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Pentagon leaders outlined a plan Thursday for absorbing $487 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade by shrinking U.S. ground forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter and retiring older planes and ships.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is also requesting new rounds of military base closures in the as part of the Pentagon budget-cutting process.
Closing or consolidating military installations requires legislation from Congress to create a bipartisan Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC).
BRAC then studies the issue and makes recommendations to the president and the defense secretary.
The last round of BRAC took place in 2005 and the changes it implemented were only completed in this past fall.
In a bid to pre-empt election-year Republican criticism, Panetta said the plan shifts the Pentagon's focus from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to future challenges in Asia, the Mideast and in cyberspace.
More special operations forces like the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden will be available around the world, he said.
"Our approach was to use this as an opportunity to maintain the strongest military in the world, to not hollow out the force," he said in a statement prepared for a Pentagon news conference.
Some lawmakers were quick to dispute him.
"Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.
Panetta announced that the administration will request a 2013 budget of $525 billion, plus another $88 billion for operations in Afghanistan. Combined, those totals are about $33 billion less than the Pentagon is spending this year.
Panetta said, however, that the Pentagon's base budget will grow to $567 billion in 2017.
At that point, the cumulative budgets over five years would be $259 billion less than had been planned before the administration struck a deficit-cutting deal with Congress last summer that requires projected defense spending to be reduced by $487 billion by 2022.
Among the details Panetta disclosed:
The Army would shrink by 80,000 soldiers, from 570,000 today to 490,000 by 2017. That is slightly larger than the Army on 9/11.
The Marine Corps would drop from today's 202,000 to 182,000 - also above the level on 9/11.
The Air Force would retire some older planes including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 of its oldest C-130 cargo planes.
The Navy would keep a fleet of 11 aircraft carriers but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned. It also would delay purchase of some other ships, including a new Virginia-class submarine.
Purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets, to be fielded by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, would be slowed.
Current plans for building a new generation of submarines that carry long-range nuclear missiles would be delayed by two years.
The current fleet of nuclear-capable bombers and land-based nuclear missiles would be left unchanged.
Military pay raises will remain on track until 2015, when the pace of increase will be slowed by an undetermined amount.
President Barack Obama will ask Congress to approve a new round of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was left vague and there is little chance that lawmakers would agree to this in a presidential election year.
The defense spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to Congress as part of the administration's full 2013 budget on Feb. 13.
Prominent in the Obama plan is a renewed focus on Asia, where China's rapid military modernization has raised worry in Washington and rattled U.S. allies.
The Pentagon has embraced a proposal by special operations chief Adm. Bill McRaven to send more manpower and equipment to worldwide "Theater Special Operations Commands" to strike back wherever threats arise, according to a senior defense official who spoke to The Associated Press, and other current and former U.S. officials briefed on the program.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the proposal are still being worked out, including how fast the changes could be made.
The stepped-up network would put top special operations personnel closer to the problems they face, better able to launch unilateral raids like this week's Somalia mission. McRaven also wants the newly invigorated commands to build new relationships with foreign armies to help them lead their own operations, the senior defense official said.
Panetta also has made clear the administration will resist any effort to shrink the Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers.
He said last weekend while on board the fleet's oldest carrier, the USS Enterprise, that keeping 11 of the warships is a "long-term commitment" that Obama believes is important to keeping the peace.
"Our view is that the carriers, because of their presence, because of the power they represent, are a very important part of our ability to maintain power projection both in the Pacific and in the Middle East," he said.
Obama has said he hopes to further reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, but Panetta said the basic structure - a "triad" of land, sea and air nuclear forces - will be maintained.
The Pentagon said it will study the potential to shrink that force later.
The defense budget is being reshaped in the midst of a presidential contest in which Obama seeks to portray himself as a forward-looking commander in chief focusing on new security threats. Republicans want to cast him as weak on defense.
Obama has highlighted his national security successes - the killing of Osama bin Laden, the death of senior al-Qaida leaders and the demise of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi - to counter Republican criticism.
He also has emphasized the completion of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq and the start of a drawdown in Afghanistan as turning points that offer new opportunities to scale back defense spending.
But several congressional Republicans see a political opening in challenging the reductions in projected military spending that the GOP and Obama agreed to last summer as part of a deal to raise the nation's borrowing authority.
They've echoed Obama's potential presidential rivals Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, who plead for fiscal austerity but contend that sizable cuts would gut the military.
Defense Department's news release | <urn:uuid:1ff46f1d-58f9-4ad4-8f4e-28e455cc3c6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wwnytv.com/news/local/Plan-To-Reduce-US-Ground-Forces-By-100000-138141473.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959097 | 1,301 | 1.648438 | 2 |
|Antiques Digest||Browse Auctions||Appraisal||Antiques And Arts News||Home|
( Originally Published 1963 )
A low, two-seat settee may seem at first glance to have been made for children. It wasn't. Instead, it was a portable seat to be carried out and placed in the bed of a wagon for a comfortable ride to town. It is properly called a wagon seat. Actually, the seat was 14 or 15 inches from the floor, which is not much lower than the average chair. Wagon seats had two outer arms. Three uprights, each tipped with a finial and with slats, were used for twoseaters. The uprights and legs were sturdy and round with simple turnings; the stretchers were more slender. The wood was maple, hickory, or other hard varieties, and often two or more kinds were used. It was either painted or left its natural color. Seats were rush or woven splint. Believe it or not, some of these wagon seats had attached rockers.
Children were not forgotten when country furniture was made. For them Windsor, slat-back, Hitchcock, and everyday side-chairs were turned out in small sizes. So were Boston and other styles of rockers, decorated in the same manner as their elders' chairs.
If it is possible that any category of furniture was more important than chairs, chests and cupboards were. After all, no matter when or where a person lived, he had some possessions that needed to be kept safe. Not only were chests and cupboards generally functional; many of them were cleverly built for particular types of storage. Of course both these storage pieces and hutches can be pretty battered if they've been used since 1840 or even 1870 or 1880. Nevertheless, their like will not be made again-and fresh paint works wonders.
Oldest, of course, was the ordinary chest with a lid. This was made in all lengths and depths, chiefly of pine and maple. Some were so precisely joined that it's a pleasure to look at them, however worn their corners. Many of these plain ones were made as late as the 1870's.
Individual styles of chests have been made in this country since before 1700. The chest with a lid that lifts up and two drawers beneath it was for blankets. One of the most famous of this kind was the Hadley chest. It was deep and three-paneled, and there was all-over carving of tulips, stems, and foliage. Only about 100 real Hadley chests were made in Hadley, Massachusetts. Many similar ones appeared in the Connecticut River Valley, farther south. These Connecticut ones were usually called sunflower or sunflower and tulip chests because of the type of carving on the three panels. Chests with one divided drawer were made in Pennsylvania. These, the dower chest, which had no drawers, and later chests of four drawers were painted and decorated in vivid colors in the Pennsylvania Dutch region. The dower chest had varicolored designs painted on the three panels. Incidentally, the motifs of the decoration differed typically from one county to another in this farmland area. Both dower and everyday chests often had the owner's name or initial carved or inlaid in the center panel.
Chests of drawers made from about 1730 onward were from three to six or eight drawers in height. They varied somewhat from state to state, but the highest ones are said to have been made in New Hampshire and Vermont, where the men were taller than average. A six-drawer chest also sometimes might consist of two threedrawer ones set side by side. Most of these plain chests were painted.
Cupboards range from milk and pie safes to even smaller spice cupboards and boxes to hang on the wall. Drug cupboards and some spice cupboards were made up of tiny drawers, each generally with a small wooden knob. Cupboards of this kind were placed atop either a slant-top desk or a wide chest of drawers, usually set well back from the edge on a chest of drawers.
The hutch and the dresser were primarily country styles. They were the forerunners of the twentieth-century kitchen cabinet, but much more attractive than the latter. Many styles of hutch and dresser were made, with the details and the arrangement of closed and open spaces changing with the locality. Although they were made in quantity into the 1870's, these pieces are worthwhile today.
A hutch consisted of two pieces. The bottom was an arrangement of either, or both, cupboards and drawers. The hutch top was removable and consisted of two or more railed shelves for the display of pewter or china, with either a cornice or an open top. A dresser, which was a cupboard to hold dishes and cooking utensils, also usually had two parts: a bottom of drawers and cabinets, and a top with either open or closed shelves. The top section normally was recessed to provide counter space. A kitchen cupboard also sometimes consisted of two deep cabinets under a row of drawers, but it had no upper section. A rail along the sides and back of the top kept objects from falling off the work surface.
The water bench was about as high as the hutch. The cupboards below were for storing water buckets; the counter provided a surface on which to place them when filled. Instead of having two or three shelves like the hutch, it had a row of shallow drawers attached near the top of the back, well above the counter. Dry sinks with part of the top depressed were smaller than water benches.
Cupboards, hutches, dressers, and sinks were painted, more often than not. However, when the wood-maple, cherry, pine, or birch-had been carefully chosen, the piece was sometimes only waxed and polished to display its natural wood color. These pieces make up probably the most sought-after and salable group to be found today.
Beds were less affected by changing styles or individual whims than any other country furniture. There were no towering four-posters in rural homes. Instead, throughout the 1700's and most of the 1800's, the low-post bed was made everywhere in single and small-double widths. It was often called the "under-eave" bed. The two low head-posts, which were slightly higher than the foot-posts, usually supported a low headboard. The headboards were plain and the posts simply turned and almost stubby. These bedsteads included two side and two end rails with either holes or knobs for holding the bed ropes (there were no springs), which had to be drawn taut. An important accessory was the wooden bed wrench used to tighten the ropes.
After 1825, beds were made occasionally with a sort of footboard between the foot-posts - two rails framing stock spindles-but the posts themselves and the headboard were no fancier than those of the under-cave bed. Hitehcock's fame rests on his chairs, but he or one of his imitators also made very plain headboards painted and decorated with stenciling in gilt.
Only one style of desk rounded out country furniture. The little desk known as the schoolmaster's desk may be found from the East Coast throughout the Midwest and the Plains states. It had no pigeonholes or drawers in the interior of the body. It did have one drawer under the slant top which formed its writing surface. The top had to be lifted to get at the materials stored underneath. This type of desk was small and set on comparatively high legs. It was made of maple, pine, perhaps cherry, or two woods, and was usually painted.
Native woods always were used for country furniture. Pine and maple predominated, but oak was an early choice and in the nineteenth century cherry was not uncommon. Hickory, walnut, butternut, ash, poplar, chestnut, and whatever wood the region offered came in handy too. Two or more kinds of wood were common in even the smallest object, and that-as has been pointed out-was why so many pieces were painted. Not only were several colors of paint employed, but in the 1800's paint was often applied to represent the grain of wood.
Restoring country furniture does not necessarily consist of scraping off all the various coats of paint down to the original pine, maple, or hickory. Of course some pieces entirely of pine, maple, or cherry will gleam beautifully if reduced to the wood, polished, and waxed, but a thorough cleaning and the application of a coat of paint in a suitable color and texture are fre quently the most appropriate treatment.
Country furniture is bound to show signs of hard usage. Judge its quality on the basis of how good its proportions and scale are, how well joined it is, and how good the turnings are.
The most likely finds in country furniture are such pieces as hutches, dressers, and painted chairs of the kitchen variety. However weary you may be from cleaning out an old house, never neglect to look in the cellar, the shed, or what was formerly the barn. It's in such spots that you may unearth a chest appealing for its small size, or a schoolmaster's desk discarded long ago because it was starting to come apart. Amazingly, a11 country furniture, no matter what its condition, has marketable value. A piece in good condition can be sold for a surprising amount of cash. A bona fide early-eighteenth-century chest is worth anything Lip to $1,000, depending on the amount of its carving and decoration and state of preservation. The plainest nineteenthcentury pine or maple chest with no more decoration than a molding around its lid can bring $35 to $50. Cupboards have an equally wide price range, and painted hutches and dressers are worth almost as much as current, unpainted but polished, wood reproductions.
Among chairs, the Windsors are the best gamble. Depending on its age and quality, a Windsor chair can be sold for from $10 to $1,000. A signed Hitchcock chair is worth more than Hitchcock-type chairs. The latter may bring no more than $20 or so each, even though they were made more than 100 years ago. A set of six, including one armchair, to use around a dining table can be sold for a tidy sum.
A slat-back rocker, uncomfortable as it is to sit in, may be worth $50 to $250. A Boston rocker, depending on how true to type it is and how good its condition, sells for perhaps $10 to $150.
An arrow-back kitchen-chair, painted and faded to a dingy gray, is bound to be worth a few dollars to someone. If you find one with a crest rail stenciled as well as painted, its selling price can be anything from $10 to $150. Just one wagon seat-not the complete set of two or three in which they were usually made-will bring not less than $25 and, depending on its workmanship and condition, perhaps $50 or more. Occasionally, a wagon seat is sold for $100 to $125.
No one can argue about a Hitchcock chair because it was signed. Some other makers of this sort of chair between 1830 and 1860 also stamped their name and town on the back, so it's possible to trace the date of origin. However, Hitchcock chairs are being made at the present time in New England. Although Lambert Hitchcock's original patterns are used and his stamp placed on the back, they are not antique chairs. A nineteenth-century Hitchcock may be worth only about $25 or it may be good enough to bring $150. The twentieth-century Hitchcock chairs with rush seats sell for $50 and up, in their gleaming newness.
Windsor chairs, slat or ladder-back chairs, captain's chairs and other lowback armchairs, Boston and other types of rockers, are reproduced too. Not as many types of Windsor chairs are being manufactured, but it can be difficult to tell one made in 1850 from a similar one made in 1950. All styles include sizes for both adults and children. Many of the current reproductions are copied faithfully from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century examples in museums and restorations. The excellence of the reproductions and the continuing manufacture of long-popular pieces are all the more reason for authenticating the approximate date when a more worn-looking counterpart was made. | <urn:uuid:b8e2c5f0-1cda-43ac-af1b-efd6deb91865> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldandsold.com/articles03/country_furniture4.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986174 | 2,608 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Community Speaker Series
The Community Speaker Series at Kingsley was established to provide an educational forum where parents and faculty, colleagues and neighbors are invited to hear and interact with respected experts in a variety of fields. Focusing on education, parenting, and child development issues, the series offers eight to ten programs each year. The programs are free of charge and open to the public.
Our distinguished speakers - from the legendary Harvard professor and thinker Dr. Howard Gardner through thought-provoking authors, psychologists, and learning specialists to our very own Kingsley educators - enrich our community with knowledge, ideas, and inspired conversation. | <urn:uuid:7be178ce-3fea-49e0-ad9d-1feefa37dd00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kingsley.org/community/community-speaker-series | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952216 | 123 | 1.515625 | 2 |
OLYMPIA -The recent identification of the pathogen that causes whirling disease in a rainbow trout brought into Southwest Washington by a private landowner in Battleground (Clark County) highlights the importance of rules aimed at keeping diseased fish from being brought into the state, say Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) officials.
The presence of Myxobolus cerebralis, the causitive agent for whirling disease, was confirmed last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Lower Columbia Fish Health Center lab, in Underwood, Wash. The lab tested the fish at the request of WDFW, which collected it in a broader sampling effort last summer.
"The confirmation of the pathogen in this fish underscores the importance of following state permitting requirements," said John Kerwin, WDFW fish health manager. "These rules are intended to keep fish diseases from being spread here and to insure the safety of our native fish populations."
Under state law, persons purchasing and releasing fish are required to first obtain a stocking permit and a transport permit from WDFW. The department maintains a list of certified fish growers that meet WDFW's fish health requirements, including regular testing to ensure stock is free of specific diseases. The purchaser of the fish that tested positive for M. cerebralis had not obtained the required state permits before releasing the trout into a contained pond on his property.
"We will work with the property owner to ensure that any fish which might remain in his pond do not pose a risk to native fish," said Kerwin.
The department also plans to collect additional samples of trout in the area this year, he added.
State biologists collected trout samples last year in southwest Washington after learning that a number of individuals in the area had purchased fish from a private fish farm near Portland, Ore., a portion of which was later closed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife after M. cerebralis was found in the facility's fish.
Whirling disease is a parasitic infection which leads to deformities that cause fish to "whirl" in the water in a tail-chasing pattern. It has been blamed for significant declines in trout native populations in Montana and Colorado.
Although it is fatal to trout and can affect some other species of fish including salmon, the pathogen or parasite is harmless to humans and other wildlife. The pathogen or parasite is not passed directly from fish to fish, but instead through an intermediate aquatic host, the tubifex worm. Birds or mammals ingest affected fish and the infectious agent is passed through the bird feces back to the tubifex worm. The tubifex worm releases the infectious agent that infects the fish. Tubifex worms are found throughout North America, including Washington.
The recent finding represents the first time M. cerebralis has been detected in the lower Columbia River basin in western Washington. The parasite has been found previously in western Oregon's Willamette River basin, and was found over a decade ago in southeast Washington. In 2001 and 2002 it also was detected in a number of streams in the upper Columbia River watershed of northeast Washington. | <urn:uuid:5af6d6b3-a904-4a6d-8317-7f8bfcadfbd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/release-print/apr0504b/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960536 | 637 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Cane Corso History
Cane Corsos originally came from Italy, mostly in the southern areas of the country. These dogs may also be referred to as the Cane da Macellaio, the Italian Corso Dog and the Italian Molosso.
The Cane Corso was used to hunt large game and it was especially skilled at hunting wild boar. When big game hunting was on a decline these dogs were used to guard propery and livestock for Italian farmers. This breed came to America around 1987, but can still be found throughout Italy fulfilling the role of its old working duties. The Cane Corso derived it’s name from the Latin word “Cohors” which means guardian or protector.
- Cane Corso’s were bred as working dogs for hundreds of years.
- The Cane Corso demands plenty of attention and training and owners need to be prepared to make this commitment.
- The Cane Corso is territorial and likes to stay close to its handler and therefore will not wander away from home. | <urn:uuid:cf6fb022-f9b3-4608-ae5d-46d50fd7e827> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bigpawsbigheartsrescue.com/awareness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976038 | 218 | 2.921875 | 3 |
By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Growing optimism about the economy and a big turnout of the core Democratic coalition sealed President Barack Obama's re-election victory.
After years of bleak economic news, enough Americans now believe better days lie ahead for the U.S. economy. The coalition of young, female and minority voters that propelled Obama to victory four years ago also turned out again, in huge numbers.
Early exit polls reflected a pro-Obama turnout by minorities and single women so big that in some key states it exceeded numbers seen during his historic election in 2008 as America's first black president.
Although Republican Mitt Romney did much better with independent voters than Obama on Tuesday, that advantage was wiped out in key battleground states by an enthusiasm Obama managed to engender among his core coalition that many analysts were writing off just a few months ago as dispirited and fractured.
In Pennsylvania, for example, African-American turnout exceeded 2008 levels, ABC News said. In Nevada, 18 percent of the voters were Latino - up from 15 percent in 2008, according to CNN.
That rapidly growing electoral bloc backed Obama overwhelmingly, as it appeared to be doing in Florida, one of the biggest prizes with its 29 electoral college votes. By Tuesday night, Florida - a state Romney had been confident of winning - was too close to call, but appeared to be heading toward an Obama victory.
Obama also opened up a large gender gap over Romney among women, several exit polls indicated.
"I thought four years ago there was an enduring Obama electorate, and that is what we've seen tonight," said Tad Devine, a veteran Democratic strategist.
"It's made up of African-Americans, Latinos, single women and young people," he said. "You combine that with blue-collar union workers and upper-educated whites, and you have a majority, especially in battleground states."
Devine added: "This coalition has legs. It reflects the demographic reality of America - the country is becoming less white, and there are more minorities and single people."
MANY VOTERS STILL BLAME BUSH
Romney also appeared to have overplayed his hand when it came to his central campaign argument that the U.S. economy was in dire straights because of Obama's bungled fiscal stewardship.
In politically divided states such as Virginia, Iowa and Ohio, Romney had an edge among voters who believed he would do a better job handling the economy - but only just. It was not enough for a candidate who made the economy central to his campaign.
As the night wore on, Romney's path to victory narrowed and was all but gone by 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT Wednesday). State after battleground state he needed to win to get to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory fell to Obama: New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. By 11 p.m. EST, Obama had narrowly carried Ohio - and with it re-election.
Obama effectively swept the American Midwest, the county's industrial heartland.
Romney's efforts to convince voters that America's stubbornly high unemployment rate of 7.9 percent was all Obama's fault appeared to have backfired.
Early national exit polls revealed that about 50 percent of U.S. voters still blamed former Republican President George W. Bush for the country's economic problems rather than Obama.
Bill Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to Democratic President Bill Clinton, said Obama clinched victory because a range of economic factors improved in the past six months.
Galston said the jobless rate had been ticking downward, the housing market appeared to have stabilized with home prices finally rising, and consumer confidence had been improving.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the week before the election reflected how voters' views of the economy had been improving steadily.
In October 2011, several months into Romney's candidacy, only one quarter of the country believed America was heading in the "right direction" - a key metric looked at by pollsters and a grave worry then for Obama's strategists.
By last week, that number had risen to 45 percent.
"The president's handling of the economy had to be the centerpiece of Romney's campaign," Galston said. "He had no choice. But all sorts of economic signs perked up in the past six months - and just in time for the president."
Yet Obama's victory in the face of such a high unemployment rate was remarkable given the historical winds he faced. No U.S. president has won re-election with an unemployment rate of over 7.2 percent since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.
No Republican has ever won the White House without victory in Ohio and the critical swing state was carried by Obama in large part because of his decision early in his presidency to bail out the bankrupt auto industry in neighboring Michigan.
In Ohio, where one in 8 jobs is tied to the auto industry, an overwhelming 59 percent of voters approved of the bailout - a move opposed by Romney at the time. Of that 59 percent, three quarters backed Obama in Ohio on Tuesday.
In Ohio, according to exit polls conducted by CNN, 37 percent of voters believed the economy was getting better, compared with 33 percent who thought things were getting worse.
In Virginia, 43 percent saw things improving, compared with 36 percent who believed life was going to get worse.
In those battleground states, and in others such as Colorado and Iowa, Obama enjoyed significant leads with voters on the question of who would best fight for the middle class and "people like us."
David Gergen, a political analyst and former adviser to two Democratic and two Republican presidents, said: "There is no doubt the president benefited from his economic policies. His auto bailout may have won Ohio and helped win key votes in the upper Midwest."
Gergen added: "Consumer confidence is also on the rise, inspired in part by cheery White House whisperings that success is just around the corner. Voters may have a rude disappointment, but they bought in during this election season."
(Editing by David Lindsey and Peter Cooney) | <urn:uuid:b2124112-99a8-4da0-b838-ab45ff6de18b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2012/nov/07/analysis-obama-re-election-driven-by-economy-turnout/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9799 | 1,246 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Dr. Mark Partridge, the C. William Swank Chair of Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State University, recently visited with Ohio Farm Bureau’s state policy development committee to discuss the oil and gas industry and how to avoid what he described as a natural resources curse.
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The Ohio Safety Congress & Expo will be held March 31 to April 2 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Farm Bureau is working at the national level to defend farmers from what it believes to be onerous regulatory proposals.
The Farm Bureau family expresses its condolences to the family of Debbie Porteus, wife of OFBF President Brent Porteus, who lost her valiant battle with cancer Aug. 9.
Ohio agriculture suffered a shocking loss with the tragic death of farm broadcaster Lindsay Hill. She was killed in an auto accident May 19 in western Ohio.
Rep. Bob Gibbs recently spoke with Ohio Farm Bureau Federation about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) attempt to circumvent Congress and expand its regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act.
The American Farm Bureau Federation said it concurs with a Joint Economic Committee report that details the financial harm posed by estate taxes on family businesses.
A recent report from an Ohio State University economist says that if Ohio were to adopt regulations on animal production similar to those recently passed in California, the state’s egg industry “would be decimated.”
A newly released study from the Columbus-based research and development organization Battelle finds that agriculture and agricultural bioscience — “agbioscience” — are providing crucial wide ranging opportunities for economic growth and job creation in the United States.
Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s support for a resolution to disapprove the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act could not have come at a better time and reflects true bipartisan concern, according to AFBF President Bob Stallman.
The Bethel, Ohio, home of Richard and Virginia Meyer had been filled with memories. But now it is nothing but a memory.
According to the American Farm Bureau, the Department of Labor is proposing new regulations that would limit the ability of kids under the age of 16 to work on the nation’s farms.
New research is showing that the way farmers have traditionally reached out to consumers is not the most effective approach.
In northwest Hardin County, a large farm covering 40,000 acres has been in the works for about 2 ½ years. This farm, however, doesn’t raise crops or animals – it captures the wind.
As a state commission rethinks local government in Ohio, some township trustees are bristling at notions to consolidate or eliminate the office they hold.
Ross County Farm Bureau will be hosting “Farm Factor,” a progressive farm dinner Grow and Know event, July 22 for an afternoon of fun and food.
The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that the Ohio Power Siting Board acted properly in approving the construction and operation of a wind farm in Champaign County, a finding that had been encouraged by Ohio Farm Bureau.
In comments at a U.S. Department of Agriculture outlook forum, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman said AFBF is employing a two-pronged approach to improve the quality of life in rural America.
Ohio Farm Bureau members have the opportunity to win one of six free computers or broadband Internet access for a year by providing feedback on their access to broadband connections.
The Ohio Department of Health is working to update its rules for home sewage treatment systems in order to better protect the environment and human health.
Ad campaign, Web site, rallies call for YES vote for Issue 2
Your farm’s long-term success is ultimately about profitability. While controlling expenses is one critical component of profitability, so is protecting your farm’s or ranch’s assets with the right insurance and risk management tools. How can you strike a balance between savings and security?
Farm Bureau members honored by Ohio's First Lady and Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation has established a new scholarship program in memory of long-time Ohio Farm Bureau staff member Cindy Hollingshead, who passed away this year after serving 39 years as the organization’s executive secretary.
Students pursuing agricultural-related areas of study may apply for $1,000 scholarships from the Ohio Agricultural Council, Ohio Soybean Council, Farm Credit Services and United Producers Inc. | <urn:uuid:eacbde78-c599-46bd-8293-6b4abdaac0af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ofbf.org/news-and-events/news/?p=48&pp=25&sb=title&so=ASC | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943167 | 990 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Reuters Health Information (2009-04-22): RF ablation helpful in some recurrent pediatric solid tumors
RF ablation helpful in some recurrent pediatric solid tumors
Last Updated: 2009-04-22 14:20:06 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Radiofrequency (RF) ablation may provide benefit to a sizable minority of patients with recurrent solid tumors that were first treated in childhood, according to findings from a pilot study.
As lead investigator Dr. Fredric A. Hoffer told Reuters Health, "Radiofrequency ablation may extend the life of patients who have pulmonary metastases that recur after the first surgical resection." Also, he added, it may relieve the pain from some soft tissue or bone lesions.
In the March 15th issue of Cancer, Dr. Hoffer, now at Seattle Children's Hospital, Washington and colleagues report on 16 patients, ages 4-33 years (median age, 15 years), with 56 tumor sites, who were treated at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Most lesions (38) were pulmonary.
Eighty-two lesion ablations were performed. At 1 month after the procedure, 51 (62%) were completely ablated. By the end of the 5-year study period, 27 of the ablated tumors had recurred.
There were 5 surviving patients at the end of the study. One was free of disease. In the other 4, 24 tumors (29%) remained ablated.
Prolonged hospitalization (beyond 1 day) was required on 17 occasions. Postprocedural pain was moderate and lasted for a median of 9 days. Eight patients had postprocedural hypoxia requiring supplemental oxygen, which resolved within a month. Two patients with pulmonary lesions developed diaphragmatic hernias.
The authors believe "the toxicity of radiofrequency ablation was worth the benefit in all 16 patients." The researchers have now embarked on a phase 2 trial for RFA treatment of both malignant and benign lesions in children. | <urn:uuid:80817b26-367b-4ef4-bf93-f5450b9fc1fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chronicliverdisease.org/reuters/article.cfm?article=20090422clin008&topic=clin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949618 | 423 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Pornography isn’t Victimless – Observe WRAP Week
The porn industry would have us believe that pornography is a harmless, victimless crime – and they even go so far as to say pornography “empowers” women (see this previous Underground article). Purveyors of porn title theirs a “Business of Pleasure” as seen in a July 2009 CNBC special, where one female porn star says “I just treat it like any job.” Women are now producing and directing pornographic films.
If porn takes no victims, then we wouldn’t need “Victims of Pornography Month,” which happens in May each year, and we wouldn’t need “White Ribbons Against Pornography Week” (WRAP) – taking place Sunday, October 25 through Sunday, November 1, 2009. WRAP is sponsored by the Morality in Media organization.
For decades, numerous reports and articles have offered real statistics about porn’s victims:
-Ruined marriages from addiction to print and Internet porn;
-Abuse and violence after viewing porn videos;
-Addiction to porn in magazines leading to visiting strip clubs and eventually adultery;
-Adult pornography leading to sexual exploitation of children and sex trafficking;
-Teens and children becoming addicted to porn found on parents’ and friends’ computers or in hidden magazines;
-Roughly 93% of boys and 61% of girls have seen online porn;
-Clergy and youth leaders unable to resist the temptation of porn films in hotel rooms;
-Soft porn working its way toward hard porn in major Hollywood films and TV soap operas (not just “B” videos).
(Visit the Morality in Media website linked above for evidence of these statements. Click on “Effects of Pornography” in the column at right side.)
One of the latest phenomena is that tweens and teens don’t see the harm in porn because “everyone’s posting nude pictures” on their cell phones. Michael Leahy, author of Porn Nation – Conquering America’s #1 Addiction and himself a one-time porn addict, calls pornography the “crack cocaine of sexual addiction.”
“Porn is protected by free speech” – myth becomes truth
The Supreme Court has ruled often that the First Amendment does not protect obscenity. But because today’s “politically correct” philosophy tells us that there are no absolute truths and nothing is right or wrong, good or bad, the subject of what is obscene has become relative. Laws are thrown out the window in favor of doing what feels good and allowing others to do so because we mustn’t appear judgmental.
Is all of porn’s harmful evidence falling on deaf ears where laws are concerned? Enforcement of U.S. Federal Obscenity Laws has long been declining in the name of free speech. Despite a 2005 Harris Poll showing 77% of American adults would support efforts to enforce federal obscenity laws, and in 2008 that 75% would support similarly, it still isn’t happening. There is stronger federal willingness to look into sex trafficking since it’s become such a huge, un-ignorable problem; but print and video pornography still isn’t getting much attention.
How can you help?
-Read some of the stories at the Victims of Pornography website.
-Participate in the WRAP campaign as an individual, or enlist your church or any other group to do so (get all instructions at the Morality in Media website under the first right-bar link “Wrap Campaign”).
-PRAY for victims of pornography and their families.
-PRAY for a miraculous downfall to the $100 billion porn industry.
-RESIST temptation and help your family to resist it. Study Matthew 6:13, 26:41; Luke 22:46, 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 1:2-3.
(This writer is not receiving any remuneration or compensation from organizations mentioned in this article.) | <urn:uuid:426a99cd-8833-47c7-9ca9-f3c80794eb41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theundergroundsite.com/2009/10/14/pornography-isnt-victimless-observe-wrap-week-10511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936186 | 860 | 1.835938 | 2 |
As you watch your toddler grow and anticipate his milestones, it's natural to wonder (and even worry) about whether his development is on track. ("Shouldn't he be waving by now?" or " His sister was using a spoon by this age — why isn't he?") But chances are that he'll develop just fine, on his own timeline.
In most instances, children reach each developmental milestone (like toilet training, climbing, and talking) right around the expected time, and if they don't they catch up soon. On the other hand, spotting potential problems sooner rather than later is important if your toddler does have a genuine developmental delay.
Doctors use this term when a child doesn't reach developmental milestones within the broad range of what's considered normal. The delay might be in one or more areas: gross and fine motor skills (such as walking and scribbling with a crayon); communication and language skills (both "receptive," which relates to understanding, as well as "expressive," which relates to speaking); self-help skills (like toilet training and dressing); and social skills (such as making eye contact and playing with others).
"It's important to remember that while development tends to unfold in a typical progression — most babies crawl before they walk, make sounds before they say their first word — children develop at different rates and in different ways," says Claire Lerner, child development specialist at Zero to Three, a national nonprofit promoting the healthy development of children.
So, for example, one 18-month-old may have very advanced motor skills because he loves to explore and interact through movement, but he may not have many words under his belt, while another toddler the same age may be stringing two words together but be less adept at motor skills. "What's most important to track is that the child is making forward progress in all domains," explains Lerner. | <urn:uuid:d5c044f1-a41e-41be-88b5-7daa17ef1e0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babycenter.com/0_could-my-toddler-have-a-developmental-delay_1615564.bc?intcmp=Nav_HP_Hero2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975173 | 383 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Trends for 2012: How Teen Social Media Behavior Will Impact Marketing Strategies
Teens today are growing up in a vastly different world than I did, due in large part to the emerging technologies that surround them. This young group knows no other world than one in which information is always at their fingertips; a world in which everyone is “connected.” It’s not surprising that they use the Web more than any other demographic – according to eMarketer 93% of 12-17 year olds are Internet users versus only 74% of the total U.S. population.
How teens interact with the social Web can be valuable indicators of future trends in social engagement and can give us some insight into what to expect in the new year and beyond. Their social behavior will be key to helping marketers inform social marketing and engagement strategies. The trend that stands out for me in 2012, and should be top of mind for marketers, is teens’ level of comfort with the transparency of the social Web. Unlike older generations, young teens are more willing to share information about their lives, their activities, and their whereabouts – regardless of whether it’s an active or passive action. With teens’ penchant for social sharing in mind, marketers must look to three technology developments to inform their marketing strategies for teens in the coming year: Facebook’s Open Graph and Timeline, mobile as an engagement channel and the rise of teen use of Twitter.
Embrace Open Graph and Timeline with Branded Apps
Facebook continues to be teens’ preferred social network and therefore it’s important for us to pay close attention to the recent changes made – open graph, ticker and timeline – and teens’ reactions to these changes. There has been a lot of discussion about the implementation of the Open Graph, which essentially makes sharing one’s activity on the social Web much more seamless; a more passive action. Judging by teens’ heightened comfort with this transparency (at least more than their older counterparts), marketers should consider embracing the open graph more seriously in the coming year. Don’t assume that teens are willing to share everything that you produce however, as they’ll still be selective in what they like, comment on, or share. So as I’ve said and will say time and time again – it’s all about producing quality, thought-provoking content if you want to get noticed.
The concept behind Facebook’s new open graph is that it makes it easier for teens to see what their friends are doing on the social Web, beyond just liking photos or commenting. And the Ticker feature acts as the broadcasting system for Open Graph. Through this real-time feed, users can see what music their friends are listening to, what articles they’re reading, what workout they just completed and soon much more. Brands should take this as motivation to create apps that encourage teens to share actions, like “listen,” “ran,” “read,” and hit that “approve” button to allow Facebook to broadcast how they’re using these new apps.
More sharing equals more engagement by current users and, more importantly, will encourage their friends to use the app with them. Start thinking about how these sharing actions can also be used in your own branded timelines to tell a larger story. For example, Xbox could create a branded app that allowed users to easily share which games they were playing, which levels they had reached, and when. Xbox could then incorporate that information into their Timeline to show larger trends in gaming and players’ game play habits. There will be a lot of potential here to feed this information back into the Ticker and Newsfeed spurring organic traffic.
Make Your Content Mobile-Friendly
Mobile social usage is on the rise and more than 350 million active users currently access Facebook through their mobile devices. Teenagers make up a huge percentage of that number. According to a survey conducted earlier this year by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, “Teen attitudes toward smartphones – and, in particular, those made by Apple – have never been stronger or more favorable.” And, based on the input from the 4,500 students surveyed, 37% of teens expressed plans to purchase an iPhone in the next six months.
So, what can marketers learn from this trend that we’re seeing in young teens? You must make your content suitable for mobile. For retail brands, ‘mobilizing’ your content should take into account mobile retail consumption, which has grown 74% in 2010 compared to 2009. Mobile marketing (location-based offers and coupons) and mobile commerce are two big opportunities for marketers to engage with teens in the upcoming year.
Other brands may be more suited to capitalize on the increase in mobile social network users. According to eMarketer, by 2016 the number of mobile social network users is expected to reach 1.7 billion users, a 210% increase from 2011. Marketers have to be aware of this growth and start building the foundation of an effective mobile social engagement strategy today. Deliver content that allows users to quickly consume and respond. This content should drive an emotional response, prompting users to react to content through liking or commenting, or even better, sharing with their friends. I told you’d I’d continue to come back to how content is really king!
Keep Your Eyes on Twitter
The last trend to keep on the radar is Twitter. While a recent study showed that only 16% of online teens used Twitter, it’s the growth that counts. Compared to 2009, this figure has more than doubled and we expect it to continue. In general, Twitter is an incredible source of real-time content consumption. For brands specifically, Twitter has the potential to become more than just a customer support tool. In December, Twitter launched brand pages allowing advertisers to create richer, more engaging, customized destination pages. We’ll be monitoring this development closely and so should you. | <urn:uuid:4051c429-a272-4cdb-908a-ef0943ec2ea4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/164658/trends-for-2012-how-teen-social-media-behavior-wi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940027 | 1,231 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The idea here is that all forms of matter and energy are always traveling at the speed of light. The computer in front of you, the coffee mug (if you have one), and all the other things around you are traveling with you in time. We are all going from an earlier time to a later time (perhaps it is going from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. right now!). The rate at which we are traveling through time is uniform and inexorable, it is the speed of light. We cannot reduce or advance its speed, nor can we fall behind or jump ahead to an earlier or later time. In the geometric diagram above, the horizontal axis is velocity in space, and the vertical axis is "velocity" in time. The time velocity is rationalized as in the Minkowski co-ordinates of four-dimensional geometry, where, in the drawing above, the vertical axis is cdt/d(tau) where tau is time in an inertial reference frame that measures time as an imaginary length representing a difference in time between some event and "now", but both at the same place. Here, as in many treatments, tau is the so-called "proper time", a number representing time as it might appear in a "history" relative to an arbitrary rest frame of reference. Proper time, tau is usually represented by the the Greek letter, tau, as in the diagram above. c is the speed of light. Numbers in the plane are real on the horizontal axis and complex elsewhere in the plane, with the units of i along the vertical axis where i is the "imaginary" number unit (the square root of minus one). Geometric measurements in the complex plane are seen a ordinary plane geometry. The idea that we are in "motion" through time is captured by the expression, cdt /d(tau) = c, representing a rate of the passage of time, which is always, c, the speed of light for stationary objects.
The vertical blue arrow along the vertical axis represents an object, such as a coffee mug, that has no spatial velocity with respect to us (i.e. no component along the horizontal axis). It is seen traveling at the speed of light through time (along with us).
The horizontal red arrow along the horizontal axis is a photon, traveling through space at the speed of light, but standing still in time with respect to us (i.e. it has no component along the vertical axis).
The diagonal green arrow is representative of an object moving at a high velocity, v, more than 80% of the speed of light, c, in space (on the horizontal axis) with respect to us. Green arrows can occur for real objects with a non-zero rest mass at any angle, alpha, greater than zero, up to and including 90 degrees. In principle, green arrows can point in any direction except, 0 and 180 degrees, the negative horizontal and vertical axes should be mirror images of their positive counterparts. Note that magnitude of the green arrow, including components on both axes, is also the speed of light, delimited by the circle in red, which terminates the green arrow.
Now, from simple geometry we find:
This treatment shows that the "beta" factor so commonly found in special relativity, can be easily derived with simple geometry.
Another possible significance is that an object in motion seems to rotate its velocity vector in space-time, maintaining a constant magnitude at the speed of light,c, as it changes velocity, v. A rotation in space-time is perfectly smooth with variations in velocity, except for transitions to the horizontal axis, where there seems to be a singularity. Changing a green arrow into a red arrow, and vice-versa, requires quantum-mechanical processes, usually accompanied by what appears to us as "violence" requiring collisions and high energy processes. When atomic particles collide, some of their their mass somehow turns into energy in the form of photons, and makes a [quantum?] jump to the horizontal axis. Likewise, there is experimental evidence that photons, for example, can be absorbed on various materials to form electron-positron pairs, showing that a [quantum?] process can rotate photons (red arrows) from the horizontal axis to objects at various angles on the diagram (green arrows). One can visualize that a small part of the mass of the fissionable material in a nuclear bomb at rest makes a sudden right angle turn from moving through time to moving through space in the form of photons and other light-speed items, such as neutrinos.
In gravitational fields and other accelerative processes, masses undergo smooth rotations in space-time as they change their velocity during free-fall. As an object approaches a black hole, however, the rotation of space-time must broach the singularity of the horizontal axis and mass cannot fall into it without acquiring apparently infinite energy, or waiting forever. It would appear that mass must be converted to photons before it can enter a black hole.
Speculation on space-time rotation phenomena might lead to alternative models in cosmology. Perhaps there is a cosmological rotation of space-time, each quarter-turn taking about 15 billion years. Perhaps the "big bang" is an illusion created by such a rotation, and both the Hubble red shift and the microwave relict radiation are residues of a process that moves long-distance photons into lower energy photons, perhaps "spinning off" thermal microwaves as the horizontal line in the diagram slowly rotates.
The idea that no material object can move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum meets with resistance in some alternative physics treatments. The idea presented here, however, places a much more stringent condition on the velocity of material objects. In the complex space of time and distance, the complex magnitude of the velocity of a material object can neither exceed nor be less than the speed of light in a vacuum. It can only equal the speed of light!
Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909), a German Professor of mathematics, born in Russia, developed a number system that seems appropriate for describing co-ordinates in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. In his approach, we may think of events in space-time that occur at a particular place and at a particular time. The place is defined by three ordinary x, y, and z, spatial co-ordinates, in some frame of reference, and the time is defined by an "imaginary" coordinate, ict, where i is the [imaginary] square root of minus 1, (-1); c is the speed of light, and t is time, measured in an arbitrary frame of reference.
If we think of an event as a flash bulb popping off at some place and time, this event can be described by four such numbers, x1, y1, z1, and ict1. If there is another flash bulb popping off in another place and time, x2, y2, z2, and ict2; we can define the "interval" between these two events by simple Pythagorean law. The interval is the square root of the sum of the squares of the "distances": x2 - x1, y2 - y1, z2 - z1, and ic (t2 - t1). Note that the "distance" ic (t2 - t1) is "imaginary" but is in units of distance. The product of a unit of velocity, such as the speed of light, c, and a unit of time, is a unit of distance. As an imaginary distance, however, its square will be a negative real number. Therefore, the interval between events in space-time is the square root of the sum of four terms, three of which are always positive, and one of which is always negative.
After selecting a common frame of reference, if the two flash bulbs flash at the same time, but in different places, the interval will be a positive real number. On the other hand, if both bulbs are in the same place, but flash at different times, the interval will be the square root of a negative real number, or an imaginary number. The interval between the two events is zero if the three positive terms equal the negative term. This is equivalent to saying that the interval between two events is zero if they can be connected by a beam of light. Suppose the second flashbulb was triggered to pop when it was struck by the light of the first bulb. Then they are said to flash simultaneously, because the interval between their flashes is zero.
In the Special Theory of Relativity, the interval between events is independent of the choice of the common reference frame in which the distances and time between the events is measured. We may select a reference frame that recognizes x = y = z = t = 0 where and when the first flash bulb pops. Then we can measure the values of x, y, z, and t when and where the second flash bulb pops. We can also orient the direction of the three spatial co-ordinates, so that the flash of the second bulb is along the x-direction, so that y = z = 0. In this reference frame the interval between the two flashes is then the square root of the sum of the values of x squared and - (ct) squared. The diagram above has reduced the spatial co-ordinates to one, in the x-direction, and shows the vertical axis as the imaginary time dimension. The field of the diagram is thus the conventional complex number field, and the red circle proscribes the velocity dependent nature of time (t) with respect to tau.
Since the interval between two events is the same in all inertial reference frames, it is known as an invariant. Thus, we can write: x^2 - c^2*t^2 = x'^2 - c^2*t'^2 = - c^2*(tau)^2, where tau is used for the time co-ordinate in a reference frame that places both events at the same place (i.e. x = 0. Using x^2 - c^2*t^2 = -c^2*(tau)^2, we may divide both sides of this equation by -c^2*(tau)^2 and replace (x / (tau))^2 by (x / t)^2*(t / (tau))^2, then use x / t = v, to get the expression t = (tau)(beta). This algebraic treatment was shown to me by Dr. Lester Seigel of Alexandria, VA. | <urn:uuid:1007a396-eeb4-4816-badb-a47ed5e4f703> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.concentric.net/~pvb/velocity.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95141 | 2,213 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Tagged: humanitarian aid
Ten leading aid agencies today called for a 'surge' in the humanitarian effort to help 10 million people at risk of acute hunger across the Sahel region of West and Central Africa.
Oxfam staff in Haiti are providing shovels and picks for local civil workers to clear rubble to search for trapped victims in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Oxfam will fly up to 10 tons of water, sanitation, health and shelter equipment, to Santa Domingo at 2pm Saturday UK time.
Oxfam was pleased to hear that the new US strategy for Afghanistan will support ministries and local leaders that deliver for the Afghan people and combat corruption, and that there will be more focused assistance on agriculture, as up to 80 percent of Afghans rely on agriculture to survive.
Aid agencies in Afghanistan call donors to meet the humanitarian needs of Afghans, outlined in a recently launched $870 million funding appeal.
The scenes from the floods and landslides that struck El Salvador last weekend reflect a storm of almost unbelievable intensity.
International agency Oxfam said today that it has had to double its aid effort in Pakistan as the number of displaced goes over 2 million, making the crisis the greatest internal displacement of people in the country’s history. | <urn:uuid:800435ea-bbd6-42cc-9779-b4230303e5d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oxfam.org/en/category/oxfam-general/humanitarian-aid?page=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938503 | 258 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The world’s first software company and the world’s first player violin
By Mike Hanlon
August 24, 2005
August 25, 2005 Prior to the advent of electronic mass media, the height of home entertainment technology was the player piano – a piano which played music encoded in binary format on perforated paper rolls. The company which became the dominant provider of both player pianos and the rolls they played is still in business today, and rightfully claims to be the world’s oldest software company. Interestingly, QRS (formerly Quality Roll Services) is now selling one of the most remarkable musical instruments in the world - the world’s first player violin, the QRS Virtuoso Violin. The QRS Virtuoso Violin is a real acoustic instrument. It produces sound by moving a bow across a string, just as a traditional violin does. Only in this case, bow and string are controlled by a computer chip rather than a human hand. Unlike the traditional violin, which has four strings, the Virtuoso Violin uses a single three-Inch steel "string-blade" to create sound. The bow, driven by motors and microchips in a box on which the violin is mounted, glides back and forth over this vibrating blade. The resulting sound rivals that of the traditional violin.
In these days of personal audio and video players, it’s hard to imagine that commercial radio has been with us for just 86 years, and that people born at the time of the first television commercial (1941) have not yet reached retirement age.
From the turn of the twentieth century to the coming of high-fidelity phonographs and electronic mass media, the height of home entertainment technology was the player piano – a piano which played music encoded on perforated paper rolls – the player piano was the first widely successful consumer device to encode its data in binary format.
Initially, as in the modern computer industry, there were many different methods for encoding and playing rolls before the industry finally settled into the logical best format and a standard roll size. The man who invented the standard roll size which encompassed all 88 notes was Melville Clark, whose company QRS was arguably the world’s first software company. The Apollo Player Piano of 1901 was the first to use the standard roll and the company still makes player piano software in this format to this day.
Punching rolls for the player piano required the creation of a master roll to serve as a pattern for the high-speed duplicating machines. For many years master rolls were created by hand-perforating from the original music score.
The main problem with music produced this way was the lack of artistic interpretation, resulting in a flat, lifeless sound. In 1912, Clark went one step further when he invented the Marking Piano which could record a “master roll” from live performances. The QRS Marking Piano was produced from 1912 to 1931, adding a human dimension to piano rolls.
With realistic performance possible on any player piano, sales took off and created the unmistakable sound of the music halls and the “Roaring Twenties”. Sales of player pianos peaked in the mid twenties, when over 10 million QRS rolls were sold and more player pianos were sold in America than normal pianos.
QRS today still has its factory in Buffalo and it still churns out the same quality piano rolls that gave it its name (Quality Roll Service) on machinery that is 105 years old and still operates flawlessly – they sure don’t make ‘em like that any more.
There are now over 7000 rolls (musical arrangements) in the catalogue and some of them are considered American national treasures, as the company still has the original recordings from the Marking Piano of Sergei Rachmaninov playing his own music and of George Gershwin himself playing “Rhapsody in Blue.” The master rolls have now been rejigged to play on the company’s current technology for its current range of player pianos.
The company prides itself in having made the world’s best player pianos for over 105 years and during the course of a dinner in the United States a few years ago the management got talking about the directions its technology was taking and came up with a challenge for the long-time collaborators Fred Paroutaud and Dr. Thomas Paine of Paroutaud Music Laboratories – to make a self-playing violin.
Paroutaud has written and orchestrated for such productions as Murder, She Wrote, Amazing Stories, Phantom of the Opera and The Gambler II. Tom Paine was administrator of NASA during the Apollo flights to the moon, vice president of General Electric and president of Northrop Corporation.
"We began working on the Virtuoso Violin in 1989, looking at how a violin string vibrates, and how a performer controls that vibration," Paroutaud recalls. "A violin plays different notes when the performer changes the length of a string by depressing his or her fingers on it, causing the string to vibrate at different rates. We didn't want to duplicate this action with solenoid fingers-they would be too cumbersome in an instrument as small as a violin. Instead, we developed an entirely new technology. As a result, the Violin is capable of an array of nuances, including glissandos and vibratos, that solenoids are not well-suited for."
Rather than trying to change string length, Paroutaud and Paine decided to electromagnetically drive a single string (or "string-blade") at different frequencies. As the frequencies changed, so did the resulting pitch played by the violin. This eliminated the need to change the string's length, resulting in a vastly simplified mechanism.
"People are just amazed the first time they see a violin 'playing itself,' making beautiful acoustic music without a person moving the bow across the string," said Dick Dolan, president of QRS Music. "Watching its bow glide across its 'strings' as if guided by an invisible hand is likely to be one of the more memorable images you'll ever see."
The resultant instrument is now called the Virtuoso Violin. This acoustic instrument produces sound by moving a bow across a violin, just as a traditional instrument does, but human hands never touch either the bow or instrument; instead both are controlled completely by a built-in micro-controller circuit. QRS has prepared this brief comparison of how the Virtuoso Violin compares to a real violin.
The unique, patented technology and rich, acoustic sound of the Virtuoso Violin make it the perfect complement to QRS's Pianomation system, a computer-controlled "self-playing" piano featured at Hollywood's famed Magic Castle. The Virtuoso Violin, a finely crafted instrument capable of achieving the full range of notes produced by an acoustical violin, can play independently or can perform duets with the piano.
The QRS Pianomation system can turn any piano into a reproducing player piano. A patented hardware and software process can store and transport Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) information as an analog signal. This process gives QRS the ability to store, and wirelessly transmit, MIDI performance data in an analog format from a controller (CD, video, cassette, DAT or Minidisc) to the receiver on the piano.
This creates numerous possibilities. For example, most off-the-shelf audio equipment has a left and right channel available for use. State-of-the-art technology permits QRS to store the digital signal in an analog format on the left channel of the software which operates those players. This leaves the right channel available for live prerecorded audio music, even vocal recordings. Pianomation blends them together in perfect harmony and synchronisation. The Pianomation MIDI System is the first product of its kind to "marry" analog and digital technology.
The only virtuoso violin in the southern hemisphere is currently on show at the QRS Music Darling Street showroom in Sydney. And finally, Fred Paroutaud, like his ex-NASA business partner, has many facets, not the least of which is a love of motoring. Fred recently wrote a report on the Ferrari Breadvan for the Robb Report and published his own report on the Concorso Italiano held last weekend in California.
Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below
For multiple addresses, separate each with a comma | <urn:uuid:fa936c41-6264-4cea-911e-7cad2b2d1155> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gizmag.com/go/4487/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955981 | 1,760 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Last year I made a PowerPoint presentation in response to Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, ‘Slaughterhouse Five’. This was to introduce Grade 11 students to the concept of forming a key focus in response to a summer reading book.
I recently revisited the above presentation, which was saved on SlideShare and embedded in my school blog. Upon viewing it again I wryly reflected on the discrepancy between content and form: here I was, focusing on an author’s unconventional use of style and structure, without much thought to my own. Why take a linear approach to a novel which uses the very opposite structure?
So, after viewing the tutorials, signing up and having an evening of experimentation, here’s the change – from PowerPoint to Prezi:
I have yet to share the presentation with my students, so it will be interesting to see their reactions. My own analysis is that by reshaping the presentation, my choice of tool affected its content. By reconsidering the way in which I would present, I naturally sought to simplify, and thus changed its focus to be solely on Vonnegut’s unconventional structure. This then led to one of the most discussed parts of the novel, where he writes of a war movie that the protagonist sees in reverse. Appropriate to the filmic focus, Vonnegut creates a series of vivid images, all moving backwards. It therefore seemed apt to incorporate moving image corresponding to this. The flexibility of Prezi’s form allowed for much experimentation and creation; I uploaded self-created images and also used its search tool to add an image of stars and space.
So, perhaps not rethinking the design of my presentation within the framework of PowerPoint* but instead a rethinking of content and style in the unknown territory of Prezi. After laughing helplessly through Don McMillan’s Life After Death By PowerPoint, I hope he would approve. | <urn:uuid:201d3f9c-5b9b-4b5b-ac23-66f892c8403c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coetail.com/coxm/2012/02/24/rethinking-time-and-space/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955117 | 394 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The Historical Society of the New York Courts has launched its new web site!
The New Society Homepage
Visitors to the Society's new website will find an easy and informative way to access a large store of information about New York's rich legal history legacy in formats that have been carefully curated for the convenience of its visitors and with an eye to providing a historical sense of the movement of our body of laws, courts, judges and lawyers through the decades, since the colonization of New York by the Dutch in 1625.
The newly created content found in New York Legal History contains many opportunities to learn about and enjoy our amazing past. We invite you to explore.
- The Bench & the Bar contains in-depth biographical information on New York's judges
- Legal History By Era (under construction): will explore the leading cases, figures and significant events about the periods of our past. One such slice of time, New York Under English Rule 1674-1776, is completed and available for viewing.
- The Rule of Law (under construction) will provide information on our important documents; the roles of judges, lawyers, juries, and the press; and the continuing importance of the Rule of Law, in thoughtful and provocative ways. Charter & Constitutions is now available for viewing here.
- Oral Histories We are presently compiling the oral histories of leading judges and lawyers and plan to make transcripts available in the coming years.
- Courthouse Design an opportunity to explore the beauty and functionality of our courthouses around the State. This too is a work-in-progress.
The new Academic Center is intended to provide materials to students and educators. It presents content that has been developed in connection with the Society's collaboration with educators. It also showcases the Society's annual David A. Garfinkel Essay Contest available to CUNY & SUNY community college students.
About the Society provides information about the Historical Society of the New York Courts, and Programs & Publications showcases in wonderful formats our calendars, journal, and books published over the years. It also contains content on all of the Society's programs presented to the public over the years, including, in most cases, webcasts that can be easily viewed. We hope you will explore and thoroughly enjoy this section.
We hope you enjoy visiting the site and will return often. We invite suggestions for adding materials and images, and hope this will be an interactive and ongoing project.
Marilyn Marcus, Executive Director | <urn:uuid:90a2d2e4-dc15-49fd-ac7d-69fa93fd7e83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew/history-promo.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930324 | 505 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Last week the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released their 2006 Annual Report, which provides some interesting information to outside observers of the radical Islamic front group. Back in February, I noted in an article here at FrontPage, “Numbers Don’t Lie”, that despite CAIR’s claims to be “the largest Islamic civil rights organization in America”, the facts hardly match their propaganda. In that article I wrote:
An inspection of CAIR’s most recent publicly available IRS Form 990 (2004) shows for that year they received $119,029 in membership dues for that year (line 3). But at $25 per membership (the current rate is $35), that would mean that in 2004, CAIR only had 4,761 dues-paying members – less than 5,000 members out of 8 million Muslims in America. This would mean that CAIR only represents 1 out of every 1,680 Muslims. Even if a lower 6 million Muslim population figure were assumed, CAIR would still only be able to claim representation for 1 out of every 1,260 Muslims for that year.
But their new 2006 Annual Report and their recently posted 2005 IRS Form 990 shows that CAIR continues to hemorrhage members. Whereas my estimates for 2004 showed that based on their membership receipts in that period they had approximately 4,761 dues-paying members, in 2005 their membership plummeted dramatically to an estimated 2,615. This puts CAIR on the same comparative membership level as the American Indian Kaw Nation in Kansas, the Cleveland Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, the Society for News Design, the University of Texas Longhorn Alumni Band, and the South Dakota chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), none of whom are consulted near as frequently by Beltway politicians or sought after for comment by the media establishment as CAIR.
The steep decline in CAIR membership is directly correlated in membership receipts (line 3 of the Form 990), which dropped off from $119,029 in 2004 to $65,377 – a decrease of $53,652, or almost half (45 percent) of the previous year’s membership revenues. If this trend continues at the same pace, their 2006 Form 990 numbers will show $29,419 in membership revenues, representing only 1,177 members, roughly comparable to the membership of the Genealogical Society of Rockingham County, Virginia and the Garden Club of Tacoma, Washington – neither of which has a Washington DC lobbying office.
Another startling statistic drawn from CAIR’s 2006 Annual Report (page 23, “CAIR Financial Activity Report”) is that the organization, which lists its mission as “civil rights and advocacy”, only commits 9 percent of program services to civil rights and 10 percent to government affairs – less than one-fifth of their program expenditures. With $1,891,290 spent on program services, this means that only $359,345 (19 percent) was spent on its core mission, $135,013 less than what was spent on fundraising and events by the group ($494,358).
In another bizarre twist, CAIR also reports (page 23) that 7 percent of its program service expenditures ($132,390) were spent on their membership; yet by its own admission, it only collected $58,750 in membership dues for that period, a net loss of $73,640.
To its credit, CAIR’s IRS Form 990s report that they do make money on their annual fundraising banquets, but just barely. At their 10th Annual Fundraising Banquet in 2004, the event grossed $170,389 in contributions and banquet fees, but paid out $152,917 in expenses, meaning that the group raised a mere $17,472 from the event. In 2005, their annual fundraiser grossed $132,421, almost one-quarter less (23 percent) than the year before, but only had $106,979 in expenses, netting the group $25,442 in funds raised during the event. The drop in membership may be responsible for the drop attendance at the fundraisers: in 2004, more than 1,100 people showed up at the event; by 2006, the annual report states that only around 1,000 attendees were present.
Since representatives from CAIR have identified their organization as “the Islamic NAACP”, a comparison between CAIR and the NAACP might be helpful. In the same period (2005) that CAIR brought in $65,377 in membership revenue purporting to represent 7 million Muslims, the NAACP received $3.317 million from a population of approximately 40 million African-Americans. Even after adjusting for the population size differences between the two, CAIR’s membership footprint amongst their constituency is still is only one-tenth that of the NAACP. CAIR, you are no NAACP.
Also seen in the 2004 and 2005 IRS Form 990s is that direct contributions to the organization (line 1) also saw a sharp decline, dropping from $2,166,270 in 2004 to $1,667,057 in 2005, losing almost one-quarter (23 percent) of their contributions from the previous year.
CAIR supporters might note that those reports indicate an increase of $332,871 in spending on program services (line 13) – a leap of almost one-quarter from the previous year (24.1 percent) – but that number was achieved only by shifting $335,465 from management and general expenses (line 14) between years. Meanwhile, fundraising expenses (line 15) more than doubled, from $262,914 in 2004 to $535,555 in 2005 (a $272,641 increase).
The grim portrait painted by this new financial information shows not only an organization in dire crisis, but also a stark contrast to CAIR’s public rhetoric. Even though it still claims to represent “the interests of more than seven million American Muslims”, in fact, its supporters in the American Muslim community are barely a handful. And its footprint amongst that community is shrinking rapidly. Based on my membership estimates, we find that CAIR actually only represents 1 out of every 2,676 Muslims in the most recent period that information is available, as opposed to 1 in every 1,680 the year before.
Paradoxically, at the very moment that their representation amongst their own constituency is plummeting, CAIR’s stock among political and the media establishment continues to climb. If Wall Street rules applied to K Street, someone would be in jail for inflating their stock. Policymakers and pundits alike would do well to look at CAIR by the numbers rather than by their noise. What they would discover is that American Muslims are abandoning CAIR en masse, and the numbers still don’t lie.
Click Here to support Frontpagemag.com. | <urn:uuid:e8bd12e8-96f9-4078-a137-b77b57524b46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=26641 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968755 | 1,430 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Teacher Education program at Georgetown College produces outstanding teachers who make a difference in Kentucky schools. The information below is but a snapshot of some of the measures that are widely used by education departments around the nation to measure program success. These measures of success include graduation rates, pass rates for state licensure exams, job placement and retention rates, and student and employer satisfaction information. Please let us know if we can provide you with additional information about our program success.
- State licensure exams
- Employer and alumni surveys
- Employer Survey
This survey is sent to the principals of the school where our graduates teach.
- Alumni Survey
This survey is sent to our recent graduates.
- New Teacher Survey*
The state surveys student teachers and new teacher interns (KTIP), along with their cooperating (student teachers) and supervising (KTIP) teachers.
- Average GPAs of program completers
- Retention rates
- Retention in the teaching field*
This report, produced by the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB), shows the number of initial program completers who receive their certification. If the candidate receives a professional certificate, this means that he or she was hired and completed the state internship (KTIP) requirement for certification.
- Origin of Current Students
A map showing the number of Education students from each Kentucky county and the total number of students from outside Kentucky.
* This report is produced and maintained by the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board. The data reported are for initial certification programs only. | <urn:uuid:cc7b4071-8739-4ee4-b0e0-93d800708d34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/education/success/ | 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 | 0.941681 | 313 | 2.09375 | 2 |
The holiday season brings many joys and, unfortunately, many countervailing dietary pitfalls. Even the fittest and most disciplined of us can succumb, indulging in more fat and calories than at any other time of the year. The health consequences, if the behavior is unchecked, can be swift and worrying. A recent study by scientists in Australia found that after only three days, an extremely high-fat, high-calorie diet can lead to increased blood sugar and insulin resistance, potentially increasing the risk for Type 2 diabetes. Waistlines also can expand at this time of year, prompting self-recrimination and unrealistic New Year’s resolutions.
But a new study published in The Journal of Physiology suggests a more reliable and far simpler response. Run or bicycle before breakfast. Exercising in the morning, before eating, the study results show, seems to significantly lessen the ill effects of holiday Bacchanalias.
For the study, researchers in Belgium recruited 28 healthy, active young men and began stuffing them with a truly lousy diet, composed of 50 percent fat and 30 percent more calories, overall, than the men had been consuming. Some of the men agreed not to exercise during the experiment. The rest were assigned to one of two exercise groups. The groups’ regimens were identical and exhausting. The men worked out four times a week in the mornings, running and cycling at a strenuous intensity. Two of the sessions lasted 90 minutes, the others, an hour. All of the workouts were supervised, so the energy expenditure of the two groups was identical.
Their early-morning routines, however, were not. One of the groups ate a hefty, carbohydrate-rich breakfast before exercising and continued to ingest carbohydrates, in the form of something like a sports drink, throughout their workouts. The second group worked out without eating first and drank only water during the training. They made up for their abstinence with breakfast later that morning, comparable in calories to the other group’s trencherman portions.
The experiment lasted for six weeks. At the end, the nonexercising group was, to no one’s surprise, super-sized, having packed on an average of more than six pounds. They had also developed insulin resistance — their muscles were no longer responding well to insulin and weren’t pulling sugar (or, more technically, glucose) out of the bloodstream efficiently — and they had begun storing extra fat within and between their muscle cells. Both insulin resistance and fat-marbled muscles are metabolically unhealthy conditions that can be precursors of diabetes.
The men who ate breakfast before exercising gained weight, too, although only about half as much as the control group. Like those sedentary big eaters, however, they had become more insulin-resistant and were storing a greater amount of fat in their muscles.
Only the group that exercised before breakfast gained almost no weight and showed no signs of insulin resistance. They also burned the fat they were taking in more efficiently. “Our current data,” the study’s authors wrote, “indicate that exercise training in the fasted state is more effective than exercise in the carbohydrate-fed state to stimulate glucose tolerance despite a hypercaloric high-fat diet.”
Just how exercising before breakfast blunts the deleterious effects of overindulging is not completely understood, although this study points toward several intriguing explanations. For one, as has been known for some time, exercising in a fasted state (usually possible only before breakfast), coaxes the body to burn a greater percentage of fat for fuel during vigorous exercise, instead of relying primarily on carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you obviously don’t store it in your muscles. In “our study, only the fasted group demonstrated beneficial metabolic adaptations, which eventually may enhance oxidative fatty acid turnover,” said Peter Hespel, Ph.D., a professor in the Research Center for Exercise and Health at Catholic University Leuven in Belgium and senior author of the study.
At the same time, the fasting group showed increased levels of a muscle protein that “is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transport in muscle and thus plays a pivotal role in regulation of insulin sensitivity,” Dr Hespel said.
In other words, working out before breakfast directly combated the two most detrimental effects of eating a high-fat, high-calorie diet. It also helped the men avoid gaining weight.
There are caveats, of course. Exercising on an empty stomach is unlikely to improve your performance during that workout. Carbohydrates are easier for working muscles to access and burn for energy than fat, which is why athletes typically eat a high-carbohydrate diet. The researchers also don’t know whether the same benefits will accrue if you exercise at a more leisurely pace and for less time than in this study, although, according to Leonie Heilbronn, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who has extensively studied the effects of high-fat diets and wrote a commentary about the Belgian study, “I would predict low intensity is better than nothing.”
So, unpleasant as the prospect may be, set your alarm after the next Christmas party to wake you early enough that you can run before sitting down to breakfast. “I would recommend this,” Dr. Heilbronn concluded, “as a way of combating Christmas” and those insidiously delectable cookies. | <urn:uuid:f8e1875f-1999-4ec9-8809-0af1f3e23cc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/phys-ed-the-benefits-of-exercising-before-breakfast/?emc=rss&apage=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968035 | 1,132 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Cryptome repeats a US Dept of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration report on a security breach at a LNG facility in Lynn, MA, USA., which well displays the human capacity to ignore machines, and indeed everything around them.
The report says:
"A recent breach in security at an LNG facility shows the need for preparedness and vigilance. The operator discovered a breach of security at its LNG facility during routine maintenance on a gate at the side of the storage tank. Although there was no damage to the tank, intruders had broken through the gate to gain access to the tank.
Investigation revealed that the intruders had cut through the outer and inner perimeter fences and through the locked gate and gained access to the storage tank several days before the breach was discovered. A microwave intrusion system documented the intrusions on the computer monitoring system, which should have alerted operator personnel to the intrusions. Operator personnel did not respond. In the days following, personnel conducted several routine visual inspections of the area without noting the cuts in the fences. Although there was also video surveillance of the perimeter, personnel did not review the tape until they investigated the breach."
I go back to my earlier post about the ability of users to handle large amounts of data.
There's a growing discontent with agencies which collect huge amount of data apparently for its own sake: Financial Cryptography cites the example of the DHS monitoring of air travellers (ATS) which continues despite apparently being ruled illegal. Spokespersons say:
"If (the ATS programme) catches one potential terrorist, this is a success."
It's always easier to say this sort of thing and put out another contract for software with magic buzzwords (Bayesian, neural, etc.) than to actually think how to allocate resources sensibly and balance conflicting interests.
But the information, if it is of any use anyway, has to be used, and ultimately that comes down to some human, somewhere. And the more data you collect, the more people have to look at. Otherwise you get bad results: eg the US military fires off 250,000 rounds per insurgent killed, and still (in effect) loses the war. Or the LNG plant operators, secure behind microwave alarms and CCTV, accidentally discover they've been burgled.
As FC says: "There's no feedback loop, no profit signal, no way to cull out the loss-making programmes. The only success criteria is in the minds of the people who are running the show."
There is a feedback loop for the LNG plant operators, who appear to be a Belgian company anyway. They get hauled up before the US authorities, and as the DHS press release says:
"State authorities responded quickly to examine security at other LNG facilities in the state. These authorities inspected operator practices and procedures to ensure personnel and systems respond correctly during a security breach."
So that's all right, then: DHS are in charge now.
Seriously. This is not a post about human rights, or security policy, or US wars. (The US is not alone here, just more technologically equipped to make massively - multiplayer mistakes.)
It's just about common sense, that old-fashioned thing some people once used to have. I expect any day now to hear that the DHS is about to issue a 15 year $2.1 billion contract to General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, BAe and L3 to simulate common sense, in order to solve the problem once and for all. | <urn:uuid:90381e6a-bb14-4402-b2b5-dfb546888fa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simulation.cc/more.php?id=A351_0_1_0_M | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949343 | 710 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Mary G. Sorci-Thomas, PhD
My lab group has been interested in elucidating the role that high density lipoprotein (HDL) apo A-I plays in preventing coronary heart disease. Studies have shown that plasma HDL apo A-I plays a "protective function" and mitigates the effects of high levels of atherogenic lipoproteins through its ability to accept, organize and transport cholesterol out of the artery wall to the liver for uptake and excretion into bile. This "reverse cholesterol transport pathway" is highly dependent upon apo A-I's ability to bind lipids and form nascent HDL particles that circulate in plasma. If concentrations of HDL apo A-I particles are low or if their uptake by the liver is reduced or blocked, then increased plasma cholesterol levels can trigger an inflammatory responses leading to heart disease and stroke.
Interrelationship Between Autoimmunity and Atherosclerosis
One ongoing project in my lab has been to investigate the role of HDL apo A-I concentrations in reducing the development of autoimmunity and atherosclerosis. Since the immune system is a complex system with multiple layers of regulation to prevent reactions against self-antigens, or autoimmune disorders, it is possible that accumulation of cholesterol may alter cellular function to a point at which peripheral self-tolerance is lost. We have been particularly interested in the role of T cell activation and effector T cell response in autoimmunity and atherosclerosis. HDL apo A-I appears to be linked to autoimmunity, since individuals with decreased levels of HDL apo A-I are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. In hypercholesterolemic mice lacking HDL apo A-I an autoimmune phenotype develops in response to the consumption of a cholesterol containing diet. These mice show heightened lymph node immune cell activation, proliferation and severe skin lesions. Interestingly these mice also show an increased population of T regulatory cells which are designed to modulate T cell activation. These results suggest that the Treg response under low HDL apo A-I conditions may lead to defective regulation of tolerance in these mice. A cartoon of this hypothesis is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Autoimmunity and the Activation of Peripheral T Cells and their Impact on the Progression of Atherosclerosis. Recent studies have shown that the adaptive immune system is involved in the development of atherosclerosis. One model involves the entry of LDL into tissue where it can be modified or oxidized, termed (OxLDL). Ox LDL may act as candidate antigens in peripheral tissue, such as skin (left panel) as well as in the vasculature (right panel). The exact location of initial antigen presentation is atherosclerosis is not known, but macrophages and DCs acquire and process antigens for presentation (APC) to T cells in peripheral lymph nodes. Continuous trafficking of immune cells between the inflamed artery and the lymph node may be necessary to mount an adaptive immune response. DC maturation by self-altered molecules may be regulated by T regulatory cells (Treg) that suppress immune activation and maintain tolerance. In some cases, Tregs do not suppress APC activation leading to mature APC and a pathogenic immune response which can induce either a Th1 or Th2 pathogenic responses.
Formation of Nascent HDL
Another important area of research currently being studied in my lab concerns the formation of nascent HDL (nHDL) apo A-I particles. Since the concentration of HDL apo A-I varies greatly within the human population we are interested in determining the mechanism explaining how nascent HDL particles are formed. One approach we are using is to investigate the composition of the particles formed following the interaction between apo A-I and the ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) which transports cholesterol out of the cell onto the outer leaflet of the cellular membrane. To our surprise we have found that the lipid compositions of nHDL as determined by LC-MS/MS contain a large amount of sphingomyelin and suggest that lipid rafts may significantly contribute to the ABCA1 mediated formation of newly formed nascent HDL apo A-I particles. In addition, we are also using mass spectrometry techniques to determine the conformation of apo A-I on this small lipid containing particles. These molecular studies are useful in solving the structure of lipid bound proteins which are responsible for activating important plasma enzymes such as the lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Molecular Models Depicting the Activation of Lecithin:Cholesterol Acyltransferase (LCAT) by High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Apo A-I. Molecular models of the plasma enzyme LCAT (yellow atoms) and the lipoprotein HDL containing two molecules of apo A-I (green, orange, white and purple atoms) are shown before docking at helix 6 of one monomer of apo A-I (purple atoms). Helix 6 residues of apo A-I correspond to amino acids #143-164, shown in purple, flanked by helices 5 and 7, shown in orange, while all other apo A-I amino acids are shown in green. The LCAT region corresponding to amino acids #121 to 136, has been highlighted with blue atoms and indicates where LCAT binds HDL (blue arrow points to this region). The model of LCAT contains amino acids #9 through 420 of the pro-form of LCAT and is available at ModBase (http://modbase.compbio.ucsf.edu) with the primary database link P04180. The structure was rendered with MacPyMOL (http://www.pymol.org).
Link to PubMed Database | <urn:uuid:1c4e2121-7d4b-4b15-b4b8-9a7b16ed45c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wakehealth.edu/Research/Lipid-Science/Mary-G--Sorci-Thomas,-PhD.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908232 | 1,222 | 2.125 | 2 |
The Goddess Tara
The Goddess Tara, in the form we know Her, is first found in early Hinduism and later made the transition to Tibetan Buddhism. She is believed to be the most ancient form of Dea still worshipped today.
The Goddess Tara is by far the most popular deity in the Tibetan pantheon: so much so that some have suggested that Tibetan Buddhism should be called Taraism. She is worshipped throughout Tibet, Nepal and much of South-East Asia. She is less known in China and Japan, but in those areas the closely-related Quan Yin (Japanese Kannon) takes Her place.
Her Name means "star", and she is said to have been born from the water, like Aphrodite. Thus her iconography may be related to that of Mary, who is called Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) and foam-born Venus/Aphrodite who is represented by the Morning/Evening Star, Venus.
Not only is Aphrodite connected by scholars with Ishtar and Astarte, but some have linked these names etymologically with the name of the Goddess Tara.
What we have here is clearly a very fundamental symbolic - and probably linguistic - matrix of iconography related to the very earliest worship of Our Mother God, which yet remains in continuous practice through the worship of the Goddess Tara, the Bodhisattwa Kuan Yin and, in the West, the officially non-Divine Mary, Who nonetheless manifests all the symbology of the Mother-Creatrix.
Goddess Tara continues after break
Other occurrences of the name Tara have been noted, including the Taramata (Mother Tara) Festival held in ancient Athens and even Tar, the Woman of Wisdom in ancient Finnish mythology. Goddesses of similar name and star-association have also been noted in Africa and the ancient Americas.
With such a widespread and ancient cultus we are clearly dealing with associations that go further back than any established historical or linguistic connexions and cannot look to modern scholarship to confirm all of them, particularly the extra-Eurasian occurrences.
But great ancientness seems to be very much associated with the Goddess Tara. The Finnish Tar is said to be five million years old, while in the early Sanskrit tradition Tara (the noun "tara" means to this day "star" in all Sanskrit-based languages) was also called Dhruva, the Pole Star. Now Polar Symbolism is known to characterise the early Ages of the Historical Cycle, having very anciently taken priority even over the Solar Symbolism of more recent world-eras, both matriarchal and patriarchal.
Thus the Tara/Astarte-Aphrodite/Mary Form of Dea appears to have a continuity from the very remotest Ages of human history.
On the identity of the Goddess Tara with Mary, no less a traditional patriarchal authority than the Dalai Lama has made an authoritative statement. Speaking of rangjung - the miraculous appearance of images of the Goddess Tara out of living rock - and similar phenomena connected with the Virgin Mary, His Holiness said: "Yes, this would be rangjung, the same thing as we have been talking about, of course, the same thing" and again: "Yes, Tara and Mary create a good bridge. This is a good direction to go in."
For the Déanist wishing to worship Our Mother God outside the context of patriarchal religion, the Goddess Tara makes a valuable point of approach, connecting living Western iconography as preserved in devotion to Mary with living Eastern iconography, both of Tara and Kuan Yin, and of the Great Hindu figure of the lotus-throned Mother Goddess.
The Tibetan/Nepalese figure of the Goddess Tara has a providential centrality, lying at the nexus between the Indo-European and East Asian worlds both geographically and culturally. Her connexion with Quan Yin to the East is undisputed, and H.H. the Dalai Lama has authorised a Virgin Mary Purity meditation for those seeking to assimilate White Tara to Lady Mary.
We regard this as important, not because we place ourselves under patriarchal authority, but because we are well aware that an incautious modern Western-style syncretism, which ties together images from various traditions with a variety of notions, gleaned from western political ideology, individualist psychology and popular "science", can be at best futile and at worst dangerous.
We wish, and determine, to worship the One Eternal Dea as She was worshipped from the beginning; but we must also be humble enough to realise that we do not possess a living tradition and to proceed with caution, reverence and humility, leaving our modern Western notions - our noisy rebellions, superstitious awe of material "science" and individualist pride - firmly outside the door of the Temple [see further discussion on this].
That an incarnate representative of Dea - even in a patriarchal stream - should confirm and underwrite the identity of the Goddess Tara with the Western image of Mary allows us to be confident that we have here a living ritual actuality that goes back to the deepest roots of the Mother Religion. This is something far deeper and more trustworthy than the glib syncretism of Western "New Age" thought.
Further, the cultus of the Goddess Tara is formally open to non-initiates. Various Tibetan authorities have confirmed that while most practices require the authorisation of a guru, the central Tara Ritual Praises and Requests to the Twenty-One Taras may be freely practised by any devotee anywhere. This would presumably extend to the use of the Mantra at the core of this Ritual:
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SWAHAWe are not recommending the adoption of the Buddhist path. We are, and have always been, pure devotees of Our Mother God. We are also humble enough to recognise our lack of a living tradition in this world and to realise that spiritual practices and influences do require living transmission.
That is why, while we consider ancient Goddesses from no-longer-living traditions to be important for purposes of comparison and understanding of our religious roots, we always recommend the use of images from living traditions for actual devotion.
Images of Mahalakshmi, Quan Yin, Lady Mary and the Goddess Tara do not involve the adoption of Hindu, Buddhist or Christian doctrine, but they do allow us to connect ourselves to living and current streams of Our Mother's Grace.
The assimilation of White Tara to Lady Mary, sanctioned by the H.H. the Dalai Lama, clearly allows for a devotion that is not strictly Buddhist nor doctrinally Christian, but which draws on the profoundly ancient iconography common to both, which goes back to the very roots of the Mother Religion.
Our greatest trust of all is in the infinite love and compassion of Our Mother God to accept her lost little children who wish to return to Her, even though we have no living tradition, no authentic ritual method, no authorised succession of priesthood.
We have come to her with a simple "protestant" style of devotion, not pretending to efficacious or sacramental rituals, which can only be transmitted by an authentic disciplic succession. The succession of the Children of Dea was broken long ago, and modern claimants to such a succession bear the all-too-clear stamps of a very modern and very Western origin.
While we strive for all the wisdom we can, we must put our faith in simple bhakti the pure love of Our Mother God and trust in Her love for us.
At the same time, the emergence of rangjung - perfect appearances of the Goddess Tara from the living rock, and similar phenomena related to Lady Mary, and the even-patriarchally-authorised assimilation of the two is surely an Act of Divine Compassion taking place in this very generation.
We have turned in prayer to Our Lady, and, like a loving Mother, She has reached down to take our hand.
More pages about the Goddess TaraWhite Tara and Green Tara: Two Streams of Divine Love
Rangjung: Self-emerging images of the Goddess Tara and Lady Mary
Goddess Images: On the use of Sacred Images for devotion.
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The Feminine Universe
The Other Philosophy
Everything you have ever heard comes out of the patriarchal world-view. Its materialism, its religion, even its feminism. Here is the other way of seeing the world; the natural way: the way that everyone saw things before patriarchy and will again when patriarchy is long forgotten.
Goldenhead: or Bodies and Avatars
"They say your imaginary friends aren't your real friends.But who stands by you when you lose your physical body?"
Did you have imaginary friends? Live in imaginary worlds? Were you sure they were really imaginary? Of course you weren't. Goldenhead crosses the barrier between the "real world" and the world they told her was just her "imagination". She meets the friends she dreamed, and finds that some of them thought they were dreaming her.
Goldenhead is an all-girl novel of courage and adventure, of love and friendship, of the eternal battle between light and darkness. It is a book for everyone who feels out of place in this world. | <urn:uuid:f452a2a6-b3f7-4c1f-9b0b-91556891b393> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mother-god.com/goddess-tara.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938292 | 2,020 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Chicago’s Cook County juvenile court sent nearly 400 fewer youths to state prisons between 1997 and 2004 because they were referred instead to community-based support services, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Each year more than 200,000 young people become involved in the juvenile justice system in Illinois. Most of them have not committed violent crimes, but once they are in the system, many will become more deeply involved. Through the Models for Change initiative, MacArthur supports efforts to explore informal, community-based mechanisms as an alternative to juvenile court for some offenders. One such project, the Community Justice Youth Institute, operates in seven of Chicago’s most disadvantaged communities. Since its launch in 1997, 85 percent of the young offenders entering the program have had no further juvenile court contact. In contrast, the recidivism rate for youth processed through juvenile court is around 60 percent. | <urn:uuid:cd5af5ec-66c8-4b89-808f-c319ad34741c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macfound.org/press/from-field/drop-number-illinois-youth-sent-prison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96404 | 180 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Bronze medallion 1 3/8" diameter with a design of a female figure at the center with her right foot placed on a war god's helmet. There is a sun behind the helmet with multiple rays radiating out. Looking as though she has just broken a sword over her right knee, she holds the half of a broken sword in her right hand, and the broken blade in her left hand. At center is a palm branch above which is the inscription. Ribbon--At center is a wide red strip flanked by a thin white stripe. The ribbon is then edged with the double rainbow of the WWI Victory medal having a red center and butting up to the thin white stripe and both outside edges of the ribbon with purple. | <urn:uuid:24bad974-f182-43eb-b580-9b0182d81d80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15040coll3/id/451/rec/443 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957852 | 148 | 1.625 | 2 |
Roll Your Own Wiki With Open Source MoinMoin
At a Glance
If you've ever wanted to roll your own wiki and are not intimidated by having to deal with some of the technical underpinnings that come with an industrial-strength wiki solution, you might want to take a look at MoinMoin. This open source, Python-based wiki features revision tracking, wiki formatting, data import and export, and more.
Installing MoinMoin is not difficult: I already happened to have the Python scripting language installed, so I just unpacked the MoinMoin archive and ran wikiserver.py. That was it: MoinMoin started, and I was able to access it on http://localhost:8080 less than a minute after downloading it. (That said, anyone who thinks Python is just a snake or a bunch of funny Englishmen might have a harder time.) The console window remains open as long as MoinMoin is running, displaying a Matrix-esque stream of logging information showing exactly what's going on in your wiki. If it gets in the way, you can always minimize it to your system tray using Minime.
While MoinMoin is powerful and extensively documented, there's not a lot of hand-holding: The system assumes you already know what you're doing. For starters, MoinMoin is available only as a tar.gz archive, so you'll have to use an application like 7-zip or Total Commander to extract it. After I got it up and running, I promptly locked myself out of the main page: I tested the page import/export functionality by exporting the Features page from the official MoinMoin wiki and importing it into my own local instance. Sadly, I didn't notice the original page had an ACL (access control list) directive at the top, which made it editable only by the MoinCoreTeamGroup user group (that didn't even exist on my local wiki). MoinMoin gave me no warnings, imported the page smoothly, and that was that. I was stuck with a completely static home page that I couldn't edit or revert in any way.
Fortunately, pages are stored in plain text: I ended up having to dig into the directory tree manually (using trusty Total Commander) and remove the offending page. I then restarted MoinMoin and reimported the page, this time sans the offending ACL line. Problem solved: I was now able to edit the page.
Like most serious wikis, MoinMoin automatically saves page revisions. You can easily compare revisions, even if you don't have permission to edit the page or revert it to a previous revision. MoinMoin also has a vibrant market of extensions and themes, although if you're looking for a wiki with dozens of themes, you might be better off with DokuWiki. As it stands, I counted ten themes on the official MoinMoin Theme Market. Not a staggering variety, but you can always make your own.
Unlike Tomboy and many other personal knowledge management solutions, MoinMoin can easily support multiple users. You can start off by using it on your own, and when you need to collaborate, simply expand it to include your colleagues. MoinMoin may lack the pizzazz and intuitive simplicity of a desktop application, but it is a sturdy, professional wiki.
Note: The download link take you to the MoinMoinDownload page, where you can download the latest version and read installation structions. | <urn:uuid:5bce923e-1179-4ff2-b4f2-1f2698ea9e57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcworld.com/article/252482/roll_your_own_wiki_with_open_source_moinmoin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936507 | 727 | 1.632813 | 2 |
CA23135 - Plant and Machinery Allowance (PMA): First Year Allowance (FYA): environmentally beneficial plant and machinery
CAA01/S45H - S45J
Legislation was introduced in FA03 to give 100% FYA on environmentally beneficial plant and machinery. Broadly, the assets that qualify currently are plant and machinery for improving water quality and reducing water use. Expenditure must be incurred on or after 1 April 2003 to qualify for 100% FYA.
Businesses of any size can qualify for this 100% FYA.
Environmentally beneficial plant and machinery is plant or machinery:
- of a description specified by Treasury order, and
- that meets the environmental criteria specified by Treasury order for plant and machinery of that description.
There is a Water Technology List that contains details of the technologies and products that can qualify for 100% FYAs. The document is in two parts.
The Water Technology Criteria List sets out the environmentally beneficial criteria for each technology class. The classes are:
- efficient taps;
- efficient toilets;
- flow controllers;
- leakage detection;
- rainwater harvesting equipment (from 26 August 2004);
- water reuse systems (Note: this technology class replaces and incorporates the ‘efficient membrane filtration systems for the treatment of wastewater for recovery and reuse’ technology class that was added on 22 September 2005. From 11 August 2008, that technology class became a sub-technology of water reuse systems.);
- cleaning in place equipment (from 22 September 2005);
- efficient showers (from 22 September 2005);
- efficient washing machines (from 7 September 2006);
- small scale slurry and sludge dewatering equipment (from 7 September 2006);
- vehicle wash water reclaim units (from 16 August 2007);
- efficient industrial cleaning equipment (from 16 August 2007);
- waste management for mechanical seals (from 16 August 2007).
The Water Technology Product List lists the products in the technology classes that have been accepted as meeting those criteria. Detailed guidance on this can be found here www.eca-water.gov.uk
The Details of the lists and the dates they took effect are set out below:
|Date lists issued||Date lists took effect|
|30 July 2003||1 April 2003|
|13 July 2004||26 August 2004|
|15 July 2005||22 September 2005|
|19 August 2006||7 September 2006|
|25 July 2007||16 August 2007|
|16 July 2008||11 August 2008|
The normal exclusions CA23110 apply with one exception. Up until 31 March 2006 the exclusion for plant provided for leasing did not apply to environmentally beneficial plant and machinery provided for leasing. From 1 April 2006 onwards the exclusion does apply unless the plant is provided for leasing under an excluded lease of background plant and machinery, CA23835. So from 1 April 2006 environmentally beneficial plant and machinery provided for leasing only qualifies for 100% FYA if it is provided for leasing under an excluded lease of background plant and machinery.
An item on which expenditure is incurred needs to be specified in the relevant Treasury order to qualify for 100% FYA. Expenditure may be incurred on environmentally beneficial assets after an announcement has been made but before a Treasury order is made. If the expenditure would have qualified for 100% FYA if the order had been in force when it was incurred the expenditure qualifies for 100% FYA, but the FYA is not given until the order is made.
A person may buy an asset that is not in itself environmentally beneficial plant and machinery but includes components that are. If so, you have to identify the proportion of the expenditure incurred by the buyer that can qualify for 100% FYA. Do not use the normal rules for allocating expenditure. There are special rules for environmentally beneficial plant and machinery.
This is the basic rule for allocating expenditure incurred on an asset containing a qualifying component (or components). The proportion of the expenditure incurred on the provision of the asset that qualifies for 100% FYA will be the amount specified in the order for the particular component (or components) included in that asset. The balance of the expenditure incurred does not qualify for 100% FYA under Section 45H but it can still qualify for capital allowances at the normal rate.
If the total expenditure incurred on the asset containing the qualifying component (or components) is less than the amount specified in the order for the component or components incorporated in that asset, the total expenditure qualifies for 100% FYA.
Where the expenditure on an asset containing a qualifying component (or components) is incurred in stages, allocate the expenditure qualifying for 100% FYA evenly between each stage. Do this by comparing the total expenditure to be incurred with the expenditure that will qualify for 100% FYAs. Apply this fraction to each payment to get the part of each payment that qualifies for 100% FYAs.
Example Jim buys a piece of equipment costing £90,000 that incorporates an item of environmentally beneficial plant or machinery. The amount on the order for the part incorporated in the equipment is £18,000. He pays for the equipment in three instalments - one of £40,000 and two of £25,000. The parts of the payments that qualify for 100% FYA are
£8,000 = £40,000 x £18,000 / £90,000
£5,000 = £25,000 x £18,000 / £90,000 and
£5,000 = £25,000 x £18,000 / £90,000.
If a certificate of environmental benefit is revoked the taxpayer should amend the relevant return to withdraw any 100% FYA claimed. | <urn:uuid:2b5d3f6a-cbc0-466d-9edd-3cf3a45c6cf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/camanual/CA23135.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941269 | 1,173 | 1.921875 | 2 |
LEAD: South Ossetia court annuls presidential election result
Nov 29, 2011, 19:29 GMT
Moscow - The supreme court of the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia on Tuesday annulled presidential election results that showed victory for opposition candidate Alla Dzhioyeva, after a challenge by her Kremlin-supported opponent.
The court upheld a complaint filed by pro-Russia politician Anatoly Bibliov after preliminary results of Sunday's election showed Dzhioyeva had won, members of her staff told dpa.
The two politicians are vying to become the first president of the territory that Russia recognized as independent after its 2008 war with Georgia.
Thousands of Dzhiyoeva supporters gathered in the capital Tskhinvali as the court reviewed the complaint.
Local news agency Osinform reported that a bill to hold new a new election was being debated.
Preliminary results showed that Dzhioyeva had won 51 per cent of the vote against 46 per cent for Bibiliov, who enjoys support from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Bibiliov's defeat would be an embarrassment for Russia.
A Dzhioyeva staffer said she was 'shocked' by the court decision, which may not be appealed.
Dzhiyoeva, a former educator, has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin-supported South Ossetian government, which she has alleged is riddled with corruption. She is one of very few women to become an influential politician in the highly traditional Caucasus region.
A South Ossetia court in 2010 found Dzhioyeva guilty of abuse of office while acting as the territory's education minister, a ruling she has described as unfounded and politically-motivated.
Most nations consider South Ossetia a province of Georgia, but the territory has been outside Tbilisi's control since the mid-1990s.
Russia's army routed Georgian forces in a five-day war over the territory in 2008. | <urn:uuid:a4541671-1acc-407e-99af-d6f6eeba3c36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1677897.php/LEAD-South-Ossetia-court-annuls-presidential-election-result | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973587 | 410 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Department of Computing Security (CSec) provides an environment where students can develop an in-depth knowledge of computing security, while working on the cutting-edge of one of the fastest growing computing disciplines. Students receive a strong foundation in the supporting disciplines of programming, multimedia, and database systems. After building core competencies, students design their area of specialization by selecting five courses from over a dozen advance study courses offered in the areas of computing security.
As new technologies emerge our faculty will continue to adapt and offer quality education using best practices in higher education. Through active learning, team projects, research, and real-world application via co-op opportunities with industry leaders, our students will receive a nationally-recognized computing security education.
RIT Computing Security Team Wins Cyber Defense National Championship
The Rochester Institute of Technology’s cyber defense team (pictured above) recently took home first place at the 2013 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition April 19-21 in San Antonio, Texas.
RIT’s team competed against nine regional winners to fend off cyber attacks while also completing other cyber-attack-based challenges and activities. The team consists of eight RIT students: Scott Smith; Bryan Delaney; Cory Baker; Stanley Chan; Lucas Duffery; Brian Seifert; Bryan Harmat; and Benjamin Andrews.
Careers in Computing Security
Jobs in computing security are found in nearly every business. From small to medium-sized firms whose line of business is not necessarily technical, but which conducts their internal business using networked computers to large multi-national firms who depend on large complex networks of servers and client computers to conduct their business and service their clients, they all need security professionals to support their computing and network infrastructure. RIT's Computing Security graduates are perfectly prepared to provide the support demanded by enterprises of all sizes as well as national, state and local security agencies. | <urn:uuid:1fcb1d54-83c6-4ae9-ade3-f48d3492a66b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://csec.rit.edu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943104 | 382 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Beacon library sets planetarium event
As part of the state's Dream Big -- Read! program, the Howland Public Library in Beacon will host a planetarium program for kids on Thursday, July 26.
Children ages 5-12 will be invited to enter the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum's inflatable StarLab planetarium during its visit to the library. Trained educators will be on hand to explain how to find real stars in the night sky, the stories behind constellation names, and more.
Admission is free. Space is limited. There will be three sessions: At noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (the latter session is almost filled). Adults must pick up children's tickets from Ginny Figlia, Youth Services Librarian, at the library before the event. Adults are welcome to accompany children to the event.
Howland Public Library is at 313 Main St. For information call 845-831-1134 or go to http://beaconlibrary.org.
Dream Big -- Read! is 2012's Summer Reading at New York Libraries program for children. It is sponsored by the state Education Department in partnership with libraries across the state. | <urn:uuid:e61a6485-a189-424b-8013-d87032d174ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsday.com/beacon-library-sets-planetarium-event-1.3836695 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919535 | 244 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Media exposure, including viewing films featuring alcohol and alcohol-related merchandise, influence both onset age of teenage alcohol consumption and binge drinking, whereas family drinking characteristics influence only onset age of alcohol consumption, according to a study published online Feb. 20 in BMJ Open.
Mike Stoolmiller, Ph.D., of the University of Oregon in Eugene, and colleagues conducted a series of four confidential telephone surveys on a representative sample of 6,522 U.S. adolescents over two years. At baseline, the teenagers were aged 10 to 14 years.
The researchers found that the prevalence of adolescents reporting ever drinking increased from 11 to 25 percent over the two-year study period, and those reporting binge drinking increased from 4 to 13 percent. At baseline, the median estimated movie alcohol exposure (MAE) from 532 selected popular movies was 4.5 hours. Eleven percent of adolescents owned alcohol-branded merchandise at the time of the second survey. Parental alcohol use (greater than or equal to weekly) was reported by 23 percent of respondents, and 29 percent of adolescents could obtain alcohol from home. Peer drinking, MAE, alcohol-branded merchandise, age, and rebelliousness were associated with both alcohol onset and progression to binge drinking. The adjusted hazard ratios for alcohol onset and binge drinking transition were 2.13 for high MAE and 1.63 for low MAE. MAE accounted for 28 percent of the alcohol onset and 20 percent of the binge drinking transitions. Characteristics of the family were associated with alcohol onset but not with progression.
"The results suggest that family focused interventions would have a larger impact on alcohol onset, while limiting media and marketing exposure could help prevent both onset and progression," the authors write.
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Back to Top | <urn:uuid:26a0e0dc-bc53-415c-9ec0-16ad56e3c49a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/HealthdayArticle?Article_id=661941 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919301 | 487 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Can a White Author Write Black Characters?
Michael Chabon says yes. And he’s right. This shouldn’t be controversial.
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks/Universal Pictures.
When a man routinely hailed as one of America’s “greatest living writers” publishes a new novel, one hardly expects it to draw reviews posing questions along the lines of “Can he do it? Can he actually pull it off?” Because when you’re Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner, the act of writing a decent novel ought to be taken as something of a given. But Chabon’s newest book, Telegraph Avenue, out last week, is set against the backdrop of race, and its author undertakes the task of inhabiting and giving life to characters whose skin color is different from his own. The book is a sprawling narrative about the intertwined lives of Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, two proprietors, one black and one white, and a used vinyl store trying to survive on the shifting, gentrifying frontier between hippie-dippy Berkeley and its neighbor, the historically black enclave of Oakland. Or, as Chabon neatly puts it, “the ragged fault line where the urban plates of Berkeley and Oakland subducted.”
For all his skills as a novelist, Chabon’s whiteness must be reckoned as a disability when it comes to writing about race, an asterisk next to his name. Either he’s crazy for wanting to “go there,” or, like a toddler learning how to walk, he is to be applauded just for getting in a few good steps before the inevitable stumble. In an otherwise positive review, Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times notes that Chabon is trying too hard “to sound like he was from the ’hood.” Slate’s own Troy Patterson gently chides Chabon for simplifying race, not because of his whiteness per se, but because of his naive and overly idealistic Berkeley-ness, which really just calling out one particular brand of whiteness.
Both of those comments were from critics of color. As for Chabon’s white reviewers, they seem nervous about being white people reviewing a book about race, and channel that anxiety into being nervous on Chabon’s behalf. In questioning whether or not a white author is capable of writing a book about race, Los Angeles Times reviewer Carolyn Kellogg actually lets her racial insecurity undercut her own review, qualifying her criticism to say that, “As a white book reviewer, I don’t feel qualified to say he gets it documentarily right …” (So why is she reviewing the book?) Todd VanDerWerff of the Onion’s AV Club goes even further, telling us that, because of the book’s racial element, it “might be Chabon’s riskiest novel yet, as he remains very much a white male author.” Riskiest novel yet? Chabon’s last novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, wrestled with an alternate “what if” history of the Holocaust. This one’s about two guys who own a record store.
“White person tackles race” shouldn’t have to be such a big deal. From Herman Melville to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Mark Twain to William Faulkner to Harper Lee, the grand American narrative of race was always tackled by white writers, writers who created and inhabited black characters as they would any other. Together with black authors who would finally be given a platform in the 20th Century, like Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, white novelists addressed the issue head on, thoughtfully and meaningfully, thereby leading to a deeper and richer understanding of the country we live in.
But all of that changed, as critic Stanley Crouch noted in his 2004 essay “Segregated Fiction Blues,” in 1967, with the backlash to the publication of William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner. Written by the lily-white Styron but told from the point of view of Turner, the insurrectionist leader of a slave revolt, Confessions was a well-intentioned gambit to join the canon of Great Books About Race. But it had the severe misfortune to be published right at the ascendancy of the Black Power movement. Alongside a philosophy of militant political and socioeconomic solidarity, Black Power asserted itself on the cultural front as well. The movement demanded ownership of its turf: black studies, black history, black theater, black art, and black fiction. It was a natural and understandable response to centuries in which black voices had been wholly excluded from the cultural dialogue, in which the story of race was reduced to minstrel shows and white-supremacist propaganda like D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation.
By telling the story of Nat Turner, by assuming to understand the mind of the rebellious slave, Styron had ventured onto the wrong side of the literary tracks. His critics banded together to publish William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond, denouncing the author as a white liberal interloper, a cultural carpetbagger. The impact of the controversy, Crouch argues, was that white writers “opted for folding instead of holding, convinced that the challenge of writing across the color line was too big a risk to their careers and their reputations.” The idea of cultural ownership took root, mutually agreed upon by both sides. And the results, Crouch adds, “have been both dull and dismal.” All the potential William Faulkners and Harper Lees stayed home, playing it safe.
By the early 1990s, the idea of cultural ownership had metastasized into a fully articulated code of conduct, loosely gathered under the umbrella of political correctness. The backlash against the white male cultural hegemony further balkanized the cultural landscape, apportioning the right to tell certain stories to certain people, an idea that Chabon first ran up against in his MFA program at UC-Irvine. “That’s where I learned it was an issue and that it was something that some people considered problematic,” he says today. “If a white member of the workshop wrote something from the point of view of an illegal Guatemalan immigrant—as I recall someone did—there were some people who said there were issues of cultural imperialism involved in doing that, that you shouldn’t do that. I understand it politically. I understand the historical context, completely. Artistically, I don’t understand it at all. Because if I can’t write from the point of view of a black woman nurse-midwife, then I can’t write from anybody’s point of view. That’s why I do this. I use my imagination to imagine myself living lives I don’t live and being people who I’m not.”
Chabon is right. Artistically, there can be no limits imposed, or even encouraged, in what subjects storytellers choose to approach. Pushing back against the white male cultural hegemony is both necessary and worthwhile; flip through the newspaper or the nightly TV listings and you’ll find too many middle-aged white guys talking about things that are only important to middle-aged white guys. But while it’s good to expand the bookshelf to include a wider range of storytellers, the pushback of cultural ownership went too far. If you convince white people that they’re not qualified to tackle race, if you scare them away from the issue, if you give them the slightest excuse to ignore it, they will be more than happy to ignore it. For as long as you’ll let them.
Tanner Colby is the author of Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America. Visit him at his website or follow him on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:34150b68-c39f-4185-9e90-4de4ca301a58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/09/michael_chabon_s_telegraph_avenue_can_a_white_guy_write_about_black_characters_.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961046 | 1,692 | 1.585938 | 2 |
PodMed is a weekly podcast from Johns Hopkins Medicine. In it, Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Rick Lange, MD, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins and vice chairman of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, look at the top medical stories of the week.
This week's topics include the dangers of eating disorders, watchful waiting in prostate cancer, trans fat regulation, and treating egg allergies.
0:22 Prostate cancer treatment outcomes
1:22 Prostate cancer mortality and treatment
2:22 Determining who can benefit from surgery
3:22 Treatment isn't for everyone
3:25 Reducing trans fats in our diets
4:25 New York City leads the change
5:25 Everyone benefits from regulations
6:10 Reducing reactions to eggs
7:10 Desensitizing kids that are allergic
8:10 Additional studies needed to improve outcomes
8:26 Dangers of eating disorders
9:26 More likely to lead to negative outcomes
10:26 Links to all studies will be on the blog | <urn:uuid:a0680558-2fc2-4b32-8946-efd6e80e4e5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/ProstateCancer/33834 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900878 | 227 | 1.742188 | 2 |
A NUMBER OF California wineries turn the big TWO FIVE this year, marking their 25th anniversaries in winemaking. . . .
As a rule, most media don't cover most anniversaries, because if you cover one you should cover them all, and once you start covering a few you end up covering them all, too. . . .
There are exceptions, of course, especially when people or companies reach milestones, and this is one of those times. . . .
If you turned back the clock 25 years to 1972, you'd find one of theif not theworst vintages in modern history. Rain at harvest led to a plethora of dull, wimpy, muddled wines. . . .
But it turned out to be a banner year for new wineries, many of which went on to grand winemaking achievements, and most of which are still thriving today. . . .
AS WE STEP into the capsule and go back in time, here's some comparative analysis between then and now, courtesy of Kim Stare Wallace, daughter of Dry Creek Vineyard's pioneering winemaker, David Stare, who crushed his first grapes in 1972. . . .
When Stare shelved his career as an engineer for the B & O Railroad to found Dry Creek Vineyard, he was starting the first winery in Dry Creek since before Prohibition. Kim, now the winery's public relations director, was 9 and running around in cut-off blue jeans. . . .
Bare land cost $1,800 an acre, compared with $25,000 an acre today. . . .
Only 600 acres of grapes were rooted in Dry Creek, while now there are 5,500 acres in vines. . . .
You could buy a ton of Chardonnay for $600 then, but you'd pay close to $1,500 a ton now. . . .
Dave Stare was Dry Creek Vineyard's lone employee in '72; now he signs checks for 34 on the staff. . . .
Stare managed to stomp enough grapes to produce 1,300 cases that first year, and now the volume is 120,000 cases a year. . . .
OVER IN NAPA VALLEY, Tom and Linda Burgess moved into the old Souverain winery on Howell Mountain to start Burgess Cellars. . . .
Through the years the winery has been a consistent producer of fine Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, along with an occasionally silky Chardonnay. . . .
Through it all, Bill Sorenson has been the one and only winemaker. . . .
CHARLIE WAGNER decided it was time he tried his hand at winemakingrather than selling his grapesand he and his son, Chuck, made a few hundred cases of Cabernet from their Rutherford vineyard known as Caymus Vineyards. . . .
Cabernet is still king at Caymus, and the winery's flagship wine, the Special Selection, now sells for $100 a bottle. The first Caymus, 1972, sold for $4.50. . . .
Chateau Montelena, also in Napa Valley, made its first wines in 1972 and has been a model of consistency with its brilliantly crafted, long-aging Cabernets and crisp, flinty, almost-as-ageworthy Chardonnays. . . .
Founder Jim Barrett remains at the helm as president, with his son, Bo, overseeing winemaking. . . .
Montelena rose to international fame in 1976, when its second vintage of Chardonnay, a 1973 made by Mike Grgich, won the famous Paris Tasting, outpointing a flight of French white Burgundies and other highly regarded California Chardonnays. . . .
OVER ON DIAMOND Mountain, Al Brounstein crushed his first grapes that year. . . .
He fretted about his woefully small crop of grapes and the obvious differences in the soils and microclimates in his Diamond Creek Vineyards. . . .
After much deliberation and hand-wringing, he bottled two vineyard-designated wines that year, a staggering 40 cases of Volcanic Hill and 25 cases, or one barrel, of Red Rock Terrace. . . .
The next vintage he added a third vineyard, called Gravelly Meadow, and years later a fourth, called Lake Vineyard, which is bottled only in special years. . . .
Dave Stare's inspiration came from Loire Valley-style Sauvignon Blanc and healong with Robert Mondavipopularized this variety, renaming it Fume Blanc for a flashier name recognition. . . .
Stare slowly enlarged the lineup to the point where Dry Creek makes all the major varieties, from Cabernet to Chardonnay to Merlot, Meritage and Zinfandel. He still sticks with Clarksburg-grown Chenin Blanc. . . .
Reserve bottlings of Cabernet, Chardonnay, Fume Blanc and Merlot appear when quality merits. . . .
FRANCISCAN VINEYARDS STARTED OFF on a bumpy journey in 1972, with a product mix that included low-priced "Burgundy" and weedy Cabernets. . . .
But winemaker Justin Meyer, who had also founded Silver Oak Cellars that same year, decided his future was at Silver Oak and by 1979 had sold the winery to the Eckes family in Germany. . . .
Under Tom Ferrell's direction, Franciscan began its turnaround, improving quality. In 1985 Agustin Huneeus joined the winery and held a steady course, with even better wines. . . .
Meyer went on to greater achievements at Silver Oak, building one of the most successful and prosperous wineries in California, with supple, silky, herb- and sage-tinged Cabernets from both Alexander and Napa valleys. . . .
HIGH ATOP the Santa Cruz Mountains, a group of investors parted ways with the irascible Martin Ray and moved into his former winery, renaming it Mount Eden Vineyards. . . .
Ray moved his winery to the lower half of the vineyard, while Mount Eden stayed on top. . . .
This winery remains dedicated to austere, often quite tannic Cabernets, austere and often quite rich and detailed Chardonnays and austere and often quite seductive Pinot Noirs. . . .
BOTH WARREN WINIARSKI and Carl Doumani decided to call their respective wineries "Stags Leap" but apparently neither consulted the other before doing so and for years they fought in court over who owned the name. . . .
In the end they both won the right to the name, although with different spellings, different apostrophe placements and different styles of wines. . . .
Winiarski owns Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, famous for its supple Cabernets, and a win in the red wine competition at the Paris Tasting of 1976. . . .
Doumani owned Stags' Leap Winery, noted for its beefy Petite Sirah, before selling it this year to the group that owns Beringer Wine Estates. . . .
Years after the Stags Leap name war ended, an appellation was formed, the Stags Leap District, with no apostrophes. . . .
Not far from the two Stags, French-born Bernard Portet founded a winery for New Yorker John Goelet, calling it Clos Du Val. . . .
The initial focus was on reds, with Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, before expanding to Chardonnay and Semillon. . . .
In Carneros, partners Francis Mahoney, a one-time wine retailer, and Balfour Gibson decided to try their hands at winemaking, believing they could make great Pinot Noir in Carneros. . . .
In the early years Mahoney worked with grape suppliers from Napa to the Sierra foothills, tinkering with Cabernet, Merlot and Zinfandel, before narrowing Carneros Creek Winery's focus to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. . . .
THE LONE FATALITY from the class of '72 was Veedercrest, which produced good but unexceptional Cabernets and Chardonnays in Napa Valley before running out of money and shutting its business down. . . .
A lousy year for wine, a better year for wineries, vintage 1972 makes for a lively round of wine trivial pursuits. . . .
Sips & Tips | Wine & Healthy Living
Video Theater | Collecting & Auctions | <urn:uuid:4cdaf8bb-bafe-44b4-b6e9-e32cc1d49b81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/45243 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955769 | 1,863 | 1.515625 | 2 |
News > Politics
Monday, February 4, 2013 5:47 AM EST
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Senate committee is expected to take up a bill this week that would expand DNA testing in Michigan.
The bill would require people arrested for committing or attempting to commit a felony to provide a DNA sample. It was introduced by Lawton Republican Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker last week and sent to the Judiciary Committee.
Schuitmaker's office says the bill would make DNA collection the same as fingerprint collection. If the charges are dropped or the person is found not guilty, the sample would be destroyed.
Currently, DNA samples are taken at the time of arrest only when people are arrested for violent felonies, such as murder.
Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill in 2011 requiring all prisoners to submit a DNA test within three months of entering prison. | <urn:uuid:e4512afa-8d19-416f-b5c5-2e50cb89e8a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/02/04/news/politics/doc510f914a805b0741319352.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96304 | 179 | 1.726563 | 2 |
- Slide 1
- Slide 2
- Slide 3
- Students Studying
- Culinary Arts
Your education and your future are very important to the Idaho State University College of Technology. Our students always take center stage as our number one priority. We are dedicated to helping you achieve all your goals and dreams.
Applying to the College of Technology and being admitted into one of our programs is the first step to becoming a Bengal! Don't hesitate to call us with any questions you may have about the admissions process, financial aid, finalizing your class schedule, or where to live on campus.
Our recruiters are here to help you with the transition into becoming a successful student at Idaho State University. | <urn:uuid:f02849c7-d3ee-4289-a410-ba136503f558> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://isu.edu/ctech/future-students.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951397 | 144 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Baptism is the invitation to love as a daughter or son of God. That invitation is given flesh through a life lived in union with God and in solidarity with others, especially the poor and the marginalized. Our Baptism is affirmed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation and is nourished and sustained through the Eucharist.
The Sunday Eucharist is the gathering of the community and is the time for the celebration of who we are as a people dedicated
to God. For this reason, we will normally celebrate the Baptism of infants and older children during the Sunday Eucharist, when we
remember Jesus’ resurrection from death to new life and are nourished by the sharing of our lives and the breaking of the bread. Each time we gather for Eucharist, we remember what Jesus taught us through the stories of faith, and we hope that these same stories will shape the life of the newly baptized.
The life of the church continues in the life of each baptized person in the sharing of the story. It is nourished in the breaking of the
bread and is given flesh in service of others through witness and commitment. Let us be a people who proclaim through our everyday lives that we have received the fullness of God’s Spirit and that we continue to share the banquet of Christ’s sacrifice!
The Time of Year
To bring out the paschal character of baptism, it is recommended that the sacrament be celebrated during the Easter Vigil or on a Sunday, when the church commemorates the Lord’s resurrection. Rite of Baptism for Children (1972)
♦ The normative times for Baptism are as follows, in order of preference:
1. The Easter Vigil
2. Easter Sunday
3. Sundays in the Easter season
4. Sundays in Ordinary Time
♦ We realize that the date of the birth of your child will be a strong factor in determining the best time for your family, however, we ask that these preferences be followed as closely as possible, even if it means waiting a bit longer than you may have expected.
♦ Except in the case of extreme pastoral circumstance, Baptism will not be celebrated during the seasons of Advent (4 weeks
prior to Christmas) and Lent (6 weeks prior to Easter). And in the case of such circumstance, the celebration will be held outside the context of the Mass.
The Liturgical Context
. . . the faith in which the children are baptized is not the private possession of the individual family, but is the common treasure of the whole Church of Christ. Rite of Baptism for Children (1972)
♦ The preferred context for Baptism is during the Sunday Mass which you usually attend. For good pastoral reasons, other
arrangements may be made.
♦ It may be the case that more than one family will schedule Baptism on the same day at the same Mass.
Preparation for Baptism
It is of great importance that parents [and godparents] . . . should prepare to take part in the rite with understanding. They should be provided with suitable means such as books, instructions, and catechisms written for families.
Rite of Baptism for Children (1972)
♦ The preparation of parents and sponsors (godparents) will take place periodically during the Church year. Parents and sponsors will be expected to attend a one-time preparation session. Dates and times are furnished upon inquiry to the church office. Further preparation may include materials for the family to be used at home.
♦ First-time parents and sponsors, should register for the preparation session as soon as possible after the pregnancy is known. The preparation session should be viewed as part of the normal preparation for the arrival of a child.
♦ If distance prohibits sponsors from participating in the Baptismal preparation session, it is strongly advised that they avail themselves of any Baptismal preparation opportunities in their home parish.
1. Soon after a couple learns of a pregnancy, it is important to connect with the staff liaison to discuss Baptismal Preparation and attendance at a preparation session.
2. After attending the Baptism preparation session, contact the parish secretary to schedule the Baptism at a Mass. If you desire a particular priest, indicate that to the secretary. It may be the case that more than one Baptism is scheduled at the same Mass.
3. On the day of your child’s Baptism plan to arrive at least twenty minutes prior to the start of Mass. There will be reserved seats for your family and someone will review the Baptismal ceremony with you.
Requirements for Sponsors
1. One sponsor, male or female, is sufficient.
2. A sponsor must be:
◊ mature enough to undertake this responsibility
◊ fully initiated as a Catholic; i.e. have received the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist
◊ a practicing Catholic.
3. A sponsor is required to obtain a Sponsor Certificate from the parish where they are formally registered and mail this to the Church office at least one month prior to the date of the Baptism. | <urn:uuid:601eb202-ef2f-43c5-b0ed-8e4072237446> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saopp.org/Sites/Liturgical/initiation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951639 | 1,053 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008, crossword by Doug Peterson
The Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev died in 1883, never knowing that his masterwork, Отцы и дети, would one day be a theme in a New York Times crossword. Fortunately, we have to know only the common translated (some would say mistranslated) English title to work out this Tuesday puzzle, which traverses, in chronological order, three generations before landing on the novel that ties them together.
HYANNIS, part of the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod, is the “Massachusetts tourist spot.” You can take a passenger ferry from there to Martha’s Vineyard. OLEO makes its first appearance since I started Wordplay. I like to watch it and OREO jockey for position on the most popular answer words list. Right now it’s the cookie by a nose. I wonder if the expression “not worth one RED CENT” makes sense any more. Red ones must be increasingly rare. We talked about the Trojan Horse earlier this month, but ODYSSEUS himself has never shown up in a Times puzzle until today.
Criterion has a new version of THE THIRD MAN out on Blu-ray. Orson Welles makes a great entrance an hour into the film, his face suddenly illuminated as he stands in a dark alcove. “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love — they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Two of the theme answers are 14 letters long. That’s by far the least common answer length in daily crosswords, unless you count the two-letter ones that Joe Krozel (interview) sneaked in. Why so few 14s? There’s probably some technical reason that someone can jump in to explain, but I wonder if the lure of the full-width 15-letter answer is just too hard to ignore without being tied to a mast like Odysseus. | <urn:uuid:1f385a09-1ae6-4223-aa25-09ef9fd979aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/ivan/?apage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960226 | 469 | 1.984375 | 2 |
Paterson issued a statement disputing reports that he accused media outlets of racism during a Friday morning radio interview. The governor denied that he intended to say that recent negative stories about him reflected racial bias, but he added that coverage of black officials hasn't been fair.
"My feeling is that it's being orchestrated, it's a game, and people who pay attention know that," Paterson said on radio station WWRL-AM in New York City.
He said even black media outlets "from our own community buy the public line, which is: 'We're going to get rid of David Paterson.'"
Later, Paterson issued a statement to clarify his on-air comments.
"At no point did I claim that this media piling-on effect was due to race — elected officials of all races get piled on by the media all the time," Paterson said in the written statement. "What I did point out was that certain media outlets have engaged in coverage that exploits racial stereotypes. That's not only unfair — it's wrong — and it sends an objectionable message."
"We have a long way to go to achieve a truly post-racial society," he said.
He said one stereotype was a tabloid report that referred to some black Senate staff members as people with thick necks. Paterson also referenced critical coverage of his appearance at a late-night night club event for BET, the Black Entertainment Television cable channel.
Paterson also said he is resisting political pressure to pull out of the 2010 governor's race. He took office in March 2008 after then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned during a prostitution scandal.
Stephen Crawford, a spokesman for Patrick's political committee, declined to comment on the story. The Massachusetts governor's press office didn't immediately comment on Paterson's remarks. | <urn:uuid:946c0552-d041-4941-8762-4b7d419f95dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Paterson-Injects-Race-into-Debate-About-His-Performance-53994392.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979066 | 366 | 1.5 | 2 |
It has been awhile since I updated everyone on the pro-landlord legislation that is being addressed in Madison. Senate Bill 107 (SB 107) — referred to as the Landlord Pre-Emption Bill — has been passed by the Wisconsin Senate and is currently being reviewed by the House this term (AB 155).
You may recall that SB 107 prohibits any municipality from enacting any ordinance that limits a landlord from obtaining or using various types of information about a tenant or prospective tenant, such as household income, occupation, court records, rental history, and credit information, or limits how far back in time a prospective tenant’s
credit information, conviction record, or previous housing may be considered.
The bill has received much opposition from local municipalities and their lobbyists, not for the substance of the bill, but rather for the fact that if passed, the law will
restrict a municipality’s ability to draft certain ordinances. Essentially the municipalities feel this to be a breach of their own sovereignty and an example of the state overstepping its bounds. Many feel that this is really just a Madison problem — since it is the City of Madison that has enacted many of these restrictions on what information a landlord can consider when making a rental decision – and therefore should be dealt with at the city level.
Another group of critics believe that the bill discriminates against African-Americans. Four Dane County Board Supervisors, two Madison City Council members and one Madison School Board member, sent a letter to Governor Walker and legislators on September 7, 2011, asking that the provision of the bill that will allow landlords to deny housing to tenants with criminal histories be removed because is discriminates against African Americans.
They argue that allowing a landlord to deny a rental applicant housing based on his/her criminal convictions will unfairly affect African-Americans because while they
only comprise 6% of the state’s population they account for almost 50% of those with arrest and conviction records. Thus the critics of the bill argue that to allow a landlord to deny a rental applicant based on his/her criminal record is to allow landlords to deny housing based on race.
The critics are relying on the doctrine of “disparate impact.” The disparate impact doctrine holds that certain laws may be discriminatory and illegal – even if the law is neutral on its face — if they have a disproportionate “adverse impact” on members of a minority group.
This disparate impact argument is ignoring a key ingredient – one’s choice to engage in criminal activity. One’s race is not something that a person has control over – we are born into a certain race. On the other hand, individuals do have control over whether or not they engage in criminal activity. Committing a crime is a volitional act. Being born African-American is not. We are dealing with apples and oranges here.
Disparate impact arguments are often raised when a law unintentionally affects a minority group through no fault of their own. This small group of critics, are trying to apply the disparate impact doctrine to individuals that made a voluntary decision to engage in criminal activity.
UPDATE – 10-28-11 — On Wed. Octo 26, 2011, By a vote of 59-34 the Assembly voted to suspend a rulling on AB155. An amendment was made by Rep Chris Taylor (D-Madison) that would protect some local control within the bill – the amendment was tabled by a vote of 60-33. | <urn:uuid:e5ddae18-1c95-4bce-9349-619c9d03a5c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petriestocking.com/blog/category/city-of-madison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954557 | 708 | 1.640625 | 2 |
On December 23, 2003, the Director issued a Declaratory Order stating that Fareway Stores, Inc. (Petitioner) was responsible for the collection of sales tax on the sales of roasted chicken by its grocery stores. Based on the facts presented, the Petitioner is an Iowa grocery store and sells roasted chickens out of the meat department of its various stores. The Petitioner does not have designated dinging areas in its stores. Instead, the customers of the Petitioner take purchased grocery items, including the chicken out of the store for consumption. Iowa Code section 422.45(12) requires that foods that are hot or cold prepared for immediate consumption off of the premises of the retailer are subject to Iowa sales tax. The Petitioner prepares the roasted chicken and the chicken is sold in its stores. The chicken is sold in a state that it is ready for immediate consumption. Additional preparation of the chicken is not necessary before it can be consumed. Accordingly, Iowa law imposes Iowa state sales tax and any applicable local option tax on the sale of the roasted chicken by the Petitioner. In this case, the Petitioner also requested a ruling on the sales tax of items similar to the roasted chicken. However, the Director could not provide an opinion regarding these other items due to lack of specificity regarding the type of items at issue, how and who prepared them and how the items are sold by the Petitioner. | <urn:uuid:e4abf41e-8a0d-44ac-bf72-b2caa5efbd12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iowa.gov/tax/taxlaw/DecOrdFareway.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95973 | 283 | 1.625 | 2 |
Israeli entrepreneur and business leader Yossi Vardi came on stage at Le Web 12 in Paris today to deliver some of his tips. Unfortunately he was a bit rushed out and didn’t have time to finish his presentation. Here are the tips I was to able to pick up as I was listening to him.
Yossi Vardi What should start-ups do to succeed?
1- What it takes to succeed?
The most important factor for success is luck. People who are hard-working though are often in the best position for being able to reap the harvest of serendipity. Trying and reaching out to people increases your ability to be lucky, Vardi said.
2 – raising too much money can be toxic
Start-ups which raise too much money want to show their investors that they are using the money and they are often led to burn too much money too early and fail to make a profit
3- right size for team?
Vardi suggests that the optimal size for initiating a start-up is 3. Having only 1 is too hard and above 3 it’s too difficult to get oneself organised.
4 – a mentor is needed
A mentor is needed to help support the team and help them meet the right people Vardi went on.
5 – pivoting
Start-ups have to pivot, i.e. be able to modify the concept so that it adapts to the Market. Pivoting is important but it can also prove that the founders can’t learn from experience if they are pivoting too often. This is a double-edged sword.
6- attracting investors’ attention
Finding an introduction to the right investors is important, this is why networking is key. The is also confirming what we had witnessed in Silicon Valley last September.
There is a debate – in Israel and elsewhere – between experts about whether it’s better to do an early or late exit. When doing exits, one has to remember that one is not selling one’s company to another one, one is selling to an individual Vardi said.
As mentioned above, Yossi Vardi’s presentation was unfortunately interrupted. There a many other recommendations Vardi can deliver to entrepreneurs, we’ll probably have to wait until the 2013 edition of Le Web for us to hear the rest of the presentation and Vardi’s advice. | <urn:uuid:e3e92fc6-25b4-4906-8358-4ce7f1474ffb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://visionarymarketing.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/yossi-vardis-top-tips-for-start-up-owners-leweb/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976399 | 493 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The central part of Indiana, prior to settlement, was primarily covered in forest.
Today, with all residential, commercial, industrial and transportation land cover, most of the forest areas have disappeared.
That means many children have lost any association with what forests are or were.
However, a new website, "Finding My Forest," has developed to provide some connections to the forest again.
The site offers interdisciplinary lessons allowing parents, teachers and outdoor educators to connect with children's diverse learning styles.
The free forest conservation educational material and curriculum may be accessed at www.findingmyforest.org.
Today's children have little free time, between school, scheduled activities, television, computers and cell phones.
"Finding My Forest" provides the tools needed to help integrate the wonder of forests right into youth education efforts.
Interested individuals may start by taking a "virtual hike," downloading the curriculum or exploring the rest of the site to find information about forests, what to do when there and ways to connect with other "forest friends."
The material is designed for grades 3-8. The curriculum helps make natural spaces, from the schoolyard outside, to public forests around the country, more relevant to students.
The site offers simple ways to create a classroom blog and link it to the iForest Network Google Map, which connects participating classrooms from across the nation.
The site includes tools and resources from partner organizations.
One area of the site that is particularly fun is the online (by zip code) field guide, at www.enature.com/zipguides/.
It is a great site to learn details about birds, butterflies, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, trees, wild flowers, for the area chosen.
Pictures, habitat information and in the case of the birds, interested individuals may even listen to their sounds.
"Finding My Forest" is part of a USDA Forest Service and AdCouncil campaign aimed at connecting children and parents with nature.
For more information about the campaign and other resources, visit www.DiscoverTheForest.org.
Additional conservation education resources from the USDA Forest Service may be accessed at www.na.fs.fed.us.coned/. | <urn:uuid:e45290fd-4ddf-41cc-83c8-d6c08699f5ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebraziltimes.com/story/1678362.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935697 | 450 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Camp Chesterfield in Madison County, Indiana is the home of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists where communication with the spirit world is embraced.
As settlers occupied the Northwest Territory, the need for transportation in Indiana was high. The Indiana Internal Improvements Act of 1836 helped, by constructing the Whitewater Canal.
A Scandinavian immigrant to Indiana is remembered as one of the most monstrous figures in American criminal history. The woman who came to be known as Belle Gunness arrived in in 1881. | <urn:uuid:95f16bc8-c97d-4da3-8be7-3c51ee9b7628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianapublicmedia.org/momentofindianahistory/archives/2005/6/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949863 | 98 | 1.929688 | 2 |
projective geometry, branch of geometry concerned with those properties of geometric figures that remain invariant under projection. The basic elements are points, lines, and planes, and the following statements are usually taken as assumptions: (1) two points lie in a unique line; (2) three points not on the same line determine a plane; (3) two lines in a plane intersect in a point; (4) two planes intersect in a line; (5) three planes not containing the same line intersect in a point. The basic elements retain their character under projection; e.g., the projection of a line is another line, and the point of intersection of two lines is projected into another point that is the intersection of the projections of the two original lines. However, lengths and ratios of lengths are not invariant under projection, nor are angles or the shapes of figures. The concept of parallelism does not appear at all in projective geometry; any pair of distinct lines intersects in a point, and if these lines are parallel in the sense of Euclidean geometry, then their point of intersection is at infinity. The plane that includes the ideal line, or line at infinity, consisting of all such ideal points, is called the projective plane. Two properties that are invariant under projection are the order of three or more points on a line and the harmonic relationship, or cross ratio, among four points, A, B, C, D, i.e., AC / BC : AD / BD. One important concept in projective geometry is that of duality. In the plane, the terms point and line are dual and can be interchanged in any valid statement to yield another valid statement, e.g., statements (1) and (3) above; in space, the terms plane, line, and point are interchanged with point, line, and plane, respectively, to yield dual statements (sometimes with slight changes in wording) as in statements (2) and (5) and statements (1) and (4) above. The origins of projective geometry are found in the work of Pappus, Gérard Desargues, and others. It first emerged as a discipline in its own right with the work of J. V. Poncelet (1822) and was placed on an axiomatic basis by K. G. C. von Staudt (1847), both these mathematicians adopting the pure, or synthetic, approach, in which algebraic and analytic methods are avoided and the treatment is purely geometric, in contrast to the approach of A. F. Möbius, Julius Plücker, and others. Projective geometry is more general than the familiar Euclidean geometry and includes the metric geometries (both Euclidean and non-Euclidean) as special cases.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
More on projective geometry from Infoplease:
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Mathematics | <urn:uuid:6091afb3-6641-4fc3-918a-fe3bf1c56d1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/projective-geometry.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936126 | 620 | 3.765625 | 4 |
How Does The Internet Aid Fraud?
How does the internet aid fraud? On an almost daily basis, you can read articles in the newspapers about someone having been defrauded on the internet. That’s because the internet is a hotbed of fraud and it allows almost anyone to get into the fraud game. In fact, back in the early days of the internet, "The New Yorker" ran a now famous cartoon with a dog standing in front of a computer. The caption read, "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog." This is the answer to the question--the internet allows anyone to pretend to be anyone they want to be. Check out the scams below and you'll see exactly how this all plays out.
The Nigerian Banker Who Desperately Needs to Find a Relative This scam, which is still used regularly and still ropes in dozens of people a year, has been around for a long time. You’ll get an email from someone claiming to be a banker or lawyer representing a man (or woman, but usually a man) who died and left several million dollars in their bank account in Nigeria, Sao Paulo or whatever exotic location you care to consider. The money can be yours for the taking. All you need to do is respond and claim that you are the long lost relative of this poor deceased millionaire. The banker will deposit the money into your account and all he wants is a 20% commission. Give him your bank details and what will actually happen is that your account will be emptied overnight. No Nigerian fortune, just a huge headache and loss.
The Auction Scam Online auctions are extremely popular. So much in fact that many people have been ensnared by scams targeting those who think they can get a great deal using an auction. The way it works is you bid on an auction, sometimes even at a legitimate site like eBay, and the seller asks you to pay with cash, a check or money order. You send your money, but the item never arrives. While some sites offer limited protection against fraud, the protection will not cover you if you pay with cash or checks.
Writing Scams In the face of difficult times, many people think they can make some money by writing on the internet. Writer beware. While there are plenty of legitimate places to write and make money on the internet, many places will tell you that they pay nothing for your writing, but allow you to have “publicity.” While this may seem perfectly legitimate, the reality is that most of these sites take material from almost anyone. Because of that, the only publicity you’ll get is that your writing is worthless. If you want to write for money, look for places with editorial standards who actually pay their writers. While it may not be much, if they pay for the writing, they are more likely to be legitimate. | <urn:uuid:e3f503ec-93ea-4a10-8e8c-1c2ef171dfa1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mademan.com/mm/how-does-internet-aid-fraud.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96271 | 584 | 2.390625 | 2 |
...the definitive sexy librarian...
PARIS — France's national library has acquired the memoirs of Casanova, a moving narrative written in French by the 18th century Venetian-born lothario. Times Online reports.
The memoirs, "The Story of My Life," had been in the hands of one of Germany's most prominent publishing families for nearly two centuries.
The manuscript was acquired by the Brockhaus family in 1820, hidden by Frederic-Arnold Brockhaus during World War II, then carried by an American military truck in 1945 out of Leipzig. It was finally published in 1960.
...it seems there's quite a bit he scratched out...
The manuscript was donated to the French National Library. Casanova, who was born in 1725, wrote his memoirs between 1789 and 1798, the year of his death. Here...a bit excerpted:
"(I have had) exploits with 120 women and girls, including a nun. As for women, I have always found that the one I was in love with smelled good, and the more copious her sweat the sweeter I found it." | <urn:uuid:abe327ae-50bb-499a-bce7-022ceaed2da7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lisnews.org/casanova_memoirs_donated_french_national_library | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989878 | 238 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Thousands of Christians are converging on Thursday for a day of prayer, worship and fasting for Toronto and Canada.
The prayer movement is known as TheCRY Toronto. Its motto: "It's not a concert. It's not a conference. It's a CRY." The event focuses on the power of unified prayer and blessing.
"The heart of TheCRY is to bring people of faith together to bless this nation through prayer," says Faytene Grasseschi, director of TheCRY, which held its first prayer event in 2002 when about 10,000 Christians gathered on Parliament Hill to pray for Canada.
"The movement of unity definitely is transcending age groups and denominations and it's something God is doing not just in a nation, but in a generation," she says.
TheCRY Movement is gathering Christians with a heart to see God move in this generation to the historic Massey Hall in the center of downtown Toronto. Beyond an entertainment center, Toronto is also an epicenter for many economic, educational and even governmental trends. As Grasseschi sees it, to impact Toronto is to impact Canada.
As one of the world's most diverse cities, Toronto has a global impact. According to the 2006 census, half of Toronto's 2.48 million residents were born outside of Canada. Over 140 languages and dialects are spoken in the city, and the population represents over 200 distinct ethnic origins.
Pointing to this diversity, Grasseschi says, "If God can impact the nations within Toronto, it will literally impact the whole world."
Organizers of TheCRY say that their goal is not to criticize, but to bless the city to reach it's full potential.
"Back in the day it was called 'Toronto the Good,'" says Grasseschi. "And so we're going to come in and say, 'Toronto, you're good,' and call forth that dream in the heart of God for Toronto to manifest His goodness and for that to ripple across Canada and to the ends of the earth."
A broad range of Toronto's diverse Christian communities will be represented at TheCRY.
"Pastors in the city, cross-denominationally, cross-ethnically, have been sensing the call to come together to pray," said Hany Boghossian, Chair of MissionGTA. "We're seeing Anglicans, charismatics, some non-denominationals, evangelicals ... We have the Spanish Pastors Network that is coming along and bringing their churches and their congregations. We have the Filipino community ... There is a level of excitement that I have not seen in such a long time." | <urn:uuid:6dd1040f-f1b7-4efe-a525-847406463484> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charismanews.com/world/33689-thecry-toronto-praying-for-move-of-god | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96543 | 542 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Jews have lived in Libya since the 3rd century BC, when North Africa was under Roman rule. During the Greco-Roman period Libya corresponded approximately with Cyrene and the territory belonging to it. Jews lived there – including many that moved there from Egypt; Augustus granted Cyrene’s Jewish population certain privileges through Flavius, the governor of the province. At the time, they had close contact to the Jews in Jerusalem. In 73 BC during the First Jewish-Roman War in Iudaea Province, there was a revolt by the Jewish community in Cyrene led by Jonathan the Weaver, which was quickly suppressed by the governor Catullus. Jonathan was denounced to the governor of Pentapolis. In vengeance, the Romans then killed him and many wealthy Jews in Cyrene.
In 115, another Jewish revolt broke out not only in Cyrene, but also in Egypt and Cyprus. In 1911, Libya was colonized by Italy. By 1931, there were 21,000 Jews living in the country (4% of the total population of 550,000), mostly in Tripoli. The situation for the Jews was generally good. But, in the late 1930s, the Fascist Italian regime began passing anti-Semitic laws. As a result of these laws, Jews were fired from government jobs, some were sent away from government schools, and their citizenship papers were stamped with the words “Jewish race.” Despite this repression, 25% of the population of Tripoli was still Jewish in 1941 and 44 synagogues were maintained in the city. In 1942, German troops fighting the Allies in North Africa occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, plundering shops and deporting more than 2,000 Jews across the desert. Sent to work in labor camps, more than one-fifth of this group of Jews perished.
During World War II, Libya’s Jewish population was subjected to anti-Semitic laws by the Fascist Italian regime and deportations by German troops.
After the war, anti-Jewish violence caused many Jews to leave the country, principally for Israel. Some of the worst anti-Jewish violence occurred in the years following the liberation of North Africa by Allied troops. From November 5 to November 7, 1945, more than 140 Jews were killed and many more injured in a pogrom in Tripoli. The rioters looted nearly all of the city’s synagogues and destroyed five of them, along with hundreds of homes and businesses. In June 1948, anti-Jewish rioters killed another 12 Jews and destroyed 280 Jewish homes. This time, however, the Libyan Jewish community had prepared to defend itself. Jewish self-defense units fought back against the rioters, preventing dozens of more deaths.
The insecurity which arose from these anti-Jewish attacks as well as the founding of the state of Israel led many Jews to emigrate. From 1948 to 1951, and especially after immigration became legal in 1949, 30,972 Jews moved to Israel. On December 31, 1958 the Jewish Community Council was dissolved by law. In 1961, another law required a special permit to prove true Libyan citizenship, which was, however, denied to all but six Jewish inhabitants of the country.
By 1967, the Jewish population of Libya had decreased to 7,000. After the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Libyan Jews were once against the target of anti-Jewish riots. During these attacks, rioters killed 18 people and more were injured. Leaders of the Jewish community then asked King Idris I to allow the entire Jewish population to “temporarily” leave the country; he consented, even urging them to leave. Through an airlift and the aid of several ships, the Italian navy helped evacuate more than 6,000 Jews to Rome in one month. The evacuees were forced to leave their homes, their businesses and most of their possession behind. Of these 6,000, more than 4,000 soon left Italy for Israel or the United States. The ones who remained created a Jewish community in Rome, which now consists of 15,000 people, including many from Libya and their descendants who have a large influence on the community.
By the time Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi came to power in 1969 only about 100 Jews remained in Libya; under his rule, all Jewish property was confiscated, all debts to Jews were canceled and emigration for Jews was legally prohibited. Still some Jews succeeded in leaving the country and by 1974, only 20 Jews lived in Libya. In 2002, the last known Jew in Libya, Esmeralda Meghnagi, died and it was thought that the long history of Jewry in Libya had ended. In the same year, however, it was discovered that Rina Debach, a then 80-year old woman, who was born and raised in Tripoli, but thought to be dead by her family in Rome, was still living in a nursing home in the country. With her ensuing departure for Rome, there were no more Jews in the country. The last Jew of Libya, Rina Debach, left the country in 2003.
In 2004, Gaddafi indicated that the Libyan government would compensate Jews who were forced to leave the country and stripped of their possessions. In October of that year he met with representatives of Jewish organizations to discuss compensation. He did, however, insist that Jews who moved to Israel would not be compensated. Some suspect these moves were motivated by his son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, who is considered to be the likely successor of his father. In the same year, Saif had welcomed Jews back into the country, saying that they are Libyans that should “leave the land they took from Palaestinia.” On December 9, Gaddafi also extended an invitation to Moshe Kahlon, the deputy speaker of the Knesset and son of Libyan immigrants, to Tripoli
Under Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, who has ruled the country since 1969, the situation deteriorated further, eventually leading to the emigration of the remaining Jewish population.
NOTE: Ads are automatically served – if you see one that is objectionable, please copy the URL and send it to us. | <urn:uuid:97ec927a-c1df-4454-bbb5-2d2445719469> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biblediscovered.com/jewish-hebrew-people-in-the-world/libyan-jews/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986228 | 1,257 | 3.796875 | 4 |
“There is no dilemma compared with that of the deep-sea diver who hears the message from the ship above, "Come up at once. We are sinking."”
“I am the captain of this ship! And I have control of what's goes on or in. For I am the master of My thoughts. And No doubt or fear is welcome aboard!...”
Philip T. M.
“Divers have found there is no air left in the holds of the ship. That means sea water has filled the area, leaving no chance of survival.”
“A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.”
Grace Murray Hopper
“No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.”
“Good evening Mr and Mrs America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press.”
“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep”
Quotes Daddy offers a number of tools for developers and bloggers to integrate quotes into their site including customizable widgets, embeddable quotes and API.
Over 1,000,000 famous quotes and user quotes that you can save to your favorites, share with friends and add to your site, blog or social network.Find us on Google Ad Planner | <urn:uuid:f275485f-d2b0-4603-b0e7-ed87a9a09012> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quotesdaddy.com/quote/731989/robert-cooper/there-is-no-dilemma-compared-with-that-of-the-deep | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95184 | 312 | 1.515625 | 2 |
As noted here, CMS started observing LHC beam splash events for the first time in 2009 on Saturday evening (Geneva time). What is happening here is that a beam is sent into a collimator upstream of the CMS detector, resulting in a spray of particles that then go through the detector, lighting up a number of components. Such splashes are happening again this evening. (Accelerators usually do their best stuff on the weekend, when there are fewer people tinkering with things.)
Darin Acosta, one of the detector operations leaders, has been posting interesting news from the detector as it comes in — follow him here. Of course there is much further to go yet, but there is a lot of excitement in CMS as we end our fourteen months of patience and preparation and start detecting beam particles once more. | <urn:uuid:bfc8d43d-3891-437d-bcbd-6f22f4a153b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quantumdiaries.org/2009/11/08/more-on-lhc-beam-in-cms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963463 | 166 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Updated: November 30, 2011 3:40 PM EST
Send some sunshine home
We high-tailed it out town Thanksgiving weekend to the land of sunshine, fresh fish and, of course, citrus fruit.
And just about every day we passed a fruit store that reminded visitors and locals alike to order their holiday fruit boxes now. Honeybells, a terrifically sweet orange, come into season in January, and they are just the treat to add a little of that Florida sunshine to the dark days of Erie winters.
Years ago, when fruit boxes arrived, I couldn't figure out why someone would send us a box of citrus fruit when we could get the same thing in a grocery store. It's taken me a few years (and a few trips to Florida) to finally get it -- they taste better. For anyone who follows the local food movement, this makes perfect sense. Florida oranges that are picked when not quite ripe and shipped north on trucks and stored in warehouses for weeks just don't cut it. It's not unlike the taste difference between a California peach in May and an Erie peach during the summer season -- one bite will make you a convert to eating regionally.
So what about those oranges? A box that goes from the grove into overnight mail does retain its Florida tastes, as long as the oranges were picked at their peak of ripeness. While less perishable than fresh peaches, fresh oranges and grapefruit don't take kindly to prolonged stays in your refrigerator. It is best to eat them soon after their arrival. For some people, this might pose a challenge. After all, how many oranges can one person eat in a day? Plus, many dietitians advocate skipping the juice and eating the fruit whole because it contains fiber and more nutritional benefits.
So if you find yourself on the receiving end of a box of oranges and/or grapefruit, enjoy. I'm a fan of grapefruit, so I've included a salad today that calls for candying the grapefruit sections. You can do this with oranges too. But you can skip the whole candying process and substitute candied walnuts instead of plain toasted walnuts for additional crunch.
Orange chicken is a fast and easy winter dinner that is bright and refreshing. Serve it with a salad, broccoli and/or rice for a quick weeknight dinner. And, finally, oranges make a beautiful cake, both in color and flavor.
So enjoy your oranges. They're not just for breakfast, or juice, anymore.
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Oct. 18, 2011 -- When E! News anchor Giuliana Rancic made her breast cancer diagnosis public, there was speculation about whether fertility treatment might have been a factor.
On NBC's Today show, Rancic, 37, said she got a mammogram when her doctor strongly recommended it before starting another round of IVF (in vitro fertilization). On their reality TV show, Rancic and her husband, Bill, have chronicled their previous fertility treatments.
Rancic's diagnosis has raised questions about whether fertility treatment can increase the risk for breast cancer. WebMD got answers from fertility and breast cancer specialists.
Is there a link between IVF and breast cancer risk?
Fertility and cancer experts interviewed for this story agree that there is no strong evidence to connect fertility drugs with increased risk for breast cancer. Oncologists add that there is a need for studies that follow women who have undergone IVF for longer periods of time.
Couldn't the increased levels of estrogen in fertility treatments increase risk for breast cancer?
Exposure to estrogen and progestin after menopause has been linked to increased risk for breast cancer for women in their 50s and 60s, but fertility drugs do not expose women to estrogen at that age, says Samantha Pfeifer, MD. She is chair of the practice committee at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Pfeifer says fertility drugs raise estrogen levels for up to seven days at a time. "Estrogen levels are not significantly raised for a prolonged period of time."
Is it possible that women undergoing fertility treatment have other risk factors unrelated to fertility drugs?
Yes. There are many factors that affect breast cancer risk.
Most women undergoing fertility treatment are over 32 and have never had a child, which is a risk factor for breast cancer, says Jennifer Litton, MD. Litton is a breast medical oncologist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Are there special recommendations for women who want to undergo IVF but who have increased risk factors for breast cancer, such as the BRCA gene mutation or a family history?
Recommendations about undergoing fertility treatment are no different for women who have breast cancer risk factors. "As long as you don't have a cancer diagnosis," Litton tells WebMD, "at this point, there is no evidence that IVF will increase risk for patients with greater risk factors, even those with the BRCA gene mutation or family history."
Is it common for fertility doctors to recommend a mammogram before a woman undergoes IVF?
Any woman who is trying to get pregnant should be following the regular guidelines for health maintenance. "You want to make sure the Pap smears are up to date and that any routine screening has been done," Pfeifer says. "We follow the established guidelines of mammograms starting at age 40 for women who don't have significant risk factors." | <urn:uuid:05abdb1f-bccb-44a5-a32c-cfed73aa062f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20111018/does-fertility-treatment-raise-breast-cancer-risk?src=rsf_full-1825_pub_none_rltd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962165 | 599 | 1.828125 | 2 |
As congressional Republicans continue their assault on President Obama’s seemingly failed “green” agenda, the White House announced August 7 it will expedite seven federal wind and solar projects across four western states. The programs, which will be grounded in Nevada, Arizona, California, and Wyoming, will generate enough power to run 1.5 million homes, the White House said in a press release.
“As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above strategy to expand domestic energy production and strengthen the economy, we are working to advance smart development of renewable energy on our public lands,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar affirmed. “These seven proposed solar and wind projects have great potential to grow our nation’s energy independence, drive job creation, and power economies across the west.”
A component of Obama’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign — a series of executive actions intended to expand the economy in the face of congressional opposition — a recent executive order championed by the White House is designed in part to expedite environmental programs:
As a part of a Presidential Executive Order issued in March of this year, the Office of Management and Budget is charged with overseeing a government-wide effort to make the permitting and review process for infrastructure projects more efficient and effective, saving time while driving better outcomes for the environment and local communities.
Additional expedited infrastructure projects will be announced in the coming weeks.
Click here to read the entire article. | <urn:uuid:a806437b-18c1-496b-b1d8-b3359c20a10a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/home/obama-expedites-seven-new-solar-and-wind-projects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936382 | 306 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Under the rhetoric of “protecting citizens”; governments, international bodies, and the corporate sector are rapidly intensifying security, surveillance and anti-terror regimes at the national and global levels.
In light of the next SPP Summit in New Orleans in April 2008, join us for a free public forum including SHORT FILMS and SPEAKERS to find out about these developments and what you can do to challenge this expanding industrial-complex.
Sunday April 27 at 6 pm. YWCA (733 Beatty Street, corner W. Georgia). 1 block from Stadium Skyrain Station
Did you know that:
- In Canada, over $25 billion has been spent on security measures since 9/11?
- There are currently over 50 US employees and agents including from Homeland Security and FBI stationed in Vancouver?
- As part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreement, a series of joint military exercises will be held in advance of the 2010 Olympics?
- A future world wide “Smart Cards” system is being tested on the Mohawk and Cree communities?
- A $ 3.2 million maximum security prison “Guantanamo North” was built in Ontario to detain Muslim detainees on secret evidence?
- Canada and Israel recently signed a pact to coordinate security and anti-terror activities?
- There is a well-coordinated and growing network of global surveillance that has become one of the most lucrative global markets?
Organized by No One is Illegal-Vancouver.
For more information, email firstname.lastname@example.org or call 778 885 0040 | <urn:uuid:074365cf-d9b0-4271-8f3b-72c9387352b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=693 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933375 | 331 | 1.609375 | 2 |
After studying Romans 1:18-32 and being in relationship with a significant number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) Christians, I have changed my view on the meaning of these verses in Romans. Some may want to discount me because my theology differs from theirs. I get that; I was an adherent to the traditional view for almost twenty years. But, the likelihood is, until you’ve invested time into looking into these Scriptures for yourselves with a Bible, concordance and Holy Spirit wisdom, you are probably just repeating what you’ve been told .
I contend that there are severe cultural and fear based biases applied to the traditional view Christians have been taught in the last several decades. We didn’t used to be this mean or focused with venom on the GLBT community. The 1990′s ushered in a new era of homophobia in the church. Bible translations changed the words to reflect “homosexual” and “homosexuality” as the worst thing a person could be. I bought it all, until I got into a close friendship with a lesbian. The rules change when you like someone and I needed to look at the verses for myself.
I cover my interpretation of these verses in Romans in “Romans 1: 26 – 32 | To Whom Was This Directed?”. This post is an appeal to Christians to consider the impact of misapplying those verses. And to parents of gay/trans youth, I actually hope my words make you cry.
When the lives of so many people are in the balance, being lazy about personal investigation won’t cut it. Not your problem, don’t care, already settled on the issue? Well, the GLBT population is at about five in one hundred. We need to care. Seventy percent of GLBT people say a relationship with God is “very important to them” (Barna) And further, 58% say that they have made a personal commitment to Jesus. So why aren’t we seeing those gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in our churches? If God is as important to them and they have made personal commitments to Jesus as the statistics tell us, where are they?
Please read my postings on Romans 1:26- 32 first if you have the time. You will understand the position I am taking in these verses. Context, original language, audience, writer. All this matters. It was not written to a group of homosexual people today. But, that is how we often read it. It was written to a group of Romans, in the first century about a specific issue. Take a few minutes to read “Romans 1: 26 – 32 | To Whom Was This Directed?” for more details. In the NIV,we read:
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Quick recap: Romans was written to people who once knew God and had made a profession to follow Jesus as the Christ. The audience was new believers, left behind in Rome after the Jews, Christian Jews and Gentiles ” that lived as Jewish Christians” were evicted for infighting. Left behind were the weaker, new followers: Romans who were steeped in legacies of idol worship and surprise, surprise, they fell right back into it when their mentors left town.
We can see in reading Romans 1 that there are God-ordained consequences for having once known God, made a profession of faith in Jesus and then ,rejecting Him. These consequences are meted out on ALL people, not just homosexual people. The incredible injustice however is, however, that in the traditional view of Romans 1:26 – 28, it is the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to whom the verses are directed.
We , as a church, have rejected GLBT people who once made a profession of belief in Jesus. or even those that are interested in getting to know what He is about. We demand that they change, demand that they not be gay, lesbian, bisexual or trangender. And the common response? They leave our churches or dare not walk in them. Not only do they leave our churches, but they are deeply wounded and hurt by Christians. Damage done in the name of Jesus. Many turn their backs on Him and permanently reject Him because of the non-loving treatment of Christians.
So, what do Romans 1 , Matthew 12 and Mark 3 say happens to those people who professed faith in Jesus/God/ Holy Spirit and turn from this knowledge? God leaves them and their lives get worse. Remember, this applies to heterosexual people too.
Have the consequences of your imposed rejection of the lives of others convicted any of you? There are people that once knew Him and they now hate Him because His followers have twisted Scripture to say it is God Who hates who they are, how they were created. And, who is it that pushed them away? God? Or well meaning people using verses they think they understand? People with the best of intentions to ensure that ” none should perish”, telling the gay community that they need to change their orientation or God will never accept them.
Let me make it more personal and very painful, especially to parents who have done this to their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids. Many Christian parents have raised their children in the faith. They know that their child once made a profession of belief in Christ. Even before these children hit puberty (uasually 5 to 8 when there are NO sexual thoughts going on), the child started to realize something was different. They wrestle, and eventually come to understand that they are gay. All the while, they are hearing that gay people are outside God’s will, that gay people will go to hell, that gay people are abominations, that gay people need to and can change, that gay people cannot please God. Whoa! Imagine being in the stage of your life when you are struggling to even figure out who you are , as all teens do, then, add onto that the suspecting that your own sexual orientation is different. Parents, pastors, youth group leaders will add to the struggle and now let them know that not even God likes them.
I hear horror stories of parental responses. Parents, in their efforts to force their children to be straight, will actually push their children FROM the faith. Most GLBTs raised in the church will come to a point of choosing between faith and orientation. Because we make them choose. Gay or Christian? As if they can choose not to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender? I have one friend who says, “I did not choose my orientation, but I did choose Jesus.”
So back to Romans . . what do the verses tell us will happen when people, having known God, turn their backs on Him? God will abandon them to themselves and their lives will get worse. Repeat, worse. This is that one really bad sin we have all heard about since childhood “blaspheming the Holy Spirit”: having known He exists and now denying that He does. THAT is the thing spoken of in Romans. THAT is what the recipients of the Letter to the Romans had done- they turned from God. They weren’t gay; they were people who turned back to their old ways of idolatry, part of which was same sex behavior in their temple rites an in prostitution in their worship experiences.
And many of us will take these verses and lay them on the backs of an entire class of people. And, this the a question to Christian parents with gay, lesbian, bisexual or trangender children: have you pushed your child from Jesus, from church, from your family because you have misused these verses? Weep. Weep, not only for what you imposed on the back and spirit of your child, but also for the consequences you are going to be held responsible for.
Do you realize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens are 8 times more at risk of suicide, 4 times more apt to abuse substances and 6 times more likely to suffer depression than their heterosexual counterparts? Did you know that? And, why do you think this is? Sexual orientation, “reprobate minds”? No. Rejection, non acceptance, hopelessness . The struggle and the knowing that they cannot change orientation. Pile onto that parental pressure, church pressure, societal pressure. Pile it on. On some city streets, up to 40% of the teens are gay and trans youth, yet, they are only 5% of the population. Parents are kicking them out; parents are making it uncomfortable for these gay and trans youth to be at home. Want to destroy your child? Burden them with Romans 1, reject them and tell them they are not good enough the way they are. Tell them they are not pleasing to God.
The “pray the gay away” movement was started in the 70′s, during the “name it and claim it” era of Christianity. The most widely known of all of the “pray the gay aways” is Exodus. These statements are from their own website:
- heterosexuality is God’s intent for humanity and thus homosexuality is out of God’s will
- homosexuality can be broken by breaking the sin of it in a person’s life
- reorientation is possible
Stories of familial dysfunction and sexual abuse, common in the lives of heterosexual and homosexual people, are re-written in the Exodus experience to support the “this is why you are gay” storyline. To the father who recently told his 20 year old lesbian daughter that it would have been better for the mother to have had an abortion than she be gay: if you push your child from Christ, you will be responsible. Matthew 18:6 is clear, “if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Pretty clear what Jesus would say to you.
I am daily amazed to hear the stories of gay/trans Christians finding their way back to God and by those that somehow stay in His grip with all the opposition the church places in their paths. To those of you GLBT Christians who are in relationship with the Father, you have my absolute respect. I apologize for the pain caused by the people of God towards the “other” children of God. This never should have happened and it does need to be corrected.
We, the traditional church, in our arrogance of “knowing” what the heart of God is on this issue of sexual orientation, have let many in the gay and trans community suffer the drastic consequences of Romans 1: 28-32 and then, we ridicule them. Rejection has consequences.
We have taken verses about any person who knew God and now reject Him and used them to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Please, please, please, use your own Bible and a concordance, not the translation of the words you read, but the original words and study. Read some history; see what was going on at the time for yourself. Reading the Bible in context of today and in context of our own culture is foolish.
Finally, I get letters, comments and messages every day, every day, from people who have been rejected by the people of God and, of course, translate that as a rejection by God. If you have caused damaged to a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person with your interpretatio n of Romans 1, get down on both your knees and beg God for the wisdom to correct this offense. You may be the reason that som eone has walked away from God. We can differ on the interpretation of these Scriptures, but , if your theology in any way subjugates, eliminates, oppresses or lays extra burdens on any group of people, you are missing the message of the Good News. And, that is a problem.
“Was Sodom Really Destroyed Because it Was a Gay City?”
“Hello, I’m a Detestable Abomination | Looking at Leviticus & Deuteronomy”
“Romans 1:26-32 | To Whom Was This Directed?”“Are You In or Out? I Corinthians and I Timothy”
“Words on My Heart”
No part of this original work may be quoted in part without permission. Entire article with author name, Kathy Baldock, must be linked or appear with text. www.canyonwalkerconnections.com | <urn:uuid:173715cf-b975-49e1-b9c5-f2373cccad40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://canyonwalkerconnections.com/romans-1-caution-to-those-who-have-used-romans-as-anti-gay-license/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972406 | 2,834 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Additionally, Rivera has written that Hispanics are routinely subjected to "violence by public officials" in the form of police brutality, unwarranted stop-and-frisks, prosecutorial bias resulting in higher charges and longer sentences and a seeming indifference to domestic crimes suffered by Latinas.
"While these forms of violence by public officials stand apart from violence by private individuals, both are intricately connected and arguably codependent," Rivera wrote in 2009 ("The Continuum of Violence Against Latinas and Latinos," 12 New York City Law Review 399, 2009). "Inflammatory media stereotypes that propagate inaccurate images of Latinos as a danger to the United States government and economy are an integral part of this continuum of violence."
She further complained that authorities as well as private individuals "have turned their anger towards one sector of the Latino community, Latino workers who are undocumented," a hostility "made possible by a new, yet all too familiar, wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric."
If Rivera is confirmed, which seems likely because no Court of Appeals nominee has ever been rejected by the Senate, she would bring the perspective of a career academic to the courta perspective it has rarely, if ever, had.
While many renowned scholars have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court, including the late Felix Frankfurter and incumbent Elena Kagan, none of the current or recent judges of the state's top court came from academia. Many were former Appellate Division justices, some were lower court judges, a few were practicing lawyers.
Court watchers and staff were unable to identify any judge who moved directly from a law professorship to Eagle Street.
Retired Court of Appeals Judge Stewart Hancock Jr. said the addition of an academic to the court would increase its intellectual diversity. Hancock said since judges are more commonly elevated from the Appellate Divisionsas was hethey tend to have similar experiences, and the experiences of litigators follow a trajectory similar to that of trial and mid-level appellate judges.
"To have someone who can look at the sophisticated problems that come up in perhaps a different way than those who came up from the Appellate Divisions adds breadth to the court, and I think that is a positive," said Hancock, now of counsel at Goris & O'Sullivan in Cazenovia.
Although Rivera worked early in her career as a Legal Aid attorney and administrative law judge and spent a year and a half as a special deputy state attorney general for civil rights, she has primarily worked in academia.
Rivera, a history major at Princeton before earning law degrees at New York University School of Law (J.D.) and Columbia (LL.M), was an assistant professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston in the mid-1990s, a visiting professor at American University in Washington and has been on the CUNY faculty since 1997.
And unlike most judges, Rivera did not arise from politics. She is a registered Democrat like the governor who nominated her, Andrew Cuomo, and she worked for Cuomo when he was attorney general, but she has never held elective office. | <urn:uuid:b0fd0d9d-4b36-45f3-930b-2b2a1700a988> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202585475344&thepage=2 | 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 | 0.981888 | 628 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The leading child killer
Malaria is the leading killer of children in Mozambique. About 36,000 children die from malaria every year and the disease accounts for 40 per cent of all out-patient consultations and up to 60 per cent of in-patients in paediatric wards.
There are three principal ways in which malaria can contribute to death in young children. First, an overwhelming acute infection, which frequently manifests as seizures or coma, may kill a child directly and quickly.
Second, repeated malaria infections contribute to the development of severe anaemia, which substantially increases the risk of death.
Third, low birth weight – frequently the consequence of malaria infection in pregnant women – is a major risk factor for death in the first month of life.
A risk to mothers
Malaria is also a health risk to pregnant women as it has adverse effects on both the mother and the unborn child, including maternal anaemia, foetal loss, premature delivery and low birth weight babies. Malaria contributes to maternal mortality when it compounds conditions such as tuberculosis, HIV infection, malnutrition and iron deficiency.
Prevention better than cure
One of the best ways to prevent malaria, together with house spraying with insecticides, is to sleep at night under an insecticide-treated bed net or the newer long-lasting insecticidal nets, which do not need retreatment. Mozambique has a widespread programme for the distribution and promotion of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
What is being done
Between 2000 and 2009, UNICEF supported the distribution of 2.9 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets to pregnant women, children under five, orphaned and vulnerable children and people living with HIV across the country, out of a total of over 6 million nets distributed by various partners.
By 2009, pregnant women in all provinces except Maputo received a long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets through antenantal services.
The UNICEF-supported programme complements the government’s Indoor Residual Spraying programme.
The insecticide-treated mosquito nets are distributed free of charge to pregnant women through routine antenatal care services in health facilities and to children under five through health campaigns.
UNICEF has worked with the Ministry of Health and a range of partners to develop a cost effective strategy of mosquito nets distribution at district level under the management of District Health Teams.
UNICEF is also supporting the Ministry of Health in the procurement of anti-malarial drugs, through the UNITAID initiative, and is exploring with the Ministry of Health the possibility of embarking on procurement services for large quantities of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets, aiming at universal coverage.
The way forward
Between 2010 and 2011, UNICEF will continue to support the Ministry of Health in expanding the coverage of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets and other malaria prevention and treatment methods in two main areas of interventions.
Strengthening planning and service delivery capacity at district level
Support national policy development, coordination and setting standards and norms | <urn:uuid:2a158646-2058-4687-8c68-ba74720cbdc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unicef.org/mozambique/2946.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923559 | 616 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Spare the pests. Kill the people!
By Alan Caruba
Question? What do the following diseases have in common? Malaria, Encephalitis, Dengue fever, Bubonic plague, Salmonellosis, Yellow Fever, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme disease, Tularemia, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Gastroenteritis, and Typhoid Fever. They are all transmitted by insects such a mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and cockroaches. Today, they are responsible for killing millions of people around the world every year.
Question? Why is the Environmental Protection Agency not only failing to protect Americans against these insect and rodent-borne diseases, but is deliberately leaving people vulnerable by taking away every one of the major pesticides needed to eradicate the vast populations of these pests? The answer is that those who decide these matters in the EPA adhere to the genocidal agenda of the environmental movement that sees the elimination of human beings as the best way to protect the earth.
That can be the only answer to the EPA's latest assault on one of the most effective pesticides in use for the past thirty years, chlorpyrifos, better known as Dursban or Lorsban. In banning Dursban, they will be removing a pesticide at work in more than 800 products used to exterminate the billions of cockroaches, ants, spiders, fleas, flies, termites, and other insects that pose a threat to human health and property. The loss of its agricultural equivalent, Lorsban, will leave millions of acres of food crops vulnerable to attack by countless insect species.
This has nothing to do with science. After three decades of use, it is clear to everyone that, applied according to the instructions on the label, Dursban poses no threat to human beings. It does just the opposite. It protects them.
It protects them today in ways the EPA is determined to eliminate. In doing so, the EPA says its decision will not even be based on science. Instead, they say that using such data would be "unethical." What, however, is ethical about putting the lives of Americans at risk for the spread of diseases that only the proper use of pesticides can prevent?
Even a June 2nd Associated Press story on the ban noted that, "The agency concluded the compound poses no immediate threat to public health and won't order a recall of products containing it." No immediate threat? It has posed no threat for three decades. There is no overwhelming or even significant evidence it poses a threat. Why then is it being banned? Why ban a product that farmers use to control the legions of pests that attack wheat, corn and more than 75% of the nation's apple crops?
In the opening chapter of The Ratcatcher's Child, a book about the history of the pest control profession by the late author, Dr. Robert Snetsinger, he wrote, "In these days of refrigeration, packaged foods, disinfectants, pesticides, municipal garbage and sewage services, washing machines and other technology which provide high levels of sanitation, it is difficult for those living in developed countries to envision a time only a few generations ago when mankind lived in filth and squalor."
In my own lifetime, I can recall when refrigeration meant putting a big block of ice in a metal box. I can remember when milk was delivered to my home by a horse-drawn wagon. I can remember the days before the creation of mosquito control commissions when summer meant days spent swatting them away and nights spent under the covers as they buzzed around the room. I did not live in some rural community. I lived in a New Jersey suburb.
Whole generations have grown up deprived of an understanding the power of nature and, in particular, the insect and rodent pest species that serve as vectors of disease. School curriculums have been taken over by the Greens, constantly teaching children that pesticides are a threat, but the real history of man can be fairly neatly divided between the history of warfare and the history of epidemics.
In the 1400's, a combination of fleas and rats spread the Bubonic plague that killed 13 million in China and three quarters of the population of Europe, an estimated 75 million people. It can happen again! An outbreak of Bubonic plague occurred in India only a few years ago. Today, thanks to the ban on DDT, millions around the world die annually from Malaria. The West Nile Fever, previously unknown in America, invaded the northeast just last year.
If you do not kill pest insect species, they will kill you. They will do so by virtue of their staggering billions and they will do so to millions of Americans and others around the world.
Something needs to be banned and it is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency whose true agenda is to threaten the lives of Americans and the economy of this nation in every possible way. Until we rid this nation of this internal threat, this vicious cabal of those who hate Americans enough to strip us of our only defense against these threats of disease and death, we will all remain their hapless, helpless victims. This agency is depriving our farmers of the means to protect the crops that feed us and others around the world. Only Congress can reverse this assault on our lives and one wonders how high the cost of food will have to rise and how many will have to die before they take action.
Alan Caruba is a veteran science and business writer who founded The National Anxiety Center in 1990 as a clearinghouse for information about scare campaigns designed to influence public opinions and policies. The Center maintains an Internet site at www.anxietycenter.com. Mr. Caruba can be reached via email at firstname.lastname@example.org.
© 1996-2013, Enter Stage Right and/or its creators. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:7c70bc7f-5e0d-4a5a-b9f5-503cd5e51ad1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0600dursban.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949446 | 1,195 | 2.875 | 3 |
Free Photo Archive of over 26,000 vintage photographs. Find people and the places were they lived. Search for your surnames. Find photos of your ancestors. Make connections with genealogy cousins. Add your family's photos.
Lake, Soldiers' Home, Dayton, Ohio
This is a postcard of one of the lakes at the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, Ohio. The following message was written on the back of the postcard:
July 12, 1908
I am just having a good old time. You ought to be here and go out to the Home.
Will see you soon,
The postcard was addressed to:
Miss Calie Vogel
224 Grant St.
The publisher of the postcard was Kraemer Art Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. It was made in Germany. The postcard is from the postcard collection of Jil Loewit. | <urn:uuid:91214fb0-4856-4005-9ff4-3be4ecd3c298> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/photo/ohio/5628/lake-soldiers039-home-dayton-ohio?size=thumbnail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956691 | 180 | 1.609375 | 2 |
We are pleased to present the 2011 Water Quality Report. This report is designed to inform the public about the quality of water and services provided on a daily basis. The GWC maintains its own water quality testing laboratories. The experienced and certified water quality personnel analyze chemical and bacteriological test on water samples throughout the year. These samples are taken from each section of the treatment process as well as from various sites within the distribution system and test are analyzed 365 days a year to assure water safety and quality. We would like the public to be assured that we will continue to monitor, improve, and protect the water system and deliver a high quality product direct from the tap. Water is the most indispensable product in every home and we ask everyone to be conservative and help us in our efforts to protect the water source and the water system.
Regulated Contaminants in the Water Supply
The sources of drinking water (both tap water and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and may pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.
In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. FDA regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water to provide the same protection for public health.
Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects may be obtained by calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline 1-800-426-4791.
Contaminants that may be present in source water include:
- Microbial Contaminants. Examples include viruses and bacteria that may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.
- Inorganic Contaminants. Examples include salts and metals, that can be naturally occurring or result from storm water runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming.
- Pesticides and Herbicides. These may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, storm water runoff, and residential use.
- Organic Chemical Contaminants. These include synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, storm water runoff, and septic systems.
- Radioactive Contaminants. These can be naturally occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities. | <urn:uuid:bf21e5ce-6226-4ec7-81bc-6b22c755f5c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glasgowh2o.com/publications/water-quality-report/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939381 | 558 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Vaibhav Sankla, Director, H&R Block India
Professional Fees & Tax
My sister has been working with an organisation and she gets payment as professional fees and commission fees. As a result, her company deducts TDS under 194J and 194H every month. Is there any way my sister can claim refund of the tax deducted while filing return? HARISH V SHETTY
She will have to compute her net taxable income for the year. While computing net taxable income, she can claim deduction of expenses incurred for the purposes of performance of her work.
In addition, she can claim deduction on account of tax saving investments made, health insurance premium paid, etc. If income tax payable on net taxable income is less than the total amount of tax deducted at source then she can claim a refund of the differential amount.
Senior Citizen & Returns
Iam a homemaker and a senior citizen with an annual income of Rs 3,40,000. I contribute Rs 1,00,000 to my PPF account. Hence, I do not have to pay income tax. Do I still have to file income tax returns? NSAKUNTALA
You have to file the tax returns as your gross total income, i.e. taxable income before claiming deductions under Chapter VIA, exceeds the amount of basic exemption (in your case Rs 2,50,000) applicable to you.
Rental Income & TDS
I let out the house at Chennai for a monthly rent of Rs 25,000. Now my tenant says that from July 2012 he has to deduct income tax from the monthly payment of rent if the same is exceeding Rs 15,000 per month. Is this true? CHIDAMBARAM
If your tenant is an individual who was carrying out a business or profession, the accounts of which were subjected to tax audit during the previous financial year, then he is liable to deduct income tax at source even if he is an individual.
Or, if you are a non-resident then irrespective of the amount of rent and irrespective of the status (individual, company, firm, etc.) of the tenant, the tenant is required to deduct income tax at source.
The views expressed are of the author and may not reflect the views of H&R Block India | <urn:uuid:95894446-e9e9-472f-8197-ac6776ba2f20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-06-26/news/32424961_1_taxable-income-income-tax-194j | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960408 | 469 | 1.554688 | 2 |
In business, "money makes money". The success of a business depends very much on the business owner's ability to manage money. Owners of small or micro enterprises often have to learn to separate personal and business money, to make sensible investment decisions and to remain in control of transactions if they are to succeed in maintaining and expanding their businesses and thus their incomes. Institutions also need capacity building to manage their portfolios, risks and returns. Similarly, policy makers and regulators need improved capacity to meet the new challenges and new products that are being developed.
Financial education which teaches people about managing cash, making budgets, keeping books, preparing accounts, managing credit sales, determining borrowing requirements, using insurance, managing debts and so on, is essential to help small scale farmers and other rural entrepreneurs to survive. It also helps them to become bankable and to make effective use of financial services when they are available.
Banks, credit unions and microfinance institutions often do not lend to agriculture due to a lack of understanding of its risks or a lack of capacity to develop the type of financial products needed. The governments and non-governmental development agencies provide the framework and support role to agricultural finance and agribusiness development and must also have the skills and understanding.
Capacity building takes many forms and the AGS Division provides guidance and support through training and technical resource materials for the different levels indicated above. It also offers e-learning training resources, and curricula for formal and informal training use. Capacity building is also provided throughout the world through technical advice and capacity building projects. In addition to the current website, a much greater range of information and resources relating to capacity building can be found in the Rural Finance Learning Centre.
Peoples' lives in rural Bangladesh, woman on sewing machine | <urn:uuid:e6ba147b-de6d-42a3-bd8d-921b0e407628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/agricultural-finance-and-investment/capacity-building/en/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957903 | 357 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Turn Signals - Table of contents and Preface
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY ADDISON WESLEY. NOW OUT OF PRINT.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- I Go to a 6th Grade Play
- Design Follies
- The Home Magazine Kitchen
- Refrigerator Doors and Message Centers
- High Technology Gadgets
- The Teddy
- How Long Is Noon?
- Real Time
- Nature's Packaging
- Evolution Vs. Design
- Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles
- Book Jackets & Science
- Brain Power
- Hofstadter's Law
- It's a Million to One Chance
- Coffee Cups in the Cockpit
- Writing as Design, Design as Writing Chapter Notes
Some people watch birds. Others watch people. Some watch cars or boats, or sporting teams. I watch technology, especially the small, common, everyday variety. In particular, I watch the way people interact with technology. I am not happy with what I see. Much of modern technology seems to exist solely for its own sake, oblivious to the needs and concerns of the people around it, people who, after all, are supposed to be the reason for its existence.
The dehumanizing nature of modern technology has long been a theme for concern. My goal is neither to attack nor to defend, but to understand just how the interaction between human and technology takes place, to discover where and why difficulties appear, and then to try to do something about them. You might say that my goal is to socialize technology, to humanize technology.
Society has reached the point where it would be completely unable to function without technology. Our social judgments, our skills, and even our thoughts are indelibly affected by the nature of the technology that supports us. Worse, the impact is so pervasive, so subtle, that we are often unaware of how much of our beliefs have been affected by the arbitrary nature of technology.
These essays touch upon some of the critical issues. They are meant to inform as they amuse. Some are deliberately provocative. But I am serious about the main message: Technology tends to dehumanize. This is not a necessary part of technology, but it relentlessly encroaches upon us unless we exert caution. Technologists tend to create what technology makes possible without full regard for the impact on human society. Moreover, technologists are experts at the mechanics of their technology, but often are ignorant of and sometimes even disinterested in social concerns.
I believe that we can create a humane technology, one that serves and enhances people and society. But this won't happen unless educated, concerned people take a hand in the design and application of our technology. This book provides some starting points. It provokes, scolds, and speculates, all in the aim of increasing everyone's sensitivity to the dehumanizing aspects of technology, and the realization that we can cause it to be otherwise.
Nothing seems to create more controversy about the design of a book than the placement of notes for each chapter. Academic readers are used to seeing notes at the bottom of relevant pages as footnotes. Trade publishers do not approve. They feel that notes distract, breaking the flow of reading. They prefer to hide the notes at the end of the book out of sight, but still available for the serious reader.
Many of my readers have complained vociferously. The notes are hard to find, they say, and it is particularly disruptive to keep two place markers, one for text, one for notes. Alas, I know of no data relevant to the relative proportion of readers who might fall into each category, the one described by the publishers or the one corresponding to those who write me. Each side argues that the other constitutes a tiny minority.
For this book, we are trying a compromise. Substantive comments have been put directly in the text: notes are used primarily for references and acknowledgments. I have kept substantive comments to a minimum. This should minimize the need to turn to a note. Each note specifies the chapter number, name, and page from which it has come, which a short quote from the text indicating the section to which it refers. This makes it easy to go from the notes back to the text, a feature many readers requested.
There still remains the question of how to tell the reader that there is a relevant note at the back of the book. Traditional footnote symbols are thought to be disruptive, diverting the reader's attention to the note, usually to find that it does not contain essential information. We are trying a more subtle signal, a simple mark in the page margin that signals a note associated with the page. The mark - * - appears in the outside margin. Substantive notes are signalled by doubling the signal: **
I am grateful to many for their assistance and comments on these essays. My academic colleagues have provided much of my initial stimulation and my interactions with industrial developers and researchers have increased my appreciation for the difficulties of bringing technologies to the marketplace. I am grateful to all my colleagues:
I especially thank Mike Shafto and Ev Palmer at NASA Ames Research Center (who also support my research through the NASA Aviation Safety Program), my colleagues at Apple Computer Company and Digital Equipment Corporation, who have also helped support this research, and especially to Tom Erickson and Jim Spohrer at Apple for their comments on the manuscript. Julie Norman was a perceptive and properly critical reader of the early drafts. Bill Patrick at Addison-Wesley provided a useful scolding about the excesses of earlier drafts, telling me what was nonsense, helping me shape these essays into coherence, yet without losing either the fun or the message.
At the University of California, San Diego, Michael Cole continues to educate me about the nature of mind and culture, Edwin Hutchins has provided critical insights about the way that cognition is distributed over time, space, people, and things, and Hank Strub, Emmy Goldknopf, and Cyndi Norman kept plying me with critical readings, critiques, and queries, all to the eventual betterment of my own understanding. Comments have come from all over the world through the power of the electronic mail and bulletin boards that link the universities of the world (see, for example, Chapter 4, which was entirely the result of electronic mail interaction).
A book is a joint effort of many people. My experience has provided a wonderful example of how the interaction of cognition, technology, and social interactions can merge to aid human activity. Technology can be effective, supportive, and humanizing , if only we insist that it be so.
Del Mar, California
FOOTNOTE1. Copyright ? 1992 by Donald A. Norman. All rights reserved. Originally published by Addison Wesley. Now out of print. [Return to Text]
- All Books
- The Design of Everyday Things, Revised and Expanded Edition
- Living with complexity
- The Design of Future Things
- Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things
- The invisible computer
- Things That Make us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine
- Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles
- The Design of Everyday Things | <urn:uuid:96694a2e-876f-4d99-bab5-d4cd4b488872> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/turn_signals_-_table.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939719 | 1,482 | 2.25 | 2 |
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend, the town of Vernon and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to allow up to 15 percent ethanol in gas for cars made after 2007. Currently, gasoline contains up to 10 percent ethanol.
This past summer, I warned about a plan by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline. Because the increase could wreak havoc on boat engines, the EPA’s plan is opposed by the Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatU.S.) and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA).
Here are the latest developments. The ethanol industry is seeking a waiver from the EPA to sell gasoline with 15 percent ethanol. The EPA and the Department of Energy have yet to conduct testing to determine the effect gasoline with a higher level of ethanol would have on marine engines.
Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) have introduced S.1666, the "Mid-Level Ethanol Blends Act of 2009" that would ensure that new fuels such as E15 are compatible with engines, including boat engines.
You can read S.1666 here.
If you agree with S.1666 that has the support of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, you are encouraged to contact
Governor Doyle wants the federal government to increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline from 10 to 15 percent.
My constituents have not been clamoring for a mandate that would increase the amount of ethanol in our fuel. To the contrary, they vehemently oppose ethanol.
Governor Doyle is one of 10 Midwestern governors lobbying the feds to put more ethanol in your gas tank.
Having written a dozen blogs on ethanol, my record on the issue is clear. Too many question marks along with the dramatic impact on the world food supply make me more than skeptical about the value of ethanol. My constituents have also informed me of their strong opposition.
In America, members of Congress and the food industry are calling for an end to ethanol mandates. The nationwide corn-based ethanol mandate requires blending 9 billion gallons of ethanol into America’s fuel supply this year. Midwest flooding during June devastated several million acres of corn and soybeans fields, pushing the price of corn to record highs that have, in turn, severely hurt livestock producers.
The British also understand the ramifications of the ethanol craze. Christopher Booker and Richard North recently published Scared To Death: From BSE to Global Warming, How Scares Are Costing Us The Earth. They have written a column in the Daily Telegraph, chronicling the historical rise and speedy fall of biofuels.
Booker and North write, “Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels.” Prior to the change in heart over biofuels, Booker and North document what they call “mankind’s love affair with biofuels,” a process that developed in five stages going back decades.
Stage One-The internal combustion engine is born. Henry Ford wanted his autos to run on ethanol made from corn and hemp. The petroleum business boomed during the 1920’s, and ethanol got placed on the back burner.
Stage Two- During the 1970’s, skyrocketing oil prices put the focus back on biofuels. The United Nations, after holding a conference on the issue in 1981 adopted a program in 1987 emphasizing biofuels.
Stage Three- Two key developments occurred during the 1990’s: 1) After the first Gulf War, the United States, staring at a spike in oil prices, viewed surplus crops as the answer to dependence on foreign oil, and 2) The United Nations considered biofuels a solution to global warming.
Stage Four- Between 2004 and 2007, hysteria over global warming grew. In an attempt to show leadership on global warming, the European Union (EU) set a required target of 10 percent of all EU transport fuel to come from biofuels by 2020. A United Nations report during 2006 indicated that in order to meet the EU goal of 10 percent, 70 per cent of dry land would have to be taken out of food production. Despite the UN report, the EU today refuses to alter its 10 percent target.
Stage Five- The ethanol backlash exploded, coming from some unpredictable sources. Environmental groups, once chief biofuel proponents, now had serious doubts, spurred by the effects in the Third World and rainforests. Worldwide food shortages had critics pointing the finger squarely at the biofuel craze.
Booker and North quote a United Nations official who says biofuels can only bring "more hunger to the poor people of the world, "and that biofuels are a "crime against humanity".
The world needs to get over its ethanol hangover and dramatically cut back on ramming food into fuel tanks. Here is Booker and North’s column in the Daily Telegraph.
You can add bananas to the list of foods that are seeing a sharp increase in price thanks to the rising cost of fuel.
Like the corn tortilla in Mexico, the banana is an important part of the daily diet in Britain.
There seems to be a consensus that ethanol has been a major factor in the rising cost of food that has led to food crisis conditions in many parts of the world.
It is encouraging to see the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel write that ethanol mandates should be reconsidered.
A blog I wrote during February 2007 about the effects of ethanol mentioned the impact on food with emphasis on Mexico. It read, in part:
“Excitement over ethanol, a renewable fuel made with corn, has reached such a high level that there has been a virtual rush on corn. The effects have been devastating, especially in Mexico with a society, culture, and way of life dominated by the tortilla. Tortillas make up 40 percent of the diet for poor Mexicans, and with corn prices quadrupling in Mexico since last summer, Mexico is suffering through its worst tortilla crisis.
Exorbitant tortilla costs created by the buzz about ethanol have left few alternatives in Mexico. Mexicans who can afford food are bypassing tortillas for options that are less healthy, so they are gaining weight. The poor are eating less, eating less healthy, or going hungry.
There are many concerns about ethanol, its effect on world hunger being the latest. Ethanol has been known to wreak havoc on small engines, and now it is likely to wreak havoc on the food supply.”
Surely there were some who read that column and dismissed the conclusion. I doubt that’s the case today.
This is no longer a Mexican tortilla problem. Food supply epidemics have reached global proportions. The latest Agricultural Outlook from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, unveiled in late May in Paris has the grim details about escalating prices:
“Using data for February 2008 compared to February 2007, milk product prices have generally risen sharply, as shown by those for butter with price increases of 50% in Poland, 40% in France, 36% in Spain, 32% in the Czech Republic, about 36% in Jordan and some 12% in Malaysia. Egg prices have also risen sharply, by 34% in the US, 30% in the UK and the Czech Republic and 10% in Spain. Vegetable oil prices rose 18% in India and 47% in Botswana in the past year. Meat prices rose sharply in some countries such as China, where the increase was 45%.”
Sixteen months ago I pointed the finger at ethanol. Recently in Paris, world food experts did the same. OECD agriculture official Loek Boonekamp, according to the Washington Post, says about 33 percent of the projected increase in food prices over the next 10 years can be attributed to biofuels. Boonekamp also called the benefits of converting food into fuel, “probably smaller than commonly expected."
An OECD press release says growing demand for biofuels is leading to higher food prices, reporting “World fuel ethanol production tripled between 2000 and 2007 and is expected to double again between now and 2017 to reach 127 billion liters a year. Biodiesel production is seen to expand from 11 billion liters a year in 2007 to around 24 billion liters by 2017. The growth in biofuel production adds to demand for grains, oilseeds and sugar, so contributing to higher crop prices.”
The prognosis for the future of food prices from the OECD is bleak:
“Commodity prices will average substantially above the levels that prevailed in the past 10 years. When the average for 2008 to 2017 is compared with that over 1998 to 2007, beef and pork prices may be some 20% higher; raw and white sugar around 30%; wheat, maize and skim milk powder 40 to 60%; butter and oilseeds more than 60% and vegetable oils over 80%.
The poor, and in particular the urban poor in net food importing developing countries, will suffer more. In many low-income countries, food expenditures average over 50% of income and the higher prices will push more people into undernourishment.”
The report predicts more violent outbreaks and riots over food shortages that have already been reported in some countries.
The OECD recommends further review of existing biofuel policies. The suggestion comes as some members of Congress are requesting a relaxation of a requirement that 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels be produced in 2009, up from 6.5 billion last year. How widespread does the world’s food crisis have to get before we put the brakes on converting our food supply into fuel? | <urn:uuid:113d8a93-7733-418a-9538-dd208823654b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mymuskegonow.com/blogs/communityblogs/conserv_speaking.html?tag=Ethanol | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951151 | 2,121 | 1.6875 | 2 |
"See page 76 of the June 2012 issue. Also some yummy recipes and worth the price of a subscription! =) "
Perhaps the most important factor in an urban ecosystem, I realized, is the plants themselves. When people think of starting a home vegetable garden, they fixate on the “money” crops—the heirloom tomatoes, the honking mega-squash. But when your sun is limited and you have pots instead of fields, you need to focus on crops that make the most of the resources at hand—ones that are edible from stem to leaf. And so, in early March when the sun first emerges, I plant not peas but arugula. Two weeks later, lettuces and spinach go in instead of, say, carrots. Two more weeks, chard, not beans. Week after week this continues until the entire spring garden is planted. And by May when these tender spring greens are harvestable, I replace each picked pot with a seeding of heat-tolerant greens—collards, kale and a climbing vine called “Malabar spinach”—all of these can withstand the 100-degree hothouse of a New York City summer. | <urn:uuid:b1de1b7a-146d-4f4a-8bb7-1498752b0ea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/green_sustainable/how_one_mans_foodscape_on_his_rooftop_garden%20%20?page=3&quicktabs_1=3?page=3&quicktabs_1=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928024 | 247 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Tragic News Demands Marine Corps Social Media Leadership, Not Retreat
Moments after I posted my sympathies about the loss of two Marines in Afghanistan on their unit's Facebook page, it was gone. Deleted. Arbitrarily removed as a violation by their public affairs office.
The Department of Defense had published a release about them, but the unit rarely mentioned combat casualties on their page.
“Frankly, it does because we say it does... it read as pointless, shallow and unprofessional.” the staff noncommissioned officer said.
I tried to parse that exchange with the words of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who said we must be seen as the good guys “... (not by) some slick PR campaign or by trying to out-propagandize al-Qaeda, but rather through the steady accumulation of actions and results that build trust and credibility over time.”
A base level of transparency and honesty must be kept in order to remain a source of information for both our troops and the public.
That line is challenged most often in the case of Marines killed in the line of duty. It is not a bad news story, but is an unfortunate reality of a nation in the midst of a decade-long war. Our nature in the military is to keep our darkest moments to ourselves, but if we wish to establish a foothold in this social space, we must accept that those habits need change. A unit may lose a Marine, but the nation can and should mourn that loss.
This is a place much different from the one our leaders were brought into. Twenty-some years ago when they were commissioned, the internet did not exist. Reporters came on base for a story now and then, but the military was not engaged in long wars. We weren’t the center of attention.
Now, our president shares his thoughts in 140 character bursts. The sergeant major of the Army responds directly to soldiers’ questions online.The Arab Spring was organized and reported on the smart phones and laptops of a young, connected class of citizens.
If we accept that social media is a tool commanders should embrace like any other, then we also owe it to ourselves to consider how we are using it.
A snapshot of recent Facebook posts shows that the 200 Marine commands on Facebook are reaching out to many different audiences: Earn an associates degree in TV repair at the base education center. US Marines train with Filipinos. Female officers will attend infantry school. There's a joke about the “Army survival manual” page one: call in the Marines. Afghans are taught explosive ordnance removal. And don't miss the wine tasting Friday.
Admiral Mike Mullen, then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the graduating class at West Point last year about the dangers of not being as open as possible with the American people. A point put into executive order by the president.
“We in uniform do not have the luxury anymore of assuming that our fellow citizens understand it the same way ... This is important, because a people uninformed about what they are asking the military to endure is a people inevitably unable to fully grasp the scope of the responsibilities our Constitution levies upon them,” Mullen said.
Social media allows us to tell our own story quicker than ever before and unfiltered by any journalist’s pen. It is the most revolutionary concept in communications, and the way we go about communicating death will prove to the public how serious we are about being a part of this new era. We must change not only for the sake of honesty regarding the costs of war but to recognize brave men and women, honor them, and let their friends and families know that their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
On April 11, two Marine pilots with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit died in a training accident in Morocco. Shortly after, Headquarters Marine Corps' Marines Facebook page offered a short status update on the situation. The names hadn’t been released, but the few details that were available were published. They made it clear: we’re the source for information – even sad information.
Meanwhile, the 24th MEU took its Facebook page offline.
In the days after the accident as the names of the Marines were released, Headquarters Marine Corps again was in front sharing that info while the MEU page had disappeared. They eventually came back online and offered this explanation: “We unpublished our page out of respect for the proper release of information to the families that lost a Marine.”
I reached out to Tech. Sgt. Jared Marquis, Content Management Course instructor at the Defense Information School, Fort Meade, Md., for a response on this approach. He explained, “Shutting down a Facebook (page) during this time frame is not going to stop the conversation from happening. The only thing it does, in my opinion, is limit the ability of the (public affairs) office or unit to educate people on the importance of waiting until the official release. It also eliminates the ability to push out key messages. The conversation is going to take place because the audience shares more than the unit Facebook. It will happen person to person, or in other groups … The problem with this is that now the (public affairs) office or unit is no longer even involved in the conversation and has no rumor control or education options. In addition, the unit runs the risk of losing audience members. If people feel they can get information, even incorrect information, somewhere else, they will.”
Did the postings by HQMC show a lack of respect for the proper release of information to the families that lost a Marine? Or did HQMC strengthen their role as a news source while the MEU forfeited some of its own credibility?
The video story about the crash has been seen more than 8,000 times and the posts about the crash on their Facebook wall were some of the most popular posts of the week. For the MEU, we can look back at a post from a few weeks prior to measure the effect of their actions.
On March 27, just as they were heading off on deployment, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit began warning its 17,000 Facebook fans that they were considering taking down the page. The command cited comments as a security concern. They promised if the page was taken down to continue to work with traditional media to provide information about their Marines to the world back home. Mothers and spouses responded to the announcement begging the command to keep this line of communication open.
One poster wrote, “I am feeling a bit of anxiety as the tears run done (sic) my cheeks at the thought of you canceling this page.” Another pleaded, “Please be considerate of others this is their only way for information of their loved ones.”
Their audience was telling them they did not want to use traditional media to follow the Marines, and they were upset at the very suggestion of such an old idea.
The issue of military deaths and Facebook is understandably difficult because of that paradigm shift. A generation ago memorial services were closed affairs, safe behind the base gates. Leaders were mentored by a group who remembered Vietnam as a war spoiled by the media’s desire to use death as a “gotcha” story on the nightly news.
Once we joined the social space we accepted some basic ground rules. One of which is that honest and open communication is the duty of the company and the right of the consumer. Today’s generation is inherently more transparent in actions and expectations.
Tragic news does not require us to avoid the conversation but begs us to lead it. Headquarters Marine Corps has demonstrated the success of that thinking by attracting the largest audience of any military branch. Embracing a policy of transparency and being willing to engage and lead the discussion on one of our most sensitive topics is vital to our credibility as a military institution. If we do that, we can tell the world we take care of our own even on their worst days, and we can show the dedication Marines have to gear up and head out on the next patrol.
This piece was originally publsihed on the Marine Corps Gazette Blog, April 24.
Randy Clinton is an active-duty Marine. He is a public affairs specialist and manages the social media site for his unit. The opinions expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Marine Corps.
|Photo Caption: Marines pay their final respects to Lance Cpl. Abraham Tarwoe, a dog handler and mortarman who served with Weapons Company, 2nd Bn., 9th Marines, during a memorial service, April 22. Tarwoe was killed in action during a dismounted patrol in Helmand province's Marjah district, April 12. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alfred V. Lopez)| | <urn:uuid:c678f566-c46c-46ed-ad5c-2763b4ffdf09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://socialmediatoday.com/randy-clinton/497105/tragic-news-demands-marine-corps-social-media-leadership-not-retreat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969987 | 1,836 | 1.679688 | 2 |
- Mortgage Penalties for Paying Off a Loan Early
- Does a Refinance of a Home Equity Loan or Balloon Loan Affect Your Credit Report?
- Are You Better Off Paying Off Credit Card Debt or Leaving the Money in a Savings Account?
- Does a Non-Working Spouse's Credit Affect a Home Loan?
- Does Requesting a Loan Affect Your Credit?
- Does Paying My Car Insurance in Full Raise My Credit Score?
Paying off your loan early can save you money and free up some of your monthly cash flow. However, if you are rushing to get rid of the loan in hopes of improving your credit, you might want to slow down. Simply paying loans off early, regardless of the type, will not raise your credit score. Depending on your credit history and goals, however, closing the account may help you in other ways.
You do not receive additional points on your credit score for satisfying your loan agreement ahead of schedule. If you have limited credit history, it is best to leave the account open until you are approved for other accounts. According to Experian, a major credit reporting bureau, open and active accounts are scored higher than closed accounts. Paying off the loan early can save you some money in interest, but it does not help your credit. The type of credit you have also affects your score. A mixture of credit, including both installment and revolving accounts, tends to score higher than having only one type of credit.
If you already have an established credit history, paying off your loan early may help you in other ways. When you pay off your loan, you have one less bill to pay each month. Your debt-to-income ratio is the percentage of your gross monthly income applied towards debt. Although your debt-to-income ratio is not a credit score factor, lenders typically assess the amount of debt you have to ensure you are able to afford taking on a new account. If you have too much debt, the lender may see you as a risk.
Instead of paying off your loan and closing the account, consider paying down the balance. Credit utilization, sometimes called debt utilization, is a factor in 30 percent of your FICO score. Each individual account is scored based on the percentage of available credit compared to the limit. The accounts are scored separately and together to determine the total amount of credit you are utilizing. FICO does not reveal an exact ideal number, but it is best to keep it as low as possible. If you have high credit card balances or a new mortgage, paying off a large portion of your personal or auto loan can help lower the ratio.
Regardless of whether you pay off the loan early, make sure all payments are made on time. Your payment history accounts for 35 percent of your FICO credit score. If you decide to pay off your loan, it will still remain on your report for seven years as a closed account that was paid as agreed. Watch out for prepayment penalties if you decide to pay off the loan early. Some lenders charge a fee that equals a certain percentage of the interest remaining on the loan. | <urn:uuid:37267fd6-aa2d-495a-9bda-864c114f0594> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.zacks.com/paying-off-loans-early-affect-credit-rating-1595.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96466 | 633 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Sunburn can kill, and acute sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer and promotes premature aging.
Sunburn results when the amount of exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun or another source exceeds the ability of the body's protective pigment (melanin) to protect the skin. Sunburn in a very light-skinned person may occur in less than 15 minutes of noonday sun exposure, while a dark-skinned person may tolerate the same exposure for hours.
Ultraviolet rays can cause serious damage to human skin, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunburn is possible throughout the year and on cloudy days; 80 percent of the ultraviolet rays can pass through clouds or fog. Sun lamps and tanning beds can also expose skin to dangerous ultraviolet rays.
Unlike a thermal burn, sunburn symptoms may take a while to appear and may not be obvious for 24 hours. By the time the skin becomes painful, red and warm to the touch, the damage has been done. Usually, the pain is worst within six to 48 hours, and skin peeling usually begins within three to eight days.
Sunburns release toxins in the skin and may cause blisters, swelling and fever. Blisters and peeling of the skin may occur several days after the exposure. A severe reaction to sun exposure, sometimes called "sun poisoning," may include fever, chills, nausea or rash.
Busting Sun Myths
Protect Your Eyes | <urn:uuid:94323a25-a3cf-457e-82f3-f208d31d0be6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://muhealth.org/body.cfm?id=1287 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917699 | 296 | 3.765625 | 4 |
Omega-3 fatty acids eased depression during pregnancy, Pycnogenol cut menstrual pain and the use of pain medication, and beta-glucans boosted cancer-fighting cells, in three new studies.
In an omega-3 study, researchers explained that pregnant women often become depressed due to physical and emotional demands, but need an alternative to anti-depressant medication, which may harm the baby. Doctors noted that prior studies have linked low levels of omega-3 to depression and theorized that the baby depletes the mother’s omega-3 stores. Twenty-four pregnant women with major depressive disorder took 3,400 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per day or a placebo. After six and eight weeks, those who took omega-3 had significantly less depression compared to placebo. Nearly 40 percent in the omega-3 group reported no symptoms (remission) at all. There were no side effects for mothers or babies. Omega-3s make up nearly 70 percent of the developing infant brain, nervous system and retinal eye tissue.
In a study of severe menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea), 116 women with or without dysmenorrhea, aged 18 to 48, took 60 mg of Pycnogenol or a placebo for two menstrual cycles. Participants could take pain medication, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs called NSAIDS, as long as they kept a diary of doses. Women with dysmenorrhea had nearly 40 percent fewer painful days while taking Pycnogenol and used significantly fewer NSAIDS. During a third menstrual cycle without Pycnogenol, women who had taken Pycnogenol in the first two cycles had less dysmenorrhea and were able to take fewer NSAIDS. Study authors noted that NSAIDS generally do not relieve the painful spasms in dysmenorrhea and have side effects.
In a cancer immunity study from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 30 postmenopausal women who had been successfully treated for breast cancer took a range of doses of beta-glucan extract from maitake mushrooms. Doctors drew blood after one, two and three weeks and found that women who had taken about 1 mg of beta-glucan per pound of body weight had the greatest increase in immune cells including cancer-fighting natural killer cells (NKC) and mature white blood cells. | <urn:uuid:934980aa-5c40-4b3b-a8bc-23e2bd6354a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nutritionexpress.com/article+index/health+conditions/womens+health/menopause/showarticle.aspx?id=1047 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959331 | 483 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Hard to believe. The photo is a meme. However, if law enforcement agencies have budgets, they have to spend them .Its the use it or lose it syndrome and hitting the fear button, raising levels of anxiety is tailor made in the post 9/11 world. There are legitimate security concerns, but its exploitation is a festering reminder that the ghosts of Oswald Mosley, a kind of comic opera couched in the cautious and sensible made appealing by catchy phrasing is still lurking. The new version of fear mongering twists Charles Baudelaire’s expression of “humiliating mingling- traffic- with other human beings- to refer to the other where in Blackshirt Mosley backed by intellos like Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis it meant Jews, Socialists etc. now it means the legions of disenfranchised who fit the rioter profile.
From the original press release: The latest counter-terrorism publicity campaign, using print, radio, outdoor and transport advertising, aims to make people aware of how they as individuals can make a difference. They should not rely on others. They should store the Anti-Terrorist Hotline number 0800 789 321 in their phone and be ready to use it….
Terrorists might not come from Surrey but they may visit, stay, store or assemble terrorist weapons here. People living and working in Surrey’s communities are the best placed to recognise activity or behaviour which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in normal day to day living….
…Examples include anyone who for no obvious reason:
• Starts behaving differently or unusually
• Has many mobile phones
• Has passports or other documents in different names
• Travels but is vague about where and may disappear for long periods
• Buys or stores large amounts of chemicals
• Takes an interest in security measures such as CCTV
…“Terrorists live within our neighbourhoods, making their plans whilst doing everything they can to blend in, and trying not to raise suspicions about their activities. I ask people to think about unusual behaviour they have witnessed, or things they have seen which seem to have no logical or obvious explanation.
“Any suspicion should be reported immediately and every call will be welcomed by the counter-terrorist officers. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant the information may seem to you – it may be the final piece of the jigsaw for the police.
…Safer Neighbourhood Teams across Surrey will be helping to spread the message by ensuring key people within their neighbourhoods are made aware of what to look out for and reminded that if they suspect it, they must report it. They will also be distributing posters to appropriate venues, and promotional material at community events throughout the year. Read More:http://www.surrey.police.uk/media/news_item.asp?area=1&itemID=11072 | <urn:uuid:a966e7c8-87da-43d6-b8fc-f0e39e9549f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://madamepickwickartblog.com/2012/02/1-800-just-fear/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95495 | 591 | 1.5625 | 2 |
SURGERY OR STENT?
PEOPLE WHO HAVE BLOCKAGES IN THEIR CAROTIDS ARTERIES WILL NOW BE ABLE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO TREATMENTS, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Blockage of the carotid artery, the major artery in the neck, causes stroke and death. Detecting and treating the blockages reduces that risk, with two techniques employed: surgery known as carotid endarterectomy, or placement of a stent to keep the vessel open. Rick Lange, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins and member of an FDA panel assessing the techniques, says stents are now a possibility for more patients.
LANGE: Blockages in the carotid artery have previously been treated with carotid endarterectomy or carotid surgery, and in the high risk patients stenting was available. The FDA reviewed recent evidence suggesting that carotid stenting should be available to standard risk patients as well. In a large trial of over 2500 patients randomized to either of the two procedures the overall risk and benefit was the same, regardless of whether stenting was used or carotid endarterectomy. Since this procedure became available in 2004 the risk associated with stenting has gone down substantially. :33
At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey. | <urn:uuid:13601f2e-dd22-4f39-832e-3429751f2895> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hnf/hnf_7452.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936735 | 280 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Author: Rodney E. Shackelford, DO, Ph.D. (see Reviewers page)
Revised: 3 July 2010, last major update July 2010
Copyright: (c) 2008-2010, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
● Although there are many different materials and variations commonly used in microarray, the basis of the technique involves the binding of nucleic acid “probes” or “capture molecules” to a solid support
● These nucleic acids are often chemically synthesized oligonucleotides or cDNAs derived from mRNA, which are labeled with an appropriate fluorescent or luminescent-labeled probe, such as Cy3, Cy5 or dye-doped silica nanoparticles
● cDNA probes are usually 25-65 base pairs and often derived from the 3’ end of mRNAs, as many of these sequences were captured from transcripts using polyT primers
● Oligonucleotide probes are usually larger, often 1,000 nucleotides
Measuring gene expression
● Measuring gene expression via cDNA microarray is referred to as “expression analysis” or “expression profiling”
● The labeled nucleic acid is bound via nucleic acid derivatives attached to the solid support by S-carboxymethyl-L-cystein, polyacrylamide, 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, 3’ glycidoxy propyltrimethoxysilane, phenylisothiocyanate, 1-ethyl=3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide hydrochloride, or other compounds
● The linkages themselves must be freely soluble in the hybridization and washing buffers, chemically stable, and long enough to prevent inhibition of probe-target nucleic acid hybridization by steric hindrance
● Microarray can use up to four different labels; gene expression profiles use one or two probes
● When one probe in employed, the sample (treated) and control (untreated) are hybridized to separate probe sets and compared; when the sample and control are differently labeled, a single slide is used
● The solid support is commonly a glass slide, silicon biochip or nylon membrane, often called a gene chip
● The bound nucleic acid probes may be synthesized oliogonucleotides, cDNAs or more rarely RNA
● Typically the amount of each bound probe is a few picomoles
● Each probe hybridizes with a different fluorescently labeled target nucleic acid species, such as an mRNA derived cDNA
● The hybridization occurs via complementary Watson-Crick hydrogen bond formation between the A:T and G:C pairs
● Binding specificity is increased with increased bp length of the probe-target hybridization sequence, a high probe-target G:C content and bp complementarity, and if possible, the same/similar probe-target Tms (sometimes be difficult with shorter cDNA-derived probes, usually not a problem with longer oligonucleotide probes which usually have similar Tms)
● In some cases mixing is employed
● Mixing can be done by magnetic bar stirring, air driven bladders or centrifugal/shear mixing
● Mixing often requires some sample dilution, however it reduces hybridization time, increases signal, lowers background, and provides homogeneous hybridization conditions
● The ratio of labeled target to probe is very high in microarray, so high that the amount of target that actually hybridizes with the probe is less than 1% of the total target molecules.
● Thus probe-target hybridization does not result in significant target dilution which could alter assay results
Maintaining high sensitivity and specificity
● Once binding is completed, the chips are extensively washed under stringent conditions, resulting in only exact or near exact Watson-Crick base pairing
● High specificity is further achieved by having the hybridization step occur at a relatively high temperature, with a low buffer salt concentration
● High stringency prevents the binding of noncomplementary strands, hairpin formation (probe or target self-hybridization) and the disassociation of strands with very high complementary
● High sensitivity is achieved by the target nucleic acid sequences being highly concentrated
● Hybridization of a labeled target sequence reveals target binding only
● The size, sequence and composition of the target are unknown.
● Labeled target sequences are measured via scanning, with images analysis performed by specialized software
● Fluorescent intensity is measured and quantified, with the darkest areas (pixels) equal to no signal, the brightest or “whitest” areas recorded as maximum intensity, and intermediate “grey” areas given corresponding signal intensity
● Defining the areas to be quantified is difficult and can be done by the user circling the spot, or by the software program
● Once a spot is defined, the total signal intensity is summed and divided by the number of pixels within the spot to give the total signal intensity
● The average background of the slide is often subtracted from the value of each spot to give initial data
● The final data is derived from various statistical analytic methods
● Microarray results show only the relative gene expression levels, not the absolute amount of a gene expression
● It is also a limited “snapshot” of gene expression patterns and multiple microarray studies or other molecular methods are required to examine changes in gene expression patterns over time.
● Additionally, it is often prudent to verify microarray results with other techniques (PCR, Northern blotting or RNase protection assays are often used)
End of Molecular Pathology > Microarray > Basic procedures
This information is intended for physicians and related personnel, who understand that medical information is often imperfect, and must also be interpreted in the context of a patient's clinical data using reasonable medical judgment. This website should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a licensed physician.
All information on this website is protected by copyright of PathologyOutlines.com, Inc. Information from third parties may also be protected by copyright. Please contact us at copyrightPathOut@gmail.com with any questions (click here for other contact information). | <urn:uuid:02ef61ea-17c9-47dd-8493-b8e98d610034> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/molecularpathmicroarraybasic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903359 | 1,295 | 2.765625 | 3 |
In part one, titled How To Have Great Digestion, you learned that good digestion is one of the keys to great health. Choosing your foods wisely, chewing your food completely and using digestive enzymes are just some of the ways to ensure the best digestion possible. Here are some more ideas to help enhance your digestion and therefore your health.
4. Use Probiotics
The word probiotic literally means “for life.” Essentially what you are doing when you take probiotics is giving new life to your digestive system by helping to repopulate it with “good” bacteria. Some of the most common strains of bacteria found in probiotics are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria. Common foods that have these type of bacteria are yogurt, kefir, fermented soy products such as miso soup or tofu (make sure it is fermented), and sauerkraut. These particular types of bacteria have been shown to help improve conditions such as yeast infections, diarrhea and some say they can prolong life as well. The Japanese and Russian people of the Caucus mountains have some of the longest life spans in the world, and culturally their diets are composed of many fermented foods containing healthy probiotics.
5. Address “Leaky Gut Syndrome”
Leaky gut syndrome is a condition in which the cells of the intestinal lining develop gaps between them. This may be cause for concern because these gaps could allow toxins and bacteria to “leak” into the bloodstream. Some of the symptoms of leaky gut include: excessive gas and bloating, IBS, food allergies, or even adverse changes in mood. Over-consumption of the following foods or drugs may cause leaky gut: alcohol, caffeine, NSAIDS (such as Aspirin), pollutants on fruits (such as insecticides), and extremely spicy foods.
A few ways to help prevent this condition are: eat complex carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables (which increase fiber content in the diet); reduce inflammation by taking fish oils, especially cod liver oil (which contains vitamins A and D, excellent antioxidants). Supplementing with L Glutamine, an amino acid found in both meat and plants has been shown to protect the integrity of the gastrointestinal lining.
6. Do a Cleanse/Detox
Some of the components that make up doing a cleanse are getting rid of foods that you already know are bad for you: fast food, fried foods, basically most things found in the drive through of your favorite restaurant. You want to replace those things with living foods rich with enzymes and probiotics: fruits, vegetables, yogurts (minus the high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors), nuts, seeds, berries and even some herbs such as milk thistle, alfalfa, slippery elm, and dandelion. Several companies offer cleanses that contain herbs that help the liver remove chemicals like phthalates, organophosphates, solvents, heavy metals from the body that we get from the air as well as our food.
So let’s recap the steps to obtaining a happier life through better digestion:
1. Choose your foods wisely.
2. Chew your food completely.
3. Use digestive enzymes.
4. Use probiotics.
5. Address leaky gut syndrome.
6. Do a cleanse/detox.
Alternative cancer treatments won’t play any role in curing your cancer, but they may help you cope with signs and symptoms caused by cancer and cancer treatments. Common signs and symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain, difficulty sleeping, and stress may be lessened by alternative treatments.
You can use alternative cancer treatments as a supplement to treatments you receive from your doctor, not as a substitute for medical care. While alternative cancer treatments, such as acupuncture, may reduce nausea or pain, they generally aren’t powerful enough to replace medications from your doctor. Work closely with your doctor to determine the right balance between traditional medicines and alternative cancer treatments.
During acupuncture treatment, a practitioner inserts tiny needles into your skin at precise points. Studies show acupuncture may be helpful in relieving nausea caused by chemotherapy. Acupuncture may also help relieve pain.
Acupuncture is safe if it’s performed by a licensed practitioner using sterile needles. Acupuncture may not be safe if you’re taking blood thinners or if you have low blood counts, so check with your doctor first.
Tai chi is a form of exercise that incorporates gentle movements and deep-breathing. Tai chi can be led by an instructor, or you can learn on your own following books or videos. Practicing tai chi may help relieve stress. It may also be helpful if you’re having difficulty sleeping at night.
Tai chi is generally safe. The slow movements don’t require great physical strength, and the exercises can be easily adapted to your own abilities. Still, talk to your doctor before beginning. Don’t do any tai chi moves that cause pain.
During a massage, your practitioner kneads your skin, muscles and tendons in an effort to relieve muscle tension and stress and promote relaxation. Several massage methods exist.
Massage can be light and gentle, or it can be deep with more pressure. Studies have found massage can be helpful in relieving pain in people with cancer. It may also help relieve anxiety, fatigue and stress.
Massage can be safe if you work with an understanding massage therapist. Many cancer centers have massage therapists on staff, or your doctor can refer you to a massage therapist who regularly works with people who have cancer.
Don’t have a massage if your blood counts are low. Ask the massage therapist to avoid massaging near surgical scars, radiation treatment areas or tumors. If you have cancer in your bones or other bone diseases, such as osteoporosis, ask the massage therapist to use light pressure, rather than deep massage.
You may find some alternative treatments work well together. For instance, deep breathing during a massage may provide further stress relief.
Hearing a diagnosis of cancer may be one of the most frightening things that can happen in a doctor’s office. The disease can be deadly, and even when it’s not, the diagnosis very often means surgery and a long period of debilitating chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Many patients can benefit from complimentary medicine during or after cancer treatment. As one member of a team, the complimentary care provider has a variety of tools to help patients through the process. Complimentary medicine, drawing on herbs, vitamins, acupuncture and other tools as adjuncts to traditional treatments, can address a wide range of medical conditions and health concerns.
To better understand how complimentary medicine works in cancer care, consider a 44-year-old woman with two children who had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. Her vitamin D levels were checked and she was put on a supplement. She was also advised to use evening primrose oil to relieve the hot flashes she was getting from her treatment with tamoxifen, a drug that interferes with estrogen. Acupuncture was used to help relieve her pain and fatigue. The idea is that her treatment was tailored to her individual needs
Patients dealing with cancer who wish to add alternative medicine to their treatment regimen really should seek out a qualified provider. It is a vulnerable time for people, and anything that seems to promise a cure is tempting. Many patients read about various alternative approaches on the Internet and wind up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars and many hours of time on things that won’t be effective for their type of cancer. Often they don’t tell their doctors they’re doing this, leaving the patient without support and the doctor without important information.
Other patients err in the other direction, dismissing the whole idea of complimentary medicine. They endure the pain and nausea that frequently accompanies cancer treatment when there are methods they could use to reduce those effects.
A trained professional can identify the supplements, dietary choices and techniques, such as massage or yoga, that are most likely to help an individual patient, and which compliment the treatment the patient is undergoing. Each case is unique, and it is important for the provider and the patient to become a team, working together to find the best options.
Choosing a provider of complimentary medicine is not always easy. The American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine is a good resource, offering an array of general information and a directory of certified physicians around the country. It’s a good place to start your search.
Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2004), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 66% of U.S. adults are overweight.
For people who are struggling with weight loss, hypnosis can provide extra motivation to keep moving in the direction of weight goals, and to break away from the many food traps that get in the way of weight loss.
Hypnosis can be a powerful tool for re-educating the unconscious mind – the part that creates cravings and impulses – but can also be harnessed to keep people making the right choices about what they eat, and the amount of healthy exercise they need to do on a regular basis. Permanent weight loss occurs with a change in lifestyle, not through unnatural diets that are impossible to maintain.
Hypnosis can help everyone who wants to make the above changes quickly, and more easily than they ever imagined possible. According to Karen Olness, M.D., Professor at Case Western School of Medicine, “hypnosis works by harnessing your imagination.”
In one clinical study, researchers put 109 overweight individuals on a medically supervised weight-loss program. Some of the folks used hypnosis and others did not.
After about nine weeks, both these focus groups had lost the same amount of weight. But, here’s the part that should be of most interest to people wanting to lose weight and keep it off. At eight month and two-year intervals, the participants who received hypnosis had lost additional weight or maintained their weight better than those who didn’t.
Everyone who has ever wanted to lose weight has started to diet once or probably multiple times over the years. However, most dieters have discovered they don’t get lasting success. There are many reasons for this, but it is mostly attributable to loss of motivation, instead of loss of weight.
Hypnosis helps to get you motivated and, more importantly, helps to keep you motivated to eat healthier foods, control your portions and to increase your exercise routine. Even the best diet plans will not work if they are not followed through. Research shows that most diets fail because dieters simply cannot stick to them.
Hypnotherapy weight loss programs work by tapping into the power of the unconscious mind to motivate you to exercise and treat your body right. For many people, another key to weight loss is stress management. Self-hypnosis is an alternative strategy for managing our stress and to break the habit of using food to soothe emotions.
If you undergo cancer therapy, we suggest you talk to your physician about possible side effects. If you are looking for non-pharmacological therapies, a combination of acupuncture and herbs may be of interest to you.
• Patches inside your mouth or on your lips that are white, red, or a mixture of red and white.
• A sore, or lesion, in the mouth that does not heal within two weeks.
• A lump or thickening in the cheek.
• A sore throat or a feeling that something is caught in the throat.
• Difficulty chewing, swallowing, moving the jaw or tongue.
• Numbness of the tongue or other area of the mouth.
• Swelling of the jaw that causes dentures to fit poorly or become uncomfortable.
• Loose teeth.
Doctors utilize imaging procedures such as x-ray, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging scan, and ultrasound, to detect oral or throat cancer, and its stage and spread. | <urn:uuid:f5436a5c-642d-4272-9fe3-c59661263ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yourhealthmagazine.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=tag&tag=alternative+medicine | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952051 | 2,472 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Treatment for Alcoholism and Depression
Often, instances of alcoholism are also paired with depression. In fact, of the over 20 million people in the US who suffer from a mental disorder like depression, over 45 percent of them also have been diagnosed with a second disorder like alcoholism. Depression and alcoholism have a number of commonalities, and in many cases must be treated similarly.
What Are the Connections Between Long-Term Alcoholism and Depression?
Alcoholism and depression are closely tied. Nearly 40 percent of people who admit to drinking heavily also display symptoms of depression. This is because long-term alcohol use has been proven to have many of the same effects on your brain as a mood disorder like depression. As you begin to feel symptoms of depression, you may be more likely to drink in an attempt to change these feelings. This cycle is considered especially difficult to break, making proper treatment the only way for you to beat both depression and alcoholism.
What Type of Treatment Is Available for Alcoholism and Depression?
If you are suffering from depression and alcoholism, it is necessary to treat both disorders at once. You are more likely to experience a relapse if you simply treat one disorder at a time because the symptoms for the other will remain. Although there are a number of options, Dual Diagnosis treatment specializes in treating your mental disorder as well as your addiction. Many Dual Diagnosis programs are completed as part of residential rehab, allowing you to receive counseling and other treatment from trained medical professionals while living away from your everyday life. Through integrated treatment, you will change every aspect of your life, including your diet, exercise and ways of thinking.
In many cases, the first step will be treating the medical aspects of your addiction and stabilizing your depression through medication. Support groups and counseling will then help you overcome the mental pull of your alcoholism. These same groups will also help you to examine and understand your feelings of depression, and offer you alternative ways to handle them instead of turning to alcohol. This treatment has been proven highly effective.
Continuing therapy is exceedingly important to maintaining your success. Following release from Dual Diagnosis programs, there are also outpatient and community support groups that can continue to help you on your road to recovery.
Need Help Finding Treatment for Alcoholism and Depression?
Our toll-free helpline is here if you are ready to seek treatment for your depression and alcohol addiction. | <urn:uuid:6818d4da-74e6-472d-afca-6dce8ba001f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.depressiontherapyprograms.com/treatment-for-alcoholism-and-depression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957199 | 485 | 2.25 | 2 |
A powerful magnitude-7.8 earthquake rattled New Zealand's remote Kermadec Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A local tsunami warning was issued and New Zealand warned people to avoid the beaches until the threat passed.
The volcanic Kermadec Island peaks are a remote outpost that are generally uninhabited aside from a weather station and a hostel for visiting New Zealand scientists.
The 7:03 a.m. Thursday (1903 GMT Wednesday) quake was 29.8 miles (48 kilometers) deep, the USGS said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a U.S. agency, issued a warning for possible tsunami damage in the Keramecs, Tonga and New Zealand. It said a tsunami measured at 2.2 feet (0.68 meters) was measured at Raoul Island in the Kermadecs.
The Kermadecs are about 570 miles (920 kilometers) south of Tonga, the nearest major island, and are 736 miles (1185 kilometers) northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.
New Zealand's Civil Defense office warned people to stay off beaches and stay out of the water as long as the alert remains in force.
Auckland regional Civil Defense controller Clive Manly told Radio New Zealand the tsunami was not expected to cause damage on land.
"What we mean by a marine threat is that you can get quite extreme currents -- so it is a threat to boats -- but at this stage we are not anticipating damage to land," Manly said.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:56065fe5-3c64-40ee-854a-7426344eb32d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/06/magnitude-78-quake-shakes-kermadec-islands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947443 | 323 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Thomas J. O'Connell, pastor of Holy Cross church, Ovid, was born in Cloondargan House, Dunmore, county Galway, Ireland. His parents were James O'Connell and Sarah Cunningham. He attended school at Clanmorris, under Michael Kenney, to study Greek and Latin, in 186o. In the following year, 1861, he went to St. Jarleth's college, Tuam, Ireland, under the Most Rt. Rev. John MacHale, spending five years in Tuam studying Greek, Latin, English, and Sciences; was sent to the Irish seminary or college, Paris, France; studied there for five years and six months. He had to leave there on account of the Franco-Prussian war, so came to this country, was adopted by Rt. Rev. Bishop McQuaid, D. D., and went to St. Bonaventure's seminary, Allegany, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., and was ordained after three months by Rt. Rev. B. J. McOuaid on June 22nd, 1871. He was sent to Auburn as assistant to Rev. M. Kavanaugh, pastor of Holy Family church and remained there four years. Then he attended at the Cathedral, Rochester, and from there was appointed pastor of Holy Cross. church, Ovid, April 20, 1876, and has served his parishioners faithfully and well from that time until the present. Many good things. that he has done for the people of Ovid might be mentioned, but we will speak of only one, the erection of the church now under way, which will be dedicated in the spring of 1896. This edifice, when completed, will be as fine a structure as any in Seneca county, and will be a lasting monu-ment to the memory of Father O'Connell for many years after he has passed to his reward. | <urn:uuid:2d62bdf0-c355-4ebf-8d10-84294ec725c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyseneca/oconnell.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988499 | 402 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Superbells® Double Ruby Double Calibrachoa
- Part Sun to Sun
- Mature Size
- 6 - 10 Inches
Abundant, small double petunia-like flowers all season on cascading growth; low maintenance
Calibrachoa do not like to have constantly damp soil. They will do well in the ground only with good drainage. For most gardeners containers are the best use for Calibrachoa.
When planting Calibrachoa I often give the plants a slight trim, using a sharp pair of scissors or pruning shears. While not a necessary step, it will increase branching and may help your plants look even fuller.
Calibrachoa are usually easiest to grow in containers because if the roots are kept too wet can lead to root rot diseases. In containers, allow the top of the soil to dry before watering again. If your plant is wilting even though the soil is still damp you likely have a root rot problem. Calibrachoa can be fantastic in-ground plants, but only if they are planted in well drained soil. Raised beds would be a good choice for planting Calibrachoa in the landscape. In the ground they shouldn't need much additional water unless conditions are very dry. Proper watering is key to growing good Calibrachoa.
The plants are low-maintenance with no deadheading needed. They will do best if fertilized in a regular basis. Calibrachoa can be sensitive to both high and low pH. If your plants have been growing for a while and then begin to look a bit tired and not so good there are several things to try. If the foliage is yellow there are two possible causes. If you haven't been fertilizing regularly they could simply be hungry and in need of fertilizer. Feed them using a well-balanced (look for something with an n-p-k ration near 20-10-20) water soluble fertilizer. If you have been fertilizing regularly with a well-balanced fertilizer and the foliage is still turning yellow it is probably because the pH range in your soil has gotten a bit high or low. The most common impact of this is that Iron can no longer be taken up by the plant, even if it is available in the soil. The common form of Iron used in fertilizer is sensitive to pH changes. If you think pH is your problem you can either try to lower (or raise) the pH or you can simply apply Chelated Iron, which is available at a wider pH range and should help your plants turn green again. You may also be able to find Iron in a foliar spray (which means you spray it on the foliage rather than applying it to the soil) which can also help your plant turn nice and green again. Stop by your favorite garden center and they should be able to help you choose a product to use.
As the season goes on the plants can sometimes just start to look open and not as good. This can happen even if they are being watered and fertilized correctly. Fortunately this is very simple to fix. Grab a sharp pair of scissors or pruning shears and give the plants an all over trim. This will cause them to branch out more and should stimulate new growth and flowering, especially if you fertilize right after trimming them back. Just like your hair looks a lot better after a trim, your plants often will too. You will sacrifice flowers for a few days, but the plants should come back flowering more than ever shortly. I will usually give my Superbells a trim back in late July or early August. Should your plants have a few unruly stems that are longer than everything else or sticking our oddly, you can trim these stems back at anytime. Calibrachoa are very forgiving when it comes to trimming.
An application of fertilizer or compost on garden beds and regular fertilization of plants in pots will help ensure the best possible performance.
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No Awards to display | <urn:uuid:9d1563c1-50ae-42d8-99de-4c76e87ff402> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.provenwinners.com/plants/calibrachoa/superbells-double-ruby-double-calibrachoa-calibrachoa-hybrid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944969 | 835 | 2.234375 | 2 |
'Little House on the Island'
With its patriarch a park ranger, the Rutledge family gets to experience life off the mainland.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 3, 2006
BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK - On a fog-shrouded winter morning, the traffic reports are forbidding: multiple-vehicle pileups. Mileslong traffic jams. Half-hour toll-gate waits.
But Tom Rutledge's 8-mile, 30-minute commute is clear sailing - or, more accurately, outboard motoring.
His 23-foot boat skims the shallows of Biscayne National Park above clusters of coral, sponges resembling hubcap-size doughnuts, skittering spiny lobsters, browsing manatees and darting mullet.
Rutledge, a National Park Service ranger since 1976, has been stationed on Adams Key for 18 years, a 79-acre dot in the vastness of Biscayne Bay, inhabited by humans for 4,000 years.
Once home to the Cocolobo Club, built in 1916 by Carl Fisher as an exclusive resort, it is now home to only five people: Tom and Becky Rutledge and daughters Amelia, 9, and Meredith, 12; and ranger John Bittner, 33, who lives next door in a two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow on stilts, nearly identical to the larger house that the Rutledges rent for $500.
The key is so remote that it is its own voting precinct.
There's also a public dock, picnic tables and a half-mile nature trail for visitors, who number about 150 per month.
If the Rutledge family's life were a television show, it would be Little House on the Island, idyllic and wholesome in a way that hardly seems possible in a wired and harried world.
The girls have been homeschooled all of their lives, mostly because of logistics. Their science lessons are all around: sea turtle nests and the island's centuries-old shell middens. The bay's flora and fauna. Meteor showers and constellations, so much clearer than from the mainland.
Recreation is fishing, boating, snorkeling and bird watching: "Great preparation for their lives outside," Tom said.
They have had a pet praying mantis named Henrietta and have befriended a great white heron named Big Bird and his night heron sidekick, Night-Night, regular visitors to their dock.
Somehow, the girls manage to survive without a home computer and weekends at the mall. They regularly cook family meals - often fish they caught - and read from shelves lined with animal books and wildlife guides.
Television is limited to the networks and PBS, and not much of that, Becky said. Communication is by cell phone.
"This environment is good for kids," Becky said. "What an opportunity. How many kids get to live in the middle of the ocean? Kids sit in school all day and come home and have tons of homework, and there's no place for them to go play because the neighborhoods aren't safe."
"I knew we were raising them right when a couple of years ago, I said, "Meredith, what do you want for Christmas?' And she said, "A cast net and a fillet knife.' All right!" Tom said.
They go to town - Homestead and Florida City - several days a week for piano and dance lessons and often venture into Miami-Dade County for modeling jobs.
But the family's island idyll is drawing to a close. Tom, 54, faces mandatory retirement from the Parks Service at 57.
He and Becky, 52, have bought island property in the Charleston, S.C., area, near relatives. They're studying stilt-house plans and will soon start to build in a place of "roads and churches and Wal-Marts, so you don't even know you're on an island," Becky said.
Still, there are marshes and tidal creeks, so the girls anticipated the change with mixed feelings.
On the plus side: shrimping, crabbing and living within biking distance of their cousins.
The minuses: "I'll miss the easiness to get out and do something, like go out in a boat and go kayaking," Meredith said.
"I like being able to see all the (island's) animals, because in the city the only animals you get to see are pigeons or alley cats or stray dogs," Amelia said. "And the city smells bad."
But she looked forward to public school.
"I'm not saying I'm going to love it, but I just want to try it," Amelia said. "I love it here, but I love it there, too." | <urn:uuid:336494e4-b4bf-45bf-b858-66ec20f74ae4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/03/news_pf/State/_Little_House_on_the_.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960117 | 1,002 | 1.6875 | 2 |
- Potter: ObamaCare myths and realities
- The structure and organization of the Syrian opposition
- 'Chemicals of Concern' list still wrapped in OMB red tape
- Radar van locations, traffic incidents & today's gas prices
- Tucson receives national recognition for bike friendliness
Posted Oct 10, 2012, 12:13 pm
Watched any TV lately? Opened your mailbox? Answered your phone? Driven to work? Unless you've been living under a rock, you likely have noticed it's election season! I've seen so much political advertising over the past few months I've started to hear "I approve this message" in my sleep.
We are all aware of the endless series of political commercials, mail pieces and phone calls promoting Candidate X and criticizing Candidate Y. But what impact will these various methods of communication have on voter turnout?
The Grand Canyon State has nearly 5 million eligible voters. About 3.1 million Arizonans are registered to vote and only 28 percent of those registered participated in the state's primary election in August. With such dismal turnout in the primary, what should we expect for November's election?
History seems to indicate a significant increase from the August primary. In years where Arizonans have had the opportunity to cast their ballot for president, we see the highest rate of voter participation. Since 1974, Arizona has experienced approximately a 73 percent turnout rate in presidential elections and 57 percent in off years. In 1980, with Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter at the top of the ticket, turnout surged past 80 percent while in 2008, the Obama vs. McCain race generated a 77 percent turnout.
While a 77 percent turnout rate is a significant number, it can be better and we have taken steps to improve the voting process to make it as convenient as possible. We've made it possible to find your polling place, track the status of your early ballot and check your registration all from most smartphones. Electronic poll books have increased efficiency and early balloting, or voting by mail, has proven to be an enormously popular initiative.
In 2008 nearly 53 percent of statewide votes were cast by early ballot. Just two years later the percentage rose to 61 percent. Now, we have about 1.5 million voters on the state's Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL). While those numbers are impressive, they are not nearly as remarkable as the percentage of those on PEVL who actually vote. In 2008, 91 percent of early ballots were returned. During the midterm election of 2010, that rate decreased to 76 percent. With such a large number of voters on PEVL for this Presidential election we could see near record levels of participation.
Partisan voter turnout also can provide some insight as to what to look for in the general election. Four years ago 81 percent of registered Republicans voted in November. Democrats turned out at a rate of 73 percent and 69 percent of so-called "Independents" voted. Green and Libertarian party members voted with 84 percent and 76 percent respectively.
Over the last 100 years, Arizona has had a handful of elections that came down to one vote. Could this be the year we have another? Could you be that one vote that makes the difference?
While numbers and percentages can help us understand historical trends and patterns, each vote could be the difference between a winning candidate and a losing campaign. It's your voice. It's your vote. Make it count. | <urn:uuid:7e37f59f-b5c8-451b-8e8d-cb3ae0f7fec9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/101012_voting_op/history-predicts-high-voter-turnout-az/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966962 | 690 | 1.945313 | 2 |
U.S. Officials Visit Afghanistan to Assess Humanitarian Need
Breaking from its ban prohibiting officials from traveling to Afghanistan, the U.S. sent three representatives, two from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and one from the U.S. Embassy, on a humanitarian mission to Afghanistan to view the devastation, starvation and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The three are traveling with the World Food Programme, assessing the humanitarian need caused by the brutal warring brought on by the terrorist Taliban regime. The U.S. has provided 75,000 tons of food to Afghan refugees—nearly two thirds of all the food given to Afghanistan refugees, but this amount is not enough to feed the 170,000 refugees who are starving and dying in camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In addition to the Taliban’s human rights violations and gender apartheid imposed on the women of Afghanistan, the country is experiencing its worst drought in 30 years. Thousands of refugees have sought aid in neighboring Pakistan, but the government of Pakistan prohibited aid to one refugee camp—Jalozai—as a warning to the throngs of people flooding the border that Pakistan will not support more refugees, and only relented last week to allow some aid.
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. . . .
6/18/2013 Pakistani Women's University Bus, Hospital Bombed - A bus for a women's university in Pakistan and the hospital that treated victims from the blast were bombed on Saturday, killing 14 students and 24 others at the hospital.
The bus was transporting female students and teachers from Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta, located in the southwestern part of Pakistan. . . .
6/18/2013 Taliban Attack In Afghan Capital As NATO Transfers Power - Yesterday, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) transferred responsibility for the country's security forces to the Afghan government after a bomb blast targeting a political official left three civilians dead in Kabul. . . . | <urn:uuid:6e2f3299-5285-4e6e-9e14-04b7aee74e58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?id=5446 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940072 | 495 | 2.25 | 2 |
Welcome to Mommy (and Daddy) Lingo!
Hi and thanks for visiting this site. As a mother of 3 I've said some pretty odd stuff over these past 10 years and thought it would be fun to write a bunch of them down.
And now, with the encouragement of my brother, I'd like to share some of these unconventional, yet practical, phrases. Enjoy!
Friday, March 23, 2012
"Oh don't rub your hair on the wall."
Actually, I think I can expand this to include, well, everything. Honestly, I can't think of a single thing that needs to be rubbed on a wall. Nothing. Maybe there's something out there that might benefit from a good rub on a wall but I've gone through a long list and not one of them qualifies. However, I might be persuaded to narrow the field a bit and state that no body part should be rubbed on a wall. But if there were some object that you felt should, for some reason, make this sort of contact, then I suppose it might be alright if this rubbing occurred. Who am I to judge, right? (weirdo) | <urn:uuid:80580468-3643-4c27-98ef-ea46fb6f2153> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mommylingo.blogspot.com/2012/03/oh-dont-rub-your-hair-on-wall.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977429 | 237 | 1.515625 | 2 |
High School Students to Compete in Blue Crab Bowl at ODU
The Blue Crab Bowl, the Virginia regional qualifying competition for the National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB), will be held at Old Dominion University March 5 and 6. Teams from 16 high schools will be tested on their knowledge of ocean-related subjects.
Each year, this event is made possible by a partnership between ODU's Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences and Virginia Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), College of William and Mary.
The winning team from the Blue Crab Bowl will face 24 other regional champion teams in the National Ocean Sciences Bowl in April at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Preliminary activities Friday, March 5, will include a welcome by ODU Provost Carol Simpson. Competition rounds are Saturday. An initial round-robin portion of the event begins at 9 a.m.; double-elimination rounds begin at noon and the championship rounds at 2:35 p.m. The awards ceremony will follow immediately after the final round, at about 4:30 p.m.
All segments of the event will take place in the Batten Arts and Letters Building and be open to the public.
Teams will be from these high schools: Bishop Sullivan Catholic, Virginia Beach; Churchland, Portsmouth; Governor's School for Science & Technology, Hampton; Maury, Norfolk; Isle of Wight Academy, Isle of Wight County; Grafton, York County; Gloucester, Gloucester County; Patrick Henry, Hanover County; St. Christopher's, Richmond; Louisa County High School; Fredericksburg Academy; Fauquier High School, Fauquier County; Piedmont Governor's School for Math, Science & Technology, Henry County; Prince Edward County High School; and Seton, Manassas.
Victoria Hill, an ODU assistant research professor in oceanography, is assisting in coordinating the Blue Crab Bowl. The coordinator is Carol Hopper Brill, a marine education specialist with the Virginia Sea Grant program. For more about the bowl, visit www.vims.edu/bcb.
Hill said the ocean-related questions posed to the students will test knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics, navigation, geography and also history and literature. More than 50 faculty members, staffers and graduate students from VIMS and ODU donate their time to ensure the success of the competition, she added.
This article was posted on: February 22, 2010
Old Dominion University
Office of University Relations
Room 100 Koch Hall Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0018
Old Dominion University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. | <urn:uuid:57a4c66f-41b8-4883-a504-d5f46cc9e8e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ww2.odu.edu/ao/news/index.php?todo=details&todo=details&id=20526 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908309 | 553 | 1.84375 | 2 |
In all likelyhood Mr. Ford would have found alternate funding. But...you never know and niether shall we. During WWII, time differences would have been more critical IMHO. Hitler didn`t think things through and made decisions on a whim because of certain conditions. Troops were in Vietnam by the end of the 50`s and the war was "publicised" in the early 60`s and brought "home". Kennedy simply increased the troop counts. During this time, great instabilities were occuring and soviet intervention would have been likely. The "bay of pigs" incedent was a very unnerving time in world history as it was as close to Nuclear war as we have yet to come.
Therefore, delaying the "manhattan" project could have something to consider.
With hindsight, we think we have the knowledge to make a change but I feel sure that we would make another equally dangerous alternative time line.
So...when someone walks up to you with a time machine capable of what we have discussed, destroy it without provocation and aforethought. Man needn`t mess with time, we can make a fine mess without this type of power. | <urn:uuid:5ff496aa-e50d-4617-be2a-6e811978e0cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcmech.com/forum/21317-post16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983376 | 242 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Issue Number: 114
Johan Zoffany’s portrait of the first Royal Academicians is not only a who’s who of the key artists of the day but a comment on the individuals shown, writes Martin Postle
Pictures of art academies became increasingly common after the Renaissance, showing artists undergoing training in drawing, painting, sculpture and engraving. Zoffany’s remarkable painting of the Royal Academy, which he began in 1771, is quite different, although it purports to take place in a life class, with the presence of two male models.
Johan Zoffany, 'The Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy', 1771-72. The Royal Collection, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II/The Royal Collection © 2010 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Co-organised by the Royal Academy of Arts and the Yale Center for British Art.
On the left is Reynolds, the President, in a black suit engaged in discussion with colleagues. To his left is a spread out group all looking the other way at the model whose arm is being adjusted by George Moser, Keeper of the Academy. This division may have been intended to illustrate the two aspects of the Academy’s work, theory and practice. The prominent figure in spectacles standing on the rug is Richard Yeo who, while not a particularly important RA, was Engraver of the King’s Seal and important to the King. Zoffany probably hoped that this painting would catch the King’s eye, which it did and he bought it for 500 guineas – about £65,000 today.
This is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Academicians, shot through with humour and affection: a tribute to the brotherhood shared by artists involved in this fledgling institution. Rather than showcasing an artistic community at work – educating or being educated – it explores the individual character of the various protagonists, as they talk, listen, contemplate, or simply strike poses. Aside from the inclusion of a few plaster casts, benches, and an oil lamp, the room itself is sparse. Yet, the inspiration for Zoffany’s painting was one of the grandest and most celebrated frescoes of the Italian Renaissance, Raphael’s School of Athens (1509-11) in the Stanza della Segnatura, Rome. Both in its compositional organisation and iconography, Zoffany referred here to the origin of academic discourse in Plato’s academy, where art, poetry and literature were bound together by a common intellectual pursuit, and the bond of friendship.
First Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy, William Hunter (1718-83) had been involved in teaching anatomy to art students. Here Hunter strokes his chin as he contemplates the living model, an indication of the central role the model played in both artistic and medical discourse. Hunter the empiricist plays Aristotle to a Platonic Reynolds, who, looking away from the model, upholds the abstract principles of the Academy.
The father of British landscape painting Richard Wilson, is a curiously isolated figure, leaning disconsolately against the chimneypiece, arms folded. By this time Wilson’s career was on the wane, partly due to his fondness for drink. Wilson, whom a mutual friend described as Zoffany’s former ‘bottle-companion’, was said to have been depicted originally with a tankard of beer above his head on the mantelpiece, although not trace of it can be seen today.
Cosway became an Academician in 1771, and was a later addition to the painting, being added on a strip of canvas attached at the right hand side. Known for his flamboyant dress sense and behaviour, Cosway, a so-called ‘Macaroni Painter’, stands in the pose of the celebrated classical statue, the Apollo Belvedere. At his feet is a plaster cast of a torso of Venus, upon which Cosway rests his cane suggestively. Cosway was a known womaniser.
THE MODEL IN THE FOREGROUND
The younger male model in the foreground is taking off his clothes in preparation for a life class, his shoes, coat and shirt strewn on the floor before him. Ingeniously, Zoffany has placed the model in the pose of the famous classical statue, Spinario, which features a boy removing a thorn from his foot – although here he removes a sock. At that time male models in the Royal Academy sat for two hours during an evening session and were paid five shillings a week, plus a shilling for each sitting. Female models, by contrast, were paid ten shillings and sixpence per sitting.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy, is dressed in a black velvet court suit. At his side his dress-sword is visible, indicating the knighthood recently conferred upon him by the King. Reynolds converses with the two men to his right, the architect William Chambers and the portrait painter Francis Milner Newton, respectively Treasurer and Secretary of the Academy. In his right hand, Reynolds cradles a silver ear trumpet, a reminder of his deafness. Reynolds attributed the affliction to a chill caught in the Sistine Chapel, although members of his family who had not visited Rome were also affected by the condition.
At the time of Zoffany’s painting Francesco Zuccarelli was an instructor or ‘visitor’ in the life class at the Academy, one of his duties being to pose the model. Zoffany, who did not much like Zuccarelli, depicts him somewhat satirically in a theatrical manner, instructing the seated model, who is taking up the pose of St John the Baptist, derived from Raphael’s famous painting of c.1518.
An imposing figure, Francis (‘Frank’) Hayman is seated foursquare upon a wooden box, one hand upon his knee, the other grasping his cane like a cudgel. Hayman was one of the elder statesmen of the academic community, and an old friend of Zoffany and of Hogarth, with whom he had participated as a leading light in the St Martin’s Lane Academy, a forerunner of the present Royal Academy.
MARY MOSER AND ANGELICA KAUFFMAN
On the wall hang portraits of the two female founder members of the Royal Academy, the Swiss portraitist, Angelica Kauffman, and, to the right in profile, Mary Moser, a flower painter. Kauffman had arrived in London in 1766, whereupon she became a favourite, reputedly even a lover, of Reynolds, whose portrait she painted. Mary Moser was the daughter of George Michael Moser, a key figure in the foundation of the Royal Academy, and its first Keeper, responsible for running the Schools. Kauffman and Moser have only a virtual presence in Zoffany’s painting since it would have been considered indecent for them to have appeared in the room with the nude male models.
Zoffany has placed himself at the extreme left of the composition. Among the artists, he, alone, holds a palette and brushes, indicating his role as creator of the painting. His thick fur-trimmed coat, and overshoes suggest that he is dressed for outdoors, a pictorial device which may also refer to the fact that he is outside the main sphere of activity, acting as observer rather than participant. | <urn:uuid:3d315322-33c2-4787-9ab5-e8404fae156d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ra-magazine/spring-2012/johan-zoffany-finding-the-founders,342,RAMA.html?action=com.othermedia.webkit.site.UserPreferenceAction&actionToken=a5ldj_9s1Dad1&preference=user-size-small | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973515 | 1,573 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Strong advocates of our new G20 process are convinced that it will bring legitimacy to international economic policy discussions, rule-making, and crisis interventions. Certainly, it’s better than the G7/G8 pretending to run things – after all, who elected them?
But who elected the G20? The answer is: No one. And, in case you were wondering, there is no application form to join the G20 (although you can crash the party if you have the right friends, e.g., Spain). The G20 has appointed themselves as the world’s “economic governing council” (to quote Gordon Brown).
Is this a good idea? Continue reading | <urn:uuid:27bbe5c8-441f-4552-822f-ad04cf45d0d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baselinescenario.com/tag/new-imf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962188 | 142 | 1.5 | 2 |
Workers who will clean up contaminated DOE sites or handle wastes generated by the cleanup will be exposed to risks to their health and safety. To calculate these risks, scientists must gather data to address several questions.
For example, what types of radiation or pollutants will a worker be exposed to? What are the likely routes of exposure--inhalation, ingestion, or direct radiation exposure through the skin? What is the estimated volume of each contaminant at the waste site? Will heavy equipment be used? In what types of activities is a worker involved--waste incineration, packaging of solid waste, solidification and stabilization of waste, use of heating processes to remove pollutants from soil (thermal desorption) or turn contaminated soil to glass (vitrification), excavation of contaminated soil, soil washing, site restoration, or transport of waste? How many workers engage in each activity and for how many hours?
For DOE's Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, risks to remediation and waste management workers were estimated using a unit risk approach to automate the risk assessment process. The unit risk approach involves five basic steps for estimating worker risk: (1) identify alternative, (2) identify specific activities and types of workers for each alternative, (3) identify number of workers and hours required for each activity, (4) estimate unit doses for each activity, and (5) estimate unit risks.
Once the remediation method or waste management alternative is selected, the types of activities and workers required to complete site cleanup or waste handling are identified. Both the environmental restoration (ER) and waste management (WM) teams have developed automated user-friendly data bases for choosing typical activities required for a particular remediation or waste treatment method. These activities, occurring sequentially, form a "treatment or technology train"). The ER data base includes 58 of the most widely used ER technologies, and the WM data base contains 32 possible waste management modules--waste treatment, storage, or disposal activities.
The data bases also include various types of workers such as heavy equipment operators, laborers, supervisors, and waste handlers. It is important to estimate the types of workers involved in an activity because the type of workers affects a worker's exposure. For example, because a laborer is closer to a waste than a supervisor is, the laborer is more likely to be exposed to contamination through inhalation.
An important feature of the automated risk assessment system is its incorporation of levels of worker protection. The more equipment and safety gear a worker uses, the less likely he is to be exposed to contaminants. The ER data base includes various levels of protection that can be selected to ensure compliance with DOE and Occupational Safety and Health Administration protection standards.
Identifying the number of workers and the hours required to complete a WM or ER activity is the next step in estimating worker risks. This information is available from site managers or site or DOE data bases (such as costing data bases).
Once the types and number of workers are identified, potential exposures are estimated using a suite of computer models. Unit exposures (exposure per unit contaminant resulting from inhalation, ingestion, or direct radiation exposure) are calculated using standard Environmental Protection Agency exposure assessment methods.
The ER and WM systems each include 350 of the most common contaminants found within the DOE complex, ranging from cesium and plutonium to mercury and PCBs. Unit risk factors for each contaminant, ER technology, and WM module were developed and stored in a data base developed especially for this purpose. These unit risk factors are multiplied by the unit exposures or unit doses to yield a unit risk (worker risk per unit contaminant) for each contaminant and activity involved in the alternative being evaluated.
Finally, the unit risks are multiplied by the actual inventory of contaminants at a site or waste treatment facility. Risks for each exposure pathway, activity, and contaminant are summed to yield the actual estimated risk for a given alternative or remediation method.
This worker risk assessment will provide information that may be used by decision makers trying to determine how particular DOE waste sites will be remediated and how their wastes will be managed.
[ Next article | Search | Mail | Contents | Review Home Page | ORNL Home Page ] | <urn:uuid:42c8124c-1621-43d2-a303-c92d083f7f0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev28-1/text/risbar1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919696 | 853 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Social Panoramas Crown House Publishing
Lucas Derks ISBN 190442403-1
What is a ‘social panorama’ and how can this book assist therapists to assist their clients?
‘Social Panoramas’ are the way we relate to people and how they relate to you, they are built from the inside and are basically the filters we use to decide where, in our internal hierarchy, people fit in. For example, do you ‘grade’ a doctor as higher than a medical student – would you accept the diagnosis from the med student as trustingly as from the doctor? In your internal hierarchy, is a famous world acclaimed therapist better than ‘Joe Bloggs’ therapist? This book explores this and more…
It also encompasses beliefs, emotions, social forces and interactions – where and how we put these situations, as well as people, in our mind. It clearly explains and details (with the use of exercises) how our internal processes affect our external lives. And it helps the therapist to discover new ways to “unstuck” clients and move them forward.
Lucas Derks book is entertaining, fascinating and thought provoking. Full of practical techniques, exercises and insights, with some great visual graphics, it is a must read.
Terri Bodell, NACHP | <urn:uuid:3a7cd112-b8d6-41a7-aac5-f32e287ab196> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sociaalpanorama.nl/TerriBodell.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941853 | 275 | 1.75 | 2 |
Goa: A Threatened Urban Ecosystem
We have been busy looking at Goa’s complex urban system and networks together with a group of graduate landscape architecture students from Sweden. This studio, taking place from Feb 14th to 25th, is part of a year-long programme organized by Henrietta Palmer and Michael Dudley of the Royal Institute of Arts in Stockholm, and the Institute of Urbanology in Goa. The group was also joined by masters students of the Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women (BNCA) based in Pune.
Goa, which is the smallest state in India, can be conceptualized as an urban system made of a network of villages and a few bigger towns of max 100,000 people. These are interspersed with fields and forests and each settlement is connected to the others through an intricate web of small roads. As is the case in many Indian cities, large infrastructure projects along with savage real estate speculation and corrupt politics are challenging the unique spatial organization of Goa.
Historically, this spatial logic has been connected to the availability of water sources and river systems which traditionally Goan villages and hamlets were dependent on for their survival. The delicate balance of containing groundwater salinity by blocking rain water flows through intricate water management, of painstaking rain water conservation through dependency on its forests (now being ravaged by mines) and of dependence on wells for water supply are all factors that are miraculously still alive even as one part of Goa gets connected to piped water, roads and bridges.
If modern urban societies are concerned with environmental issues then a good look at Goa’s habitats and how they are embedded in its water system becomes something that everyone can learn a lot from. If the new vision that Goa is looking towards for its own growth and future need an anchoring for its regional development plans, then that vision needs to be anchored in its historical spatial logic, arranged through its water ways and systems.
Right now, Goa’s system of villages, towns, fields and forests are being super imposed by a planning logic connected to mainstream mechanisms of connectivity and mobility, of real estate development and aspirations. The people of Goa are struggling with the balancing out of all these factors and are looking for ways to organize Goa’s growth and future in a manner that does justice to its special cultural and historical distinctiveness that is intimately tied to its physical, environmental and spatial logic. In a very small way, this group has tried to address some of these issues to the best of its ability.
After more than a week of travel, observations, meetings with experts and activists, the group will make a series of presentations that directly or indirectly connects with the idea of Goa’s complex water system as the base of its spatial logic and open the doors for more research in this broad area. Please come to the students’ presentation at Panjim Inn in Fontainhas, Goa, Friday February 25th at 5PM.
Click here for more pictures of the studio in Goa.
Read more on Goa as an urban network on airoots. | <urn:uuid:b8af096d-63cd-4748-b30c-a6267cacacaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://urbz.net/tag/urbanology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97053 | 644 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Key Point: One of the best principles I’ve ever learned is the following: Everything is a process and a process is everything. Anyone who understands this principle appreciates that process and personal judgment go hand in hand. Process is never intended to be mind-numbing bureaucracy. Actually a checklist is usually a reliable method and best-known way of doing something. It is a good thing. One would think that this principle would be comprehensively endorsed and adopted by ALL industries, especially medical practitioners. Apparently this is not the case. Dr. Atul Gawande‘s book and New York Times best seller, The Checklist Manifesto, is about process and checklists. Gawande, a surgeon and author, notes that 93 percent of physicians surveyed wanted checklists used if they were on the operating table, while 20 percent question their value when operating themselves. What’s surprising to me is that process control, according to a number of studies, appears to be at the clinician’s discretion. Yikes… This is like every commercial pilot having their own take off approach protocol, or none at all. I don’t know about you, but I like to see those pilots going through their standard, industry defined safety checks as I board a plane. It actually matters to all on the plane if we take off and land safely.
One of the most distressing points the book makes is regarding simple hand washing. Almost two hundred years after it was statistically proven that hand washing saves countless lives, clinicians are still struggling with compliance (in fact, a May 2010 study indicates that clinicians complied with hand washing guidelines less than half of the time). According to Gawande, this lack of discipline extends into the Operating Room, where he describes complex tasks that must be highly choreographed between many professionals in order to produce positive outcomes that have no script or checkpoints. Geez… If I ever need an operation, I’m going to pin an infection prevention checklist to my chest!
Why do people in most organizations that don’t have strict regulatory guidelines, resist the discipline of checklists? Well apparently part of the reason is the role of our “ego.” We apparently don’t need checklists but others do. My view is that this arrogance can get us in serious trouble regardless of what work we do. Another barrier to checklist application is inertia. It is simply easier to not follow a protocol.
- What do you do that requires or would greatly benefit from a checklist and/or reliable process? What do you do to ensure consistent attention to following and improving on these? Be self-accountable and define them.
- Does your ego or inertia get in the way of applying and/or inviting others to help you apply these checklists? Processes? Why? What will you do about it? Be respectful and listen to others. Be open to feedback regarding reliable methods you govern.
- Do you recognize that a checklist/process/standard method actually can lead to more creativity and mastery? If not you might benefit from exploring this paradox further.
Checklists in The Triangle,
Conflict is a normal part of work. How did you and I handle it this week?
Ok, you came to work every day in this new year with a smile and growth mind set. You’ve been reading my blogs and you are committed to living the Character Triangle. Then it happened. It set you and me off. What was it and what did we do about it?
The very first thing to remember is that every thing is a process. Most times conflict at work happens because of a process break down. Rarely do people do things intentionally to screw us over. (If that is their intention, they usually need counseling.) So the first thing to do is to observe and describe the process that failed, and outline the consequences of the failure. If we can unemotionally and objectively do that we can usually have a constructive dialogue with those that are part of the process. We learn to attack the process and not each other. We learn to have what I describe in earlier blogs as being capable of having a crucial conversation.
So what did we do this week, when IT happened? Did we document the process problem? Did we positively engage our team members in addressing the situation? Or did we get mad and stew? Complain to others who have no influence? Whine to our boss? Avoided it all together?
- Action: Let’s chose to act as leaders and use conflict as an opportunity for process improvement and personal growth. Let’s minimize the amount of time we avoid or allow conflict to boil. Let’s learn from the conflict that happened this week and apply lessons through the rest of the year. So conflict can lead to constructive might rather than the shortcomings of flight or fight.
Might in the Triangle,
What does attacking Muslims have to do with work? The short answer is… a lot. Nicholas Kristof’s article in last Sunday’s New York Times, raises the question, “Is this America?”, partly on the observation of the recent attack rhetoric aimed at Muslims. He cites a blog post in The New Republic magazine where the editor in chief asserts, “… frankly Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.” Kristof questions the personal venom in this New Republic article and then goes on to commend Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders for denouncing the anti-Islam discourse overall.
It is perfectly acceptable, perhaps even desirable, to question the shortcomings of Islam and any other religion. “Attacking” ideas, processes, and/or situations is appropriate. Attacking people or groups of people is generally not. (Self defense from physical harm most believe is an acceptable exception.)
In the workplace, obviously on a much smaller stage, the same guidelines exist. Attacking the process, ideas, behavior, or situations can lead to learning and continuous improvement. Attacking each other verbally is counter productive. Think about how often personal or department criticism happens in a week in your workplace. Why? What good does it do anyone?
If we set the example on the smaller stage perhaps we can demand the same character from those on the big stage. We can change this in our work environment right now by what we expect from ourselves and our team mates.
Let’s do it. We can. Respect belongs to all of us. | <urn:uuid:692e8a0f-4b36-4634-81f0-aa9719d6609f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lornerubis.com/tag/process/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954772 | 1,322 | 1.9375 | 2 |
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was conducting a training event at a decommissioned U.S. Naval air station located in South Weymouth (Mass.), approximately 20 miles south of Boston’s Logan International Airport. It was a clear morning, and the flights leaving Logan were in sight as they headed to points unknown. Two of those flights were American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175.
While I was outside, a participant’s cell phone rang and we learned that a plane (American Flight 11) had hit the World Trade Center. We made it back to the classroom in search of information just in time to witness the second plane (United 175) strike the towers. Soon reports filtered in about other planes, and the realization that we were under attack—on our own soil—became very apparent. Training was quickly canceled and the individual process of digesting what was occurring in America began.
The events of that day became even more personal when I learned that one of my best friends, Brian David Sweeney, had been on the United flight. Brian was a former U.S. Naval pilot and Top Gun instructor whom I’d lived with in San Diego . He’d since retired and was working for a defense firm developing future weapons systems for aircraft. He traveled to Los Angeles once or twice a month for meetings. His trip was to be a short one as we were to have dinner later that week, along with his new wife Julie at their new house in nearby Barnstable, Mass.
Tragically, that never happened. Brian was a true American hero and patriot who served his country and influenced thousands around him. He stood for everything that’s good about humanity and the U.S.—including honor, dignity, service, love of God and your fellow man, and freedom. He was larger than life, and his loss will always reverberate within me. It’s why I reentered law enforcement, and why I still remain in the field.
As officers, we’re charged with protecting, enforcing and preserving the Constitution, and maintaining the delicate balance of freedom and the greater good of the people we protect. Those were the very things that several soulless cowards attempted to destroy that day. As American police officers, we have a job unlike any other officer in the world: We protect a legislative mandate that ensures freedom for all through free will, enterprise and self determination. As we have seen in the Middle East and elsewhere, police forces are often misused as tools of oppressive governments to enforce the will of one upon many, but that’s not the case here. Instead, we’re charged with protecting our population from those who inflict harm upon them, who deprive others of their safety, security and personal rights through oppression, fear, violence and unjust control.
Make no mistake, as the events of 9/11 proved, there are many in the world that see our system of autonomy, democracy and personal freedoms as something to be destroyed. Such efforts took shape that Tuesday in September when Brian, like so many other American heroes, lost his life. We can’t change that loss, but on the anniversary of the event that failed to bring down a great nation, I ask each of you to reaffirm your commitment to your role as a peace officer and as a protector of the Constitution. I ask you to remain vigilant so that anyone who tries to destroy our way of life shall always fail. | <urn:uuid:2c9f9412-f714-417a-b1aa-322fac652c8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lawofficermagazine.com/print/15182 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983931 | 712 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Animal & Veterinary
U.S. VETERINARIANS AID ENGLAND IN FMD OUTBREAK
FDA Veterinarian Newsletter November/December 2001 Volume XVI, No VI
by Charles Eastin, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) has ravaged the English countryside this year. Diseased animals have been found on approximately 2,030 farms, resulting in the killing of diseased and susceptible livestock on more than 9,500 farms. More than 600,000 cattle, 3 million sheep and 100,000 pigs have been killed as part of the effort to eradicate FMD in England. Many fields throughout the country that were once filled with livestock now stand empty.
All cloven-hooved animals are susceptible to FMD, which is caused by an enterovirus of the Picornoviridae family. England's current outbreak has been attributed to the highly virulent PanAsia O type virus. The disease does not readily infect humans. In the few documented human cases throughout history, symptoms were mild and followed by a complete recovery. While FMD is endemic in many countries of the world, most developed nations have eradicated the disease and ban the import of certain animal products to keep the disease out. In countries where the disease persists, economic losses are mainly due to decreased feed conversion and loss of export markets.
On February 20, 2001, FMD was confirmed in England. The disease was traced to a pig farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, a suburb of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in Northumberland. It is believed to have entered the country in meat that was illegally imported into England and served at a restaurant. Uncooked garbage from this restaurant was believed to have been fed to pigs that became infected with the FMD virus. Garbage can be fed legally to pigs in England provided that such feeding is accomplished under license and in accordance with applicable laws that specify the process by which garbage must be processed (i.e., it must be macerated and cooked). Because of extensive animal movement, the disease had spread throughout the country before authorities became aware of its presence. While farmers received full market value as compensation for every animal killed, this provided little solace for the loss of years, perhaps lifetimes, of effort put into the careful breeding of prime stock. In addition to the trauma and uncertainty for individual farmers, the activities that would normally help them to cope with loss were also disrupted. Biosecurity concerns resulted in the cancellation or closure of livestock markets, agricultural fairs and other activities that normally provide an opportunity for farmers to discuss and work through their problems. Even in these hard times, most farmers in the area felt a sense of duty to cooperate with authorities and willingly submitted to a cull of their livestock if the livestock became infected. Farmers know the tremendous impact FMD has on livestock production and markets.
The State Veterinary Service in England normally employs approximately 300 veterinarians. Due to the large number of FMD cases, the British government's Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) invited the U.S. and many other countries throughout the world to assist them by sending veterinarians to work in England (generally for periods of 30 days). Veterinarians from all over the world responded to the call, and more than 1,000 Temporary Veterinary Inspectors (TVIs) were employed by DEFRA. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Veterinary Services, Emergency Programs) responded to the request and has sent hundreds of veterinarians to England to assist in the fight to eradicate FMD from the country. The USDA actively recruited U.S. veterinarians from many sources, including those employed by Federal, State and local governments, academic institutions, and clinical practices. In addition to providing needed assistance to England, the U.S. will greatly benefit by having a reservoir of veterinarians experienced in FMD identification, outbreak management, and multinational animal disease eradication efforts.
Teams of veterinarians from the U.S. arrived in London weekly. Upon arrival, veterinarians would proceed to DEFRA's main office on Page Street for orientation. The following day they would move to a regional office for additional training and possible assignment to a satellite office. TVIs were most commonly assigned to field positions, where they would be involved in:
- conducting surveillance of farms to detect FMD soon after infection
- culling of farms where disease had been detected
- investigating suspected cases reported by farmers
- providing second opinions for TVIs that were on farms where FMD was suspected
- conducting risk assessments for farmers that appealed the decision that their animals be culled
- oversight of biosecurity on farms
When FMD was detected on a farm, the farm was designated as an "infected premises" or IP. For 21 days from the time disease was diagnosed, disease surveillance visits were conducted on the surrounding area farms (those within 3 kilometers of the IP) every two days. On a surveillance visit, veterinarians examined animals to detect disease. All supplies used on farms were kept in the trunk (or "boot", as they say in England) of the vehicle instead of the back seat. Every effort was made to keep the interior portion of the vehicle clean and disease-free. Upon arrival at the farm, the veterinarian would park the vehicle outside of the farm gate on a public roadway with the trunk directed toward the farm entrance. To drive onto any farm (even one on which disease had not been diagnosed and was not suspected) would be considered a breach of biosecurity and may result in a vehicle unknowingly spreading disease. Biosecurity was particularly important considering that there were a limited number of veterinarians and many farms to be visited. If paperwork was required on the farm, it was placed in a plastic bag prior to the veterinarian getting out of the cab of the vehicle. This bag would also be disinfected before taking it onto the farm. The papers would be removed from the plastic bag to be completed while in the farmhouse and then returned to the plastic bag for transport back to the vehicle. A "disinfection line" consisting of a tub of disinfectant with a stiff-bristle brush and sponge was set up just outside of the trunk. Any equipment or supplies that the veterinarian needed to carry onto the farm were thoroughly disinfected and placed at the end of the disinfection line, perhaps in a bucket. The veterinarian would cover his or her clothing with disposable paper coveralls and a rubber suit. To prevent the spread of disease by footwear, boots (or "Wellingtons") were kept in the trunk of the vehicle and disinfected before proceeding onto each farm. Rapid reliable communication was essential should disease be detected on the farm during the surveillance visit. Cellular phones, particularly susceptible to moisture, were double bagged. To prevent the spread of disease, the phones remained in the plastic bags when they were used on the farms.
Generally, the farmer would meet the veterinarian and they would proceed to inspect and examine each susceptible animal on the farm. In addition to his or her role in disease detection, the veterinarian also provided advice on biosecurity measures taken by the farmer to keep disease off of the farm. Also, the social value to the farmer of interaction with the veterinarian was not insignificant as many of these areas were under stringent biosecurity restrictions that effectively prevented many of the social gatherings that are a hallmark of normal rural life.
If the veterinarian didn't find any infected animals, he or she would exit the farm. All equipment, including boots and the rubber suit was thoroughly cleaned and disinfected prior to being returned to the trunk of the vehicle. Paper suits and any other disposable supplies were placed in plastic biohazard bags, double bagged and returned to the main office for incineration.
However, if the veterinarian suspected disease in any of the animals, the entrance to the farm would be blocked immediately to minimize the chance of any further spread of the disease. After calling the office to report the disease, a more experienced veterinarian would arrive to provide a second opinion regarding the presence of disease. The main DEFRA office in London would then be called and the final diagnosis decision was made within hours of the veterinarian having arrived on the farm. Testing was considered a confirmation of the decision, but test results are not timely enough to be considered in the decision making process.
Handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) devices (part of the standard kit issued to veterinarians) were used to determine the exact location of the infected animal(s) on IPs. From this location, the three-kilometer surveillance zone was established. Within 24 hours of the time of FMD diagnosis, all susceptible animals on the IP were killed. In addition, within 48 hours, all susceptible animals on the farms adjacent to the IP were killed. The animals on adjacent farms were killed because there is an extremely high likelihood that they were already, or soon would be, infected.
Because of the ease with which FMD can be transmitted, extreme biosecurity measures were required on FMD positive farms, especially during the killing process. After confirming the diagnosis, the veterinarian would start the paperwork and prepare for a long afternoon (which frequently stretched late into the night). Office personnel arranged for required teams to converge on the IP within hours following diagnosis. Required teams included:
- case officers who acted as assistants to the veterinarian in charge
- an appraiser to value the animals for compensation purposes
- a slaughter team to kill the adult animals
- a headchute (or crush) with gates to ensure safe handling of livestock
- animal handlers
- a biosecurity team to ensure that all personnel and equipment entering and leaving the farm were properly disinfected, and for post-cull disinfection of the animal carcasses and area of the kill
- leak-proof truck(s) (or lorries) to haul the animals away from the farm for later incineration
- front-end loader(s) to load the animals into the trucks
- an escort to follow the truck(s) and ensure they did not leak
Perhaps one of the most important tasks of the veterinarian was to ensure that the killing of animals was performed in a proper and humane manner. Young animals were killed by injection of euthanasia solution by veterinarians, while older animals were stunned with a captive bolt by slaughter personnel and killed by inserting disposable pithing rods through the brain and into the spinal canal immediately following stunning. One reason for the use of disposable pithing rods was to eliminate the possibility (albeit remote) that workers would be exposed to the etiological agent that causes Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
Occasionally, a farmer would appeal the culling decision because he or she didn't think that his or her live stock had been exposed to FMD. These appeals were frequently based on a belief that good biosecurity on the farm and/or distance from the IP resulted in a low risk that these animals were infected. In such situations, a veterinarian would conduct a thorough risk assessment to assess the likelihood that animals on the farm had been exposed to disease. This risk assessment was forwarded to epidemiology personnel for further consideration. This assessment included an interview of farm personnel, thorough inspection of facilities (including biosecurity measures taken by the farmer and personnel), measurement of the distances between the farm in question and the IP, and inspection of all susceptible livestock.
The total economic cost of the FMD outbreak in England has been estimated to be 2.4 to 4.1 billion British pounds (about 3.4 to 5.8 billion U.S. dollars). Nationally, twenty-five percent of English firms have been impacted. An FMD outbreak in the U.S., either deliberate or accidental, could easily cost many times this amount. This knowledge should help to reinvigorate every individual's vigilance to keep this and other exotic diseases from entering or re-entering the U.S. Undoubtedly, some diseases will gain entrance into the U.S. In these cases, early detection and eradication are essential to ensure the damage to the U.S. livestock industry is minimized. Travelers should be cognizant of the risks of bringing food and animal products into the U.S. from overseas (see websites listed below). Veterinarians should work to educate farmers about what symptoms are suggestive of exotic diseases. Farm workers should educate themselves about the usual symptoms of these diseases and keep them in mind when they inspect their livestock. Lastly, farmers should contact a government veterinarian immediately if the symptoms are suggestive of an exotic infectious disease. Our collective efforts will help to maintain the health of our livestock industries and keep our animals free of foreign animal diseases like FMD.
For additional information on FMD or England's FMD experience, visit one of the following websites:
- USDA Vesicular Diseases Education Website
- USDA APHIS, FMD Information for Travelers
- USDA APHIS, Veterinary Services, Emergency Programs
- Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (England)
- DEFRA Biosecurity videos (England)
- Office International Des Epizooties
Dr. Eastin is a Veterinary Medical Officer in CVM's Division of Epidemiology. He was a DEPRA Temporary Veterinary Inspector working on FMD during July and August 2001. | <urn:uuid:c4df4ad8-1605-4590-919c-bb56e46aff9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/FDAVeterinarianNewsletter/ucm130833.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97284 | 2,756 | 3.078125 | 3 |
U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Weatherization & Intergovernmental Program
DOE to Fund up to $454 Million for Retrofit Ramp-Ups in Energy Efficiency
September 14, 2009
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced a new $450 million program designed to catalyze a nationwide energy upgrade that experts estimate could save $100 million annually in utility bills for households and businesses. The Recovery Act's "Retrofit Ramp-Up" program will pioneer innovative models for rolling out energy efficiency to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in a variety of communities. Much like past roll-outs for cable TV or the Internet, the Department of Energy (DOE) intends to create models that, when undertaken nationally, will save consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills and make the huge savings of energy efficiency available to everyone.
"Energy efficiency isn't just low-hanging fruit; it's fruit lying on the ground. We have the tools to reduce energy use at home and at work and to provide huge savings to families and businesses on their energy bills. But use of these technologies has been far too limited because we lack the simple and effective ways for people to access them," said Chu.
"The 'Retrofit Ramp-Up' program will support large-scale models that can open new energy efficiency opportunities to whole neighborhoods, towns, and, eventually, entire states," continued Chu. "The Recovery Act will allow innovative communities to demonstrate a variety of sustainable business models that can be replicated across the country."
The Request for Information (RFI) being issued today is for competitively selected local energy efficiency projects. This competitive portion of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program will target community-scale retrofit projects that make significant, long-term impacts on energy use and can serve as national role models for grassroots energy efficiency efforts. The DOE is seeking public comment on this newly funded program under the Recovery Act. Public comment ends on Sept. 28, 2009.
The DOE is accepting feedback on both the competitively-selected portion of the EECBG program for up to $390 million for neighborhood-scale building retrofits, as well as up to $64 million for local governments that were not eligible to receive the formula grants announced earlier this year. The EECBG program empowers local communities to make strategic investments to meet the nation's long-term goals for energy independence and leadership on climate change.
This first topic area under the funding solicitation will target a select number of innovative programs that are structured to provide whole-neighborhood building energy retrofits. These will be projects that demonstrate a sustainable business model for providing cost-effective energy upgrades for a large percentage of the residential, commercial, and public buildings in a specific community. Possible approaches could include innovative partnerships between the public and private sector, utility retrofit and audit programs, alternative financing, retail partnerships, and others. The DOE will award up to $390 million for these projects.
The second topic area for up to $64 million is reserved for cities, counties and state-recognized Indian tribes that were not eligible to receive population-based formula grant allocations from DOE under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. These funds are intended to help expand local energy efficiency efforts and reduce energy use in the commercial, residential, transportation, manufacturing, or industrial sectors.
"The aim of the 'Retrofit Ramp-Up' program is to jump-start an industry that makes energy efficiency savings easy to access and available to everyone. By encouraging partnerships between local governments and effective private enterprises, we hope tune-ups for buildings will become as accepted as tune-ups for cars. These efforts will save Americans millions of dollars, reduce carbon pollution, and create new green jobs," said Chu.
View the Request for Information. Public comment is requested by Sept. 28, 2009. The funding opportunity announcement is expected to be released in early October, following the public comment period.
For more information on the EECBG program, visit the program's Web site. | <urn:uuid:d4ba5678-5962-4c82-b1d6-2483c7b30a4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/printable_versions/news_detail.html?news_id=15493 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946204 | 833 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Do you ever feel like you can make very little impact on someone because you don’t have the money to do it? I can admit that I feel that way often. There are so many around me that are affected by job loss, medical problems, and depression. Many times I feel so helpless to these situations because I don’t have the financial means or connections to help someone out of these situations. It has been weighing very heavy on my heart these days.
I had planned to make a meal for a girlfriend who just had a new baby. It is such a joy to get to bring a meal to a new momma and know that I helped make her day a little easier. Our mom’s group provides meals to new moms and I try to sign up as often as I can because it is one thing that I feel so good about doing and nothing brings me more pride than cooking for others.
When I got home, I was tired. It was a long day of running around, returning email after email, and fielding phone calls. I put on a pot of soup for our supper and heard a knock at our door. It was my neighbor and she had come over to see if Ethan wanted to come over and play. The children immediately made themselves at home in my house and I told her to head home and they could play here instead.
As she stood in my kitchen she said to me, “Wow, something smells so good!” While the kids played, I hurried up to make the soup and put it in a jar to run over to her house. She was so surprised and thankful and it was a great reminder to me.
You don’t have to have a lot to make a positive impact on someone else. What seemed like a small gesture to me means a lot more to someone than you might think.
We are so hurried, so busy, so tired. I know I often feel like I have nothing to give anyone. I realize now that a woman of small means can still give with her whole heart and make a big difference to someone else. | <urn:uuid:fc957ee6-a3a3-45d8-b01f-2c0b23f1e157> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://momadvice.com/blog/2009/02/day-13-giving-to-others-when-you-have-little-to-give?pfstyle=wp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989264 | 430 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Share, discuss, and plan ideas for IYC 2011
Want to post your own idea or comment?
This forum is all about sharing your ideas and plans for celebrating IYC 2011. Ideas are just ideas! They might lead to nothing more or they might bloom into something exciting – up to you! You can just post simple suggestions, you can start a discussion and seek comments, or you can post a request for collaboration with other members of the IYC network. You can also just browse and search the forum to see what others are thinking about and add your comments.
Ready to turn your ideas into action? If so, switch to the Activities section and submit your plan for consideration.
Held International Chesmitry Event for Young Adult Suggestion Dewi Mustikarani | added on Sep 08, 2010 Held International Chesmitry Event for Young Adult around the world Indonesia as the host :)
|Topic:||conferences, engaging the youth, competition, play, experiments, game, environment||Audience:||students, high schools, educators, teachers, international, iyc enthusiasts, global|
Periodic Table Suggestion Mercy Kiiru | added on Aug 19, 2010 We should celebrate all aspects of each element on the day it coincides with the atomic number. e.g day 1- Hydrogen, day 10 - Neon, day 58- Cerium......etc.
THE CHEMISTRY IS ME Collaboration Nicola Spano' | added on Aug 10, 2010 It is an event held at an Institute or University involving chemistry students, teachers, businesses, research institutions, etc.. to make exploring the spread of chemistry in all human activities
|Topic:||hands-on activities, exhibition, experiments||Audience:||secondary schools, students, school children, professional chemists.|
Chemists go to school Suggestion Marie-Claude Vitorge | added on Jul 26, 2010 This project is about small funny and friendly sketches of chemistry which will include experiments from daily life and will involve the chemistry of cooking in particular. The public addressed ranges from kindergarten to high school.
|Topic:||experiments||Audience:||school children, secondary schools, high schools|
Chemistry, your life, your future. Discussion José Nogueira | added on Jul 23, 2010 I am thinking in doing a little work on chemistry at the school I attend, putting on display some material essential to the practice of chemistry. I was also thinking about giving my fellow students the opportunity to perform some experiments. I will also bring to school a major chemical Portuguese to lecture to students.
|Topic:||workshops, exhibition, science fair, experiments||Audience:||students| | <urn:uuid:e0304ec2-715c-4371-b7c5-10e984c7d607> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chemistry2011.org/participate/ideasfe47.html?page=15&tag=experiments | 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 | 0.908324 | 554 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Ossining High School student Daniel McQuaid may be competing in some of the nation’s most prestigious science research contests. But he has his sights on more than
winning prizes: McQuaid hopes to help find a cure to cancer.
The high school senior was among 15 students from Westchester, Long Island and New York City to compete last month in the regional finals for the Siemen’s Competition in math, science and technology held at Carnegie Mellon University. McQuaid was the first Ossining High School student ever to make it to the Siemen’s regional finals. Working with Vickram Gidwani, a student at Horace Mann School in New York City, McQuaid developed a compound that causes selective cell death in multiple types of cancer.
The compound, which is an altered version of a drug used to treat depression, works by inactivating cancer-causing proteins. McQuaid’s mentor, Dr. Goutham Narla of
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, hopes to fast-track the drug so it can be tested in humans within the next couple of years, McQuaid said.
“The compound we have altered has been used in patients with depression for about 30 years and is very well tolerated,” he said. “Since our molecule has a very
similar structure, it is likely to be well tolerated as well.”
McQuaid’s interest in cancer research was sparked by the loss of a cousin to lung cancer.
“It was really difficult losing someone in my family to cancer, so I knew from the beginning of high school that I wanted to do science research and that I wanted it to be cancer-related,” he said, adding that working in the lab the last two summers cemented his interest in the field.
During his first summer in a research lab, McQuaid worked about 50 hours per week at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City under Dr. Narla. Then, last summer,
McQuaid and his research partner, Gidwani, went out to Case Western Reserve University, where Narla had moved to continue their research. Because the students were staying in college dorms close to the lab, they worked about 80 hours a week.
“We started out researching the compound’s effects in lung cancer and then branched out to other types of cancer, and we found that response to our drug may be a phenomenon across many types of cancer,” he said “We were working a lot because the results were so exciting.”
McQuaid and Gidwani, whom he met in Dr. Narla’s lab, plan to submit their research to the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held in the spring. | <urn:uuid:8b20dc08-c5eb-4f11-8f40-403f8af59113> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ossining.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/an--ossining-high-school-student-aims-for-more-than-prizes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975273 | 587 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Water treatment and delivery systems were built for steady, predictable operation. In the face of water scarcity and budget cuts, utility managers are challenged to squeeze more performance out of water infrastructure with advanced technologies.
“We have two perspectives on improving the way in which we run our infrastructure,” says Rick Holmes, Acting Deputy Manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas. “First, we are bringing in technology to help us keep aging infrastructure working longer.”
“Second, we are seeking out new ways of ensuring water quality. We are looking for new ways of addressing pipe corrosion, disinfection by-products, biological monitoring and damage from invasive species like Quagga mussels.”
We look forward to hearing more from the Southern Nevada Water Authority, as well as other leading water utilities in our upcoming webinar “A Visionary View of Advanced Water Tech.” | <urn:uuid:d0bd9b78-5858-4f02-9b1a-bbfeb2854b7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theartemisproject.com/utilities-seek-new-technologies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945412 | 184 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Transporation Secretary Ray LaHood (Photo credit: Talk Radio News Service)
A top federal official does. He wants a nationwide ban that would replace the patchwork of laws that exist in some states (but not all).
According to Reuters, ”U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called … for a federal law to ban talking on a cell phone or texting while driving any type of vehicle on any road in the country.
“Tough federal legislation is the only way to deal with what he called a ‘national epidemic,’ he said at a distracted-driving summit in San Antonio, Texas, that drew doctors, advocates and government officials.”
– Is a federal ban needed, or should each state handle this?
– Are people finally realizing the dangers of distracted driving, or is the problem getting worse?
– Should talking on a cell phone be allowed but texting banned?
If you have a comment on this editorial topic, post it below now! | <urn:uuid:1345bf6c-fe5b-4b53-8404-1a081df8a7a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.beaumontenterprise.com/think/tag/texas/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933116 | 206 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Author: Virginia Woolf
Date Published: 1928
I bought ‘A Room Of One’s Own’ for three reasons. Firstly, it was $10; who can say no to such prices? Secondly, Virginia Woolf possibly has one of the most bad arse names of the century (it sounds like she’s from a comic book – and packing heat). Thirdly, I felt as if I owed the feminist literary movement some page time. It was more of a ‘I should read this, I owe you’ feeling, rather than a burning desire.
But I wasn’t really looking forward to reading it that much. Part of this was due to my expectations – and let me be frank here – I was expecting a whiny tone and a vehement polemic rather than a discussion. I was imagining something akin to that special group amongst the modern feminist circle; the well off, white, liberal intelligentsia who have little grip on reality but a very low threshold for being offended.
Other reasons were not so cynical. I am well versed in the arguments and discussions of feminism due mainly to the wealth of feminist blogs on the internet (rather than through books or school education). Although people like Woolf were the pioneers – and thus the original thinkers – it didn’t change my feeling that I would be reading something I had already covered. I didn’t want to hear the arguments again, regardless of the degree of sympathy for their points or how valid they were.
Oddly enough, it is poverty that motivated me to read ‘A Room of One’s Own’. A moratorium of biblical proportions has been enacted on me by my boyfriend and father – I am not allowed to buy anymore books for a looooooong time. (It’s apt that men are involved in this repression of my book rights!). Long story short – it’s caused me to look back at what I already own, but haven’t read yet.
It turns out that I shouldn’t have been such a bastard, since it was a very enjoyable read. Woolf had been asked to speak about women and fiction for the Arts Society at Newnham in 1928, which would inevitably lead to the lengthened published version known as ‘A Room Of One’s Own’. Instead of writing the usual essay – with an introduction, elaboration of arguments and then conclusion – Woolf opted to tell the story of her thought processes as she pondered the chasm wide subject; women and fiction.
Her method is interesting and effective. Woolf successfully conveys the meandering, indefinite nature of the development of ideas and the interconnected, yet oddly disjointed, manner in which people wrestle against themselves during this process. Her descriptions are perceptive and luscious, and her manner of argument firm, yet spirited.
Her main theory – that women need the security of money in order to write well – is pragmatic and I believe well founded. This not only allows the writer privacy and mental breathing space, but also allows the writer to pursue education – the great brain juice of all geniuses. She argues that a truly great writer can then rise above the torments of their gender and write with clarity, rather than vindictiveness (Woolf makes the point that even if this rage is well deserved, it does little good for the text). She uses Shakespeare as an example of a genius who became androgynous in his writing manner. This theory is obviously discussed in much greater detail and nuance than I can convey here, but of course the validity of her points is up to the reader to decide.
This quote in particular was a bittersweet epiphany for me:
“Suppose, for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespeare could be allotted to them; how literature would suffer! We might perhaps have most of Othello; and a good deal of Antony; but no Caesar, no Brutus, no Hamlet, no Lear, no Jaques – literature would be incredibly impoverished, as indeed literature is impoverished beyond counting by the doors that have been shut upon women.” – Chapter 5, pg 83
It made me mourn how much literary insight into half of the human condition has been lost, but also feel hopeful towards the gains made during the last century or so, and the path into the future.
A word of warning on this cheap edition; it could have really benefitted from an introduction. When I was finished I felt really hungry for further analysis, such as initial reactions to the lecture from her contemporaries, a history of Woolf’s life and some background information on some of the more obscure references in the text. I wish that I had bought a more expensive Penguin addition, as they usually have forewords and introductions from people of such knowledge (I don’t know where they find these lurking literary commentators – I like to imagine that they send out owls like in Harry Potter).
I’m looking forward to reading more of Virginia Woolf’s work; I think my next choice will be ‘Three Guineas’. Woolf’s writing is illuminating, rather than alienating, and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this book to anyone interested in literature, regardless of their gender.
♥♥♥♥ – 4/5 | <urn:uuid:a94d4efe-1788-4396-97aa-ed9d30370eff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thewrittenwordreviews.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/a-room-of-ones-own/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975798 | 1,138 | 1.929688 | 2 |
You can help research our Phoenix ecosystem and be part of the Central Arizona - Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project being carried out by scientists. The scientific data you collect can be shared with other researchers and schools to see what patterns in nature exist across our Phoenix metropolitan area!
Phoenix area teachers and students can take part in real scientific research led by CAP LTER scientists. Our education outreach programs focus primarily on urban ecology and urban sustainability.
Ecology Explorers can help you with workshops, lesson plans, and resources for grades K-12. For more information on how ecological research can fit into AZ state standards, visit our teacher section.
K-12 students can learn how to explore and study just like real scientists. Your research can be part of ecological projects being carried out by CAP LTER scientists.
Education Outreach Partner Programs
Overview of Service at Salado
Service at Salado engages elementary and middle school students and ASU undergraduates in after-school clubs that learn about and contribute to the City of Phoenix Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area. It is a partnership between ASU programs, CAP LTER and several community partners.
Overview of SCENE
SCENE was founded to promote learning about our environment through scientific discovery. SCENE's mission is to provide Arizona citizens with a scientific basis for making informed decisions about the environment. SCENE links science expertise and resources at Arizona State University with the community at large, and with schoolchildren and their teachers. The organization is a partnership among the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability, municipalities and members of the private sector.
Overview of Ecoplexity
This project helps develop a heightened capacity for systems thinking among high school life science teachers and environmental education providers. We have created tools to assist them in their teaching about complexity through the use of field experimentation, reading scientific literature, conceptual modeling, and simulations. Several LTER sites are cooperating on this project.
Overview of DCDC
This Center studies the decision processes used to plan and manage water resources and urbanization. The education and outreach components of this project include several items which have been completed and we are currently developing teaching material at the high school and community college level for DCDC products
Overview of Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project
This project examines long-term socioecological processes that shaped Mediterranean landscapes from the beginning of farming to the beginning of complex civilization. The education component will focus on sustainability in the past and the future.
Education for an Equitable Future
The Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, in collaboration with faculty, industry and community partners, is engaged in a three-year (2007-10) National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to encourage female and underrepresented students to learn about engineering through a variety of extracurricular activities. Students from Carson, Powell, Mesa, and Smith Junior High Schools in Mesa Public Schools will participate in inquiry-based learning through hands-on engineering projects designed to increase their interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). | <urn:uuid:579e91ca-fd20-48f9-8082-c70f1d9b8810> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecologyexplorers.asu.edu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936743 | 616 | 2.96875 | 3 |
ISA chairman assures nation: Your data is safe
Hasn't got any data, so hasn't lost any data
Comment Fears were growing this week over the safety of ultra-sensitive personal data, as the BBC - in the shape of Jeremy Vine - finally caught up with the new Independent Safeguarding Authority, and quizzed its chairman over their security procedures.
On Monday night, Panorama took a close look at the new scheme that went live last October, to create a vetting database that will determine whether adults are allowed to work with children and vulnerable adults. This scheme will, on the government’s own figures, cost the taxpayer an additional £277 million over the next three years.
Interviewed by Jeremy Vine, former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas was cautious. He said: "With any large governmental collection of personal information, there are clear and substantial risks that the information may be inaccurate.
"There are risks the information data may be out of date. There are risks the information may be irrelevant. There are risks that it may be compromised or get into the wrong hands, and the larger the database the larger the risk."
With respect to the "soft intelligence" – essentially, hearsay and unsubstantiated allegations, he added: "We have to look at what the detriment might be if things go wrong. This can be very damaging to peoples’ careers. They might lose a job or all types of work for a very long time. It can be damaging in financial terms. This also can be very damaging in personal, social and family terms."
Roger Singleton, Chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) reassured viewers by confirming that there is a very high level of security within the government’s secure information system in terms of physical safeguards.
He pointed out that the ISA has never lost any personal data, although as Jeremy Vine observed, the ISA has not yet had any data to lose.
However, the fundamental issue remains that in general, the government’s record when it comes to protecting personal data is "terrible". The data that will be held on the vetting database is also likely to be far more sensitive and far more directly damaging should it get out into the world than most other data.
Mr Singleton responded: "It's not down to me to defend the government.
"What in fact you will see is that individuals and people are careless with information and that’s how it gets lost, and so... our staff have been really very thoroughly trained on the importance of information.
"Information doesn’t leave the building either electronically or in paper form."
In other words: the main cause of data loss is carelessness. However, we should be reassured as the ISA, uniquely amongst government departments, will train its staff not to be careless.
A spokesman for the ISA later confirmed this stance, telling El Reg: "The ISA sees the security of its information as a chief priority. We have put in place robust processes to ensure the highest safety and security of our information. All staff are trained in information security and data protection. We have also created a stringent risk management process to support our safeguarding responsibilities." ®
As one interviewee confirmed, the Child Support Agency, a department entrusted with equally sensitive data, managed to get details wrong in approximately 2,500 cases last year. | <urn:uuid:f954b8c9-7083-48d4-a192-a46c24886bd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/isa_panorama/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958555 | 690 | 1.585938 | 2 |