be called sacred, despite the opening
words of the 1967 instruction, "Musicam sacram." We have become used to
secular tunes, secular instruments (piano, guitar, drums), secular
performance practices as musical combos and performing soloists and
dancers; all found their way into the liturgy, not enhancing its holiness
but directly destroying the sacred quality that only truly sacred art can
contribute to liturgical action.
The major question, "What makes music sacred?" has been answered in these
pages a number of times (e.g., Vol. 107, No. 3 (Fall 1980); Vol. 112, No. 2
(Summer 1985). Last summer's symposium at Christendom College faced the
very same question which is basic to all church music. But just as basic is
the other major question, "What makes music art?" Involved in that is the
vast area of musical training and education. Only the trained musician can
answer what makes a given piece of music art. But many of the reformers
have stumbled into this area without the proper knowledge or experience. A
whole generation of poorly trained (or not trained at all) composers has
appeared, producing words and notes that many publishers continue to hawk
as sacred church music, even when most of it fails by both criteria: it is
not sacred and it is not art. But it makes money! Some of it even parades
as hymns on Sundays in our parishes and more often in the seminaries.
To give an answer to the question, "What is sacred music?," we must answer
that it is the great treasury of music, written over the ages by the
greatest composers for use in the sung liturgy of the Roman Catholic
Church, beginning with the Gregorian melodies and continuing on through the
polyphonic pieces of the middle ages and the renaissance, up to the
orchestral settings of the last three centuries and into our own time; it
is simple for the singing congregation and more elaborate as the degree of
musicianship increases. Pope Pius XII in his encyclical, "Musicae sacrae
disciplina," beautifully summarized the role of sacred music.
"Thus, at the instance and under the sponsorship of the Church,
sacred music, through the course of centuries, has traversed a
long road by which, though sometimes slowly and laboriously, it
has finally reached the heights: from the simple and natural
Gregorian modes, which are, moreover, quite perfect in their
kind, to great and even magnificent works of art which not only
human voices, but also the organ and other musical instruments
embellish, adorn and amplify almost endlessly. Just as this
progress in the art of music shows clearly how dear to the heart
of the Church it was to make divine worship more resplendent and
appealing to Christian peoples, so too it made clear why the
Church also must, from time to time, impose a check lest its
proper purposes be exceeded and lest, along with the true
progress, an element profane and alien to divine worship creep
into sacred music and corrupt it."
Would that we might put into practice what Pope Pius XII called for and
what the fathers of the II Vatican Council decreed, basing so much of their
document on the great encyclical of Christmas 1955.
Rev. Richard J. Shuler.
Rev. Richard Schuler, a frequent contributor to SACRED MUSIC, is pastor of St. Agnes Church in St. Paul,
Minnesota, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Church Music Association of America.
The electronic form of this document is copyrighted.
Copyright (c) Trinity Communications 1994.
Provided courtesy of:
The Catholic Resource Network
PO Box 3610
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The Catholic Resource Network is a Catholic online information and
service system. To browse CRNET or join, set your modem to 8 data
bits, 1 stop bit and no parity, and call 1-703-791-4336. | <urn:uuid:e67b6243-2109-46a9-ab6a-b4191a848855> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/ArticleText/Index/2/SubIndex/17/ArticleIndex/32 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946272 | 1,887 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Google is said to be planning a rival device to Apple’s iPad that will be powered by Android. Assuming this is true, what does Google need to do in order to make its slate competitive with the iPad?
- Size matters — A “Google Pad” should target the sweet spot of screen sizes, that of 5-8 inches. Any larger and some will complain that the device is too heavy — as is already happening with the iPad — while smaller devices simply don’t offer enough benefit over current smartphones, some of which have displays of 4 inches or larger. Google would have to subsequently adjust how Android and its apps run on larger displays — my own porting of Android to a 7-inch touchscreen computer offered a less-than-ideal experience because the user interface is optimized for small screens.
- Fix the Market — Other companies already offer Android-powered tablets, but those devices are mysteriously hobbled by limitations that include not having access to the Android Market for software. Obviously, Google wouldn’t similarly constrain its own product, but it still needs to make finding and installing software from the marketplace easier than it is now. One small tweak that would yield huge benefits is an “update all” function. Users don’t want to have to update software one app at a time.
- Sync or swim — Unlike its competitors, Google doesn’t offer software to synchronize data between Android devices and computers. One could correctly argue that the sync solution Google offers is the cloud — mail, contacts, calendars and other data is all available through an over-the-air web connection. But not all consumers are ready for a true wireless data sync. Google should either bundle solutions like DoubleTwist for media and application synchronization or perhaps the Missing Sync for personal data.
- Boost productivity — While most people don’t buy tablets to replace the productivity offered by a traditional computer, if it’s making one, Google should leverage its Google Docs platform for it. Currently, Android supports document viewing, but not much in the way of editing aside from limited spreadsheet changes. A native Android application or enhanced Google Docs functionality in the browser for basic document editing would rival Apple’s iWork software for the iPad.
- Court developers — Apple has already got the attention of third-party developers, so Google will have to offer an equally if not more compelling development environment in order to have blockbuster applications on hand at launch. Netflix is a fine example — Apple successfully convinced the company to build media-streaming software for the ARM-powered iPad, enabling consumers to watch video wherever a web connection could be found.
As someone who switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One earlier this year — yes, I bought an iPad, too — I find the Apple experience more refined than that of Google. But Android still has much to offer, namely the lack of an ecosystem lock-in, easy integration with Google services and a growing number of software titles. If the company addresses the five areas I’ve outlined above, a Google Pad could be a very worthy alternative to Apple’s iPad indeed.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Thumbnail tablet rendering image courtesy of the Chromium Blog
This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com | <urn:uuid:8070f697-3112-4e5d-a395-a3be817de639> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gigaom.com/2010/04/13/google-pad-vs-ipad-features/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934386 | 678 | 1.59375 | 2 |
On Nov. 9 the Artspace Gallery in Willimantic hosted the opening reception of an exhibit by Visual Arts Professor June Bisantz and History Lecturer Jamie Eves, titled "End of an Era: Past Identity/Future Vision." The exhibition is being presented by the Windham Textile and History Museum at Artspace through Dec. 3.
The exhibition is supported by an AAUP-CSU Research Grant. Publicity materials were designed by Eastern digital art and design students. "End of an Era" features large photographs by Connecticut artist Harrison Judd depicting the American Thread Mill Smokestack as the last symbol of Willimantic's industrial past. The smokestack defined Willimantic's identity until fall 2011, when storm damage forced its demolition. The exhibition documents the demolition from the first hit of the wrecking ball to the last pile of bricks.
The exhibition's catalog features an essay by Eves, who is also the executive director of the Windham Textile and History Museum, along with a short essay by Maurice Sendak, recently deceased author and illustrator. For more information on the exhibit, contact Eves, at (860) 456-2178 or via e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org or email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:3a285b0b-ee53-4168-b55b-9040d343c235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.easternct.edu/mt-static/news/2012/11/eastern-helps-textile-museum-present-end-of-an-era-exhibition.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942966 | 264 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Jupiter’s latest research into music consumption habits of iPod owners will make for uncomfortable reading. The tip of the iceberg is the iTunes conversion ratio – the number of tracks Apple has sold through iTunes divided by the number of iPods, which comes out at 20. So that’s 20 legally downloaded iTunes tracks for every iPod sold. That figure was higher in 2004 at 27, inline with the view that early adopters would be stronger buyers than mainstream users.
Mark Mulligan, VP and research director gave me an overview of the main findings:
- 83 percent of European iPod owners did not buy music on a regular basis – only 17 percent did. Owners of other brands of music players bought even less frequently at just 13 percent.
- iPod owners typically have nearly twice as much illegally downloaded music as legally downloaded music. But it’s not about Apple bashing, because owners of other MP3 players have been around three times as much. The one-click-purchase integration of the iPod with iTunes store is partly credited with that higher conversion rate.
- iPod owners are more likely to buy CDs online too…but that also shows that digital music stores have not radically changed their music consumption habits – more the way they playback their music.
- Free music completely outweighs paid music, whether legal or illegal. Mulligan said there is an absolute demand for free services and strong constituency for ad-supported services.
- About five percent of tracks on MP3 players are bought legally, so the conclusion is that people use these devices to manage their existing music collections, ripping CDs, downloading from friends and, of course, downloading music illegally from filesharing sites.
There is a high awareness among consumers that filesharing is illegal, but it is used by about 14 percent of the online population and will not go away, said Mulligan. “If 83 percent of iPod owners aren’t buying from the most successful store in the online music business, and more than double that amount are buying CDs, the music downloads market is not fulfilling its potential. If this was an end-of-term report, it would say digital music downloads ‘could do better’.” Report
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian. | <urn:uuid:54ff23b4-9b0b-429f-9b3b-3435fca6ff0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paidcontent.org/2006/09/18/itunes-conversion-ratio-in-europe-at-about-20-downloaded-songs-per-ipod/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968735 | 459 | 1.921875 | 2 |
As the great get together of European and African leaders gradually winds down in Lisbon, it is hard not to be cynical. The presence of such figures as Robert Mugabe President of the country that used to be Zimbabwe and is now a collection of ruins or Omar Hassan al-Bashir of the benighted tyranny of Sudan makes it hard not to emit a hollow laugh as certain European leaders make protests of brotherhood and equality.
Europe has much to do when it engages in Africa: opening up its market for African goods would do far more to alleviate African poverty than all of the assistance programmes of all the European States combined. However the EU remains in thrall to powerful interest groups and no such change seems to be in prospect. European consumers pay for expensive food while those who could supply it cheaper are unable to trade and often left to starve.
Meanwhile by inviting the murderous tyrants amongst the African leaders it shows the hand of friendship to those who should in fact be shunned utterly.
If that is the European leaders idea of "brotherhood", it is fairly contemptible. | <urn:uuid:c924169d-f5de-4e4c-bbf1-d2dc75e26dfc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cicerossongs.blogspot.com/2007/12/triumph-of-expedience-over-hope.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958448 | 218 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Amending Social Security: how to's surface during national debt talks
Obama put Social Security on the table as part of his bid to resolve the national debt crisis. He hasn't specified what the changes might entail, and Democrats in Congress oppose any cut in benefits. But the talks signify that politicians know reforms must come, eventually, to keep Social Security solvent.
Even if Social Security ends up untouched after the current round of wrangling over federal finances, the bipartisan negotiations have put Americans on notice: Even the most sacrosanct of federal programs is coming up for review and, before long, changes.Skip to next paragraph
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In his recent bid for a "grand bargain" to control future federal budget deficits and the national debt, President Obama put Social Security on the table, along with just about everything else.
With many of Mr. Obama's fellow Democrats set firmly against any reduction in entitlement benefits, and most Republicans stridently opposed to the tax increases that the president sees as a vital part of such a bargain, the idea to "go big" has proved extraordinarily difficult.
Such a package would deprive each party of a key talking point for the next election – the ability to stand as the party that "won't raise taxes" or the one that "won't cut Social Security" or Medicare.
But Obama's push to consider entitlement reform reflects a reality that Americans also recognize. Social Security needs to change if it is to remain solvent for future generations. And the urgency is rising. Already the program is paying out more in benefits than it draws in revenue – a pattern with no end in sight.
The battle over Social Security is distinct: It's the most popular of federal programs and the bedrock of retirement security for the typical household.
Political third rail
For that reason, Social Security has long been viewed by politicians in both parties as the quintessential "third rail" issue, something touched only at grave political risk.
Amid Obama's efforts at attaining the grand bargain, rumors spread that Social Security might be altered by scaling back the cost of living adjustment (COLA) by which senior incomes are adjusted for inflation. That idea stirred an immediate firestorm from advocacy groups that see it as a backdoor cut in benefits.
To call such a change controversial is an understatement. Many seniors, after two years in which the COLA formula left benefits static, already worry that their incomes don't keep pace with rising prices.
The news media, meanwhile, immediately put Obama in the hot seat: He had promised in his State of the Union message not to "slash" Social Security. So was there a difference in Obama's mind between "slash" and "cut"? In a July 7 briefing, a reporter pushed at length for White House press secretary Jay Carney to clarify the possible semantic nuance.
Social Security has captured headlines lately for another reason as well: If the two sides don't reach a deal and the cap on federal borrowing is not raised, Obama raised the prospect in a July 12 statement that the government might not be able to pay out checks to beneficiaries (currently 56 million Americans) on Aug. 3.
Paying government bills would indeed become very difficult around that day, economists say. But some experts on Social Security argue that the program has ways to keep its own checks flowing. And a protracted impasse over the borrowing limit is nearly unthinkable, given the concern that a partial shut-off of government funding could push a fragile economy back into recession.
What can be done?
So, setting aside talk of unpaid checks, how much trouble is Social Security in, and what can be done to fix it? | <urn:uuid:19be5a78-8f81-4bdc-8594-e8496b257db5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0718/Amending-Social-Security-how-to-s-surface-during-national-debt-talks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96086 | 743 | 1.71875 | 2 |
iDEA: Drexel E-repository and Archives >
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Outcome Based Education and the Quest for Competency: Perspectives from Couple and Family Therapy Educators
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
|Title: ||Outcome Based Education and the Quest for Competency: Perspectives from Couple and Family Therapy Educators|
|Authors: ||Brooks, Stephanie|
Couple and Family Therapy
|Issue Date: ||14-Sep-2010 |
|Abstract: ||For more than a decade the issue of provider competency has been linked to significant problems in the delivery of health care services. This in turn has increased attention towards evaluating the quality of education and clinical training in health care professional programs. In 2004, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy established core competencies (MFT CC) for the profession. Adopting clinical competency will require couple and family therapy (CFT) professional education programs, at a minimum to develop outcome-based educational approaches and become more adept at measuring CFT student’s clinical competency and development over time.
It further suggests CFT educators need to have competencies to develop and implement an outcome based curriculum. Yet, little is known about CFT faculty aptitude in this area. The primary aim of this study was to identify and describe CFT faculty’ attitude, concerns, experiences, and perceptions about competency and outcome based education. Results of the study provide valuable information about how faculty are managing five years after the introduction of the MFT CC and the new COAMFTE standards. The CFT faculty clearly value both the MFT CC and OBE . The MFT CC are used to influence program curriculum and CFT faculty believe they will improve the clinical evaluation of students. The CFT faculty desire to be involved in the ongoing development of the MFT CC and want the AAMFT to offer more training. Furthermore, CFT faculty are seriously adopting an OBE paradigm despite reporting they received less than 5 hours of training in the approach. While CFT faculty found their institutions supportive of the OBE approach, the findings suggest they are overextended and stressed. The implications of the findings are discussed for both faculty and program development. Future directions for research are proposed including examining the similarities and differences between CFT faculty in doctoral and post-degree institute programs to better appreciate how the faculty from the COAMFTE accredited have responded to this paradigmatic shift.|
|Appears in Collections:||Health Sciences Theses and Dissertations|
Items in iDEA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. | <urn:uuid:cd81ac0d-ef5e-4670-9f4a-dec01f7b69c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://idea.library.drexel.edu/handle/1860/3358 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940873 | 562 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Imported ASTM A307 All Thread Rod
Question: Does imported stock all thread rod meet ASTM A307 grade C?
Answer: Frequently, imported mild steel all thread rod will not meet ASTM A307 grade C. The three different grades of the A307 specification identify their intended application where grade C is embedded in concrete and used for anchoring purposes, grade B is used in cast iron flange connections, and grade A covers general applications. Normally, imported all thread rod is tested and certified to meet ASTM A307 grade A and will often meet A307 grade B. However, more often than not, the test reports that accompany this threaded rod lack a Yield Strength value that is required to determine its compliance with A307 grade C. Refer to the chart below for the difference in the mechanical requirements between ASTM A307 grades A, B, and C. Although there are subtle differences in the tensile strength requirements, the primary difference between these three grades of A307 is that grade C requires a minimum yield strength of 36,000 psi while grades A and B have no requirement. Therefore, unless a test has been performed to determine the yield strength, the threaded rod cannot be certified to meet ASTM A307 grade C.
Portland Bolt provides 100% domestically manufactured all thread rod which will meet not only grades A and B of the ASTM A307 specification, but grade C as well.
|Grade||Tensile, ksi||Yield, min, ksi||Elong %, min|
|B||60 – 100||–||18|
|C||58 – 80||36||23|
As you can see, there is no yield test performed on this import all thread rod, so it cannot be certified to ASTM A307C.
Click on the picture to view the full-sized image. | <urn:uuid:e238552d-a24a-46df-801b-370a68c3570b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.portlandbolt.com/faqs/imported-astm-a307-all-thread-rod/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928749 | 380 | 1.648438 | 2 |
I am doing code reviews from time to time to my customers. When asking how lines of code do they have generally they do not know how to find it with an easy way.
Visual studio 2012 and 2010 has a cool feature called code metrics which you can use under analyze tab or just by right clicking the solution.
Code metrics results shows you how many lines of code do you have. Also this report has some useful info that may help you. The maintability index ratio is calculated by a formula using Cyclomatic Complexity and lines of code. Bigger ratio means easier maintability. There is also a color in front of it which means
Green High Maintainability Between 20 and 100
Yellow Moderate Maintainability Between 10 and 20
Red Low Maintainability Between 0 and 9
Cyclomatic complexity measures the structural complexity of the code. High number for cyclomatic complexity indicates that the code may be too complex, and should be refactored.
Depth of inheritance indicates the number of class definitions that extend to the root of the class hierarcy.
Class coupling indicates the total number of dependencies that a class has on other classes. | <urn:uuid:3a116118-6b68-498b-9e8a-ab5031ef3e1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.msdn.com/b/odabasi/archive/2012/08/28/how-many-lines-of-code-do-i-have.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925603 | 236 | 1.984375 | 2 |
The 4 T's of SC Excellence: Timing, Trust, Transparency, Technology
Last month, 75 years after Charles Lindbergh's landing in Paris, his grandson Erik recreated the historic trans-Atlantic run. Charles navigated by sight—flying low and sticking his head out the window. Erik flew with advanced avionics and a sealed, heated cabin.
What else has—and hasn't—changed since the original flight?
Both flights were as much logistical as avionic exercises. And the fundamentals of logistics haven't changed much since: timing, trustworthiness, planning, preparation, knowledge, skill—and technology.
But the technology itself has certainly changed. Charles Lindbergh flew blind, out of contact with the world. Erik flew with full knowledge of the world, including real-time NBA scores if he wanted them, and certainly weather conditions.
Each link in the logistics chain has been transformed by the migration of imbedded intelligence into the technology tools and processes that supply chain managers routinely use today, and will likely use tomorrow.
Timing and Trust
Chief among the advantages are vastly better control over timing, and the knowledge and trust that things will happen as planned. Erik flew a plane that—by design—was slow, like Charles', but otherwise his flight resembled a modern supply-chain transaction. At all times he knew precisely where he was, and so did the airport he left, those he flew over, and the one he intended to reach. His pinpoint progress was monitored; obstacles flagged; contingencies in place; resources—fuel, performance, and staples—readily measured .
IT Enables Transparency
The whole chain is visible to everyone in it. Today's supply chain, in the abstract, is made entirely three elements: time, trust, and transparency. A prime raw material that makes it work is technology.
The materials handling industry has built a business of moving things around, always mindful of these three elements. Those of us in the industry have consistently adopted, even developed, current technology to do it. We began with physical packages and over the years added information (predominantly information about goods). Recently some of the large players have added capital to the mix. There's not much else to move besides goods, information, and funds.
Today, a typical supply chain transaction might choreograph movement of a hard-drive component assembled in Singapore to its casing in Mexico. The hard-drive manufacturer might want to cut accounts-receivable from 30 days to 10. Logistics can easily do that. In this case the carrier would inform all parties of the shipment's progress and arrival; possibly involve a capital element to purchase the invoice; advance payment to the supplier; and collect time, trust, transparency of goods, information, and funds from the recipient.
Consider the defense contractor Raytheon, which makes the Phalanx ship defense system—containing 5,000 different parts—installed on U.S. Navy warships. The parts once lingered in 10 Navy warehouses spread cross-country, and it could take days, if not weeks, to get a particular one. By rationalizing its supply chain with outsourced help, Raytheon is now ready for next-day delivery anywhere in the United States, and through two ports of embarkation, to destinations worldwide. Time and trust through transparency.
The Backbone of Small Business
This blend of services is crucial to small business. Third-party supply chain managers have a finger on the pulse of commerce to an unusual degree, because the bulk of their clients are the hundreds of thousands of supply chain members in the small-to-medium-size range. This community is the lifeblood of commerce. It's the small plane crossing the Atlantic—not the jumbo jet or supersonic fighter.
Investing in Technology
Size isn't a barrier to using the best technology. Outsource if you don't have it in-house. A recession—a post-Sept. 11 world—is the time to ratchet up technology investment, not cut back.
Advanced logistics facilities these days are bristling with technology—a complex interface among physical elements to move packages, parcels and information technology, and to route them accurately and quickly. Today, an advanced facility might consist of several million square feet and miles of conveyors, sorting hundreds of thousands of packages per hour using overhead cameras, hand-held optic devices, and countless other high-tech devices that harvest millions of data items in the course of a day.
These facilities "belong" to customers. Using web technology, a mom-and-pop shop can transact, track, and complete business that flows through the system. In essence, billions of dollars of infrastructure—for goods, information, and capital—is at the mom-and-pop's disposal.
This allows even the smallest company to accomplish four key things:
1) Save time. Transactions today are increasingly multi-national, but the barriers of distance no longer apply to anyone, including mom-and-pops. A small business that doesn't explore new sources is losing a competitive edge.
2) Build trust. Tracking a shipment is no longer a service—it's a competitive imperative. Not only does it fuel smooth transactions, it speeds payment and paves the way for repeat business. The small business clinging to antiquated tracking systems overlooks the imbedded trust-building technology in vendors' infrastructures and takes a serious risk.
3) Advance transparency. Saving time and building trust are functions of knowledge. Small businesses, like their large counterparts, must make it a habit to have dynamic information at hand—and institutionalize the procedures that allow it.
4) Enhance skill. Technology is a tool. It cannot replace skill. In fact, it amplifies ineptitude. By the same token, it amplifies competence. People are still the centerpiece of any successful enterprise.
By the way, Erik Lindbergh arrived as scheduled in Paris. Guess what? It wasn't particularly big news.
And that, in truth, is the real news. | <urn:uuid:4f0ef7ce-0df4-4f53-8b43-d5ff316a6fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/4Ts-of-sc-excellence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947576 | 1,239 | 1.828125 | 2 |
A Recipe for Success in Flavor Graph, the Neo4j Heroku Challenge Winner
The content of this article was originally written by Andreas Kollegger on the Neo4j blog.
Flavorwocky, an amusing name for a clever idea that highlights the connectedness of everyday life. With a little bit of coding, the simple idea about related flavors became Luanne Misquitta's winning entry for the Neo4j Heroku Challenge. What was her recipe for success?
It Starts With an Idea
"The idea came to me while I was doing nothing in particular," Luanne explains in her blog, "to build a simple app that would help one find ingredients whose flavors complement one another." Foodies everywhere will recognize the classic "pairing of flavors" whether wine with an entree, or cross-cultural fusion recipes. Luanne focused on the generalized notion for ingredients, because "knowing which ingredients have flavor affinities can produce some amazing new dishes."
Why Flavorwocky? Luanne had asked her husband, "what should I call the app?", and he suggested "jabberwocky." Appreciating the playfulness, she adapted it to the domain, exclaiming "behold — Flavorwocky."
To the Whiteboard!
Luanne elaborated on the idea, realizing that "a graph is a good fit for this domain, so, using Neo4j, we model the way ingredients in a great dish pair together based on their flavor affinity." Sketching out the domain was easy, translating directly into the graph. There are high-level Categories for groups like vegetables, spices, and dairy. Ingredients are related to the category first, then to each through a weighted PAIRS_WITH relationship. For convenience (anticipating the fun visualization) the Categories also have a color property.
The result, is a "version of this app [which] captures flavor pairings and how well ingredients pair together, and then allows one to search by ingredient and view complementary combinations. Needless to say, this just scratches the surface of the possible features for an app like this." | <urn:uuid:b0e4cea3-090c-45d8-8d44-5e3b5569b829> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://java.dzone.com/articles/recipe-success-flavor-graph?_escaped_fragment_=/luannem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935592 | 435 | 1.992188 | 2 |
This website was developed by the United Bible Societies, with the participation of the American Bible Society Library, to provide a resource for those interested in finding out a little more about the languages in which a portion of the Bible, or more, is available.
Data for this website has been sourced from the Ethnologue and the UBS publication Scriptures of the World. It is not intended to be a scholarly tool, but a source of information for interested people.
Where the term 'a part of the Bible' or 'portion' is used, this refers to a full book of the Bible, or a section which is more than one full book, but less than a Testament. A New Testament refers to all the books of the New Testament, a Bible refers to all the books of the Old and New Testaments as accepted in the proto-canon. In some cases the books of the deutero-canon (in some churches known as the Apocrypha) are also available, but this is not indicated separately in this website.
Scanned images of texts in different languages have been provided by the American Bible Society Library. Photographs of people using Bibles, Testaments or other parts of the Bible have been provided by United Bible Societies.
We hope you find this website useful. If you have any comments, please contact the webmaster using the following address: World Scriptures Webmaster | <urn:uuid:ab1350f6-f336-4880-af03-fa5f39176e09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldscriptures.org/about.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943418 | 283 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Learn the skills necessary to gain a Class A Commercial driver’s license to operate a semi over the road in this six-week course.
Individuals with a criminal record may not be eligible for employment in some settings. The professional truck driver training program is certified by the Professional Truck Driver Institute (PTDI), 555 E. Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703-647-7015).
You will earn a Certificate of Continued Learning upon successful completion of the course.
Students are trained in conventional tractor-trailer combination units with straight nine, straight ten, and super ten speed transmissions. The number of students is limited to eight per class.
You must be 21 years of age and have a valid driver’s license. Students are also cautioned that the physical requirements for a Class A Commercial Driver License (required for truck-tractor operators) must be consistent with the standards of the United States Department of Transportation. The required drug/alcohol testing includes pre-admittance, random, post accident, and reasonable suspicion testing.
The professional truck driving field ranks among the top professions in the number of job openings each year and estimates indicate that approximately 231,000 new drivers will be needed by the year 2018.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average salary for truck drivers in Nebraska is $20,420 to $45,490 per year.
Northeast Community College, 801 East Benjamin Ave, Norfolk,
phone: 402-371-2020 | tollfree: 1-800-348-9033 | email: | <urn:uuid:b58be768-6f7c-44a8-8bcc-20395559d575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northeast.edu/Degrees-and-Programs/2011/Truck-Driving/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901908 | 323 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Temple of Kalabhairava in Chikka Arasinakere shot into fame following a televised report on Basava, the temple's remarkable ox. The ancient village is located near the town of Maddur, 80 km from Bengaluru (as Bangalore has been renamed) on the road to Mysore. Previously known only for its fried Maddur vada snacks, the town now attracts thousands of visitors a day who seek the blessings of the sacred bull.
For generations, the Kalabhairava temple at Chikka Arasinakere has owned and worshiped a succession of Basavas (basava is the Kannada word for ox). The tradition of maintaining and worshiping a temple ox is common practice in many Siva temples.
"This is the fifth Basava I have seen in my lifetime," said Jogi Gowda, the village president. The fourth, he explained, showed some unusual abilities, but nothing like the present Zebu ox whose mystical powers were recognized when he reclaimed the temple's original lands which had gradually been usurped. "We appealed to the people to vacate the illegal occupancy, but to no avail," recounts Nagaraj, an ardent devotee of Basava. Then one day Basava served notice on the encroachers by circling the temple in a route which accurately encompassed all the temple's rightful land. Thereafter, he laid siege at each encroacher's doorstep and refused to leave until they pleaded for mercy and promised to vacate the land.
"We were spellbound by his knowing the temple's boundaries according to ancient land records. And Basava kept after each encroacher until they relented. What we mortals and the modern justice system couldn't achieve in years, Basava achieved in a jiffy," chuckled Nagaraj. "Theft, cheating and squabbles have overall been considerably reduced in the village. People respect and fear Basava--he's like a policeman."
"Basava alleviates the problems of those who seek his benevolence and renders justice to those faulted," says Thimme Gowda, from the neighboring village.
If anyone breaches a promise, Basava chases and pins them in a corner. He will not let go till they own up and vow to make amends. "Basava nudges the wrongdoer with his horns, intimidates them, but has never harmed anyone. Many a time he has chased a liar and held him captive until the liar uttered the truth," avers Nagaraj.
"It doesn't mean Basava corners and punishes just anyone, as we have all made mistakes. But if someone has forgotten his vow to a temple or Deity, or has stolen or embezzled the temple funds, Basava takes him to task," explains Reddy, a prosperous devotee from Bengaluru.
During this journalist's visit to meet the famous ox, I found him to be not fierce at all. On the contrary, he seems quite gentle. The Zebu breed, believed to be the first domesticated cattle, are naturally docile. I saw devotees place infants at his feet. Basava lovingly caressed and played with them. There was not a trace of fear either in the child or the parents. The parents believe that, once blessed by Basava, the child is divinely insured.
Basava's caretaker, Jogappa, 28, told me, "Last year, the distressed parents of a six-month-old baby suffering from a heart ailment brought the child to Basava after the doctors had given up hope. They sought Basava's blessings by placing the child at his feet. Basava thoughtfully stood across the baby for a while and then carefully stepped over it. Miraculously, the child regained health. Such cases of miraculous healing are numerous."
Jogappa claims he owes his life to Basava. "We were crossing a river. Suddenly there was a flash flood. I was drowning. Appearing out of nowhere, Basava swam through the overflowing river and shoved me to safety. He saved me. Since then, I have dedicated myself to his service."
Each day hundreds of devotees pack the Kalabhairava temple. They seek atonement for sins, curing of an illness or divine protection. When Basava performs his daily three pradakshina (circumambulations) around the temple, many wait in line to touch him; others lie on the ground in his path with their head toward the temple Deity. Basava carefully places his hoof between the devotees and deftly walks over them.
I met Basava at Nagaraj's house in Bengaluru late in the evening, when I arrived in town with my family (including son Skanda, who wrote the sidebar next page). Basava was housed in the family's living room. Hay had been liberally spread on the floor. After a few minutes, Basava lay down, signaling the end of our darshan session. We watched him slowly fall asleep and finally snore as a few ladies sang a folk lullaby. As I was leaving, satisfied that I had my story, Jogappa, the caretaker, came to the car saying, "Basava indicates he wants you to come back again in the morning." The following day being a working day, the prospect of ploughing back through 18 kms of Bengaluru traffic was not attractive, and I indicated as much, but Jogappa insisted.
At 6:30 the next morning, the house was already teeming with devotees and curious visitors. We watched as Basava walked over a row of devotees waiting to be blessed. He was then given a warm bath and serenaded with a folk song. Then the puja was performed to him. Now he was ready to give more blessings.
People kneeled with outstretched palms at Basava's feet. He refused to bless one lady, no matter how much she pleaded. He got increasingly annoyed as she persisted. I was apprehensive as our turn neared, and stories of his fierce horn nudges emerged from my memory. "Don't look at him as an animal. Approach with devotion, seeing God in him," someone counseled. I mustered my courage--and sent my husband first! Unfazed, he looked into Basava's eyes, softly chanted prayers, kneeled and spread his palms out. Basava quickly raised his hoof and gently placed it in his hands! Then each of us, taking turns, sought and received Basava's blessings in the same way.
I saw devotees offering lemons at Basava's feet, so I gave some to Nagaraj to be blessed. Basava refused. Nagaraj pleaded repeatedly but the bull angrily nudged him out. Exasperated, Nagaraj told me I must seek the blessings directly. I sat in front of the bull and prayed. He took the lemons aside, caressed them with his right hoof then pushed them towards me. He had sent a clear message--Divinity needs no intermediaries!
Basava, now eleven years old, was purchased by the Kalabhairava Temple at the cattle fair nine years ago, right after his predecessor died. Reddy recounts, "His owner initially refused to sell Basava and offered other bulls instead. But we felt this bull had all the spiritual indicators. We kept a trishula near him for vibrations; we looked for a snake's head on his forehead and other significant characteristics, as directed by the elders. We persisted, and finally the owner agreed. We bought him for us$180."
Village leaders and elders run the temple according to Basava's instructions. No activity is done without his consent. "We wanted to build a dining hall and had chosen a place. But Basava led us to a different place and indicated the building should be there. He even inspects the construction work." Basava insists that the temple premises be kept clean. He grunts if there is trash lying around and charges at anyone he finds dirtying the place.
As you can see from the photos, Basava receives lots of money--thousands or tens of thousands of rupees a day are tied to his head. He himself decides what to do with the money--it either goes to his temple or to a temple he visits. There is increasing demand for him to visit surrounding villages and cities. "We receive requests from devotees in other places who are eager to receive his grace," Reddy tells us. "At times Basava himself chooses to visit a certain temple, village or home." Basava seems especially drawn to temples in need of repair or improvement. By standing close to the contribution box, he indicates that the money he carries should be given to that temple." In February, 2008, he was a guest of honor for the three-day dedication of the huge Lord Kalabhairava Temple at Adichunchanagiri Hills in Karnataka. Our editor spent two hours with him during the rituals.
The village of Chikka Arasinakere abounds in tales of Basava's marvels. He is their boon giver, their moral police and justice dispenser. His word is the holy verdict no one dares discount. Personally, my family and I experienced the power of his blessings. Call it faith, belief or divinity; no one can dispute the powers of this holy bull. Basava is an experience. | <urn:uuid:a63777d7-a7f7-4145-96c8-eb3cf15fcd4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/print.php?itemid=3111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98359 | 1,947 | 2.09375 | 2 |
The AAG is one of four disciplinary associations participating in the American Council on Education project, “Where Faculty Live: Internationalizing the Disciplines”, funded by the Carnegie Corporation to expand international perspectives in higher education. The ACE project calls for each participating association to develop an internationalization “action plan” and a set of “global learning outcomes” for general education and upper-division courses, with the intent of distributing these resources to their respective members.
To achieve these goals, the AAG conducted a survey of its postsecondary faculty membership to examine patterns of international collaboration and the extent that geographers support an internationalized curriculum. By focusing on the aspects of internationalization most directly related to faculty practice, the goal was to identify some of the key factors affecting faculty decisions to participate in the internationalization process, and thereby provide stakeholders with an empirical basis for formulating internationalization plans.
Over 400 geographers representing all institutional types and major research subfields completed the survey. A detailed analysis of the survey by Michael Solem and Waverly Ray is now available on the AAG website. Their report, Gauging Disciplinary Support for Internationalization: A Survey of Geographers, interprets the diversity of factors affecting the motivations of geography faculty to internationalize research and pedagogy. Among the report’s findings:
- Nearly 25% of the faculty sample reported having at least one experience with an international collaboration focused on teaching or course development, whereas 57.3% participated in an international collaborative research project. These individuals were motivated by the belief that internationalization creates opportunities for professional and educational enrichment. They also perceived themselves to be highly capable and engaged with international professional networks.
- Departments and institutions also play a role in the internationalization process, perhaps most importantly by committing resources to create a supportive work environment. Indeed, the faculty in our sample cited a wide range of administrative policies that helped them achieve their internationalization goals. Among the most valued policies were those designed to expand funding for international education and professional development programs, reward faculty for international collaborative work, and implement student and faculty exchange programs.
- Though overall support for global learning outcomes was high, this support varies considerably when examined through the lens of gender, research subfield, institutional context, and other variables. Human geographers, women, non-native English speakers, and liberal arts faculty were more inclined to support global learning outcomes, especially those outcomes with a strong affective-trait or values component.
The report outlines an action plan that articulates how faculty, departments, and the AAG can work locally and together to enhance internationalization within the discipline. We are also drawing on related research with the AAG’s Online Center for Global Geography Education project to develop educational resources that support global learning outcomes in different geographical subfields. Additional input is being sought from an international advisory committee of geographers, the AAG Council, and AAG members. As this process unfolds, the AAG will continue to support internationalization through its annual meetings, publications, specialty groups, travel grants, and collaborative relationships with international organizations.
- AAG INTERNATIONALIZATION SURVEY INSTRUMENT
- AAG REPORT, "GAUGING DISCIPLINARY SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONALIZATION: A SURVEY OF GEOGRAPHERS"
- "INTERNATIONALIZING GEOGRAPHY AT THE DAWN OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY", BY VICKY LAWSON
PROJECTS THAT SUPPORT GLOBAL LEARNING OUTCOMES
- American Council on Education Internationalization Initiatives
- AAG Online Center for Global Geography Education
- Globalization 101, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Global Perspectives in Higher Education project, Royal Geographical Society
- Shared Futures: General Education for Global Learning, Association of American Colleges and Universities
- International Network for Learning and Teaching (INLT) | <urn:uuid:56c8285d-0bd2-4f8b-b849-b867c285d8c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aag.org/cs/education/internationalization_projects/american_council_on_education_where_faculty_live_study | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915535 | 812 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Australian airline Qantas has announced that it will be giving its pilots iPads for use during flights.
Qantas has teamed up with mobile provider Telstra to bring more than 2,200 64GB iPads to the cockpit, to enable pilots to access operational information digitally, replacing paper charts, flight plans, manuals and forms for good, reports GeekZone.
Currently, Qantas prints around 18,000 pages a day, a figure that will be reduced to just 3,000 pages with the introduction of iPads. Plus, the weight of the paper on board will drop by 20 kilograms.
Each of the iPads will have two apps that have been developed specifically for use by pilots. One app is for flight charts and the other is developed by Qantas itself for other flight information.
“The revolutionary capabilities of iPad technology, combined with the powerful customised apps, give our pilots the ability to replace cumbersome hard copies – saving time, resources and costs,” said Qantas Technical Pilot, Captain Alex Passerini.
Several other airlines have also been scrapping paper for iPads over the past couple of years, including Alaska Air.
It’s not just pilots that are getting their hands on iPads, UK councillors are also being given iPads as desktop PC and laptop replacements in order to reduce printing costs. Scientists are also getting equipped with Apple’s tablet. | <urn:uuid:374f9214-bad7-477e-83c9-6f6f65397dcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3369818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955676 | 282 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Industrial hemp's history can be traced as far back as 8000 BC when hemp agriculture and textile industries began in Europe and Asia. The uses for hemp are innumerable: from food, to fiber, to paper, to fuel ... What a tragic irony that tobacco farming is legal in the U.S. while hemp cannot be grown by American farmers under current federal law. Hemp contributes to the health and well-being of people and the planet, while tobacco contributes only to illness and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke in the U.S. So why aren't we converting tobacco plantations into eco-friendly hemp plantations? Australia began licensing of hemp farms in 1992, and Canada legalized the commercial growth of industrial hemp in 1998. Wake up, America!
Oh, but wait ... we are beginning to wake up, at least, state by state. Just one year ago, Oregon joined several other states when Governor Kulongoski signed a bill into law giving Oregon farmers the right to grow industrial hemp. And here in Oregon, a growing number of companies manufacture hemp products—among them are The Merry Hempsters, Trust Hemp Cooperation, and Living Harvest Foods.
Several years ago I wrote an article for vegsource.com called "Hemp is Good for You," which featured a few of my favorite foods made from what many consider "nature's perfect food." Since then, Living Harvest has come out with a line of milk beverages and ice cream made from hemp that have become increasingly popular. (The Chocolate Fudge and Coconut Lime ice creams are delicious.) They also make hemp oil and have introduced a new line of hemp protein powders.
One serving of Tempt Hemp Protein contains:
3 g fat
22 g protein
All 10 essential amino acids
It's a rich source of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, iron, magnesium, and potassium.
Living Harvest has succeeded in keeping their protein powder from tasting oily or hempy. But it did have a distinctively hemp-like smell when I added it to my morning smoothie, so I threw in a splash of vanilla extract, which masked it completely. If only I'd known they also make a Vanilla Spice protein powder. I'll bet it's terrific!
Tempt Hemp Protein added a nice creamy flavor to my smoothie and infused it with a beautifully rich, vibrant color. It was an energizingly tasty way to start the day!
Morning Protein Power Boost Smoothie
1 cup water (I like Taste Nirvana's Real Coconut Water)
2 very ripe bananas
1 medjool date
1/2 cup frozen fruit of choice (I used raspberries in the smoothie pictured above)
4 Tbs Tempt Hemp Protein Powder
Splash of vanilla extract
Blend all together and enjoy!
Posted by Vegiegail at 11:39 AM | <urn:uuid:02d1cca8-2cff-48f9-a1f4-900d16862702> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hungryvegan.blogspot.com/2010/08/go-ahead-and-tempt-me.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950465 | 607 | 2.03125 | 2 |
The Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman is the Department's fourth-ranking official. The Under Secretary serves as the day-to-day manager of overall regional and bilateral policy issues, and oversees the bureaus for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and International Organizations.
The Assistant Secretaries of the geographic bureaus and offices advise the Under Secretary and guide the operation of the U.S. diplomatic missions within their regional jurisdiction. They are assisted by Deputy Assistant Secretaries, office directors, post management officers, and country desk officers. These officials work closely with U.S. embassies and consulates overseas and with foreign embassies in Washington, DC.
The Bureau of International Organization Affairs (IO) develops and implements the policies of the U.S. Government within the United Nations and its affiliated agencies, as well as within certain other international organizations. The IO Bureau engages in what is known as multilateral diplomacy to promote and defend the many overlapping interests of the American people. The IO Bureau also promotes effective and efficient management within international organizations. | <urn:uuid:3f44b19d-a9c3-41b5-ab96-7d6972777c0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/p/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947023 | 230 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Beltane Customs and Folklore
Faerie Lore - The Fae at Beltane
Some people believe that the Fae are most active around the time of Beltane. What are these otherworldly creatures, and where do they come from?
Faeries in the Garden
Want to make your spring garden a welcoming place for the Fae? Here are some tips on keeping a faerie-friendly yard.
Fertility Deities of Beltane
Beltane has been a time of fertility celebration for thousands of years, in innumerable cultures. Learn about some of the different deities that can be honored during this spring Sabbat.
The Green Man, Spirit of the Forest
The Green Man appears in many forms in British and Celtic myth. What is the Green Man, and what does he really represent?
The Language of Flowers - Flowers and Their Meanings
During the nineteenth century, it became popular to send someone a message using only flowers. Each one had its own symbolism, so the type of flower you sent was very important. Here's a partial list of some popular flowers and their secret meanings
Legends and Lore of Bees
Where does the phrase "busy as a bee" come from? Why is honey the nectar of the gods? Let's look at some of the folklore and legends that surround the magical bee.
Legends and Lore of Beltane
There are a lot of myths and folklore surrounding May Day, or Beltane. Learn about some of the stories about this magical, mystical spring Sabbat!
The Legend of the May Queen and the Queen of Winter
In some Wiccan traditions, the battle for dominance is not between an Oak King and a Holly King, but in fact between the May Queen and the Queen of Winter. Learn about the cycle of the triple goddess, and her aspects as Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
Morris Dancing and Mummer's Plays
In rural English villages, Morris dancing and Mummer's plays are popular around the Beltane season. What's the history behind these unusual performance pieces?
What is Walpurgisnacht, and how is it celebrated in modern Pagan traditions?
Welcoming the Birds at Beltane
As spring arrives, the birds begin nesting and returning to our lives. You can attract birds to your yard with a few simple items, just in time for your Beltane celebrations.
The Bale Fire
The tradition of the Bale Fire is one that goes back many centuries. But where did this Beltane custom originate?
What is the Hobby Horse?
In addition to the Maypole, one of the best-known symbols of Beltane's fertility is the hobby horse. Representing masculine energy, the hobby horse has become a staple of many Beltane celebrations.
Butterfly Magic and Folklore
The butterfly is one of nature’s most perfect examples of change, transformation, and growth. Because of this, it has long been the subject of magical folklore and legend in a variety of societies and cultures. Let’s look at some of the magical meanings behind butterflies. | <urn:uuid:9e03ea6a-21d7-481b-813f-3547d331b6f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/beltanecustomandfolklore/Beltane_Customs_and_Folklore.htm | 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 | 0.945054 | 632 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Studies show that vocabulary is one of the best indicators of intelligence. Standardized tests like the SAT focus heavily on this in the reading comprehension and essay sections to demonstrate the ability to form abstract ideas and communicate them. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are more than one hundred thousand words in the English language. This is why it is important to start increasing your vocabulary early. But, picking up the dictionary and memorizing each word is not the best approach.
There is a huge difference between memorizing and learning. When memorizing, there is only a shallow glimpse into the full potential of the word. Maybe you know how to spell it and pronounce it. But, do you know the depths of its meaning? Not understanding the full meaning of a word can create a barrier when it comes creating sentences with the word or understanding abstract ideas when the word is used in reading material.
A great way to increase your vocabulary, especially if you are looking to enhance your scores on college entrance exams, is online SAT prep. Standardized test prep helps you learn rather than memorizing by introducing the word in the context that it is used. This is particularly true in the reading comprehension section of the exam. It also allows you to practice your knowledge of how a word should be used on the essay section. When taking a practice SAT exam, you will be exposed to dozens of unfamiliar words. The free SAT course goes at your pace so take your time in order to learn new vocabulary.
You can also take these new words, learn the context and try to use it when talking to your family and friends. This will create association with the word. Now you haven’t memorized a new vocabulary word, you’ve learned it.
You can use online SAT prep for vocabulary building exercises daily. Set a goal of learning one to two words per day. You will have a better understanding of the reading section on the test and be able to write stronger essays. | <urn:uuid:3726d38b-f331-400e-8e45-99bb3c9dd703> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blinetestprep.com/2011/learning-verses-memorizing-vocabulary-words/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936065 | 396 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Violence in East Timor leaves at least 2 soldiers wounded
Front page / World
05/23/2006 13:53 Source:
Violence flared in East Timor's capital Tuesday with firefights between dismissed soldiers and the military leaving at least two security forces wounded, one of them critically.
Australia, which led a UN-military force into East Timor in 1999 to end violence after the former Indonesian province voted for independence from Jakarta, offered to send troops again if the fledgling country's government requests help.
Gunfire erupted on the outskirts of Dili on Tuesday, apparently from nearby hills where the ex-soldiers have set up makeshift camps. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw two soldiers being loaded onto a military ambulance to be shuttled to hospital.
"We have arrested dozens of people" as a result of the clashes, Maj. Domingos da Camara told The Associated Press.
A hospital emergency ward official, Americo Sarmento, said one soldier was in critical condition with a head wound, while the second had been shot in the left thigh.
East Timor has been plagued by unrest since the dismissal earlier this year of nearly 600 soldiers who went on strike to contest alleged discrimination and poor working conditions.
The former soldiers, who had made up a third of the army, threatened to wage guerrilla warfare if the government and military leadership refused to reinstate them.
The dispute escalated into riots last month that killed five, destroyed more than 100 houses and businesses, and forced thousands of residents to flee to surrounding villages.
But the situation had been relatively calm until last weekend when six people were injured and eight properties torched during Independence Day celebrations.
On Tuesday, Police spoke in radio transmissions of at least three shooting incidents across the capital.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Parliament he had been in contact with his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos-Horta and the Australian Embassy, reports the AP.
To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests) | <urn:uuid:772f1968-a9c4-4fce-be33-6b56481f9ea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/east-asia-pacific/12381-violence-east-timor-leaves-least-2-soldiers-wounded.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971651 | 459 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Welcome to the Weekly Exercise News at BellaOnline.com. Take a moment to read my latest article:
Keeping a Fitness Journal
Keeping a fitness journal is one of the most important tools in your fitness regimen. A fitness journal points out things about yourself that you may not know and can be used to optimize your workouts.
Please visit the exercise site at exercise.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Exercise.
Did you know that walking 10 minutes at an average speed of 3-4 mph, burns approximately 63 calories? The calories you burn will depend on your walking speed and body weight. Try taking a couple of walks each day and by the end of the week you will have burned over 700 calories.
To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Exercise located here -
Keep in touch. Your questions and comments are very important to me. I write about what you want to know, so talk to me.
Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!
Be healthy, be happy!
Terri Johansen, Exercise Editor
One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com | <urn:uuid:adfea364-b74d-4407-b7e0-0fe748c35c43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/newsdtl.asp?name=exercise&date=1/4/2013%201:54:56%20PM | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908498 | 243 | 1.703125 | 2 |
(Clockwise from top left) Garry Lindberg, Mary May Simon, Paul Martin, John Stanton, Chantal Petitclerc, Fan Zeng, Donald Dingwell, Julio Frenk, Holger Petersen, Shirley Stinson and James Orbinski will receive honorary degrees during UAlberta's spring convocation.
(Edmonton) The University of Alberta will honour 11 inspiring individuals with honorary degrees this May and June.
“A University of Alberta honorary degree recognizes exemplary achievements and outstanding service to society. Each of these recipients possesses a unique and remarkable combination of passion and leadership,” said U of A Chancellor Linda Hughes.
The following 11 recipients of the university’s highest honour will deliver addresses during convocation ceremonies in Edmonton June 5 to 13 and at a special ceremony in Beijing on May 26.
Donald Bruce Dingwell is a highly respected experimental volcanologist probing the behaviour of molten rocks and their impact on volcanic systems and volcanic hazard assessment. Chair in mineralogy and petrology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Dingwell was recently elected secretary general of the European Research Council. A UAlberta alumnus and global academic citizen who has taught at five universities and in three countries and two languages, Dingwell is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada and chair of the Section of Earth and Cosmic Sciences of the Academia Europaea, Europe’s academy of science, arts and letters. Honorary Doctor of Science degree – June 6 at 10 a.m.
Julio J. Frenk is an eminent authority on global health and a highly influential figure at the crossroads of scholarship and practice. Currently the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, Frenk was one of the lead co-authors of “Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century,” commissioned and published by The Lancet in 2010. He has served as minister of health for Mexico, executive director at the World Health Organization and senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2008, he received the Clinton Global Citizen Award for transforming “the way practitioners and policy makers across the world think about health.” Honorary Doctor of Science degree – June 8 at 10 a.m.
A former vice-president of the Canadian Space Agency, Garry Lindberg played an integral role as project manager for the Canadarm, or Space Shuttle Attached Remote Manipulator System. Named one of the top 25 engineering wonders of Canadian science, the Canadarm was a success that enabled Canada to become a leader in robotics innovation. Lindberg also oversaw the creation of the Canadian Astronaut Program and played a key role in establishing the Canadian Space Agency in 1989. A UAlberta distinguished alumnus and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Lindberg also received a NASA Public Service Award and the Eadie Medal of the Royal Society of Canada. Honorary Doctor of Science degree – June 7 at 10 a.m.
The Right Honourable Paul Martin was the 21st prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006 and minister of finance from 1993 to 2002. As prime minister he signed agreements with the provinces and territories to establish a national early learning and child-care program and sought a historic consensus between Canada’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in the Kelowna Accord. As minister of finance, he erased Canada’s deficit, introduced the largest tax cuts in Canadian history and increased federal support for education and research and development. He currently leads the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative and serves on the advisory council of the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa. Honorary Doctor of Laws degree – June 11 at 3 p.m.
James Jude Orbinski, former president of Médicins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, is internationally renowned as a physician, writer and advocate for social justice. He spent several years in the field with Médicins Sans Frontières in Somalia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Zaire, and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization in 1999. An officer of the Order of Canada and chair and professor in Global Health at the University of Toronto, Orbinski is also co-founder of Dignitas International, a medical humanitarian organization dedicated to providing community-based care and improving the international response to HIV/AIDS and related illnesses in the developing world. Honorary Doctor of Laws degree – June 12 at 3 p.m.
Host of Natch’l Blues on CKUA Radio and Saturday Night Blues on CBC Radio One and Two, Holger Petersen is an award-winning broadcaster and co-founder/owner of the independent roots and blues music label Stony Plain Records. The label has earned 11 Juno Awards and six Grammy nominations. A founder and past artistic director of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Petersen was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2003 for his contributions to Canadian culture. In 2009, he was voted Best Public Broadcaster by the Blues Foundation in Memphis, the first time the award was presented to someone outside the United States. Honorary Doctor of Letters degree – June 13 at 10 a.m.
Chantal Petitclerc is the only Canadian athlete to have won gold medals at the Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games. She has taken home 21 Paralympic medals, 14 of them gold, and holds five world records for wheelchair racing. An ambassador for the international Right to Play organization, Petitclerc was Canadian athlete of the year and Canada’s female athlete of the year in 2008. In 2009 she was named a companion of the Order of Canada “for her achievements as a Paralympics champion known internationally as an inspiration, and for her commitment to developing sports for athletes with a disability.” Honorary Doctor of Laws degree – June 5 at 3 p.m.
Mary May Simon’s distinguished career has been devoted to advancing sustainable and equitable development in the circumpolar region. She was a key figure in the evolution of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, and has served as its president since 2006. Simon was Canada’s first ambassador of Circumpolar Affairs and also president and special envoy of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. A former producer and announcer for the CBC Northern Service, Simon is also the founding chairperson of the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation, a charitable organization that advances standards of living, educational opportunities and health and well-being. Honorary Doctor of Laws degree – June 12 at 10 a.m.
President and founder of the Edmonton-based retailer the Running Room, John Stanton is an entrepreneur whose organization has inspired people across North America to pursue physical fitness and active lifestyles. What began in 1984 in an 80-square-foot space is now a 110-store, 1,300-employee leading retail operation recognized three times in the past five years as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. Author of eight books on running and walking, Stanton has been honoured by the Order of Canada, the Canadian Retail Hall of Fame and the Canadian Medical Association Award for excellence in health promotion. Honorary Doctor of Laws degree – June 6 at 3 p.m.
UAlberta Professor Emerita Shirley Stinson is internationally recognized as a visionary leader in the development of nursing scholarship. A former senior administrator at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, she was the first female and the first nurse to receive the federal designation of Senior National Health Research Scientist. An inspiring mentor to generations of nurses, Stinson was at the forefront of interdisciplinary course design and delivery. Chair of the first International Nursing Research Conference, former president of the Canadian Nursing Association and inaugural chair of the Alberta Foundation for Nursing Research, she has made contributions to clinical nursing practice and education that have improved standards of patient care around the world. Honorary Doctor of Science degree – June 7 at 3 p.m.
Professor Fan Zeng is a well-known Chinese painter, calligrapher and poet. A prolific artist and author, he is dean of the Chinese Painting Institute of Peking University, PhD supervisor of the College of Literature and the College of History of Nankai University, and PhD supervisor of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. Zeng was honoured as a UNESCO Special Consultant of Diversified Culture in 2009 and as Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in France in 2010. He is an esteemed representative of the deep and rich Chinese artistic tradition, and many of his works may be found in the National Library of China and the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Honorary Doctor of Letters degree – May 26 at a special ceremony in Beijing. | <urn:uuid:1cbc4a5a-c693-4b9e-9fb9-062ec6cae222> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2012/04/ualbertahonorarydegreesannounced | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962062 | 1,772 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Christmas at a royal home
Posted by• August 31, 2011
Queen Victoria’s favourite tableaux vivants are to be on show over the Christmas season at Osborne House, the private home built for the queen on the Isle of Wight.
In the 19th century, members of the royal family and their staff used to entertain themselves by dressing up in special costumes for performances of ‘living pictures’, an important part of the seasonal celebrations. This year, visitors will be able to see projected photographs of the royal household’s tableaux vivants when the house is decorated for Christmas in traditional style and with some of the gifts and cards given to Queen Victoria on display. There will also be guided tours explaining how Victoria and her family spent Christmas at Osborne.
The house, which was extensively rebuilt for Victoria and Prince Albert, was the queen’s favourite retreat. She wrote: ‘It is hard to imagine a prettier spot.’ Marble sculptures commissioned by the royal couple line the classical Grand Corridor, portraits and frescos adorn the walls, and the richly decorated Durbar Room celebrates Victoria’s role as Empress of India.
Osborne’s 138 hectares (342 acres) of grounds include formal terraced gardens as well as a miniature fort and barracks for the royal children and a Swiss Cottage where they could learn domestic skills. A myrtle bush on the terrace was grown from a cutting given to Victoria by Albert’s mother. The queen’s eldest daughter Princess Victoria carried a stem in her wedding bouquet and it has become traditional for all royal brides to carry myrtle from this bush. The Duchess of Cambridge carried a sprig when she married HRH Prince William in April.
After Albert died 150 years ago, Victoria chose to spend Christmases at Osborne House with her nine children. Her mourning for Albert’s death softened over the years and Christmases became cheerful with decorated trees, gifts, cards, a lavish celebratory meal and the elaborate tableaux vivants. Victoria died at Osborne 22 January 1901.
A Victorian Christmas weekend with sideshows, singing chimney-sweeps, traditional Victorian fairground stalls and visits from Father Christmas and ‘Queen Victoria’ takes place on 19–20 November.
The Isle of Wight is a short ferry ride from the south coast of England. The Osborne House Christmas decorations are on display from 23 November to 8 January, Wed–Sun 10am–4pm, admission £11.50 adults, £10.40 concessions, £6.90 children, £29.90 family ticket. Victorian Christmas weekend 19–20 November, admission £13.60 adults, £12.39 concessions, £8.20 children, £35.40 family ticket.
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Agriculture has a central socioeconomic position in Ghana. This sector accounts for about 65 percent of the work force, about 40 percent of the gross domestic product, and about 40 percent of foreign currencies acquired through exports. Although agriculture is a key part of the country’s economy, the structure of the sector is vulnerable because it relies on rainfed agriculture during a roughly six-month rainy season. Droughts and other types of unseasonable weather pose risks for farmers. Under these conditions, irrigation development offers the promise of greater food security and the rural-area development by ensuring yearlong agricultural production.
Past experiences, emerging opportunities, and future directions
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JACKSON HOLE, WY.- The Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation recently advised the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Wildlife Art that the Foundation was conveying to the Museum some 428 works of art and related items with a current market value of approximately $16 million. The Foundation has been a cornerstone supporter of the Museum for over two decades. The timing of the present gift serves as an appropriate recognition of the formal designation by the United States Congress and the President of the Museum’s status as the “National Museum of Wildlife Art of the United States.”
In 1984, 10 founding trustees chose Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with its abundant wildlife, beautiful mountain setting, and high tourism, as a unique and appropriate setting for an art museum focused on images of wildlife. The original museum opened as Wildlife of the American West Art Museum on May 16, 1987 on Jackson’s Town Square.
By 1992, the NMWA had outgrown its three-gallery, 5,000 square-foot storefront. A capital campaign was launched to raise $10 million for a new facility and $2 million for an operating endowment. In September 1994, the NMWA opened its new facility, a 51,000 square-foot state-of-the-art building that allowed for expanded exhibition space, museum programs, and educational programming.
Representing the culmination of a lifetime of study and collection of wildlife art by Joffa and Bill Kerr who, over a 30-year period, developed a collection of wildlife art unsurpassed in the United States, the Museum is comprised of 14 exhibition galleries, an interactive gallery for children, a conference room, two full-sized classrooms, a 200-seat auditorium, the Rising Sage Café, Members’ Lounge, Library & Archives, and administrative space.
The Museum’s permanent collection of over 5,000 cataloged items includes paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by over 100 distinguished artists ranging from early American Tribes through contemporary masters. The Museum’s permanent and temporary exhibitions are augmented with innovative educational and scholarly programs emphasizing art appreciation, art history, natural science, creative writing, and American history.
The Museum has become an important educational center and meeting place for the Jackson Hole region. In 1994, the National Museum of Wildlife Art received the Wyoming Humanities Award for exemplary efforts in fostering the humanities in Wyoming. More than 76,000 people visit every year, and over 10,000 children visit the Museum each year, often as part of their school curricula. | <urn:uuid:ed8993f9-8638-41b0-b1ba-7f998af6884d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31294&int_modo=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948714 | 523 | 2.234375 | 2 |