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From: Andrea <email@example.com> To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion Date: 2007062218:45:03 Subject: Re: Re: Re: methods of teaching math To show that slope is rate of change, you can come up with lots of real-world situations for your graphs (especially y = mx + b). For example: Your cell phone bill is $50 per month if you don't go over any minutes. For every minute you go over, it's $0.25 more. So then you can graph this, write the equation, the slope is $0.25 and the y-intercept is 50. Or You start school with three friends. Every week, you make two more friends. Or You start with two dogs. They have 6 puppies every year. Or You win $1000 in the lottery, and you put it in the bank. Every month, you earn $1 in interest which you put back in the bank. You can graph all these and ask students lots of fun questions about them. Then give them equations and ask them to identify m and b and write situations describing the equations. FUN!
Math Forum Home || The Math Library || Quick Reference || Math Forum Search | <urn:uuid:1e7614b3-1f39-4a9d-89cb-2b5d62f1cfa8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathforum.org/t2t/discuss/message.taco?thread=650&n=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906496 | 284 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Beutner, associate professor of instructional technology
at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, has been selected
to the Educational Testing Service’s Praxis Principles
of Learning and Teaching National Advisory Committee, which
will meet July 23 – 25 in Princeton, N.J.
ETS is the
organization that creates the SAT, GRE and Praxis exams.
Every student majoring in education has to pass the Praxis
in order to be certified.
The National Advisory Committee is
a key component in the development process for Praxis tests
and typically consists of a diverse group of 15 practicing
teachers and higher education faculty who are involved in teacher
preparation. Members will serve for approximately one year
and will be paid by ETS for periodic visits. The NAC will work
closely with ETS assessment specialists to develop a job analysis
survey, test specifications, and test designs.
The PLT Tests are intended primarily for examinees that
have completed their general pedagogical training for teacher
licensure from the elementary to secondary levels.
will allow ULM to have even more significant influence on
the future of education,” Beutner said. “I'm
very excited about serving on the ETS national advisory group
for the Praxis.” | <urn:uuid:876c5cf1-4a9c-428a-bc02-2b219ede0d35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ulm.edu/universityrelations/news/july07/beutner.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937584 | 277 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The easiest way to get a virtual image is to have someone with VMware Workstation create one for you, or to download a pre-made image from VMware. If you don't know anyone with a copy of Workstation, or the OS you want isn't available as a VMware appliance, you're out of luck. For example, if you want to test a development release of Ubuntu or Debian, it's unlikely that you'll find a VMware image available.
If you plan to make extensive use of VMware -- i.e., if you need to run more than a single OS, if it's for your work, or if you're doing more than just tinkering for fun -- go ahead and buy a copy of VMware Workstation. It's much easier to use VMware Workstation to create virtual machines than to do it manually. Also, Workstation has a number of features you won't find in VMware Player, such as the ability to take snapshots of the guest OS, take movies of the virtual machine, and use virtual SMP.
But VMware Player will get the job done if you just want to run a virtual host under Linux or Windows. You can also modify your virtual machines for VMware Workstation using the tips here for VMware Player, but you should be able to do most if not all of this through the VMware Workstation GUI. I'll walk through the process of creating a guest OS on Linux; this should also work under Windows, but you may need to change things such as pathnames.
The easy way to do this is to grab a VMware appliance from the VMware site, and then make a few modifications. I'll use the Gentoo appliance for this example.
Download the appliance and unzip it into the ~/vmware directory. Under the Gentoo directory, you'll find a file called Gentoo.vmx; if you've chosen another virtual image, look for its .vmx file. This is the configuration file used by VMware to hold information about the virtual environment. It specifies the location of the disk image, the amount of RAM, and so on.
Look for the lines ide1:0.fileName and ide1:0.deviceType. If you want to install a new guest OS from a CD-ROM or DVD, the defaults are fine. If you'd like to use an ISO image instead of a CD-ROM, however, you'll need to tweak this a bit. To use an ISO image, change the fileName and deviceType lines to this:
ide1:0.fileName = "/path/to/cd.iso"ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
Once that's done, fire up VMware Player. However, instead of letting it boot into the virtual machine, press Esc when you see the screen in Figure 1. VMware will give you the option of booting from the hard disk or booting from other devices. Select the CD-ROM drive from the boot menu instead of the hard drive. You should be able to move through your installation normally after that.
By the way -- and this is one of my favorite features of VMware Workstation -- you can download an ISO for a Linux distro and try it out in VMware without even having to take the time to burn it to CD. This feature has helped me avoid wasting a lot of CD-Rs.
Creating your own virtual image from scratch
Modifying an existing guest OS is pretty easy, but it has its drawbacks. For one thing, you can't specify the size of the virtual disk -- you're stuck with whatever size the virtual image had when it was created. The VMware site doesn't actually specify what the size of the virtual images is, so you might have to download several to find one the size that you like.
Also, most if not all of the virtual images I've seen use virtual SCSI hard drives rather than IDE. Some operating systems don't like SCSI and won't detect the disk. So, if you want to use an IDE disk, or just want to specify the size of the disk, you'll have to create a guest disk image without using VMware's tools.
To do this, you'll need to have Qemu installed. Specifically, you'll need the qemu-img program that creates disk images for Qemu. This handy application writes disk images in several formats, including VMware's. To create a disk image, run qemu-img create -f vmdk imagename.vmdk nG, where n is the size of the disk image you want to create. Note that the size of the disk image is the size it can eventually grow to -- not the size it will be when it's first created. So, if you create a 20G image, it will only occupy about 3MB on disk without any data.
Once you've created the image, you'll need to modify the configuration file to tell VMware Player about it. First, comment out all the lines that begin with scsi0, because the Qemu disk will be seen by VMware Player as an IDE disk. Then add two new entries to the configuration:
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"ide0:0.fileName = "filename.vmdk"
Note that you don't need to include the full path if the file is in the same directory as the configuration file.
If you use qemu-img to create your hard disk, you don't really even need to download a virtual guest at all -- you'll just need a sample configuration and a virtual disk. You can use the following as a template to get started:
#!/usr/bin/vmwareconfig.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "4"memsize = "256"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "newvm.vmdk"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "/path/to/iso"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
floppy0.fileName = "/dev/fd0"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
displayuName = "Test Machine"
guestOS = "otherlinux"
scsi0:0.redo = ""
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
displayName = "DisplayName"
checkpoint.vmState = "test.vmss"
ide0:0.redo = ""
I'm not sure how much difference it makes, but you may also want to tell VMware Player what type of guest OS you'll be installing. Look for the line guestOS and change it to whatever OS you're going to install. I found a full list of supported OSes on a site called Forever For Now. The site also hosts some SCSI and IDE guest images, which is a quick way to get started if you don't want to install Qemu.
One of the things that I've added to the configuration that you might not find in many of the guests you can download is the information to add a soundcard via the sound.virtualDev and sound.present directives. I don't usually need a soundcard for testing server operating systems like CentOS, but it comes in handy if you want to use a desktop OS in VMware Player.
Another thing you might want to do is to change floppy.fileName. I haven't had a diskette drive on my main systems for quite a few years, and it gets annoying to have VMware complain about the missing floppy each time you restart the virtual machine. To silence it, add this to the configuration:
floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"
If for some reason you don't have a floppy drive on the computer but want to use a floppy inside the virtual machine, you could try this instead:
floppy0.startConnected = "TRUE"floppy0.fileName = "/path/to/floppy.img"
This might be useful if you wanted to use a diskette image rather than an ISO image to boot your system -- if you were installing OpenBSD, for example.
Multiple network interfaces
If you want to use multiple network interfaces, rather than adding virtual interfaces inside the OS, you can add a second (and possibly third, fourth, etc. -- I've only tried working with two) Ethernet interface by adding this line:
Ethernet1.present = "TRUE"
You might notice that the .vmx file includes a couple of other lines related to the first Ethernet device:
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:03:31:3d"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
You don't have to worry about those -- simply start up VMware player and it will add those lines the first time it sees the Ethernet1 device.
That's really all there is to it. You can tinker a little bit with the configuration to add more hard disks if you need to, but this should be enough to get going with just about any OS you'd want to run.
Again, if you're going to be using VMware extensively, I strongly recommend buying VMware Workstation rather than using this method to create new virtual machines. But, if you just need to run a virtual guest for a one-off project, this is a good way to get a guest OS up and running with VMware Player. | <urn:uuid:18eb9e04-0e1a-415e-b8bd-681f047c6d38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/systems-management/8252-how-to-use-vmware-player-to-create-your-own-images | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915393 | 2,021 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Two year’s after the passage of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), unions are still coming to terms with what the law means for members.
Politically, the AFL-CIO is defending the law, touting its first-stage results, like the estimated 2.5 million young adults who now have coverage on their parents’ insurance, and the 54 million insured Americans who’ve received preventive services at no cost. But there are also worries on the horizon — that the law may undermine incentives for employers to provide health coverage, and give a competitive advantage to non-union employers.
Most union members have employer-paid health insurance benefits that are negotiated as part of collective bargaining agreements. The benefits are sponsored by individual employers, or by multiple employers banding together in union-affiliated health and welfare trusts.
Those union trusts — and union employers like AT&T and Verizon — benefited from PPACA’s temporary Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. For retirees 55 or older who weren’t yet eligible for Medicare, once they incurred $15,000 in health care claims in a plan year, the program reimbursed employers and trusts for 80 percent of health care claims beyond that, up to $90,000. The program began June 1, 2011, and was supposed to last two years, but the $5 billion appropriation was entirely committed by late fall 2011.
But the union health and welfare trusts, sometimes referred to as Taft-Hartley plans, were otherwise largely left out of PPACA.
Union health-and-welfare trusts were providing health insurance decades before the government insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid came along. Today, as many as 20 million union workers, retirees and dependents get health insurance through union-affiliated multi-employer trusts, says Randy DeFrehn, executive director of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP).
When the state health insurance exchanges start in 2014, small employers will get tax credits for paying their employees’ premiums. But small employers that provide insurance through union health and welfare trusts won’t be able to get those tax credits. That’s because the tax credits are only for insurance purchased on the exchanges. And for insurance to be sold on the exchanges, it must be open to all comers. The trusts don’t fit into that system because they’re neither insurers nor employers, strictly speaking; the trusts are more like jointly-run purchasing pools that self-insure or purchase group insurance plans.
“The way the exchange subsidy system works, the employers who’ve been doing the right thing for decades are now going to be at a competitive disadvantage,” DeFrehn says.
DeFrehn’s group has been pushing the Obama administration to interpret the law in such a way that the trusts could take part in the exchange — so that participating small employers could also receive the tax credit. In August 2011, NCCMP submitted legal arguments showing how the Health and Human Services department could do that. But DeFrehn said there’s been no movement.
DeFrehn explains what’s at stake. Union employers may pay upwards of $1,200 a month per employee for family health coverage. If they see that their employees can get comparable coverage on the exchange for $400 a month, because of the subsidies, then terminating the health and welfare trust — and redirecting that $1,200 — will start to make a lot of sense. That money could be used to raise wages, shore up pension plans, or make the employer more competitive.
Administration officials may be skeptical that unions and union employers will terminate the plans, DeFrehn said. “They think these plans mean too much to the employees, and in fact, they do. But when you’re talking about a difference of $5,000 per employee, it’s a pretty clear economic decision.”
Without the ability to benefit from the exchange, DeFrehn predicts many health and welfare trusts will be terminated, particularly in grocery, service, and less-skilled construction trades, where wages are low enough that employees will get still substantial subsidy in the exchanges.
In Portland, union leaders are already having that conversation. Cement Masons Local 555 business manager Brett Hinsley, a trustee on his union’s affiliated health and welfare trust, says his employers pay $6.75 an hour for health insurance, and costs have been going up 10 percent a year.
“Here’s what we’re afraid of,” Hinsley explains. “If you don’t let us buy into the exchange, our employers are going to say our people could actually get a better product if they go into exchange as individuals. It’s gotta be all or nothing. If we’re going to have this system, we ought to be able to participate in the exchange.”
Pingback: Public confusion and partisan divide as Obamacare turns two | nwLaborPress
If unions negotiate a subsidy that the employer pays to a Taft-Hartley plan, would that employer be subject to the $2,000/ee penalty since they are not providing “affordable health care”?
Pingback: Will ObamaCare Undermine Union Membership? - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * | <urn:uuid:db129f99-ce3c-4a86-ba31-09807cc71ea0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nwlaborpress.org/2012/03/nccmp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957749 | 1,121 | 1.632813 | 2 |
TeraGrid adds four Linux clusters
- By Patricia Daukantas
- Aug 07, 2003
The National Science Foundation's grid-computing project is getting four new Linux clusters for distributed computing.
The clusters, to be built by IBM Corp., will contain a mixture of Intel Corp.'s second- and third-generation 64-bit processors, said Richard Hilderbrandt, NSF's program officer for the TeraGrid.
The 64-bit Itanium 2 came out last summer. Intel's third-generation, 1.5-GHz Madison version of the Itanium 2 was released this summer.
The four original TeraGrid partners'the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, San Diego Supercomputing Center, the Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory and California Institute of Technology'will get the four Linux clusters.
Last fall, NSF expanded the TeraGrid to connect with a Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center system that can execute 6 trillion floating-point operations per second. That computer, however, uses a different processor architecture and proprietary Unix.
When configured with a mix of about 2,000 Itanium 2 and Madison processors, the NCSA system will run at a theoretical peak rate of 10 TFLOPS, Hilderbrandt said.
The proportion of Madison and Itanium 2 chips hasn't been determined yet, said Robert Pennington, NCSA's senior associate director for computing and data management. Early tests indicate the two processors will be binary-compatible, he said.
The San Diego cluster will have a top speed of 4 TFLOPS, Hilderbrandt said. The Argonne cluster, dedicated to detailed visualizations, will run at 1 TFLOPS, and the Caltech cluster will have a peak of 0.5 TFLOPS.
A 40-Gbps network will link the TeraGrid's two hubs in Chicago and Los Angeles. Each of the five centers will connect to the hubs at 30 Gbps.
So far, NSF has funded the TeraGrid through $80 million in construction grants. Hilderbrandt said the agency is now taking bids on another $10 million project to connect other resources, which could be data archives, sensor networks or other computing centers.
TeraGrid officials chose Linux for the clusters because they believe it will become the dominant operating system for research, Pennington said. Argonne led the development of an open-source, grid-computing toolkit called Globus, which the TeraGrid will use.
The environment will look as uniform as possible to end users, regardless of how many grid-linked supercomputers they are using. 'It's no longer the case that you have to go to a particular site because your data is there,' Pennington said.
Powering the four clusters will be a specially designed version of Linux for the Itanium 2 from SuSE Inc. of Oakland, Calif. The company is marketing the Itanium 2 distribution as SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, said Holger Dyroff, North American general manager for SuSE, a division of SuSE Linux AG of Germany.
SuSE previously offered a Linux distribution for Intel's first-generation Itanium, released two years ago. It had slow sales as vendors and customers awaited Itanium 2.
'Itanium 2 is definitely a platform for the enterprise, which will accept it more widely than the first Itanium was,' Dyroff said.
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8's main competition is Red Hat Linux Advanced Server for the Itanium from Red Hat Inc. of Raleigh, N.C. Red Hat makes a version of Linux for workstations with Itanium 2 processors, and Dyroff said SuSE will do the same 'as soon as it makes sense for us commercially.' In the meantime, Enterprise Server 8 could run on Itanium 2 workstations, he said.
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 sells for $1,449, including one year of security updates and patch delivery. | <urn:uuid:db6df247-bd4e-49bd-ba36-e27415a8c656> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gcn.com/Articles/2003/08/07/TeraGrid-adds-four-Linux-clusters.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903159 | 825 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The Results of Mining at Tar Creek
Environmental Case Study by NRE 492 Group 5
Mining has destroyed the land and water and poisoned the Quapaw people who live in the Tar Creek area. Large piles of leftover mine tailings, called chat piles, are in close proximity to local residences and school yards. These chat piles are contaminated with heavy metals that pose a threat to children who play on them. When the wind blows, the contaminated dust from the mine tailings fills the homes of the residents. Those living around Tar Creek are exposed to large amounts of lead, zinc, and cadmium from the watershed and the soil in residential areas. The Tar Creek area has been on the National Priorities List (NPL) for 20 years and has a rating of 58.15 (2003); the minimum score required to be put on the List is only 28.5 (1). In 1996, 30% of the children under the age of six living in the site had blood levels of lead above 10 micrograms per deciliter (although 15 micrograms per deciliter is the ‘lead poisoning‘ threshold, there have been severe problems associated with levels much less than this). Chronic exposure to lead can affect the immune system, nervous system, blood system, and kidneys. It may also result in premature births, smaller babies, learning difficulties, decreased mental ability, and reduced growth in small children (3).
Tar Creek is highly toxic and, for all intents and purposes, dead. The fish have disappeared from the creek, which has had a significant impact on the lifestyle of the Native Americans in the area. The banks of the creek are a sickening orange color and the groundwater has also been affected by acid water from the abandoned mines.
The health and well being of the people in the Tar Creek area have been put in serious jeopardy as the long overdue cleanup proceeds at snail’s pace.
In the 1870s the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) illegitimately sold land belonging to the Quapaw tribe to mining companies (9). The tribe was not willing to sell the land. However, the transactions proceeded as the BIA declared opposing tribal members “incompetent” and sold the land to the mining companies. Lead and zinc mining persisted from 1891 to 1970. The BIA also required the mining companies to leave the hazardous chat on site because it would "be of economic value to the tribe”. However, it was later ruled that the tribe would not be permitted to sell the chat because of environmental regulations on transport of hazardous waste! Mining was performed by the underground room-and-pillar method, whereby ‘rooms‘ were carved out as the ore was removed and ‘pillars‘ were left to keep the ground from caving in . Once mining was abandoned, water slowly filled these large rooms, dissolving high concentrations of sulfide minerals and creating millions of gallons of acid underground. Then, finally, in 1979, the acid drainage from the mines began flooding out into Tar Creek from numerous open mine shafts, natural springs, and boreholes. The surface water and some of the groundwater was instantly polluted. The stream that bore the brunt of this pollution was named “Tar Creek.”
In 1980, the Governor of the State of Oklahoma established the Tar Creek Task Force to investigate the acid mine drainage into Tar Creek. In 1983, the site was listed on the National Priorities List, making it one of the first Superfund Sites. The Tar Creek Superfund site consists of five mining towns - Picher, Cardin, Quapaw, Commerce, and North Miami, along with other areas of Ottawa County.
In June of 1984, the EPA signed a Record of Decision for Operable Unit 1, allowing the monitoring of surface water, acid mine water discharges, and mine water levels to assess the effectiveness of the diking and diversion, which began in 1987. From August of 1994 to July of 1995, the EPA sampled soils in High Access Areas (e.g., day care centers, school yards, and playgrounds) and residential properties and found them to be highly contaminated with lead. In August of 1997, a Record of Decision was finally issued to address the problem in residential areas. From 1996 to 1998 1,542 lead-contaminated residential yards were cleaned up (1). However, approximately 75 million tons of chat remain on the surface of the ground, while acidic flotation ponds cover approximately 800 acres (1).
Since 1991 the EPA has been issuing Consent Decrees to the PRPs, requesting for participation in the cleanup of Tar Creek. All six Primarily Responsible Parties (PRPs), have refused to offer assistance in the clean-up. In 1995, As an alternative, these mining companies offered to perform a Community Health Action Monitoring Program (CHAMP). The EPA accepted (1). However, this does nothing to advance the clean-up of the pollution resulting from the mining and cannot be considered an acceptable contribution to cleanup efforts.
The EPA has been accused of intentionally dragging their feet in the cleanup process because Tar Creek raises issues that would affect the handling of mining sites all across the country. According to Timothy Kent, Quapaw Superfund Manager, the EPA has been in closed-door negotiations with the mining companies, none of which has produced any real results. He feels that the refusal of the EPA to force the mining companies into compliance may be an indication of the EPA‘s noncommittal to the cleanup, and although it is only a conjecture, some feel the closed-door policy is a cover for some underhanded business and/or political dealings.
Since the BIA illegitimately sold the land around Tar Creek in the 1870s, it is a PRP, thus making the Department of Interior itself a PRP. This results in the awkward situation of one government entity, the EPA, having to make demands on another, the DOI. Rebecca Jim, head of the community organization LEAD (Local Environmental Action Demanded), suggests that this conflict of interests at the federal level may be one reason the EPA is not asking the Department of Interior to provide funds for the cleanup, even though it profited from the sale of Quapaw land.
Environmental Protection Agency- The EPA has removed contaminated soil from over 1700 residences and plugged 83 toxic wells. However, they have been unsuccessful in getting mining companies and the Department of Interior to take responsibility for their role in polluting the site.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs- The BIA set up the sale of land to the mining companies against the wishes of the tribe. By refusing to take responsibility for their action, they are halting progress on attaining funds for the clean-up.
Mining Companies- These companies have refused to contribute to the clean-up of the site. Some of the companies have already declared bankruptcy, making it difficult to collect money from them. Asarco Inc., Blue Tee Corp., Goldfields Mining Corp., NL Industries, Childress Royalty Co. and Doe Run Resources Corp. are the defendants of the class-action suit filed by residents of the Picher-Cardin area and the city of Picher and the Picher School District.
Local Environmental Action Demanded (LEAD) and Cherokee Volunteer Society (Learn and Serve Program)- These local activist groups have started many programs to educate the community on the effects of the mining pollution and have worked to notify the federal government of the dangers that the chat piles, tainted soil, and acid water pose to the people of Tar Creek.
80% of the site is on land given to the Quapaw tribe by the federal government when they were forced to move from their ancestral home in Arkansas.
60-70% of the toxics-laden waste is on land owned by tribal members. 20% of the population in the Tar Creek Superfund Site is Native American. Tribes that are represented in the region include the Cherokee, Miami, Peoria, Ottawa, Quapaw, and Eastern Shawnee.
20% of the population is documented as Native American. However, according to Rebecca Jim of the LEAD Agency, these numbers are misleading. Many of the residents are not 100% Native American by ethnicity, and they tend to deny their ancestry in order to blend in with the "whites who are proud of being white." According to Jim, a counselor at the local Miami High School for 25 years, approximately 50% of the student body has a Native American heritage. More and more Hispanics are also moving into the area as they find work on surrounding farms or in the towns of Picher-Cardin and Miami (4).
The 1999 median household income for Picher, Oklahoma is $19,722. The median house value is $20,700, significantly below the average for the state. The percentage of people below poverty level in Picher-Cardin is 29.23%, and in Miami, 23.38%.
In 1980, Governor George Nigh assembled a Tar Creek task force to study the acid mine drainage. The results were shown to the EPA and Tar Creek was subsequently declared a Superfund site in 1983.
After nearly ten years of EPA inaction, community members banded together to work for the cleanup of their community. In 1995, Rebecca Jim, a counsellor from Miami High School, formed the Cherokee Volunteer Society (CVS) to rally local citizens to the cause. A study coordinated by CVS found that 32 percent of the community children had elevated blood levels. Don Ackerman, a masters student at the time, sent the results to the Environmental Protection Agency and the EPA finally refocused its attention back onto Tar Creek, nearly ten years after it was put on the NPL.
In 1997, Rebecca Jim helped form another group called the LEAD (Local Environmental Action Demanded) Agency. With the purpose of educating residents in Northeast Oklahoma and conducting research on the local environmental health hazards, LEAD is now in partnership with a local hospital and Harvard University to study the effects of lead on local children. Through LEAD, a program was implemented at Oklahoma State University Medical School whereby students can opt for a one-month rotation at Tar Creek, giving them valuable hands-on experience in the field of toxicology.
Another tactic was taken by students at Miami High School when they realized that their elders were not convinced that anything could be done; they decided to take the initiative and educate the community. Nancy Scott, the Cherokee Volunteer Society’s Learn and Serve Program Manager worked with the teachers at Miami HS to begin a Learn and Serve Program in the school. Students conducted water monitoring and collected fish and plant samples from the heavily polluted creek for analysis. Over the course of a year, more than half of the student body became involved, tackling the entire gamut of issues, including public relations, community awareness, and public health communication.
In 2002, Miami High School students organized a three-day conference with the governor of Oklahoma, the state’s secretary of the environment and the EPA regional administrator, along with other state and federal officials and public health and environmental researchers. The effort put forth by the students at Miami High School has gathered attention from Oklahoma’s Congressional Delegation as well as the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. The students have also organized “fishing trips” at the creek to emphasize the fact that Tar Creek has no fish. Additionally, they have led “Toxic Tours” to show national and state leaders the pollution in their home town firsthand.
The most recent strategy of Tar Creek activists is what a Quapaw Tribe official called “the largest environmental lawsuit in Oklahoma history” against mining companies that operated in what is now the Tar Creek Superfund Site in Ottawa County. The suit will ask for money to compensate tribal members, and to pay for health monitoring and additional cleanup work to be funded by the mining companies. The same remedy is being sought in a class action suit filed against the mining companies earlier this summer by residents of the Picher-Cardin area and the Picher School District. The defendants in that suit are Asarco Inc., Blue Tee Corp, NL Industries, Childress Royalty Co., and Doe Run Resources Corp. the Environmental Protection Agency has been negotiating with mining companies that are classified as “primarily responsible parties” to help pay for the Tar Creek Superfund work. Attorneys for they mining companies have said that the companies operated the lead and zinc mines by state-of-the-art standards of the day and that they were unaware of the potential long-range dangers to the environment (7).
While many of the chat piles remain looming over the community with no plan to have them removed, there has been some progress for Tar Creek. Since 1983, the EPA has plugged 83 wells, reducing contaminants reaching the Roubideax aquifer (1), the main water supply for the community. Groups such as LEAD and CVS have been able to educate the public about the dangers of lead. From June 1996 to January 1998, the EPA managed the clean up of 1,542 lead-contaminated residential yards as part of an emergency removal. Another 105 Native American properties were remediated from October of 2001 to May of 2002. In August of 2002, the remediation of 8 schools in Miami and Picher was completed, finally removing some of the dangerously toxic chat. As a result of these efforts, studies show a 50% decrease in the number of children with lead-blood levels over 10 micrograms/deciliter (1).
Unfortunately, the EPA has not been effective in handling the Tar Creek situation. Timothy Kent, the Quapaw Superfund Program Manager, has emphasized that because of this, stronger litigation against the PRPs is likely to be the most effective strategy, since they can provide the funds for cleanup.
In conjunction with the lawsuits, we recommend that the residents of Tar Creek vie for more media attention. Certainly, national publicity is warranted for one of the most polluted sites in the history of the U.S.
While the CVS and LEAD have created a strong local movement that has drawn attention to the issue, forming relationships with larger and more popular national environmental groups, would allow Tar Creek activists to gain access to greater resources and reach a larger audience. One such group is Riverkeeper, an advocacy group that monitors the Hudson River ecosystem and challenges polluters using both legal and grassroots campaigns (8). Doing so could considerably increase their political influence, legal resources , and media access. Creating such alliances would also allow the group greater access to financial resources, as well as increase publicity due to the name recognition and notoriety associated with the larger and more visible organizations.
Due in part to the lack of governmental and corporate responsibility, and also due to bureaucratic red tape and constraints, the situation in Tar Creek has become quite complicated. The EPA has not achieved much of what it had originally planned. At one point in the mid-1980s, the EPA actually pulled out of the remediation process and returned at a later date due to the vigorous efforts of the community. While this is a success to be celebrated by local activists, this long-overdue cleanup process is still in its early stages and it remains to be seen whether Tar Creek, one of the first Superfund sites in the nation, will ever be adequately cleaned up at all.
Quapaw Superfund Program Manager
Cherokee Volunteer Society
1. EPA District 6 report on Tar Creek (Ottawa County), Aug 21, 2003 http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/pdffiles/tarcreek.pdf
2. U.S. EPA "Record of Decision: Residential Areas Operable Unit 2, Tar Creek Superfund Site, Ottawa County, Oklahoma." 1997. http://www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/pdffiles/tar-creek-rod-ou2-res.pdf
3. "Tar Creek Task Force Health Effect Subcommittee Report." 2000. www.ose.state.ok.us/documents/TarCk/ HealthEffectsReport2.pdf
4. Rebecca Jim, phone interview, October 2003
5. Gary Garton, "Quapaw Tribe says it will sue mining companies." The Joplin Globe. 2003. http://www.tribalresourcecenter.org/news/newsdetails.asp?82
6. Chavez, Will "Cherokee citizen advocates clean up of Tar Creek." Cherokee Phoenix. 2003 http://www.cherokee.org/Phoenix/2003/PhoenixPage.asp?ID=362
7. National Tribal Justice Resource Center. 2003
8. Riverkeeper. 2002 www.riverkeeper.org
9. Timothy Kent, phone interview, October 22, 2003 | <urn:uuid:4f501af5-313d-4a34-af37-8c922262b98d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/cases_03-04/TarCreek/TarCreek_case_study.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959601 | 3,446 | 3.40625 | 3 |
New York City has remarkable natural assets. We are situated on a great tidal estuary, sculpted with gentle hills and rocky outcroppings, and conditioned by four distinct seasons. But building New York involved leveling hills, burying springs, and felling trees. While we are proud of the great city we built, we have paid a price for burying nature.
The natural systems we discarded performed essential functions. The trees and vegetation allowed the rain to percolate into the soil; now we spend billions on infrastructure to prevent flooding. The wetlands protected our coasts, cleaned our waters, and provided marine habitat; now we need seawalls and jetties, and import our fish from distant waters. The trees and vegetation provided shade and free cooling; now we rely on air conditioning. However, our view of the relationship between city and nature has begun to shift, and the edges between the two have begun to blur. We better understand the workings of natural systems, and can engineer such systems within an urban setting. Weaving through the Plan are initiatives that recreate effective natural systems, coexisting within the broader urban context. We are planting a million trees, which will cool our city and slow down stormwater. We are restoring our wetlands, which will protect our coast and clean our waterways. No longer forced to choose, we can enjoy the benefits of both urbanity and nature. | <urn:uuid:701d0e10-3fe2-4561-b9c5-3de879cc69fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/theplan/natural-systems.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953803 | 276 | 2.75 | 3 |
Money can buy most everything –– even elections.
In this election cycle, based on the past 18 months of data, both candidates are projected to raise and spend $1 billion, making this the most expensive in American history, according to the Center for Responsive Politics website .
“It’s becoming a problem,” said Penn State political science professor Zachary Baumann . “The amount of money being spent reduces the legitimacy of the contest and people could perceive the election being bought.”
In the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, the candidate who raised the most money won, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In congressional races the numbers are staggering. In 2010, the candidates who spent more won 85 percent of House races and 83 percent of Senate races. In 2008, the candidate who spent more won 93 percent of House races and 86 percent Senate races, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The most lopsided victories came in 2004, where 98 percent of House races and 88 percent of Senate races were won by candidates who outspent their opponents, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Center for Responsive Politics could not be reached by press time Tuesday.
“There is a correlation between the amount of money spent and who wins the elections, but we can’t prove that was the cause,” Baumann said. “There’s a variety of factors besides money.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, President Barack Obama’s top five contributors to his campaign are the University of California at more than $1 million, Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., the U.S. government and his alma matter, Harvard University.
Mitt Romney’s top five contributors to his campaign are all banks, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Ranking first is Goldman Sachs, an investment bank based in New York, at just under $1 million.
The next three are Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase & Co. Ranking fifth is Credit Suisse, a Swiss-based multinational financial services bank.
One of the factors for how voters learn about candidates may be negative advertising, as Baumann said negative ads stick with people and work. More people are drawn to negative ads and remember them compared to positive ads, he said.
Drew McGehrin , president of the Penn State College Democrats, said he believes the money has changed things for the worse.
“The money has affected the election entirely,” McGehrin (senior-history and religious studies) said. “Both candidates have equal arsenals this election, but we absolutely need campaign finance reform.”
Chris Riccio (senior- accounting) , vice-chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom of Penn State, said he thinks the government should not put restrictions on speech. However, if the message is defamatory or slanderous, then the parties should face repercussions, he said | <urn:uuid:c97bb9c0-0fef-440b-b0fd-d6d45348e3f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/10/31/Money_spent_in_presidential_election.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962773 | 621 | 2.234375 | 2 |
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British Prime Minister David Cameron has ushered in"a new age of austerity" and across the developed world free lunch economics is ending. While in Ireland, the Government struggles to reverse the excesses of the boom, political leaders, in particular Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, fear telling the people that the easy spending of the past, is not just temporarily suspended, but unavoidably over for good.
A "free lunch" was a common marketing incentive in American saloons in the nineteenth century and the late free-market economist, Milton Friedman, popularised the phrase - - there's no such thing as a free lunch - - by using it as the title of a 1975 book. The economic axiom was mainly ignored in the past two decades and Ireland wasn't alone in expanding public programmes and placating a legion of vested interests by spending money, temporarily available from asset and related credit booms.
New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, recently wrote: "We baby boomers in America and Western Europe were raised to believe there really was a Tooth Fairy, whose magic would allow conservatives to cut taxes without cutting services and liberals to expand services without raising taxes. The Tooth Fairy did it by printing money, by bogus accounting and by deluding us into thinking that by borrowing from China or Germany, or against our rising home values, or by creating exotic financial instruments to trade with each other, we were actually creating wealth."
The US financed overspending by borrowing back dollars earned by China on its exports while we know too well that in Ireland public spending and employment growth depended on the property bubble. So while Bank of Ireland Private Banking's ranking of Ireland in its annual wealth reports, as the second wealthiest nation on earth, appeared to have had an air of fantasy to people who weren't in the grip of property hysteria, the position of Japan as the wealthiest country, contrasted with a more pertinent story on what can happen long-term when an advanced country goes from boom to bust.
In 1991, when prices peaked, the land under Tokyo's Imperial Palace was valued at more than all the land in the US state of Florida. According to The Wall Street Journal, the average price of a 750-square-foot condominium in Tokyo rose to more than ¥70m or about US$625,000 at current exchange rates in 1991 from about ¥25m in the early 1980s. After the crash, the average house price hovered around ¥40m, or about $360,000, for a decade and a half later. The subsequent Irish experience evokes the quip of the renowned baseball player, Yogi Berra: "It's déjà vu all over again."
America was obsessed about the fear of Japanese economic domination, which was stoked in 1992 by Michael Crichton's best-selling novel, Rising Sun. In the same year, President George H. Bush led a delegation from America's Big 3 carmakers pleading for greater access to the Japanese market. The President vomiting at an official dinner seemed to graphically illustrate the relative decline of the US.
However, by July 2007, when Bank of Ireland published its last wealth report, one week before the onset of the international credit crunch, while Japan was again on top, it was also an enfeebled giant where national prosperity was on the slide.
More than a third of Japan's work force were categorised as "nonpermanent" workers: part-timers, temps on fixed-term contracts and people sent to companies by temporary-staffing agencies. That compared with 23 per cent in 1997 and 18 per cent in 1987. These workers with few benefits in a high cost country earned less than the Irish minimum wage.
Car giant Toyota had also employed a large number of temps and gave an average monthly pay rise of just €6 in that year; the Bank of Japan reported that some 23 per cent of households had no savings in 2007, compared with just 10 per cent in 1996 and a Japanese Cabinet Office survey showed that despite a recovery in the economy, people felt a high level of anxiety about their daily lives - - the highest angst level recorded since the poll began nearly 40 years before.
Since the 1991 crash, Japan has spent huge amounts on infrastructure and its gross public debt is expected to exceed 200 per cent of its GDP (gross domestic product) this year. The country has an ageing population; it is not welcoming to migrant workers and its overall household savings rate has plunged to close to 2 per cent of disposable income. The Japan Times recently said that Japan's "lost decade" of the '90s proved that if people feel relatively comfortable they will ignore the fact that their economy is falling apart. It said even in Greece some Japanese people still don't see it. TV Asahi interviewed one Japanese expatriate living in Athens who seemed confused by the turmoil around her: "Does this mean I can't eat rice?"
For other rich countries which dominate the membership of the think-tank for governments, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), rising retirement and health costs are unsustainable.
The average legal age of retirement in member countries, is just over 64, but it dips to as low as 58 in Turkey, 60 in France and to as high as 67 in Norway and Iceland. Ages can vary between the sexes, with women often entitled to earlier retirement.
The labour force exit age - - i.e., the actual average age when people stop working - - is often higher or lower than the official retirement age. In Korea, the average man clocks in until he’s over 71 - - more than 11 years beyond retirement age; by contrast, his counterpart in Austria gives up the daily grind at about 59, or six years ahead of the official retirement age. In Ireland, the level is almost in line with the official retirement age of 66.
As regards, the number of years people spend in retirement on average in OECD countries, it’s just over 22½ years for women and about 17½ for men, who tend to work longer and die younger. For women, the longest retirements are in France, where retirement stretches on for about 27½ years; France also holds the OECD record for men - - 24 years spent in retirement, compared with just over nine in Mexico.
The European Commission says that by 2050 the percentage of Europeans older than 65 will almost double. From 7 workers for every retiree in the 1950s, by 2050, the ratio in the EU will drop to 1.3 to 1.
The New York Times says gross public social expenditures in the European Union increased from 16% of GDP in 1980 to 21%, compared with 15.9% in the United States. In France, the figure now is 31%, the highest in Europe, with state pensions accounting for more than 44% of the total and health care, 30%.
France's state pension system is currently running a deficit of €11bn; by 2050 it could be €103bn.
The Times says many in Europe say the Continent will have to adapt to fiscal and demographic change, because social peace depends on it. “Europe won’t work without that,” said Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister, referring to the state’s protective role. “In Europe we have nationalism and racism in a politicised manner, and those parties would have exploited grievances if not for our welfare state,” he said. “It’s a matter of national security, of our democracy.”
France will have to follow Sweden and Germany in raising the pension age, he argues. “This will have to be harmonised, Europeanised, or it won’t work - - you can’t have a pension at 67 here and 55 in Greece,” Fischer said.
The cost of Irish public sector pensions, which are linked to current salaries, rose 56 per cent in the period 2004-2009 to €2.0bn; the majority of Irish private sector workers have no occupational pension and the average annual return on Irish managed pension funds over a 10-year period is 0.5 per cent, compared with average annual inflation of 3.2 per cent.
The four most economically challenged member countries of the Eurozone - - Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland - - were also the biggest beneficiaries of European Union cash transfers in recent decades. In 2013, Ireland will become a net contributor to the EU budget forty years after joining the then EEC and after receiving a net cash gain of €42bn in the equivalent of foreign aid since 1973. One Irish multimillionaire farmer was paid cash of €7,735 each week of 2009, from the EU budget.
The gravy train is creaking and after the worst contraction since the Great Depression, conditions in rich countries will not revert to business as usual despite the recovery.
Increased risk aversion; restriction on public spending because of high public debt; an expected contraction of the financial industry in Europe and the US and the continuing rise of the emerging economies, has changed the outlook.
European Central Bank executive board member, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, said last January that he did not expect the global economy to return to its pre-crisis situation, as this had been unsustainable.
"I have the impression that many people, whether in the business sector, the financial markets, or in academic and political circles, think that the post-crisis world will be quite similar to the pre-crisis one in 2006-2007. In other words, they expect the economic recovery to bring us back to where we were before the crisis," he said. "My feeling is that those who think like that are deluding themselves."
Bini Smaghi said the pre-crisis situation was not in equilibrium. It was not sustainable. The crisis occurred precisely because the situation was unsustainable, both within certain countries and globally.
In a speech in Washington DC last March, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, spoke of the importance of transparency and plans to become the first European country to put detailed information on public spending, online.
For an aspiring Taoiseach, against the backdrop of monumental governance failures leading up to the economic crash and a system of limited accountability dominated by vested interests, it was a depressing performance.
In the aftermath of a severe recession, change is the mantra of every opposition political party in democratic countries and in Ireland; it will be a potent argument in the next general election. However, while Irish political parties do not generally produce detailed policy documents and in the past, headline aspirations and tax inducements have sufficed, a party that is serious about reform needs to have detailed work done on the issue before an election.
Politicians are usually amateurs in areas in which they are given responsibility for and in the Irish system, commissioning a report or several from management consultants and the appointment of so-called task forces are part of the glacial process of policy making.
While arriving in office on a prospectus of pious aspirations is a recipe for failure, it is also foolish not to anticipate the inevitable pressures from a rainbow of vested interests for revived public spending when the recovery takes hold, even though it may be weak.
The culture of having one's cake and eating it will not easily change. For example, the opponents of the Corrib gas project in Mayo are consumers of oil and gas products directly in cars or indirectly via the electricity system. There can be no absolute guarantee of safety and some German and Dutch workers who fund the Common Agricultural Policy that supports the incomes of Rossport farmers, live in cities where there is seldom much choice for the lower-paid as to the proximity to danger such as at port oil terminals and so on.
It’s time for the politics of courage and as with Fine Gael in opposing Eurozone governance reform, if inconvenient truths are avoided before the general election, then the parties will reap the whirlwind in office.
On the key issue of sustainable job creation, the current regime shows no evidence of informed strategic thinking for positioning Ireland in the coming two decades when Asian economic output will exceed the combined total of the US and EU. It just rubber stamps a flawed innovation task force report. A State investment bank created by a new government would in itself have only a marginal impact. Every country wants to export its way out of recession but as with domestic issues, spoof and spin must be set aside to realistically appreciate the international challenges.
Finally, Eamonn Gilmore's steering clear of the specifics of public service reform prevents him from addressing other areas such as the cartel-like fees in professional services. The Government is their biggest customer and protects them from transparency and serious competition. State toxic property loans agency, NAMA, has become the latest rainmaker, pencilling in €2.5bn in fees in its budget and the Victorian system of secrecy has been seamlessly stewed into the structure. So in a period of austerity, why are some of Dublin's law firms among the biggest earners in Europe? The same question can be asked about the super-fees in medicine, paid via the insurance system and much more.
Maybe Eamon Gilmore should have a chat with fellow socialist George Papandreou! | <urn:uuid:6ead2d78-00c7-42ba-8b0f-bce3e63f8a63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1019736.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962636 | 2,768 | 2 | 2 |
Carlo Rubbia, Physics Nobel Laureate in 1984, is examining sustainability in the context of global energy supplies. Rubbia is the Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany. The IASS was founded in 2009 by Klaus Topfer, former head of the UN Environmental Program. Rubbia wants to collate research results from across the world to develop a new strategy on energy. The objective: the sustainable generation, transfer and storage of energy. Photo Credit: Green Prophet1 via Flickr.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers. | <urn:uuid:0be20209-10d6-452e-adfc-c8866bab8db4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.care2.com/greenliving/energy-for-tomorrow.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924403 | 139 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Wood from trees cut down at Redskins training camp to be donated to needy
A bunch of trees were cut down earlier this month at the Redskins new training camp site in Richmond.
The city is admitting it was a mistake and is donating all of the trees to people who need firewood.
Richmond city leaders are trying to make the best of a situation that uprooted anger in many city residents.
It’s been a few weeks since those feelings surfaced with the sight and sounds of an urban forest in Richmond being mistakenly plowed over.
The city quickly said they’d replant the lost trees and then some, but what about the trees that were bulldozed?
The new plan is to give the trees removed from the new Redskins training site to a volunteer group called Project Warm or the Wood Association of Richmond Metro. Their mission is to deliver free firewood to people who most need it to heat their homes.
City leaders say the idea to give the trees away gives them a chance to grow from their recent setback. | <urn:uuid:97f36f4c-b8e2-48ef-85da-3dcb581025ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtkr.com/2013/01/29/wood-from-trees-cut-down-at-redskins-training-camp-to-be-donated-to-needy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976671 | 211 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming sci-fi action adventure Pacific Rim has...
Animated People: Leslie Iwerks
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away … visual effects were really cheesy and dull. That is, until George Lucas came along and created a group of experts known as Industrial Light & Magic to pull off a little movie called Star Wars.
It’s now been 35 years since ILM began to revolutionize visual effects and, through them, the stories that movies can tell. To honor that record of innovation, Encore commissioned an hour-long documentary look at ILM’s history that aired this past weekend on the channel. Here’s a taste of the show, titled Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, and narrated by Tom Cruise:
The film was made by Leslie Iwerks, a documentary filmmaker whose credits include The Pixar Story, Dirty Oil and Downstream. Making her seemingly ideally suited to this topic is her lineage: Iwerks is the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, the innovative animator who helped bring Mickey Mouse to life for Walt Disney.
Animag Online: How did this project get started for you?
Leslie Iwerks: It was commissioned by Starz, so Starz Entertainment wanted to do something with ILM on their history, basically. So after they went up to meet with ILM folks, took a tour and everything, it struck them they should do a doc, kind of similar to The Pixar Story that I did, but on ILM’s history. They asked if I’d be interested, and I said definitely, and that’s kind of how it all started.
Animag: With ILM’s history so well documented, how hard was it to find fresh material and a fresh take on it?
Iwerks: It’s not easy you know, but basically, everybody’s got a unique story that hasn’t been told before. I think the Star Wars section has been the most exposed as far as hearing all the behind-the-scenes stories over the years. But this is really 35 years, so not anything recently has in a documentary form talked about all 35 years. From that sense, we just talked to a lot of the major directors and just let them talk about what has impressed them the most about ILM, what has challenged them, what has made their work different thanks to ILM.
Animag: What ended up being the main thing you learned about ILM during this experience.
Iwerks: Every film has something unique to it, but I think what always strikes me is how ILM manages to push the technology on every movie. They don’t rest on their laurels and just repeat the same technology. They don’t have to. They’ll try to figure out a unique way, come up with some technology that can give a different look or another layer, another level of realism to the film. I think that was really the through line. They take on projects that will really challenge them, and that’s why we decided to title it Creating the Impossible, because so many people talked about, ‘Oh, you know, we had this impossible idea, we never knew we would ever do it, it was written in the script but it was virtually impossible to pull off.’ And you give that to ILM and they figure out a way to make that real. So that was kind of what struck me as the through line when talking to all these major directors.
Animag: Why do you think ILM has lasted so long in an industry where houses come and go very quickly?
Iwerks: I think it’s their track record, since the very beginning days of Star Wars. They’ve attracted the best people in the industry and they have stayed at ILM and continued to build on the past successes that they’ve had. So you get people like Dennis Muren and John Knoll and, you name it. Just the amount of people that are there under one roof, it’s an amazing pool of genius that works together. And I think it’s also their collaborative spirit there. They work together to solve problems and everyone is passionate about what they do, but I think it’s just a well-oiled machine and they have so many years of experience that they just know how do things efficiently and cut costs where they need to. They know where to focus the energy, whereas other houses may spend too much time on shots that don’t necessarily get as much exposure or they may put their resources in an area where ILM would say we don’t need to put our resources there. And I think it’s they’ve learned to streamline and know what to focus on.
Animag: Did you learn anything making this film that was very unexpected or surprised you?
Iwerks: I think several things, I guess. I have always thought there would be a huge amount of detail that goes into every shot. But I think it’s when you really realize how much work goes into one shot, how much effort goes into say Transformers for example. You’re just blown away by the level of detail that goes into what they do and when you see it on the screen you’ll see a five-second shot or a 10-second shot or whatever and you take it for granted that it’s so real and believable. But when you strip away all the layers and you see how it was created, it truly is movie magic and that for me was exciteing, to be able to tell the story in a way where you can pull back the layers and really see what they’ve been able to accomplish. And I just think they’re extremely visionary and then I think the other thing that — it didn’t surprise me, just reinforced how impactful they’ve been in the industry from the point of view of the other directors. J.J. Abrams and Spielberg and Jon Favreau and Ron Howard — they all wanted to be a part of this project because of their respect for ILM. Even Tom Cruise. So there’s just a huge respect. They’re on top of the table.
Animag: How did Tom Cruise get involved?
Iwerks: We originally wanted to interview him and then due to his schedule he was out of town and couldn’t quite arrange it. But then a window of opportunity came up right at the right time, where I said, well, how would you like to narrate it? And that seemed to work really well because he definitely wanted to be a part of it. It was just a matter of when and how and we made it work and he did a great job.
Animag: Do you think there are any parallels between what your grandfather and Walt Disney did in their time with what ILM has done in the past 35 years?
Iwerks; Definitely. Richard Edlund has a great quote in the film and he talks about how George Lucas just looked out at the world and said what’s missing here? And he saw what was missing here. And I thought that was a great quote because he could see at that time in film history that nothing has been done that was really dynamic, with dynamic shots and real strong movement with motion control to create fast-moving spaceships and stuff. You had 2001, but then nothing had been done to the level of Star Wars to that point. So for him, he found a niche and wanted to tell this amazing story and figured out how to do it and pulled a team together to figure it out. And of course that team launched a revolution in special effects. So just like Walt Disney did with my grandfather with sound in cartoons, with Steamboast Willie, which launched the career of Mickey Mouse, so to speak, George did with Star Wars and creating ILM. George is just a visionary with all that he’s done for sound, for digital editing, for animation, starting that group that became Pixar, and special effects and visual effects. And so yes, he’s definitely a pioneer who has shaped this industry in many ways. | <urn:uuid:6fcfabeb-0a40-4961-92a6-213efdd48a53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.animationmagazine.net/people/animated-people-leslie-iwerks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979216 | 1,717 | 1.671875 | 2 |
We remember a Transfiguration in glory
when Peter, James, and John saw Jesus as he truly was, glorious with uncreated Light, conversing with Moses and Elijah. Flabbergasted, the threesome said some really silly things about pitching tents for all of them and staying there always, but were told they all had to go back down the mountain, back to "real life" ---- though what was at the top of the mountain was more real than any of the "real life" down below.
And we also remember a transfiguration in horror
when the first of two cities, chosen because they had minimal military significance (therefore they had no previous bomb damage to complicate the analysis of the before-and-after photos), was utterly destroyed by a single bomb, its people transformed in an instant from living embodied ones to etched shadows on the pavements, and others left to slowly die over weeks and months from radiation-related illnesses unknown before. Those two cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were not chosen because they were the heart of Japanese Catholicism; that was accidental.
So, we celebrate this feast of our Lord, and remember our brothers and sisters who were doing the same in the Hiroshima Cathedral, and all the people of that city, when they themselves were transformed in a single instant, to see the Lord for eternity as he truly is.
May the perpetual Light, which we celebrate especially on this solemnity of Transfiguration, shine upon them all. | <urn:uuid:1005d859-854d-48bd-8a07-968d3a05e55a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kmknapp.blogspot.com/2006/08/transfigurations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983286 | 302 | 1.828125 | 2 |
About Student Loans
Student loans are a type of financial aid offered by financial institutions and the federal government to students who want to attend a post-secondary educational institution. The government issues federal student loans through the Department of Education, while private lenders, such as banks, issue private student loans. Federal loans generally have lower interest rates and lower borrowing limits than private student loans, and should be used before you consider private student loans as a way of paying for college. Student loans can be used to help pay for tuition, study materials, and living expenses.
About Fixed Student Loans
A fixed student loan is, simply, a loan with a fixed interest rate. In the current financial climate there are advantages to having fixed student loans: since the APR (Annual Percentage Rate on interest) offered by most banks will change over time, a fixed APR provides confidence to the borrower in knowing what payments will be and the total amount to be repaid. Variable APRs could cause unwanted financial worries for students who are nearing the beginning of their repayment period, as interest rates may increase and their monthly payments could be higher than originally projected. Fixed student loans provide more financial stability, as payments will remain unchanged as a result of the fixed interest rate. As a result, you can budget your money more wisely.
Types of Fixed Student Loans
Most fixed student loans are federal loans, including Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Perkins Loans. Private lenders may also offer private student loans that have a fixed APR, so you should ask your lender if these are available.
Applying for Fixed Student Loans
You can apply for federal fixed student loans by filling out and submitting a FAFSA to your school. The school will determine which federal loans you are eligible for, and these will appear in your financial aid package. If you apply for fixed student loans from a private lender, then you should be aware that you will need a good credit score or have a cosigner with a good credit score to get approval for fixed student loans.
Q:What are the benefits of fixed rate student loans?
A:Fixed rate student loans have a number of benefits over adjustable interest rate loans. A variable interest rate can result in the total cost of the loan skyrocketing unexpectedly, and since a student does not have a regular income, such a change could be disastrous and eat through one's savings. Fixed rate student loans have locked interest rates, which means no real surprises on that front; additionally, they are easy to understand and do not require complicated mathematical calculations to be made each month before repayment.
Q:Are there any drawbacks to fixed rate private student loans?
A:Fixed rate private student loans are good for students who want to protect themselves from an unexpected rise in interest rates, as students can also budget their expenses with more probability. However, one drawback to these loans is that the fixed interest rate might be higher than the interest rate on other variable loans, meaning students will have to pay a higher amount, especially if the market interest falls.
Q:What are the best options for low, fixed interest rate college loans for students?
A:The most common type of fixed-rate student loans are the federal loans, such as Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans, and Perkins Loans. However, private lenders have also started offering private student loans on a fixed APR, so research your options before making a decision and also make sure you have thoroughly checked out the terms and conditions of each lender. | <urn:uuid:8c694c78-9e48-4dc2-9ade-ba50c2cabfe8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.simpletuition.com/student/fixed_student_loans.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968739 | 699 | 2.8125 | 3 |
The world of antiquities is a murky and complex one where ownership is a contested space. Many Indian sculptures (and pieces of architecture) of immense historical value are still languishing in Western museums. In this context, it was naïve to expect Gandhi’s memorabilia to be returned voluntarily. [...] In the hypocritical, complex world of antiquities, the question who rightfully owns the object is never taken seriously, leave alone answered properly.Worth a read and a think. In connection with this latest sale it is interesting to see collectors once again adopting a holier-than-thou stance with whole nations and their governments, Pierre Berge declares he will halt the selling of the items he's flogging off (an infamous rat and rabbit) if China will "free Tibet", the Gandhi seller wanted to make a deal to force the Indian government to spend more on health care. This seems to be analogous to the dealers' lobby declaring that they are striking a blow for "free enterprise" in the "source countries" with their "restrictive antiquities preservation legislation" by buying goods no-questions-asked and suggesting that the way to "stop the looting" is to drop the restrictive laws that make it illegal. Yeah right.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Who should own Gandhi's glasses - and why?
Dr A. Srivathsan has an interesting article in the Hindu ("Who owns antiquity?" 15th March) which draws on the recent story of the sale of Gandhi memorabilia (relics?) to discuss some wider issues: | <urn:uuid:06759713-18b8-4052-baf4-4a7d495d34a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2009/03/who-should-own-gandhis-glasses-and-why.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943055 | 316 | 2.0625 | 2 |
U.S. exporters and importers will be able to better tap the growing Colombian economy starting May 15 when the free trade agreement between the two countries takes effect.
President Obama formally announced the start date of the pact Sunday, after his administration said Colombia took the needed steps to improve labor conditions, the last hurdle to implementation of the agreement. The trade agreement, created under the administration of President George W. Bush, will remove duties on more than 80 percent of U.S. industrial and commercial exports, and about half of the duties on agriculture exports. Most U.S. imports from Colombia are already duty-free.
“This landmark agreement opens the door to new business opportunities, economic growth, and job creation in the U.S. and Colombia,” said Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Rather than rest on our laurels, we must continue to push forward with a bold job-creating trade agenda.”
U.S. exports to Colombia have quadrupled in the last 10 years and hit $14 billion last year, according to the Chamber. Bilateral trade reached nearly $30 billion, and the U.S bought about 38 percent of all Colombian exports, making it by far Colombia’s largest market. | <urn:uuid:2d2c619e-d0d7-480e-b335-c066b07c570a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joc.com/regulation-policy/us-colombia-fta-set-take-effect-next-month_20120416.html?qt-webcasts_podcasts_whitepapers=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944552 | 268 | 1.929688 | 2 |
The President's photo-op on all four Networks failed to cancel committed opposition to the Bush Social Security plan. The Opposition centers around the Benefits cuts entailed under the Bush plan. Almost All proposed Plans, and they number over a dozen, suffer from too much Gun. There are methods which create less jolt.
Liberal plans call for raising the 'Cap' on taxable Income. Setting this Cap at $150,000 would create a Tax of $9300 if the full increase was paid, an additional $3906 if the full increase was paid. $9300 per Year to build a annuity which will pay about twice the yearly amount of Payment from Retirement until Death does not seem an excessive price, especially when it includes a very favorable Medical insurance policy as part of the accessible benefits. Will it provide 100% solvency? Who knows, but it provides more revenue than the current Tax base.
Many Conservative plans call for Price-indexing of benefits, which will sharply curtail benefits over Time. The major problem with this avenue lies in dealing with Retirement benefits. Most of these Retirees lack exterior Income generation capacity. There is a real method to use Price-indexing without damage to Anyone: Use COLA increases yearly only on a Base benefit, with additional COLA for the rest of the benefits payable only once in every decade, without payment of backpay or degeneration in the interim period. Will this bring 100% solvency? Who knows precisely. The real Solution along these lines is to dictate a unitary benefit granted to All, no matter what level of Taxes have been paid in. This would assure Solvency!
The Unitary Benefit could even allow for some usage of Private Accounts, as long as taxation remained at a level to pay for 80% of the Unitary Benefit, and Private Accounts were required to pay the intervening taxation charged Others before Private Accounts funds were released to the Retiree. Private Accounts, though, are not a panacea. A probable half of all such Accounts would be unable even to pay the intervening taxation. No Lie!
The real problem is stopping the Government from spending the accrued Funds! The Author still proposes all FICA taxes should be turned over to the Fed, who would be charged with paying all SS liabilities, and loaning excess Funds to Banks at 4% Interest rate--said Banks allowed to count such funds as Reserves. lgl | <urn:uuid:572c6039-3fe9-46d7-8290-9eb63e917110> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://laglux.blogspot.com/2005/04/social-security-plans.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961422 | 489 | 1.703125 | 2 |
How the Retail Market Could Be Bouncing Back Despite Downturns
Augustine 7/31/2012 10:17 PM GMT (WooEB)
Many retailers are skeptic about the economy's future. The retail sector has been one of the hardest hit during this time, with over 66 percent of shop owners stating the economy has had a negative impact on inventory levels and profit margins. Despite hopeful economists’ projections for annual inflation to fall by two percent in 2012, along with a slight increase in the average annual salary by the end of the year, 30 percent of retailers are likely to close their doors before reaping the benefits.
The biggest threat to most retailers has been competition closing in on their territory. The steady rise of online shopping and e-commerce has reduced the sales of brick-and-mortar stores. Internet venders have grown to conquer ten percent of the retail market and are predicted to grow at an annual rate of at least 15 percent over the next six years, according to a 2012 Harvard Business report.
Over 68 percent of retail shops are reporting either stores closures or no growth at all. The ability to expand businesses has been put on hold.
In the wake of the recession, and a general feeling of mixed messages from the government, economic uncertainty has been putting retailers in a tough spot. Some retailers are playing it more risky; investing more money, and expanding their business. Others have been playing it safe, and often end up selling their business in fear of the uncertain future.
These days, the more riskier of the retail stores offer significant discounts in hopes to generate “subscribers” with hopes a bigger payout in the long-run. Over 45 percent of retail customers have said they enjoy seeing how much more they can save. In the short-run, retailers are financially aware that there will be customers who walk out with a full cart for practically nothing. But, ultimately, the biggest risk in question is whether it will convert to customer loyalty.
All is not lost for the retail industry, however. Some retailers are finding creative ways to decrease these risks while saving costs. While online shopping may be popular and convenient, it is unlikely to ever replace bricks-and-mortar shops altogether. Certain perks like being able to handle and inspect items or try on clothing before purchasing, as well as not having to wait for shipping, will always be important to customers.
Quality generally attracts more retail shoppers, while quantity generally attracts online shoppers. Often, online customer’s find ridiculous deals online, but it only takes 1 or 2 sales for them to figure out why it was so cheap. In short, when a deal is too good to be true, they are smart enough to know why.
With that in mind, make sure that everything in your retail department shows quality. Display your merchandise in a welcoming way. You can find some effective slatwall displays that can add to a store’s display space and enhance a customer’s shopping experience. These come in large panels as well as stand-alone slatwall fixtures that allow retailers to feature particular products and sale items. Clothing shops can also benefit from headless mannequins and user-friendly garment racks.
Price matching encourages customers to purchase early, knowing they can seek a refund of the difference should a competitor advertise a lower price. It also allows stores to raise prices slightly, since the majority of customers do not bother to return for price-match refunds.
Create a loyalty program. Rewarding customers for their patronage, via extra discounts or gifts with purchase, is a great way to build brand loyalty and ensure repeat business over time.
Add a personal touch. Everyone likes to feel special, so a simple greeting when customers enter a store can actually increase how much a customer spends in a store. This is another characteristic that online shopping lacks. Calling frequent customers by name and a sincere smile can go a long way.
The bottom line is that retail stores are discovering trade-off opportunities to capitalize from the downsides of online retail.
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Sign up for StockENews Alerts | <urn:uuid:4cad627b-7160-4999-9598-af8925059aea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stockenews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=1119767&cat=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94829 | 850 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Seward is located close to the center of Alaska. Seward is part of Kenai Peninsula County. Seward has 14.11 square miles of land area and 7.44 square miles of water area. As of 2010, the total Seward population is 2,693, which has shrunk 4.84% since 2000. The population growth rate is much lower than the state average rate of 13.29% and is much lower than the national average rate of 9.71%. Seward median household income is $43,188 in 2006-2010 and has has shrunk by 2.52% since 2000. The income growth rate is much lower than the state average rate of 25.22% and is much lower than the national average rate of 19.17%. Seward median house value is $191,900 in 2006-2010 and has shrunk by -45.05% since 2000. The house value growth rate is lower than the state average rate of 67.41% and is lower than the national average rate of 50.42%. As a reference, the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate for the same period is 26.63%. On average, the public school district that covers Seward is much better than the state average in quality. The Seward area code is 907.
Seward, AK Map, Border, and Nearby Locations
* Based on the U.S. 2010 Data | <urn:uuid:632e278d-36b3-4fd1-a1a9-46f3be26915e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usa.com/seward-ak.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967969 | 290 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Solar power sees surge
By Christin Nance Lazerus firstname.lastname@example.org September 5, 2012 11:28PM
Ben Brubaker, left, looks over electrical connections while testing a solar tracking unit attached to a photovoltaic panel on the roof of the Porter County Career and Technical Center in Valparaiso Tuesday Sept. 4, 2012. Brubaker, of Valparaiso high school, was working with fellow seniors Austin Geary, of Chesterton and Riley VanEerd of Boone Grove. The panel, part of a larger effort to produce solar and wind energy at the center, helps power some lights and other items. | Andy Lavalley~Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 7, 2012 6:02AM
The Porter County Career Center has a bevy of energy-saving technologies on display — from LED lights to a wind turbine.
But the roof of the building is a busy place — as two dozen more solar panels are installed by students and a few professionals. They will join a dozen panels that were installed about two years ago.
The school joins an increasing number of Northwest Indiana residents and businesses installing solar panels to take advantage of energy savings and support green energy efforts.
Porter County Career Center Director Jon Groth said the solar panels and windmills the students have built prove their value on two fronts.
“Our philosophy is we’re trying to reduce our carbon footprint and lower our NIPSCO bills,” Groth said.
The panels serve a practical purpose during power outages. After severe storms knocked out power to thousands of residents in early August, Groth said the Career Center lights were “working the whole time because of the solar power.” Even if the solar power runs out, the school’s emergency lights operate on batteries.
Kevin Moore, owner of Midwest Wind and Solar, said that business is booming. His company installs wind, solar electric and solar hot water systems.
“It’s just been crazy,” Moore said. “When the phone rings, somebody will say that they want a wind turbine, but once I educate them about payback, they’ll typically become a solar customer.”
About 60 percent of his business is residential, 30 percent commercial and the remaining 10 percent covers municipal and school buildings.
Moore said that wind doesn’t make much sense unless it’s installed 100 feet in the air and on a 2- to 3-acre plot.
“Solar is more for the average consumer,” Moore said. “As long as you have an unshaded location, it’s almost like a satellite dish.”
Valparaiso resident Elizabeth Gingerich, who is a professor of sustainability in business at Valparaiso University, said the impact of 24 solar panels saves money and decreases the carbon footprint.
“Our main goal was to get this commercial building (at 409 E. Lincolnway) off the grid and to set an example for other business owners to do the same,” Gingerich wrote in an e-mail. “Not only will we be producing sufficient energy to meet all of the needs of our tenants, but NIPSCO will be purchasing any overage.”
Gingerich said she saves $2,200 annually by using NIPSCO’s feed-in tariff. She said that the system will reduce the building’s carbon footprint by 137 tons.
Though prices for solar panels have decreased in recent years, installation is still a considerable investment, with projects averaging around $1,000 per panel.
With a 30 percent federal tax credit, Moore said solar system owners can get back their investment between four and eight years, depending on which NIPSCO renewable energy program they enroll in.
NIPSCO offers two programs for homes or businesses with renewable energy — net metering or feed-in tariffs. With the net metering program, customers are given a credit on their monthly bills for the renewable energy they produce. For example, a home that generates 750 kilowatt hours, but only uses 700 kwh would receive a 50 kwh credit toward a future bill. Statewide, 298 customers participate in the program, with 49 NIPSCO customers enrolled as of 2011 (an increase of 15 customers from 2010).
“We’ve seen more homes and schools participating in net metering,” Meyer said.
NIPSCO purchases renewable energy from customers enrolled in the feed-in tariffs programs. The typical electric rate is 11 cents per kilowatt hour, but solar energy is purchases by NIPSCO at 27 cents an hour. More than a dozen customers are already on-line with the program, said NIPSCO spokesman Nick Meyer, with about 100 applications being considered.
“Typically, the amount of investment required (to install the technology) is so expensive that larger customers tend to participate more,” Meyer said.
Moore said the feed-in tariff has a maximum participation of 500 kilowatt hours, with 390 kilowatt hours used by customers so far. Groth said the new panels at the Porter County Career Center will be enough to put the school in the feed-in tariff program, which usually requires 24 panels to be worthwhile.
Moore said the feed-in tariff takes about four to five years to pay back the investment, while net metering customers see return on their investment in seven or eight years.
“All of the hardware for a solar system is warranted out to 25 years,” Moore said. “So that’s about 12 years or so of free energy, and since electric rates always increase, the savings are great.”
NIPSCO’s incentives are offered for customers with solar, wind, hydropower and biomass systems. | <urn:uuid:e224ad44-22ff-4b45-9961-143583112370> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://posttrib.suntimes.com/14314272-418/solar-power-sees-surge.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945576 | 1,212 | 1.742188 | 2 |
In another thread (that grew quite unwieldy) the question came up about exhaust venting
Robert Riversong: "the most foolish way to duct an exhaust fan is straight up through the roof"
John Brooks: "It seems to me that in a heating climate (or during the heating season)... It would be desirable to have the "passive NPP" high. This would make the house more "negative" and would reduce (or eliminate) positive pressure near the top of the enclosure."
At this time I brought up the issue with condensation, wind, and dampers & that they should be vented out through a gable end if possible, if not then the roof but never through a soffit. This was replied to with a "I did say "During the Heating Season"" so I thought maybe we should take a look at this
First, condensation is a big concern during the "Heating Season" as these fans are transporting humid warm air up & passing through a super cold area
Wind is a big issue which is one reason why chimneys have to be vented so high
The final issue is the dampers, if one was to get stuck open, you would have a nice big hole or open chimney transporting all that nice conditioned hot air straight out of the house 24x7.
So what say you???
Quite the question Sean.
My take is this, vent exhaust fans through the roof (if gable venting is not a practical option). Short runs, insulate the duct(s), and buy quality vent caps. This post also reminds me of the importance of regular follow-ups with clients for whom work has been performed for.
I just want to emphasize that I am talking about ventilation during the heating season
(conditions when exhaust ventilation is desireable)
The advantage I see to venting thru the roof (not-so-tortured & insulated duct) vs thru a sidewall is that it would raise the "passive NPP" of the house...a good thing
raising the NPP makes the house more "negative" and reduces the positive pressure up high in the enclosure.
We agree that a house needs to be ventilated
What's wrong with "free" ventilation 24/7 working WITH mechanical ventilation?
as opposed to against mechanical ventilation
Riversong's suggestion of combining a continuous low flow fan makes sense to me.
Thanks for popping in John & forgive me for saying this but this is the "Best Practices" group & exhaust only ventilation & uncontrolled ventilation are definitely not a best practice which is why I labeled it the way I did. Now in some cases we might have to live with it or it might be a best practice for a specific case but by & large the idea is ludicrous.
The idea of managing the NPP also can not be done unless you have a perfectly air sealed house & can control the climate. One must remember that not only what the occupants do effects it, but so to does wind, solar, etc... - you couple that with "free" ventilation (i.e. pulling air in through insulation, mouse holes, squirrel nests, etc...) then you have lost any semblance of control, IAQ, and you are just throwing money away.
Along those lines you are also going to have condensation issues anywhere that the air is coming in as you are cooling down these sections so any warm humid air that hits that area where the dew point is reached is going to cause condensation & mold which will probably be hidden from site behind the drywall.
Thank you Sean
I will return to the "Poor Practice" Forums
the first time I read your comment....
To me the implication was that "I" was ridiculous.
so "I" was a little "miffed"
now that I have re-read your comment...
I think you are only saying that you believe my proposal is laughable
fair enough.... that's OK with me
I understand that condensation should be considered (as I mentioned in the original post).
That means ducts should be insulated and condensate drainage should be accounted for.
I understand that a High NPP (or a "negative house") is not for all climates/seasons (as I mentioned )
I understand that a "House is a System" and I assume that we are all talking about building high performance/ low energy homes at this Forum.
Homes with Air Barrier Systems, Ample insulation and thoughtful, calibrated ventilation strategies.
I understand that we should consider prevailing winds and mechanical effects.
I understand that air supply and exhaust should pass thru "intentional openings" and not thru construction flaws.
I strive for extreme airtightness...
However, I don't believe that a home has to be hermetically air sealed before we can manipulate or influence the location of the Neutral Pressure Plane by Design.
We just need to put more thought into how we locate and size the Intentional Openings.
There is much resistance in the real world to running fans 24/7 even though some are small and very efficient. The idea of replacing construction flaws with well designed intentional openings really makes sense and can reduce the size or need for mechanical ventilation. Robert's examples certainly look like a step in the right direction, but I will need more time to consider the seasonal aspects and how to integrate passive venting with code requirements.
Sooner than we expect a smart box will be wanting to control all aspects of IAQ and understanding how we can take advantage of natural ventilation will be a positive contribution.
One to think on, a passive HRV. Even though its performance might me minimal, its cost would be low and acceptance high.
While I agree that "designing" a passive NPP is an exercise in futility, but designing an active interior pressure balance is an important consideration that is typically overlooked. An exhaust-only ventilation system maintains a more negative interior pressure balance (in relation to outside) and hence reduces dangerous cold weather exfiltration.
And, while we all agree that "natural" (uncontrolled) ventilation is NOT a rational option, there is no reason that Exhaust-Only Ventilation can not be a "best practices" approach. One: it's far less expensive both to install and to operate, so it will have wider acceptance. Two: some studies have shown that, with all operating costs considered, including electrical fan consumption and heating/cooling energy impacts, an exhaust-only system can be the least costly to operate - also giving them wider acceptance - while fully meeting ASHRAE IAQ requirements.
Coupling an exhaust-only whole-house fan (which typically is just one of the bathroom fans) with passive make-up air inlets makes it an even better "best practice" approach because it now controls at least most of the infiltration locations, eliminating or reducing that "mouse hole" air.
But you are incorrect, at least in a heating season, that "you are also going to have condensation issues anywhere that the air is coming in", as only exfiltrating air - going from warm to cold - can cause condensation. And condensation does not occur "where the dew point is reached" unless there is a condensing surface (like sheathing). Nor does mold and rot necessarily occur wherever there is condensation - only where the rate of wetting exceeds the rate of drying and there is insufficient moisture buffering.
LOL, I try Patrick - thanks for the reminder on follow ups (which I recommend every three to five years or when renovations will be happening) is I was back at one place & I noticed the ERV cap wasn't fully shut. Mind you this was through a sidewall & I knew the unit wasn't running at the time, so I popped the cap up to see what the issue was & there was this huge nest of wasps or hornets - oh what fun
Also very good solution and about the only thing one can add is to make sure you direct flow so it will blow out over the roof where it slopes down
OK! I think some of your questions depend on location of the house. Some depend on the type of construction. Some depend on the comfort issues in the home that are being addressed. There is no one right answer, because the house is a system.
Passive NPP - perhaps, but what about the 3 story home the major comfort issue is the stack temperature difference between 1st and 3rd. Using an H/E RV to put fresh air in high and exhaust low would lower the NPP and decrease the temperature difference.
Exhausting through a soffit. If we exhaust warm humid air into a cooler environment; it will rise. If that warm humid air bumps into an artificial ceiling (soffit) it will stop rising and start moving laterally. When it locates an opening into an attic, leak, opening, or soffit vent; it will enter the attic.
An exhaust vent carrying moist humid air leaves the bathroom, it can go up through the attic to the roof deck, or across the attic to the gable or soffit vent. In either case it is in the attic. If the ambient attic temperature is below its dew point the humidity will condense *** if the dew point in the attic is the same inside the duct ***. So insulating the duct raises the dew point inside the duct. If the humidity still condenses: the vertical duct will allow the condensation to run down the sides, into the fan housing and drip into the house. The homeowner has a problem and a clue that something is wrong. Condensation in a horizontal duct in an attic going to a soffit or gable will most likely pool at some point in the duct. You have a problem, no clue it is happening.
Since you have a powered air flow in the duct, it is best to have enough air flow to move the humid air through the duct to the outside. This calls for measurement of the actual flow on every exhaust fan. Knowing how long your duct is, you can easily figure the velocity requirements.
As with any intentional penetration of the shell, you must have an effective damper on the exterior. Most are not. Worth paying extra for. The exception would be the intake to an H/E RV that runs continuously.
Finally, the less penetrations of the roof, the better.
My ideal: Short straight run, to a gable, with insulated duct, buried in attic insulation, measured to provide enough air flow. Choice if gable is not available or practical; roof deck.
I think you nailed it John, though for long runs I would recommend that you pitch it to the outside so if any water does condense it drains out - in some cases the run is short enough that you don't need a fitting while in others you might need one offset or two 45's to make it
Amen to that John!
Hi John N.,
I also thought your post was good.
However, I did not understand your suggestion to make a 3 story house "positive" by incorporating an H(E)/RV.
Have you ever installed such a system?
I have zero experience with HRV's so help me understand.
assume it's the heating season and the house interior is 30 feet tall
How high(approx feet above the ground floor) would you suggest the NPP be located?
How high would you locate the HRV?
How high would the exterior intake port be located?
How high would the fresh air be discharged to the interior?
How high would the exhaust air be collected on the interior?
How high would the exhaust air be discharged to the exterior? | <urn:uuid:a593c810-e094-43b5-b184-bb7798f9d570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://homeenergypros.lbl.gov/group/bestpracticesresidential/forum/topics/exhaust-fan-venting-bathroom-erv-hrv?commentId=6069565%3AComment%3A95416&groupId=6069565%3AGroup%3A2238 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957274 | 2,424 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Shown in the video are ancient mural paintings in the Brihadeeswara temple of Thanjavur (Tanjore). The temple built by Emperor Rajaraja (985-1012) is a testimonial to the greatness of the Chola Empire and the splendour of arts and crafts of the time.
Though originally, paintings adorned the entire wall-space of the temple, it was obscured by a coat of painting believed to have done during the Nayaka rule in the 17th century. A distinct feature of the paintings here, apart from the soft, subdued colours and clear drawings, is the variety of subjects chosen like that of a woman engaged in cooking.
A huge painting of Tripurantaka Siva on a chariot driven by Lord Brahma spread over the entire northern wall is often hailed as the masterpiece of sorts among the paintings. In this, Lord Siva is portrayed in the ‘alidha’ pose as a mighty warrior with eight arms carrying weapons. The Lord is accompanied by Karthikeya on peacock, Ganesa on mouse, Kali on lion and Nandi in front of the chariot. This piece of art is noted for the brilliant portrayal of the expressions of power and grandeur. | <urn:uuid:17ffcc3c-63ee-45cf-8a8a-19a9f78842c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indiavideo.org/tamilnadu/art/painting/traditional/mural/murals-brihadeeswara-temple--1857.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964004 | 254 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The Robbers Cave Experiment AARON COHEN · AUG 22 2011
Years ago, before this type of activity was frowned upon, scientists sent 2 groups of 11 and 12 year-old boys to live in separate sections of an Eastern Oklahoma camp. The boys didn't know about each other at first, and they quickly developed independent social hierarchies and social codes. One group named themselves the Rattlers. The other group didn't pick a name until after the groups discovered each other. They chose the Eagles, an animal that eats snakes. The scientists ratcheted up the competition between the two groups, eventually losing control of the experiment as the boys were executing violent raids on each others' camps. The scientists finally separated the camps before someone got killed, but not before documenting some interesting concepts of how groups form social norms and how they react to others they perceive as different.
What's fascinating to me, and the reason I'm posting, is this study seems to be closely related to Lord of the Flies, but the book was published in 1954, the same year as the study. I wasn't able to find any discussion of which came first and whether they informed each other at all.
(Via You Are Not So Smart) | <urn:uuid:ee426b34-8aaa-4372-8dde-aeb6eb0f8a6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kottke.org/11/08/the-robbers-cave-experiment | 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 | 0.97038 | 251 | 3.265625 | 3 |
CofE memo: vote for women bishops or face consequences
Secret note says Church must vote for women bishops by 2015 or Parliament will force its hand
THE Secretary General of the General Synod has said the Church of England must vote in favour of women bishops by 2015 or risk having the decision taken out of its hands by Parliament.
William Fittall, described by The Times as someone who the Church “rarely if ever ignores”, talks of an incipient “major constitutional crisis” and even hints that the Church of England might eventually be disestablished over the issue.
The dark assessment of the C of E’s situation comes in an internal document written for archbishops by Fittall called Women in the Episcopate - Where Next? and seen by The Times. It was circulated within 72 hours of last week’s shock vote by the Synod when, as the Times puts it, “a small number of the house of laity overturned the will of more than seven in ten synod members and secured a vote against women bishops”.
The motion rejected last week provided for those parishes opposed to women bishops to be administered by a male bishop instead. Fittall suggests a simpler motion next time: a plan to consecrate women bishops with no provision for opponents.
The new motion could be put to Synod when it meets at the University of York in July 2013. A vote could then be held by 2015. The proposal will be discussed by the Archbishops’ Council this week before being passed on to an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops next month.
The Guardian expressed bemusement at the Fittall proposition. How, when a measure that made provisions for opponents of female bishops failed to muster the required two-thirds majority, could a more radical measure paying less attention to their position be expected to get through the Synod? “The answer, say some, lies in the fact that some of the lay members who voted against may have done so out of objections to the measure rather than to female bishops.”
Fittall, however, is resolute. “We simply have to try again,” he says. “We have to do so because time is not on our side. Parliament is impatient. Unless the Church of England can show very quickly that it’s capable of sorting itself out, we shall be into a major constitutional crisis in Church-State relations, the outcome of which cannot be predicted with confidence.” · | <urn:uuid:34224bd4-e00c-4a7e-9537-aac2f8d7bec9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theweek.co.uk/religion/women-bishops/50281/cofe-memo-vote-women-bishops-or-face-consequences?link=navbar | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974677 | 523 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Chocolate - The Gift that Keeps on Giving
02. December 2011
'Tis the season for over-indulgence! The holidays are here and that means eating, drinking and feeling bad about it later!
Well, here’s some news that may put the cheer back into your holidays. Some of those decadent desserts you’d die for may actually be good for your health! Just make sure you go for the chocolate! Chocolate cake. Chocolate frosting. Chocolate chips. It’s ok! According to the latest medical research, your affinity for chocolate may just save your life!
The health benefits of chocolate - especially dark chocolate - have been touted for years through many small-scale studies. But now, it’s hard to deny the cold, hard, scientific fact that chocolate - consumed in moderation - can be a healthy addition to your diet.
Hundreds of studies have now been compiled and the science shows dark chocolate (that luscious, melt-in-your-mouth Dove Bar) is actually packed with antioxidants that promote heart health and may even prevent many cardiovascular-related conditions.
But there’s more! Health experts have found five more surprising health benefits in that box of See’s chocolates. Take a look. Call it an early holiday gift - from Yours, Truly!
1. Chocolate May Help You With Math: Flavonols, compounds in chocolate with antioxidant-like properties, are thought to improve circulation including blood flow to the brain. A recent study asked participants to count backward in groups of three from 999. After drinking hot cocoa, the participants were able to do calculations more quickly and accurately and were less likely to feel tired or mentally drained.
2. Chocolate Fills You Up: Moms have forever warned of spoiling dinner by eating a treat beforehand. Turns out, they were right. Danish researchers gave 16 participants 100 grams of either dark or milk chocolate and two hours later offered them pizza. Those who consumed the dark chocolate ate 15 percent fewer calories than those who ate milk chocolate, and they were less interested in fatty, salty and sugary foods.
3. Chocolate Makes You Feel Better: (Who needs a studyto know that?!) Chocolate contains phenethylamine, which triggers the release of endorphins. This reaction is similar to that experienced when we fall in love. Seriously! Doctors at the Mind Lab in England asked six couples to let squares of dark chocolate melt in their mouths and then kiss…all while hooked up to brain and heart monitors. Both tasks made their hearts pound and brains buzz - but chocolate doubled excitation rates in the brains’ pleasure center, especially in women. Researchers said cocoa’s blend of sugar and caffeine produces a longer-lasting high than a good smooch!
4. Chocolate Helps You Relax: Reach for a Hershey bar when you’re stressed? There’s a biological reason for that. Studies show chocolate contains the compound anandamide that activates the same brain receptors as marijuana. No wonder a bite brings on bliss!
5. Chocolate May Help You Live Longer: According to the British Medical journal…almost a year longer! Participants who ate candy one to three times a month (that’s it??!) had the lowest mortality rates of the group…probably due to the antioxidant in chocolate. A recent study also found that heart attack survivors who ate chocolate were less likely to die than those who went without.
So, go ahead…bring on that bag of dark chocolate M&M’s! Just make sure you stick to a one-ounce serving to get your fix without wrecking your waistline.
Oh, and don’t thank me. Just make sure I find a dark chocolate Santa in my Christmas stocking!
Contact Carol by emailing her at Carol@palomarhealth.org. | <urn:uuid:64fdd407-7fbc-4a4c-ba7b-d0373fbdcfc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palomarhealth.org/ContentPage.aspx?nd=867 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944103 | 797 | 2.296875 | 2 |
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State and Wabanaki Tribes Sign Truth and Reconciliation Mandate
On June 29, 2012, five Wabanaki Chiefs and Governor Paul LePage signed a Mandate document commencing the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine Maine child welfare practices affecting Wabanaki people.
The ceremony represents a historic agreement between Wabanaki Tribal Governments and the State of Maine to uncover and acknowledge the truth, create opportunities to heal and learn from the truth, and collaborate to operate the best child welfare system possible for Wabanaki children, a goal shared by all the signatories to the Mandate. | <urn:uuid:4465abe6-28c2-41a9-ab42-5bc243409738> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usm.maine.edu/muskie/cutler/tom-gray | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926331 | 183 | 2.03125 | 2 |
CDPAC/PHAC Best Practices: Child & Youth Mental Health
This Fireside Chat (webinar) is co-hosted by the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada (CDPAC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Canadian Best Practices Initiative.
"Child and Youth Mental Health Stigma Reduction” is the second webinar in a three-part series on various topics in mental health promotion and mental illness prevention delivered jointly by the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance of Canada (CDPAC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Canadian Best Practices Initiative.
Previous webinars in the CDPAC/PHAC series have explored the scope of mental illness in Canada and the relationships between mental health, mental illness and chronic disease. This webinar builds on previous work by focusing on 'what works' in reducing stigma around mental health for children and youth, and will provide an opportunity to hear from and ask questions to expert speakers on:
1. The Opening Minds anti-stigma initiative (more...) including efforts targeting media and youth;
2. The Durham Talking About Mental Illness (TAMI) coalition (more...), a youth awareness and education program, recognized Canadian Promising Practice and recent winner of the Mental Health Commission of Canada's 5th Anniversary National Partnership Award;
3. The Call BS (more...) youth driven campaign dedicated to transforming the way youth mental health is framed and supported; and
4. The Mental Health Awareness Stigma Combating Strategy (more...) and efforts to make it easier for youth to ask for help, including the 'reverse questionnaire' tool.
To explore the topic of child and youth mental health anti-stigma initiatives, and highlight proven and promising initiatives from the field, we bring together expert speakers affiliated with the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), Partners for Mental Health, the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, and the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
Advisors on Tap:
Heather Stuart, PhD
Professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queens University Senior Consultant, Opening Minds, MHCC
Heather Stuart, MA (Sociology), PhD (Epidemiology) is a social-epidemiologist specializing in psychiatric epidemiology and mental health services research. She is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology and the holder of the Bell Canada Chair in Mental Health and Anti-stigma Research at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Stuart is cross appointed to the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s and the Senior Consultant to the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Opening Minds, Anti-stigma program. Professor Stuart’s main areas of research interest are in mental health related stigma and discrimination; and mental health system and program evaluation. She has contributed to the peer reviewed scientific literature in the areas of mental health needs assessments; suicide and suicide prevention; stigma and stigma reduction; and workplace mental health.
Professional Practice Leader, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences
Bob Heeney is the current Professional Practice Leader for Child and Youth Workers and Community Development Coordinator for the Adolescent Program at Ontario Shores. He is a certified Child and Youth Councillor. He is currently working in collaboration with Dr. Heather Stuart of Queen’s University who is the principal investigator of the Opening Minds youth initiative of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. As chair of the Durham Talking About Mental Illness Coalition (TAMI), his current efforts seek to reduce stigma for youth living with mental illness. Mr. Heeney’s research interests lie in contact based mental health education and how this model changes behaviour, increases knowledge and improves attitudes towards those who are living with a mental illness. On behalf of the Durham TAMI coalition, he accepted the 2007 Ministers Award for Innovation in Health Promotion, the 2007 OHA Leading Practices Award and the 2012 Mental Health Commission of Canada’s National Partnership Award.
President, Partners for Mental Health
Jeff has over 20 years of marketing experience in the areas of advertising, direct marketing, database mining, and multi-channel marketing management. Prior to joining Partners for Mental Health, Jeff was the National Director of Sales and Marketing for Canadian Blood Services where he oversaw all national marketing programs, advertising campaigns, donor lifecycle management and brand building activities for the organization. Before joining Canadian Blood Services, Jeff was the Director of Marketing at Bell Canada, overseeing all advertising directed at the SME market. Prior to joining Bell, Jeff held the position of Vice President of Marketing for Alterna Bank where he directed all strategic marketing activities in support of the bank’s brand building, CRM, and product growth objectives. Jeff also held various positions, including AVP Marketing for Bank One International where he oversaw the development and execution of all strategic marketing acquisition plans. He also served as AVP Marketing at Citibank Canada. In that capacity, he managed the marketing acquisition planning function, including the development of numerous portfolio programs. He began his career as marketing executive for Petro Canada, managing all marketing activities for the company’s private label credit card. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University.
Youth Council Member, Mental Health Commission of Canada
Simran is a member of the Youth Council of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. She is an award-winning youth filmmaker, with her short submission “What is Mental Health?” earning top honors in a community film festival in Prince George, BC in 2012. Simran is originally from Williams Lake and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Northern BC. This year, she is working in the field of youth education and community engagement in Hay River, NWT as part of the Frontiers Foundation Operation Beaver program. She has experience working with youth with the Alberta Future Leaders program, the Boys and Girls Club, the Nechako Community Theatrics Society, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. In between watching episodes of Ice Pilots NWT, her interests include the areas of youth and community engagement. She is honored to be part of this CDPAC / PHAC webinar. | <urn:uuid:460a5461-228d-4ca7-ae7d-bc4dde846eca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chnet-works.ca/index.php?option=com_rsevents&view=events&layout=show&cid=206%3Acdpacphac-best-practices-child-a-youth-mental-health&Itemid=6&lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931914 | 1,269 | 2.375 | 2 |
Learn something new every day More Info... by email
A sphincter is a ring of muscle which holds any kind of biological opening closed. Sphincters are an important part of almost any system in a body. They help to both regulate the exit, entrance and circulation of fluids, gasses, and solids. They help blood to move through a circulatory system and bile and nutrients to go through the digestive systems. They also assist in the voiding of wastes.
There are as many as 50 different sphincters inside the human body. Some are external, such as the mouth, and others are microscopically internal, such as the ones in capillaries. One in the eye controls the contracting and widening of the iris when it is exposed to light, and there are also some that help control the flow of pancreatic juices.
Some sphincters are under voluntary control, while others are involuntary. These are differentiated by being controlled by two different types of nerves, the somatic, or voluntary, and the autonomic, or involuntary. An example of an involuntary sphincter is the ileocecal sphincter. Also known as the Ileocecal valve, it closes off the the small intestine so that food that has not been fully broken down won't pass into the next stage of digestion. The rectum has both a voluntary and an involuntary sphincter — the first moves wastes through the tract, while the second allows control over bowel movements.
When a sphincter muscle loses its ability to hold itself closed, it can cause health problems. A person can lose control over bladder and bowel movements when these sphincters can no longer contract. Lack of control comes from diverse causes such as having surgery, or stresses as simple as sneezing. Nerve damage can also lead to an inability to close a voluntary sphincter.
For those with weakened sphincters, several treatments are available. The muscles can be retrained back to their former strength through muscular exercises or drugs. For those with severe problems, artificial sphincters have been developed. These are small, inflatable cuffs which can be inserted in the body surgically to help hold closed the urethra or anus. The cuffs are usually inflated with liquid and attached to a small balloon and a pump; when the user needs to urinate or void wastes, they can pump liquid out to release it using muscular contractions. | <urn:uuid:bccc182b-4673-4792-856d-f8ed396861df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-sphincter.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96985 | 510 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Heritage Village Abu Dhabi is a place composed of cultural homes made of mud bricks precisely built for longevity purposes. The village also consists of proficiently built mosques designed with cultural significance. The market in Heritage Village Abu Dhabi is a traditional market selling affordable but culturally significant products giving travellers precious things that will serve as a remarkable item reminding them of the opportunity to be able to have a glimpse of the village. The village has been built since the prehistoric times and greatly contributes to the rich culture of Abu Dhabi. Inside the village also features Hill Gardens and a museum that keeps collections of significant value. Some of the artifacts are widely revered for their priceless worth. Other must seen places in Heritage Village Abu Dhabi are the hotels and leisure places where tourists of all ages will surely enjoy. This place is undeniably a place to relax and feel the essence of the establishment of the village.. | <urn:uuid:ca3ee541-968e-4c5b-975d-71efa929da39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abudhabicitytour.com/heritage-village.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965573 | 172 | 1.78125 | 2 |
“Take it easy, but take it.” Studs Terkel, 1912-2008
Chicago’s master storyteller, Studs Terkel, passed away yesterday at the age of 96. If you don’t know his work, I hope you’ll take the time to browse the Chicago Tribune’s coverage on the life of Studs Terkel. By studying Studs, you can learn a lot about so many things: Chicago, life, storytelling, grace, humor, performing, listening, wisdom, jazz, music, media, radio, romance, politics and humility to name a few. To get a feel for the man in person, here’s a video from University of California’s YouTube channel. Harry Kreisler talks with Studs Terkel, prize-winning author and radio broadcast personality, on an edition of Conversations with History series.
I’d also like to share two personal Studs Terkel stories with you.
The first time I saw Studs Terkel speak, in the early 80s, I was on a date with my boyfriend.
Before Studs came on, my boyfriend took one of Studs’ books out of his briefcase and said maybe Studs could sign it.
After the lecture, we approached the stage together. We talked with Studs for a few minutes and he gladly signed the book.
Studs wrote: Take it easy, but take it.
Those six words stuck with me.
On October 3 2001, I got the chance to see Studs again at an event at the Chicago History Museum.
Studs was obviously older than when I first saw him speak, but his presence was as sharp, spunky and sparkly as I remembered. He talked about his latest book, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? A Reflection on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith. You can listen to NPR’s Bob Edwards interview Studs about death and dying, really more of an interview about how to live life.
At the end of his lecture, he made his way out to the lobby for a book signing. This time I didn’t have a book and the line was so long it would take at least 45 minutes to talk to him. But, my friends waited. I wanted to tell Studs my story.
When I finally got to the front of the line, I told him we’d first met about 20 years ago – after hearing his lecture on a date with my boyfriend. “We got married and now we have three children. I want to thank for telling us to take it easy, but take it.” Studs smiled and said, “Well I’ll be damned.” He shook my hand and I went home to tell my husband.
Take it easy, but take it.
Six words from a brilliant man of many.
Studs Terkel’s latest book, P.S. Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening, comes out on November 3. | <urn:uuid:c9a1d3b5-38a8-45c1-82b5-859fb56c0bbf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiredprworks.com/category/social-media-marketing/page/30/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966787 | 632 | 1.703125 | 2 |
In Greece, a senior judge is to be put in charge of a caretaker government to run the country until a new General Election on June 17. Questions are growing over whether the country's finances will last that long. Hundreds of millions of euros have been withdrawn from Greek banks in recent days over fears of a departure from the euro - and return to a devalued drachma. Jonathan Rugman, Channel Four Europe reports.
Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET: Political leaders in Athens were due to discuss an emergency government Wednesday to deal with a possible run on banks as it emerged Greeks withdrew almost $900 million in a single day, fearing their country could crash out of the euro currency by the end of the week.
An interim government would take the country through to new elections on June 17, triggered by the collapse on Tuesday of talks to form a coalition between winners of the inconclusive May 6 election.
Greeks are withdrawing euros from banks, apparently afraid of the prospect of rapid devaluation if the country leaves the European single currency and returns to the drachma.
President Karolos Papoulias warned of “great fear that could develop into a panic,” the minutes of Papoulias' negotiations with political leaders showed, according to Reuters.
The minutes also reveal Papoulias was warned by George Provopoulos, head of the country’s central bank, that savers withdrew at least 700 million euros ($894 million) on Monday, Reuters said.
"Withdrawals and outflows by 4:00 p.m. when I called him exceeded 600 million euros and reached 700 million euros," the president said according to the minutes of the meeting. "He expects total outflows of about 800 million euros."
The country's economy is in a meltdown, raising fears that Greece will exit the Euro Zone completely and default on its huge pile of debt. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Several banking sources told Reuters similar amounts had also been withdrawn on Tuesday. Nevertheless, there was no sign of panic or queues at bank branches in Athens on Wednesday. Bankers dismissed suggestions that a bank run was looming. A senior executive at a large Greek bank told Reuters: "There is no bank run, no queues or panic. The situation is better than I expected. The amount of deposit withdrawals the president mentioned referred to three days, not one."
Still, some were taking no risks. Jenny P., an Athens private medical clinic receptionist originally from Ohio, told msnbc.com she had withdrawn 85 per cent of "what's left" in her bank account.
"We could have a new currency in a couple of days and nobody knows for sure what will happen," she said. "There are no lines to withdraw money, but maybe that's because many Greeks have precious little left in the bank. Many have been surviving on [$500] 400 euros a month, which has to cover tax, bills, food and medical costs."
She said she was planning to return to the United States amid the economic turmoil which has left her Greek husband unemployed. "It is hard to see what the future will be here," she said.
Greeks have already been withdrawing their savings from banks at a sharp clip - nearly a third of bank deposits were withdrawn between January 2010 and March 2012, reducing total Greek household and business deposits to 165 billion euros.
A senior bank executive said there had been withdrawals in recent days but there was no sign yet of a panic, as had happened in April 2010 when eight billion euros were withdrawn just before Greece obtained its first foreign bailout.
The political vacuum in Greece has hampered the country’s chances of making the budget cuts required by the European bailout deal. Without more austerity measures, the flow of bailout money will dry up, raising the prospect of a euro exit with all its wider ramifications.
Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
Two men withdraw money from an ATM in central Athens May 16, 2012.
The likelihood of a Greek exit from the euro – dubbed the "Grexit" by commentators – is now so high that even political leaders committed to avoid it admit preparations are under way.
Asked in an interview whether Greece could leave the euro zone, IMF director Christine Lagarde replied: "We certainly don't hope so, from the IMF point of view ... but we have to be technically prepared for anything".
Will there be a run on Greek banks?
A Twitter image shared by economics blogger Tyler Durden, posted on UK website Zero Hedge, showed what appeared to lines outside ATMs in Greece, although it was impossible to verify where the picture was taken or if lines were longer than normal.
Reuters reported early Wednesday that there has “so far been no sign” of lines at banks in Athens, despite the likelihood that an exit from the euro would see a dramatic devaluation in of Greek currency.
CNBC’s John Carney raised the prospect of reduced limits on ATM withdrawals, citing a calculation by London analysts Capital Economics that if every working-age Greek withdrew the maximum permitted ATM amount of 300 euros a day, every single deposit of Greek households would be gone within 61 days.
“So the controls put in place in advance of an exit from the euro would have to include not only limits on moving funds abroad, but limiting withdrawals from ATMs and possibly declaring a bank holiday,” Carney wrote.
In practice, however, any Greeks lucky enough to possess any savings have already taken the precaution of withdrawing them from banks.
“Over the last two years Greeks withdrew approximately 70 billion euros from their bank accounts, an amount equivalent to approximately 35 percent of Greek GDP,” Dr Michael Arghyrou, senior economics lecturer at Cardiff Business School in Wales told msnbc.com.
“This is a negative demand shock of enormous proportions and with increased uncertainty this trend will almost certainly accelerate. So yes, we will almost certainly see more deposits withdrawals over the next few days, I just hope is that they will not be so large as to lead to a full-blown bank run.”
How likely is ‘Grexit’? Are drachma notes being printed?
A year ago, it was nearly impossible to get officials and political leaders to talk about the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone. Now it appears to be an open secret.
Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters
A man makes his way past a replica of a one drachma coin outside the Athens Town Hall May 15, 2012.
Ireland's central bank chief and European Central Bank policymaker, Patrick Honohan, signaled on Sunday that a Greek exit might not be as painful as previously thought.
"Technically, it can be managed," he told reporters. "It would be a knock to the confidence for the euro area as a whole ... It is not necessarily fatal, but it is not attractive."
The tone from the European Commission, the EU's executive, has shifted too.
On Monday, spokeswoman Pia Ahrenhilde-Hansen said: “We wish Greece will remain in the euro and we hope Greece will remain in the euro ... but it must respect its commitments. Greece has its future in its own hands and it is really up to Greece to see what the response should be.”
Asked about contingencies, she did not rule them out.
Reuters quoted one European Commission official saying: "Clearly, the future of Greece is in the Eurozone. We are working on that. The 16 other governments in the Eurozone really are at the end of their patience with Greece. There isn't room or any willingness to move. The decisions are really in Athens' hands. But it doesn't look good."
However, the official response remains that a Greek exit is not being considered.
In an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said: "I have the will, the determination, to keep Greece in the Eurozone. I think it will be good for Greece and good for all of us. We want Greece to stay in the Eurozone."
Some commentators have pointed to a 13 percent rise in the share value of British firm De La Rue, which is the world’s largest currency printer, amid speculation it is best placed to pick up the contract for issuing new versions of the drachma, the Greek currency phased out in 2002.
It has remained tight-lipped on whether it is working for the Greek government, but in the meantime an interim solution has been mooted in which existing euro notes would be converted into drachmas by being endorsed with an official stamp.
Would a 'Grexit' be so bad? If so, what are the alternatives?
Lagarde said a Greek exit from the Eurozone would “have consequences on growth… consequences on trade and…consequences on financial markets “. She added: “You can certainly assume it would be quite messy."
Global financial institutions have a $536 million exposure to Greek debt, according to the latest figures from the International Monetary Fund, although almost all is borne by France, Germany and other key European economies.
The Institute of International Finance has estimated that the global cost of a Greek exit could hit $1.2 trillion, according to the Daily Telegraph in London. When Argentina defaulted in 2001, foreign debtors lost around 70 percent of their investments, it said.
The Telegraph said a report in Germany’s Wirtschaft Woche magazine forecast that a Grexit would cost the Eurozone governments alone $300 billion, pushing the whole European economy – which narrowly avoided entering recession on Tuesday by recording exactly zero quarterly growth - into a crisis not seen since the 1930s.
Many are looking at the possibility that Athens issues IOUs to meet salaries and key service bills for a fixed period, much in the way California did during its budget crunch in 2009 when it issued 'registered warrants' with a coupon in place of dollar salaries and which banks then accepted for cash.
Much hinges on whether the European Central Bank would allow the Greek central bank to accept such IOUs and there's little clarity on those hypotheticals.
However, strategists believe any Greek government IOUs would quickly act as a proxy for a new drachma and exchange values against the euro would mostly likely plummet in practice as people rushed to cash out - offering Greeks a glimpse of the shock of devaluation in a euro-ised economy with euro-denominated debts.
"I'm really not sure Greece could survive for very long if external money was cut off," said Darren Williams, economist at fund manager AllianceBernstein. "But what an experience of IOUs may do rather quickly is bring home to the average Greek citizen just how much more difficult a place it is outside the bailout programme and outside the euro."
What would happen to the euro?
Besides the huge liabilities, there is the risk that a Greek exit from the euro would set a precedent for the possible exit of other weakened economies including Spain and Portugal.
"Opening up the Pandora's box of exit means deposit risk across the periphery,” an RBS analyst told Reuters.
Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk, IHS Global Insight, told the BBC: “It would be difficult for the [European Central Bank] to keep banks afloat. The Greek banking sector would collapse as well. What happens next is a political question. European nations would probably not accept another Western European country descending into chaos and collapse.”
What is the political future for Greece?
Rampant inflation, civil unrest and even a return to dictatorship could be on the cards, analysts warn.
Arghyrou told msnbc.com: “There will be no credit for Greek banks or the Greek state. That could mean a shortage of basic commodities, like oil or medicine or even foodstuffs.
The country would end up in a volatile period. There would be institutional weakness. The worst case scenario would be a social and economic breakdown, perhaps even leading to a totalitarian regime.”
Henry Wilkinson, head of analysis at the Risk Advisory Group, said: "We are entering into unknown territory and it remains profoundly unclear what actually will happen. I wouldn't overstate it, but I think the big concern out of all of this is that in times of great uncertainty and hardship, more extreme parties tend to find greater resonance with their message."
Roger White, an American private tutor who moved back to the United States from Greece three weeks ago to escape the economic crisis, told msnbc.com: "I see violence on the Greek horizon. Will the Greeks continue to withdraw their savings? Yes, for as long as they can. Then, the government will intervene with limits on withdrawals and other controls. Then, Greeks will protest in the streets, light banks afire, smash bank windows and rip out ATMs.
"Oddly, I can say that in many ways my Greek experience gave me wonderful opportunities. Nonetheless, my epiphany came when Greece's economic collapse and the government's implosion revealed just how reliant on the government we are, and just how vulnerable to government mismanagement we are."
Reuters contributed to this report.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- EU forces attack Somali pirates on land for first time
- Aussie Olympic hopeful loses bet over 'mankini' at opening ceremony
- Hipsters to the rescue? UK celebrity venue in spat with Jaguar
- Vatican allows mobster to be exhumed for clues in disappearance
- Iran hangs ‘Israel spy’ over nuclear scientist killing
- Mexico's drug war: No sign of 'light at the end of the tunnel'
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world | <urn:uuid:e480c2d0-6539-4ae8-9ad3-411b75cc55e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/16/11729795-greeks-withdraw-894-million-in-a-day?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969084 | 2,834 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office employs twelve full-time telecommunicators and one communications supervisor. The communications center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is responsible for answering 911 calls and non-emergency calls for the citizens of Henry County.
Telecommunicators are responsible for answering calls, prioritizing information and dispatching the appropriate police, fire and/or ambulance.
Henry County dispatch’s for thirteen fire departments, ten ambulance services and ten law enforcement agencies.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office is a participant of Mutual Aid Box Alarm System and is the primary dispatch center for division 39.
MABAS is used when there is a sizable event involving Fire and/or EMS and mutual aid is needed. There are, what are called, “Box Cards” that specify what Fire and EMS departments are to be paged and the exact equipment that will be needed to respond. The use of these Box Cards ensures that the resources that are needed come from several different departments, so as to not deplete one department of all its equipment in case another call is received.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office is a member of the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System.
One of the primary missions for ILEAS is to coordinate statewide mutual aid for law enforcement in Illinois. Along the same lines as MABAS, ILEAS is utilized when there is a sizable event requiring law enforcement personnel and additional assistance is needed. There are, what are called, “Alarm Cards” that specify what agencies are to be notified.
The communication center is equipped with the latest technology including Enhanced 911 and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), among others, and the telecommincators are well trained in order to maintain the Henry County Sheriff’s Office commitment to quality service.
Please remember that 9-1-1 is for EMERGENCIES ONLY. For non-emergencies, please use the non-emergency telephone number (309) 937-3911. An emergency is an incident that requires the immediate response by Police, Ambulance and/or Fire. | <urn:uuid:9caa322f-6d3a-4fa5-aca0-a7d8e1542029> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.henrycty.com/Departments/SheriffsOffice/911Communications/tabid/302/Default.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916326 | 439 | 1.710938 | 2 |
A cochlear implant will not cure deafness or hearing impairment, but is a prosthetic substitute for hearing, often requiring ongoing audiological therapy and, in some cases, speech therapy. Implants don't always completely restore your hearing and almost always need a period of adjustment for you to get used to the sounds you are hearing.
Thus, having a cochlear implant is a unique experience for many and sharing the experience with others is a great idea.
The Canadian Hearing Society offers Cochlear Implant Support Groups wherever possible and where interest and participation make them feasible. To find out if there's a support group in your area you can contact us. If you're interested in starting a group, we'd like to hear from you.
For more information, click the Contact Us button above to send us an inquiry. | <urn:uuid:95817b2c-cfae-45db-9bbb-41acceb0c608> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chs.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=164:cochlear-implant-support-group&catid=49:hearing-help-classes&Itemid=149&lang=fr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934502 | 167 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Sept. 18, 2006
| With the bureaucracy endemic in the drug industry, it’s no surprise it takes a decade and about $1 billion to develop a viable drug candidate, let alone a successful drug. A ray of hope to improve this appalling situation is the industry’s increasing use of complex computer algorithms, sophisticated mathematics (statistics, data mining), huge biologic and chemical databases, and tons of commercial software to help analyze and integrate knowledge. But to what end? What can mathematics offer to speed up the drug discovery pipeline?
Researchers are increasingly using DNA and other microarrays to probe gene and cellular activity. These tools produce disparate genetic and biochemical data that must be viewed as an integrated whole. By grouping genes into categories related to chemical pathways or cellular processes, and analyzing the results in light of physiologic pathways, researchers may glean mechanisms of action and identify viable drug candidates.
Dramatic increases in the density of gene/protein surrogates on a single chip fuel the need for data warehousing and analysis. The science of bioinformatics has largely met the first challenge. Databases and software now catalogue, organize, and store vast quantities of microarray data. Examples include the GO charts, Kegg Charts, and Domain Charts available from the National Institutes of Health. How far these tools can go to actually address the main problems of biological complexity remains to be seen.
Comparative studies have resulted in new procedures for standardization to help reproduce data between laboratories and mitigate nomenclature problems. Meanwhile, mathematicians have developed algorithms to ever more quickly process the data, and statisticians produced more robust models to analyze the data and reveal further questions.
Of course, gene expression analysis is just one part of a broader picture. Mathematics and software play key roles in the analysis of high-throughput screening, genomics (including toxicogenomics), proteomics, metabolomics, and integrative pathway analysis. Excluding the mathematics used for purely algorithmic functions, most of the techniques fall under statistics and data mining.
In the area of high-throughput screening and toxicity studies, database tools such as Drug Matrix (Iconix Pharmaceuticals), ArrayTrack (National Center for Toxicological Research, FDA), and ToxExpress (Gene Logic) use standard statistical techniques as well as the more specialized areas of data mining, including perceptrons, genetic algorithms, support-vector machines, and self-organizing maps. All of these implementations involve complex, and sometimes highly theoretical, mathematics and complex code because of the huge databases used during computation.
One of the most actively pursued areas in drug discovery concerns classification and prediction — for example, discovery of gene sets (notice the plural!) that will robustly predict a class of disease, disease progression, or drug susceptibility. The first step — discovering significantly regulated genes — is accomplished by common statistical methodologies such as the t-test and ANOVA and has been widely implemented to address the “large p/small n” problem (too many variables, not enough samples). Including too few genes risks missing an important, perhaps vital, input; including too many obscures the true importance of the more significant contributors.
These questions are further addressed by techniques such as clustering, discriminant analysis, and principal components analysis and are implemented in software packages including Rosetta Resolver, SAS-MAS (SAS), Bioconductor (an R package), Partek Genomics Suite, and others. These tools not only predict and classify but also offer quality control features, multiple comparative statistical features, and sophisticated graphics interfaces to more fully appreciate the complexity of the data, and perhaps tease out the desired effects.
Specialized packages such as DecisionSite (Spotfire) extend graphics capabilities to large sample sizes while performing some analytic functions. Others such as Ingenuity’s Pathway Analysis connect the output of these analyses to large databases to perform the gene annotation and pathway analysis necessary to interpret the biological components of the software output. Such tools have driven rapid growth in the number of statistical and bioinformatics papers attempting to address these problems.
The results of these mathematical routines have the potential to save millions of dollars in drug development. And yet the flow of successful drugs is dwindling. The problem goes beyond bureaucracy and lies in the complexity of the problem. Scientists are layering the full complexity of the human genome on top of exceedingly complex software modeled with on-the-fly mathematics. We have yet to appreciate the full complexity of the systems under study and the mathematics needed to address it. Given the magnitude and diverse nature of the reactions occurring simultaneously, physical and chemical, as well as the constantly changing environment of these reactions, complicated by the number of interactions and irregular confounding effects of feedback loops, all exquisitely related, and events conspire to quickly destroy the statisticians cherished notion of independence.
The problem lies not with lack of data on the biology side, nor lack of imaginative techniques on the mathematical side, but rather in the techniques to integrate the two areas accurately.
John A. Wass, Ph.D., is in the Advanced Technology unit of Abbott Laboratories Global Pharmaceuticals R&D. The author’s opinions are his own. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:623ec77c-aa10-4dfc-97b2-c17de5ab16d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio-itworld.com/BioIT_Article.aspx?id=44748 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913848 | 1,070 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Monday, January 7, 2013
By Philip Rucker
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation's gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration's discussions.
A working group led by Vice President Joe Biden is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthen mental health checks, and stiffen penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors, the sources said.
To sell such changes, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association that one source said could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers for measures that would benefit their businesses.
White House aides have also been in regular contact with advisers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun-control advocate.
The Biden group, formed last month after the massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults, plans to submit a package of recommendations to President Barack Obama this month. Once Obama's proposals are set, he plans to lead a public-relations offensive to generate popular support.
"They are very clearly committed to looking at this issue comprehensively," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who has been involved in the discussions. The proposals under consideration, he added, are "a deeper exploration than just the assault-weapons ban."
Biden's group has expanded its focus to include measures that would not need congressional approval and could be implemented by executive action, according to interest-group leaders who have discussed options with Biden and key Cabinet secretaries. Possibilities include changes to federal mental-health programs and modernization of gun-tracking efforts by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
"Simply coming up with one or two aspects of it really falls short of the magnitude of the gun issue in the country," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum.
Wexler was among a dozen law enforcement leaders who met with Biden and other administration leaders in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
The Dec. 20 summit, which stretched an hour beyond an allotted one hour, included Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Biden said the White House group would consider a variety of proposals — from requiring background checks for all gun buyers to creating a new database that would allow the ATF to track all gun sales, according to participants.
Some of the options the administration is considering might not ultimately be included in Obama's package. A White House spokesman said Biden's group was in the midst of its review and has made no decisions on its final recommendations. | <urn:uuid:52e51b83-8312-401f-b848-f677cac5d7bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://registercitizen.com/articles/2013/01/07/news/doc50e9ff5da3ed1408622444.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960002 | 605 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Catch an Art Thief
How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World·s Stolen
K. Wittman with John Shiffman
Publishers, 325 pages, $25
conventionallyenough, with undercover FBI agent Robert Wittman,
narrator of the book, being Rolls-whisked by mobsters to a
boat at a Miami dock, where he·s engineering a dangerous
double cross in order to get at a cache of stolen goods. The
stakes are high, the personal risk daunting. The chapter breaks
off at the climax. We won·t learn the resolution until
the final chapters.
this book departs from the standard true-crime saga is in
its subject matter: fine art. And not just that: It·s
Wittman·s contagious belief in the cultural value of
fine art that makes the book compelling. Co-written with Pulitzer
Prize finalist John Shiffman, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter,
Priceless is Wittman·s story both of the high-stakes
pursuit of stolen treasures and his own eventful life.
of a mixed-race marriage, Wittman had a close-up view of intolerance
even as he watched the civil-rights confrontations of the
1960s unfold. His Japanese mother helped instill his love
of fine art; his Army vet father taught him resourcefulness
and determination. Impressed by a neighbor who worked for
the FBI, Wittman nourished a desire to join the bureau, but
he settled into a family business and didn·t pursue
that dream until he was 32.
posting, to Philadelphia, coincided with a robbery at that
city·s Rodin Museum, and rookie Wittman launched into
an investigation that would inspire not only a new attitude
at the agency, but also lead to the founding of the FBI·s
Art Crime Team.
himself gained significant training at the Barnes Foundation
in Philadelphia, a building designed by its wealthy benefactor
as an education center that immerses its students in art history.
·Study the overstuffed walls,· the book explains,
·and discover two chairs that match the female derriere
in a set of Renoirs, or an African mask that matches the shape
of a man·s face in a Picasso painting. Notice a wooden
trunk that mimics shapes in Prendergast and Gauguin paintings.
Ponder the significance of a set of soup ladles straddling
a series of Old Master paintings, or a pair of ox shoes hanging
over a pair of Soutines.·
In this way, the eye of the investigator·or collector,
dealer, or artist·is trained to contextualize a masterpiece
with greater skill. And it wasn·t just paintings Wittman
recovered. In 1997, working undercover, he went after a 1,700-year-old
South American ·backflap,· ·the backside
of an ancient Moche king·s body armor, an exquisite
piece hammered from gold,· stolen years before from
a Peruvian tomb.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania took its first inventory
in decades, a Revolutionary War-era rifle and three Civil
War presentation swords were discovered missing. This was
the case of an inside job, and the investigation was made
all the trickier because ·cultural institutions are
loathe to suspect one of their own; they like to think of
themselves as families.· But it led to a multimillion
dollar stash of 200 museum-worthy pieces in an electrician·s
frequently went undercover, spending months winning the trust
of the suspects he pursued, and the stories are rich with
the kind of tension-building detail you·d otherwise
assume only happens in fiction. One example is the sting he
set up to wrest an invaluable original copy of the Bill of
Rights from a Washington, D.C., lawyer, bringing to an end
a pursuit that began when the document, presented to the state
of North Carolina, was looted by members of Sherman·s
army during the Civil War.
are successful recoveries of other goods stolen long before,
such as the repatriation from Brazil of Norman Rockwell paintings
swiped from a Minneapolis gallery in 1978. Other international
trails include the track of Rembrandts and Renoirs nicked
from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm. And we learn
of the deliberate scams that informed the early seasons of
the TV show Antiques Roadshow.
Not surprisingly, we·re also shown an FBI culture that
included the kind of politicking and backstabbing that informs
any bureaucracy, as (now-retired) agent Wittman was buffeted
among co-workers and bosses ranging from those sympathetic
to the need of protecting cultural artifacts to those desk-bound
buffoons who merely sought self-aggrandizement at the expense
most compelling aspect of this well-told saga is the excitingly
detailed skullduggery: the suspense of each investigative
chase and the eventual triumph (in most cases described) of
running the thieves to ground and restoring the swag to its
proper place, all burnished by the appreciation of fine art
as a necessity of a culture that seeks to grow and thrive.
When financial times are tough, the arts tend to take the
first and most brutal hits. Wittman·s story is a compelling
argument against that. | <urn:uuid:87359819-787b-4c81-ab85-cfcf2742b1ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://metroland.net/back_issues/vol33_no38/books.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926968 | 1,159 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Caregivers are relied upon by both patients and medical professionals to bridge the gap between medical care and homelife. They may be needed to deliver medicines and medical care, ensure basic tasks of daily living, or monitor health. Caregivers are often close relatives without medical expertise, but they play an important role in overall wellness and disease management. Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition associated with episodes of mania and depression. Because of these potential mood swings, many people with bipolar disorder may require some degree of help or monitoring from a caregiver. Medicine and behavioral steps may also help protect against the onset of mania or depression. Since caregivers are so involved in patients' lives, it may be important for the caretaker to better understand bipolar disorder so they understand treatment and know the signs of worsening mood in the patient.
Researchers from Spain examined the impact on patients when caregivers attended groups that provided psychological support and bipolar education classes (psychoeducation). The study, published in Bipolar Disorder, found that psychoeducation for caregivers may decrease recurrence of mania or hypomania in patients.
About the Study
This study was a randomized trial that included care-givers of 113 patients with bipolar disorder. The caregivers were randomized to psychoeducation classes or no intervention at all. The 12 classes were all 90 minutes long. The classes included information about bipolar disorder and coping skills. Patients' mood recurrence and number of hypomanic/manic recurrences were recorded over a 15-month period. Patients whose caregiver attended classes had:
- Reduced likelihood of any mood recurrence
- Longer periods of time without relapse
- Fewer hypomanic/manic recurrences
- Greater time to hypomanic/manic recurrence
How Does This Affect You?
The design of this study is generally considered very reliable. One point of concern in this study design is something called attention control. The participants in the treatment group met with a professional and their fellow caretakers 12 times, but the control group did not have any meetings at all. Because of this difference, it is hard to determine if the specific treatment was effective or if the benefit simply came from regular meetings and support from others.
If you are caring for someone with bipolar disorder, look for support options. Ask those providing medical care if there are options to help you best care for someone with bipolar disease. There may also be local support groups and classes or online groups to connect you to others who take care of people with bipolar disorder. These groups may not only provide emotional but also practical support. As a caretaker, it is also important to make sure you have some help and downtime. Look for other family members or medical/social services that can provide you with relief when needed.
- Reviewer: Brian P. Randall, MD
- Review Date: 06/2010 - | <urn:uuid:047cec01-27c0-405b-8ac9-81759f7bafa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medtropolis.com/your-health/?/2010817694/Caregiver-Group-Support-and-Education-Associated-with-Longer-Relapse-Intervals-for-People-with-Bipolar-Disorder | 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 | 0.949177 | 583 | 3.25 | 3 |
Côte d’Ivoire is the first African country I set foot in and where I was bitten by the proverbial “Africa bug.” In the early 1970s, at the height of the country’s post-colonial economic growth, my family moved to Abidjan for three years for my father’s job with the World Bank. Childhood memories include spending weekends at the beach, taking family vacations up north, ice-skating on the rink at the Hôtel Ivoire and hanging out with Michel and Jean-Marie, our cook and house help from neighboring Burkina Faso, after a day at the International School.
As an adult, I returned to Abidjan from 1997 to 2000 to work on a health project. By then, the country’s economic success was in a reversal, and African immigrants who’d come to work from neighboring countries served as scapegoats. When I suffered from back pain, a Ghanaian masseuse named Erica came to my house to work out the knots. Once a week, she appeared at my house, quietly went about her work, and then disappeared again. Because she spoke less than the talkative Ivoirians and Francophones I was used to, I didn’t get to know her well. But once I moved back to the U.S. and began traveling frequently to Ghana, I started to wonder about Erica: What had brought her to Abidjan? How long had she been there? Was her family still in Ghana, and, if so, what prevented her from returning to them? The story “Monday Born” is an attempt to explore these questions.
Photos by Susi Wyss | <urn:uuid:e5b8e05a-3ecb-4cce-8aab-836b1463b909> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.susiwyss.com/map_ivory_coast.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976686 | 352 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Food is a topic of much discussion these days. Umpteen channels on the television talk, discuss, present and even produce insane competitions;all on food. There are millions of blogs and websites all over the internet bursting with tantalizing food and bulging with information. There are hundreds of opinions churned out every day about what food is good and bad for you. There are umpteen lists about "Five Foods to Never Eat" and as many about "Five Foods to ace an interview". You would think "Five" would be an easy number to handle ? Naah.
All around me there seems to be a Food bubble. And I do hope earnestly that the bubble does not burst. I am enjoying it.
But as much as I love this gastronomical propaganda I must admit I am also highly confused. There is too much information which is hard to assimilate and even trust these days. There is too much of competition about making food faster, prettier, healthier, better and while one day that means oodles of butter, on the other none of it.There are studies being churned out faster than the dollar bill and when it comes to food it is hard to ignore them even in my standard lackadaisical mode. Why my family's health might be affected by the brand new study, that still smells of fresh ink and crisp paper hot from the printer. My child might grow up to be a psycho because she was deprived of Himalayan acai berry juice as a toddler.
Local or Organic, Paleo or Vegan, Chinese Study or American, South Beach or Calangute, your garndmother's or mine ? The questions are just too many. And honestly if you notice the core of each of these studies and sum them up it might just be what your Mother had been saying all along and you blindly ignored. Ahhh, what does she know after all. Now grandmothers might be more knowledgeable.
When I was a child growing up in India, food was not a media darling. Few recipes in the Sunday newspaper and a couple of half hearted food pictures in the Bengali magazine was all we had to be satisfied with. Glossy magazines like Femina did not talk about food. News Magazines like India Today stayed far away from recipes and if at all, talked about the dearth of food or the high price of it. "Eat it, all of what is in your plate. Food is precious and there are people who are doing without it" was my Mother's common refrain.Food was revered and recipes were all hand me down or shared with neighbors. My Ma would sometimes cut out of recipes from the Sunday papers and with years they would begin to look like fragile parchment.
Food was a mainstay of the middle class household though. Starting with the morning bazaar routine, getting fresh supplies of seasonal vegetables and fish every day, cooking 3 meals from scratch each day without fail was the norm. We discussed food with love and passion, as something to be cherished and thankful about. Each time my Thama lamented the milk that the milkman got, comparing it with the creamy, almost reddish hued warm milk from the cows in her parent's home in Munger, we collectively sighed. When my Baba said that nothing tasted as good as his grandmother's ghee parathas and mohonbhog we imagined days dripping with drops of grainy tassar silk ghee.
My Ma's cooking usually bordered on the healthy where it was never oily or too spicy for comfort. Yet it was flavorful, always had a vegetable, a fish and grains. The vegetables and fish changed along the season, the dishes varied from light to rich with the temperature. Meat was cooked once a week. I lived my entire childhood yearning for an omlette made with 6 whole eggs which she steadfastly denied spreading the quota over the entire week instead. She or none in her generation stopped to think if it was right to feed this or that. The everyday diet was naturally balanced.
All her life my mother's food style remained the same unlike mine which jumps from no-grain in one week to brown rice only in another and raw salad one day to junk food the next. While she lived with maybe three main kinds of grains, my pantry has branded as well as un-branded packs of brown rice, quinoa, daliya, couscous, semolina, flax seeds, wheat germ and other un-inventoried item which I amass because the recent study said so. Needless to say I forget about many of them.
I don't know whether her style was correct or whether it worked because the raw food products then were not maligned by harmful chemicals. I am not justifying anything, all I am saying is it was much more easier to think of food and plan a meal then. There were set choices.
Now,every week we run around three different grocery stores. For what purpose I do not know. Organic spinach and strawberries from Whole Foods, flax seed from Wegman's, Bitter Gourd and hot green Chiles from Patel Bhai. And then someone comes and says "Local is far better than Organic" and so I again run around, driving 35miles, getting Zucchini from the farm stand which said "Local Produce". In between I have spent an hour debating whether the more expensive wild caught salmon is less contaminated than the farm raised.Thankfully Organic Milk and Eggs is now mainstream and so we can get that anywhere but now they say Milk is not at all necessary for the diet anyway so there my precious 265 hours were wasted.
Finally when I am home, drained both physically and financially I decide I need some rest and order a processed cheese artisan pizza from Domino's, glug down a splenda infused coke and try to think of the most edible way to cook the couscous so that I can contribute more food to the world wide web.
Of all the "gyaan" that is out there I probably like Michael Pollan's Twelve Commandments best.
Minimal processed food. Cook more.
Eat at the table. Though I don't follow them strictly, they make sense.
But here is where I stumble.
"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food".
Ideally eating what my Grandmother recognized would have been right because I guess that is what my body was suited for but then came globalization and messed it all up. I eat pasta and broccoli in abundance, and I am guessing she would too if she lived with me in the US. Also when I eat some of what she ate like this "Potol" I am actually committing a crime by not eating "local". I have no idea where my Patel Brothers get their potol from but I am sure it grows nowhere in my backyard.
Potol was a vegetable I was never fond of but summer heat brings back memories of patol and grandmothers. I however did not buy potol again, twice in one summer is enough I decided. This recipe of Doi Potol -- PointedGourd in a Yogurt sauce is a recipe sent by my Mother. I haven't cooked it yet but the recipe I see is pretty universal and might go well with even eggplants. So that is what I am going to do with this recipe next, cook it with eggplants. You can do the same or if you have access to plentiful potols you can make one more dish with the same boring veggie.
1. Potol - 6 pc
2. Onion - half
3. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
4. Green chilli-- 4/5
5. Cumin/Jeera powder - 2 tea spoon
6. Ginger - 1 table spoon
7. Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon
8. Chilli powder - half tea spoon
9. Sugar - 1 tea spoon
10. Salt- according to taste
11. Garam masala - 3 elaichi, 1/2 " dalchini, 4 cloves
12. Tejpata - 1
13. Rosun - 1 koya /1clove
Prothome potol take bhajar moto ga ( body ) ta cheche niye ektu haldi & salt lagye bheje nite hobe. Then potol ta tule rekhe in that oil, garam masala & tejpata phoron debe. Then ote onion & rosun debe and ginger paste & sugar diye bhjte hobe. Now 1 cup doi ( curd ) haldi, lanka & jeera powder diye bhalo kore phetiye nite hobe. Onion bhaja hole or modhye ei curd diye debe and gas sim kore bhalo kore nere niye ote potol guli diye nara chara kore salt debe. Tarpore jal ( water ) diye dhaka ( lid ) debe. Potol boil hole green chilli long size chire (cut ) ote diye namiye nebe.
Scrape skin of potol/parwal and toss in salt and little turmeric powder.
Heat Mustard Oil in a Kadhai.
Fry the patol lightly, remove and keep aside.
Temper the same oil with Whole Garam Masala and TejPatta.
Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and saute. Next goes in the ginger paste. fry with a tsp of sugar till onion is soft and browned.
Meanwhile in a bowl add the yogurt, Cumin Poder, Chili powder and littel turmeric powder. Beat well.
Once the onion is done, take the kadhai off the heat and slowly add the yogurt. At low heat cook add the fried potol and mix well with yogurt and masala.
Add water for gravy, add salt, cover and cook till the potol is done. Once the potol is done add the green chili and switch off heat. | <urn:uuid:63303672-b436-4a82-bae6-bef1eaa2121b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bongcookbook.com/2012/08/mas-doi-potol-no-choices-there.html?showComment=1344608016012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961031 | 2,084 | 1.539063 | 2 |
From the Ohio Department of Natural Resources
-- Some landowners whose Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts expire in September can now extend their contracts, keeping the land in grassland or woodland.
"That's very good news for Ohio's landowners, wildlife and water quality," said Luke Miller, a wildlife program administrator with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife "Without this opportunity, just over 17,000 acres of mostly grassland would likely be converted into cropland this fall."
"That would have a significant impact on Ohio's grassland bird species- from the bobolink and meadowlark, to pheasant and quail," Miller said. "But just as important, CRP grassland and forests sequester significant nitrogen and hold soil in place on erosive ground, protecting waterways from sediment, agricultural chemicals and excess nutrients."
Extensions will be offered only to landowners whose contracts have the highest environmental benefits for soil erosion. Generally landowners who planted good wildlife mixes on highly erosive land will qualify for an option to extend the contract. Extended contracts will be at the same rental rate they are currently receiving.
Most contracts will be extended for three or five years. Landowners can choose to extend the entire acreage under contract or a portion of it. However, they cannot enroll additional acres and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will not hold a general CRP signup this year.
Landowners with general CRP contracts that expire Sept. 30, 2009, who are eligible for a contract extension, should receive a letter in May from the USDA-Farm Service Agency (FSA). These landowners should visit their local FSA office between May 18 and June 30 to apply for an extension.
Landowners who do not receive an offer to extend their contracts can enroll at least part of the field in the continuous CRP with updated rental rates. Visit the local USDA office to sign up or call the local wildlife district office for the name of a private lands biologist who can help with applications and plant material choices. Stream buffers and filter strips are examples of eligible practices and sign-up can be completed at any time.
The grass, trees and shrubs that are planted under a CRP contract provide long-term protection to soil and water while adding wildlife habitat to the landscape. In return for the societal benefits, landowners receive annual rental payments, which help offset the cost of not raising a crop on those acres. | <urn:uuid:dea5ecc8-fe89-4a95-8d00-5ba7d6bbbac0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buckmasters.com/landowners-can-now-extend-crp-contracts-to-keep-grasslands-1.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947385 | 504 | 1.71875 | 2 |
By MOHAMED OSMAN | AP
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s government confirmed Wednesday it will expel a number of international aid workers from the restive western region of Darfur, without specifying how many.
Reports from earlier this week said that six foreign staffers, including employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN’s refugee agency, had been verbally told to leave the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Muwaia Khaled told the Associated Press the aid workers were being deported individually, and the deportation does not reflect on the organizations they work for.
“Any organization that abides by the regulations and code set will be respected,” Khaled stressed. “There are indeed some violations committed and this is the reason why they were expelled.” He did not elaborate on the nature of the offenses and said the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs would disclose more later.
The reports come at a time of strained relations between international aid groups and the government of Sudan.
At a recent gathering, Sudanese President Omar Bashir told local Darfur officials that they can act independently “to expel and order out any international organization or agency or any quarter that exceeds its stipulated mandate or tries to obstruct the work of the local authorities.” The UN has said constraints on aid agencies operating in the vast Darfur region have been steadily increasing since March 2009, when 11 international aid organizations were expelled following an indictment of the Sudanese president for crimes against humanity in Darfur by the International Criminal Court.
Samuel Hendricks, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, said the recent orders have larger implications than just the state of international staffing.
“It’s not about the individuals or the organizations, the point is these people are working in a humanitarian capacity and trying to help the population of Darfur,” he said.
Fighting in Darfur began with a 2003 rebellion by groups who accused the government of neglecting the desert region.
The ongoing conflict has left up to 300,000 people dead and forced 2.7 million to flee their homes, according to UN figures.
Several rebel groups have negotiated peace agreements with the government but two major armed groups, the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement, have refused. The UN Security Council on July 30 called for an immediate halt to the escalating violence in Darfur and demanded that all rebel groups to join peace talks. | <urn:uuid:dd0286cd-022b-42c2-aa51-46ba63441962> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://actforamerica.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/sudan-says-will-deport-foreign-ngo-workers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956972 | 511 | 1.625 | 2 |
Chomsky: Why the Mideast Turmoil Is a Direct Threat to the American Empire
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In recent weeks, popular uprisings in the Arab world have led to the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the imminent end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime, a new Jordanian government, and a pledge by Yemen’s longtime dictator to leave office at the end of his term. We speak to MIT Professor Noam Chomsky about what this means for the future of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region. When asked about President Obama’s remarks last night on Mubarak, Chomsky said: "Obama very carefully didn’t say anything... He’s doing what U.S. leaders regularly do. As I said, there is a playbook: whenever a favored dictator is in trouble, try to sustain him, hold on; if at some point it becomes impossible, switch sides." We continued the interview with Chomsky for 50 minutes after the live show.
AMY GOODMAN: For analysis of the Egyptian uprising and its implications for the Middle East and beyond, we’re joined now by the world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of over a hundred books, including his latest, Hopes and Prospects.
Noam, welcome to Democracy Now! Your analysis of what’s happening now in Egypt and what it means for the Middle East?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, first of all, what’s happening is absolutely spectacular. The courage and determination and commitment of the demonstrators is remarkable. And whatever happens, these are moments that won’t be forgotten and are sure to have long-term consequences, as the fact that they overwhelmed the police, took Tahrir Square, are staying there in the face of organized pro-Mubarak mobs, organized by the government to try to either drive them out or to set up a situation in which the army will claim to have to move in to restore order and then to maybe install some kind of military rule, whatever. It’s very hard to predict what’s going to happen. But the events have been truly spectacular. And, of course, it’s all over the Middle East. In Yemen, in Jordan, just about everywhere, there are the major consequences.
The United States, so far, is essentially following the usual playbook. I mean, there have been many times when some favored dictator has lost control or is in danger of losing control. There’s a kind of a standard routine—Marcos, Duvalier, Ceausescu, strongly supported by the United States and Britain, Suharto: keep supporting them as long as possible; then, when it becomes unsustainable—typically, say, if the army shifts sides—switch 180 degrees, claim to have been on the side of the people all along, erase the past, and then make whatever moves are possible to restore the old system under new names. That succeeds or fails depending on the circumstances.
And I presume that’s what’s happening now. They’re waiting to see whether Mubarak can hang on, as it appears he’s intending to do, and as long as he can, say, "Well, we have to support law and order, regular constitutional change," and so on. If he cannot hang on, if the army, say, turns against him, then we’ll see the usual routine played out. Actually, the only leader who has been really forthright and is becoming the most—maybe already is—the most popular figure in the region is the Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan, who’s been very straight and outspoken.
AMY GOODMAN: Noam, I wanted to play for you what President Obama had to say yesterday.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We have spoken out on behalf of the need for change. After his speech tonight, I spoke directly to President Mubarak. He recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place. Indeed, all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people. Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation. The voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments, this is one of those times. Now, it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt’s leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that. What is clear, and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak, is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now. | <urn:uuid:267517e3-9036-4b40-855b-2edb3ff368b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alternet.org/story/149786/chomsky%3A_why_the_mideast_turmoil_is_a_direct_threat_to_the_american_empire | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960588 | 986 | 1.601563 | 2 |
|Bikes | Features | Events | Books | Tech | Magazine | About | Messages | Classified | Links|
|26th August 2009|
When a treasure trove of vintage motorcycle drawings, press cuttings, notebooks and more were discovered, a classic bike enthusiast resolved that they should be shared with the world. So here's the cream of the crop...
RC reader Alan Freke is a regular volunteer at his local village Museum at Frenchay near Bristol and helps to organise their Vintage Vehicle Extravaganza.
When a cache of 'old bits and pieces of paper' relating to old motorcycle was discovered locally he was the natural person to investigate. It didn't take Alan long to spot that the material, dating from 1910 through to the mid-1930s, was indeed a precious hoard.
This was the personal archive of Francis Simpson, a technical artist who not only provided drawings for 'The Motor Cycle' but was employed by the Douglas motorcycle concern for a couple of years as their advertising manager. As a freelance he then worked with other well-known motorcycle manufacturers of the era, including Vincent-HRD and Matchless, and provided illustrations for the aeronautic business too.
The pages are packed with Simpson's motorcycling memorabilia; photos of bikes which were loaned to The Motor Cycle while he was on the staff; bills for his own bikes and their licences; sketches which never saw the light of day; route cards from road trials and rallies; finished artwork as it appeared in print, and hundreds of beautifully rendered line drawings, all crisply reproduced and enhanced by detailed captions.
Editing this little lot must have taken many months of hard work and the result is a captivating insight into the motorcycle industry of the inter-war years.
Being particularly susceptible to the motorcycles of this era and - hang it - anything vaguely art deco, I was captivated by Simpson's gorgeous flair for design. Rivet counters will admire his painstaking rendering of every nut, bolt, washer, screw, pin, flange, cog and widget on the owner's manual type of drawing, but his advertising material really caught my eye. Even a brochure for HRD's humble 'Bantam' light delivery van, an automobile of expediency produced during the Depression, is beautifully styled and drawn with clean curves intersecting no-frills grids to create a complex, eye-catching identity based on minimal components. It's beautiful in mono: in full colour it must be stunning.
Simpson's sketch of an 'ideal motorcycle' is another glorious piece of art. Rather than presenting a plain, side-on view of this fictitious motorcycle, he has drawn the machine form the rear at a three-quarters angle, as seen from above (which happens to be a great place to take a photo from, too, if you have a handy wall to stand on…). Simpson's motorcycle for everyman features improved silencing, a spring-up centre-stand, silent cam gear, an inclined engine with enclosed overhead valves, illuminated instruments and 'clean' handlebars, uncluttered by levers, knobs or cables - all of it enhanced by revealing cut-aways to give an X-ray view of the engine internals. Just that one drawing could fascinate an old bike fan for hours, and there are dozens more to look at in here.
Alan Freke was keen to make this marvellous material available to as many readers as possible, so somehow he contrived to produce a hardback of considerable quality which retails at less than a tenner. There can be less than a sniff of profit in each sale, but that's not really the point, I suspect. There is an argument that some of the material would have been better presented in glossy colour which would have inevitably doubled the price of the book… but the majority of sketches and drawings were mono in any case. One tiny technical hitch happened to the title, however: this book is either called 'Precise in Every Part' or 'Perfect in Every Part'. Depends whether you believe the cover or the title page…
The original papers of Francis Simpson's archive has been deposited with Bristol Record Office so that, in Alan Freke's words; 'they will be preserved for all time and be available for future generations to appreciate the simplicity of line, that so beautifully brought cold metal to life.'
There will be few of us who will view Simpson's drawings at the Record Office but, thanks to the publication of this volume, they are accessible to many. It's an achievement to be proud of.
Reviewed by Rowena Hoseason
'Precise In Every Part: The world of Francis Simpson, technical artist, in the 1920s and 30s' is published by Frenchay Village Museum, ISBN 978 0 9560312-1-1, and costs £9.99 plus delivery (total £12 to the UK).
Email email@example.com to place an order.
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You may download pages from this site for your private use. No other reproduction, re-publication, re-transmission or other re-distribution of any part of this site in any medium is permitted except with the written consent of the copyright owner or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. | <urn:uuid:5385272a-9e98-4382-8794-6606e085e348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realclassic.co.uk/books/francissimpson.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958703 | 1,167 | 1.59375 | 2 |
In 1612, the Virginia Company sent 60 settlers to Bermuda to colonize the island and build a capital city. That year, the Virginia Company sold the island to the Bermuda Company and the island continued to prosper. Eventually, Bermuda was bought by the British and became a British Colony.
Several wars affected relations with Bermuda, including the American Revolutionary War. In 1775, the U.S. colonies established an effective blockade surrounding Bermuda and severely restricted trade, causing widespread hardships for Bermuda's residents. Eventually, the conflict ended and trade relations with the mainland resumed. Later, during the War of 1812, Bermuda was used as a British supply and military base and again suffered blockades that prevented supplies from reaching the island, causing many shortages and hardships.
And finally, during the Civil War, Bermuda was used as a supplier of munitions and supplies to the Confederate forces, making many Bermudians wealthy as a result. In 1941, the U.S. leased a portion of the island from Great Britain to use a military base of operations. Later, in 1995, both the British and the U.S. Naval Bases closed.
No longer used as a military base of operations, Bermuda remains a favorite tourist destination for divers and boaters world-wide. | <urn:uuid:80f84e52-4d7b-48c6-8406-64fd9e801403> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sportdiver.com/destinations/bermuda/bermuda-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966619 | 255 | 3.75 | 4 |
Snow plowing and ice control is a primary function of the Public Works Department. The department wants to do all it can to reduce the impacts to our residents by making roads as safe as possible during snow conditions. Our goal is to quickly open the streets and make them safely passable to traffic. Residents can help us do this by working together. This section provides information that will help you and the Public Works Department work together to keep the roads as safe as possible.
Snow Plowing & Ice Control Plan
Snow clearing efforts are prioritized in three levels.
- Priority One
Priority One Snow Routes consist of major, non County or State roadways that carry the most traffic within the Village. These include roads like Manitowoc, Allouez, Ontario, Klondike, Townhall, Hazen, and Greenbriar. They also include around McAuliffe School and hills. Priority one routes and areas are salted, along with intersections along those routes.
- Priority Two
Priority Two Snow Routes consist of main collector streets industrial zones such as Mayflower, Blue Spruce, Bluestone, Gemini, Commercial, Continental, and Essen. Priority two routes are typically salted during the day.
- Priority Three
Priority Three Routes consist of the remaining streets and cul-de-sacs (77) within the Village. These streets are cleared and salted.
Snow Plow Route Maps
Sidewalk - Shoveling and General Care Brochure
Snow & Ice Control FAQs
For more information on policies and procedures related to the Village's Snow & Ice Control plan, please read our frequently asked questions page or select from one one of the menu options on the left. | <urn:uuid:e73c546f-ce28-43ad-a198-abec17ea1ec5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.villageofbellevue.org/public-services/public-works/street-a-right-of-way-maintenance/snow-plowing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940519 | 352 | 1.867188 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — A growing number of civil engineers, landscape architects and urban planners are making a case for not just repairing but also for greening the structural underbelly we rely on to drink our water, cross our rivers and park our cars.
"The question was frequently, 'Who will be the LEED-certified engineer on that runway project (or) that water treatment facility?'" said Pat Natale, executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers, referring to the coveted Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Using LEED guidelines for runways, roads, water plants and other infrastructure "didn't fit," Natale said. "You could twist it a little bit, but it didn't fit."
While LEED has raised the profile of "greening" buildings, infrastructure — the spaces on and through which we live — doesn't always conjure up images of eco-friendly design.
"We have no connection to our infrastructure, it magically happens," said Bill Worthen, the American Institute of Architects' resource architect for sustainability. "We have no understanding or placement of value on all the stuff that's under our feet that keep us functional, and it's all starting to fail."
The first step in improving the performance of just about anything is to measure it.
"That infrastructure platform is begging for a rating tool that will balance development and environmental concerns and return on investment," said David Raymond, president and CEO of the American Council of Engineering Companies.
Last week, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure unveiled Envision, a new rating system designed to provide third-party certification for green infrastructure.
Envision aims to be to bridges, roads and parking lots what LEED is to homes, businesses and offices, its creators say. Using a point system to cover 60 criteria across five categories, Envision gives engineers, infrastructure owners, policymakers and others a framework for evaluating the environmental impact of infrastructure projects.
"If we can't define sustainability, we can't measure it," said Paul Zofnass, founder of the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, one of the collaborators behind Envision. "If we can't measure it, we can't assess it. If we can't assess it, we can't improve it."
The American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Public Works Association and the American Society of Civil Engineers are also backing the new assessment tool.
Envision is not the first or only rating system for sustainable infrastructure. Sector-specific guidelines exist for roads and ports. The Sustainable Sites Initiative is a similar tool used for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance — many of whose principles are incorporated in Envision.
The Green Highways Program, a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Highway Administration, uses a green roads rating standard that aims to identify sustainable new or rehabilitated roads.
What, then, is a green road? What could you possibly do to make a stretch of asphalt — or any type of infrastructure — any more or less green?
For starters, experts say, you could use a lighter shade of pavement. Dark pavement has a tendency to absorb light, meaning it takes more electricity to keep streets and parking lots adequately lit at night. You might reduce the number of lanes dedicated for cars, install bike lanes and widen the sidewalks, thereby promoting walking and biking.
Even sidewalks can benefit from sustainable upgrades, including the use of pervious concrete, which allows rainwater to trickle down beneath it, managing storm water runoff while better watering trees planted along a streetscape.
Cities are catching on to the benefits.
In November 2010, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation broke ground on the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue Great Streets Project, which implements pervious concrete, traffic-calming measures and other components of green street design. The project has an estimated completion date of May 29, said Jasmy Methipara, office engineer for the project.
Boston's Complete Streets approach calls for streetscape designs that incorporate permeable paving materials and natural alternatives to unsightly storm-water runoff systems.
In Chicago, even the streetlights are going green — in spirit if not in color. The city's department of transportation plans to install more than 1,200 new energy-efficient streetlights across Chicago in 2012.
"We're really starting to look at infrastructure, and the way that we develop it is quite different," said Neil Weinstein, executive director of the Low Impact Development Center, a Beltsville, Md.-based nonprofit organization that works on natural resource protection issues.
Instead of thinking of a road as a simple stretch of asphalt, Weinstein says engineers and designers are concentrating on infrastructure's "triple bottom line" — a cost-benefit analysis that takes into account not only a project's economic impact, but also its social and environmental effects.
Engineers and architects say the changes cannot come quickly enough.
"This need for more and greater infrastructure, in our view, is not going to go away," said Zofnass. "There has never been a government that has survived if they could not provide their society, their people, their civilization with adequate and improved infrastructure."
(The Medill News Service is a Washington program of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.)
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY | <urn:uuid:6cbb8cc9-d0c8-4984-bb87-a52ddcb5e367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/12/144995/how-green-is-a-parking-lot-new.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946484 | 1,096 | 2.421875 | 2 |
When all the hoopla about the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clark’s expedition began 10 years ago, there was talk of a national pilgrimage of tourists who would follow the explorers’ footsteps, wallets open and spreading dollars from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean.
The Lewis and Clark bicentennial was going to be a tourism bonanza, filling motels, restaurants, gift shops and campgrounds.
Historian Stephen Ambrose, dressed in a fringed buckskin jacket to promote “Undaunted Courage,” his best-selling 1996 book about the expedition, predicted “crowds beyond any of our imaginings.”
Harry Hubbard of Seattle, the founding president of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council, suggested Washington could see as many as 10 million visitors.
As it turns out, that was pie in the sky.
The Lewis and Clark bicentennial celebration culminates in Washington this week, with several days of activities planned in the southwest corner of the state. The events celebrate the time and place where the exhausted explorers arrived at the Pacific Ocean, spent the winter and turned around to head home.
The celebration sounds like fun, but expectations about attendance have been radically revised.
Pacific County’s bitter November weather has set in, gas prices are high, kids are in school and all indications are that the occasion will be similar to others along the trail in the past 21/2 years.
Generally, they’ve drawn enthusiastic local residents and tourists who happened to be in the area anyway, but no grand rush. State tourism officials say about a million people will visit Washington in 2005, about the same as usual.
“I don’t want to make it sound as if nobody will show up,” said Una Boyle, executive director of the Long Beach Peninsula Visitors’ Bureau and a member of Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark for the past eight years.
“The appropriate way to put it would be, we’re expecting a robust crowd, but I just don’t think it will be an enormous number of people.”
Washington’s place in history
Building a buzz for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial took creative work by Washington tourism promoters and revisionist historians.
For most of the past two centuries, Oregon, not Washington, has been regarded as the more historically significant state.
Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the 31 others in the expedition floated down the Columbia River, which separates the two states. They checked out the ocean and then headed south to Oregon, where they spent the winter at the hastily built Fort Clatsop near what is now Astoria.
Until a log replica of the fort burned last month in a bizarrely badly timed fire, Astoria had been the nexus of Lewis and Clark interest in the Northwest.
Washington boosters – notably David Nicandri, director of the Washington State Historical Society, and Rex Ziak, an amateur historian from the southwest Washington town of Naselle – went to great lengths to convince the world that the Oregon-centric view is misguided.
As the explorers made their way down the Columbia, they camped on the Washington side of the river more than the Oregon side, Nicandri and Ziak noted.
More important, it was in Washington, not Oregon, that the explorers first glimpsed the ocean, thereby completing the mission handed them by President Thomas Jefferson.
And then there was the matter of “The Vote.”
According to the explorers’ journals, the ragged band experienced Washington pinned down by high wind and tides in a little cove which Clark referred to as a “dismal nitch.”
The commanding officers put matters up to a general vote of all present: Where should they spend the winter? Should they stay in Washington, where they were cold and wet and members of the Chinook tribe were robbing them blind? Or should they head to Oregon where they’d be out of the weather and among the friendlier Clatsops?
Not surprisingly, the majority favored Oregon. More notable than the Washington snub, however, was the fact that a woman and a black man were allowed to vote for perhaps the first time in the New World.
Barbara Minard, collections manager at the Ilwaco Heritage Museum, agrees that the vote was significant. But she says the practice of co-opting Lewis and Clark for commercial reasons is as old as the expedition itself.
She’s managing a show at the Ilwaco museum called, “Don’t Bother Me With the Facts: Uses and Abuses of the Lewis & Clark Theme in Popular Culture.”
The exhibit includes more than 800 Lewis and Clark tchotchkes produced over the past two centuries, including liquor labels, candy bars, cast iron pans with images of Lewis and Clark on them, shot glasses, toys, spoons and key chains.
The number of people who have come to see the show has been underwhelming, according to museum director Nancey Olson.
“There may have been a slight increase,” she said. “It’s hard to tell.”
Olson suspects that a slight rise in visitation over the summer had as much to do with the cruise ships that have begun docking in Astoria.
Events attract locals
Plenty of people were expecting too much of the bicentennial, but Betsy Gabel says she was not among them.
Gabel runs the marketing section of the Washington state tourism office, where researchers study patterns and motives of tourists the way biologists analyze the migrating habits of wild animals.
No tourism marketing professionals have been surprised by the turnout for Lewis and Clark events, Gabel said.
The pattern fits perfectly with precedents set during other recent historical events, including the 150th anniversary of the Oregon Trail and dozens of statehood anniversaries. The sequence, she says, is simple: unreasonable expectation followed by sobering reality.
“We did a ton a research, and every tourism office in the country knew what was going to happen,” Gabel said. “We determined that visitation would follow normal travel patterns. No state was going to see a huge influx of visitors.”
The difficulty, she said, was convincing people outside the profession.
“What often happens is various public officials and agencies look at it, and because they’re not familiar with how things work they say, ‘It’s a great big event. Of course a thousand billion people are going to come.’”
The idea of “heritage tourism” is so outdated, Gabel said, industry professionals don’t even use the term anymore.
“The idea that someone is going to travel all across the country to see Lewis and Clark is not fitting with what we know of travel patterns.”
This week’s events in Pacific County will attract mostly local people, the research says, with a scattered few from adjacent states.
A greater misconception than the one about massive crowds, Gabel said, is that modest attendance indicates failure.
Washington’s $12 million investment in the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial will yield long-lasting dividends, she said.
The last thing you want, she said, is for more people than you can handle to descend on you and then all leave, disappointed.
Pacific County, which is struggling from the collapse of the fishing and logging industries, will be a prime beneficiary, she said. The bicentennial has left it with a legacy of new historical markers, roadside attractions, interpretive centers and trails.
“The value is not a zillion people in one year that nobody could have handled anyway,” Gabel said. “The value is in the long term.”
Rob Carson: 253-597-8693
NORTHWEST BICENTENNIAL EVENTS
Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future.
Today through Nov. 15, (Long Beach, Pacific County) and Nov. 19-22 (Seaside, Ore.)
Created and staffed by the National Park Service, this interactive exhibit travels the Lewis and Clark Trail in conjunction with the national bicentennial commemoration. It features a self-guided exhibit and a traveling auditorium called the Tent of Many Voices. Special presentations occur daily with music and dance performances or talks from local tribal representatives, historians, and National Park rangers.
“Destination: The Pacific,” opening ceremony
Friday, 10 a.m., Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, Ore.
“Destination: The Pacific” is the only National Signature Event in this region sanctioned by the National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Council. This ceremony will kick off five days of activities in Pacific County, Wash. and Clatsop County, Ore. There will be a pageant of tribal flags, an American Indian veterans’ honor dance, remarks by Govs. Christine Gregoire and Ted Kulongoski and joint participation by the Washington and Oregon National Guard.
Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition.
Friday through March 11, Portland
The Oregon Historical Society is the only museum on the West Coast to host what’s billed as the most comprehensive exhibit of Lewis and Clark Expedition artifacts, artwork and documents ever assembled. At least 125,000 visitors are expected over the course of the four-month display. Oregon Historical Society, 1200 S.W. Park Avenue. For more information, go to www.ohs.org.
“Ocian in View” Speaker Series
Friday through Nov. 14, Hilltop School Auditorium in Ilwaco, Pacific County, and various locations in Astoria, Ore.
These half-dozen programs cover topics including the vote at Station Camp; interpreting the expedition in relation to late-20th century interests; the similarities between arriving at the Pacific Ocean and landing on the moon; and the history of the Northwest Maritime Fur Trade. For more information, visit www.lewisandclarkwa.com/pages/ocian.html. Tickets are $10, with the exception of a few free events, and can be purchased by visiting www.DestinationThePacific.com.
Maritime fur trade re-enactment
Sunday, 9 a.m., Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco
Historic dealings between the Chinook Nation and Euro-American sailors will be brought to life on a Lady Washington longboat and a Chinook canoe. Other upcoming events at the park include “Hiking Through History” (10 a.m., Nov. 15) featuring three re-enactors portraying members of the expedition; and a campsite re-enactment/campfire at Waikiki Beach (7 p.m., Nov. 18).
Maya Lin art dedication
Nov. 18, 10 a.m., Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco
Architect Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., will place installations from her new Confluence Project at key points of the Columbia River Basin. This will be the first one to be completed and dedicated. For information about the sites in Oregon and Washington, contact the Confluence Project at 360-693-0123 or visit its Web site at www.confluenceproject.org.
Compiled by Matt Misterek, The News Tribune | <urn:uuid:c2b115d3-c1fa-45c7-b4b6-e088317f7aba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenewstribune.com/2005/11/08/366775/celebration-at-trails-end.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942184 | 2,376 | 2.125 | 2 |
This course will focus on analyzing the television program Firefly and its relation to universal themes and ideas. The show was not meant to be a sci-fi epic, but rather to investigate the lives of nine individuals and their experiences living in a world vastly different from our own, yet similar in many ways. Firefly makes an excellent subject for analysis because of its unique fusion of ideas pertinent to modern society. The science fiction setting and the criminal status of the protagonists allow for an unadulterated portrayal of the ideas that Joss Whedon felt important enough to include. The course will focus on finding these themes within the series and relating them to modern society, as well as attempting to form and communicate opinions concerning the issues raised.
Much of television today is not meant to encourage discussion, but Firefly includes many concepts deliberately meant to provoke further thought. This course will be designed to teach students to analyze other fictional stories (of any format) using techniques developed in our intellectual examination of Firefly. One of the triumphs of the decal system its ability to bring students together to analyze media they normally would not consider academic and to realize the deeper purpose and artistic depth behind familiar concepts. We charge ourselves with taking the beloved series Firefly and opening it up for discussion and investigation in the hope of discovering more about the creative intent and storytelling conceptualization behind the series.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ME?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MY LIFE?
SHIT’S GOING DOWN.
I WILL CRY IN CLASS, MOTHERFUCKERS.
I DO NOT GIVE A FUCK.
THEY ARE GENUINE, MANLY TEARS.
BOTH OF JOY THAT THIS CLASS EXISTS & ALSO THAT OF SADNESS BECAUSE I MUST GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS AGAIN WHEN I REMIND MYSELF THERE WAS ONLY ONE SEASON AND A MOVIE.
MOTHER FUCKING MAN TEARS.
MOTHER FUCKING MAN CAPS. | <urn:uuid:841a5a5b-897c-4a3e-93fe-f9cad316e56e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tgieph.com/archive/2012/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921051 | 406 | 2.125 | 2 |
Thanks to George Dvorsky for inviting me to blog this week on Sentient Developments.
The title of this post refers to a classic 1983 paper of Sagan and Newman criticizing Tipler's skepticism toward SETI studies based on Fermi's Paradox (FP) and strengthened by the idea of colonization via von Neumann probes. Here, however, I would like to talk about solipsist solutions to FP in a different – and closer to the usual – meaning.
Solipsist solutions reject the premise of FP, namely that there are no extraterrestrial civilizations either on Earth or detectable through our observations in the Solar System and the Milky Way thus far. On the contrary, they usually suggest that extraterrestrials are or have been present in our vicinity, but that the reasons for their apparent absence lie more with our observations and their limitations than with the real state-of-affairs.
Of course, this has been for so long the province of lunatic fringe of science (either in older forms of occultism or more modern guise of ufology) but to neglect some of these ideas for that reason is giving the quacks too much power. Instead, we need to consider all the alternatives, and these clearly form well-defined, albeit often provably wrong or undeveloped ideas. Some of the solipsist hypotheses discussed at least half-seriously in the literature are the following (listed in rough order from less to more serious ones):
- Those who believe UFOs are of extraterrestrial intelligent origin quite clearly do not have any problem with FP (e.g. J. Allen Hynek; for a succinct historical review see Chapter 6 of Dick's magnificent “Biological Universe”). The weight of evidence obviously tells otherwise.
- The Ancient astronauts speculations of Agrest, von Daniken and others belong to this class as well.
- The zoo hypothesis of Ball and the related interdict hypothesis of Fogg suggest that there is a uniform cultural policy for advanced extraterrestrial civilizations to avoid any form of contact (including having visible manifestations) with the newcomers to the Galactic Club. The reasons behind such behavior may be those of ethics, prudence or practicality. In each case, these do not really offer testable predictions (if the extraterrestrial civilizations are sufficiently powerful, as suggested by the difference in ages of the Earth and the median of the set of earthlike planets) for which they have been criticized by Sagan, Webb and others. As a consequence, a 'leaky' interdict scenario is occasionally invoked to connect with the alleged extraterrestrial origin of UFOs, which is clearly problematic.
- The directed panspermia hypothesis of Crick and Orgel, proposed in 1973, supposes that the Earth has indeed been visited in a distant past with very obvious consequence – namely the existence of life on our planet! Those two famous biochemists proposed – partly tongue-in-cheek, but partly to point out the real problems with the then theories of biogenesis – that our planet has been intentionally seeded with microorganisms originating elsewhere. In other words, we are aliens ourselves! It is very hard to see how could ever hope to test the hypothesis of directed panspermia.
- The planetarium hypothesis of Stephen Baxter suggests that our astronomical observations do not represent reality, but a form of illusion, created by an advanced technological civilization capable of manipulating matter and energy on interstellar or Galactic scales.
- The simulation hypothesis of Nick Bostrom, although motivated by entirely different reasons and formulated in a way which seemingly has nothing to do with FP, offers a framework in which FP can be naturally explained. Bostrom offers a Bayesian argument why we might rationally think we live in a computer simulation of an advanced technological civilization inhabiting the "real" universe. This kind of argument has a long philosophical tradition, going back at least to Descartes' celebrated second Meditation, discussing the level of confidence we should have about our empirical knowledge. Novel points in Bostrom's presentation include the invocation of Moore's Law for suggesting that we might be technologically closer to the required level of computing sophistication than we usually think, as well as adding a Bayesian conditioning on the number (or sufficiently generalized "cost") of such "ancestor-simulations", as he dubs them. It is trivial to see how FP is answered under this hypothesis: extraterrestrial civilizations are likely to be simply beyond the scope of the simulation in the same manner as, for example, the present-day simulation of the internal structure of the Sun neglects the existence of other stars in the universe.
In other words, they violate a sort of naive realism which underlies practically the entire scientific endeavor. Their proponents are likely to retort that the issue is sufficiently distinct from other scientific problems to justify greater divergence of epistemological attitudes – but this is rather hard to justify when one could still pay a smaller price. For instance, one could choose to abandon Copernicanism, like the Rare Earth theorists (although it might be particularly unpopular this year!) or – as I personally prefer – one might abandon gradualism (which has been thoroughly discredited in geo- and planetary sciences anyway) and end up with a sort of neocatastrophic hypothesis, like the phase-transition scenario.
Some of them, but not all, solipsist solutions violate the classical non-exclusivity (or “hardness”) requirement as well; in other words, they require an uncanny degree of cultural uniformity among the advanced technological civilizations. This is, for instance, obvious in zoo, interdict or planetarium scenarios, since they presume a large-scale cultural uniformity to maintain the isolation of either just us or any other Galactic newcomers, which is sufficiently improbable a priori.
This is not the case, however, with the simulation hypothesis, since the simulated reality is likely to be clearly designed and spatially and temporally limited. The directed panspermia has some additional problems – notably the absence of any further manifestations of our 'parent civilization', in spite of its immense age. If they became extinct in the meantime, what happened with other seeded planets (not to mention long-term astroengineering artifacts)? The Copernican reasoning suggests that we should expect evolution to occur faster at some places than on Earth (and, of course, slower at other sites as well); where are our interstellar siblings, then?
Usually, these hypotheses are mentioned (if at all) mostly for the sake of logical completeness, since they are in any case the council of despair. If and when all other avenues of research are exhausted, the conventional wisdom says, we could always turn toward these hypotheses. And, strangely enough, the conventional wisdom does seem on target here. Still, this neither means that they are all of equal value nor it should mislead us into thinking that they are necessarily improbable for the reason of desperation alone.
Bostrom's simulation hypothesis might, indeed, be quite probable, given some additional assumptions related to the increase in our computing power and decrease of information-processing cost. Directed panspermia could, in principle, get a strong boost if, for instance, the efforts of NASA and other human agencies aimed at preventing planetary contamination turn out to be unsuccessful. Finally, solipsist hypotheses need not worry about evolutionary contingency or generic probabilities of biogenesis or noogenesis, unlike practically all other proposed FP solutions.
Milan M. Cirkovic | <urn:uuid:4c0f1e4a-ba4e-4cc1-b108-2b87c024398c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2009/05/assessing-solipsist-solutions-to-fermi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944518 | 1,518 | 2.265625 | 2 |
A 17-year-old CSU student whose legs were severed Monday after she tried to jump on a train is awake, joking with siblings and eating at Denver Health, according to police.
Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Friday that he spoke with Anna "Rush" Beninati's father, who said he hopes to return to Utah soon with his daughter so she can begin her rehabilitation closer to home.
Her family released a statement Friday afternoon:
Beninati's family released the following statement Friday:
"Anna is awake and understands the extent of her injuries. She is surrounded by family and friends at her bedside who are offering comfort and support.
"Anna is a vibrant young woman who combines her passion for music with a passion for helping autistic children, having mentored these special children while in high school.
"Anna found the best of both words at CSU, where she has chosen to major in music therapy and eventually work with children with autism spectrum disorders. We appreciate the heartwarming of support shown to Anna by the community and her new friends in Fort Collins.
"We are also grateful for the care she is receiving at Denver Health Medical Center.
"Anna's close friends know her by Rush, a nickname she earned from a school teacher not by rushing through assignments, but for her eagerness to see what is next. Anna is an adventurer by heart, and we believe this experience will make her stronger on her next adventure."
Beninati moved to Colorado from Sandy, Utah, earlier this year to study at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. She and three friends had visited Denver and received a ride on Monday to Longmont, where they planned to jump a Burlington Northern train back to Fort Collins, according to police.
One of Beninati's friends jumped onto the train near Third Avenue and Atwood Street. A second fell and suffered minor abrasions.
When Beninati fell from the train and onto the tracks, her legs were severed, one above the knee, the other below. One of her friends, 25-year-old Charlie Hamilton of Gillette, Wyo., pulled her away from the tracks and started first aid to try to stop the bleeding, Satur said.
Get more Longmont news at TimesCall.com. | <urn:uuid:606f2a6f-424b-4bf6-a573-33bf8383732a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18861262?source=pkg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977372 | 466 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Is Liquid Smoke Safe? Is Liquid Smoke Healthy? Is Liquid Smoke Carcinogenic?
Erin Chamerlik, MS, MT(ASCP)
I found a recipe I wanted to use but noticed that it contained bottled liquid smoke. It is hard to get that smokey flavor when we don't BBQ food. Is liquid smoke safe to use?
Many products contain MSG, but not all do. Let's assume you are using a product without MSG or other ingredients that may contain free glutamates and labeled as "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor".
How is liquid smoke made (when it is not made with chemicals)?
Have you ever seen meat smoked in the old-fashioned way, in a smoke house? If so, you saw drops of dark brown liquid forming on the meat. That was smoke that had condensed into liquid form. Colgin Natural Liquid Smoke is produced by burning fresh cut hickory, mesquite, apple, and pecan wood chips at extremely high temperatures and moisture levels."
What Does the Science Tell Us?
Researchers from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Michigan State University, 1993 published a study, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked food products and commercial liquid smoke flavourings.
- 18 commercial liquid smoke products and seasonings were analyzed for the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic PAHs.
- The study concluded: "In liquid smoke flavorings and seasonings, total PAH concentrations ranged from 6.3 to 43.7 micrograms/kg, with the carcinogenic PAHs ranging from 0.3 to 10.2 micrograms/kg."
Published in the journal, Food Additives & Contaminants. 1993 Sep-Oct;10(5):503-21.
Concentrations of PAHs in smoked foods has been found to be higher in home "wild" smoked products and smoked farm products. (Safety Analysis of Foods of Animal Origin)
This information is widely discussed in Europe:
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says one of the flavorings used to give smoke flavour to meat, cheese or fish, may be toxic to humans.
The authority looked at 11 smoke flavourings commonly used in the European Union.
It says several of the flavourings are dangerously close to levels which may cause harm to humans.
The European Commission will now establish a list of smoke-flavouring products that are safe for use in food.
The smoke flavourings are products which can be added to foods to give them a "smoked" flavour, as an alternative to traditional smoking.
EFSA says it "cannot rule out concerns" about a flavouring called Primary Product AM 01, which is obtained from beech wood.
The wood particles are burnt under controlled conditions and the hot vapours are dissolved in a solvent.
The Panel says the use of the substance "at the intended levels is a safety concern".
Klaus-Dieter Jany, the chair of EFSA's expert panel on flavourings (CEF Panel) said: "The Panel based its conclusions on the limited data which are currently available as well as conservative - or cautious - intake estimates.
"The Panel expressed safety concerns for several smoke flavourings where intake levels could be relatively close to the levels which may cause negative health effects.
"However, this does not necessarily mean that people consuming these products will be at risk as, in order to be on the safe side, the consumption estimates deliberately over-estimate intake levels."
A spokesperson for the Food and Drink Federation which represents smoked food manufacturers said: "We shall be working with FSA and the European Commission in the coming weeks to consider how smoke flavourings may continue to be used safely, noting EFSA's previous statements in respect of smoke flavourings that their safety is relatively high compared to traditional smoking methods." - BBC News
European Food Safety concerns: http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/cef100108.htm | <urn:uuid:22d1c13d-cc4a-4d75-bebc-ab338a9b3d98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://getbetterwellness.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-liquid-smoke-safe-is-liquid-smoke.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936794 | 843 | 2.359375 | 2 |
, Dec 22, 2010
- 280 pages
One chill Easter dawn in 1917, a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France went over the top of a muddy scarp knows as Vimy Ridge. Within hours, they held in their grasp what had eluded both British and French armies in over two years of fighting: they had seized the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front.
How could an army of civilians from a nation with no military tradition secure the first enduring victory in thirty-two months of warfare with only 10,000 casualties, when the French had lost 150,000 men in their unsuccessful attempt? Pierre Berton's haunting and lucid narrative shows how, unfettered by military rules, civilians used daring and common sense to overcome obstacles that had eluded the professionals.
Drawing on unpublished personal accounts and interviews, Berton brings home what it was like for the young men, some no more than sixteen years old, who clawed their way up the sodden, shell-torn slopes in a struggle they innocently believed would make war obsolete. He tells of the soldiers who endured horrific conditions to secure this great victory, painting a vivid picture of trench warfare. In his account of this great battle, Pierre Berton brilliantly illuminated the moment of tragedy and greatness that marked Canada's emergence as a nation.
From the Trade Paperback edition. | <urn:uuid:acf619d5-448d-4d8f-b60d-72e7f89738bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://books.google.ca/books?id=vY9zX98Dr2gC&dq=related:ISBN1550021753&source=gbs_similarbooks_r&cad=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964004 | 287 | 2.859375 | 3 |
(CNN) -- Ronnie Oldham could sell encyclopedias. He was named National Rookie of the Month in 1988 for his ability to push the Encyclopedia Britannica.
He was so good, he once sold a set to a blind man.
Oldham learned the importance of brand identity, market leadership and customer appreciation as a traveling salesman for the famed company. He also knew how to close a deal.
"You had to produce, or you were gone."
It's been about 20 years since he last sold one of the iconic sets. The information age had dawned in the 1990s, and Oldham "saw the handwriting on the wall." He bolted.
Yet like millions of others this week, he found himself thinking about the past when news spread that, after 244 years, the printed version of the Encyclopedia Britannica was coming to an end. It will remain online.
"It's kind of sad," he says. "There's such a long history there."
On Twitter, thousands chimed in at #Britannica:
• @ZeidNasser: After 244 years, Encyclopaedia #Britannica to stop publishing print edition. Will now focus on digital expansion!
• @Rafe: Am considering the $1,395 Britannica "Final edition" in case this whole electronic/online thing doesn't work out.
• @standupkid: They were still printing the Encyclopaedia Britannica???
It's that last sentiment that's so painstakingly true. Even those who lamented the loss -- Is nothing sacred in this world anymore?! -- scratched their heads, pondered the thought and then realized it had been years, maybe decades, since they'd opened the leather-bound books with gold-embossed lettering.
At water coolers across the country, librarians whispered, as they tend to do: Did you hear the news?
The Britannica mourners weren't a bunch of old fogeys stuck in their ways, living in denial about the digital revolution. These are intellectuals who log on to Facebook every day, check in on foursquare and tweet.
They grew up with the Encyclopedia Britannica, wrote history reports from them. Even in families more prone to quote Archie Bunker than Britannica, the massive 128-pound sets made Americans feel smarter. The giant books intimidated from their lofty perch on shelves.
Nancye Browning put it this way: The encyclopedia, printed every two years, "doesn't keep up" in today's era. She's a realist. She has to be as the assistant director of the public library in Louisville, Kentucky.
Yet, she mourns, "it's like losing a friend."
Cover-to-cover Britannica reader: Let me weep
The distress in author A.J. Jacobs' voice speaks of pain. Arguably, no one took this week's news harder than he.
Jacobs spent almost a year and a half reading an entire set -- all 44 million-plus words -- for his memoir, "The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World."
He joined George Bernard Shaw, heart surgeon Michael DeBakey and author C.S. Forester, to a name a few, in the vaunted group of cover-to-cover Encyclopedia Britannica readers.
One man told Jacobs that he used the books not just for knowledge, but as weights for rehabbing a hurt wrist.
"You can't do that with Wikipedia," Jacobs says.
Renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton, he adds, "took a set on his famed voyage. He ended up burning it for kindling."
"It has its uses."
His voice picks up a notch when describing the thrill of reading the entire set. The "Q" volume was delightful because "it went by so fast."
"But the letter 's,' that was a monster because it was hundreds of pages. I compare it to the Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon."
He has two favorite entries: A-ak, an ancient Korean music and the first entry in his Britannica set; and Zywiec, a Polish town where residents enjoy brewing beer and the last entry in his set.
"I'm not a Luddite. I use the Internet. I use Wikipedia all the time. But it's a sad day," he says.
"It's one of maybe 5,000 watershed moments in the death of print. Print is dying a slow but steady death. This is just one of the many examples.
"Things have to move on, but we can mourn the loss of what is being lost as well."
For the record, he has no plans to read all of Wikipedia. "The entries are being created faster than you can read them."
Weighted down by reality
Door-to-door salesmen were once synonymous with Britannica.
Oldham rattles off tricks of the trade. When you sat down with customers, you always started with the $10,000 limited edition. "We can't afford that," they'd say.
He chuckles. "By the time you got down to $1,500, they'd say it seemed pretty attractive."
He was active duty Air Force during his days on the Britannica beat. They worked solely off commission, taking in roughly 20% of every sale.
At his peak, he brought in about $50,000 to $60,000 a year, "a pretty good chunk of change for 1990."
He saw Tony Bennett sing at a company party. They always celebrated with class. For his sales efforts, he was rewarded with a reproduction of Britannica's original three-volume set from the late 1700s.
Oldham loved his time with the company. Without the books, he wouldn't have read about Benjamin Banneker, an esteemed African-American credited as the "Man Who Saved Washington" for drawing up the architectural plans for the nation's capital.
As legend has it, the original architect, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, angrily left the United States for France with all of his renderings. Banneker had seen the plans and used his photographic memory to draw what became modern-day Washington, D.C.
"What we have today is all thanks to him, and almost nobody knows who he was," Oldham says.
"I've placed a lot of books that I'm sure have been sitting on shelves and never read. But I know, especially back then, a lot of kids learned from them.
"But times have changed. The truth is I've got a limited-edition leather-bound set in my living room, but I use Wikipedia."
Britannica fan Gina Vaughn tells a similar tale. She purchased a set in 2000 for about $1,100. The plan was to keep her house Internet-free and teach her young children with traditional books.
"They started doing things on the Internet for school. I think they cracked those books, maybe, two or three times. They've been sitting on the shelf for 12 years."
She recently moved from her house into a rental home -- and the 128-pound set got too cumbersome.
"We just can't keep throwing them over our back and hauling them from rental to rental with us. They're too heavy, especially the Britannica. Those things weigh a ton."
So she sold the entire volume this week on Craigslist for 250 bucks. Nostalgia is nice and all, but it doesn't pay the bills. | <urn:uuid:db6efcba-204c-4f31-a9b8-49cde76e342f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/15/us/encyclopedia-britannica-icon-nostalgia/index.html?iref=allsearch | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972056 | 1,569 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Don't forget to visit the web pages of college and university libraries. Many of these libraries have digitalized many of their collections, and you can download source materials without leaving your home. Many belong to the WorldCat system described in my earlier posting today, or they will otherwise interlibrary loan materials.
Irish family history researchers should explore the holdings and collections of some of the universities with an Irish connection or tradition. For example, Villanova University houses the McGarrity collection, which is a treasure trove for those of us whose genealogical research includes Ireland's 20th century struggle for independence (and also for Co. Tyrone researchers). I know Irish genealogy researchers who have found valuable materials at Seton Hall's library.
Don't forget, too, the vast online digital collection of Google Books. Not only can you read a book online as a pdf file, but you can search it using the find function. Under "links" below, I am linking to an example I found through Google Books of an invaluable Co. Kilkenny source, a Report on the Manuscripts of the Marquis de Ormonde.
Report on the Manuscripts of the Marquis de Ormonde
Villanova University Library
Seton Hall Library
Google Book Search | <urn:uuid:7515ec79-4e52-4886-9592-8e97c8d8cdb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://irishfamilyresearch.blogspot.com/2010/02/postcript-to-library-article-university.html?m=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905359 | 258 | 2.4375 | 2 |
Musings in the life of an internist, cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Sexism in Government Heart Health Programs
I saw this ad campaign sprinkled around O'hare airport last evening:
Click image to enlarge
Ask yourself: are the symptoms depicted in this ad any different for men? Why aren't men targetted similarly? Since men are affected by heart disease more frequently than women, why are men being neglected? Are men's tax dollars paying for these ads? Do men also have a separate division similar to WomensHealth.gov called to MenHealth.gov? (No, it seems men's health issues have been relegated to a subdirectory of WomensHealth.gov)
While understand the importance of increasing awareness of heart disease in women, let's not forget the issue of heart disease is just as important (if not more so) for men. | <urn:uuid:929e5f0f-c936-4f13-ba6e-74608e52cd77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drwes.blogspot.com/2012/03/sexism-in-government-heart-health.html?showComment=1330993369914 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962111 | 188 | 1.671875 | 2 |
|Friday, Aug 24, 2012 - 1:00 PM
"Stargazing on the Night Train/Get Into Nature!"
The Pteranodon family rides a special 'Night Train" to another part of the Cretaceous Time Period, where they meet a Troodontid "cousin" of the Conductor's, Sidney Sinovenator, who knows more about the stars than anyone. Sidney takes the family up to his favorite stargazing spot, "Starry Hill," and teaches the kids why the stars seem to move across the night sky. When the kids build their own version of a nest on the beach, below their actual family nest up on the cliff, they get the idea to turn their beach nest into a clubhouse. D | <urn:uuid:b8f87466-c5d7-43fb-aeda-cf9eff0fae53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://idahoptv.org/schedules/listingDetails.cfm?TZ=MT&thisChannel=PLUS&VersionID=232171&ThisDate=8-24-2012&thisTime=13:00:00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923336 | 156 | 1.78125 | 2 |
There are many strange terms that get bandied about in the wine world. Here are several that it is time to send the way of things.
I frequently read about such-and-such a winery being a producer of ‘super premium’ or ‘ultra premium’ wine. The description is usually on a winery website or a back label. Super premium. Are we talking about wine or are we talking about gasoline grades?
When I first became interested in wine I used to wonder what in the world these terms meant. Were they supposed to convey some meaning that I was expected to understand? ‘We are a boutique producer of super premium wine.’ Super sounds good. Ultra sounds better I guess. Was there a higher category? I always wanted to read, ‘We are a producer of über ultra super premium wine.’ I wanted a winery to take it to the limit!
Let’s be clear. To consumers, these terms mean absolutely nothing. However, for wineries and marketing type folks, these terms are used both to describe wine quality - nebulously defined - and a particular market segment – usually rigidly defined.
From a quality perspective what a winery is trying to say is, “We make really high quality wine.” But here’s the thing. You never see a winery that says, “We make okay wine at high volumes at good prices.” Even if this is the case, few want to say so.
From a market segmentation perspective, these terms have definitions that typically describe wines that are, interestingly, at the low end of the price spectrum. Why? Because this is where most of the action is in terms of volume sales. You might not think about the difference between, say, an $8 bottle of wine and a $10 bottle of wine, but other people do and these are, in fact, different segments.
Here’s the way Nielsen looks at the definitions of the ‘super premium,’ ‘ultra premium,’ and other categories for wine:
Let me get this straight. Washington wineries that are boasting about producing ‘ultra premium’ wines are talking about wines in the $10 to $15 range? I don’t think so. I assume they are talking about the wine from a quality perspective?
While I have seen a few wineries say, ‘We are a producer of premium wine,’ I have not seen any that say, ‘We are a producer of popular wine.’ I have also yet to see a winery say, ‘We are a producer of luxury wine,’ even if they are making wines in the $15+ price range. Why? Because the term luxury has a certain connotation that might make some consumers uncomfortable. Expensive wine is a luxury but to say it is a dangerous thing. So ‘ultra premium’ is about as high as it goes, which is of course where most Washington wineries sit making it useless from a differentiation perspective.
For people interested in market segments, I understand that these categories have meaning. Somehow though these terms have crept out into the consumer world where they seem bizarre, adding to the opaqueness of talking about wine. It's time to take super premium and ultra premium off winery websites and the backs of bottles and put them in the trash bin. Let's talk about wine in a way consumers can understand. | <urn:uuid:d837b243-5714-4760-8b7c-c0e1f3e79aa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wawinereport.com/2011/04/super-premium-ultra-premium-extra.html?showComment=1302210990518&m=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967233 | 722 | 1.679688 | 2 |
- Hardware as the new software "Supply chain provider companies are making the cost of manufacturing [hardware] and risk really, really small.." There is much new hardware being developed, much of it open source. I expect that this will produce many appcessories. Appcessories are peripherals attached physically or through wifi to tablets to capture data (sensors) or to create new experiences. Very big opportunity.
- Gene Printing "Bio-fabricating genes using something called a 'CMOS' chip, which basically allows him to print genes using machines instead of people". Biology is not my field but the idea of using CMOS chips is logical. CMOS chips are the special purpose chips that you find in your car for example.
- Life Long Learning"It has always been my [Ito] opinion that 'education' is something people do to you, whereas 'learning' is something you do for yourself." My thoughts on life long learning are here. Lifelong learning is perhaps the most important lesson to learn from schooling.
- Survival of the Quickest "You want to have your peripherals wide open and adapt as quickly as you can. I think that will be an important survival trait of people and companies in the future." The abundance and speed of information has been a recurring theme here at SF.The implications for the management of organizations is an under appreciated point. A post I like on that theme is here.
If I do a post for the future of 2013 I may write about this relationship:
Actually ties together 3 out of 4 of Ito's themes. | <urn:uuid:69078ee0-d4d9-46cc-83ab-0f41b3f4b69f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com/sophisticated_finance/2012/12/joi-itos-trends-in-2013.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954719 | 326 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Oyster hatcheries along the Washington and Oregon coastlines began experiencing calamitous die-offs beginning in 2006. Scientists suspected they were because of increased carbon dioxide levels in the air that were causing ocean acidification. That theory has now proved out, according to a study just published by the journal Limnology and Oceanography.
Researchers studied oysters at Oregon’s Whiskey Creek Hatchery in 2009 after the hatchery reported that oyster production had declined by as much as 80 percent in recent years. The scientists paid close attention to the seawater that had bathed the oysters. Oceans absorb a significant portion of carbon dioxide in the air and when they do so a chemical process takes place called acidification. Laboratory studies have already shown that elevated carbon dioxide changes the pH and reduces the availability of calcium carbonate in the seawater. And calcium carbonate minerals are the material that sea creatures like oysters and corals use for building shells and skeletons.
The study breaks new ground, according to its authors, because this is the first time these theories on the impact of ocean acidification that were tested in laboratories were verified on an actual commercial shellfish farm with ambient ocean waters. The findings linked the production failures of the farms to the carbon dioxide levels in the seawater in which the larval oysters were spawned and spent the first 24 hours of their lives. That is the time when oysters start to develop their first shells.
“I think that the clear take-home message from this research is that for the oceans, the Pacific Oyster larvae are the ‘canaries in the coal mines’ for ocean acidification. When the CO2 levels in the ocean are too high, they die; when we lower the CO2 levels, they live,” Richard A. Feely, a co-author of the study and senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a statement released by the Center for Biological Diversity.
The center is deeply invested in the findings because in 2009, it filed a lawsuit demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency address ocean acidification in the waters off Washington State under the Clean Water Act. In a settlement, the E.P.A. agreed that states had a duty to look at the impact of ocean acidification. But the implication for sea life is national and global in scale.
“Oyster die-offs are an unmistakable warning that our oceans are in trouble and we’ve got to cut the carbon pollution if we want to have oysters, corals and whales,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for the center, which last week petitioned the White House and E.P.A. to develop a national plan to address ocean acidification. | <urn:uuid:43a76a74-9fee-4528-a4f3-79d8b052ba47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/study-links-raised-carbon-dioxide-levels-to-oyster-die-offs/?src=recg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953314 | 566 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Al Kluis: Long-Term Lows Are Due This Fall
Watch for a harvest low.
“Do your chart patterns work when you have earthquakes, tsunami, and a nuclear meltdown?” was the first question from a nervous farmer before the meeting even started. The meeting was on the day last March when corn and soybean prices had dropped the limit down. Her second question and comment were, “Why is this so hard? The volatility has made it impossible for me to sleep some nights. I feel like I don’t have any control even though I watch the markets all the time.”
Answer To Question #1
The chart patterns I work with do not work all of the time, but they do work the majority of the time.
When you have a dramatic fundamental event (like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan this winter), grain prices can move sharply higher or lower for a few days before other global fundamentals again take control of the price action.
Day to day, no one can forecast fundamental changes, so no one can predict the short-term gyrations in the market. I believe if you are farming and marketing your grain, you should not be so close to the market that you are watching every tick.
I use all kinds of market cycles and studies of patterns to fine-tune the recommendations that I make. The study of time cycles has helped me make better decisions. The longer-term patterns have been very reliable and useful in making decisions.
The long-term patterns will help me avoid having to sell in the months when prices are low. The short-term patterns are not as reliable, but they can help me get the crop sold on the right days and avoid the lows when prices collapse.
The corn and soybean markets tend to move up and down together. But the timing of when prices put in major long-term highs and lows is quite different. | <urn:uuid:010c0a15-ae60-4a65-8844-7798db1ae81e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agriculture.com/farm-management/other-farm-business/al-kluis-longterm-lows-are-due-this_326-ar17377 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949886 | 392 | 1.875 | 2 |
The Groot Winterhoek Outdoor Learning Centre is Educo Africa’s permanent basecamp. The centre provides a vital bridge between the “man-made world” and the deep wilderness environment. The centre provides a practical, thriving and transformative demonstration of sustainable living.
Our monitoring and evaluation reports show that due to our environmental programme, there is a dramatic increase in awareness of environmental issues amongst course participants. They are more likely to start recycling in their communities and less likely to continue littering. The stated impact of weighing “rubbish” and the subsequent realisation that over 75% of the waste is recyclable, has translated into several recycling projects being launched by the young people in their home communities. | <urn:uuid:a2395943-7cfa-4ea5-b189-fc6ae69afd99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.educo.org.za/?page_id=50 | 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 | 0.948596 | 147 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Date: September 2, 2011
Modernizing regulation – a top priority
By Bette Jean Crews, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
We’re all affected by regulations every day. Whether it’s a farmer applying for municipal water access or a renovation permit for a local downtown store, every industry is governed, in part, by regulations. Some regulations ensure healthy waterways and safety standards, others may be outdated or create unnecessary restrictions and time delays.
That’s why regulatory modernization is a hot button for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) and why we’re influencing policies that will help, not hinder the agri-food industry. In fact, reducing regulatory red-tape is one of the key election issues OFA is addressing in the weeks leading up to the October 6 provincial election. OFA has been an integral part of the Open for Business strategy, co-chairing the initiative with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).
The Open for Business strategy has already successfully reduced regulatory burdens on the agri-food industry by 28 per cent. This new process for regulatory changes includes consulting the industry often and early, and OFA and OMAFRA will host consultations at least twice a year with representation from farming, food processing and agriculture input supply sectors.
So far, the industry consultation process has seen the modernization of outdated regulations, streamlined application processes for some regulatory permits, and provided an ongoing opportunity to discuss regulations affecting the agri-food industry that overlap across multiple provincial ministries.
Agriculture isn’t the only industry affected by regulations – many other sectors would also like to reduce red-tape. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has identified a lighter regulatory burden as an important priority for stimulating the economy and is also emphasizing regulatory reduction as a provincial election issue. The Open for Business Strategy demonstrates just how proactive our industry is in establishing a new strategy to address process. While the new process may not address single regulations, the OFA is looking at long-term change in the way our industry does business with all ministries of the provincial government to pave the way for continuous efficiency improvements for all Ontario farms.
And it’s working. Ontario’s farm outputs contributed $22 billion in gross economic stimulus to Ontario in 2009, and reducing regulatory burdens returns a significant impact on improving the productivity and economic impact of our industry. Reducing red-tape for farmers and the agri-food sector creates a more competitive environment for businesses while supporting Ontario farm families. And that’s good for business. | <urn:uuid:9cb4b35d-da04-4755-9ed6-74325c919a35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.farmingsources.com/press-releases.php?subaction=showfull&id=1315235931&archive=&start_from=&ucat= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922972 | 529 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Constituents of Russian petroleum to the extent of almost 80 per cent. They are hydrocarbons of the general formula C,.II2
, is a yellowish liquid of sp gr. i,i986 and boilingpoint about 2ii degrees C., prepared from benzene by the action of a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acids, and can also be produced by the action of strong nitric acid on turpentine. It has an intense odoui of oil of bitter almonds, is soluble in alcohol and ether, and is much used in perfumery and as a flavouring principle, also in the dye industry. There are several dinitrobenzenes and trinitrobenzenes 3 respectively.
The use of symbols and formulae to denote the constitution of chemical substances.
A reddishyellow essential oil distilled from orange flowers, of which there are several varieties. Sp. gr. about C87 to o88, soluble in alcohol, ether, etc. Its constituents include linalyl acetate, linalool, geraniol, and limonene.
An oily, colourless, alkaloidal liquid of sp. gr. 1009, constituting the acrid basic principle of tobacco, in which it is found present in amount varying from 2 to 8 per cent. Nicotine is not present in the seed of the plants but appears in the young plant immediately the chlorophyll begins to function, and originates in the leaf. It is soluble in water, alcohol, and ether. Preparations of it are extensively used for horticultural purposes as an insecticide, also as a dip for the destruction of ticks and other pests on the wool of sheep.
2HCl A complicated organic substance used as a local anaesthetic in place of cocaine, being less toxic.
or SWEET SPIRIT OF NITREA drug, used as a diuretic and stimulant, prepared by the action of nitric acid upon alcohol. It is a yellowish, aromatic, volatile, and inflammable liquid of sp. gr ogoo, boiling at C., soluble in alcohol and ether,
Atomic weight, 2224. A rare inert element of recent discovery, being a radium emanation soluble >n water, prepared by heating a radium compound or by dissolving it in water and pumping off the gases slowly generated from it, and from which it is obtained by first of all removing any associated oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen, thus leaving the niton from which in turn the generated helium may be pumped off. It can be condensed to the solid state, and both it and the liquid forms are phosphorescent. It is said to spontaneously decompose into helium and other substances.
An aromatic alcohol of sp. gr. o88i isomcric witH geraniol, occurring in the finer extracts of rose and neroli.
is a white, lustrous substance, soluble in benzol, alcohol, ether, and chloroform, and slightly soluble in water, made by fusing betanaphthalone sulphonate with caustic soda and subsequent distillation. It is used in making dyestuffs and as an antiseptic. | <urn:uuid:9b3fb1b2-ceb3-4523-9155-76dc0e820ce1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebigdictionary.com/n/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944957 | 662 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Back to Basics: Melissa & Doug toys keep the fun in, leave the lead out.
Toxic Toy Story
Why, and how, to avoid lead-tainted products for kids
By Paul Wagner
WANT TO avoid giving children the holiday gifts of brain damage, hearing loss, anemia, kidney problems and a lowered intelligence level for life? Then take a good look at this list: Children's toys. Children's crafts. Children's jewelry. Children's furniture. Children's clothing. And then take another.
Why? Because tens of millions of such children's items have proven to be tainted with lead. Yes, the heavy metal, the poisonous blue-gray that the state of California has been working to get out of imported candies for more than a year. Lead is now showing up on the shelves of stores across the entire nation.
So great is the number of lead-tinged items that within weeks of the time the federal government, just this August, ordered the removal of 967,000 popular Fisher-Price toys, the toys had not even reached storage warehouses before an additional 675,000 additional items—this time, Barbie accessories—were recalled. The problem, to quote the Centers for Disease Control, was that "surface paints on the toys contain excessive levels of lead, which is prohibited under federal law."
Yet even with the drumbeat of mass recalls, neither the federal nor the state government seems to be able to keep up with the number of lead-contaminated children's products.
In fact, in recent seasons this latest byproduct of the Clinton/Bush "free" trade agreements—usually negotiated without regard to actual costs to nations' workers or the world's health—has continued to spread to millions of other products intended for children. And that's an immense human health problem, because the same properties that make lead industrially desirable also make it biologically toxic.
For one thing, it's heavy, at an atomic weight of 207.2 (compare that to oxygen, at a weight of 16), and its structure is huge, with 82 protons and electrons and 125 neutrons, making it the heaviest of the heavy metals. It's also the softest, most malleable and most able to ooze into just about anyplace. And then it stays put for up to a quarter-century.
Like a large drunken, pouting lout who comes into the house to rest "for just a moment," settles in, tosses empty chip bags and beer cans all around and squirms until the sofa breaks—and then moves to a chair to repeat the process—lead enters the body, perches wherever it wishes, and never leaves.
And some 20 percent of lead never makes it through the urinary excretion process, remaining in the body. It migrates through the blood, disturbing red and white platelet processes. It settles in bone, displacing blood, cutting bone rebuilding and weakening the bone structure.
And worst of all, lead migrates into the soft tissues, most noticeably the brain. It oozes into the large spaces usually occupied by calcium, a nerve-firing helper, and displaces it, occupying synapse-firing zones and gumming up the ability of neurons to respond.
This in turn produces hearing loss, vision loss, slowing of response time, lowering of IQ, linguistic confusion and progressively more primitive social responsiveness. Lead poisoning victims are not only slower and clumsier, but more likely to misinterpret social cues, be inappropriately aggressive, and randomly exhibit cruelty and violent behavior. And that's exactly the behavior, some historians have noted, that characterized the last generations of the Roman Empire, which had lined its cities' water-delivering viaducts with lead.
The effect on young children is even more profound, since their rapidly forming bodies will incorporate virtually anything ingested. Infants and toddlers ingesting lead commonly develop anemia as the blood degenerates, encephalitis as the brain swells and stunted growth as bone formation and replacement slow. And given that young children stick just about anything they can in their mouths to taste the qualities of the new world they're exploring, children can potentially ingest quite a bit of lead. In fact, the primary age for lead poisoning is in the range between 12 and 24 months of age.
Avoiding the Gift of Lead
Luckily, some people are taking effective action to combat the explosion of lead contamination of children's products and have some clear guidance to offer those wishing to avoid giving the gift of lead. One of them is Caroline Cox, research director for the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health.
Cox, who worked on establishing alternatives to common toxic pesticides for more than a decade before joining CEH, advises this: "The first thing to do is familiarize yourself with what toys have been recalled, so you can avoid those" (see sidebar ). She also points out that potential purchasers can look up children's' jewelry recalled for lead content in the last couple of months.
Additionally, she counsels shoppers to "look for toys that are not made of vinyl, and aren't painted." That's because lead, being soft, malleable and stable, is still used as a stabilizer in many vinyl products and many other nations' paints. While lead content in paint was reduced significantly by federal fiat in the United States in 1978, it isn't controlled nearly as tightly elsewhere—and still isn't controlled in any vinyl product but mini-blinds, even in the United States. "Lead protects the vinyl as it goes through the various heating processes," Cox says, so it is often used, despite its dangers, in manufacturing.
And that continuing use of lead, Cox points out, results just as much from U.S. consumer preference as from manufacturers' irresponsibility. "Somewhere between 80 percent and 90 percent of our toys come from China, but it's important to remember that this is not solely a Chinese problem," Cox says. The problem is also American and other consumers' pressure on retailers to constantly move prices downward, which "emphasizes price over quality. It's a recipe for problems."
For testing already-purchased children's items, Cox mentions home lead test kits, available in paint and hardware stores. Like epoxy glues, these involve mixing two separate tubes of chemical liquid, pouring the mixture on the surfaces of the items to be tested, and waiting to see which color the combined liquids turn.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, however, says that they're not accurate. "None of the kits consistently detected lead in products if the lead was covered with a non-leaded coating," notes an Aug. 22, 2007, press release. In addition, "of 104 total test results, more than half (56) were false negatives, and two were false positives." In short, home lead test kits, designed to measure the many times higher level of lead in old peeling paint, don't seem to read the smaller proportion in children's products very effectively. For that reason, they're not a good tool for determining the safety of toys. So what's the best thing to do overall? Follow the recalls.
Luckily for anyone with web access, that's relatively simple to do. And it's about to get simpler, since CEH and other organizations are, as of Dec. 4, 2007, going live with a central one-stop checkpoint for getting the word on unsafe toys. Here is a list of places that will take shoppers right to well-presented, easy-to-read information and recalls and lead toxicity prevention:
Toy safety: Central checkpoint, to be active as of Dec. 4: www.healthytoys.org.
Children's items lead-related recalls: Federal Centers for Disease Control offers lists, with product photos, of lead-related recalled children's products. Open page, type "lead recalls" in right-hand search box, first item links to all lists: www.cdc.org.
Overall product recalls: Central checkpoint, courtesy of the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, for all federal recalls, from air conditioners to children's wagons: www.cpsc.org.
Overall lead poisoning prevention: From the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a wider view of lead's most common environmental sources and how to increase effective safety measures in the home: www.epu.gov/lead. Here's to a safe holiday for all.
Local & Safe Toys
Perhaps the strangest news so far this shopping season is that many parents are ignoring the rash of toy recalls in their post-Thanksgiving consumer frenzy. For shoppers looking to keep their purchases kid-safe, the answer is often to shop local. Here are a few South Bay toy stores putting safety first:
Hicklebees Childrens Books & Toys
1378 Lincoln Ave., San Jose 408.292.8880
Offers games, books, board games by EEBOO, baby toys made of easily cleaned fabrics by Lamaze, Ravensburger toys, sets of audio books, action figures of knights on horses and dragons by PAPPO, and a number of plush toys.
The Wooden Horse
796 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos 408.356.8821
Offers wood toys painted with nontoxic natural vegetable oil, plastic toys and organic plush toys.
925 Blossom Hill Road #1230, San Jose; 408.578.5978
Offers plastic toys and acrylic paint. Products containing lead have visible warnings stating that they are not for kids.
15795 Los Gatos Blvd., Los Gatos 408.356.3101
Offers Silly Putty, play dough, wooden toys and plastic toys.
The Train Shop
1829 Pruneridge Ave., Santa Clara 408.296.1050
Offers all lead-free trains.
Send a letter to the editor about this story. | <urn:uuid:27e01d21-8bbd-4707-90e4-fcc86aa47195> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metcruz.com/metro/11.28.07/features-toxictoys-0748.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956563 | 2,030 | 2.484375 | 2 |
Aug. 28, 2009 Subtle connections between the 11-year solar cycle, the stratosphere, and the tropical Pacific Ocean work in sync to generate periodic weather patterns that affect much of the globe, according to research appearing this week in the journal Science. The study can help scientists get an edge on eventually predicting the intensity of certain climate phenomena, such as the Indian monsoon and tropical Pacific rainfall, years in advance.
An international team of scientists led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) used more than a century of weather observations and three powerful computer models to tackle one of the more difficult questions in meteorology: if the total energy that reaches Earth from the Sun varies by only 0.1 percent across the approximately 11-year solar cycle, how can such a small variation drive major changes in weather patterns on Earth?
The answer, according to the new study, has to do with the Sun's impact on two seemingly unrelated regions. Chemicals in the stratosphere and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean respond during solar maximum in a way that amplifies the Sun's influence on some aspects of air movement. This can intensify winds and rainfall, change sea surface temperatures and cloud cover over certain tropical and subtropical regions, and ultimately influence global weather.
"The Sun, the stratosphere, and the oceans are connected in ways that can influence events such as winter rainfall in North America," says NCAR scientist Gerald Meehl, the lead author. "Understanding the role of the solar cycle can provide added insight as scientists work toward predicting regional weather patterns for the next couple of decades."
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor, and by the Department of Energy. It builds on several recent papers by Meehl and colleagues exploring the link between the peaks in the solar cycle and events on Earth that resemble some aspects of La Nina events, but are distinct from them. The larger amplitude La Nina and El Nino patterns are associated with changes in surface pressure that together are known as the Southern Oscillation.
The connection between peaks in solar energy and cooler water in the equatorial Pacific was first discovered by Harry Van Loon of NCAR and Colorado Research Associates, who is a co-author of the new paper.
Top down and bottom up
The new contribution by Meehl and his colleagues establishes how two mechanisms that physically connect changes in solar output to fluctuations in the Earth's climate can work together to amplify the response in the tropical Pacific.
The team first confirmed a theory that the slight increase in solar energy during the peak production of sunspots is absorbed by stratospheric ozone. The energy warms the air in the stratosphere over the tropics, where sunlight is most intense, while also stimulating the production of additional ozone there that absorbs even more solar energy. Since the stratosphere warms unevenly, with the most pronounced warming occurring at lower latitudes, stratospheric winds are altered and, through a chain of interconnected processes, end up strengthening tropical precipitation.
At the same time, the increased sunlight at solar maximum causes a slight warming of ocean surface waters across the subtropical Pacific, where Sun-blocking clouds are normally scarce. That small amount of extra heat leads to more evaporation, producing additional water vapor. In turn, the moisture is carried by trade winds to the normally rainy areas of the western tropical Pacific, fueling heavier rains and reinforcing the effects of the stratospheric mechanism.
The top-down influence of the stratosphere and the bottom-up influence of the ocean work together to intensify this loop and strengthen the trade winds. As more sunshine hits drier areas, these changes reinforce each other, leading to less clouds in the subtropics, allowing even more sunlight to reach the surface, and producing a positive feedback loop that further magnifies the climate response.
These stratospheric and ocean responses during solar maximum keep the equatorial eastern Pacific even cooler and drier than usual, producing conditions similar to a La Nina event. However, the cooling of about 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit is focused farther east than in a typical La Nina, is only about half as strong, and is associated with different wind patterns in the stratosphere.
Earth's response to the solar cycle continues for a year or two following peak sunspot activity. The La Nina-like pattern triggered by the solar maximum tends to evolve into a pattern similar to El Nino as slow-moving currents replace the cool water over the eastern tropical Pacific with warmer water. The ocean response is only about half as strong as with El Nino and the lagged warmth is not as consistent as the La Nina-like pattern that occurs during peaks in the solar cycle.
Enhancing ocean cooling
Solar maximum could potentially enhance a true La Nina event or dampen a true El Nino event. The La Nina of 1988-89 occurred near the peak of solar maximum. That La Nina became unusually strong and was associated with significant changes in weather patterns, such as an unusually mild and dry winter in the southwestern United States.
The Indian monsoon, Pacific sea surface temperatures and precipitation, and other regional climate patterns are largely driven by rising and sinking air in Earth's tropics and subtropics. Therefore the new study could help scientists use solar-cycle predictions to estimate how that circulation, and the regional climate patterns related to it, might vary over the next decade or two.
Three views, one answer
To tease out the elusive mechanisms that connect the Sun and Earth, the study team needed three computer models that provided overlapping views of the climate system.
One model, which analyzed the interactions between sea surface temperatures and lower atmosphere, produced a small cooling in the equatorial Pacific during solar maximum years. The second model, which simulated the stratospheric ozone response mechanism, produced some increases in tropical precipitation but on a much smaller scale than the observed patterns.
The third model contained ocean-atmosphere interactions as well as ozone. It showed, for the first time, that the two combined to produce a response in the tropical Pacific during peak solar years that was close to actual observations.
"With the help of increased computing power and improved models, as well as observational discoveries, we are uncovering more of how the mechanisms combine to connect solar variability to our weather and climate," Meehl says.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
- Gerald Meehl, Julie Arblaster, Katja Matthes, Fabrizio Sassi, and Harry van Loon. Amplifying the Pacific Climate System Response to a Small 11-Year Solar Cycle Forcing. Science, 2009; 325 (5944): 1114 DOI: 10.1126/science.1172872
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:1e8b3693-dfea-4b29-81a4-72928ab37a8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827141349.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931184 | 1,446 | 3.59375 | 4 |
|Excel Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
2801 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA 30033 USA
When you bend your elbow, you can easily feel its "tip," a bony prominence that extends from one of the lower arm bones (the ulna). That tip is called the olecranon (oh-lek'-rah-nun). It is positioned directly under the skin of the elbow, without much protection from muscles or other soft tissues. It can easily break if you experience a direct blow to the elbow or fall on a bent elbow.
The elbow is a joint made up of three bones. It bends and straightens like a hinge. It is also important for rotation of the forearm; that is, the ability to turn our hands up (like accepting change from a cashier) or down (like typing or playing piano).
- The humerus is the upper arm bone between the shoulder and the elbow.
- The radius is one of the forearm bones between the elbow and wrist. When standing with your palm facing up, the radius is on the "thumb side" of the forearm (the lateral side, "outside").
- The ulna is the other forearm bone between the elbow and wrist, running next to the radius. When standing with your palm facing up, the ulna is on the "pinky side" of the forearm (the medial side, "inside").
The elbow consists of portions of all three bones:
- The distal humerus is the center of the elbow "hinge."
- The radial head moves around the distal humerus and also rotates when the wrist is turned up and down.
- The olecranon is the part of the ulna that "cups" the end of the humerus and rotates around the end of the humerus like a hinge. It is the bony "point" of the elbow and can easily be felt beneath the skin because it is covered by just a thin layer of tissue.
The elbow is held together by three main things:
- Ligaments. Ligaments connect one bone to another.
- Muscles and tendons. Muscles and tendons move the bones around each other.
- Shape of the bone. The way the bones fit together hold the elbow together.
When the elbow structure is altered, either by breaking a bone or by tearing ligaments, muscles, or tendons, or a combination of those problems, then the elbow will not function normally. It can become very painful and stiff, and can cause a feeling of instability ("my elbow feels like it wants to pop out.").
There are many types of elbow fractures (breaks). Olcranon fractures are common. Although they usually occur in isolation (that is, there are no other injuries), they can be a part of a more complex elbow injury.
Olecranon fractures can occur in a number of ways:
- A direct blow. This can happen in a fall (landing directly on the elbow) or by being struck by a hard object (baseball bat, dashboard of a car during a crash).
- An indirect fracture. This can happen by landing on an outstretched arm. The person lands on the wrist with the elbow locked out straight. The triceps muscle on the back of the upper arm help "pull" the olecranon off of the ulna.
- Sudden, intense pain
- Inability to straighten elbow
- Swelling over the bone site
- Bruising around the elbow
- Tenderness to the touch
- Numbness in one or more fingers
- Pain with movement of the joint
A patient with an olecranon fracture will typically go to the emergency room because the elbow will be very painful and unable to move. During the examination the doctor will:
- Examine the skin to see if there are any lacerations (cuts). Lacerations can be caused by fragments of bone and can lead to an increased risk of infection.
- Palpate (feel) all around the elbow to determine if there are any other areas of tenderness. This can indicate other broken bones or injuries, such as a dislocation of the elbow.
- Check the pulse at the wrist to be sure that good blood flow is getting past the elbow to the hand.
- Check to see if the patient can move his or her fingers and wrist, and if the patient can feel things with his or her fingers.
- The doctor may ask the patient to straighten the elbow. Sometimes, the patient will be able to do this, and sometimes the patient will not.
- The doctor may examine the patient's shoulder, upper arm, forearm, wrist, and hand as well, even if the patient only complains of pain at the elbow.
X-rays will be taken of the elbow to confirm that a fracture has occurred. X-rays can also reveal other fractures or dislocations. X-rays may also be taken of the upper arm, forearm, shoulder, wrist, and/or hand, based upon the doctor's judgment and based upon the patient's complaints. These X-rays may reveal other injuries, such as other fractures or dislocations.
While in the emergency room, the doctor will treat an olecranon fracture with ice, pain medicine, a splint (like a cast), and a sling to keep the elbow in position.
Whether or not the fracture requires surgery will be determined. Not all olecranon fractures require surgery.
Some olecranon fractures require just a splint or sling to hold the elbow in place during the healing process. The doctor will closely monitor the healing of the fracture, and have the patient return to clinic for X-rays fairly frequently.
If none of the bone fragments are "out of place" after a few weeks, the doctor will allow the patient to begin gently moving the elbow. This may require visits with a physical therapist.
The patient will not be allowed to lift anything with the injured arm for a few weeks.
A nonsurgical approach to olecranon fracture may require long periods of splinting or casting. The elbow may become very stiff and require a longer period of therapy after the cast is removed to regain motion.
If the fracture shifts in position, the patient may require surgery to put the bones back together.
Surgery to treat an olecranon fracture is usually necessary when:
- The fracture is out of place ("displaced"). Because the triceps muscles attach to the olecranon to help straighten the elbow, it is important for the pieces to be put together so you can straighten your elbow.
- The fracture is "open" (pieces of bone have cut the skin). Because the risk of infection is higher in an open fracture, the patient will receive antibiotics by vein (intravenous) in the emergency room, and may require a tetanus shot. The patient will promptly be taken to surgery so that the cuts can be thoroughly cleaned out. The bone will typically be fixed during the same surgery.
Techniques. Surgery can be done under general anesthesia (going to sleep) or under regional anesthesia (using medicines like novocaine that numb the arm), or both.
During surgery the patient may lie on his/her back, side, or stomach. If the patient lies on his/her belly, the face (lips, eyelids) may be swollen for a few hours after the operation is over. This is normal and temporary.
The surgeon will typically make an incision over the back of the elbow and then put the pieces of bone back together. There are several ways to hold the pieces of bone in place. The surgeon may choose to use:
- Screws only
- Plates and screws
- Sutures ("stitches") in the bone or tendons
A single medullary screw keeps the fractured bones together.
Plates and screws may be used to hold the broken bones in place.
If some of the bone is missing or crushed beyond repair (pieces of bone lost through a wound during an accident), the fracture may require bone filler. Bone filler can be bone supplied by the patient (typically taken from the pelvis) or bone from a bone bank (from a donor), or an artificial calcium-containing material.
The incision is typically closed with sutures or staples. Sometimes, a splint is placed on the arm, but not always.
Considerations Surgery has some risks. If surgery is recommended, the doctor feels that the possible benefits of surgery outweigh the risks.
- Infection. There is a risk of infection with any surgery, whether it is for an olecranon fracture or another purpose.
- Pain is associated with surgery. Pain is controlled in the operating room by an anesthesia team, who can either put the patient to sleep or numb the arm, or both. The doctor will discuss the method of anesthesia with the patient prior to surgery. After surgery, pain is controlled with a combination of pain medications.
- Damage to nerves and blood vessels. There is a minor risk of damage to nerves and blood vessels around the elbow. This is an unusual side effect.
Surgery does not guarantee healing of the fracture. A fracture may pull apart, or the screws, plates, or wires may shift or break. This can occur for a variety of reasons, including:
- The patient does not follow directions after surgery.
- The patient has other health issues that slow healing, like smoking or using other tobacco products, or diabetes.
- If the fracture was associated with a cut in the skin (an "open fracture"), healing is often slower.
If the fracture fails to heal, further surgery may be needed.
The eventual goal of treatment for an olecranon fracture is to regain full motion of the elbow, as it was prior to the injury.
Most patients will return to normal activities (except sports and heavy labor) within about 4 months, although full healing can take more than a year. Many patients report that, although their X-rays show full healing, they are not at 100% but are improving over time.
After surgery, the patient's elbow may be splinted or casted for a short period of time. The patient may wear a sling if it provides comfort. Pain medications may be provided. The surgeon usually removes stitches or staples 10 to 14 days after surgery.
The patient is often restricted from lifting objects with the injured arm for at least six weeks. Motion exercises for the elbow and forearm should begin shortly after surgery, sometimes as early as the day after surgery.
Especially early after surgery, some patients may not be able to straighten their injured elbow on their own. To straighten the elbow, the patient needs to use his/her uninjured arm to help out, or assistance from another person.
Full recovery from an olecranon fracture requires a lot of work. It is extremely important that exercises, once started, are performed multiple times a day, every day. Physical therapy will sometimes be prescribed. If so, the patient should still do exercises at home on days he or she does not work with the therapist. The exercises only make a difference if they're done regularly. Recovering strength often takes longer than expected; sometimes, 6 months or more.
Restrictions on driving are generally based on the arm that is injured (the right arm is used for shifting, for example) and on use of pain medications. Narcotics, such as morphine or codeine, impair judgment and therefore they impair the ability to drive a vehicle just like alcohol does.
Even after the fracture has healed, full motion of the elbow may not be possible. In most of these cases, the patient cannot fully straighten his or her arm. Typically, loss of a few degrees of straightening will not have an impact on how well the arm will work in the future, including for sports or heavy labor. Loss of a significant amount of motion may require intensive physical therapy, special bracing, or further surgery to correct this problem. This is uncommon for olecranon fractures.
Elbow arthritis causes the elbow joint to become stiff and painful. It is an unfortunate, but relatively common, long-term outcome of olecranon fractures. Elbow arthritis can occur rapidly following an olecranon fracture, or it may take years to develop. It occurs if the lining of the elbow joint (cartilage) was damaged from the fracture, or if the fracture leads to the lining wearing away over time. Keep in mind that not everyone who breaks their olecranon will develop elbow arthritis. In addition, elbow arthritis is not always painful. It does not always limit an individual's ability to use the arm, and if it is not bothersome, it does not require medical treatment.
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
- When may I start using my arm to lift objects?
- When may I start moving my elbow?
- Are there any factors that might make my healing take longer?
- What are the risks of surgery?
- What can I expect for the near and far future?
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
6300 N. River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018 | <urn:uuid:610aefa7-26eb-4607-8fe1-a86df97882f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00503&grpwebid=20DBE3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927091 | 2,764 | 3.46875 | 3 |
The Cloud Analytics tool helps you do real-time performance analysis of your Node.js™ application.
Cloud Analytics requires Node 0.4.0 or later.
In this page:
Also see New metrics on no.de.
Cloud Analytics is a system to gather real-time metrics from across the cloud, including advanced metrics made available by DTrace. The metrics are only enabled when in use, such as during a performance issue investigation, and are not (currently) archived. The metrics are exposed via two means:
- An interactive browser-based performance analysis tool (also referred to as "Cloud Analytics")
- An API for enabling and retrieving performance metrics
The interactive analysis tool is found under the "ANALYTICS" tab of joyentcloud.com, and is documented in the sections that follow.
The API allows Cloud Analytics metrics to be fetched and consumed by other tools. It is documented separately in the CA apidocs.
The analytics tool displays two kinds of charts: line graphs and heat maps.
Line graphs display the quantity that you're measuring at a given time. For instance, if you're measuring the number of HTTP operations by IP address, the chart shows a stacked line graph of the number of requests for each IP address per second.
Heat maps let you see three dimensions of data, much like a rainfall map that uses different colors for the amount of rain in a particular region. Cloud analytics heat maps display colored blocks of different densities. For instance, in a heat map that displays the number of threads broken down by application and CPU runtime, the x-axis shows time in one-second intervals, and the y-axis shows run time. The density of each block, or bucket, in the graph represents the number of threads that took up a particular amount of run time. You can use the filters or click on a bucket to see how many times a thread ran on a processor for that length of time at that time. The height of each bucket gives a range of values along the y-axis.
In both kinds of charts, the x-axis represents time in one-second intervals. The y-axis represents one variable that you're measuring, but the scale changes as the range of values widens or narrows.
|Instrumentation options||These controls let you create an instrumentation panel. You can choose from among several metrics decomposed in different ways. These metrics are described in the next section.|
|Element list||This lists the the items that you're measuring. For example, if you're measuring HTTP server operations decomposed by URL, this pane contains a list of URLs. In a heat map, selecting an item from this list highlights all the buckets that contain measurements for that element. You can use the filters at the bottom of the list to isolate or exclude the selected items.|
|Rank / Linear|| This control lets you choose how the density of the buckets in a heat map is rendered.
Linear coloring means that each bucket is colored according to its value. A bucket whose value is 100 will be 100 times darker than a bucket whose value is 1.
Rank-based coloring sorts all the values and distributes the color density among them. Rank-based coloring is particularly useful to discover outliers.
|Granularity||This slider controls the height of each block and, consequently, the range of values for each bucket.|
|Scale|| This slider lets you control the range of values of the y-axis. The range is given in the text below the control.
When the sliders are all the way to the top and the bottom, the scale of the y-axis changes depending on the range of values displayed. If you use the sliders to set an upper or lower limit, the scale doesn't change.
|Zoom||These controls let you change the width of each bucket so you can see a wider range of time. The width of each bucket is always one second.|
|Play/Pause||These controls let you pause and resume the display.|
|Buckets||Clicking on a bucket shows the value distributions of that bucket.|
Cloud analytics can show you different kinds of metrics:
- CPU thread executions
- HTTP server operations
- HTTP client operations
- Garbage collection operations
- Socket operations
- Logical file system operations
In most cases, the number of operations is not as interesting as decomposing the operation by latency. Latency is the amount of time between making a request and its fulfillment.
This metric can help you understand how your application uses the CPU. It reports the number of thread executions sorted by different criteria. A thread execution starts when when the thread is put on the CPU and ends when it is taken off.
You can use the following decompositions by themselves to get a line graph of the number of thread executions or combine them with runtime to display a heat map.
|process identifier||The number of threads for a given process ID.|
|application name||The number of threads for each application running.|
|zone name||The number of threads running in each zone (SmartMachine). This information is not especially useful if you're running only one SmartMachine.|
|reason leaving cpu||The number of threads sorted by reason leaving the CPU.|
The line graphs that show the number of executions aren't particularly interesting. The heat maps of run time, which show how long the thread was on the CPU, are more revealing because they show when your application has been doing a lot of computation.
|Selecting runtime by itself without an addition decomposition is results in a heat map of thread executions decomposed by runtime that's not particularly useful.|
If your application isn't running for very long, you can look at why it's coming off CPU. It might be blocking on a kernel lock (potentially indicating kernel lock contention), a userland lock (indicating user-level lock contention), a condition variable (indicating it's probably waiting for some other event, like disk I/O or networking), and so on. Or it may have been runnable but taken off the CPU because something else of higher priority needed to run.
This is a low-level and subtle metric, but it may help you understand whether the reason an application is taking so long to serve requests is because it's spending a lot of time on the CPU.
HTTP server performance is the primary performance metric for a web server.
You can use the following decompositions by themselves to get a line graph of the number of events, or you can combine them with latency to get a heat map.
|Method||The number of requests by HTTP method: GET, PUT, POST, DELETE|
|URL||The number of requests by URL.|
|Remote IP address||The number of requests by IP address of the client that issued the request.|
|Remote TCP port||The number of requests by TCP port used by the client that issued the request. This metric is useful for picking out multiple requests from the same client on the same TCP connection using HTTP Keep-Alive.|
This metric reports HTTP requests and responses that originate from your application as opposed to the ones that it serves. You can use this data to help you determine whether your server's latency is due to the latency of some other web service you're using. For example, if your service stores data on Amazon's S3, you can see how long requests to the S3 web service take.
If you find that another web service is the source of your high latency, then you can investigate that other web service (if you're able to) or rethink how your application uses it, perhaps by caching results where possible.
|Method||The number of requests by HTTP method.|
|URL||The number of requests by URL.|
|HTTP server address||The number of requests by server address.|
|HTTP server port||The number of requests by server port.|
You can use this metric to observe garbage collection in your application. In this case, "latency" refers to how long the garbage collection operation took. If you see garbage collection activity correlate with HTTP request latency spikes, you may need to rethink how memory is being used in your application to avoid creating so much garbage, or else tune the GC to avoid large spikes.
|GC type||The number of garbage collection operations by type.|
Socket operations are the basis of HTTP activity, WebSockets, and most other types of network activity. This metric lets you observe activity for non-web applications. Because it's not possible to know which messages correspond with which others, it's impossible to show latency directly at this level.
|Type||The number of socket operations by type (read, write).|
|Remote host||The number of socket operations by remote host.|
|Remote port||The number of socket operations by remote port.|
|Size||The number of socket operations by size.|
|Buffered data||The amount of data buffered within Node.js because the application has written more than kernel can consume without blocking.|
Disk I/O can be a source of significant latency. This metric examines one of the primary causes of disk I/O by applications: accessing the filesystem.
|Process identifier||The number of file system operations by process ID.|
|Application name||The number of file system operations by application name.|
|Zone name||The number of file system operations by zone name.|
|Operation type||The number of file system operations by type (read, write, lookup, access, etc.).|
|File system type||The number of file system operations by file system type (zfs, proc, lofs, etc.).|
If you see significant latency here that corresponds with HTTP request latency, you might consider changing the way your application interacts with the filesystem, perhaps by prefetching or caching data.
The decompositions help you identify precisely who is doing what so you can optimize the right thing. Unlike the Node.js metrics, this metric examines all filesystem activity in your SmartMachine. The decompositions by process ID and application name are useful in these cases.
You can learn more about using heat maps to visualize latency from these resources: | <urn:uuid:ee67f0b1-baf8-4710-b3d7-88f5f59f08b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.joyent.com/wiki/display/sdc/Using+Cloud+Analytics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903575 | 2,138 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The Rotterdam Study previously found that higher dietary intakes of vitamins E and C related to lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) over 6 years of follow-up.
To study consumption of major dietary antioxidants relative to long-term risk of dementia.
Population-based prospective cohort study.
The Rotterdam Study in the Netherlands.
A total of 5395 participants, 55 years and older, who were free of dementia and provided dietary information at study baseline.
Main Outcome Measures
Incidence of dementia and AD, based on internationally accepted criteria, relative to dietary intake of vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene, and flavonoids.
During a mean follow-up period of 9.6 years, dementia developed in 465 participants, of whom 365 were diagnosed as having AD. In multivariate models adjusted for age, education, apolipoprotein E ε4 genotype, total energy intake, alcohol intake, smoking habits, body mass index, and supplement use, higher intake of vitamin E at study baseline was associated with lower long-term risk of dementia (P = .02 for trend). Compared with participants in the lowest tertile of vitamin E intake, those in the highest tertile were 25% less likely to develop dementia (hazard ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.59-0.95 with adjustment for potential confounders). Dietary intake levels of vitamin C, beta carotene, and flavonoids were not associated with dementia risk after multivariate adjustment (P > .99 for trend for vitamin C and beta carotene and P = .60 for trend for flavonoids). Results were similar when risk for AD was specifically assessed.
Higher intake of foods rich in vitamin E may modestly reduce long-term risk of dementia and AD. | <urn:uuid:7c9abdcb-e05e-4a6d-b00d-bd08a45f256c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=800716 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929799 | 372 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Do you respect all living things, great and small? If so, you’re in good company; so did St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day we celebrate on October 4th. Because of his love for all of God’s creatures, St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and the environment.
Churches and organizations around the world are celebrating the feast day in many ways. Here are some ways to join the celebration:
- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops asked friends and followers to send in pictures of their pets. View the album of adorable animals.
- Some churches are inviting parishioners to bring in their pets for a Blessing of the Animals. Fittingly, the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in New York held their Blessing of Animals on Sunday, September 30th. See pictures from the blessing.
- Join Iona College in planting native grass to help the environment, or attend the Earth Mass at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
- If you’d like to share with others the joy of interacting with animals, consider volunteering for Pet Therapy on Staten Island. When you bring Fluffy or Fido to one of the three Catholic Charities Community Services Senior Centers on SI, you’ll get to see the positive effect your pet can have on the men and women there. Get more information or sign up. | <urn:uuid:dbe3d451-3635-4bdb-b336-7251e46e13fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.archny.org/notes/index.php/tag/the-cathedral-church-of-st-john-the-divine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937885 | 287 | 2.296875 | 2 |
GM Makes Changes to Chevy Volt Battery
In an effort to reduce the risk of electrical fire after a severe accident, Chevrolet has issued what it calls a customer satisfaction initiative on the Volt. General Motors is voluntarily recalling nearly 8,000 Volts to re-engineer the battery coolant system. GM is also making structural enhancements to the vehicle to protect the battery in the event of a crash.
The modifications are an answer to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s findings that severe-impact crashes could lead to a coolant leak and electrical fire. Lab tests late last year on the battery pack led to an electrical fire six days later. A similar occurrence happened after the Volt was involved in a major crash in summer 2011.
The enhancements include strengthening the structural elements that protect the battery in a side collision, adding a new sensor to the coolant system reservoir to monitor the coolant level and installing a tamper-resistant bracket to the coolant reservoir to prevent overfilling.
GM ran several successful tests on modified Volts and reported that the coolant did not leak. The modified Volt also passed NHTSA’s tests. GM is asking owners to return to their dealership so these modifications can be installed. The automaker contends that the Volt has always been safe to drive, but it’s adding these enhancements to give drivers peace of mind after an accident.
News of the Volt’s electrical fire issues hasn’t hampered its sales. GM reported that it sold 7,671 Volts in 2011, off from its 10,000-unit sales target. However, December was the Volt’s best-ever month with just over 1,500 Volts sold. | <urn:uuid:cca9538b-5103-43d5-ab67-48fbce3e1be1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2012/01/gm-recalls-chevy-volts-to-add-safety-enhancement.html | 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 | 0.945751 | 346 | 1.898438 | 2 |
Wackypedia: the Wikipedia fork
The fork occupies an ambivalent place in the world of open source. On the one hand, it is widely perceived as the worst thing that can happen to a project, pitting hacker against hacker, and dissipating coding effort that could be more usefully applied in a united way. On the other, it is the ultimate test and guarantee of openness: if code cannot be forked, it is not truly open. Perhaps most importantly, it is the threat of the fork, hanging over projects like a digital sword of Damocles, that keeps them close to their constituencies, as free software's short history has shown time and again.
The closest that the Linux kernel has come to forking, was during the famous “Linus does not scale” incident that began on 28 September1998 with the innocent question:
Am I the only one for whom 2.1.123 fbcon.c doesn't compile?
and culminated with Linus losing it:
Go away, people. Or at least don't Cc me any more. I'm not interested, I'm taking a vacation, and I don't want to hear about it any more. In short, get the hell out of my mailbox.
At which point senior coders like Alan Cox and David Miller feared that a fork might be necessary if it proved impossible to revise the existing patch submission system that was centred around Linus. Fortunately, that split never happened, not least because its threat was enough to concentrate people's minds on finding a mutually satisfactory solution – in this case, first, to change the way patch submissions were made, and secondly, to use Larry McVoy's BitKeeper for overall source management, later replaced by Linus' own Git.
Ultimately, then, the spectre of a fork proved salutary for kernel development: it forced the main players to confront the growing problems, and find a solution, rather than just carry on and hope for the best.
Given this dynamic, I wonder whether it might be time to start thinking about forking Wikipedia – purely for its own good, you understand.
Some might say that such drastic action is hardly necessary, because Wikipedia is not faced by any looming crisis; on the contrary – it is going from strength to strength, with the English-language version alone storming past the two-million article mark. But there has always been an unresolved tension at the heart of Wikipedia's mission, one that goes right back to its origins.
Before Jimmy Wales's Wikipedia, there was Jimmy Wales's Nupedia, inspired by Dmoz, a volunteer effort to create a free version of Yahoo's hierarchical listings. Dmoz began in 1998 under the name Gnuhoo - which was inspired by GNU/Linux - before turning into Newhoo. It was acquired by Netscape and released as open content. As Wikipedia's co-founder Larry Sanger explained:
Originally [Wikipedia] was the Nupedia Wiki - our idea was to use it as an article incubator for Nupedia. Articles could begin life on this wiki, be developed collaboratively and, when they got to a certain stage of development, be put it into the Nupedia system.
That is, Wikipedia was originally a kind or rough and ready working area, where articles were knocked together and then polished for inclusion in the definitive Nupedia. The free-for-all nature of Wikipedia was one reason why Sanger later decided to set up his own Citizendium project, what he called a "progressive or gradual fork" of Wikipedia. That idea was later dropped, and Citizendium is now essentially a standalone effort to produce an online encyclopedia where the emphasis is on using the knowledge of experts to guide the creation of articles, rather than weighting contributions from anyone equally, as with Wikipedia.
Ironically, though, Wikipedia has been moving steadily towards Citizendium's philosophy. The original claim of being "an encyclopedia anyone can edit" has become less all-inclusive – not so much in terms of who may write, but rather as far as what they can write about. This involves the issue of “notability”:
Within Wikipedia, notability is an inclusion criterion based on encyclopedic suitability of a topic. The topic of an article should be notable, or "worthy of notice". This concept is distinct from "fame", "importance", or "popularity", although these may positively correlate with notability. A subject is presumed to be sufficiently notable if it meets the general notability guideline below, or if it meets an accepted subject specific standard listed in the table to the right.
That is, Wikipedia is no longer interested in accepting entries about any old thing, but requires them to be “notable” in the above sense. Now, that's all very well if you aspire to be a dead serious kind of encyclopedia along the lines of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but given that Wikipedia offered the hope of something more than just an online version of that dead tree monument to dead knowledge, I'm not so sure this attempt at increasing the respectability of Wikipedia is right.
For a start, it means that I can't just go to Wikipedia and find entries on any old subject: if my query is about something insufficiently “notable”, then it's back to Googling for an answer. But it seems to me that part of the promise and power of Wikipedia is that it could be the ultimate repository of knowledge – all knowledge, not just the serious, notable bits.
Of course, Wikipedia is perfectly entitled to take any direction it wants to, but given that I, at least, want something more, I wonder whether there might be others out there who would also prefer a more inclusive, less picky, Wikipedia – as it was in the beginning - one that routinely has entries on anything and everything. After all, the great thing about such online repositories is that nobody is forced to read stuff they don't care about. You could even offer users “notability” filters, so that you only saw the level of trivia you could stomach.
It would be easy for Wikipedia to accomplish this – it might even regard this rough and ready Wackypedia as the development branch for the “real”, grown-up Wikipedia – just as Wikipedia was originally meant to be for Nupedia. If it doesn't want to do that, fine – but maybe somebody else does: anyone for a fork?
Glyn Moody writes about openness at opendotdotdot.
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Free Webinar: Hadoop
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers
Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.
Some of key questions to be discussed are:
- What is the “typical” Hadoop cluster and what should be installed on the different machine types?
- Why should you consider the typical workload patterns when making your hardware decisions?
- Are all microservers created equal for Hadoop deployments?
- How do I plan for expansion if I require more compute, memory, storage or networking? | <urn:uuid:0ae9ef19-d64e-4ebf-b804-0e60b4ab1cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/wackypedia-wikipedia-fork?quicktabs_1=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940416 | 2,033 | 2.203125 | 2 |
As the ground thaws, storeowners must prepare to help their pondkeeping customers with the products and knowledge to make their pond dreams come true. Start by explaining the basics of cleaning and opening up a pond and then suggest ways to add on to create the ultimate outdoor oasis.
Step One: Clean-up and Planning
Before pondkeepers start any new projects, explain that their first step is to start cleaning the pond bottom of accumulated debris. If a customer is considering expanding their pond, now is a good time to start planning, especially if they have to add or replace pond liner or rearrange edging stones around the pond. Spring is also the perfect time to add a waterfall, a header pond or floating, submerged and potted plants.
Step Two: Equipment Care
Pondkeepers in colder climates may have had to add a de-icer this winter. Instruct these customers to remove the de-icer, dry it and store it properly for easy set up next fall. Next, show pondkeepers how to inspect all hoses and connections. It is important to replace any fitting that has a leak before pond season is in full swing. In most cases, adding plumbers’ tape to a connection will fix the leak. This is also a good time to add lighting to the pond–both underwater and around the perimeter. Lastly, have customers start their pond pump and filter in shallow water to ensure it is working properly.
Step Three: Water and Fish Care
Spring is a critical time of the year for fish. As they come out of dormancy, their bodies are low on important nutrients that help ward off disease, making them vulnerable to illness. To keep the incidence of sickness to a minimum, tell customers to clean out sludge and debris from the pond’s bottom. At the start of the season, recommend that pondkeepers replace up to 25 percent of the pondwater with tap water. Remind them to add a water conditioner to remove chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals.
Pondkeepers should also be reminded of the importance of treating water early in the season and regularly thereafter. Talk about the importance of healthy water and remind customers that healthy water means a healthy ecosystem, especially if they plan on adding fish. Walking customers through a visual representation of the nitrogen cycle can be very helpful.
Educate customers on what healthy fish look like and what signs a struggling fish exhibits. Fish that are sick will gasp for air, have a change in color, have an emaciated appearance or show visible sores and spots.
In spring, to make the transition from dormancy to an active state, pond fish should be fed a wheat-germ based diet only after pond water temperatures rise above 39°F. Display food, water conditioners and water treatments at eye level so customers can easily find what they are looking for.
Step Four: In-Store Spring Prep
Whether a store has a large pond department or just a few shelves dedicated to the hobby, determine what needs to be re-stocked and cleaned up. Check with manufacturer partners for information on their newest products and equipment, and ask for demonstrations. Be sure to create displays that will engage pondkeepers. Remember that colorful posters and live water displays will excite customers with sights and sounds.
Curt Nuenighoff is TetraPond director. | <urn:uuid:b295cb1e-0c13-40ad-8b39-0f54ab5a4fee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.petbusiness.com/articles/2009-02-01/Spring-Awakening | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939882 | 680 | 2.25 | 2 |
By Thomas Swanson on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 01:10 pm: Edit Post
Hi John. Here in NW Minn we don't get lake effect snow. What kind of a weather system would bring us the most inches of snow? Would it be something that came over from the Rockies or an Alberta Clipper type event or something that pushed up straight from the Gulf? Maybe something else? Thanks.
By John Dee on Sunday, November 25, 2007 - 05:49 pm: Edit Post
The best scenario for heavy snow in NW MN would be for an area of low pressure to form in the TX/OK panhandles or western KS and then track to the NE across eastern NE and then right over, or just to the NW of the Twin Cities. This would put you on the cold side of the storm and in it's snow sector. The track would allow the storm to tap into Gulf Moisture and thus bring the largest precip amounts possible.
There are some upper air features that would be most beneficial, but will not get into them as they are not as easy to comprehend unless you are a meteorologist! But if you by chance have a low track like that and you hear a met talking about the upper air longwave trough being negatively tilted, then better have your plow truck ready! | <urn:uuid:eae6a431-dc41-4e0b-a18f-f486dac90edd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.johndee.com/discuss/messages/57787/58091.html?1196030968 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960872 | 268 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Schools Tussle Over Sex Standards
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati expects to go to trial soon to defend the 2010 firing of an unmarried teacher who used artificial insemination to get pregnant.
Religious freedom advocates say the case could clarify the rules when faith-based employment decisions collide with anti-discrimination laws.
In last year's landmark Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously said a "ministerial exception" exempts religious employers from federal employment and disability laws.
But the ruling hasn't stopped lawsuits against churches and Christian schools for morals-related firings. Legal experts don't see a spate of recent suits in Texas, Florida, and Georgia as a trend—but they do consider them a harbinger of a coming wave.
"I would predict there will be more over time," said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. "You'll get more people who think it's perfectly fine to co-habitate and are genuinely surprised that a church employer feels otherwise."
Given this situation, Christian institutions must regularly update lifestyle covenants, said Tom Cathey, director of legal issues for the Association of Christian Schools International. Cathey counsels his 25,000 member schools to be forthright with staff about moral expectations and causes for dismissal.
"If their lifestyle agreements fit within the definition of church autonomy, then they'll absolutely win," said University of Missouri law professor Carl Esbeck.
Those who get sued shouldn't panic either, since many cases fizzle or settle in pre-trial proceedings.
The latter is common, said Stanley Carlson-Thies, president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance. He understands that schools often want to make such cases "just go away," but such secrecy robs other schools of a chance to apply lessons learned.
"It doesn't clarify if something is right or wrong," he said. "It doesn't allow schools to realize how vulnerable they might be."
Sometimes schools lose even when the employee is a leader. Several months after Hosanna-Tabor, a jury found Christian Academy of Wichita Falls, Texas, guilty of retaliation after firing its former headmaster (who filed a gender discrimination claim).
Despite the verdict, Jeff Mateer of the Liberty Institute thinks Hosanna-Tabor means most fired school employees who sue will lose.
"It's part of a larger issue," he said. "It's the First Amendment conflicting with employment law and other federal law. I'm confident the Constitution will win."
Update (Feb. 7): Courthouse News Service reports that Dias v. Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the case of the lesbian who was fired after undergoing artificial insemination, will head to a jury. The trial is slated to begin March 19.
Update (Feb. 15): High-profile lawyer Gloria Allred has filed a similar lawsuit against San Diego Christian College. | <urn:uuid:7b837e0d-f54d-4192-978b-ac100e90818c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/channel/utilities/print.html?type=article&id=100337 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963202 | 604 | 1.632813 | 2 |
WASHINGTON, April 9 (UPI) -- The U.S.-Brazil relationship must expand, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday, so both countries benefit while providing leadership to others.
"We seek to be a partner, an equal partner, to promote sustainable, diversified, innovation-driven growth that translates into inclusive, long-lasting progress," Clinton said during a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "We want, together, Brazil and the United States, to work toward creating economic opportunity, a system in which everyone has a fair chance to compete."
The economic ties already can be seen in action, she said and create nothing but opportunities for both countries in the future.
"And as our economic relationship continues maturing, investment will increase in both directions, trade will grow and diversify, more businesses from both Brazil and the United States will find markets in the other country," Clinton said.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff and her delegation were in Washington Monday to meet with President Obama and other U.S. officials.
Clinton said she and Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota would sign the U.S.-Brazil Aviation Partnership Memorandum, which builds on the countries' Open Skies Agreement and promotes more and safer air travel between the two countries.
"We think that's a win-win," Clinton told the Chamber of Commerce audience. "It will promote not only our aviation industries and business travel, but also more tourism and exchanges.
The United States will open two new consulates in Brazil, Clinton said, one in Belo Horizonte and one in Porto Alegre.
"We're trying to make it easier to get those visas, easier to travel, knock down some of the barriers that have been put up, and continue to promote people-to-people contact," she said.
But both countries know progress can't be measured by airline traffic or investment figures alone, she said.
"We have to have more cooperation and partnership between and among our universities, our science and tech sectors, our civil societies," Clinton said, noting that Rousseff and Obama initiated education programs to enhance ties between the countries.
The United States and Brazil share a commitment to democracy, human rights, freedom to helping individuals reach their full potential, Clinton said, "And there is tremendous untapped potential in both of our countries. We've only begun to explore how we can work and prosper together."
She urged the audience to identify "concrete ways" to collaborate in business, education, energy and other critical fields.
"Our countries have to be partners. We want to be," she said. "But even in today's world, that want is matched by need. Because whether we're taking advantage of shared opportunities or facing shared threats, we have to do all we can to work effectively together."
Clinton expressed confidence that the U.S.-Brazil relationship would "serve to stabilize our hemisphere, our economies, but even reach far beyond. Because what we want to see is the progress in Brazil that has been so laudable over the last several decades continue and grow from strength to strength. And we want to see the United States, with our great, diverse, pluralistic population, being the kind of model inspiration that we have historically been over our own history."
|Additional U.S. News Stories|
TORONTO, May 25 (UPI) --A Canadian man has been charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Toronto more than 20 years ago.
BURBANK, Calif., May 24 (UPI) --Baz Luhrmann's big-screen adaptation of the classic novel, "The Great Gatsby," has crossed the $100 million mark at the North American box office.
NEW YORK, May 24 (UPI) --U.S. stock indexes closed mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing just above break-even on the New York Stock Exchange. | <urn:uuid:90b342af-18ad-454b-9a55-e44af40e88eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/04/09/Clinton-praises-US-Brazil-relationship/UPI-85601334000139/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962635 | 816 | 1.90625 | 2 |
A collection of news and information related to Gastroenteritis published by this site and its partners.
Displaying items 1-12 of 157 » View chicagotribune.com items only1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-14 Next >
Tribune reporterA bad case of a norovirus, sometimes called the stomach flu, among several dozen prisoners has led to a quarantine in a division of the Cook County Jail affecting 700 inmates, officials said. The quarantine means that the inmates in the minimum and...
I used to balk at parents who obsessed about keeping their children away from germs and potential illnesses over the winter. I rolled my eyes when friends declined invitations to social gatherings where runny-nosed children might also be present, and I...
Do you have any idea what happened on that hotel bed before you walked into the room? You don't want to know. Neither do I, which is why, first thing when arriving in a new hotel room, I usually toss the bedspread in the closet. It seems I'm not alone....
TribLocal - Des Plaines » NewsThe Daily Herald reports: It was a quadruple whammy for Matt McCarty’s family. The Vernon Hills boys basketball coach and his wife, along with their …...
TribLocal - Crystal Lake » NewsAn outbreak of the stomach flu at a far northwest suburban elementary and middle school has resulted in hundreds of student absences over the last …...
When tiny white blood cells known as macrophages run amok in your body, they can cause painful inflammation. But Harris Perlman, associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, recently discovered a molecule he...
TribLocal - Winnetka & Northfield » NewsWinnetka officials are trying to figure out why two of their beaches are the most contaminated in the state. Underscoring the problem, Elder Beach was …...
TribLocal - Barrington Area » NewsAs the season for colds and flu nears, School District 220 officials are reminding parents to keep sick children home and to monitor illnesses at …...
TribLocal - Crystal Lake » NewsA norovirus outbreak at three McHenry County nursing homes has sickened 131 people, sent eight to the hospital and caused some of the long-term care …...
TribLocal - EvanstonMore than 60 residents and staff at Evanston’s North Shore Retirement Hotel have fallen ill from a stomach virus, according to Evanston health officials. The …...
TribLocal - Crystal Lake » NewsMcHenry County Health Department officials have closed two investigations into norovirus outbreaks at county nursing homes as new cases continue to decline. One investigation remains …...
Feb 6, 2013 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Jan 23, 2013 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Jun 12, 2012 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Feb 1, 2012 |Story| Associated Press
Dec 27, 2011 | Chicago Tribune
Mar 12, 2012 | Chicago Tribune
Oct 5, 2011 |Story| Chicago Tribune
Jul 1, 2011 | Chicago Tribune
Nov 17, 2010 | Chicago Tribune
Nov 24, 2010 | Chicago Tribune
Apr 4, 2011 | Chicago Tribune
Dec 9, 2010 | Chicago Tribune
Original site for Gastroenteritis topic gallery. | <urn:uuid:62c737fc-2b5c-4ad8-a6d0-3945fe855c8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/health/diseases-illnesses/gastroenteritis-HEDAI0000049.topic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926688 | 679 | 1.648438 | 2 |
While Eric Crafton’s English-only proposal met its demise with Nashville voters, seems like he tapped into to popular sentiment. The Hill posted an item about a new survey showing that most Americans oppose making English an official language of the U.S.:
In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,011 American adults, 31 per cent of respondents say Hispanic culture is generally beneficial for the country, while 35 per cent say it has a negative effect.
When asked about the possibility of having Spanish taught as a second language in schools, 43 per cent of respondents think this would be a good idea, but half of Americans (50%) disagree.
Americans are clearly not keen on seeing Spanish take a more important role in their culture. Two-thirds (64%) of respondents would oppose a motion to make Spanish the country’s second official language.
In fact, people would like to see English protected from interference by other languages. Two-thirds of Americans (67%) would support legislation making store owners post signs with English displayed more prominently than other languages. | <urn:uuid:d54c30ec-a9df-45fa-9d3a-0214920250e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2009/poll-most-americans-support-english-only/?repeat=w3tc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959615 | 218 | 1.828125 | 2 |
As I put Willow to bed tonight, I watched her little chest rise and fall. Rise and fall.
Her wee little fist shot open wide and then curled up and then her little fingers twitched… almost as though she was playing an invisible piano.
Her mouth made little ‘o’ shapes and her tongue made clacking noises inside of her mouth.
And in that moment I wondered about what baby’s dreams are made of.
For us adult variety, we dream of things left over in our subconscious as well as a bit of imagination thrown in for good measure. For babies, I can’t imagine it is much different.
Which got me thinking… if your baby is dreaming little bits of what happened during her day, what would she see?
For Willow, she might be thinking of the colorful blocks and triangles we played with earlier. Or maybe she’s dreaming about daddy blowing raspberries into her armpit until she belly laughed.
Or perhaps she’s remembering grandma and grandpa giving her her bedtime bath – splashing them as she joyously flails her arms and legs around in the tub.
I am also quite certain that blowing bubbles in her carrots, sending them straight up her nose, is also in her dream.
When I recollected on all of the things that could be in her little dream, it hit me. And it hit me hard.
We all have the opportunity to make each day extraordinary. We all have the opportunity to make our children’s days extraordinary. Sure we might deal with poop explosions, lack of sleep, inability to do the things that you’d like to do, fussing babies and a list of other things but when your wee baby lays her head down to sleep at night and starts to dream, does any of that matter?
If I can create an amazing day for Willow, one that she’ll lay her head down and dream and remember about, I will do just that.
It’s also an excellent reminder to me that each day is short but you can always make it extraordinary. | <urn:uuid:858e6877-0ca0-4e50-8ad4-d2990deddf4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.erinsteveandwillow.com/tag/dreams/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970856 | 435 | 1.5 | 2 |
Gutsy youngsters carried out a risky operation to rescue two cranes that had fallen victim to kite string and were trapped in a tree. The trio had to work without any safety equipment as the fire brigade refused to helpNihar Parulekar firstname.lastname@example.org
Two cranes who got caught in kite string lay struggling for life for nearly four days on a tree near Safilguda. It was by chance that a resident Irfan spotted the birds and alerted the Animal Rescue and Protection Force (ARPF) about their plight on Monday. By then, it was night and the rains had made any immediate rescue impossible.
At dawn, three young volunteers from ARPF — Vishwa Vikyath, Akhilesh Aleti and Sujith Borgamkar reached the spot. The birds were trapped on a tree that stood a good 50 ft tall. One bird could be seen stuck on a branch around 40 ft above the ground. Despite having no equipment, the team decided to climb the tree and rescue the birds.
Vishwa and Akhilesh started scaling the slippery tree as Sujith watched from below. At around 30 ft, they reported that another bird was stuck on a branch nearly 10 ft further up. The duo managed to get the first bird down, which was so tangled in kite string that it looked like a parcel at first.
The youths were stumped as to what to do about the second bird as the trunk was too slippery to climb. The volunteers decided to ask the fire brigade for help. After listening to their request, the person who answered the call said curtly, “We are for fire mishaps only. Birds are not our concern.” Disappointed, the volunteers arranged a rope and pulley system and carrying a long pole, continued the rescue mission.
By this time, hundreds of curious onlookers had gathered below the tree to watch the delicate operation of rescuing the injured bird. “It took four hours of strenuous effort,” said Vishwa later. Finally, the youngsters managed to bring the bird down and rushed both birds to Dr Dog clinic in Jubilee Hills. The vet spent an hour trying to untie the thread that was cutting into their flesh. First-aid was administered and the birds were given a painkiller shot. The birds are now recovering.
“Of all, the saddest part was the fire brigade’s attitude. They have the equipment, the manpower and skill, and yet they refused to help,” said Sujith.
£3.5mn - The amount spent by UK fire services to rescue trapped animals in the last three years, according to a UK news report. Trapped animals may be dangerous, and citizens may put themselves at risk during the rescue, which is why the fire brigade is called in.
(Nihar is the founder of ARPF) | <urn:uuid:4c5e572b-85f1-4634-bd9d-9e91cb5b33de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://postnoon.com/2012/07/18/two-injured-cranes-rescued/59685 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981632 | 595 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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This page contains a list of Common Local Forms.
Forms are provided as Adobe Acrobat PDF documents. Right click on the Name and select "save target as" to save to your local computer. Forms with an asterisk (*) are fillable on a computer.
Form Packets contain mulitple forms needed to complete and can be found at the Local Forms Packets page.
You can find State Forms at the Judicial Council Website.
- What is a PDF?
PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It's a distribution format developed by Adobe Corporation to allow electronic information to be transferred between various types of computers. The software which allows this transfer is called Acrobat. In order to view and print a PDF file you will first need to download and install a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download and install Acrobat Reader, please visit Adobe's download page.
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A fillable form has fields in which you can enter text. The box for the field appears when you click next to the place where you want to enter text. Fillable forms are noted with an asterisk (*) next to the form.
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Forms may be downloaded by right-clicking on the form number link and selecting the "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." option to download the PDF file directly to your hard drive. Use Adobe Reader to open the file after downloading.
- What do I do if I get served with Court Forms?
Get legal help as soon as possible! In many cases you only have 30 days to respond. For many hearings (like domestic violence or eviction cases) you only have a few days. The Self Help section will help you find people who can help you at little or no cost. Read the forms. Try to figure out what they are about. Take your forms with you when you go to ask for legal help.
- How do I find the name and number of a Court Form?
Look at the very bottom of the form. Every form has the name and number at the bottom.
- Do I need to type my form?
Hand printed forms using either blue or black ink will be accepted for filing as long as they are legible.
- Tips for filling out forms
- Be sure your forms are clear and easy to read. Use blue or black ink.
- Write your legal name, current address, and daytime phone number in the box at the top of the first page of each form. If you don't want to write your home address, use another address where you can get mail. The court will send your court papers to this address.
- If you don't have a lawyer, write "in pro per" on the "Attorney for" line on all court forms.
- Fill out your forms completely and accurately. If something doesn't apply to you, write "N/A." This means "not applicable."
- Sign each form where your signature is requested. Use blue or black ink only.
- Fill out your forms one section at a time. If you have questions about a section, leave it blank until you can get your questions answered.
- If you need help filling out your forms, you can ask a lawyer, a legal aid clinic, or a family law facilitator (in child, spousal, and partner support cases). Or go to a law library and ask the librarian for books that can help you.
- Make copies of all your forms. If a form has writing on both sides, use 2 separate pages to copy the 2 sides of the form.
- Keep a clean copy of all of your court papers in a folder in a safe place.
- Bring your complete court file with you every time you go to the clerk's office, a court hearing, or the facilitator's office. | <urn:uuid:387510c8-d891-4f03-9e2c-29f6dd3104a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sonoma.courts.ca.gov/forms-filing/faqs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915093 | 857 | 1.859375 | 2 |
A recent ruling of the Dubai Court of Cassation (the highest Court in the Emirate, against whose rulings there lies no further appeal) raises serious concerns as to whether the unruly horse of public policy that became infamous in the early nineteenth century in the common law world and in particular along the shorelines of the British Isles has now bridged the gulf between the common and civil law world, made its way across the Persian Gulf and – washed ashore in the Emirate of Dubai – has turned into a camel. By way of reminder, the unruly horse was borne to English law with the valiant assistance of Mr Justice Burrough in 1824, when he described the doctrine of public policy in the foll [...]
As explored in some detail in Part I of this blog post, recent UAE supervisory court case law has heralded a new era of enforcement of international awards in strict compliance with the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Awards (the “New York Convention”).
To recap, the Maxtel line of case law (see in particular Commercial Action No. 268/2010 – Maxtel International FZE v. Airmec Dubai LLC, ruling of the Dubai Court of First Instance, dated 12 January 2011, most recently affirmed by the Dubai Court of Appeal in Airmec Dubai LLC v. Maxtel International LLC, ruling dated 22nd February 2012), which originated a year earlier in the Fujairah Courts (see Case [...]
As in most other jurisdictions, the violation of public policy in the UAE constitutes a ground for refusing the recognition of an arbitral award. Public policy is defined in Article 3 of the UAE Civil Code [Federal Law No. (5) of 1985] as follows:
“Are considered of Public Policy, rules relating to personal status such as marriage, inheritance, descent, and rules concerning governance, freedom of commerce, trading in wealth, rules of personal property and provisions and foundations on which the society is based in a way that do not violate final decisions and major principles of Islamic Shari’a”.
A striking feature of this definition is that it is wide enough to encompass almost anything t [...]
Confidentiality is often a distinguishing reason why users choose arbitration over court litigation. In a 2010 International Arbitration Survey on Choices in International Arbitration, 62% of respondents said confidentiality was very important to them. Last month, a contributor to this blog observed anecdotally that in-house counsel want confidentiality especially in industries in which a dispute may arise in one part of the world between businesses while in another part of the world amiable and profitable projects are still ongoing.
The confidentiality of arbitration refers to the extent to which parties are prohibited from disclosing the existence, nature and content of the arbitration [...]
With its decision of 27 March 2012, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held unlawful a disciplinary sanction by which FIFA threatened the football player Matuzalem with a lifetime ban in case he failed to pay a damage claim of his former club and employer.
By an earlier decision of the CAS, Francelino da Silva Matuzalem, together with the football club Real Saragossa SAD, were ordered to pay an amount of over EUR 11 million plus interest as damage after Matuzalem had left his former football club Shakhtar Donetsk to join Real Saragossa without a reason and without giving notice. As both Matuzalem and Real Saragossa did not pay the damage, FIFA set a final deadline for payment and, failing payme [...]
A commentary on the OECD Competition Commission conclusions on using arbitration to effectively resolve competition law disputes
By Francesca Richmond and Sarah West
There has been increasing use of arbitration to resolve disputes involving competition law issues in recent years. However, it is surprising that the number is not even greater given that arbitral processes are particularly suited to this type of complex, multi-jurisdictional dispute. Claimants can be nervous that the validity of such awards might be challenged on public policy grounds, however, in practice there are only limited circumstances in which a civil claim based upon competition law is likely to also engage public p [...] | <urn:uuid:6f0e8d3b-1030-423c-badc-9bb662937f1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kluwerarbitrationblog.com/blog/category/public-policy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957257 | 846 | 1.648438 | 2 |
TULSA - The Tulsa library system is joining the safe place program, adding 25 new local sites.
The program, operated by Youth Services, provides runaways and other young people in crisis with a location where they can seek help with problems like abuse.
Officials from Youth Services and the library system are scheduled to make the new partnership announcement at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the second floor of the Central Library.
March 17 to March 23 is National Safe Place Week.
Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Also in the headlines
The couple lost their home in Monday's tornado, one of the worst to ever tear through Oklahoma, but Hymel says it was the loss of her good friend and neighbor Terry Long that breaks her heart the most. | <urn:uuid:98e606a7-151c-47c4-ad14-0d255f5b9fcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/tulsa-libraries-to-join-safe-place-program | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936988 | 175 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A cake made from bricks and a big blue bird are among six artworks unveiled Thursday as finalists for a coveted place alongside Adm. Horatio Nelson in London's Trafalgar Square.
The square's "fourth plinth
" is one of the city's major showcases for public art. Past works displayed there include Antony Gormley's "One & Other," which saw 2,400 members of the public stand atop the stone plinth for an hour at a time.
The current occupant is Yinka Shonibare's "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle," a replica of the naval hero's HMS Victory with multicolored sails of African cloth.
Finalists to replace it next year include British sculptor Brian Griffiths' pink and yellow brick Battenburg cake, German artist Katharina Fritsch's ultramarine cockerel which "refers, in an ironic way, to male-defined British society and thoughts about biological determinism" and a cash dispenser connected to a pipe organ that plays whenever the machine is used, created by U.S.-Cuban duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla.
The other shortlisted works are a sculpted mountainscape in the shape of Britain by Germany's Mariele Neudecker; British artist Hew Locke's vivid equestrian statue "Sikander"; and a brass sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse by Britain's Michael Elmgreen and Germany's Ingar Dragset intended as a thoughtful riposte to the square's military monuments.
"Each of the artists has come up with a very different vision, their wit and originality offering a highly individual response to the historic backdrop of Trafalgar Square," said London mayor Boris Johnson.
Models of the six works are on display at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square until Oct. 31. The chosen work will be announced early next year.
One of London's main tourist attractions, the square was named for Nelson's 1805 victory over the French and Spanish fleets. A statue of the one-armed admiral stands atop Nelson's Column at the center of the square, and statues of other 19th-century military leaders are nearby.
The fourth plinth was erected in 1841 for an equestrian statue that was never completed. It remained empty for a century and a half, and since 1999 has been occupied by artworks erected for about 18 months at a time.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:c1021f6f-7a21-4b86-b037-2cb7b3327bc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=40086&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954234 | 519 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The cemetery that serves the community of Hartline in Grant County
sits on Highway 2 just south east of town which is located in the
SE 1/4 of Sec 1 T25N R29E.
Hartline is a small farming community with roots deeply set in
agriculture. Their cemetery is now funded primarily through private
donations collected in an annual drive.
The cemetery is well cared for, about 2 acres, fenced and irrigated.
There are 560 stones, but many more burials as many of those 560
represent two people. There are also 35 unmarked graves.
Posted on the north side of the maintainence shed is the listing
of burials with lot and grave numbers. Sheila Poe of Hartline
is the current secretary of the cemetery district.
Cemetery records were lost in a fire in 1931. At that time, the
caretakers reconstructed the records as best as possible from
memory, but some names could not be recalled for the unknown graves.
These unmarked burials are presumed to be in the cemetery with
no one left to give any information. Those having "*unmarked"
following their entry are from this list the caretakers reconstructed
from memory. If anyone has any information, please contact me.
Please note that this list is primarily a listing of gravestones,
differences between what the stone says and what the records state
is so noted. I walked this cemetery during the summer of 2001.
Abbreviations include: s/o=son of; d/o=daughter to; c/o=child
of; w/o=wife of; h/o=husband of; w/=shares stone with; (maiden
name); RB = record book; “direct quote"; m=married, date is mm/dd/yr.
Data is first a listing of names found on stones at the cemetery
and then additions such as middle name and location from the records.
- Pat Rice | <urn:uuid:c3b5217e-368b-4cc1-98be-3c74607d69af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.interment.net/data/us/wa/grant/hartline/hart.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960263 | 417 | 1.609375 | 2 |
September 13, 2007
Local Soldier Injured In Combat in Afghanistan
Just days before Americans remember one of the darkest days in recent history, the War of Terror that was sparked by the terrorist attacks of September 11th struck close to home as news was received that a local soldier was wounded in Afghanistan.
Stephen Schneider, 23, was injured during combat operations in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, September 8th. A road-side bomb detonated destroying the vehicle Schneider was in. The explosion killed one soldier and wounded four others, including Schneider, who was medivacked to the field hospital at the British base Camp Bastion.
“We received a call from Stephen’s commander on Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m. telling us that he had been in a vehicle that was destroyed by a roadside bomb, but that he was okay,” said Stephen’s father Dr. Robert Schneider of Memphis.
Robert and Sue received a call later that day from Stephen informing them that he had suffered smoke inhalation and corneal abrasions in the attack and had been flown from the base for treatment of his injuries.
Dr. Schneider learned that his son was on an IV and was receiving pain medication for what had been classified as non-serious injuries (NSI) but had left him with some vision problems and in need of the special medical attention.
According to the International Herald Tribune, the attack occurred approximately five miles west of the city of Sangien.
Up until the phone call on Sunday morning, the Schneiders did not even know where their son had been deployed.
Schneider, a hospital corpsman with the United States Navy, had been attached to the Marine Special Operations Command Detachment 2. Because of the nature of his operation, he was previously unable to tell his family where he was being sent when he received word of his six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Ironically, that deployment was set to conclude, and Stephen had called his parents just the day before the incident to let them know he would be coming home soon.
“It definitely has been an emotional roller coaster, going from the excitement of knowing he was coming home soon to this,” said Dr. Schneider.
Those emotions turned to frustration for the family as they waited more than two days to get an update on their son’s medical condition. As of Tuesday morning, September 11th, the family still had not received any additional information.
“As ex-military, I understand the situation but that doesn’t make it any easier as parents needing to know how our son is,” Dr. Schneider said.
Finally Stephen was able to get in touch with his parents later Tuesday morning to let them know he had been transported to an Air Force base where he was continuing to receive treatment for blurry vision and lung irritation caused by smoke inhalation, but that he was alright and had some good news.
“He couldn’t tell us where he was, but he told us he would be boarding a ship pretty soon to come home for his leave, as had been planned before all of this happened,” Dr. Schneider stated. “Our prayers have been answered.” | <urn:uuid:0b0413f4-0135-434a-b696-df60bab22987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memphisdemocrat.com/2007/news/070913_stephen.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992599 | 656 | 1.695313 | 2 |
When a purported expert says something incongruent to my common sense, I flip open my laptop and start Googling. Call it a hobby.
The topic that recently piqued my interest was the supposed dangers of weight cycling, aka yo-yo dieting. I come across it all the time — articles in newspapers, famed experts on television, and blogs/Tweets. All cite dangerous yo-yo dieting as a reason to not do this or that.
The focus usually has something to do with the difficulties of weight loss and how to do it “the right way.” A complicated solution is often given, along with a finger-wagging warning: yo-yo dieting has health consequences — it makes fat harder and harder to shed — you’ll slow your metabolism down. Some warnings are just frightfully vague. I think I read “deleterious health consequences” from a university professor once.
My common sense, called BS. I just can’t, in a million years, see how being obese, and staying obese, is healthier than repeatedly trying to get the dang weight off. I’m not promoting crazy, fad-eating plans or exercise prescriptions beyond a person’s current ability. I’m a fan of reasonable eating and activity — all aimed at a daily caloric deficit. And if that means you lose 30 pounds, gain 20 back, climb back up on that horse and try again — losing another 20 then gaining back 25, then so be it. In a perfect world we’d all lose it once and be done, but chances are it’ll take a few runs at the mountain to pull it off and keep it off. We’ll go a few rounds before we “get it.” But that’s just my common sense — what does it know?
So, I do what I always do when I want an answer — I research it. One of the easiest websites for me to get data-driven answers is the handy, tax-paid, National Institute of Health’s website. Within a few minutes of searching for “weight cycling” and “yo-yo diet” I had around seven articles to review (there were more but I figured seven was enough, and lemme tell ya, science writing ain’t exactly spell-binding). The articles either said it’s better to yo-yo diet than stay fat, or there’s no health danger in yo-yo dieting (diabetes risk, cardiovascular risk, slowed resting metabolism, or increased morbidity/mortality). One concluded there probably wasn’t any risk but encouraged more research to be extra sure. NONE of the articles concluded it was better to stay fat than yo-yo diet.
If multiple studies say it’s better to weight cycle than stay obese (or at a minimum it’s no greater risk), why do I continually read and hear the opposite? My common sense says no one bothers to research it — they just regurgitate what THEY heard, and/or they’ve got some complicated solution to sell you. I know, shame on my jadedness. Over the years, my cynical side has danced one too many neener-neeners in the face of my optimism.
If you are obese, keep trying to lose that weight. Every little bit helps, even if you gain some back and lose it again. Keep at it. And my common sense just said, “Neener neener.”
NSCA certified personal trainer Shannon Sorrels has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and an MBA. Her Ahwatukee-based company, Physix LLC, works with Valley individuals and groups to improve their overall fitness. Reach her at (480) 528-5660 or visit www.azphysix.com. | <urn:uuid:d3537ba6-a6c4-4ef9-93ec-574f495034e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ahwatukee.com/community_focus/article_2a3ad57a-63f0-11e1-bd95-001871e3ce6c.html?mode=story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952612 | 812 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Obama’s Education Strategy Makes Good Political Sense, But to Boost High School Graduation Rates, Something Bolder is Needed
The Obama Administration’s governing skills shifted upward this weekend. Making education the centerpiece of the Administration’s second year is a vast improvement over the first-year focus on endless spending, health reform and cap-and-trade.
It’s not the first time a president has wasted his political capital—take Bill Clinton, for example–in the first year of office, but then learned how to make the system work. Obama now appears to have found the middle of the political spectrum. Some Republicans may carp and criticize the proposed bill but unified partisan opposition is unlikely. Special interests will get their hands on pieces of the legislation, but I am willing to bet that before the year is out the proposed legislation will give the President a chance to claim a clear domestic policy victory.
Obama’s call for mending—not ending–No Child Left Behind (NCLB), strikes the right balance. Of course, the name has to be abandoned. The 2009 Education Next poll (full results available here) showed that the mere mention of NCLB lowered support for the law by 11 percentage points. That same poll has shown that a heavy majority favor testing, accountability, and national standards. Nearly two thirds of public school teachers say they favor one national standard, instead of different standards in each state. The public also supports the merit pay concept the president has proposed.
The Administration’s decision to judge schools by the amount individual students improve from one year to the next can only be applauded as a great improvement over current law. But we should remind ourselves that when NCLB was first passed, data were not available to allow for this kind of accountability system. It is to the credit of the Bush Administration that they initiated a testing regime upon which the Obama team can improve.
That the proposed law focuses more on incentives than on negative consequences has political appeal—even though the pressure on local schools to do well does not really change. No wonder the unions are opposed.
The President needs to take one step further, however, if he wants to find a way to lift four-year high school graduation rates from 70 percent to 100 percent. He must ask Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to launch a major campaign (as part of the I-3 initiative, perhaps) to give schools incentives to take advantage of new technologies that are rapidly coming on line–broadband, powerful computers, 3-dimensional presentation of material (ala Avatar), and open-source curricular development (ala Wikipedia). For more detail, see my Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning.
Indeed, the Administration has the opportunity to use Title I to act on a recent Brookings proposal. That group (full disclosure—I am a member) has proposed giving incentives to states if they enact legislation that encourage community colleges, universities, charter schools, and other providers to offer virtual courses to high school and middle school students over the internet. Specifically, students should have the opportunity to decide whether they want to take a course in the classroom or online as part of their pursuit of a high school diploma. If they take the course online, the state money goes to the virtual provider; otherwise, it goes to the local district.
As long as good accountability provisions are in place, a new hybrid form of education can evolve, where students decide whether to take a particular course online or in the classroom. Teachers would be forced to compete for students. A bad classroom biology teacher would lose students to an excellent one teaching online, and vice versa. Imagine a student avatar dissecting a frog avatar online seventeen times over without killing a single amphibian!
Each student could access curricular materials at his or her specific level of accomplishment. Students could learn at their own pace, in their own way. All of a sudden the 100 percent graduation rate in the next decade that the White House imagines would not seem so far fetched.
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when the latest issue of Education Next is posted
In the meantime check the site regularly for new articles, blog postings, and reader comments | <urn:uuid:7cc83323-d444-4c14-95e8-4a1f9f394ecb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://educationnext.org/obamas-education-strategy-makes-good-political-sense-but-to-boost-high-school-graduation-rates-something-bolder-is-needed/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950435 | 852 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Larvae hatch around 17 to 20 mm then grow at a rate of 0.08 to 0.35 mm daily. C. gunnari, for example, grows about 10 mm per month (Alekseeva and Alekseev 1997). They continue relatively rapid growth of 6-10 cm a year until they reach sexual maturity around 3 years of age. After that they continue growing at a rate of around 5 - 7 cm a year (Kock 2005a).
No one has provided updates yet. | <urn:uuid:507f8d57-878d-4dca-887c-8e5ec03c32eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eol.org/data_objects/10049544 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900514 | 105 | 2 | 2 |
HIV research is undergoing a renaissance that could lead to new ways to develop vaccines against the AIDS virus and other viral diseases.
In the latest development, U.S. government scientists say they have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. They are now deploying the technique used to find those antibodies to identify antibodies to influenza viruses.
Mark Schoofs discusses a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine, U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered.
The HIV antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. The trick for scientists now is to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone’s body produce them as well.
That effort “will require work,” said Gary Nabel, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was a leader of the research. “We’re going to be at this for a while” before any benefit is seen in the clinic, he said.
The research was published Thursday in two papers in the online edition of the journal Science, 10 days before the opening of a large International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where prevention science is expected to take center stage. More than 33 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2008, and about 2.7 million contracted the virus that year, according to United Nations estimates.
Vaccines, which are believed to work by activating the body’s ability to produce antibodies, eliminated or curtailed smallpox, polio and other feared viral diseases, so they have been the holy grail of AIDS research.
Last year, following a trial in Thailand, results of the first HIV vaccine to show any efficacy were announced. But that vaccine reduced the chances of infection only by about 30%, and controversy erupted because in one common analysis the results weren’t statistically significant. That vaccine wasn’t designed to elicit the new antibodies.
The new discovery is part of what Wayne Koff, head of research and development at the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, calls a “renaissance” in HIV vaccine research.
Antibodies that are utterly ineffective, or that disable just one or two HIV strains, are common. Until last year, only a handful of “broadly neutralizing antibodies,” those that efficiently disable a large swath of HIV strains, had been discovered. And none of them neutralized more than about 40% of known HIV variants.
But in the past year, thanks to efficient new detection methods, at least a half dozen broadly neutralizing antibodies, including the three latest ones, have been identified in peer-reviewed journals. Dennis Burton of the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, Calif., led a team that discovered two broadly neutralizing antibodies last year; he says his team has identified additional, unpublished ones. Most of the new antibodies are more potent, able to knock out HIV at far lower concentrations than their previously known counterparts.
HIV is a highly mutable virus, but one place where the virus doesn’t mutate much is where it attaches to a particular molecule on the surface of cells it infects. Building on previous research, researchers created a probe, shaped exactly like that critical site, and used it to attract only those antibodies that efficiently attack it. That is how they fished out of Donor 45 the special antibodies: They screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies.
Donor 45′s antibodies didn’t protect him from contracting HIV. That is likely because the virus had already taken hold before his body produced the antibodies. He is still alive, and when his blood was drawn, he had been living with HIV for 20 years.
While he has produced the most powerful HIV antibody yet discovered, researchers say they don’t know of anything special about his genes that would make him unique. They expect that most people would be capable of producing the antibodies, if scientists could find the right way to stimulate their production.
Dr. Nabel said his team is applying the new technique to the influenza virus. Like HIV, influenza is a highly mutable virus—the reason a new vaccine is required every year.
“We want to go after a universal vaccine” by using the new technique to find antibodies to a “component of the influenza virus that doesn’t change,” said NIAID director Anthony Fauci. In principle, Dr. Fauci said, the technique could be used for any viral disease and possibly even for cancer vaccines.
Some of the new HIV antibodies discovered over the past year attack different points on the virus, raising hopes that they could work synergistically.
In unpublished research, John Mascola, deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center, has shown that one of Dr. Burton’s antibodies neutralizes virtually all the strains that are resistant to the antibody from Donor 45. He also found the reverse: The antibody from Donor 45 disables HIV strains resistant to one of Dr. Burton’s best antibodies. Only one strain out of 95 tested was resistant to both antibodies, he said. Dr. Mascola is one of the authors of Thursday’s papers.
Researchers say they plan to test the new antibodies, likely blended together in a potent cocktail, in three broad ways.
First, the antibodies could be given to people in their raw form, somewhat like a drug, to prevent transmission of the virus. But they would likely be expensive and last in the body for a limited time, perhaps weeks, making that method impractical for all but specialized cases, such as to prevent mother-to-child transmission in childbirth.
The antibodies could also be tested in a “microbicide,” a gel that women or gay men could apply before sex to prevent infection.
The antibodies might even be tried as a treatment for people already infected. While the antibodies are unlikely to completely suppress HIV on their own, say scientists, they might boost the efficacy of current antiretroviral drugs.
Dr. Nabel said that the Vaccine Research Center has contracted with a company to produce an antibody suitable for use in humans so that testing in people could begin.
A second way to use the new research is to stimulate the immune system to produce the antibodies. Jonas Salk injected people with a whole killed polio virus, and virtually everyone’s immune system easily made antibodies that disabled the polio virus. But for HIV, the vast majority of antibodies are ineffective. Now, scientists know the exact antibodies that must be made—those found in Donor 45 and in Dr. Burton’s lab, for example. So researchers need “a reverse engineering technology” to find a way to get everyone to produce them, said Greg Poland, director of vaccine research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
That’s what scientists at Merck & Co. have done. In a study published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Merck Scientists knew that an old antibody, weaker than the newly discovered ones, attaches to a particularly vulnerable part of HIV. They created a replica of that piece of the virus to train the immune system to produce antibodies aimed at that exact spot. It was a painstaking process, requiring researchers to add chemical bonds to stabilize the replica so that it wouldn’t collapse and lose its shape. Eventually, Merck was able to make experimental vaccine candidates capable of spurring guinea pigs and rabbits to produce antibodies that home in on the target site and neutralize HIV. Those vaccines weren’t nearly powerful enough, but, said Dr. Koff, Merck’s research provides a “proof of principle” that reverse engineering can work for the much stronger new antibodies.
There are other potential pitfalls. There is evidence that Donor 45′s cells took months or possibly even years to create the powerful antibodies. That means scientists might have to give repeated booster shots or devise other ways to speed up this process.
Finally, there are experimental methods that employ tactics such as gene therapy. Nobel laureate David Baltimore is working on one such approach.
His team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., has stitched genes that code for antibodies into a harmless virus, which they then inject into mice. The virus infects mouse cells, turning them into factories that produce the antibodies. | <urn:uuid:694695f1-147a-4752-b1f6-97226c8c315d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jackmax2.wordpress.com/2010/07/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961356 | 1,783 | 3.109375 | 3 |
In this ‘Need-to-Know’ blog post series I aim to share noteworthy stories with readers that speak of developments within higher education and K-12 that have potential to influence, challenge and/or transform the traditional model of education.
This week there were two interesting developments in the education news —I’ve briefly summarized each, highlighted key need-to-know points, and included links that will take readers to sites that will provide multiple perspectives on the issues. The announcements are significant enough that at some level educators will likely encounter the topics in discussions, meetings or learning communities.
1) “A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age”
This ‘Bill’ released this week, was not put forth by an organization or institution as one might think, but by a group of twelve: educators, technologists and journalists including Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity. The document has garnered much attention this week in higher education newsletters and blogs, though not without considerable criticism. Granted, the intent is noble “to inspire an open, learner-centered dialogue around the rights, responsibilities, and possibilities for education in the globally-connected world of the present and beyond”, but the result is quite irksome for numerous reasons. I will not cover all the irritants in great detail here, though one is the title, Bill of Rights which suggests an enforceable, legally binding document, which clearly it is not. Why not use the term manifesto as higher education journalist, and one of the twelve Audrey Watters suggested?
The ‘Bill of Rights and Principles’ is a need-to-know for readers more because of the depth of coverage its received rather than for its usefulness. However, I do recommend that educators involved in online education read it, as we may be hearing more about it in the future. I say ‘may’ because it’s not quite clear how the Bill of Rights will be used, or who or which institution will use it. It appears to be written for students, [yet not one ‘student’ was involved in its development]. Thrun initiated the development of the bill, apparently as he felt that students taking online courses (specifically MOOCs) need protection [from whom I am not quite sure], though it appears that it is the for-profit purveyors of online education that are posing the threat (interesting fact, Udacity, Thrun’s company is for-profit). This point is addressed in the ‘The right to financial transparency section‘ of the bill.
One or more individuals of the group of twelve had the idea to put the document on a Google doc for anyone to review, modify, add or delete part of the document. It is quite interesting to read the comments of the contributors. Though from what I could see when reviewing it several times there appear to be few ‘students’ engaging, it is mostly one or more of the creators and several educators. [I appreciate that the title as of 17:00 PST, January 24, was changed to 'Rights and Principles for Online Networked Learning']
Previous Documents outlining Online Learners Rights
There have been similar documents developed that address what the group of twelve created, yet it appears neither of these individuals were consulted or involved in the development of the most recent charter. Stephen Downes, Canadian scholar and researcher [co-founder of the original MOOC] created a ‘Cyberspace Charter of Rights‘ in 1999, which speaks to many of the issues referred to in the recent document. I wonder why Dr. Downes was not included in this discussion?
As recently as last year Quality Matters published QM Bill of Rights for Online Learners, which was developed using research conducted by the Penn State World Campus that included more than thirty institutions nationwide and 3,000 students.
- A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age, Hack Education, Audrey Watters
- Help us Edit the Learners Bill of Rights, P2PU, Phillip
- Authors of ‘Bill of Rights’ for Online Learners Face Criticism, Wired Campus, Steve Kolowich
- Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age, University Affairs, Leo Charbonneau
- ‘Bill of Rights’ Seeks to Protect Students’ Interests as Online Learning Rapidly Expands, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Steve Kolowich
2) MOOC2Degree provides Incentive to Students
Every week there appears to be an announcement about MOOCs, yet here is one that stands out, MOOC2Degree. The announcement by Academic Partnerships is BIG news. From the press release:
Through this new initiative, the initial course in select online degree programs will be converted into a MOOC. Each MOOC will be the same course with the same academic content, taught by the same instructors, as currently offered degree programs at participating universities. Students who successfully complete a MOOC2Degree course earn academic credits toward a degree, based upon criteria established by participating universities.
Public universities are attempting to embrace the MOOC movement by offering a MOOC course for free, AND granting academic credit to those students that complete the course successfully (details to be determined), if students continue their studies within that school’s degree program. The program is promoted as ‘the first step towards your degree’. There are still details to be worked out, and some exceptions apply, but that is the basic concept. This is a tremendous undertaking as courses will need be developed and customized for the online environment which requires numerous resources, and a high-level of collaboration with faculty and respective departments.
What this means to educators is that because the traditional path to a degree for students is changing, the instructional design and teaching model will need to adapt and transform accordingly. Some Instructors will be affected in the short-term, those that teach general education courses for example, specifically faculty that teach at public institutions. But there will be a ripple effect throughout institutions that begin to adopt this model; administrators, support staff, curriculum decision makers, IT departments etc. will all be affected by this shift.
This development is significant, as we are starting to see how MOOCs will affect the middle-tier schools, the significant number of institutions that serve a large population of students of all ages.
- Further Evolution of MOOCs with Academic Partnerships and MOOC2Degree Launch, e-literate, Phil Hill
- MOOCs the Perfect Storm, HUFFPOST Students United Kingdom, Helena Gillespie
- Universities Try MOOCs in Bid to Lure Successful Students to Online Programs, Wired Campus, Steve Kolowich
- Press Release: Academic Partnerships Launches MOOC2Degree Initiative (Massive Open Online Courses), January 23, 2013
- Q&A with Randy Best on MOOC2Degree, Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim
We will no doubt be hearing more about these developments and stories over the next few weeks – stay tuned! | <urn:uuid:0a1fead8-b2ed-477c-ba21-a080df05e4ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/tag/mooc2degree/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956525 | 1,465 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Americans are reacting to the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut with elevated levels of anger, shock and fear that have led a growing number of people to look for action from the government and society that can prevent future incidents, according to a new national survey.
And the CNN/ORC International poll released Wednesday also indicates that a bare majority now favor major restrictions on owning guns or an outright ban on gun ownership by ordinary citizens and more than six in ten favor a ban on semi-automatic assault rifles.
The survey was conducted Monday and Tuesday, following Friday's horrific incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School when a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 young children and six adults.
Forty-six percent of people questioned in the poll say that that government and society can take action to prevent future gun violence. That's up 13 percentage points from January 2011, following a shooting incident in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead and some, including then Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, severely injured. A 53% majority still believes that attacks will continue to happen regardless of any action taken, but that's down 13 points from January 2011.
"Any changes in attitudes towards guns and gun violence are likely due to the highly emotional reaction many Americans have had to the recent shootings," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
Just over eight in ten express shock and anger over the events in Connecticut, with nearly half saying they feel fearful in response to the shootings.
"All of those numbers are much higher than they were in a CNN poll conducted in January, 2011, indicating that the tragedy in Connecticut may be affecting more Americans more intensely than other recent attacks," added Holland.
Does that translate into a call for greater restrictions on guns?
The number of Americans who favor major restrictions or an outright ban has typically hovered just under the 50% mark in recent years; now that number is just over 50%. According to the poll 52% say they favor major restrictions on guns or making all guns illegal. That's a five point rise from a CNN survey conducted in early August, following the mass shooting in July at a movie theater in suburban Denver, Colorado that left 12 dead, and shootings two weeks later at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where six people were killed. The five point rise is within the poll's sampling error.
Forty-three percent say last Friday's elementary school shootings in Connecticut makes them more likely to support gun control laws, a 15 point increase from January 2011 following the Arizona incident. Half of those questioned say the school shootings have not changed their opinions on gun control, down 19 points from January 2011. | <urn:uuid:5c337637-7e66-40f8-a524-2a282a57be3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcra.com/news/politics/Poll-Bare-majority-now-support-major-gun-restrictions/-/11797268/17835068/-/6ksftu/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966771 | 535 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Compliance is an issue that is getting more and more attention these days (see Wal-Mart, Tyco, etc.). So it’s alarming to find out that most companies in Asia and the Pacific have not performed risk assessments on their vulnerability to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and its British cousin, the U.K. Bribery Act.
A recent study by Kroll Advisory Solutions that surveyed 200 senior executives at Asia-Pacific companies found that only 48.7 percent of these companies had thoroughly assessed their vulnerability to enforcement of those two acts. Earlier in 2012, another study by Kroll found that more than 70 percent of companies in Asia and the Pacific believed they were at risk for corruption and bribery.
“In Asia, internal compliance and legal teams are often not suitably staffed or experienced to handle a serious whistleblower allegation, and they don’t always know what to do when accusations are made,” Penelope Lepeudry, Kroll’s managing director of Southeast Asia, said in a press release.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
For more InsideCounsel coverage of compliance, see below: | <urn:uuid:aaa22786-ae96-44c9-870a-a648e444d61b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidecounsel.com/2012/12/26/companies-in-asia-pacific-region-not-prepared-for?t=regulatory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963805 | 234 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Books to Borrow: Baby books offer plenty of teaching opportunities
Baby books offer plenty of teaching opportunities
Reading a baby or toddler book requires a little imagination on your part to get your child to really look at the book and begin to experience the joys reading can bring.
The typical baby or toddler book has few words and lots of colorful illustrations. The absence of a lengthy, complicated story is intentional – children this age aren’t ready for that. But just because the page might only have one word or one sentence, there are lots of teaching opportunities with every page you turn.
Take colors, for example. If your child is just learning about colors, point and talk about the pretty red flower, the green frog and so on. Once your child is more familiar with colors, ask him to show you where the blue balloon is or the yellow cat.
You also can do object identification on each page. If your child can’t speak yet, ask him to show you where the kitten is or the butterfly. If your child can speak, ask him to identify specific objects, and later, to count how many of each item is on the page.
Another idea is to ask your child what he thinks the animal or child is thinking or might do next.
Most importantly, be creative and use enthusiasm when you read to your child. No one likes a dull storyteller. And use your imagination when you’re reading books to your child. Before you know it, you’ll be coming up with all sorts of creative ways to gets more miles out of those baby and toddler books than you ever thought possible.
The following book is available at many public libraries:
Bunny Cakes, written and illustrated by Rosemary Wells (Dial, 24 pages)
Read aloud: age 2 to 3
Read yourself: age 6 to 7
Those famous and well-loved picture book bunnies, Max and Ruby, are up to their light-hearted funny business again, and this time it revolves around Grandma’s birthday.
Max wants to bake Grandma an earthworm birthday cake. Ruby says, “No, Max.” and sends him off to the store with her neatly written list of ingredients for the cake she wants to bake: an angle surprise cake with raspberry fluff icing. But Max decides he will bake Grandma that earthworm cake anyway. What he needs from the store, however, are Red-Hot Marshmallow Squirters to put on the top of his cake. Max can’t write as well as Ruby, however. How can Max make the grocer understand what he has “written” on Ruby’s neat list?
Library: Peters Township Public Library, 616 E. McMurray Road, McMurray
Library director: Pier Lee
Children’s librarian: Heather Blake
Choices this week: “Gregory the Terrible Eater” by Mitchell Sharmat; “Knuffle Bunny” by Mo Willems; “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch
The following books are available at bookstores:
Baby Be Kind, written and illustrated by Jane Cowen-Fletcher (Candlewick, 2012, 18 pages, $5.99 board book)
Read aloud: age 1 to 3
Read yourself: age 6
This charming little book is brimming with small acts of kindness from one child to another. Whether it is saying hi to your friend, sharing, saying thanks or giving a hug, these and many other important gestures make “Baby Be Kind” a warm, important book for all young children.
Let’s Get Dressed! written and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church (Scholastic, 2012, 20 pages, $7.99 board book)
Read aloud: birth to age 2
Read yourself: age 6
This adorable book walks tiny children through the steps of getting dressed, beginning with “a brand-new pair of super-duper underwear” all the way through to putting on socks and shoes to go outside to play. Written in rhyme with fun, sturdy flaps to lift revealing each successive article of clothing baby puts on, getting dressed and learning through the process has never been more fun.
Kendal Rautzhan writes and lectures on children’s literature. She can be reached at her website, www.greatestbooksforkids.com. | <urn:uuid:f7902df6-3cf9-4d9d-a028-f7548decf99f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20130202/LIFESTYLES/130209884/-1/lifestyles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94242 | 919 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Kevin Drum has an interesting post on this subjecting, citing an ExxonMobil report that oil production in non-OPEC countries will peak in the very near future. The upshot is that all future demand growth for oil (which ExxonMobil underestimates) will have to come from OPEC (i.e. the Middle East and Venezuela). Given that OPEC reportedly has very little spare capacity (they're pumping as fast as they can pump), this means that we're likely to see significant price rises as demand begins to exceed supply.
Unlike some, I don't believe this spells the end of civilisation as we know it. However, the end of cheap oil is going to mean change - and fairly significant change at that. On a personal level, driving cars will become much more expensive - meaning that we will need to either get far more fuel efficient vehicles, start using public transport more heavily, or live closer to where we work. International air travel, which relies totally on hydrocarbons, will become more expensive as well, and the age of the cheap holiday or business trip will probably end. We will, in other words, become more local, more tied to one place, and we won't have much of a choice about it.
On a global level, the changes will be far more mixed. Price rises will probably not mean energy crises - the world has been moving away from burning oil for electricity in favour of coal and natural gas since the first oil shock. But higher transport costs will tilt the balance between our current globalised economy and local production. It won't spell a universal end to international trade in physical goods - bulk non-perishables will be relatively unaffected - but the rising cost of airfreight may make the shipment of some types of good simply uneconomic. Companies, and possibly even economies, will fail as a result. And as a country which depends on agricultural exports to make our way in the world, we may very well be one of them.
(On the plus side, it won't all be bad. Increased localisation may reverse the trend of company HQ's relocating across the Tasman, and will almost certainly result in businesses and branch offices returning to our suburbs and small towns. Which should cushion the economic impact somewhat...)
What can we do about this? Pretty much nothing. It will happen; the only question is the timing. The best we can do is plan now to reduce its impact, while hoping for economicly viable fusion power... | <urn:uuid:a66034e8-8b31-4fef-9e3d-e8ce5cc314fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2005/05/peak-oil.html | 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 | 0.966259 | 501 | 2.25 | 2 |
A physics teacher said he has had a good response to plans for a private secondary school over the internet to enable children to be taught at home.
Interhigh is preparing for registration with the assembly
Already 40 families have signed up for the Powys-based InterHigh, which is due to start in September.
Paul Daniell, 42, from Crickhowell, claimed it could support pupils who either cannot or do not attend normal classes, including victims of bullying.
But unions say pupils could miss out on the social aspect of education.
The £165-a-month service hopes to start teaching at the start of the new academic year.
Mr Daniell said the online school was mainly targeting pupils who are not currently attending classes - either because of disability or bullying.
He said teachers would deliver up to seven subjects using video conferencing technology.
"Many of the children we are targeting are already not attending class - this is a service which helps to fill in the gaps," he said.
Those signing up so far also include forces families and ex-pats.
But Geraint Davies, of the NAS/UWT in Wales has said while it could bring some benefits, he had concerns.
"It's a question of children mixing with peers and other students," he said.
"School is not just about academic learning, it is about learning to deal with life."
Julie Lyddon, a single parent from Bridgend, has been considering taking her nine year old daughter Rosie-May out of school in the summer but is worried about the financial implications.
"What Rosie-May gets in school doesn't feed her, it doesn't nourish her, it doesn't stretch her," said Julie.
"I'd love to bring her out of school, but there's only so much you can do, in terms of keeping a roof over our heads and food on the table. As far as I am aware there is no financial help for educating your children at home.
"Just hearing about this new development is very exciting and it makes me feel quite supported."
Home education has become increasingly popular in recent years.
In South Wales, numbers rose by 18% in the last 12 months, according to the support group Education Otherwise.
The group estimates that around 200 families across Wales are teaching their children themselves.
It says over the last five years, the motivation has moved on from parents looking for lifestyle alternatives.
"I find almost all of my calls are from parents of children who are being bullied at school," said Edwina Theunissen, the Welsh representative of Education Otherwise, who taught her three children herself.
"My family is living proof that home education works. My youngest daughter Cornellia has just graduated with a first class honours degree in Chemistry from Bangor University."
She was taught at home until she attended sixth form college in Wrexham.
Interhigh is preparing for registration with the Welsh Assembly Government and hopes to be teaching 11-17 year olds in September.
We asked for your views on online schools. Below is a balanced selection of comments.
For those who are concerned about social skills - it is quite possible to get these skills elsewhere. Try local community clubs in sports, dram and music. Schools are told by politicians they should be everything to everybody - they don't have to believe such propaganda. Great idea, well done mate!
One draw back is that the children that's taught via the internet . Will sadly miss out on important social skills that will be needed in the workplace. The governing bodies will not face the responsibilities towards the bullied and disabled children, Once again the problem will continue to be a problem
Jeff , Newbridge, Wales
I think its an excellent idea. Bullying is more detrimental to a child's social development than not attending the classes.
At least they will still want to play outside with others... if they are not being bullied in the classes.
Also if you were able to mix the age groups in the classes then special children with needing extra help or kids who are more advanced would be taught more to their needs than at main stream.....
this may even be an alternative to the class bullies who abuse teachers.
Online is a good supplement to the education system. However some children learn through reading, some through audio, and some through doing. In most cases a combination is required.
Interaction with other students and teachers is an important factor. More than ever our children are undertaking activities that are non team orientated. (eg PS2, Computers etc). This will hinder them in later life when those skills are needed most.
The internet is a great tool. But it needs to be used wisely. Doing so without due consideration for its wider aspects will come back to haunt us all in years to come.
R Rees, Canada (Expat)
A brilliant idea and Paul Daniell should be given funds to help him develop the site. Geraint Davies, of the NAS/UWT is narrow minded when he think school is the best place for children to be taught - it's a terrifying place for many students and we don't even have enough science or maths teachers in our state schools to teach our children -This is the real world - worried parents try home education is has many benefits.
Vera Blandy, London | <urn:uuid:38be65ed-9698-410a-af80-2de73f215864> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/4626891.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97506 | 1,100 | 1.921875 | 2 |
Most of us have a love-hate relationship with email. It helps us keep in touch, manage large amounts of information and speed communication. But email has also become a crazy-making source of distraction from other important matters.
Cloud computing is fast becoming as ubiquitous as the clouds circling the Earth. As more and more people depend on “the cloud” to store sensitive data, they also realize it isn’t perfect —and sometimes it fails because of storm surges
With severe droughts and little increase in demand, major U.S. food companies are turning to technology in order to increase their pricing power.
More and more, companies are tasking out micro-projects to consumers — tiny jobs for which it makes no financial sense to send a full-time employee, but that still need to get done.
Consumers have embraced green products, ranging from hybrid cars to packaging made from recycled materials. Now they are also growing more demanding about sustainability claims. | <urn:uuid:e582611c-c235-4a81-acd2-bd70e4329cf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/49242736/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966152 | 198 | 1.632813 | 2 |
As it is, productivity is low at Cuba’s large, state-run farms where workers lack incentives. Government-supplied rations — mostly imported from the U.S. — provide such staples as rice, beans and cooking oil, but not fresh produce. Importers bring in only what central planners want, so the market doesn’t correct for gaps. And since most land is owned by the state, developers are not competing for the vacant lots that can become plots for vegetables.
Still, experts say the basic idea behind urban farming has a lot of promise.
“It’s land that otherwise would be sitting idle. It requires little or no transportation to get [produce] to market,” said Bill Messina, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “It’s good any way you look at it.”
And with fuel prices and food shortages causing unrest and hunger across the world, many say the Cuban model should spread.
“There are certain issues where we think Cuba has a lot to teach the world. Urban agriculture is one of them,” said Beat Schmid, coordinator of Cuba programs for the charity Oxfam International.
Other countries have experimented with urban farming — Cuba’s initial steps were modeled after a green belt surrounding Shanghai. But nowhere has urban farming been used so widely to transform the way a country feeds itself.
“As the global food crisis receives attention, this is something that we need to be looking at,” Murphy said. “Havana is an unlikely, really successful model where no one would expect one to come from.”
Now that Raúl Castro is president, many expect him to expand the program he began as an experiment in the early 1990s.
One of the first plots he opened was the “organoponico” on Fifth Avenue and 44th Street in the ritzy Havana neighborhood of Miramar. The half-block farm — owned by a government agency — is surrounded by apartment buildings and houses, but also offices of foreign companies, a Spanish bank and the South African Embassy.
Long troughs brim with arugula, spinach, radishes and basil, and few of the 20,000 square feet are wasted.
One technician tends compost that serves as natural fertilizer, while another handles natural protection from pests, surrounding delicate spinach shoots with strong-smelling celery to ward off insects. Such measures have ecological benefits but were born of necessity: Neither commercial fertilizer nor herbicide is reliably available.
Three workers tend the crops and another three sell them from a brightly painted stall.
Key to the operation is something once unheard of in Cuba: 80 percent of the profits go straight to the workers’ pockets, providing them with an average of $71 a month.
“Those salaries are higher than doctors, than lawyers,” said Roberto Perez, the 58-year-old agronomist who runs the farm. “The more they produce, the more they make. That’s fundamental to get high productivity.”
Customers say the farm has given them not only access to affordable food, but also a radical change in their cuisine.
“Nobody used to eat vegetables,” said David Leon, 50, buying two pounds of Swiss chard. “People’s nutrition has improved a lot. It’s a lot healthier. And it tastes good.”
Associated Press writer Andrea Rodriguez contributed to this report.
The end of Castro’s rule — the longest in the world for a head of government — frees his 76-year-old brother Raúl to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. More »
The Food Project (TFP) works with Boston-area teens on both its 31-acre farm in Lincoln and two-and-a-half acres of urban farmland in Dorchester to grow healthy food for city residents and suburbanites alike. More » | <urn:uuid:f4f85b0f-a13f-40bb-a8a4-a8a892490d3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baystatebanner.com/world21-p2-2008-06-12 | 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 | 0.956504 | 840 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What is COI?
COI stands for Coefficient of Inbreeding. Essentially, it measures the common ancestors of dam and sire, and indicates the probability of how genetically similar they are.
Why should I care?
There are consequences to being genetically similar, some good, some bad. The fact that dogs within individual breeds are so genetically similar is what makes them that breed- and why , if you breed any Labrador to any other Labrador, the puppies will look recognisably like Labradors.
OK, go on…but please keep it simple..
Many of the 20,000-odd genes that go into any dog of a particular breed are ‘fixed’. That means that every Labrador will have two identical copies of them- one inherited from their dam; one from their sire. Others however, are not so fixed – such as those genes in Labradors that code for colour. That is, Labradors can come in black, chocolate and yellow.
Genes always come in pairs. The gene-pair is called an ‘allele’. When the pair is identical, it is called ‘homozygous’. When the pair is not identical, it is called ‘heterozygous.’
‘Allele’, ‘homozygous’ and ‘heterozygous’ are three good words to understand if you are a dog breeder. Homozygous and heterozygous are terms often used more generally, too, when talking about diversity. The more gene-pairs that are homozygous = less diversity. The more gene-pairs that are heterozygous = more diversity. Geneticists in the main consider diversity a good thing.
So not all the pairs of genes are identical?
Correct. And this is what gives us variation within a breed. It’s why, as mentioned above, Labradors come in three colours. And it’s also what makes some bigger or shorter or faster or cleverer or more able to withstand disease than others. Of course environment can play a big role too, but the raw potential for every dog lies in its genes.
I thought we were talking about COI?
Many pedigree breeds are already highly homozygous, ie many of their alleles contain only a single gene type. This means that the characteristics that these genes produce will be the same in all puppies, regardless of which parents from the breed are used (ie no breed diversity) The COI is really just measuring the probability of any individual allele being homozygous due to an identical gene being passed down to the puppy along both the dam and sires lines from single common ancestors.
Give us a dead simple example
1. Breed two completely unrelated Labradors
2. Mate two of their offspring together
3. What is the resulting puppies’ COI?
In this instance the puppies’ COI will be 25% – that is, statistically, there is a 25% chance that any allele will contain the exact same gene as a direct result of having common ancestors – in this instance the same grandparents. This is in addition to the levels of homozygosity that would be present in the breed regardless.
You say ‘statistically’?
Yes, in reality, they could be much more than 25% genetically identical/homozygous – or much less. The only way to know for sure would be to minutely examine every dog’s DNA which would be impossible (at the moment at least). But the statistical likelihood is nevertheless very useful to dog breeders.
What about other COI examples?
Full sibling: 25%
Half sibling: 12.5%
Great grandparents/great grandchild: 6.25%
First cousin: 6.25%
What about other common ancesters?
COIs are much more than looking at a dog’s parents. COIs also track how related dogs are further back in the pedigree. Look back 10 generations in our own family trees and you are very unlikely to see the same name twice. This is not true for dogs, though. The same names can appear many, many times. Traditionally, breeders have very commonly used grandfather/grand-daughter matings (and often even closer) to ‘fix’ certain traits.
To get a true picture of how inbred a certain dog is, then, you should go back at least five generations and ideally ten. As you go further back, in most instances, the COI is likely to rise.
Why are high COIs considered a problem?
1. Inbreeding will help cement ‘good’ traits but there’s a danger of it also cementing bad ones. In particular, it can cause the rapid build up of disease genes in a population.
2. Even if a breed of dog is lucky enough to be free of serious genetic disorders, inbreeding is likely to affect our dogs in more subtle, but no less serious, ways.
These include smaller litter sizes, less vigorous/viable puppies, fertility problems and weakened immune systems. These effects have been very well documented in other species and are known as inbreeding depression. Farmers, who used to breed livestock in much the same way as we still breed dogs, have now changed the way that they breed their animals. In fact farmers so recognise the benefit of hybrid vigour that much of the meat we eat, milk we drink and eggs we boil are from crossbreeds. That’s because the yield is likely to be more/healthier/disease resistant than that from purebred stock.
A study of Standard Poodles discovered that dogs with a COI of less than 6.25% lived on average four years longer than those with COIs over 25%.
Now nothing in genetics is inevitable. There are some examples out there of very inbred populations that appear to be pretty healthy and whose fertility/fecundity have not been affected. But the above effects have been observed far too often to ignore the risk. While a low COI does not guarantee a healthy puppy, a high COI should definitely be a cause for concern.
Why bother to check a dog’s COI?
As well as limiting further genetic problems, having a low COI may show that the breeder has tried to follow good breeding practice and limit inbreeding. This hopefully will reflect in other good practices such as socialisation and worm control so that your new puppy will be happier and healthier in many respects.
How do I check my dog’s COI?
You can check your prospective puppy’s COI (or COI of both parents) by going to the Kennel Club’s online Mate Select programme: http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/services/public/mateselect/Default.aspx Click on Individual Inbreeding Coefficient.
Breed Average COI
These vary enormously. A recent study carried out by Imperial College showed breed averages for the 10 breeds studied of around 4%. Within each breed though, there were enormous differences, with many dogs in the KC database with COIs over 25% (the equivalent of a mother/son mating)
COIs are not the be-all and end-all of a dog. They’re just one measure. So don’t freak out if you discover your dog has a ten generation COI of 30%. Likewise, if your dog has a COI of only 1% it does not guarantee his health and fitness but his chances of having inherited a double dose of defective genes is far less.
The breed average COIs given on each of the breed pages are those provided by the Kennel Club’s Mate Select online facility. The KC say that these are based on their pedigree records as far back as they go. Electronic records go back as far as 1982 and consist of, on average, 10 generations of pedigree ancestry. However, the records do not take into account the number of ‘founders’ for each breed, which in many cases is a small number of dogs. The COI breed averages are updated annually.
How the Kennel Club calculates the COIs
Information may be found here: http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/services/public/mateselect/sop-coi.aspx
Written by Jemima Harrison | <urn:uuid:b65a004f-1cc9-4d03-8a56-771032c1253b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dogbreedhealth.com/a-beginners-guide-to-coi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957589 | 1,753 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Google’s newly unveiled Nexus 7 tablet, jointly developed with Asus, may infringe on patents held by Apple, Nokia and Microsoft, and could be the next device to be hit with legal action, alleges Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog.
Given Apple and Google’s contentious history, in which Apple recently gained the upper hand by winning a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Android-powered Galaxy Tab 10.1, it’s likely the company will bring similar complaints against the Nexus 7. Apple has gone after a number of Android devices, manufactured by the likes of Samsung, Motorola and HTC, and Asus might soon make that list.
In the case of Nokia, which holds patents related to standard-essential IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi/WLAN) technology, it has already filed cases against Android devices. The Finnish company, which is struggling to compete in the smartphone market, has said that the Nexus 7 does not license any of its patents.
"Neither Asus [n]or Google is licensed under our patent portfolio,” a Nokia spokesperson told FOSS Patents.
As for Microsoft, the company’s introduction of its line of Surface tablets suggests it may be keen to limit competition in the tablet market, possibly through a legal fight. It’s unclear whether the Nexus 7 holds licenses from Microsoft, but the tech giant is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with Google-owned Motorola Mobility, meaning a lawsuit is possible with regards to the Nexus 7.
Though there’s still no confirmation on whether or not any of these companies will pursue legal action against the Nexus 7, the escalating tech patent wars suggest it’s more than likely. | <urn:uuid:3ffc6112-98e0-4849-a053-f31b5374ed0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.itproportal.com/2012/07/02/google-asus-nexus-7-may-infringe-apple-nokia-microsoft-patents/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939468 | 349 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Scientific Research & Self-Development Activism
One friend often recommended me books of Edward de Bono, who write something like Buzan.
I read about mindmaps invented by Buzan, and 6 thinking hats by Bono. Don't impressed. May be, I must get more practise, don't know.
The problem with mindmaps is that thay is just ordinary mathematical tree. Tree is better structure than linear list, but Buzan overestimates it. But it is good in generating expainding branches of ideas throught assotiations.
Man i was just serchin for it , thanks !!!! <3
i did read somthing on that topic, but i dont rly remember the title of the book.. besides it was written in danish so..
anyway its very interesting, i did try out some of the memmorizing techniques and they do really help ;)
specially the one called memmory castle.. or somthing in that order..
also learned a bunch of fun facts about what our brains are capable off.
like we lose 20k neurons every day, yet our brain is capable to remmember every second of our life, if trained properly ( well in theory anyway).
btw, jsut googled it... actually it was that book that u were reading rofl | <urn:uuid:457326b1-e853-493f-b05c-a38e6761bd09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ipowerproject.com/group/selfdevelopmentliterature/forum/topics/use-your-head-tony-buzan?xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966076 | 273 | 1.65625 | 2 |