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I am fairly new to this website and should really have put my pictures on this section. But anyways I seem to have confused one or two how my blocks were constructed, so I will clarify.
1. Once the logs are put together, you go to the light side and do a wobble stitch (zig zag), my settings on my Pfaff Creative Vision were: Width 0.9, Length 6.0,Thread tension 4.0
2. Then the embroidery work as done by Precise positioning, which took forever to master but I got it in the end. It is explained in the manual. For those that do not have a embroidery machine I changed my bobbin case to accommodate a wool and turned the block over, right side down! It took two bobbins to stitch it out.
3. Then I do the featherstitch on the dark side of the block. Where I increased the size of the stitch to: Width 9.0, Length 16.0, Tension 5.0, Pressure foot tension to 5.0(rightside up for this stitch and also the wobble stitch.
Hope all this makes sense but for those that mentioned a Bernina machine I will do some research and get back to you on this one.
My Pfaff Creativision will do embroidery work and sewing mode too. I am very fortunate to be able to have such a machine. | <urn:uuid:cde26851-e1c2-4652-b757-0de71321c14c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/wobble-stitch-again-log-cabin-t50651.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952046 | 294 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- Published on Dec 21, 2012
- Contact Terri Mellow, (734) 764-8094, email@example.com or Laurel Thomas Gnagey, (734) 647-1841, firstname.lastname@example.org
ANN ARBOR—Today's Risk Bite brought to you by the University of Michigan School of Public Health: Does wearing a hat keep you warm when the rest of your body is exposed?
Sometimes cheeky, perhaps even quirky, and occasionally focused on a trending topic, these mini-lessons posted on YouTube take interesting facts about risk science—defined as the science of existing and emerging human health risks—and presents them in small, relatable and easily digestible video segments to help answer the question, "Just how risky is this?"
Like many scientific concepts, risk science is not always easy to understand. So, inspired by Sal Khan, Henry Reich and Vi Hart—all of whom can be found on YouTube scribbling as they explain physics and math—Risk Bites creator Andrew Maynard takes a white dry erase board and a black marker to doodle lessons on gun control, asbestos, BPA and tryptophan. Some of his more provocative topics: Ten Ways Water Can Kill, Could Eating Chocolate get you a Nobel Prize? and the recent Poop and Cell Phones.
Maynard, director of the U-M Risk Science Center and professor of environmental health sciences, says he wants the series to provide credible and timely information that will help people better understand human health risks. Risk Bites takes advantage of a growing hunger for digestible, informal online education.
"Increasingly sophisticated educational material on YouTube and elsewhere is being consumed by ever-greater numbers of people," said Maynard, incoming National Science Foundation international chair of environmental health science. "The most successful content generators are people with a passion for knowledge and an ability to connect with their audience. And in this new medium they are leaving professional educators in the dust.
"I'm particularly interested in how this gap can be closed. How can someone like me who teaches for a living achieve relevance to a wider audience through using YouTube more effectively?"
We never see Maynard in the videos. Only his hand is visible, as he draws objects, stick figures and words, while he narrates each story with his distinctively British accent. The drawing appears to come naturally, but don't call him an artist.
"I'm amused when people tell me I draw well, because I really don't. But I think that this is perhaps part of the charm of the videos," he said.
Reaction to the series since its official launch in November has been positive from professionals who teach about risk, some of whom already are using the videos in their courses, Maynard says, but he hasn't yet reached his target audience of young people.
And to any critics who say you can't explain complicated science in a 60-90 second video:
"If we are going to communicate effectively, we need to be where people are, not where we think people should be," Maynard said. "With social media we need to think of education as a conversation. Risk Bites does this by creating a complex tapestry of understanding, one thread at a time."
In addition to the videos, the center has started a blog called Risk Sense that features experts who write about their research or about emerging issues. Maynard has a blog called 2020 Science, which is about developing new technologies responsibly and safely.
He also has created a Mind the Science Gap blog that challenges Master's of Public Health students to post 10 times each semester on health topics, with a goal of helping them learn to translate complex science to a broad audience.
- U-M Risk Science Center: www.sph.umich.edu/riskcenter
- Does wearing a hat keep you warm while dancing naked? http://youtu.be/-zkM3x69oZw
- Risk Bites and Risk Sense: www.risksense.org
- Mind the Science Gap: www.mindthesciencegap.org
- Andrew Maynard: http://www.sph.umich.edu/iscr/faculty/profile.cfm?uniqname=maynarda | <urn:uuid:ff0565c5-6a93-47fd-a47c-4738deedf198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/videos/21048-u-m-professor-feeds-hunger-for-online-education-with-bite-size-science | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95071 | 890 | 2.46875 | 2 |
The Doctor of Education (EdD) degree program is designed to provide advanced study and research for educators interested in educational leadership in the specific area of school administration. The EdD program provides opportunities for in-depth exploration, study, research, and analysis regarding administrative practices in the school/district setting.
The program will consist of a minimum of 60 semester credits (30 in the EdS and 30 in the EdD) and will take approximately four years to complete. An integral part of the EdD program is the EdS program previously approved by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. It is anticipated that most doctoral students will come directly through the EdS program, which provides at least 30 credits of educational leadership content. In the EdD program, students will be required to complete six additional credits in research methods, 12 credits in an educational leadership core, and at least 12 credits in dissertation. The program will utilize a cohort model and will be offered predominately online, with all three-credit online courses being eight weeks in length. Two courses will be offered face-to-face during one summer for a two week session. An online orientation course will be offered for all incoming students who have not yet completed a similar course in their EdS program. Most students will have the opportunity to take the orientation as part of their EdS program.
The Education Doctoral degree will prepare administrators who are:
- capable of providing servant leadership to their districts.
- able to make ethical decisions under demanding circumstances.
- willing to encourage professional growth in others and exhibit academic excellence to those around them.
- able to provide creative, workable solutions to problems as they arise both within the district setting and the larger community.
- able to provide leadership in creating an inviting environment for students and staff regardless of their background or circumstances.
- able to contribute to the working body of knowledge through scholarly research.
- A recognized specialist degree (Ed.S.) or its equivalent with a minimum of 30 semester graduate credits from an academic institution that is accredited by an official regional accreditation agency. Applicants who have earned an Ed.S. degree from an institution other than NNU may transfer in a maximum of 15 Ed.S. credits upon approval of the program director. Applicants who have not earned an Ed.S. degree or its equivalent should apply to the Ed.S. program before applying to the Ed.D. program.
- A minimum grade point average of 3.5 in previous graduate programs as indicated on official transcripts. The student must maintain a grade point average of 3.5 to continue in the Ed.D. program.
- For students whose native language is not English, satisfactory results from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as indicated by official scores. Minimum scores accepted: 550 (paper score), 213 (electronic score); 85 (Internet-based Test – iBT) with writing and speaking no less than a score of 22, and no score under 20.
- Competency in the use of computer and Internet technology, and either access to or ownership of appropriate computer equipment. High-speed Internet access is required.
- Approval by the Graduate Education Admissions Committee. | <urn:uuid:e5ed41a8-7ed8-47d2-9cd5-d39fdcafc753> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nnu.edu/academics/graduate-programs/education/doctor-of-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947469 | 657 | 1.546875 | 2 |
'Selections Winter '97'
The Drawing Center
35 Wooster Street, SoHo
Through Feb. 12
In this unusually interesting group show of five artists, even the most expansive drawings are notational and hermetic, and require close reading and looking.
Claudia Goulette, writing in a minuscule script, turns her notebook entries into ornamental webs of hair-fine patterns in which only a few words come through. David Bunn, who salvaged the entire card catalogue of the Los Angeles Central Library when its data was computerized, collages obsolete cards into a form of concrete poetry.
Mark Lombardi has created mural-size ink drawings of hundreds of circles, arrows and connective lines to chart the rise and fall of international banks, a kind of Dantesque version of international economy. Mary Judge uses the medieval technique of pouncing (piercing paper with holes and rubbing charcoal through them to transfer an image to a second surface) to create luminous abstract forms that resemble both mandalas and fingerprints. Most varied, though, are the contributions of D.-L. Alvarez. They range from video animations of single words to a faint pencil drawing on the gallery wall in which all of life's hopes and fears take the form of a paint-by-number cartoon, a good-size idea delivered, like everything in this fine show, with a light touch. HOLLAND COTTER | <urn:uuid:d22d3905-c3c6-40fc-b8fe-b9bcc9da59f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/24/arts/art-in-review-323020.html?src=pm | 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 | 0.909935 | 291 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, is one of 17 congressional Republicans calling for the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which funds domestic violence prevention programs.
Gibson said in a letter to the House leadership, cosigned by the other 16 members, that putting the Violence Against Women Act back on the books was “long overdue.”
The Senate passed the measure this week with bipartisan support — 78 to 22. All 22 of the “nay” votes were cast by GOP senators.
Some of those who objected to the Senate measure said they were concerned by a provision that allows Native American tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians charged with assaulting Indian women on reservations.
In pressing House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to re-authorize the statute, the 17 GOP representatives noted some states are already poised for “congress’ inaction” and are scrambling to find money to fund the anti-violence programs that rely on federal assistance.
The programs funded by the act “save lies, and we must allow states and communities to build upon the successes of current VAWA programs so that we can help even more people,” they said.
The act expired in 2011, and advocates say the federal programs that relied on it are now in jeopardy. In 2012, the Democratic-led Senate and the GOP-controlled House passed separate bills reauthorizing the act. However, the two chambers failed to hash out a compromise.
Also on Wednesday, Gibson said he has joined a bipartisan effort to fight Lyme disease by creating a Tick-Borne Diseases Advisory Committee.
“Particularly in upstate New York, where the incidence of Lyme is among the highest in the country, it is imperative that we improve the ways we detect and care for individuals suffering from tick borne illnesses,” Gibson said in a written statement. | <urn:uuid:a4ab4229-78df-4c49-aabd-c676a399fda3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x730443767/Gibson-backsfunding-foranti-violence-programs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957986 | 389 | 1.625 | 2 |
- in News
- Hits: 216
Yahoo has been the victim of a security breach that yielded hundreds of thousands of login credentials stored in plain text.
The hacked data, posted to the hacker site D33D Company, contained more than 453,000 login credentials and appears to have originated from the Web pioneer's network. The hackers, who said they used a union-based SQL injection technique to penetrate the Yahoo subdomain, intended the data dump to be a "wake-up call."
"We hope that the parties responsible for managing the security of this subdomain will take this as a wake-up call, and not as a threat," the hackers said in a comment at the bottom of the data. "There have been many security holes exploited in webservers belonging to Yahoo! Inc. that have caused far greater damage than our disclosure. Please do not take them lightly. The subdomain and vulnerable parameters have not been posted to avoid further damage."
The hacked subdomain appears to belong to Yahoo Voices, according to a TrustedSec report. Hackers apparently neglected to remove the host name from the data. That host name -- dbb1.ac.bf1.yahoo.com -- appears to be associated with the Yahoo Voices platform, which was formerly known as Associated Content.
Yahoo confirmed that it is looking into the matter. "We are currently investigating the claims of a compromise of Yahoo! user IDs," it said in a statement, according to the BBC. The company also told the BBC that it was unclear which portion of its network was affected, after first having said the problem originated at Yahoo Voice.
CNET has contacted Yahoo for comment independently and will update this report when we learn more.
Because the data is quite sensitive and displayed in plain text, CNET has elected not to link to the page, although it is not hard to find. However, the page size is very large and takes a while to load.
The disclosure comes at a time of heightened awareness over password security. Recent high-profile password thefts at LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm contributed to approximately 8 million passwords posted in two separate lists to hacker sites in early June. Yesterday, Formspring announced it had disabled the passwords of its entire user base after discovering about 420,000 hashed passwords that appeared to come from the question-and-answer site were posted to a security forum.
### Source: http://news.cnet.com ### | <urn:uuid:f5d5a51e-7c6a-4bd7-9487-81bc7b110bb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.splashmetechie.com/index.php/news/73-hackers-post-450k-credentials-pilfered-from-yahoo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96426 | 505 | 1.742188 | 2 |
A universal influenza vaccine — so-called because it could potentially provide protection from all flu strains for decades — may become a reality because of research led by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.
The prime-boost approach opens a new door to vaccinations for influenza that would be similar to vaccination against such diseases as hepatitis, where we vaccinate early in life and then boost immunity through occasional, additional inoculations in adulthood. In experiments with mice, ferrets and monkeys, the investigators used a two-step immunization approach to elicit infection-fighting antibodies that attacked a diverse array of influenza virus strains. Current flu vaccines do not generate such broadly neutralizing antibodies, so they must be re-formulated annually to match the predominant virus strains circulating each year. A durable and effective universal influenza vaccine would have enormous ramifications for the control of influenza, a disease that claims an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 lives annually, including an average of 36,000 in the United States.
Journal Science - Induction of Broadly Neutralizing H1N1 Influenza Antibodies by Vaccination
Vaccination with plasmid DNA encoding H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and boosting with seasonal vaccine or replication-defective adenovirus 5 (rAd5) vector encoding HA stimulated the production of broadly neutralizing influenza antibodies
This prime-boost vaccine stimulated an immune response to the stem of the lollipop-shaped hemagglutinin of influenza virus. Unlike HA’s head—which mutates readily, allowing the virus to become unrecognizable to antibodies—the stem varies relatively little from strain to strain. In principle, Dr. Nabel explains, antibodies generated against the stem of HA should be able to recognize and neutralize multiple flu strains.
Moreover, although the prime-boost vaccines were both made from H1 subtypes of influenza A virus, the antibodies they generated neutralized other influenza subtypes, including H5N1 (avian influenza) virus. This indicates that a prime-boost strategy potentially could confer immunity to many or all subtypes of influenza A, says Dr. Nabel.
In another set of experiments, the scientists measured how well the prime-boost vaccine protected mice and ferrets from infection with deadly levels of flu virus. Three weeks after receiving the boost, 20 mice were exposed to high levels of 1934 flu virus, and 80 percent survived. Mice receiving DNA only, seasonal flu vaccine only or a sham prime-boost vaccine all died.
The researchers saw similar results when they tested several prime-boost combinations in ferrets, which are considered a good animal model for predicting flu vaccine efficacy in humans. All four ferrets that received a DNA prime-seasonal boost were protected from infection with a 2007 virus strain, while all six ferrets that received the DNA prime-cold virus boost combination were protected from the 1934 influenza virus.
17 pages of supplemental material
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How to Make Money | <urn:uuid:a5f26659-8b48-45b6-9495-23cd38bf7747> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/07/advancing-towards-universal-flu-vaccine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920606 | 642 | 3.65625 | 4 |
Norbert Elias, the German-born father of figurational sociology, wrote Über den Prozess der Zivilisation in 1939 although it was effectively ignored for thirty years before being re-printed in 1969 when its first volume - A History of Manners - was also translated into English.
Just in case you haven't seen it...
In his magnus opus Elias set out to explain the historical evolution of the concept of civilisation from medieval times to the 'modern' day. In so doing he argued that the concept was socially constructed, developed and reinforced and that over time the values and terms connected with it went from being socially-imposed (socigenetic) to self-imposed (psychogenetic).
From the 13th Century onwards manners developed far greater importance - for example the use of cutlery when eating became part of court etiquette and eventually spread to society as a whole. Nowadays we use cutlery even when eating alone - evidence, Elias argued, of the internalisation and self-imposition of widely-accepted norms of behaviour. In essence it is now important for people to be 'civilised' so they are accepted by the rest of society, whereas in the past the concept of being civilised simply didn't exist.
With his student-cum-colleague Eric Dunning, Elias went onto expand his theory with a specific focus on sport in the book Quest for Excitement. The pair argued that the emergence of the modern state with its increasing monopolization on the use of violence coupled with a greater requirement for interpersonal relations led to a decrease in the levels of violence in everyday life. In this relatively routine, risk-free world sport provides catharsis - the quest for excitement.
Yet, in this sense football (and sport in general) presents a dichotomy - on the one hand it is aggressive, a play battle the very nature of which encourages the violent tendencies of its players to be acted out. Yet on the other, through both the codification of the rules of sport and a general pressure to conform to society's norms, there is an increasing restriction on what is deemed acceptable and into this no man's land, Rooney fell at the weekend.
Clearly the sports of ancient Greece and Rome were far more violent than the sports we know today. Had Rooneyus Maximus sworn in the Colloseum, few spectators would have been too bothered, not least because he would probably have been standing over the still warm corpse of his opponent. Or a dead lion. Of course, had Rooney killed a West Ham player on Saturday he'd have been charged with murder and also perhaps be facing a two or three-game ban (dependent on whether the referee mentioned the incident in his match report).
Thus it's clear that over time society's concept of acceptable 'civilised' behaviour has changed. Yet what was Rooney doing when he swore if not taking advantage of one of the few remaining opportunities for expressing unrestrained emotion in the 'modern' world?
It's also worth questioning society's attitude to swearing in general. In 1976 Bill Grundy was suspended and then had his Today show cancelled after the Sex Pistols repeatedly said 'fuck' while he was interviewing them.
Fast forward 28 years and John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) again espoused his anarchic philosophy by calling the British public 'fucking cunts' after they failed to vote him off I'm a Celebrity... Unfortunately not only did Ant 'n' Dec escape suspension but the show wasn't cancelled either. Furthermore, Rotten was rewarded for his outburst by becoming the front for a cutting-edge, counter-culture advertising campaign for Country Life butter. In that context, one has to question whether Rooney's outburst was really worth all the angst-ridden debate it generated.
Of course there's allways the possibility we've misread the incident entirely. Perhaps, far from being the uncouth, foul-mouthed yob as portrayed in the papers Rooney was, in fact, making an important philosophical point by questioning the increasing subjugation of the individual by society. Perhaps what he was really saying was: "I am me. I throw off the shackles of society's restrictions. I am Wayne Fucking Rooney." | <urn:uuid:c604b778-7847-4178-a377-430fb2c85e08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whoateallthegoals.com/2011/04/rooney-swearing-and-civilising-process.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971716 | 861 | 2.53125 | 3 |
+ The first Castlevania adventure
+ Great Soundtrack
+ First ever battle with Dracula
- Simon is an awful jumper
- Only Six stages
- Getting knocked back when hit
On May 7th, 1987, Konami released Castlevania for the NES in the United States. This was the beginning of a gaming dynasty. Throughout the years and on almost every system, Castlevania has been a title that has transcended time as well as gameplay styles. Why has this title been so successful? Simple, the story of vampire hunter versus Dracula never gets old. In this retelling of the tale, Castlevania introduces us to the Belmonts. A family who has been bestowed upon them the duty to vanquish the lord of the undead. This is the story of Simon Belmont’s chance to rid the world of Lord Dracula.
Castlevania is your typical side-scrolling platformer released for the NES. Common to this time were platformers which were now implementing more action into the genre. Traversing Dracula’s keep requires more than simple jumping, Simon must also battle his way through legions of the undead and Boss monsters as well. The enemies consist of all types of monsters: skeletons, bats, zombies, and the infamous flea men to name a few. After getting through these baddies, Simon must face their leaders. Each of Castlevania’s six stages end with a boss battle. These bosses are from classic horror tales. Frankenstein’s Monster, mummies, Medusa, and even Death are here to stop Simon from completing his quest.
To defeat these enemies and destroy Dracula forever, Simon is equipped with a magical whip. The whip is your main weapon in Castlevania. It begins as a leather whip and can be powered up twice to first change into a chain whip, then once more into a longer chain whip. Each stage having greater power than the previous one. When you lose a life Simon restarts with the whip back at its original state. Along side the whip Simon also has sub-weapons. These are weapons that can be used by pressing up on the D-pad and the attack button. Simon can acquire knives, axes, boomerangs, and even a stop watch, which freezes time for his enemies. These weapons must be used sparingly since they require hearts to be used.
Hearts and other items, such as whip power ups and money bags are found throughout the game inside of candles. Candles and candlelabras are strewn everywhere within the castle. Destroying these and collecting there contents is a huge part of the game. Not only do they hold all the weapons and power ups, the candles also can contain one of two rare items. The rosary which destroys all enemies onscreen and the invisibility jar, which grants Simon temporary invincibility. By breaking certain walls with the whip, the player can also uncover items. These items are usually meat (which gives Simon back health) and the Roman numeral II or III. These Roman numeral upgrades allows Simon to throw two or three sub-weapons at a time.
Outiside of all these great gameplay features, Konami really hit the mark with the music of Castlevania. From the first stage when entering the castle, to the final battle with Dracula, the score fits the tone and pacing of the game perfectly. Throughout Castlevania’s lifetime, each game to follow since its onset, will always be recognized for its music. It really is what sets the Castlevania series apart from the others. So check out the video below to see the beginning of the Belmont’s legacy.
Castlevania brought some great action to the platforming genre. Konami went with a more battle heavy than jumping style platformer here. This was a great idea in two ways: 1) We got the framework for a great franchise, 2) Simon jumps like a lead weight. Simon’s jumping ability is the only real downfall to the game, he really has none. As I mentioned earlier though, the score is what really sets this game aside. I’m glad Konami stuck with this, always paying serious attention to the music in this series. Castlevania is a good game which transformed into great games years later. Castlevania on the NES to this day is still one which I pick up and play. A solid start to what was to become gaming royalty. | <urn:uuid:068d6811-2041-4592-aff0-51e8e1edf15b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lensoftruth.com/retrospect-castlevania/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95343 | 909 | 1.65625 | 2 |
New Art Exhibit Highlights Google Street View Images
Sometimes Google captures more than just addresses.
CREDIT: Jon Rafman and Google
With the introduction of the first camera, machines began mediating how people view one another. More recently, the Google Street View camera has taken that process a step further, removing the photographer all together so that only the camera and the subject remain. Artist Jon Rafman curates and presents the shots taken by Google's roving eye to create photographic collections that highlight just how profoundly Google has affected human interactions.
Rafman's work appears both in "Free," an exhibit currently showing at the New Museum in New York City, and on his website. The collection shows people at their most candid, confrontational, and vulnerable , while reflexively highlighting the uncaring, HAL 9000-like eye that observed them in the first place.
"With Street View, you have this camera that’s passing by purely by chance, with no mission other than recording data. That restored a distance between the photographer and subject, which added to the authenticity," Rafman told TechNewsDaily. "It is documentary photography taken to its ultimate conclusion."
To create the collection, Rafman scoured thousands of Google Street View images , picking about 15 percent of them out for further consideration. That collaboration between man and machine adds another dimension to the work, which Rafman sees as give-and-take between his judgmental, human mind and the emotionless, thoughtless device that first snapped the images.
"I feel like these Google programs are an extension of my own mind," Rafman said. "We didn’t think of this when the idea of the cyborg first emerged, you think of metal bonded to flesh like the terminator. But when I’m surfing the Internet, I feel like that’s almost what a true cyborg is, because it’s human agency mixed in with these powerful machines, almost seamlessly."
The exhibit "Free" will run through January 23rd, and a larger collection of the pictures Rafman culled from Google can be viewed at 9eyes.tumblr.com. | <urn:uuid:18ad71c7-e21c-488a-9a55-57efe7b9ffb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technewsdaily.com/1601-new-art-exhibit-highlights-google-street-view-images-.html | 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 | 0.948281 | 438 | 2.15625 | 2 |
25-Aug-2002 -- The border between Botswana and Namibia was defined entirely by international agreement, and does not follow any geographical feature. Instead, working south from the Caprivi strip, the border follows longitude 21E until it reaches 22S. It then does a dog-leg to the west until it reaches longitude 20E, and continues south along this line until it reaches the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. On our recent trip to Namibia we determined to visit these two rather special confluence points. (See also 22S 20E).
According to the Confluence FAQ, "Confluences exactly on the northern and eastern borders of a state, province or country will be included in that state, province or country. Confluences on the southern and western borders will be included in the bordering state, province or country." 22S 21E has been allocated to Botswana, so we visited it from the Botswana side. It would be extremely difficult to visit it from the Namibia side, as it forms a far corner of a private farm, and is at the apex of a right angle formed by the border fences. There are no roads which even come close to it. Why would anyone want to visit a point which leads nowhere? We did notice that there were tracks which followed the fences, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other. Presumably these are used for patrolling the fences, but they are not proper roads and would be slow travelling.
According to our map of Botswana, the road from Tshootsha to Ghanzi passes very close to this point. We had been driving all day across Botswana, intending to get through the Namibia border before nightfall, and were already very tired. Before we reached the turnoff to Ghanzi we came across a sign which said "Strip line": Wonder of wonders, there was a strip line running exactly north-south very close to 21E. Although not a road in the normal sense, this gave us the shortest route directly to the confluence point. Picture 4 shows the (extremely sandy!) strip line with many tire tracks.
Some interesting driving in deep sand led directly to the border fence, complete with corner. However, where exactly was the Confluence? Picture 5 shows the exact point at which the border fence makes a right angle turn, but according to my GPS, set up on WGS84, the confluence point was about 100 metres NNE of this point. This is not surprising as various different reference points and transformations have been used over the years to determine latitude and longitude. A second candidate is the tower shown in Picture 6, which was about 50 metres away from the corner, but also not at the Confluence according to WGS84. There are many of these trig beacon towers in Botswana, as it is an extremely flat country. I climbed up the tower to get the view in Picture 7 of the Confluence area. This view shows a second fence on the Namibian side of the border fence, as well as the strip line approaching from the south.
Pictures 1, 2, and 3 show views from the actual confluence point at ground level.
The sun was setting as we arrived at the confluence point, and unfortunately we had to drive in the dark the last 120 km to the Namibia border, which is on longitude 20E. The road is tarred and there was very little other traffic, so what could be the problem? There are very few fences along the roads in Botswana, and driving at night is a no-no because of all the animals. Goats (Picture 8), cattle and donkeys are a serious hazard... They prefer to graze along the verge of the road, where the bush has been cleared, and unaccountably they like to stand in the middle of the road after dark. Perhaps they enjoy the warmth of the tarmac? Suffice to say, the sensible driver will stop and camp until daybreak. However, we had to press on and were reduced to driving at below 60 km/h right up to the border. | <urn:uuid:8c6f1783-9d88-4b3f-bd53-a0be7481bb54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://confluence.org/confluence.php?id=5882 | 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 | 0.973713 | 840 | 2.671875 | 3 |
I have written a great deal about the terrific work of McKinsey & Company (see “McKinsey 2008 Research in Review: Stabilizing at 450 ppm has a net cost near zero” and links below).
So I was excited and delighted to be invited by The German Marshall Fund to be the respondent for a roundtable discussion Monday in DC (details below) on their updated cost-curve, which I have an early glimpse of for Climate Progress readers [click to enlarge]:
Nobody has as detailed a set of “bottom up” numbers as McKinsey — though I certainly have some issues with their work. Too little concentrated solar thermal power — and it is not a little cheaper than PV, it’s a lot bigger.
Anyway here are details of the event, in case you are in DC and can make it. And again, I’d be interested in ideas for responses or questions to McKinsey.
The German Marshall Fund of the United States cordially invites you to a climate policy briefing to discuss “Pathways to a Low-Carbon Economy” featuring
Jon Wilkins, Partner
McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Dr. Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow
Center for American Progress
Monday, May 11, 2009
12:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Charlie Palmer, 101 Constitution Avenue NW
The German Marshall Fund of the United States is pleased to host a roundtable discussion on the costs of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in different sectors around the globe. Leaders in many nations are discussing ambitious targets to reduce GHG emissions. The EU is planning to cut its emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and will aim for a 30% reduction if other countries with high emissions take on similar targets. At the same time, an intense debate is underway on the technical and economic feasibility of different target levels, which emission reduction opportunities should be pursued, and the costs of meeting the targets. This event will provide an opportunity for an open discussion on the latest global cost curve analysis by McKinsey & Company, Inc., including the modeling assumptions and policy implications.
Please RSVP by e-mail or telephone to Guido Zucconi at 202-683-2670 or email@example.com
Come if you can, comment if you can’t!
- Must read McKinsey report shatters myths on cost of curbing climate change
- Energy efficiency is THE core climate solution, Part 1: The biggest low-carbon resource by far
- Part 2: The limitless resource
- Part 3: The only cheap power left
- Part 4: How does California do it so consistently and cost-effectively?
- Energy efficiency, Part 5: The highest documented rate of return of any federal program
- Introduction to climate economics: Why even strong climate action has such a low total cost — one tenth of a penny on the dollar
- How the world can (and will) stabilize at 350 to 450 ppm: The full global warming solution (updated) | <urn:uuid:4ff222eb-545e-4096-8152-1961b81665b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2009/05/09/204079/mckinsey-low-carbon-cost-curves/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924327 | 628 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The year was 1833. Chicago had just been incorporated as a town. There were already 300 people living here. On this November 26, we got our first newspaper.
Our 21st Century media like to portray themselves as unbiased and non-partisan. Sometimes they are. But in 1833, newspapers let you know their agenda right up front. That first local paper was a weekly named the Chicago Democrat.
The man behind it was John Calhoun. He’d run a succession of unsuccessful papers in New York, most recently in Watertown. After hearing travelers’ tales about the boomtown on Lake Michigan, the young editor headed west.
Calhoun set up shop in a building on Clark Street just south of the river. Like anyone who owned a printing press in 1833, he depended on job-lot printing orders to make his living. The newspaper was more of a sideline, a vehicle to publicize his personal views.
(Hmmm. Sounds like a blog.)
Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, was president. The opposition party was called the Whigs. Yet the feature story in the first issue of the Chicago Democrat was not a political manifesto. Instead, it was an account of a powwow between two native tribes, the Sioux and the Sac-and-Fox.
That tells you something about the newspaper business in those times. Calhoun had copied the whole powwow story from a St. Louis paper. Was this plagiarism? There weren’t any wire services yet, so editors got their out-of-town news by lifting it from other papers. Hey, even Ben Franklin had “borrowed” stories!
The one piece of original work was the editorial. There Calhoun came out boldly in favor of building a canal or railroad to link Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Oddly enough, that was the type of editorial you’d expect to find in a "big government" Whig paper, not in a paper calling itself the Democrat.
Calhoun continued to publish, with some interruptions. In 1836 a group of local party leaders bought him out. The Democrat was later purchased by John Wentworth, who operated it for several years before finally closing down in 1861. By then Long John was a Republican.
John Calhoun himself died in 1859. Today Chicago’s first newspaper editor is memorialized in Calhoun Place, an alley between Madison and Washington in the Loop. | <urn:uuid:00e812e2-ee20-4bee-b3d2-571430656f4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbez.org/blogs/john-r-schmidt/2012-11/chicago-gets-newspaper-103909 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976752 | 501 | 2.8125 | 3 |
When you are retired, and not earning any money, you probably cannot afford to lose money.
That's why conservative financial planners often keep only about 20 percent of a retiree's money in the stock market once they are in their 70s. Others might divide money up more like 50:50 in stocks and bonds, but make sure retirees have five years of living expenses in cash (money market mutual funds, high yield savings accounts, or CDs) so they don't have to sell stocks when it's a bad time to sell.
Are you saving for retirement?
If you are many years from retirement, you will recover from this downturn in time. Cycles are painful, but natural, in the stock market.
Throughout history it has been rare for the stock market to remain down for more than five years. It has never happened for 15 years. So if you are years away from retiring, you are likely to enjoy the surge in the stock market that eventually comes after every bear market.
Although stocks do drop more than 20 percent during bear markets, the good times have carried the stocks higher. If you had invested $1 in the stock market in 1926, you would have gone through the Great Depression, and several bear markets, and have about $2,700 today. In the safer alternative -- bonds -- you would have about $70.
Combine stocks and bonds to make money safer
When you combine stocks and bonds you give your money a chance to recover from bear markets, and you also insulate it somewhat during the worst periods. Think of bonds as shock absorbers.
Research by Ibbotson Associates of Chicago makes it clear. If you had 100 percent of your money in stocks, you would have lost 12.4 percent a year on average during the worst five years in stock market history. But with 70 percent in stocks and 30 percent in bonds, you would have lost just 6.3 percent a year. If you divided your investments 50:50, the loss would be just 2.7 percent.
Financial planners often suggest that people in their 30s and 40s select a 70:30 combination. On the verge of retirement, they might go to 50:50.
Don't rely on last year's winners
If you looked at your investments last year, you might think you are still in winners.
Then, small cap stock funds and emerging market stock funds were soaring. That's not true now. Small caps, or small companies, are vulnerable at times like this. While large companies can cut fat to weather recessions, smaller companies can't.
So don't dump all your small caps, but make sure you aren't holding a super-sized portion. Also make sure you didn't load up on emerging market funds. Instead, count on a diversified international fund to give you some exposure to developing areas of the world, but not an overdose.
Consider the moderate approach
Here's an example of how you might divide your money up in a moderate portfolio of mutual funds if you can convince yourself to stick with stocks for the long term, but are afraid to be too exposed now.
Bonds - 40 percent
Large cap stock funds - 39 percent
Mid cap stock funds - 6 percent
Small cap stock funds - 6 percent
International stock funds - 9 percent
If you find yourself in a diversified portfolio and are scared, consider ratcheting back by five or 10 percent rather than fleeing altogether. | <urn:uuid:408d33f1-88e4-44ee-98ea-65d7c58b27af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.portlandscw32.com/lifestyle/personalfinance/chi-tue_what-now_0122jan22,0,500454.column?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973133 | 703 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Ginsberg Bill Calls For Anti Petito Opposes Plan That Would
Delinquency Program Abolish Town Government
Assemblyman Martin Ginsberg
said this week that he plans to
pre- file a bill for the next session
of the State Legislature, that
will call upon the state to undertake
a long- range comprehensive
youth anti- delinquency program.
" About one out of every six
teenagers up to the age of 18, gets
into trouble with the law at some
time or another," Ginsberg said.
" Public and private organizations
and agencies on the locil
level have tried but are failingto
make headway against the rising
tide of crime. The only way it can
be reduced to a minimum is for
the state to work in close cooperation
with these local groups
in the fight against crime, especially
Ginsberg said his bill will call
for the state to begin a broad-based
research and demonstration
program aimed at developing
new techniques and practices
for fighting juvenile delinquency.
" My legislation," Ginsberg
declared, " will call for the state
to give special training to anti-crime
perso? inel. This would include
the development of special
programs to train youths and
adults in career occupations. The
state would also construct community-
based rehabilitation and
prevention facilities for this anti-crime
program I envisage."
" The state would establish
special preventive programs for
youths in danger of beginning the
long lonely walk down the path to
delinquency. Special rehabilitation
services would be set up to
diagnose and treat delinquent
youth under state sponsorship
with the guidance and operation
by such local public agencies as
the law enforcement agencies,
the courts and correctional institutions,"
Pequan To Be Featured In
A proposal to abolish Town
government in favor of a series
of incorporated villages and a
larger, c e n t r a l l y controlled
county government has drawn the
strong opposition of Oyster Bay
Town Supervisor Michael N. Petito,
a Democrat. The proposal
was made several days ago by
another Democrat, Nassau County
Executive Eugene H. Nicker-son.
Petito said that the proposal
was ' ' an ominous threat to local
government and a complete abrogation
of the home- rule concept
which has received such wide
acceptance in the suburban areas
of our state." The Supervisor
said he would actively campaign
against such a proposal in the
event efforts are made to present
it in a referendum to county
residents next year.
" There just isn't any sense to
such a plan," Petito continued.
" We are faced here with the suggestion
that highway repairs,
sanitation services and all the
many other services provided by
town government be discarded in
favor of a series of small municipalities
usually not financially
capable of providing them. The
only other conclusion one can a r rive
at is that such a proposal is
really designedto make the County
into a super government which
would surely breed city- style
problems at every level."
The Supervisor said he failed
to see where any significant public
support could be found for the
Nickerson proposal made on September
7th. Petito pointed to the
major problems villages would
face in trying to provide the
myriad of services now given by
the towns, adding that such services
by county government would
present an overbearing burden
on the taxpayers.
The Supervisor also said one
of the major considerations omitted
in Nickerson's proposal concern
the key powers of zoning,
which currently are the province
of Town officials. He said that
abolition of the towns would remove
zoning control completely
from the local community and
eventually pass it on to a higher
central authority, the county government.
Petito also took a dim
view of what would happen to the
area if the Nickerson plan was
pushed. " Our homeowners want
the suburban nature of Nassau
County maintained; we're not
looking for more city type problems,"
he stated. " I also am
certain that the costs of providing
additional county services to
replace town services would be
extremely high, much too costly
for our hard- pressed residents."
On another phase of the argument,
Petito predicted that abolition
of the towns would create a
caretaker- government in Nassau
County, one which would hardly
be receptive to the wishes of the
local residents. " The trend is
t o w a r d s decentralization for
more governmental efficiency,"
Petito concluded. " That is why
the Nickerson suggestion appears
both untimely and ill- conceived."
Beginning their twelfth season,
the Massapequa Symphony
Society will present four noted
guest soloists at four concerts
to be performed by the 70 piece
Massapequa Symphony Orchestra
under the direction of founder and
conductor, H. Dudley Mairs, who
is also Director of Music in the
Massapequa Public Schools.
Massapequa resident, Stanley
Drucker, will perform with the
orchestra on Saturday evening,
October 26, at 8: 30 p. m. Drucker
has been solo clarinetist with
the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
since 1960 and was the
youngest player when he joined
it. in 1948 at the age of nineteen.
All concerts will be held in
the Massapequa High School Auditorium.
Single tickets will be
sold after 8 p. m. if seats are
The second concert on Saturday,
December 7th, will feature
Regis Pasquier, a concert violinist.
Soprano with the Metropolitan
Opera Company, C a t h e r i ne
Christensen, will be the guest
soloist at the third concert to be
held on Saturday, February 15th.
Susan Starr will be the piano
soloist for the final concert of
the series on Saturday, April
26th. Miss Starr made her debut
with the Philadelphia Orchestra
at the age of six and has had
a distinguished career both at
home and abroad. In 1962 she tied
for second place in the Tschai-kowsky
Competition in Moscow.
The Massapequa orchestra is
composed of professional musicians
as well as talented students
who are carefully selected.
A scholarship of $ 500 is awarded
annually to a local high school
senior who has been a student
member and is enrolled for the
following year in a college to
Season membership is $ 10 and
student membership for the season
is $ 4.
O'Donnell Accepts Debate Challenge
Schechter Combines Art Exhibition With Political Campaign
David Schechter, Democratic
candidate fbr the State Senate,
4th Senatorial District, and who
is opposing incumbent Senator
Edward Speno, will paint politics
with a new brush when he greets
friends and supporters at an art
exhibition and cocktail party on
Sunday, September 29th, starting
at 3 p. m. at Levittown Hall.
Schechter, Nassau Senior Deputy
County Attorney, is County
Executive Nickerson's legislative
representative in Albany. He
is counsel to the Nassau- Suffolk
Regional Planning and Human
Rights Commissions. He resides
William G. O'Donnell, of Massapequa,
for the State Assembly, accepted
the challenge of his opponent,
Francis McCloskey, to debate
on October 24th at die St.
Rose of Lima School.
O'Donnell, in commenting to
a group of Democrats at his
Headquarters at 1019 Park Boulevard,
Massapequa Park said,
" We have been chasing Frank
McCloskey all over Nassau County
attempting to get him to debate
die real issues. To date, he
has refused a local Radio Station
and a local civic group. It will
be a pleasure to really test his
position before die people."
O'Donnell continued, " Mr. McCloskey
would like to limit die
debate to a proposal of County
Executive Eugene Nickerson r e garding
the elimination of towns
by forming smaller units similar
to village government. This is
perhaps academically interesting
but not one of the real issues
in diis campaign."
" I'd like to discuss die more
important issues affecting die
people of our community, such
as improving the operation of
die Long Island Railroad for
which he has done nothing over
die past years. If McCloskey
were a commuter and spent a
Thirteen women who arc calling themselves the ' Bakers Dozen' have organized to work for the
election of Edward A. Baker of Massapequa, candidate for Nassau County Court Judge. Picture 1. to
r. are: Mrs. Clifford F, Baker; Mrsu Harry F. Beatty; Mrs. Morris Albertson; Mrs. William Bruno;
Mrs. Warren C„ Diet/; Mrs. Arthur E. Hauscr; Mrs. Lester C, Horton; Mis. Paul A. lachapelle; Mrs.
Henry A. Meyer; Mrsu Kenneth V. Sakraida; Mrs, John J. Schlick; Mrs. Henry X. Stryker and Mrs.
Sidney M. Teeter, Jr.
Farmingdale OBSERVER, Thursday, September 19, 1968
winter's night in an unheated
train or arrived late each day
at home or work, he would appreciate
the real needs of our
people," continued O'Donnell.
We should discuss a fair and
equitable school tax formula to
relieve our high tax areas. We
should also discuss die necessary
amendments to die Taylor Law
so that we can avoid future trouble
among our teachers and odier
O'Donnell continued by charging
diat " diese last diree issues
are of prime importance to die
voters and not whether Nickerson
is right or wrong regarding some
long term proposal on Town government.
I am personally against
any legislation which would eliminate
the towns and take away
local control from die people."
Meanwhile, independent candidate
Michael E. Goldman, who is %
waging a write- in campaign for
the State Assembly post stated
diat incumbent Francis McCloskey
has proved incapable of keeping
pace widi a changing and
growing constituency. The Democratic
candidate for Assembly
is trying to play liberal- conservative
in a futile effort to hold
togedier a broken, disenchanted
party, but his " something for
everybody" p r o n o u n c e m e n ts
aren't fooling anyone. Just last
week, he combined a plea for
law and order, aimed at pleasing
the party's conservative v » inRv>
with an appeal for dealing with
root problems of poverty and
disorders, which attempted to
appease the liberal wing.
WAS LONG AND COLD AND AS A RESULT
MANY PEOPLE EXPERIENCED HEATING
DIFFICULTIES. IF YOU HAD A PROBLEM
DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU HEATED
YOUR HOME WITH A
... THEN WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW AND
DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
The special phone number covering
your area for this purpose is
Pioneer 6- 8901
Paraxon Oil Company
D I V . S I O N OF T E X A C O I N C.
OFFICES AND TERMINALS THROUGHOUT LONG ISLAND
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections. | <urn:uuid:400769e3-0f62-40a9-b653-f098b4e6f469> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cdm16373.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15281coll139/id/326/rec/34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909608 | 2,534 | 1.570313 | 2 |
‘Zeitoun’ selected for 2011 ‘One Community, One Book’
Dave Eggers’ book “Zeitoun” is the 2011 selection for “One Community, One Book,” a project sponsored by the UI Center for Human Rights ( UICHR ) that promotes learning about human rights in the United States and the world through literature.
“Zeitoun” is the story of the Zeitoun family during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath in New Orleans. Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a Syrian-American with a successful contracting business in New Orleans. While using his canoe to help families still in their homes, he is arrested by armed guards. The reason is unclear until a guard accuses him of being in al-Qaida. Then Zeitoun realizes that race and culture may explain his arrest.
Launched in 2001 by UICHR founders Dorothy Paul and Burns Weston, “One Community, One Book” is an annual community-wide reading project coordinated by the UICHR, a part of International Programs at the University of Iowa. The goal of the project is to encourage people to read and discuss the selected book to develop a greater community awareness of human rights issues locally, nationally and globally.
For more information, contact Joan Nashelsky at 319-335-3900 or firstname.lastname@example.org. A schedule of book discussion dates will be posted later in the summer at www.uichr.org/projects/one-community-one-book. | <urn:uuid:0bfd96aa-2dbf-4495-8914-fc4ba1dfa6aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://international.uiowa.edu/accents/post/%E2%80%98zeitoun%E2%80%99-selected-2011-%E2%80%98one-community-one-book%E2%80%99 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939449 | 316 | 1.953125 | 2 |
The National Rosacea Society (NRS) announced that it has awarded funding to five new studies as part of its research grants program to increase knowledge and understanding of the potential causes and other key aspects of rosacea.
“We are very gratified to fund these new studies, which will both build on recent results of rosacea research and forge new paths toward improvements in its treatment, prevention and potential cure,” said Dr. Mark Dahl, chairman of the NRS Medical Advisory Board, which selects grant applications for funding. “As always, we are indebted to the many thousands of patients whose donations make these important advances possible.”
Dr. Anna Di Nardo, associate professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego, was awarded $25,000 to study the role of mast cells as a possible link between an overabundance of the antimicrobial peptides called cathelicidins in individuals with rosacea and the inflammation that appears on rosacea skin. Dr. Di Nardo will endeavor to identify inflammation-causing enzymes that are produced by mast cells as well as the influence of neuropeptides on the formation of these key enzymes.
Drs. Meg Gerstenblith and Daniel Popkin, assistant professors of dermatology at Case Western Reserve University, were awarded $10,000 to study the incidence of rosacea in fraternal and identical twins, recruited at the annual Twins Day festival in Ohio. The study aims to document potential genetic factors by determining if there is a statistically significant difference in the correlation of rosacea between identical and fraternal twins.
Drs. Ulf Meyer-Hoffert and Thomas Schwartz of the Department of Dermatology, University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, were awarded $20,000 to study whether and how kallikreins, enzymes that contribute to inflammation in rosacea, can activate cytokines, which might contribute to the disease activity. The investigators will also research inhibitors of this substance that could have the potential to treat the disease.
Dr. Barbara Summerer, postdoctoral research fellow in dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was awarded $25,000 to use sophisticated analytical technology to evaluate specific microbes in rosacea patients. She will further use epifluorescence microscopy to identify possible biofilms – communities of bacteria that adhere to surfaces – that may exist in rosacea patients, as well as the differences in types of bacteria present in subtype 1 (erythematotelangiectatic) rosacea and subtype 2 (papulopustular) rosacea, so that therapy can target them.
Dr. Yoshikazu Uchida, associate research dermatologist, and Dr. Peter Elias, professor of dermatology, at the University of California-San Francisco, were awarded $20,000 to study whether and how enhancing the production of human β-defensin 2 and conversely suppressing the production of cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, part of the body’s innate immune system, may help suppress the overabundance of inflammation-causing peptides found in rosacea skin.
The NRS is also continuing to fund studies by Dr. Richard Granstein at Cornell University on the potential role of Th17 cells in rosacea and Dr. Edward Wladis at Albany Medical College on identifying cytokines involved in ocular rosacea.
Researchers interested in applying for grants may obtain forms and instructions through the research grants section of the NRS website, or by contacting the National Rosacea Society, 196 James Street, Barrington, Illinois 60010, telephone 1-888-662-5874, e-mail email@example.com.
The deadline for submitting proposals to receive a research grant in 2013 is May 1, 2013.
Because the cause of rosacea is unknown, a high priority in awarding grants is given to studies relating to its pathogenesis, progression, mechanism of action, cell biology and potential genetic factors. Proposals relating to epidemiology, predisposition, quality of life and relationships with environmental and lifestyle factors may also be considered.
Members of the NRS medical advisory board include Dr. Mark Dahl, professor emeritus of dermatology at Mayo Clinic-Scottsdale and former American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) president; Dr. Michael Detmar, professor of pharmacogenomics, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland; Dr. Lynn Drake, Harvard Medical School and former AAD president; Dr. Richard Gallo, chief, division of dermatology, University of California-San Diego; Dr. Alexa Boer Kimball, director, Clinical Unit for Research Trials in Skin, Harvard Medical School; Dr. Marian Macsai, professor of ophthalmology, University of Chicago; Dr. David Norris, chairman of dermatology, University of Colorado, and former president of the Society for Investigative Dermatology; Dr. Richard Odom, professor of clinical dermatology, University of California-San Francisco and former president of the AAD; Dr. Frank Powell, consultant dermatologist, Regional Centre of Dermatology, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; and Dr. Jonathan Wilkin, former director of dermatologic and dental drug products for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The National Rosacea Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of people with rosacea by raising awareness, providing public health information and supporting medical research on this widespread but little-known disorder. The information the Society provides should not be considered medical advice, nor is it intended to replace
consultation with a qualified physician. The Society does not evaluate, endorse or recommend any particular medications, products, equipment or treatments. Rosacea may vary substantially from one patient to another, and treatment must be tailored by a physician for each individual case. For more information, visit About Us. | <urn:uuid:ae763fa9-fa80-4199-9edf-e59d15f93548> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rosacea.org/weblog/new-research-grants-awarded | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919833 | 1,236 | 1.875 | 2 |
Everyone Missed It, But The EIA Just Totally Confirmed Peak Oil
We covered the EIA’s release of its annual energy outlook, and noted the fact that the organizations’ demand estimate had been lowered.
But Steven Kopits of Douglas-Westwood writing a guest post at EconBrowser notes something that everyone’s missed, and argues that EIA has gone “hardcore” peak oil.
As recently as 2007, the EIA saw a rosy future of oil supplies increasing with demand. It predicted oil consumption would rise by 15 mbpd to 2020, an ample amount to cover most eventualities. By 2030, the oil supply would reach nearly 118 mbpd, or 23 mbpd more than in 2006. But over time, this optimism has faded, with each succeeding year forecast lower than the year before. For 2030, the oil supply forecast has declined by 14 mbpd in only the last three years. This drop is as much as the combined output of Saudi Arabia and China. | <urn:uuid:3aa67ad7-8a87-47ac-be65-8970c6284141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://revolutionradio.org/?p=1283 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963834 | 213 | 2 | 2 |
The next year, Gorman was expected to defend her title. But when the Washington Herald selected a new Miss Washington, D.C., Atlantic City pageant officials didn't know what new title to award Gorman. Since both titles she won in 1921 — Inter-City Beauty, Amateur and The Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America — were considered somewhat awkward, it was decided to call her Miss America.
The pageant was conceived by the Businessmen's League of Atlantic City as a way to extend the summer tourism season in Atlantic City for another week, being held the weekend after Labor Day weekend, when temperatures were generally still warm.
Associated Press writer Hannah Dreier in Las Vegas contributed to this story.
Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC | <urn:uuid:5112f0c5-681c-4f85-a3c5-5a410d735263> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsok.com/miss-america-heads-back-to-atlantic-city-nj/article/feed/500879/?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969981 | 162 | 1.828125 | 2 |
In an opinion column, Rick Jordahal, associate editor of Pork Magazine, said the Environmental Protection Agency proposal to reduce dust on farms represents “an unprecedented battle to end U.S. farming as we know it.” Through onerous regulations, “EPA is trying single-handed to make farming obsolete,” Jordahl opined. “Its as if they are saying ‘Just try to raise food for us. We’ll fine you!’”
“The EPA Draft Policy Assessment released last month would set the most stringent regulation of dust in U.S. history. The latest proposal would reduce the acceptable amount of dust to a level twice as stringent as the current standard, which, for agriculture, is already very difficult to attain,” Jordahl wrote. | <urn:uuid:15ae8463-e7bb-46f3-83e8-46c7c8e91428> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cofarmbureaublog.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/columnist-%E2%80%98epa-is-out-of-control%E2%80%99/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965517 | 166 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Pattern Loft
The pattern makers could produce a pattern for any metal object needed by the workshops: cogs, parts for steam engines — even the bell on the clock above the gateway to the workshops! The patterns were carved out of softwood. The pattern makers used some mechanical equipment — a pillar drill, fretsaw, lathe and whetstone — which, like the machines in all the other workshops, were driven by the line shafting. But they carved all the detailed, delicate carving work on the patterns by hand. Because of this, the other workers were not allowed in the pattern loft at all, in case they drew the pattern makers' attention, causing his hand to slip and ruin the pattern. (However, it was whispered that there was a ghost in the pattern loft — so maybe this spirit disrupted work from time to time!)
You can see some of these fantastically intricate patterns in the pattern loft — there were some 2000 different patterns altogether. It's strange to think that all these small masterpieces were carved by candlelight:
‘Old William Jones was the pattern-maker there…Although he did such detailed work on the patterns, what he had in those days was a piece of wood with four candles stuck to it. He used to have to move it around the table where he was working at the bench. It didn't throw a shadow on his work, you see. His work was that detailed.’
Unfortunately, the pattern loft mice were also very fond of the candles, so the quarry had to order specially unpleasant-tasting candles, just for use in the Pattern Loft.
Father and Son In The Workshops/The Apprenticeship System
‘When you began, they gave you a hammer’
Most of the patterns in the Museum's collection were produced by members from the same Llanberis family, the Patrwm (Pattern) family as they were called. Eddie Patrwm, who is pictured here, was one of the last pattern makers to work in the yard, following in his father's and his grandfather's footsteps.
A boy who got work at the quarry was said to have 'found work'; he began as a rubbler, carting the waste rock away from the bargain. On the other hand, the boy who was apprenticed at Gilfach Ddu was said to have have 'found a place'. The standard of the apprenticeship in these workshops was recognised by employers and shipping companies all over the world.
Gwilym Davies remembers his first day as an apprentice in the yard:
'New overalls and all. Overalls, and a cotton jacket, like denim you know, and my elder brother had bought me a saw in Gruffydd Jones, Caernarfon. A Henry Diston USA saw. And I can well remember the man in the shop saying, 'Open the box,' and there were three saws in it. Two going one way and one the other.'
'When I began as a young boy, you didn't get a wage in the yard. You worked for nothing for six months. You got sixpence for six months, the second half of the year…during the second year you got nine pence a week in wages. And out of that you had to pay the hospital shilling every month.' | <urn:uuid:9d201393-3ecc-428c-9b7e-d21f3cc5a2c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/411/?display_mode=desktop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986793 | 684 | 2.890625 | 3 |
About Castroville Schools
- There are 5 K-12 schools in Castroville, TX, including 3 public schools and 2 private schools. Castroville public schools belong to one districts, Medina Valley ISD District.
- There are 3 Castroville elementary schools, 1 Castroville middle school, 1 Castroville high school and 5 Castroville preschool schools.
Contact Education.com with questions or feedback about SchoolFinder.
Please note, if you wish to speak to someone at the school, you must contact the school directly. | <urn:uuid:6c87edb7-5371-4b3d-9ca7-1c507c141b8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/texas/castroville/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931894 | 107 | 1.867188 | 2 |
- Nappy rash is primarily an irritant contact dermatitis.
- It is most common in the first 2 years of life, but can occur in a person of any age who routinely wears nappies.
- Diagnosis is made by characteristic skin findings in the area of the body covered by a nappy; erythema of the convex surfaces of the buttocks is the classic finding.
- Initial treatment involves re-enforcing good nappy change practices, such as frequent nappy changes, use of super-absorbent disposable nappies, periods of nappy-free time, and application of barrier cream, ointment, or paste.
- Recalcitrant nappy rash may signal secondary infection or underlying systemic or dermatological disorders and requires further evaluation.
last updated:=최종 업데이트: 3월 11, 2013 | <urn:uuid:1e5ea053-1484-41ea-9cac-8474021e5f72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bestpractice.bmj.com/best-practice/monograph/676.html?locale=ko | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90409 | 192 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Did you check-in to Foursquare on both ends of a trip over Thanksgiving or Christmas last year? If so, you're probably somewhere on this infographic.
Foursquare (it's a website and mobile app that keeps track of places you visit) collects a lot of data on a lot of different people. It's all anonymized, of course, but that doesn't mean that you can't pull a lot of interesting stuff out of it, and a Foursquare designer put together this graph of 2010 holiday travel patterns.
Click to belargeify:
Each one of those colored lines represents a trip by either plane or train, while the white dots show travel by car. The graph along the bottom shows how travel volume changes during November and December. If you take one thing away from this picture, let it be this: as far as Foursquare nerds are concerned, the entire state of Montana might as well not even exist. | <urn:uuid:cca9862b-38dc-4d10-ab50-0842d863eff7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/134498313.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954208 | 197 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It’s your dad’s birthday and you are going to have a party but what will you say when you toast him? If you were celebrating your mother’s birthday you speech would probably be more emotional but dads usually don’t do emotion. That doesn’t mean of course that your speech can’t be loving. It merely means that you should have light-hearted touches to it. Whether he is a doctor, a fireman or a plumber your dad is a very important person in your life. After all without him you wouldn’t be there at all. That’s a fact you might mention in your speech. You might say that fathering you it was probably the most important thing he has ever done!
As his son or daughter you are obviously the right person to make such a speech. After all you know him better than most. You have the background knowledge that will add to a father’s birthday speech. Your speech can mention incidents over the years. You can speak about how he played games with you in the park, how he helped with homework or how he advised you on your career options. Your father’s birthday speech should reflect your relationship with him.
We don’t say thank you often enough. That’s a fact but you can use that father’s birthday speech to show him how much you appreciate how much he has done for you over the years. You can mention the things you love most about him and the fondest memories you have of times shared. You can speak of family vacations and going swimming together or of getting lost on the way to your destination. You don’t have to speak about every vacation of course but choose the one that lingers in your memory as being great fun, or even a great disaster!
You can speak more seriously about how he has stood by you at all times or how he has supported you when you were in trouble. We often take our fathers for granted but we shouldn’t. They are human and even the shyest father will love to know he is appreciated. Saying publicly how important he is in your life will make him feel good about himself even if he is slightly embarrassed. So that father’s birthday speech is your opportunity to tell him that he is definitely the best father in the world!
We have so many platforms for getting the online exposure; let it be your official website, blog, pinterest, video sharing sites, bunch of social networking sites like – facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc. More >>
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The donatello ninja turtles, is the perfect game which covers one and all, with its potential viewers, and also it helps to get more fans who are said to be addicts , and try to watch the latest editions too in a well versed manner. More >>
Content being the King, it is important for a website to have unique, fresh, crisp and informative content for its success. This is possible by hiring a content writing company that can make a difference. Content writing services India has the ability of doing so for online success of a business. More >>
A father’s birthday speech should be short, sincere and light-hearted too. More >>
Elementary school graduation speeches should that students leave filled with confidence and self belief. More >>
A mother’s eulogy is difficult to write but means so much More >>
High School graduation speeches should provide a peep into the past and a glimpse into the future. More >>
Valedictorian speeches should demonstrate the attributes of the student in question. They should express pride in the college and the pain of separation from friends. More >> | <urn:uuid:346d1b83-46a2-405e-87b0-19808a42ca76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationbible.com/article-a-father-birthday-speech-is-an-opportunity-to-show-you-care-8233.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974756 | 855 | 1.9375 | 2 |
They are known by many names: Pirates, Buccaneers, Privateers, Corsairs, Raiders, Filibusters, Freebooters. Their modus operandi is pretty much the same across the board: independent acts of robbery or violence, typically taking place on the sea, committed by one vessel against another vessel or town. Sometimes they are romanticized and revered, other times demonized and reviled; how they are seen depends on who they ultimately serve.
Piracy has been around for just about as long as ships have traversed the seas. At some point in the mid-13th century, King Henry III became the first known monarch to grant commissions to the captains of private sailing vessels giving them sovereign right to act on behalf of the issuing nation to attack and plunder the ships of enemy nations as acts of war. After about 50 years, this royal writ came to be known as a Letter of Marque, and thus the privateer (or corsair, if you were French) was born.
Pirates, no matter what flavor they came in, had to be uncommonly resourceful in order to be successful and survive. In the case of privateers, they may have had the blessings of a nation, but they didn’t necessarily have their backing; those who operated illegally had to also evade or face off against pirate hunters and military ships alike. As such, pirates often utilized various tactics and ruses de guerre (or ruses of war), such as psychological warfare, to deceive their target or collect valuable intelligence from them.
One of the new shows streaming on Crunchyroll this season, Bodacious Space Pirates, uses many such ruses de guerre to lull its viewers into complacency, leading us to believe one thing while the show aims for something else entirely. With its title, its origin (this series is based off of the light novel, Miniskirt Space Pirates), and its early promos, it was easy to believe that the show would be little more than action-oriented fluff, with cute girls flashing high-tech weaponry to get what they want.However, what it delivers has so much more substance and promise that many were stunned by its initial assault.
Rather than your typical action/adventure space fantasy, Bodacious Space Pirates ventures closer towards space opera territory, and even incorporates some elements of hard sci-fi into its storytelling. Sure, there are still a few aspects of silliness, such as the girls’ perfectly starched sailor fuku (though, when you think about it, is probably even more appropriate in a show about space pirates than in many other shows),keeps them modest even in zero-G.
Marika Kato is a naturally talented sailor, as demonstrated by her performance in space skiff simulators, who discovers that she is the onlychild of the former captain of the space pirate ship, Bentenmaru. As of Captain Kato’s passing, she is, by law, the sole inheritor of his ship and its Letter of Marque, issued by her home planet, Sea of the Morning Star. Until that point, she thought of space pirates as an extinct artifact from a war over a century past, but upon learning that they were still around – and still legal – she reluctantly embraces her calling, and demonstrates that her pedigree has granted her much more than just the ability to sail a ship.
Her mother, once a space pirate aboard the Bentenmaru herself known by the moniker “Blaster Ririka,” teaches Marika that a major part of being a space pirate is psychological. A pirate’s ability to convince her target of her strength and superiority can often end a confrontation before it leads to combat, though having a big gun handy really helps. Such is another ruse de guerre that a pirate must master.
Marika doesn’t jump into her new role straight away, instead taking time to mull over her choices. In the course of the events that gradually lead her to her final decision, the show takes the opportunity to introduce us to the world around her and that despite the obvious technological advances, many other things have survived through the centuries. Some of the newer tech seems to be a perfectly natural progression from today’s gadgets, such as the integration between an analog magazine and digital displays, but what the show likes to remind us is that there is nothing quite like good old human effort and ingenuity.
As the heir-apparent of the Bentenmaru, all eyes are on Marika, and her days of living and playing as a normal schoolgirl are gone. Marika tests her sailing chops with her school’s yachting club, where many of her fellow club members turn out to be hiding a few secrets of their own. Some of Bentenmaru’s crew members infiltrate her school to pose as staff members, going so far as to become her homeroom teacher and advisor to her club, and they plan a voyage to sail the school’s own yacht, the Odette II, around the solar system.
This is where some of the more interesting aspects of the series come into play. Unknown belligerents attempt to infiltrate the Odette II’s computer systems and instead of confronting them head on, Marika and one of her club mates,the transfer student Chiaka Kurihara, engage in electronic warfare to fend off the invasion. Marika begins to demonstrate superior judgment, leadership, and decision-making abilities at this time despite being out of her element with respect to EW. As the final confrontation approaches, many other ruses de guerre come into play: transmitting false data, feigning inactivity, masking unit identification, deception, and ambushes. There are so many more dimensions to standard space combat.
Besides the unconventional display of space naval tactics and warfare, another thing to watch out for are the subtle displays that characters exhibit throughout the series. Watch for characters’ reactions to certain events – are there hidden meanings to their expressions that speak to more secrets, or are they another ruse to throw us off guard? Kane McDougal, Bentenmaru’s helmsman who is posing as Marika’s homeroom teacher and club advisor, drinks plenty of beer, but also seems to enjoy a good tea. Chiaki seems cold and distant, but often reveals a more girly side and is embarrassed by Marika’s display of affection. These little character quirks do more for character development than exposition ever could.
Then there’s the series’ setting and how the use of technology and environment can really tell you a lot about the world and the era it’s in. Observe the wasteland that Ririka takes Marika to during their mother-daughter chat. All those wrecked ships speak to a horrendous war resulting from Sea of the Morning Star’s declaration of independence. The existence of a tank shows that the fighting wasn’t just up in space either. Given how powerful a handheld weapon is in Marika’s time, one wonders how much destruction had to have been unleashed during the war.
Bodacious Space Pirates is a show that has surprised and will likely continue to surprise as the season goes on. You’d better keep an eye on it or it might hit you when you least expect it to. After all, deception, surprise, and ambush are just how pirates do things.
This article was originally published in the Crunchyroll newsletter on March 26, 2012. Reprinted with permission. | <urn:uuid:b6c29f78-97d0-4b6a-9257-595dfe61ff6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.a-kon.com/?p=1523&wpmp_switcher=desktop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971493 | 1,556 | 2.125 | 2 |
Men look at mobile phones at the Adjame market in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The market for mobile telephones in developing countries has grown quickly, and now Facebook and Google are trying to get users to use the Internet on their devices.
Originally published on Sat November 10, 2012 11:47 am
The chances are slim that a person living in poverty in a developing nation has access to the Internet on a computer. It's expensive and, in some places, there's a lack of infrastructure to support it.
The chances are better, though, that that person owns a cellphone. It's probably not an iPhone or an Android, and he or she probably hasn't purchased a data plan for it, but it has the ability to access the Internet.
Google believes that this category of cellphone user is the future of its expansion.
New Hampshire Gov.-elect Maggie Hassan and Gov. John Lynch visit with fourth-graders from Derry, N.H., at the Statehouse on Thursday in Concord. Come January, Hassan will govern a state where — for the first time — all U.S. senators and representatives also are women.
Credit Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters/Landov
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., is joined by her children, Katherine and Jacob, in campaigning with Mitt Romney on July 4 in Wolfeboro, N.H.
I'd like to thank Carol Shea-Porter, Ann McLane Kuster, Jeanne Shaheen, Kelly Ayotte, Maggie Hassan and ... Jocelyn Chertoff.
On Tuesday, Democrats Shea-Porter and McLane Kuster won congressional seats from New Hampshire. They'll join Democratic Sen. Shaheen and Republican Sen. Ayotte in the nation's capital in January when the 113th Congress convenes — giving New Hampshire the first-in-the-nation all-female congressional delegation.
Author Ian McEwan's latest creation, Serena Frome, isn't much of a spy. She got recruited into MI5 by her Cambridge history tutor, whom she wanted to dazzle. But he dumps her, and she never sees it coming. She winds up on the clerical side of the operation, cross-filing schemes and plots to stop terrorists, until one day, in the middle of the Cold War, she's summoned to the fifth floor of the agency, where five wise men ask her to rank three British novelists according to their merit: Kingsley Amis, William Golding and David Storey.
Credit Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Chinese villagers welcome the arrival of tractors purchased by a farmers' cooperative in April 1958, during the Great Leap Forward campaign. The disastrous modernization program ended in China's great famine and tens of millions of deaths.
Credit Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Yang Jisheng is a Chinese author and journalist. After graduating from Tsinghua University, he was a career journalist with Xinhua News Agency.
Credit Louisa Lim/NPR
Yang Jisheng, 72, spent a decade working undercover, secretly amassing official proof of China's great famine. "When you are writing history, you can't be too emotional. You need to be calm and objective," he says. "But I was angry the whole time. I'm still angry."
It's not often that a book comes out that rewrites a country's history. But that's the case with Tombstone, which was written by a retired Chinese reporter who spent 10 years secretly collecting official evidence about the country's devastating great famine. The famine, which began in the late 1950s, resulted in the deaths of millions of Chinese. | <urn:uuid:d792ac3d-d213-425d-8386-4971cfe6009b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kccu.org/npr-news?page=2306 | 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 | 0.95628 | 761 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I'm using VS 2010 and .net 4. I'm trying to figure out how to make a textbox be multiline and set the rows in codebehind. Can anyone help.
I'm trying to figure it out for a user control that i'm working on. So in the properties passed through the to user control it will set the textbox to be a multiline or not. | <urn:uuid:f78f7edc-d1d2-4900-bbac-791570689d76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4473563/asp-net-add-multiline-and-rows-to-textbox-in-codebehind | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923086 | 81 | 1.617188 | 2 |
KOLKATA: Just when the city was starting to breathe easy after a tough battle with dengue over the last couple of months, here comes a shocker. Doctors say thousands of children are battling with another disease that has symptoms similar to dengue. That kids are more vulnerable to the hand, foot and mouth disease has left parents and doctors across the city worried.
Paediatrician Shantanu Ray say he has never come across so many hand, foot and mouth cases in Kolkata before. "Most have been extremely severe. The rashes are taking at least a week to go. It's leading to a complete loss of appetite, weakness and fever. Lack of awareness has made things worse. Parents of affected children are often sending their children to school mistaking it to be ordinary body rashes. It has hastened the spread of the disease," he adds.
The initial symptoms of the disease - fever, headache, loss of appetite and rashes - have left both doctors and patients confused and scared. Even though hand, foot and mouth usually strikes only children and is rarely fatal, it has been severe, prompting doctors to treat it as seriously as dengue.
Caused by a highly contagious virus, it has been affecting children aged between two and eight years. Hand, foot and mouth disease rarely affects those above 10 years of age. But it spreads from person to person through nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the stools of an infected person. A child is most contagious in the first week when he/she contracts the disease.
Soon after the dengue epidemic started in late July, hand, foot and mouth, too, had set in. By late August, thousands had been affected in Kolkata. The numbers have started going down, but the virus is still active, say doctors.
"Since it coincided with dengue, it led to a panic. The symptoms are scarily similar to that of dengue. Apart from the rashes, which are restricted to the mouth, hands and feet, other indicators are no different from that of dengue. High fever, headache, loss of appetite are the common indicators," said Arindam Kar, director, Medica Institute of Critical Care.
But it could be even more painful than dengue, pointed out some experts. The blisters triggered by the virus could appear on the tongue, lips and other parts of the mouth, making it painful to chew and swallow food.
Several playschools had to shut down following the outbreak. Many asked parents to stop sending their children to school if they had rashes. "Almost 20% of our students had the disease. It was spreading fast so we had shut down for a week," said the teacher in charge of a playschool in Alipore. "Fortunately, our students have not yet been affected. But there is reason to be careful," said Malini Bhagat, principal, Mahadevi Birla Girls' Higher Secon-dary School.
Hand, foot and mouth disease is a relatively common infection viral infection that usually begins in the throat. Caused by intestinal viruses of the picornaviridae family, it takes three to seven days for the symptoms to develop. It is less common in adults, but those with immune deficiencies are very susceptible.
There is no specific treatment for the infection other than relief of symptoms. Treatment with antibiotics does not work and is usually not recommended. "But it might be necessary in some cases. Also, the blisters need to be treated with ointments to make them disappear fast," said Ray. | <urn:uuid:dc12ad9c-7cbe-43e4-9a4d-6a79ef404c65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-03/kolkata/34238255_1_dengue-arindam-kar-medica-institute | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978475 | 747 | 2.578125 | 3 |
My dear friends,
I am currently designing a circuit whereby using 16 pins of a micro controller, I would like to trigger 64 outputs using the attached schematic. I plan to do this by using a matrix style connection (8 x
. The schematic only shows this using 6 pins (3 x 3) otherwise it would have been too large to draw. The problem follows:
1. Apart from the resistor needed on the input of the opto to limit the current, what else do I need on the input side to protect the uC as some pins will be sinking current while others will be sourcing it.
2. I will drive everything using a 12V battery but the uC has a 7805v regulator. How do I continue the circuit from the output side of the opto in order to drive a mosfet using 12v? Can you provide a small schematic of how to wire the rest of the circuit from a single opto?
3. The switching from the uC must be very fast. Can you kindly suggest a reliable and robust opto coupler and mosfet? The current that the mosfet will be driving will not be more than 500mA but I do not wish to load the opto coupler.
4. Finally the most important thing, is that the output (of the mosfet) is very clean and that NO VOLTAGE whatsoever is present on the output unless the uC wants to. How do I ensure this life or death situation
Thanks for your help | <urn:uuid:c5c44e90-95f3-40e1-b386-efb132aea240> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.electronics-lab.com/forum/index.php?topic=24621.msg100503 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900514 | 306 | 2.15625 | 2 |
Need help using a computer or getting online? Digital Vans– essentially computer labs on wheels are available for NYCHA residents and community members to link to the Internet, search for job opportunities, touch-up your resume and much more. The vans travel around the city, stopping in areas that have limited or no access to broadband high-speed internet service. Come aboard and sit down at any one of eight laptop computers, with wireless Internet access (WiFi), and printers. WiFi also allows people with their own laptop computers to be outside the van and access the Internet for free. The Digital Vans program is led by the efforts of NYCHA’s Departments of Citywide Programs and Information Technology, and the services are offered free of charge as part of the federal government’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, which seeks to expand broadband access and adoption in communities across America.
To find out which developments the NYCHA Digital Van is scheduled to visit, call 212-306-8090, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org or click your borough below to find the schedule for specific developments. Please note: Van schedules are subject to change.
Monday – Friday, 10 am – 4 pm | <urn:uuid:5c59757d-83b6-42ed-a2d8-63a738a77c17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/html/community/education_digital_vans.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919608 | 249 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Primary school reads
Look out for these books on your next library visit – and add your own ideas below.
Compiled by Suzie Joubert, a Grade 6 mom with a knowledge of books, Camps Bay Primary offers learners the challenge of reading at least one of these books each term.
Click an image below to take you to the full list for each grade:
Does your school have a similar list? Mail it to email@example.com and we’ll load it up. | <urn:uuid:a89257f7-860f-47d0-bb83-47a27907f0e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.parent24.com/Back-to-School/Primary-school-reads-20110511 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930611 | 104 | 1.695313 | 2 |
“It’s Tu B’Av tonight,” I say casually to my friends, waiting for them to bite.
“Oh, Tu B’Av,” I say, my inner hipster breaking free. “It’s a pretty obscure Jewish holiday. You’ve probably never heard of it.”
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s like Valentine’s Day, only better.”
“What do you do?”
When I make the same speech about Purim vs. Halloween, it usually goes better. However, Purim is widely celebrated, well-known, and even has attracted high-profile non-Jews to the festivities. Snooki even attended a Purim party two years ago (where the roof caved in, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say it wasn’t her fault).
In the all-out war of the holidays, Tu B’Av should be a clear winner.
- According to “exhaustive” Internet research, Tu B’Av probably predated Valentine’s Day (it obviously predated Christianity, but I’m referring to the pagan precursor to Valentine’s Day, which was Roman. Of course everything was probably pagan first, but I’ll save that for ruining my friends’ Tu B’Shvat).
- The Talmud lists Tu B’Av as one of the happiest days of the year. Cupid is known for being a meddling toddler.
- On Valentine’s Day, my single friends kvetch about how alone they are. Tu B’Av is not only singles friendly, but a holiday originally dedicated to pairing people off.
- Tu B’Av originally involved young women wearing white and dancing in the vineyards. It sounds like the cover of a Stevie Nicks album. You just can’t top that.
So why is Tu B’Av more obscure than, say Tu B’Shvat? There really wasn’t anything to do this erev Tu B’Av. There were a couple of singles events around the city, but the best option was $30 at the door. You can’t put a price on love, but when shopping for potential first dates surely there must be something nice on clearance. I’ve never celebrated Valentine’s Day, always saying I’ll wait until Tu B’Av. Then I usually forget about Tu B’Av until after it’s over.
I turned to my friends. One of my closest friends got engaged over this Tu B’Av, but nearly everyone else that I spoke to sort of sighed forlornly and wished they could celebrate somehow or realized that he hadn’t texted his girlfriend about it.
I say we start a holiday revolt! Down with Cupid! Reclaim Tu B’Av!
Unless I forget about it next year.
The Jewish Week feels comments create a valuable conversation and wants to feature your thoughts on our website. To make everyone feel welcome, we won't publish comments that are profane, irrelevant, promotional or make personal attacks. | <urn:uuid:69bbeab1-e23f-4351-8587-0c8b92032cf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/yad/tu-bwhat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938467 | 688 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Q: What is the earned income tax credit, and how do I know if I qualify?
A: The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable credit. (A refundable credit is a tax credit that you may use to generate a refund even if you have no tax liability.) The EITC is available to certain individuals and families who have low to moderate levels of earned income (from wages, salaries, tips, bonuses and/or net earnings from self-employment) and are taking care of at least one child and up to three qualified children. In certain cases, a taxpayer with low earned income and no children may also qualify.
The IRS has a variety of tools available to see if you qualify. You can access them at the IRS EITC Home Page.
Q: Who is eligible for the earned income tax credit when both a child and a grandchild live with the grandparents of the grandchild?
A: A qualifying child for the earned income tax credit (EITC) must meet three tests: age, relationship and residency. Your son or daughter or lineal descendant of your son or daughter passes the first two tests if he/she is either under age 19 or under age 24 and a full-time student. The qualifying child must also reside with you in your home for more than six months of the year. Temporary absences for illness or school are OK.
It is possible, under the living conditions you describe, that the child is the qualifying child of both the parent and the grandparent. In such cases, either the parent or the grandparent can treat that child as their qualifying child as long as the grandparent has a higher adjusted gross income (AGI) than the parent. If the parent's AGI is higher, then only the parent may treat the child as a qualifying child. Once the determination is made as to who may treat the child as a qualifying child, it is that person who can claim the EITC, assuming that all the other rules for the EITC are met.
Also, please note that once it is determined which taxpayer has the qualifying child, the other taxpayer is not entitled to any other tax benefit for that child.
Q: How do I get the IRS to send me my earned income credit in advance of filing my return?
A: Unfortunately, the ability to receive the earned income credit in advance from your employer was discontinued effective with tax years starting after 2010.
Q: Do I have to include the child support payments and alimony I receive in income when I compute the earned income tax credit?
A: Child support payments and alimony are not included as earned income, nor are they considered investment income, for purposes of eligibility for the earned income tax credit (EITC). Child support payments are also not included in adjusted gross income. However, alimony payments are included in adjusted gross income and will affect the amount of EITC you receive.
Q: Last tax season, someone claimed my dependents, and I did not send in information to prove I should claim them. Would this affect me getting the earned income credit this year?
A: No. Your eligibility for the earned income tax credit (EITC) for any given year is based on the set of facts for that particular.year. If you have a qualifying child, your earnings and adjusted gross income are within the requisite limits, and everyone has a Social Security number, you would qualify for the EITC regardless of how you filed in a prior year.
Through the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program, AARP Foundation is providing online tax counseling as a public service, and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided. Your taxes are your responsibility. You are solely responsible for what you do in your own tax situation.
The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide Program is a volunteer-run, free tax-preparation and assistance service offered to low- and middle-income taxpayers with special attention to those age 60 and older. Our volunteers are trained and IRS-certified to understand individual federal-tax issues. Our volunteers provide tax assistance as a public service and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information provided. | <urn:uuid:a5a29ac7-797f-4f36-a59c-947958f08d99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/info-05-2010/faq_earned_income_credit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972726 | 858 | 1.695313 | 2 |
After surging late last summer and early fall in response to the severe drought, prices for beef hay in southwestern Missouri appear to be cooling off, reports Eldon Cole.
Currently, grass hay – mostly fescue packaged in large round bales weighing around 1,000 lbs – has been bringing $40/bale locally, says the Mt. Vernon-based livestock specialist with University of Missouri (MU) Extension.
“Last summer and fall, when we were so dry, the price per bale was closer to $60-65 for the same kind of hay,” he says. “And a lot of those bales were probably in the range of 800-900 lbs. It was a very strong market, mostly because nobody wanted to give up any hay.”
Relatively mild winter weather so far has helped ease prices, says Cole. “We really haven’t had any snow or ice to speak of. And our temperatures have been on the normal side. So there hasn’t been a lot of stressful weather as far as animal comfort is concerned. As a result, we haven’t seen as much hay being fed.”
Some livestock producers may be tentative about selling surplus hay stocks given current soil-moisture levels, Cole believes. “We had 2” of rain in mid-January. But over the last two years, we’re still 25” below normal for precipitation in the area. That could be causing some livestock producers, who might otherwise be trying to sell some of their extra hay at this time of year, to hold back. They’re thinking that if we have another dry year in 2013, they might need that hay.” | <urn:uuid:b8b230f0-4e29-4baf-bdfc-ce3995f1c862> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hayandforage.com/hay/beef-hay-prices-ease-southwestern-missouri | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967171 | 356 | 1.976563 | 2 |
This is Week 35 of our 52 weeks of Sharing Memories - A Genealogy Journey Journal. I hope you'll join us with your memories! Write them down - you don't have to share them. Your memories can be private - write them in a journal at home, or they can be shared publicly here on OliveTreeGenealogy Blog or on your own Blog.
My mother was not a good cook. Her meals were quite awful - liver so overcooked it was like chewing on leather. And to make matters worse (for me) we did not have much money so we ate only the cheaper cuts of meat.
Some of my memories are of horrid oxtail stew with globs of grease and fat floating on top. Tripe shivering and gelatinous on a white plate and floating in white milky sauce. Pigs feet and pigs tails. Heart so chewy and rubbery it felt much like a pink pearl eraser. Liver so overcooked it was like eating shoe leather.
But as awful as my memories are of my mother's meals, they deserve to be recorded for my grandchildren and future generations. There is humour to be found in my memories of sitting at the table pouring as much ketchup as I could on a pile of dry boiled potatoes which had been semi-mashed with no milk or margarine or butter.... trying to make them wet enough to swallow!
Or sitting and staring at my plate of white jelly-like tripe which I swear was moving on its own. I could hardly eat my mother's cooking and was quite skinny as a youngster.
When I was just barely a teenager I told my mother I wanted to do all the cooking from now on. She happily agreed! To this day I love to cook, in fact I have my own cooking/recipe blog called Ollie's Yummy In Your Tummy.
But the one thing my mother made that I loved were Sour Cream Twists. She only made them once every few months but I loved them. Years later I asked her for the recipe but she claimed she didn't have it. After her death I found it in her recipe box and one day when I'm feeling very brave I plan to make them. Why am I waiting? Because I'm afraid they won't taste as I remember them and my one lovely memory of food will be ruined.
What are your memories of food? I hope my own children have good memories of the food I made them and of the smells from the kitchen but only time will tell! | <urn:uuid:4d5968d3-4ee5-4cec-82fa-8d0a8b7dbf9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/08/sharing-memories-week-35-mmmmm-good.html?showComment=1280685855821 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986054 | 514 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Earlier this month, the 2nd Circuit Federal Court of Appeals refused to prosecute pharmaceutical sales representative Alfred Caronia for conspiring to sell a drug “off-label” (without FDA approval for that indication). While Caronia was caught in the act, and the lower court found him guilty of the conspiracy, the majority in this 2-1 panel decision ruled the government was prosecuting Caronia for his First Amendment-protected speech, and vacated the lower court’s judgment. The punishment he avoided was no more than a $25 fine and one year’s probation, yet this case might go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The narrow reading of the court’s ruling is that it hinders the FDA’s ability to prosecute misdemeanor off-label marketing by sales representatives, forcing them to focus their energies on the bigger fish up the food chain, such as sales managers and corporations. The broad reading is that it eliminates the FDA’s power to prosecute for off-label marketing at all. Pro-pharma pundits claim the holding goes so far as to limit the government’s ability to bring a civil suit under the False Claims Act (FCA) for off-label sales. However, we cast a more skeptical eye. While we believe the case was wrongly decided, its impact as a precedent is likely limited to pharmaceutical sales representatives accused of a misdemeanor, not their bosses or the corporation.
Take Two of These and Call Me in the Morning
Here’s how the issues in this case play out. Imagine your doctor gives you a drug because you have insomnia and the bottle says “use as directed,” but the label gives you directions for people with some disease you’ve never heard of. You search for directions for use with insomnia and cannot find them – anywhere. You look closer at the bottle’s Black Box warning and see language that scares you: “This drug is a known drug of abuse. Even at recommended doses, use has been associated with confusion, depression and other neuropsychiatric events. Important adverse events associated with abuse of this drug include seizure, respiratory depression…. with instances of coma and death.”
You call your doctor who prescribed the drug, and he assures you that it is “perfectly safe.” He can’t remember where he got the idea, but he’s confident that a half dose should be fine for insomnia.
You take the drug, go to sleep, wake up three and a half hours later sweating profusely, take another dose, go to sleep again and sleepwalk into your neighbor’s yard. In the morning, your neighbor wakes you and invites you in for a much-needed cup of coffee. Luckily, she’s a lawyer. She goes online to find the drug company has been sued for fraud to the tune of $20 million, for marketing to patients, like you, that don’t have the disease indicated on the label. Moreover, the company failed to report 72 negative reactions and ten deaths last spring. As it turns out, your doctor got the idea to prescribe – and those directions – from a sales representative for the drug company, along with a doctor the sales rep recommended.
Who is at fault, here? Anyone? Everyone?
This is the question explored in the Second Circuit’s majority opinion, along with a vigorous dissent. In 2002, Xyrem received FDA approval for one very narrow use: the treatment of cataplexy (weak or paralyzed muscles) associated with narcolepsy. The US population suffering from narcoleptic cataplexy is extremely small (between 20,000 and 50,000 patients). To expand its profit potential, Orphan Medical resorted to a marketing strategy designed to promote Xyrem for numerous unapproved indications. This marketing strategy led to $20 million in 2005 sales alone.
Orphan had a policy in place for what sales reps should do when asked by doctors about off-label uses of Xyrem: direct that doctor to fill out a request for information to be sent to the company, for the company to address. Yet, Mr. Caronia recommended prescribing the drug to patients as young as 14 for uses including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or chronic pain – even advising on which diagnostic codes to use. We know this because every word was being recorded by his potential “customer” – a doctor working off his plea deal with the government by serving as an informant for the FBI. It turns out Mr. Caronia was hired a few months into the investigation of illegal Xyrem marketing that led its manufacturer to pay a $20 million settlement with the US government in 2007.
Mr. Caronia’s case went before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals just after the Supreme Court’s Sorrell v. IMS decision on data mining. The majority in Caronia’s opinion accepted the sales representative’s interpretation of Sorrell as protecting his First Amendment right to say anything about Xyrem, as long as his statements did not reach the level of fraud, thus invalidating the most compelling evidence for misdemeanor misbranding: his speech. This, despite him calling the drug “perfectly safe” when it holds a black box warning. The majority here protects “truthful, non-misleading” off-label marketing, even if that speech is evidence of a conspiracy to bring drugs to market for unapproved purposes. This is a bad outcome when applied to the facts of this case, but a disastrous outcome when applied more broadly to corporate and individual prosecution under the FDCA.
Mr. Caronia’s case should not serve as precedent for a change in the way US courts interpret the FDCA. Drug companies have overwhelming incentives to maximize sales before patents run out, and sales representatives are under the gun to deliver those profits however possible. As products liability lawyer Bill Cash opines: “[d]rug sales representatives are low-level employees, often with little or no medical training, who have only one function: to push pills.” Given the vast difference in culpability between a sales representative and those at the top that knowingly apply the pressure to their own ends, the case is a poor choice for SCOTUS review of the breadth of the FDCA. Individual violators should be prosecuted when appropriate, but more importantly, companies should be held both criminally and civilly liable for the dangerous practice of off-label marketing. Any threat to that is a threat to consumers, to the intent of the FDCA and to the purpose of the Food and Drug Administration.
– Khadijah M. Britton, JD, Program Associate, Prescription Access and Quality | <urn:uuid:2cd3546e-a7c9-4435-a17f-0a7e9b901f35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://postscript.communitycatalyst.org/?cat=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958419 | 1,379 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Exchange-Rate Pass-Through to Import Prices in the Euro Area
NBER Working Paper No. 11632
This paper presents an empirical analysis of transmission rates from exchange rate movements to import prices, across countries and product categories, in the euro area over the last fifteen years. Our results show that the transmission of exchange rate changes to import prices in the short run is high, although incomplete, and that it differs across industries and countries; in the long run, exchange rate pass-through is higher and close to one. We find no strong statistical evidence that the introduction of the euro caused a structural change in this transmission. Although estimated point elasticities seem to have declined since the introduction of the euro, we find little evidence of a structural break in the transmission of exchange rate movements except in the case of some manufacturing industries. And since the euro was introduced, industries producing differentiated goods have been more likely to experience reduced rates of exchange rate pass-through to import prices. Exchange rate changes continue to lead to large changes in import prices across euro-area countries. | <urn:uuid:d25307f4-d444-4ec6-95b0-ddc391cadb2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nber.org/papers/w11632 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937576 | 213 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Wyoming ranks fourth in the nation for its rate of organ and tissue donation and state health officials are urging more people to sign up.
Nearly 60 percent of Wyoming residents with driver's licenses and ID cards have agreed to donate their organs and tissues when they die.
Cherame Serrano with the Wyoming Department of Health says about 145 people in Wyoming are currently waiting for transplants.
Anybody can be a potential donor regardless of their age, race or medical history. They can sign up to become donors whenever they apply for or renew their driver's licenses. They also can register online at http://www.donatelifewyoming.org. | <urn:uuid:10c79793-41ab-43d3-b2d9-acad294f9540> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/wyoming-ranks-fourth-organ-donation-rate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969565 | 134 | 2.078125 | 2 |
The eighth grade was writing poems and creating illuminations or illustrations of them, after having read a number of poems by Rumi in a book called The Illuminated Rumi. The idea was that by asking them to think about the visual images in the Rumi poems, and comparing them to the illustrations, they would see how important visual imagery is to the development of poetic language.
Then, of course, they wrote and illuminated their own poems. It was a great little design thinking project — how does a set of word provoke a set of images? How does a set of images provoke a set of words? How can words and images together provoke new feelings?
I didn’t wish to make a poster for one of my own poems, but I figured I’d illustrate one of the poems that I have memorized, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” by John Keats who died in 1827. My deal with the English teacher in question was that I would leave in the pencil guidelines and planning marks, so that students could see my design process to some degree, and have a sense of my construction process. As I described it to her and to her class, the poem is about a book, so the illustration includes a book. On the pages of the book itself are two illustrations which are themselves illustrating the second half of poem. Both of the images are about the astonishment and amazement of discovery of unexpected sights in the natural world, so someone — the current reader, perhaps? — has illustrated the margins of the book with examples of local plants and a dragonfly. The cycle of discovery continues and grows richer and deeper. Thus, Keats’s words inspire SEVERAL layers of discovery: the possibility of delving into the writings of an ancient Greek poet; the willingness to investigate history (the “Cortez” image) and astronomy (“Watcher of the skies”); and finally the natural world and the skill of drawing (the plants in the margin notes of the book, and the poster itself).
I recently said something dumb on Balthasar’s blog which I shouldn’t have said, and I apologize here, publicly… For as I made this poster, I was uncomfortably aware of the degree to which this poem — which I’ve always liked — can be read in another way as part and parcel of a bit of cultural appropriation. Keats’s poem comments on an English translation of an ancient Greek epic, and in the process of describing that work… Keats claims both Homer, and several islands dedicated to Apollo, for the English language and the English-speaking peoples. The astronomer is in one sense gazing upon the sky in wonder, but in another he’s laying claim to the heavens. And Cortez — well. It was actually Balboa who stood at Darien in Panama, and gazed at the Pacific — but the cultural -appropriation (and -destruction) of the power- and wealth-hungry captain of the Aztec conquest should be self-evident.
But I’m not sure I would have read this poem that way without drawing it out first. I needed the opportunity to create the poster before I would have seen the cultural complexities the poem raises. And in good design fashion — the solution to one problem also raises several new problems on its own. As my friend Josh says, “There’s no better or faster way to generate problems than to create a solution.”
We discover things about the world through the thought processes we use to investigate it, and any means that we use to do that — writing, or reading, or drawing, or visualizing, or ritualizing, or glamorizing — will help us make new and deeper discoveries. It’s remarkable the things that we uncover as we go through these processes. As the poet said, “pull a thread, and find the whole world attached to it.” | <urn:uuid:088abf0b-f63f-488c-825c-50c78f55c80c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://andrewbwatt.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/john-keats-cultural-appropriation-and-drawing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96663 | 823 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Three days of mourning have been declared for 61 people crushed to death on New Year's Eve.
Three days of mourning beginning yesterday, January 2, 2013, have been declared in Côte d'Ivoire following New Year's Eve stampede that left 61 people dead in the economic capital, Abidjan, the BBC said.
President Alassane Ouattara, who visited wounded victims in hospital, described the deaths as a national tragedy. While on a visit to the site of the incident, the President announced a period of national mourning, saying he was shocked at what had happened. In a statement after visiting victims at the Cocody University Teaching Hospital in Abidjan, Ouattara ordered that an investigation be launched immediately to determine the cause of the tragedy.
He instructed government to take care of victims' bills. Meanwhile, the annual presentation of New Year messages of goodwill to the President which had been scheduled to take place today, January 3, 2013 and tomorrow at the Presidential Palace has also been postponed to a later date. Reports said a group of youths brandishing knives was snatching mobile phones from people and causing panic in the large crowd when the tragedy struck. Other accounts say security forces acted ineptly as they tried to control thousands of people walking through the city centre, triggering the stampede which also left many victims critically injured.
Hundreds of people leaving a fireworks event at the 65,000-capacity Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in the Plateau district were jammed into a tiny street in the early hours of Tuesday, January 1, 2013 when many were crushed to death while others suffocated. Many victims were said to be 15 or younger. The fireworks event had been organised to celebrate the end of the conflict triggered by 2010 presidential election dispute that eventually saw Alassane Ouattara come to power after foreign military intervention.
In similar incident, 10 people - including four children - died on New Year's Eve in a stampede during a religious gathering at a sports stadium in Luanda, the Angolan capital. The Angolan news agency, Angop, cited officials as saying 120 people were also injured. The incident happened when tens of thousands of people gathered at the stadium for an event organised by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Faustino Sebastiao, spokesman for the National Fire Department, said those who died were crushed or asphyxiated. This week's incidents bring to mind the 2009 stampede at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium in which 19 football fans died before a World Cup qualifying match against Malawi. | <urn:uuid:96349056-85e5-40a7-9aed-fc4fb426cc17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201301030658.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975896 | 526 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A fascinating study has just mapped which brain areas are most popular among scientists and which are most likely to get you published in the highest impact journals.
The image below looks like the result of an fMRI scan but instead of showing brain activity from a single experiment, it shows the average brain activity from almost every brain imaging study from 1985 to 2008.
In other words, it shows the popularity of different brain areas as reported in cognitive neuroscience publications.
Actually, if you think about it, this map shows a mix of how often the brain area is active (some areas – like the insula – are active in about a third of imaging experiments so will be more likely to be ‘popular’), how likely the results are to be published, and how motivated scientists are in targeting the area – all of which contribute to their ‘popularity’.
However, the researchers went one stage further and looked at how brain areas are linked to publication in a top tier journal:
…researchers who find activity in a prescribed part of the fusiform gyrus should be confident of having their article selected for publication in a high-impact journal, perhaps due to the role of the region in face processing. Other regions with proposed roles in emotional processing returned similarly stellar performances, including both the ventral and dorsal portions of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior insular cortex, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and the amygdala.
The recent interest in reward prediction errors might explain impactful peaks in the mid-brain and ventral striatum, areas that exhibited independent significant effects of impact factor, publication date, and their interaction: studies reporting activation in these regions are published in high-impact journals, and are increasing in number (as a proportion of all studies) over time.
Activity in a contrasting set of regions was negatively predicted by impact factor. Leading the way in ignominy was the secondary somatosensory area, but the supplementary motor area was almost equally disgraced.
The researchers also mapped this onto the brain and although the article is locked, the diagrams are free, and if you look at the second diagram on this page you can see what amounts to a career progression map of the brain.
Studying the red areas are what’ll get you published in the best journals.
So when someone tells you that science is the ‘march of progress’ just remember that it’s actually more like that time when flairs were cool again. | <urn:uuid:ca7e3c8b-6c5a-4ff1-a8ee-e5bfaecfa4f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mindhacks.com/2012/12/06/fashions-fade-style-is-eternal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960498 | 512 | 2.515625 | 3 |
There were some interesting responses to the story in the Wall Street Journal about a shortage of generic Adderall. Rather than post comments individually (other that what I have already done) let me try to sum up a few things.
Considering the issue of therapy for children with ADHD, I can understand Kathy’s frustration. Remember I worked for 27 years as a therapist with clients with ADHD. Now, to be honest, most of my clients were adults (about 90%), but included in that group were parents of children with ADHD. What I learned, sometimes painfully, is that counseling in its various forms is generally not a treatment with great outcomes for ADHD. That’s because ADHD is a neurological process — I will refrain for the moment from calling it a problem — and no amount of counseling can effect change in a neurological process.
Now what counseling can do, with certain limitations, is to help people with the emotional struggles that come from living with ADHD. This is particularly true with what are called dual diagnoses or comorbid conditions. That means simply when someone struggles with a diagnosable disorder in addition to ADHD. Common disorders people with ADHD struggle with include depression, anxiety and various flavors of obsessive and compulsive disorders.
Now before we go any further with this discussion, let’s consider a similar condition. Imagine you have poor vision in a world where there is no modern optometry or ophthalmology. Now, poor vision is a biological malfunction where some part of the complex visual process does not work. Imagine that in this world there were no glasses and certainly no surgery for corrective vision. What would your life experience be like? How would poor vision effect your life, your ability to function in society and your social relationships? Do you think this individual would struggle with life? Of course the extent of the individual’s coping would vary on a continuum from very poor to well-adjusted. And that would be based upon several factors:
- the degree of physical impairment,
- the level of psychological adjustment manifested,
- and, perhaps, the extent of your personal and social resources.
- Oh, and let’s not forget the social stigma of being “different” from others in society.
Considering these and other variables, would you expect a wide range of coping and adjustment for these individuals? Of course you would. Some could be severely impaired, nearly blind, and yet make a successful adjustment, if, for example, they came from a wealthy family which provided additional resources for the impaired individual.
Others with a minimal physical impairment would likely struggle and have significant problems adjusting to life. They might be depressed or anxious and for good reason. Society can be cruel. People can be cruel when dealing with someone who has a condition that is poorly understood. Imagine in a family with three children that two of the children have excellent vision. One, however, is extremely nearsighted, except of course, there is no such diagnosis or treatment for this condition. Family members try, but they cannot understand why this otherwise intelligent individual is such a screw up. Why can’t he pay attention in school? Why is he so disruptive in class? And, well, all my other children do well in sports. Why can’t this kid put his mind to it and succeed in school and in sports, like, well, my “other” children? They talk with the child; they try to reason with the child. But he just won’t “listen”. He’s “stubborn”. It’s very frustrating for all concerned. It just makes you want to give up, or worse.
Maybe counseling will work. Maybe being a better parent or even family therapy will help. This family loves the child, wants what’s best for the child and is willing to make an effort in getting help for this child. In that respect at least the child is lucky. Not all children experience this level of support, especially not in a family with other children who function without any of the limitations of visual impairment. Let’s think about this before deciding on a course of action. | <urn:uuid:0d134e5d-b149-4582-ba4f-ca6bdc8b3be0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.chron.com/adhdcoach/2011/10/response-to-wall-street-journal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967387 | 852 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Pictures of a big moon over a landscape are many times the result of a double exposure. Even when the moon comes closer to Earth, as it did recently, it is too small to fill the frame with normal gear. Still, there are ways to get around the thousands of miles that separate us and our big nightlight.
For the 5th of May perigee, the Moon was closer to Earth, but not enough to fill the whole frame on a EOS 5D MK III with a 400mm.
The 5th of May 2012 had the Moon at its perigee (point of trajectory closer to Earth), and closer to us than usual. The same happened in March 2011, but in both occasions, even if closer, it was still far too distant for you to get more than a small coin in the middle of your frame. In fact in March 2012 it was at 356,575 km and this May it was at 356,955 km.
Using a wide-angle lens makes the Moon become a small white disk up in the sky. That’s how the moon looks in many photos.
Depending on where you were on Earth, you had a different sized “supermoon”, as people called it, to watch. Getting the Moon rising on the horizon is one of the best options, as it seems to become smaller as it travels upwards. And once it is up there, it’s a small dot in the night sky, especially if you are using a wide-angle lens to fill the image with, for example a monument.
1. Longer lens or telescope
Unless you attach your camera to a telescope, not even a 400mm lens is enough to get a bigger picture of the Moon. The trick is to do two exposures, and then merge them together in your image editor.
The thumbnail shows the whole frame and its size, while the 600×400 image shows the section cut and resized, taken with a 400mm on a APS-C camera (so a 640mm with the crop ).
You can do a picture for the view you want and then shoot the Moon at the same location, to create a final image, afterwards. Or you can shoot the Moon whenever you find it looks interesting, and keep a library of our natural satellite to use in different situations. Remember, though, to tell people that it’s a composite image.
2.The Sunny 16 Rule
Because the Moon is so far away and surrounded by dark sky, people tend to not be able to expose it correctly. Cameras read the vast expanse of black and ask for more light than needed. The result is a washed out disc without any detail. Now, remember: the Moon is just reflecting the light from the Sun. So, as a guide to expose it, think of the “Sunny 16″ rule. In fact, an exposure of 1/125 at f/16 ISO 100 will work, especially with a full moon.
When exposing, keep a value constant and change the other to see what is right. I kept the aperture at f/8 and changed the speed (on a tripod) until I found a combination that worked.
3. Do the Maths
The Sunny 16 rule is a starting point, not a rule. Use it as guide. If the image is too dark you can either lower the speed or open the aperture. If you’re using a tripod, it really does not matter which one you change as long as you don’t go too slow. Working around 1/15 as the limit will keep you safe, but remember the speed is connected to the size of lens you use: the bigger the lens the more visible the movement will be.
Hand-holding the camera asks for something else. If you’re working with a long lens, let’s says a 400mm, you need a higher speed to keep it steady: A value of 1/500 f/8 will give you the answer and the same exposure. Now start from there. Too dark? Open the aperture. It’s that easy. The last step you can take is to increase ISO, which is easy to accept with the new sensors we have these days.
4. Remember Your Fundementals
Remember, again – this is important – that you cannot make a long exposure of the Moon. Due to the rotation of Earth, you’ll end with a white line up in the sky. But if you’ve to go to slower speeds and use a tripod, for sharp images, think about using mirror lock up together with a cable or wireless trigger to make the picture. You can also use the timer in the camera together with the mirror lock, to reduce vibrations. And get a sturdy tripod, as those flimsy supermarket ones cannot even stand a light breeze.
The big image is an example of a montage. But the thumbnail shows a real picture and proves that the Moon does pass that close to the palace.
Once you’ve got the pictures of the Moon it’s time to get the landscape you want to place it in. The image above is such an example. When creating images for this purpose leave enough free space in the upper area to get the Moon in place. This is obviously a montage, but I needed it to illustrate a concept. The palace in the picture sits atop a mountain range called, in ancient times, Mountain of the Moon.
On the other hand the small thumbnail shows that when the distance from the camera to the subject is big, elements as the palace on top of the mountain and Moon seem to have similar sizes, what helps to create those images where the Moon seems really big without having to resort to tricks. | <urn:uuid:c2efaf62-faca-44ad-a75a-8986001ca70c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/shooting-articles/easy-tips-for-shooting-the-moon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949453 | 1,182 | 3.140625 | 3 |
|For Immediate Release:
August 4, 2009
For more information, contact:
NAEYC Radio presents...
Are We Playing it Too Safe?
(Washington, D.C.) – This month’s NAEYC Radio segment features Dr. Joe Frost, known as the “contemporary father of play advocacy,” who discusses how safety standards, the anxiety of adults, and lawsuits are causing the demise of play, playgrounds and recess. He explores the impact on children and proposes ways we can reverse the trend.
Rae Pica and Mark R. Ginsberg interviewed Dr. Frost in this month’s segment of NAEYC Radio, a program brought to you by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the BAM Radio Network.
In this segment, Dr. Frost emphasizes the idea that “play builds brains.” He says years of research have shown that directed and spontaneous play help children build their social and cognitive skills. In general, play improves a child’s natural ability to be imaginative and active. He also explains how our culture of lawsuits causes anxiety in teachers who are now too scared to see children take risks in play. But a fair amount of “skinned-knee play” should be allowed, says Dr. Frost. He refers to the idea that adults need to allow children to take some risk on the playground. Dr. Frost suggests training play leaders or play workers to supervise and facilitate playground play and rejecting rules like prohibiting running during recess.
The deprivation of play has lead to a crisis among children with respect to their fitness, their health, their strength, their coordination, and cognitive abilities, Dr. Frost says.
Dr. Frost, Parker Centennial Professor Emeritus, was a faculty member and administrator at the University of Texas for 34 years. He has also received several awards, including the Doctor of Play award by the International Play Association (IPA/USA). He is also the author of several books, such as "Play and Child Development."
The BAM Radio Network was originally launched as a resource for parents, aimed at delivering the most reliable information on early childhood development and developmentally appropriate parenting to busy moms and dads. Created by leading early childhood experts, the programming quickly became a popular resource among teachers and educators and was expanded to include an Educators' Channel.
Founded in 1926, the National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest and most influential advocate for high-quality early care and education in the United States. | <urn:uuid:ce7a806c-6dad-41d9-81e3-00d2e913a8b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://naeyc.org/newsroom/pressreleases/20090804 | 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 | 0.963957 | 524 | 2.484375 | 2 |
With Gene Debs on the Fourth
October 22 was the 125th birthday of socialist journalist Marxists Internet Archive., who is probably best known for his account of the Russian Revolution Ten Days that Shook the World. This article, which originally appeared in the Liberator in 1918, tells about Reed's meeting with socialist Eugene V. Debs a month after the antiwar speech in Canton Ohio that got Debs arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. This text is republished from the
"WHAT'LL it be, Mr. Sparks?" asked the drug-clerk, with the familiarity of common citizenship in Terre Haute, Ind., and the respect due to a successful politician.
"Gimme a nut sundae, George," said the lawyer, who lived around the corner on Sycamore street. Sparks is not his real name. He was dressed up in a new grey suit, adorned with a small American flag, buttons of the First and Third Liberty loans, and a Red Cross emblem. "Reg'lar Fourth o' July weather, hey George?"
Through the windows of the drugstore Eighth Street looked extremely animated; with families trooping toward the center of the town, Hags aslant in children's hands, mother and pa in holiday attire and sweating freely; with patriarchal automobiles of neighboring farmers, full of starched youngsters and draped with bunting. Faintly came the sound of an occasional firecracker, and the thin strains of martial music from the parade. A hot, sticky wind blew occasional puffs of yellow dust up the street.
"Yes, we got a spell of heat all right," responded George. "We're going to close the store pretty soon and go up town to see the p'rade." He scooped ice cream and went on gossiping. "They say Gene Debs has got arrested up to Cleveland..."
Everyone in the place stopped talking and looked up.
"Yes," said the lawyer in a satisfied tone. "Ye-e-es, I guess from what the papers say Gene stepped over the line this time. I guess they'll shut him up now."
An old man in a stiff white shirt, with grey whiskers sticking out of a shrewd, smooth-shaven face, looked up from a table in the corner.
"Do ye think they're again' to put Gene in jail?" he queried, a little anxiously.
"He'll have to pay the penalty of breakin' the law just the same as other folks," answered Sparks, virtuously. "If he's again' to make trouble for the Gov'ment, trouble is what he'll get. This ain't any time to talk Socialism..."
George paused in his concoction of a milk shake. "You know Hank, the policeman; well he was in here last night, and he says Gene Debs ought to ben locked up 25 years ago.
There were mutters of approval at this.
"It's bad for the town," announced Mr. Sparks. "Why with all the money Gene Debs has made out on the Chautauqua, he ain't bought a single Liberty bond..."
A raw-boned, brick-colored youth who sat with two giggling girls in muslin finery, spoke out fiercely: "I bet the Kaiser would give him the Iron Cross if he ever heard about Gene Debs!"
The old man with the chin-whiskers mildly intervened. "We-e-ell, that's goin' a leetle strong," he remarked. "Everybody knows Gene Debs. He ain't no traitor, Gene ain't. Only jest a trifle flighty, that's all's a matter with Gene Debs..."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVERYBODY KNOWS Gene Debs in Terre Haute. Sixty-two years ago he was born in Terre Haute, of parents who came to America from Alsace. Gene's father was of upper middle-class family, and owned mills in Colmar. He fell in love with a girl who worked in one of his mills, and renounced his heritage to marry her. They came to Indiana as immigrants, and lived through hells of poverty...
This was all before 1870. But old man Debs never admitted that Alsace could be German. On his tombstone he had engraved, "Born at Colmar, Alsace, FRANCE."
Gene, his father and his mother went through their political and economic evolution together. Together Gene and his father voted for the Greenback Party, then for the Populists...and that way, the characteristically American way, Gene Debs and his father and mother came to Socialism...
Terre Haute is a rich little country town in the Hoosier land, where Eugene Field came from, and James Whitcomb Riley, and a whole raft of novelists and poets. Going through that country on the train I can never resist the feeling that after all, this is real America. Trim villages, white farm-houses set in trees, fields of tasseled corn; shallow rivers flawing between earthen banks, little rolling hills spotted with lazy cows, bare-legged children; the church-spires and graveyards of New England, transported hither by Protestant folk, mellowed and grown more spacious by contact with the South and West; rural schoolhouses, and everywhere hideous and beloved monuments commemorating the Civil War; locusts jarring in the sycamores, an almost overwhelming fertility rioting in the black earth, steaming in the procreative heat of flat-country summer, and distilling a local sweetness that is distinctively American-sentimental and humorous.
The Middle West, with its tradition of settled, country-living folk, and behind that, the romance of the Civil War, and still further back, the epos of the race moving West and conquering...
Here lives Gene Debs, authentic kin of Field and Riley, American, Middle Western, shrewd, tender-hearted, eloquent and indomitable. When I was a small boy, my conception of Uncle Sam was just what I found Gene Debs to be--and I'm not at all sure my instinct was wrong.
It was on the Fourth of July that Art Young and I went to Terre Haute to see Gene. Barely a month before, the terrible rumor had gone round, chilling all our hearts--"Gene Debs is going back on the party!" That lie he nailed in the ringing statement published in the New York Call, and the Wallings, the Simonses, the Bensons cringed under the lash of his words...Then came his tour through the middle states, menaced everywhere with arrest, violence, even lynching...and Debs calmly speaking according to schedule, fearless, fiery and full of love of people...Then his Canton speech, a clear internationalist manifesto, and the Cleveland arrest.
"Gene Debs arrested! They've arrested Gene!" people said everywhere, with a shock, a feeling of pity, of affection, of rage. Nothing that has happened in the United States this year has stirred so many people just this way. The long sentences given to conscientious objectors, the suppression of the Socialist press, the indictment of editors, lecturers, Socialist officials under the Espionage and Sedition Acts--people didn't seem to he deeply moved by these things; but the arrest and indictment of Gene Debs--of Gene Debs as a traitor to his country! That was like a slap in the face to thousands of simple people--many of them not Socialists at all--who had heard him speak and therefore loved him. Not to mention the hundreds he has personally befriended, helped or even saved from every sort of evil...
"Gene Debs arrested! Our Gene! That's going too far!"
It appears that Allan Benson had come out with a piece in the paper criticizing the authorities for arresting Debs at the moment when he was "just on the point of going over to the National Party!" Sitting there in his darkened sitting room, with the busts of Voltaire, Rousseau and Bob Ingersoll just behind him, he chuckled over Mr. Benson's perspicacity. I couldn't help seeing a ludicrous mental picture of Gene Debs in the company of pious Prohibition preachers and Socialist renegades. "Cheap skates," was Gene's dismissal of the whole tribe.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
HE WAS in bed when we arrived, but insisted on getting up. Not very well, his wife said, had not been well a whole year. How gaunt and tall he was, how tired his long burned-up body looked; and yet with what a consuming inward radiance he came forward and greeted us, holding both his hands on ours, looking at us so eagerly, as if his affection for us was so deep...We felt wrapped in Gene Debs' affection. I had never met him, but I had heard him speak. How from that body and soul then he had poured out vitality, flaming across all his time, warmth and courage and belief!
Now he was older, more ravaged by the strain of giving and fighting; but his smile was still as delighted, and his sympathy as wonderful, and the tides of his indomitability at the service of anyone...
Gene talked. You who have never heard him talk don't know just what that means. It isn't erudition, fine choice of words, or well-modulated voice that makes his charm but the intensity of his face, glowing, and the swift tumbling out of his sincere words. He told about his trip, describing with boyish pleasure how he outwitted the detectives watching for him in Cleveland; and how mayors and patriotic committees in little towns had warned him not to speak--and he had spoken, just the same.
"Aren't you afraid of lynching?" I asked him.
Gene smiled. "Now that's a funny thing," he said. "I just don't happen to think about it, some way. I guess I'm sort of psychically protected, anyway. I know that so long as I keep my eye on them, they won't dare to do anything. As a rule they're cowardly curs anyway. Keep your eye right on them., that's all..."
Outside as he talked to us the automobiles went by, covered with flags, and the sound of the parade came drifting down...Looking through the darkened windows we watched the people. As they passed the house they motioned or pointed toward it, with expression compounded half of eager malice, and half of a sort of fear. "That's where Gene Debs lives," you could see them saying, as one would say, "The House of the Traitor..."
"Come on," said Gene, suddenly. "Let's go out and sit on the front porch and give 'em a good show, if they want to see me."
So we went out on the porch, and took off our coats. And those who passed only looked furtively our way, and whispered, and when they caught Gene's eye, bowed over-cordially.
The old man told us how the people of Indiana, and indeed, of all the Middle States, were will-broken and terrorized by "Loyalty" leagues, citizens' committees, vigilantes--and whipped into hysteria besides...The old frankness which still characterized Hoosier farmers before the War, was now all gone. No one dared speak his mind to anyone. Many, many loved him, Gene Debs, who dared not testify in any other way except by anonymous letters...He spoke of leaders of the people who, after being beaten by mobs, or tarred and feathered, abandoned their rebellion and conformed to the view of the majority.
"If they did that to me," said Gene, "even if I changed my mind I don't think I could say so !"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THERE WAS something tragic, and funny, in the way Terre Haute regarded Gene. Before the war, Gene added luster to the name of the town, as well as having an immense personal popularity. In the beginning, practically the whole population, all through that section, was against going to war...But since the war the usual phenomenon has happened in Terre Haute. The whole place has been mobilized physically and spiritually. Except Gene Delis. The simpler people couldn't understand it. The bankers, lawyers and merchants felt for him a terrible rancor. Even the ministers of the gospel, who had often implored him to address their conventions, now held meetings denouncing "the enemy in our midst."
No names were mentioned. No one dared to call Gene Debs "enemy" to his face. When he went down the street, everyone was studiously polite. Department of Justice operatives, volunteer detectives of all sorts, Liberty loan agents, prowled all around his house--but did not dare to enter and front the old lion. Once a businessmen's "patriotic" committee descended upon a German-born workman, and threatened him. Gene heard about it, and sent word to the committee: "Come down to my house, why don't you, instead of to the place of a poor man. I have a shotgun waiting for you fellows." The committee did not come...
I have a picture of Gene Debs, his long bony head and shining face against a background of bright petunias in a box on the rail, his lean hand lifted with the long, artist's fingers giving emphasis to what he said:
"Say, isn't it great the way most of the boys have stood up? Fine! If this can't break them down, why then I know nothing can. Socialism's on the way. They can't stop it, no matter what they do. The more breaks the other side makes, the better for us...
And as we went down the steps, wringing our hands, dapping us on the shoulder, winning and warm, he said-and all the neighbors could hear him, too--
"Now you tell all the boys everywhere who are making the fight, Gene Debs says he's with you, all the way, straight through, without a flicker!" | <urn:uuid:72b3421f-ffe2-4bf1-8f24-6d8668a1843a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://socialistworker.org/2012/10/26/with-gene-debs-on-the-fourth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98073 | 2,997 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Even the most accomplished container gardeners are impressed when they encounter a full, lush, well-designed window box. Why? Because anyone who has planted and cared for one knows that a window box presents certain challenges. First, there's that odd shape to deal with. Usually long and narrow, window boxes seem to inhibit even the most daring designers, who inevitably fall back on a row of geraniums or a few cell packs of pansies. Maintenance is another issue: watering without spattering the house, the windows or passersby; deadheading and managing to keep the show going despite a small growing area. These are all hurdles, but surmountable ones.
Before buying any plants—or even the container—decide where your window box will be placed. Keep in mind that those sitting on a window ledge will obscure part of the view, more so as the plants fill out. This is desirable if you're trying to obliterate an offending view, but less so if you want to see beyond the box to the rest of your garden. A box mounted below a window is ideal, but requires non-gardening-related skills such as drilling and measuring (see “Mounting Window Boxes,” on next page). Select a location where watering will not damage nearby surfaces (e.g., not above a dining table or wicker chair).
Choose your container with care
Next, choose your container, keeping proportion in mind. A box sitting atop a window ledge should almost fill its length: too short and it will look skimpy. The same goes for a box hanging below a window. If space allows, it could even extend beyond the width of a window for a more generous look. Naturally, the deeper the container, the more space there is for roots to spread out and for water retention, but larger boxes are typically heavier, too. Before installing, determine how much weight your wall and the hanging brackets will tolerate when the soil is fully saturated. Check the packaging with the hanging brackets; sometimes a maximum weight load is provided. Fill one of the boxes with soil, water it well and lift it (or weigh it on a bathroom scale). Then, estimate if you need more than two brackets, or sturdier ones.
Look for practical materials that suit the style of your house. Those commonly used include plastic, metal and wood, and each has its merits and drawbacks. | <urn:uuid:cb75cf0c-b70f-4ece-9de9-fd6622892884> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadiangardening.com/gardens/container-gardening/secrets-of-winning-window-boxes/a/1592 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931428 | 487 | 2.140625 | 2 |
By Harsha Walia
Two months ago, Jyoti Singh Pandey was brutally raped and beaten by a group of men in Delhi. She died a few weeks later.
As someone who grew up, in part, in what is known as the rape capital of India, in some of the same neighborhoods blasted across television screens and Facebook feeds, it has taken me months to process this harrowing incident as well as the broader movement it has sparked. As Arundhati Roy notes, the outrage spilling into streets is a “very unexceptional reaction to an event which is hardly exceptional.”
Rape no longer startles me; I am seeped in sexual violence to such a degree that I too normalize it. For the past fifteen years, I have been in communities with high rates of gender violence. From India to the South Asian diaspora to the poorest postal code in Canada, the daily diet for women includes beatings, sex-selective abortions, debt extractions, going missing or being murdered, forced sex in marriage, sexual assault by police officers, family incest. Rape terrifies me, angers me, unsettles me. But it has also embedded itself in my psyche as an inevitability.
The rape and murder of Jyoti, who was perceived as a middle-class student but actually was the daughter of a poor family from Uttar Pradesh (also home to the rural feminist and pro-poor movement Gulabi Gang), suddenly wrestled me from my own accommodations to patriarchy.
Perhaps this is because countless experiences of sexual assault, rape, and incest in Delhi shape much of my narrative as a survivor. I have lied to family members and doctors about childhood injuries. I regurgitate to scores of women that it is possible to ‘heal with time,’ even though memory still fails me, shame and self-blame continue to be nightly recurrences, intimacy is a luxury, and sometimes the only assurance is that light will in fact not make its way through the cracks. I have for many years been unable to return to Delhi – due, in part, to the fact that my body, my mind, my spirit have been wholly unprepared to return to the streets, neighborhoods, and homes of Delhi.
While navigating my own relationship to Delhi and home, it has been infuriating to read Orientalist renditions of South Asian women needing saving from barbaric South Asian men. South Asian women, we are led to believe, are all subjected to honor killings and dowry deaths, coerced into arranged marriages and into killing their female babies. Cultural imperialism has essentialized communities of color as innately reactionary towards women, who are themselves constructed in inherently infantilizing ways devoid of any agency. Maintaining the myth of Western superiority requires a facade of gender equality ‘at home’ that invisibilizes, for example, the gruesome gang rape in Steubenville, Ohio, and US representative Todd Akin’s comments about ‘legitimate rape,’ and the ritualized colonial violence against Indigenous women murdered at alarming rates, and Black women in prisons and migrant women in detention centers, and women of color, poor women, transfolks, and sex workers.
Low conviction rates are thrown around as somehow unique to India, ignoring equally low conviction rates in North America and Europe. Media reports also fail to mention how India’s legal regime is a colonial legacy from 1862 that sets strict evidentiary requirements on a survivor.
We see this dynamic repeated with Harvard feminists who sidestepped Indian feminist organizations and intervened with their own Policy Task Force “to offer recommendations to India and other South Asian countries.” To be clear, I am not speaking against transnational feminist politics. Rather, I am reiterating the call for solidarities grounded in the specificity of location and privilege. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak reminds us of the dangers of non-consensual and unaccountable feminist solidarity that cheerlead “white men saving brown women from brown men.”
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the traditional fundamentalists and cultural gatekeepers brazenly declaring that rape is a product of the erosion of Indian values and due to the imposition of immoral Western values. Just days after Jyoti’s death, Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the fascist Hindutva RSS organization, ridiculously claimed, “Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But such crimes won’t happen in Bharat or the rural areas of the country. ” He further added, “Where ‘Bharat’ becomes ‘India’ with the influence of western culture, these types of incidents happen.”
Between, on the one hand, the imperialist gaze that sees women as oppressed by uncivilized culture and, on the other hand, the patriarchal gaze that sees women as property to be protected from corrupting influences, is the renewal and resurgence of a local feminist movement.
Raat mein bhi Azaadi. Din mein bhi Azaadi …
Sadak pe bhi Azaadi. Gharon mein bhi Azaadi…
Shadi karne ki Azaadi aur Na Karne ki Azaadi…
Chhattisgarh mein Azaadi aur Dilli mein bhi Azaadi.
Jangal mein bhi Azaadi. Shahron mein bhi Azaadi…
Samaj se bhi Azaadi. Sarkar se bhi Azaadi.
- Excerpt from “Notes from a Night Walk in Delhi University”
Freedom in the night and freedom in the day…
Freedom on the streets, freedom also in our homes…
Freedom to get married and not to get married…
Freedom in Chhattisgarh and freedom in Delhi…
Freedom in the jungles, freedom in the cities…
Freedom from society’s norms, freedom from the government.
Feminist movements are articulating the experience of rape survivors in highly nuanced ways – from street harassment and marital rape to child molestation and rape of transgendered women. They are also shedding light on the systematic rape of Adivasi, Dalit, Muslim, Kashmiri, and Naga women that is intimately linked to state militarism and neoliberal capitalism, and the inscription of class, caste, and communalism on women’s bodies.
Since 2000, the world’s longest hunger striker Irom Sharmila has refused to eat until the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act, which sanctions extrajudicial killings, torture, and rape in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura. In 2004, enraged by the raping of their daughters by the military and Assam Rifles paramilitaries, Manipuri mothers torched government buildings and stripped in front of army barracks with a banner declaring ‘Indian Army Rape Us.’
Submissions made to, and subsequently accepted as recommendations by, the Justice Verma Committee include the repeal of special immunity under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Over 80,000 submissions were made to this Committee, including:
- Define rape more broadly than penetration,
- Sexual violence includes everything from stalking and voyeurism to carrying out acid attacks and violence against domestic workers,
- Consent requires an unequivocal voluntary agreement,
- Outlaw marital rape,
- Imprison police offers who fail to properly investigating sexual crimes,
- Parliamentarians who are accused or charged with rape should resign,
- Sexual assault in the context of caste or communal violence is an aggravated sexual assault,
- Prohibition of the two-finger test as part of medical protocol, and,
- Survivors of sexual assault include women, children, queers, and transgendered persons.
Submissions by women’s groups also spoke against the death penalty. A joint statement declares, “We refuse to deem ‘legitimate’ any act of violence that would give the State the right to take life in our names. Justice meted by the State cannot bypass complex socio-political questions of violence against women by punishing rapists by death. Death penalty is often used to distract attention away from the real issue— it changes nothing but becomes a tool in the hands of the State to further exert its power.”
These feminists are particularly attuned to the death penalty being selectively and arbitrarily applied by the state against those who are already criminalized. A number of feminists recently condemned the secretive and sudden hanging of Kashmiri Afzal Guru. His murder by the occupying Indian government is a prime example of how the death penalty has perpetuated state terror and reinforced state hegemony; indeed, one of the crimes punishable by death is ‘waging war against the nation.’
Fundamentally, feminists continue to push for an understanding of rape as embodied violence, an assertion of power and not just an act of interpersonal violence. They are firmly centering sexual autonomy and gender liberation by, firstly, deconstructing the shame-honor paradigm in connection to rape victims and, secondly, rejecting the policing of women’s behavior as solutions to rape. On the former, Aruna Kashyap outlines how notions of ‘authentic’ victims reinforce patriarchy. She argues that “sexual violence should be completely delinked from patriarchal notions of ‘modesty,’ ‘chastity,’ or ‘virginity,’ because ideas of so-called ‘modesty’ themselves perpetuate violence and discrimination.”
On the issue of regulating women’s behavior, Kavita Krishnan boldly proclaimed in front of the Chief Ministers house, “Women know what ‘safety’ refers to. It means – You behave yourself. You get back into the house. You don’t dress in a particular way. Do not live by your freedom, and this means that you are safe. A whole range of patriarchal laws and institutions tell us what to do in the guise of keeping us ‘safe’. We reject this entire notion.”
Delhi, the calls for freedom (hum kya chahtey, azaadi) in your streets have inspired me. Our bodies are as resilient as the tens of thousands of young people of all genders in Delhi facing down police batons and water cannons and tear gas and live ammunition. Our spirits are as free as the Manipuri mothers taking and shaping space amidst a military occupation. Our collective redemption is tied to dismantling the avalanche of injustice and repression we all face. And as I dig tunnels between the many empty chasms within me, I am reminded that our self-worth must be marked by more than the language of loss or emptiness. Mia McKenzie’s words reverberate through me, “The things we learn to do to survive at all costs are not the things that will help us get free. Getting free is a whole different journey altogether. ” Indeed, our freedom lies beyond the calculations we make about our oppressions.
Delhi, thank you for giving me the courage to come home.
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist, writer, and popular educator trained in the law. Based in Vancouver (Indigenous Coast Salish Territories) in Canada, she has been active in anti-racist, migrant justice, feminist, anti-war, and social justice issues for over a decade. She is the author of the upcoming book Undoing Border Imperialism. Find her @HarshaWalia | <urn:uuid:bf7dc263-4fb1-47b3-9ce7-6a29437741d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thefeministwire.com/2013/03/on-coming-home-to-delhi-the-rape-capital-of-india/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945933 | 2,404 | 1.5 | 2 |
You probably already know that this is one of the most powerful
training tools used by great athletes, musicians, and performers
of all kinds. As a speaker of foreign languages, you are also a
performer! Have you incorporated this powerful training tool in
to your foreign language mastery repertoire yet? Here’s what
Envision that you are already a brilliant speaker of that
language. What do you sound like? What does it feel like to be
able to understand any question that someone sends your way? How
does it feel to be able to use the foreign language with the
same amount of savvy and finesse that you use your own native
language? The better you can envision this in your mind, the
better you will be able to create it as your reality. As you
envision yourself to be this brilliant speaker, bring it alive in your
senses and experience this thought in rich, minute detail.
In addition to the visual image or yourself speaking fluently, try to imagine the physical sensations in your body, in your
face, and in your vocal cords. Notice any sights around you. Are
there any particular smells? Is there a certain taste in your
mouth? What do you hear? Envision this as vividly as you possibly can,
and do it often.
To help spark your imagination, you can choose someone
(preferably a native speaker of that language) to model. Who do
you know who uses the language brilliantly? Who do you most
want to sound like? When you’ve chosen your model, simply
pretend to be that person. What would she say in this situation?
How does he use words in this case? How does she incorporate
facial expression and body movements to really convey meaning
beyond the words? When you pretend to be your model you’ll
notice an immediate leap in your abilities, and the more you
envision it you’ll be amazed at how quickly those skills will become
Here’s to Your Success!
Copyright © 2006 by Teresa Bolen. All rights reserved.
Teresa Bolen is a teacher at Todaiji Academy, one of the top 5
schools in Japan, and the author of Master Plan to Master Exams:
How to Discover Your Hidden Abilities to Create the Success You
Desire. You can get her ‘Academic Excellence Report’ at
‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life
you have imagined.’
— Henry David Thoreau – | <urn:uuid:b8770e11-9c7d-4cb0-a36c-cf47fe9e12e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.org/244074_mastering_a_foreign_language_how_to_become_a_brilliant_speaker_part_4_of_7/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937031 | 533 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Nick Vilbas knew he wasn’t studying law so he could eventually work for some high-powered corporation. He wanted to pursue justice for the wrongly accused, and he got the opportunity to do it before he even graduated from the Texas Tech University School of Law.
Vilbas drafted legal filings and combed through piles of case documents on behalf of Timothy Cole, who died in prison while serving a 25-year sentence for a rape he did not commit. Eventually, the work of Vilbas and other student volunteers at the Innocence Project of Texas would lead Gov. Rick Perry to issue the first-ever posthumous exoneration in Texas.
“It cemented the fact that I knew I was doing something righteous,” Vilbas said. “You’re not fighting for a corporation to make them more money — you’re trying to seek justice for a person that didn’t do anything wrong.”
The number of exonerations in Texas has grown as the number of student volunteers in innocence projects, like Vilbas, has skyrocketed over the last decade. The first university innocence project started at the University of Houston Law Center in March 2000 with just four student volunteers and limited resources. Now, all four major Texas law schools and a number of smaller, private universities have students working on exonerations.
More than 120 students from Texas Tech, the University of Texas and the University of Houston worked more than 12,300 hours on Innocence Project cases from 2007 to 2009, according to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. As student participation has increased, so have exonerations. To date, Texas has issued 42 exonerations, 35 of them since 2001. Though factors such as scientific advancements in DNA testing have also contributed significantly to exoneration efforts, student involvement has been a critical element, said Natalie Roetzel, chief staff attorney of the Innocence Project of Texas. “It’s pretty safe to say that without student help and investigative power, we would not have as many exonerations,” she said.
Since 2005, state lawmakers have provided about $100,000 a year to each of the four public university innocence projects. Those dollars help keep the programs going, but they don’t go very far when DNA testing can cost up to $30,000 per case, Roetzel said. In the Tim Cole case, Texas Tech students did almost all the investigative work, she said.
With the continued success and national media attention on cases like Cole’s, more students have been drawn to innocence programs at Texas universities. The University of Texas at Dallas announced its affiliation with the Innocence Project of Texas in March 2010, after an overwhelming student response to a presentation from Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins about his Conviction Integrity Unit. Since it was established in 2007, the Conviction Integrity Unit has used DNA testing to exonerate seven men and confirmed the guilt of 28 others.
The University of Texas School of Journalism will start offering an investigative journalism course this fall. Journalism students will work with law students on cases at the Texas Center for Actual Innocence.
Students don’t get paid for their hours of work on inmates’ innocence claims, but they do get priceless experience. “It teaches you a respect for the practice of law,” said Patrick Lingwall, a third-year law student at the University of Texas who volunteered at the Texas Center for Actual Innocence. “It really teaches you what not to do as a criminal defense lawyer. You read through hundreds of cases and the ineptitude of lawyers is sort of astounding.”
Innocence project work can affect not only the lives of prisoners and their families, but it can also inspire change in state criminal justice operations. Crediting the work of the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University, then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan issued a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000 and granted clemency to all death row inmates in 2003. Medill students have also worked in Texas. They started investigating the case of Hank Skinner, a Texas man on death row for the murder of his girlfriend and her two sons, in 1999. The students found a slew of untested DNA evidence from the crime scene, including a rape kit from the victim and other blood-stained items. Skinner has maintained his innocence since his arrest and says DNA testing would exonerate him.
But recently, the integrity of the Medill project has been called into question by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who challenged the ethics and investigative methods of journalism professor David Protess and his students. Alvarez alleges the students bribed and flirted with witnesses and suppressed evidence to secure an exoneration in Illinois. Alvarez’s critics have accused her of harboring a personal vendetta against Protess, and they say she is trying to discredit the program.
In Texas, the Innocence Project has resulted in legislative action. The exoneration of Tim Cole — who died in 1999 of an asthma attack in prison — inspired the Tim Cole Act, which awards exonerees $80,000 for each year they were wrongfully imprisoned. Lawmakers also created the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions to develop recommendations to prevent future wrongful convictions. On Aug. 12, the panel will present its recommendations to the Legislature.
State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored the Timothy Cole Act, said the students’ work was vital to the successful exoneration. But he also said “there is a heck of a lot more to do” to prevent wrongful convictions and reform the Texas criminal justice system. He expects the panel’s recommendations will include reform to eyewitness identification, the recording of custodial interrogations and the expansion of access to DNA testing. “Anytime we have a system with so many problems, a system so stacked against us,” Ellis said, “there will always be a role to monitor.”
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here. | <urn:uuid:ee91116f-568a-47e7-a6ad-d094920e5f1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.texastribune.org/texas-dept-criminal-justice/death-penalty/student-work-wins-increase-on-innocence-projects/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961078 | 1,264 | 2.5 | 2 |
As a combat veteran, I find it tragic that election day always falls just before Veterans Day. Every couple years, the nation waits breathlessly to see who will sit in Washington for them. Nobody seems to have any energy left a week later to remember those who sat in foxholes for them.
On Easter Sunday, Jake Tapper interviewed Rick Warren on ABC’s This Week, asking the influential pastor a series of questions on faith and politics. Of particular interest were his comments on soldiers and war (which did not make it into the aired segment but are available here). At the end of the interview, Warren exclaimed, “God hates war, but loves every soldier.”
As a combat veteran, I was impressed by and grateful for Warren’s statement. The Bible makes clear that war is at best a necessary evil--the idea at the core of the just war tradition. And yes: God loves each and every soldier. But I want to look more closely at the latter thought, especially in light of the suicide epidemic that currently afflicts our nation’s veterans and soldiers. | <urn:uuid:6385fc54-965c-4171-8f5e-74d8cfa3b797> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christiancentury.org/category/keywords/soldiers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960733 | 224 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Alberta resumes use of Agriflu influenza vaccine
The province suspended the use of the vaccine on October 27 until a safety review by Health Canada and the vaccine manufacturer Novartis could be completed. The Health Canada suspension was a precautionary measure following a voluntary suspension of the Agriflu vaccine in Europe after white particulate matter was found floating in one batch of the vaccine.
“The Health Canada review has re-confirmed that the Agriflu vaccine is safe and effective to use as part of our influenza immunization program,” said Dr. Martin Lavoie, Alberta’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health. “We have been assured by federal officials that the suspension of the vaccine was the result of one batch of vaccine that contained protein flakes and that this batch never left the manufacturing plant. Now that the suspension has been lifted, we can make the Agriflu vaccine available through public health clinics, physicians and pharmacists.”
“It’s important that all Albertans get the flu shot, not only to protect themselves but others in their family and their community who may be vulnerable to severe complications from the flu,” said Minister of Health Fred Horne. “I strongly encourage everyone to take the time to get immunized as soon as possible so more Albertans can stay healthy this year.”
Agriflu is one of two injectable vaccines offered through the province’s influenza immunization campaign this year in addition to a nasal spray vaccine available for children aged 2-17. Agriflu makes up about 22 per cent of Alberta’s total vaccine supply.
Albertans can contact HEALTHLink Alberta at 1-866-408-5465 for more information on Alberta Health Services Immunization Clinics, visit www.albertahealthservices.ca or contact their physician or pharmacist. | <urn:uuid:0f5637dd-651b-4dc8-8e1e-86e7eb18fd5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinchercreekvoice.com/2012/10/alberta-resumes-use-of-agriflu.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951215 | 394 | 1.914063 | 2 |
I'm working on my daughter's transcript...and trying to figure out what to call this class. The deal is...she less than a full credit (about 67.5 hours of material covered including books, videos, narrations/discussions, and the CLEP website's recommended HippoCampus material to fill in the gaps and finish covering the topics outlined for that test). But she hasn't taken the test yet. If and when she passes it, I will just give her a full credit of course. But, in the mean time, I'm not sure if it should be a full credit b/c of the time spent (or lack thereof). I usually figure 108 hours for the very barest minimum unless I have something else to substantiate the "claim" for a full credit. So, she has some early American/colonial history...the stuff leading up to the forming of our government including a pretty in depth study of John Adams, and the events, issues and people involving the writing of the Constitution that I was thinking about putting with it (she'd like it to be a full credit class with one name rather than 1/2 credit Gov and 1/2 credit US History). Also, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers, Scarlet Letter, Christy, and Great Expectations were read. I'm thinking Great Expectations probably doesn't fit in this "class" even though she read it in there too. Any thoughts on a class name? These last books may end up being part of another credit for Lit. for her. Thank you. (My first time thru this phase :-)
Government/Early US History?? 1 cr. | <urn:uuid:d75e81c4-70df-448b-ae3d-c10c5b191bb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/good-name-for-governmenthistory-class | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968597 | 345 | 1.960938 | 2 |
There’s been a great deal of discussion lately around the topic of government innovation, especially here in San Francisco, with the appointment of a new chief innovation officer, a new “civic accelerator,” a new venture with a consortium of Bay Area technology companies and a new technology and innovation task force led by SF Mayor Ed Lee.
All signs point to a bright gov 2.0 future for SF but, before we get too excited, let’s look back so we can learn how to best overcome the past two years of innovation inertia.
These critiques and ideas aren’t meant to minimize the great open government work that’s been accomplished by key former and current officials. Good people inside SF’s government are doing the best they can with the resources and mandate they have, which much of the time appears to be limited.
Despite having one of the nation’s first open source procurement policies, initiated by former mayor Gavin Newsom in 2009, you’d be hard-pressed to find a line of code that’s not proprietary. One SF official once told me he almost lost his job advocating for the city’s use of open source software.
The city’s apps showcase was created using the open source platform WordPress, as was the open collaboration initiative website PolicySF, now both relics of the Newsom years. The latter has been abandoned completely and the former, apart from a site redesign, has been tucked away into oblivion. Newsom’s mayoral website, sfmayor.org, was also developed in WordPress, however, Lee’s site at the same domain appears to now be powered by .asp.
Despite having one of the nation’s first open data directives, SF has yet to establish an aggressive mandate to make city data more public. In fact, the directive is no longer even accessible. SF’s open data portal, DataSF, had recent dataset additions in December, however, has been lackluster in its growth or general promotion of its offerings.
Since the launch of DataSF, the same applications have been touted as examples of open data inspiring entrepreneurial innovation. Those same apps are still the sole reference points for journalists, even as recent as this week.
One of the city’s most prominent open data applications, EcoFinder, is no longer available for download on iTunes. The app launched to much fanfare and featured in major news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Today, it is non-existent.
One unnamed civic startup tried collaborating with city officials in 2011, requesting access to specific departmental data, only to be told it didn’t have the capacity to do so. After seeing a demo of the startup’s app, the department managed to find the resources to mimic its functionality and launched an app of its own. The department has yet to make the data accessible and essentially monopolized a market when it could have simply fostered entrepreneurial innovation and saved taxpayer dollars.
When it comes to fostering civic entrepreneurship, the true shining star of SF’s open data efforts is Routesy, developed by Steven Peterson and sells for $4.99 on iTunes with a 4+ rating. To the city’s credit, it released the transit data, but not without a fight, and then just got out of the way. Routesy wasn’t developed with the help of a civic accelerator or hackathon. It was developed by an entrepreneur who leveraged public data to create an application which he now sells through a private sector platform and is forced to maintain a sustainable commercial offering by meeting the demands of the market and building on its success.
That’s civic innovation.
Ed Lee can change all of this, and he doesn’t need a task force to do it.
Here are a few ideas.
Build the best mayoral website in the world
The best way to show the rest of government you’re serious about making SF the next “City 2.0″ is to practice what you preach. Build the best mayoral website in the world and, to prove you’re agile and truly grok the lean startup principles, launch it within the next month and leverage the civic surplus of the city’s world-class developer and designer community to help you do it (see New York City’s Reinvent NYC.gov hackathon).
Use ‘Built in SF’ technology
The SF Bay Area is home to the world’s most innovative technology companies, including Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and WordPress, to name just a few. Leverage these technologies and promote your use of it. As mentioned before, build the city’s web infrastructure on WordPress, host monthly tweetups and live YouTube question and answer sessions, document your days with Instagram. The opportunities to use these tools to better communicate with the city’s residents and promote the ‘Built in SF’ technologies are endless. NYC Mayor Bloomberg is a pro at this.
Go back to the (data) fundamentals
What’s old is new again, and that applies particularly to public data. Open data advocates applauded the city’s launch of DataSF, but little has been done or championed since. As proven by the Routesy example above, the easiest approach to sparking innovation is to release the data and get out of the way. Solicit feedback from the private sector on what data it would like access to, mandate agencies evaluate and release data, only procure software that has the functionality to push data outward and require every agency to prominently link directly to DataSF.
Leverage the civic surplus
Bypass procurement hurdles and limited development resources and leverage SF’s world-class designer and developer community to help build the fundamental technology infrastructure, such as agency websites and applications, especially for projects such as Open311 implementation. Host monthly “HackSF” codeathons at City Hall to build off specific requirements, developed by agencies or in collaboration with volunteer developers, and create a consistent sense of civic community.
Open source the infrastructure
Open source is a fundamental component of open government. Start by re-launching your website using open source software, preferably WordPress given the company’s affiliation with SF, and challenging (or mandating) other departments do the same, recognizing them with a monthly award or acknowledgement ceremony.
Give citizens a dashboard
Former Newsom advisor Brian Purchia recently recommended SF adopt the federal government’s IT Dashboard to help the city save money on technology projects and provide better insight into what its working on. Go beyond IT. Provide visualizations into all of SF’s public expenditures. It’ll keep you honest and make citizens happy.
These are the low-hanging fruits to true civic innovation and can be done over the course of a few months. An agile government and its leaders can implement and empower others to execute now, especially in a city who’s essence is the antithesis of bureaucracy. | <urn:uuid:41fa28f5-d069-4b9c-ae0c-72d6959cc8b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://govfresh.com/2012/01/how-san-francisco-can-get-its-gov-2-0-groove-back/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938332 | 1,446 | 1.5625 | 2 |
CALEDONIA, Mich. (WZZM) - Broadcast news: it requires quality information gatherers, stressing accuracy and meeting tight deadlines.
Here at WZZM, we do it every morning, noon and night, and your target audience often determines what type of news you cover and how you choose to present it. Well, it's time to introduce you to some students from Caledonia who may be on their way to becoming the next Diane Sawyer or Brian Williams.
It happens every Monday through Friday at Caledonia Elementary School at 8:50 a.m sharp. An elementary classroom transforms into a newsroom.
"It's amazing. They're like little adults," said Shelli Abel, who is a fifth grade teacher at Caledonia Elementary.
Because at 8:50, it's time to do the news.
"It's an authentic learning situation," said Josh Traughber, principal at Caledonia Elementary.
This is CNN. No, really; this is CNN - Caledonia Network News.
"Who hasn't heard of CNN," added Abel, who's fifth grade class has been producing the morning newscast for the past 14 years.
Tough topics are tackled like collecting box tops, how to pack a safe lunch and the latest games to play at recess. No "gloom & doom" news will be found here.
CNN does a 10-minute segment every day, and their target audience is not the highly coveted 25-54 women demographic.
"[CNN's target audience] is children that range from kindergarten to 4th grade, " said Abel.
And, yes, the ratings are very high.
"I explain to them it's a big responsibility," said Abel. "It's a job."
35 fifth graders applied to work at CNN this year.
"I take their applications and I make teams," said Abel.
Five teams of seven are created and a different team does the newscast each day.
"As I get to know the students, I get to know who my leaders are," Abel added.
It didn't take long for a born leader to emerge on the CNN staff.
"On Wednesdays, that's my day to direct my people," said Remi Huver, producer, director and anchor for Caledonia Network News. Remi holds a weekly editorial meeting with her team, but it comes at a steep price.
"They give up a recess each week to meet with their team," said Abel.
As any kid, if you have to give up a recess, you'd better make it count, which is why Remi takes charge like a seasoned news director. She stresses teamwork, compromise and reliability.
"It shows your teachers and all your friends how trustworthy you can be, how responsible you can be, and it shows what you can do" said Huver, who is a self-proclaimed history geek.
Remi and the other CNN newscasters write their reports at home.
"I train them on how to write a news article," said Abel. "I also teach them how to look up kid-friendly news on the internet."
The educational benefits for these 10 and 11 year olds are endless.
"I think that whenever you're able to put some authentic learning in place with reading and writing and technology, that's going to translate well to those students later in life," said Josh Traughber, who was a principal in the New Buffalo school district before taking the same position at Caledonia Elementary in 2010.
The students are learning timeliness, gaining confidence in public speaking and are forced to problem solve.
"It's a great education," said Huver.
Traughber says the students are gaining true market place skills that you need to have to succeed in life. One thing is for certain when you come to the school to watch Caledonia Network News do a live show, these kids don't want to fail.
"Because Tuesday is their day, or Monday is their day and they want to make that top notch," added Abel.
But for all their learning, what they enjoy most about being newscasters, the celebrity-status on the playground, of course.
"They think you're movie stars because they'll see them out for recess and they'll go, 'I saw you on the news,'" said Abel jokingly.
"It feels like I'm walking on the red carpet even though I'm on the grass," said Huver.
And just like the professionals, when the news day is done, they get ready to do it all over again tomorrow. | <urn:uuid:1e75884f-73c2-4d8a-97f7-fb67eb54d76c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wzzm13.com/news/watercooler/231432/82/This-is-CNN---Caledonia-Network-News | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977264 | 959 | 1.867188 | 2 |
Program Chair: Sidney H. Stein, D.M.D., Ph.D.
Program Director Orthodontics: Terry Trojan, D.D.S., M.S.
Program Director Pediatric Dentistry: Martin Donaldson, D.D.S.
Program Director Periodontics: Swati Rawal, B.D.S., D.D.S. M.S.
Program Director Prosthodontics: David R. Cagna, D.M.D., M.S.
The College of Dentistry of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center has established a Master of Dental Science program under the auspices of the College of Graduate Health Sciences. The purpose of the program is to provide a contemporary research experience in the areas of orally related sciences to dentists enrolled in the clinical specialty programs of the College of Dentistry. The course and research requirements of the Master's of Dental Science provide individuals with both a traditional and contemporary knowledge of the role of research in the clinical management of orofacial abnormalities and diseases. The goal of the program is to train dental specialists to pursue several career possibilities, including specialty practice, research, or teaching, with the increased knowledge of the interrelationship among clinical dentistry, basic science, and research.
The Master of Dental Science degree is offered in five areas of concentration. The degree is awarded upon completion of the requirements of the advanced education programs in endodontics, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontology, and prosthodontics. The general policies, procedures, and requirements of the College of Dentistry clinical training programs apply to Master of Dental Science students as well.
For more information, contact the program director of the advanced education program (Endodontics, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontology, or Prosthodontics) at 901-448-6200 or write to the Office of Admissions, College of Dentistry, University of Tennessee, Memphis, 875 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38163. Fax: 901-448-7104.
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Director: Terry Trojan, D.D.S., M.S.
The graduate program in orthodontics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center begins each August and continues for 33 consecutive months with graduation in May. Not more than four students are selected for matriculation each year. This program provides intensive instruction and training in the biological and clinical sciences related to orthodontics. The course of instruction is designed to satisfy all requirements for eligibility for licensure as a specialist, the specialty board in orthodontics, and the Master of Dental Science degree. Students admitted to the program are expected to demonstrate clinical proficiency in orthodontics and complete a thesis that is based on original research, demonstrates individual thought, and is of substantive literary and scientific merit. The program, fully accredited by the American Dental Association, is well rounded and provides balanced training in clinical orthodontics, the basic sciences, and research.
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Director: Martin Donaldson, D.D.S.
For students who successfully complete the 24-month clinical program in pediatric dentistry and are interested in additional research training, a third year of full-time study (12 months) is available leading to a Master of Dental Science degree. The degree is awarded by the College of Graduate Health Sciences on completion of an original research project together with a written thesis. Although the student will maintain clinical skills through active patient care during this time, the third year of study emphasizes gaining experience in research methodologies and interdisciplinary research activities. Students wishing to pursue the Master of Dental Science degree must inform the department chair at the beginning of the second year of postdoctoral studies.
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Director: Swati Rawal, B.D.S., D.D.S., M.S.
Consistent with the expanding scope and knowledge in periodontics and the accreditation requirements of the American Academy of Periodontology and American Dental Association, the course of study leading to a certificate of proficiency in periodontics and a Master of Dental Science degree extends over 36 months. The curriculum has been designed to relate basic science principles to the practice of periodontics. The program emphasizes clinical application, with significant didactic and research activity maintained over the 36 months. The research areas available for study include the broad expanse of both clinical and basic science approaches to improving the understanding of periodontal pathobiology. In general, clinical certification is not awarded until the student has fulfilled the requirements of the College of Graduate Health Sciences for the Master of Dental Science degree. Two students are accepted each year for admission and matriculation in July. Stipend support is available.
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Director: David R. Cagna, D.M.D., M.S.
The Advanced Prosthodontic Program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center begins each July and extends for 36 consecutive months with graduation in June. The program is well rounded and provides balanced instruction in clinical prosthodontics, laboratory technology, basic sciences, and research. Upon completion, a Certificate of Proficiency in prosthodontics and a Master of Dental Science degree are awarded. The program complies with standards established by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association and qualifies students for examination by the American Board of Prosthodontics. The curriculum is consistent with the expanding scope of knowledge in prosthodontics as determined by the American College of Prosthodontists and the American Dental Association. In accordance with mandates set forth by the American Dental Association in the Accreditation Standards for Advanced Specialty Education Programs in Prosthodontics, all students are involved in original, independent research. This research displays a high level of scholarship and contributes to the existing fund of professional knowledge. Strong mentorship and state-of-the-art scientific resources are readily available in the Department of Restorative Dentistry’s clinical research facility, the College of Dentistry’s dental research center and dental materials core facilities, and the University’s College of Health Science Engineering. A Master of Dental Science degree is awarded by the College of Graduate Health Sciences upon fulfillment of all program requirements, completion of research, production and acceptance of a thesis, and successful public defense of the independent research effort. At present, one student is accepted into the Advanced Prosthodontics Program each year. A stipend is granted to each student in the program, commensurate with level of training and funding availability.
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Revised 9 July 2007
College of Graduate Health Sciences
920 Madison Ave
Memphis, Tennessee 38163 | <urn:uuid:4b771e25-35ab-493b-92dc-98426364ec27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uthsc.edu/grad/Programs/index.php?page=DSCI | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915475 | 1,401 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Jersey Department of Agriculture
Letter to Poultry Producers
March 15, 2006
Dear bird producer,
As a member of New Jersey’s agricultural community involved in raising birds, you are probably aware of the attention paid to the spread of Avian Influenza (AI), especially the highly pathogenic strains, throughout Asia and Europe.
While these cases to date have occurred overseas, we in the United States must proactively prepare to address the possibility of a highly pathogenic strain outbreak in our own country. Recently, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt cautioned that “any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong.”
Preparation and communication are our greatest tools in keeping Avian Influenza from spreading through our poultry flocks and possibly becoming a pandemic. Over the past two years, the Department of Agriculture’s cooperative efforts with the United States Department of Agriculture have significantly reduced the incidence of low-pathogenicity Avian Influenza in our state’s live bird markets. Preventing low-pathogenicity AI from becoming entrenched helps deny the opportunity for more virulent strains from establishing themselves.
While these preventive measures are important, we also must be prepared to deal with a highly pathogenic AI outbreak. The Department of Agriculture will work with its sister state government agencies, as well as partners such as Rutgers University’s Cook College and industry groups, to address any such outbreak. Our Division of Animal Health has continued to exercise alongside partners such as the Department of Health and Senior Services to ensure we are ready to respond to an outbreak in New Jersey. A communications network that has served us well on other issues would be activated in the event of an AI outbreak.
As has been seen in other countries, panic and overreaction tend to accompany AI. While appropriate caution is warranted, we will need to communicate to the public the rational facts of the situation, especially as relates to the safety of poultry and game birds as food. Proper, safe handling and cooking renders the virus harmless, and the public should be made aware of that fact. Accurate, up-to-date information during any such outbreak would be posted on the Avian Influenza page of our Department web site, at www.state.nj.us/agriculture/avianinfluenza.htm. Information on the safe handling of raw poultry can be found at www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/#poultry.
Overseas, the overwhelming majority of people who have contracted highly pathogenic AI have been employees of poultry operations who had direct contact with infected live and freshly slaughtered, uncooked birds. It is imperative that New Jersey’s bird producers continue to be proactive about enforcing bio-security measures to reduce the spread of AI. A full list of appropriate bio-security measures can be found at www.state.nj.us/agriculture/homeland.htm.
It also is very important that domestic flocks be kept from any contact with the wild bird population, which is a primary spreader of the disease. If any of your birds die from unknown causes, please contact the Department’s Division of Animal Health at (609) 292-3965 to have the bird tested.
Without question, the key to effectively handling an AI outbreak is early detection and eradication. Your cooperation with the Department and its partners in the state and federal governments is important to making sure that a wider spread of the disease can be averted, your flock can be spared and an important agricultural sector can emerge from an outbreak with minimal impacts.
Charles M. Kuperus
Secretary of Agriculture | <urn:uuid:6c8c4866-52bb-4d55-9207-f7678b15de2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/aiproducerltr.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954227 | 781 | 1.757813 | 2 |
An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that uses small changes in its buoyancy in conjunction with wings to convert vertical motion to horizontal, and thereby propel itself forward with very low power consumption. While not as fast as conventional AUVs, gliders using buoyancy-based propulsion represent a significant increase in range and duration compared to vehicles propelled by electric motor-driven propellers, extending ocean sampling missions from hours to weeks or months, and to thousands of kilometers of range. Gliders follow a sawtooth path though the water, providing data on temporal and spatial scales unavailable to previous AUVs, and much more costly to sample using traditional shipboard techniques.
By 2005, not only had a working thermal-powered glider (Slocum Thermal) been demonstrated by Webb Research, but they and other institutions had introduced battery-powered gliders with impressive duration and efficiency, far exceeding that of traditional survey-class AUVs. The University of Washington Seaglider and Scripps Institution of Oceanography Spray vehicles have performed feats such as crossing the Gulf Stream from the mainland USA to Bermuda, and, together with the Webb Slocum, conducting sustained, multi-vehicle collaborative monitoring of oceanographic variables in Monterey Bay.
Originally conceived as testbed for the thermal-power gliders before developing into a platform of their own, the Webb Slocum electric gliders have been widely deployed since 2003. As one of its earliest users, Rutgers University has flown its fleet of gliders over 45,000 km (as of June 2008) in three of the five major oceans. In January 2007, Slocum glider RU06 became the first autonomous underwater vehicle to fly across the Antarctic Circle into Antarctica, on its way completing a 22 day, 553 km mission along the western shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Gliders vary in the pressure they are able to withstand. The coastal Slocum model is rated for 200 meters depth. Spray can operate to 1500 meters, Seaglider to 1000 meters, and Slocum Thermal to 1200. In December 2006, a Deep Glider variant of the Seaglider achieved a repeated 3300-meter operating depth.
As of 2006, the US Navy Office of Naval Research is developing the world's largest glider, the Liberdade XRay, which uses a blended wing body hullform to achieve hydrodynamic efficiency. It is intended to quietly track diesel electric submarines in littoral waters, remaining on station for up to 6 months, with major field testing beginning in August 2006 . | <urn:uuid:aa6131fc-0e5e-42ea-884c-9ceaa408feb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Slocum+glider | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94481 | 524 | 3.640625 | 4 |
I am sure you were equally shocked when you learned of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile. As with the Haiti earthquake and other past natural catastrophes, LCIF responds quickly to ensure those impacted get the aid they need, but the Foundation is also committed to long-term relief.
Our efforts continue in Haiti, where Maureen and I visited last week. We were amazed to see what the Lions of Haiti are doing to restore stability to their country and know that the Lions of Chile will bring the same service to their communities.
Together, we are all working to bring hope to the people affected, displaced and suffering.
Responding to the Chilean Earthquake
LCIF is committed to bringing aid to communities impacted by the recent earthquake in Chile. The earthquake is one of the largest ever recorded, resulting in more than 800 deaths and leaving 2 million people displaced. Three emergency grants have already been awarded, each for US$10,000, to Districts T-1, T-2 and T-3 in Chile. District T-3 includes the city of Concepcion, one of the hardest hit areas in the country. Visit the LCIF Web site for the most current news updates.
Tent Cities Give Haitian People Home, Hope
Three tent cities, housing 3,000 people total, have been established in the Port-au-Prince neighborhoods of Delmas, Blanchard and Carrefour-Feuille and an additional 240 tents are being sent to the region. Lions are now working to fully equip these tent cities with sanitation, kitchens and health clinics. Still, the creation of more permanent housing is becoming increasingly important as the rainy season approaches. The need will be great for many more years to come, and LCIF’s long-term efforts ensure that communities, lives and families will be rebuilt.
Partnering to Further Immediate and Long-term Impact
Lions are working with local leaders, government officials and other non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Haiti to further leverage our immediate and long-term impact. While on a visit to Haiti last week, Chairperson Brandel, along with other Lions leadership, met with the United States Ambassador to Haiti, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince and other NGOs. They all pledged their support to Lions’ efforts. LCIF’s experience in rebuilding communities after past natural catastrophes has shown the importance of establishing partnerships for the long-term.
Multiple Districts Supporting Disaster Relief Efforts
To all of you who have so generously supported relief efforts in Haiti, thank you. A number of multiple districts have made significant contributions to demonstrate their commitment to helping rebuild Haiti.
• MD 112, Belgium, US$190,000
• MD 116, Spain, US$100,000
• MD 104, Norway, US$86,000
• Lions in New England, U.S., US$60,000
• MD 110, Netherlands, US$42,000
• MD 107, Finnish Lions Association US$57,000
• MD 51, Puerto Rico, US$33,000
• MD 330, Japan, US$32,000
To view a full listing of generous individual, club, district and multiple district support to LCIF's Haiti Earthquake Relief fund, visit the Lions respond page on-line.
Make a Donation, Support LCIF Disaster Relief
Continued support is needed to ensure that LCIF can provide immediate relief when disasters like the Haiti and Chile earthquakes occur. If you have not donated, you can still help provide relief by donating online.
Your Donation Can Provide
Water, Food and Clothing:
$25 - $50
$100 - $250
Re-build and Establish Community Infrastructure:
$500 - $1,000
Help Our Long-term Rebuilding Efforts:
Lion Shares His Story
"I am really happy to be a Lion and be a part of the response of Lions International to the disaster in Haiti. As part of my contribution, both as a Lion and an Environmental Health Specialist, I was in Haiti for seven days to assist in the delivery of health care and the distribution of food. It was quite a sobering experience, and I hope to continue to lend my expertise to the people of Haiti."
Message from Haitian Lion
View a message from William Eliacin, Zone Chairperson, Haiti, requesting for Lions around the world to support LCIF’s Haiti relief efforts.
The Foundation continues to promote LCIF’s relief efforts in Haiti and Chile to both Lions and the general public. To see a full listing of media coverage, visit the publicity page of the Web site. | <urn:uuid:d09c367a-ae87-407d-b370-4e20442d80cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/news-and-events/newsroom/release-98-print.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938725 | 960 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Sexual Identity and Bullying
By Health Day
..it's not always the "best days" of their lives. But it can be especially challenging for gay, lesbian and bisexual teens.
So researchers wanted to know if it gets better for this group after high school. Using data collected from more than 4-thousand teens between 2004 and 2010, the team looked at how rates of bullying changed as the teens got older, and what effect bullying has on their emotions.
Compared to their heterosexual peers, LGB boys and girls were about twice as likely to be bullied throughout high school. But generally...the bullying for girls declined significantly as they left high school. 57 percent of lesbian or bisexual girls reported being bullied at age 13 or 14, compared to 6 percent at age 19 or 20.
Among boys, the bullying declined from 52 percent in the early teen years to 9 percent at 19 or 20...BUT the likelihood of still being bullied actually increased after high school when compared to straight boys. LGB males and females had significantly higher levels of emotional distress than their heterosexual-identified peers.
Researchers say these findings show how critical it is to address LGB victimization during adolescence.
I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV with the health news for you and your family. | <urn:uuid:b181a947-d0a5-4b7a-8fd2-e81c7ddc891a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wncftv.com/health/cosmetic/?feed=bim&id=189746121 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964476 | 262 | 3.125 | 3 |
Due to the unfolding events in the world today, and indeed the previously unfolded events from days prior to this current day, and finally mindful of possible events that may or may not subsequently unfold in the days to come after today (Thursday), we here at Very Little Known Facts have undertaken to provide some of the deep background on Islam as it compares to the other, less Muslim (Moslem) religions. This information, though vitally important in an esoteric/geopolitical/impractical sense, is nonetheless very little well known amongst Americans and other citizens of the Coalition of the Willing, i.e. Poles and Australians. As part of our ongoing mission to enlighten the unenlightened and to elucidate the unelucidated, we present a comprehensive and all-inclusive history of one of the most historical world religions in the world.
The Little Religion that Could
Like every other religion in the world, Islam has its roots in the Fertile Crescent, today known as the Middle East. The prophet Muhammed (Mohammad) introduced the teachings of the Koran (Qu'ran), the Moslem (Muslim) holy book. The Qu'ran (Koran) has never been translated from the original Arabian, but sources say it encourages living a life of righteousness amongst other things. The face of the prophet is traditionally hidden or obscured due to the similarity of his appearance to Jesus Christ, who is worshiped by Christians and grudgingly admired in a strictly platonic fashion by Jews.
Muhammad (Mohammed) quickly became a leader both in a religious and civil and military sense. In the 7th century he conquered most of what is now Saudi Arabia and what was then the future modern-day Saudi Arabia. His primary weapon in this conquest was force, but he did not hesitate to use secondary weapons, such as the threat of the usage of force. By the time of his death at a tragic age, the entirety of the then-Islamic world had been converted by himself.
Muslims (Moslems) hold strong opinions on a variety of issues including:
- war (peace)
- those weird marks on the center of the forehead (they don't have them)
- the relative roles of religious and secular authority in civil society
- head scarves
Many Islamic religious leaders have the authority to issue an edict, or a FATWA which translates as For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Moslems (Muslims) also participate vocally in the countries of which they are constituents, such as Iran, Syria, Indonesia, and Afghanistan, where Prime Minister Musharraf himself is a Muslim (Moslem).
A Comprehensive and Definitive Comparison of the World's Four Major Religions
The easy-to-follow chart shown below details the major beliefs of the world's four most major religions as determined on a per-capita basis. (Note: Hinduism and Mormonism were discounted because of the patent absurdity of their beliefs.)
In short, the world is a diverse and interesting place, full of interesting people and religions with divergent yet not necessarily invalid sets of beliefs. (Hindus and Mormons excepted.) | <urn:uuid:ce2719ed-8ddc-4a68-87f0-cd8993cc9c9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://verylittleknownfacts.blogspot.com/2007/10/moslems-or-muslims-comparative-history.html?showComment=1219642260000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948622 | 641 | 2.703125 | 3 |
THIS paper represents data concerning comparative heights and weights of Paris school children, as recorded by school doctors and nurses, before and after the five years of restricted dietary intake incident to the war.
The survey of the records of 2,595 children, of whom 1,299 were boys and 1,296 were girls, was carried out in the following way: The
heights and weights of children from 6 to 16 years of age were taken at random in a certain number of schools in 1938 and 1944. The averages for 1938 and 1944 for each year of age were then determined, as given in the accompanying table and plotted on charts 1 and 2. The smooth lines on the charts indicate the weights and heights per year of age below which 10, 25, 75 and 90 per cent of children in the United States will fall on the basis of the statistical | <urn:uuid:46b7ae87-71ce-4f89-a5bf-15d17b9b76ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1180226 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980573 | 170 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Summary of the 2010 North Atlantic Hurricane Season
The 2010 hurricane season in the north Atlantic has come and gone. Although, the US was hardly touched by this year’s storms, it turns out that 2010 was one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record. There were 19 named storms, tied for the third highest on record (1887 and 1995). Of these, 12 became hurricanes, and five reached major hurricane status of Category 3 or higher.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted at the beginning of the season that there would be 14-23 named storms, 8-14 hurricanes, and 3-7 major hurricanes. These predictions, which proved accurate, are above the average numbers for hurricane seasons: 11 named storms, six hurricanes, and two major hurricanes.
The greater numbers influenced by large-scale climate features such as warmer waters in the Atlantic, favorable winds coming off the coast of Africa, and weak wind shear aided by La Nina.
However, it is the short-term weather patterns that influence the paths of the storms. This year, those patterns led them away from the United States. The jet stream’s position acted as a barrier which kept storms over open water in the Atlantic. Plus, many storms formed over the eastern Atlantic, giving them ample time to curve back north and east before making landfall.
Other parts of the Americas were not so fortunate. Hurricane Tomas did heavy damage to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Mexico, specifically the Yucatan Peninsula, and other Central American countries were hit with several major storms. In fact, the first hurricane of the season, Alex, did awful damage to northern Mexico, causing mudslides and heavy flooding.
In contrast, the eastern North Pacific saw record low number of hurricanes. There were only seven named storms, three hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. This is the fewest number of named storms and hurricanes since the satellite era begun in the mid-1960s. On average, the North Pacific produces 15 named storms and nine hurricanes.
A summary of Atlantic storms and their intensity are as follows:
Name Class Date Landfall
Alex Hurricane 6/25-7/2 Northern Mexico
Bonnie Tropical Storm 7/22-24 Southern Florida
Colin Tropical Storm 8/2-8 none
Danielle Major Hurricane 8/21-31 none
Earl Major Hurricane 8/25-9/5 Nova Scotia
Fiona Tropical Storm 8/30-9/3 none
Gaston Tropical Storm 9/1-2 Lesser Antilles
Hermine Tropical Storm 9/6-8 Southern Texas
Igor Major Hurricane 9/8-21 New Foundland
Julia Major Hurricane 9/12-20 none
Karl Major Hurricane 9/14-18 Southern Mexico
Lisa Hurricane 9/21-26 none
Matthew Tropical Storm 9/23-26 Central America
Nicole Tropical Storm 9/28-29 Central America
Otto Hurricane 10/6-10 none
Paula Hurricane 10/11-15 Cuba
Richard Hurricane 10/21-26 Belize/Mexico
Shary Hurricane 10-29-30 none
Tomas Hurricane 10/29-11/7 Haiti
NOAA has produced a time-lapse video of the Atlantic Basin for the entire 2010 hurricane season. The video is about five minutes long. Watch and try to identify each storm!
Link to view video: http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail.php?MediaID=595&MediaTypeID=2 | <urn:uuid:36f7b0bf-a30b-49ae-a776-31fe9db4c9dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/42145/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935231 | 723 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Quarterly National Accounts
Presents the current values and the quarterly volume indexes (1995=100) for the Gross Domestic Product at market prices, excise tax, value added at basic prices, personal consumption, government consumption, gross fixed capital formation, stock change, exports and imports of goods and services. Two series of index numbers are calculated: based on the previous year and linked with reference to 2000 (1995 = 100). The linked series is adjusted seasonally by X12-ARIMA making it possible to calculate the change rates in relation to the immediately previous quarter.
In IBGE, the survey was started in 1988 and restructured since 1998, when its current results were integrated to the System of National Accounts, of annual periodicity.
In 2007, continuing with the compatibility of the annual system, the Quarterly National Accounts were also reformulated, changing to reference 2000.
The annual weights are obtained through this new system of accounts.
Geographic Coverage: Brazil | <urn:uuid:4b596532-e035-454f-92dd-97497ddf0045> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibge.com.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/pib/defaultcnt.shtm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94947 | 196 | 2.390625 | 2 |
(Owning too many mutual funds…)
For many people, investing is all about numbers. While the obsession with returns is natural, investors also tend to fuss about the number of holdings in their portfolio. Be it stocks or mutual funds, they are not sure about the optimum size and mix of investments.
Given most experts' opinion on the benefits of diversification, people are aware of the dangers of putting all their eggs in one basket. Hence, investors seek safety in numbers to reduce the element of risk. But are you going too far in trying to spread the risk in your portfolio?
Mutual fund investors often get trapped in the quest for diversification. Take 65-year-old Jaipal Singh from Delhi. He has as many as 20 schemes in his mutual fund portfolio. "I have been investing in funds for the past 10-12 years and mostly do my own research," he says proudly. The result is a hotchpotch portfolio with all kinds of schemes, some of which may not be best suited to his needs.
In most cases, fund portfolios do not start out complicated; they grow thus over a period of time. Investors buy funds in an ad hoc fashion without any investment goal in sight. Very soon, the portfolio becomes a heady cocktail of sorts—too complex to understand and unwieldy to monitor.
Many investors don't even realise how complicated their portfolios have become till they get down to figure out their returns. Sumeet Vaid, founder, Ffreedom Financial Planners, attributes this practice to the lack of a proper financial plan or strategy.
"Investors end up with a messy portfolio as they don't have a proactive approach to allocating their savings. In the absence of a proper blueprint, savings are invested in a haphazard manner," he says.
 To be sure, one cannot blame the small investor for getting carried away. There are hundreds of schemes of myriad flavours on offer and small investors want a bite of each. New fund offers (NFOs) of mutual funds ride on this mentality of the average investor. It is not uncommon to find in an investor's portfolio schemes that may not be suitable for his needs.
However, this habit of lapping up anything in the name of diversification does more harm than good. Read on to find out how diversifying beyond a point may actually hurt your returns and the way you can create a truly diversified portfolio.
How many stocks should you own?
The consensus is that a well-balanced stock portfolio with not more than 20 stocks offers the best possible diversification. "Empirically, it has been observed that 15-20 stocks lend optimum diversification to a portfolio. Beyond this, a portfolio becomes too stretched," says Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO of PMS, Prabhudass Lilladher.
Within academic circles too, this number seems to be the optimum choice. The modern portfolio theory suggests that you will come very close to achieving optimal diversity after adding about the 20th stock to your portfolio.
Stock researchers Edwin J Elton and Martin J Gruber found that the average standard deviation (which is indicative of risk) of a portfolio of one stock was 49.2%. Increasing the number of stocks in the average well-balanced portfolio could reduce the portfolio's standard deviation to at most 19.2% (this number represents market risk).
However, they also found that with a portfolio of 20 stocks, the risk was reduced to about 20%. Therefore, any incremental additions after 20 only reduced the portfolio's risk by about 0.8%, while the first 20 stocks reduced the portfolio's risk by 29.2%. So, the incremental benefit is negligible.
Why over-diversification is not healthy
Diversification is a prudent strategy that reduces the investment risk by spreading it across a basket of securities. Investing in a mix of assets that has little correlation to each other is advisable as this ensures that even if one or two assets face rough times, others may perform well enough to protect your portfolio. However, diversification is healthy only up to a reasonable extent. If you overdo it, diversification actually works against you. Here's how:
No further mitigation of risk: You may think that you are playing safe by adding more schemes to your portfolio, but this is not always true. After a point, having more funds may not offer any value to your portfolio. A Morningstar study found that an investor can only reduce risk to a certain extent. Beyond a point, there is no benefit from diversification. Morningstar created hypothetical portfolios, ranging from 1-30 funds, using every possible permutation. It then calculated the five-year standard deviation of each of these portfolios.
The single-fund portfolios had the highest standard deviation—they delivered either the biggest gains or suffered the heaviest losses. This showed that owning just one fund can be risky and pointed to the need for diversification. Adding another fund to the portfolio brought down the standard deviation significantly, thus reducing the risk. | <urn:uuid:c7a490f7-83ac-44a2-aedd-c3879c1843f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-11-19/news/35203795_1_portfolio-schemes-mutual-funds-investors-end | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957375 | 1,034 | 1.9375 | 2 |
The Council receives many requests from residents for traffic calming measures to be introduced in their roads to reduce speeds and improve safety.
There is sometimes opposition from the Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service and Bus Companies to the use of speed control humps. The Emergency Services have concerns because humps increase their attendance times for emergency calls, and thus risk the lives and property of people. The Ambulance Service and Bus Companies have concerns because of the discomfort and possible injury that may be caused to their passengers and the increased wear and tear on vehicles.
There are regulations governing the layout of speed control humps. There must be a form of "slowing feature" - usually formed by a change of priority (traffic entering the system has to turn sharp left or right into the road, or has to "give way". Sometimes mini roundabouts are used at the start of a system of humps.
The shape of speed control humps are strictly regulated. They must be between 50mm and 100mm high, at least 2.75m long and extend over the full width of the road, except for a drainage channel at either end. They may have either flat tops or round tops. Many local authorities have adopted the 75mm high hump as a standard. This is because it has been found to reduce traffic to around 22 mph. The 100 mm high humps reduce speeds to 17 mph on the hump but speeds rise to 35 mph between the humps, causing excessive acceleration, braking and increased pollution. Flat topped humps can be of any length and are often known as "speed tables". They are sometimes used to reduce the impact on long wheel base vehicles such as buses.
Speed control humps can lead to complaints about increased noise and sometimes increased vibration from traffic. They have however been proved to reduce traffic speed and they have been installed in many locations.
An alternative to humps is speed control cushions which are narrower versions of the hump, placed in each traffic lane. These enable vehicles with wider wheel bases (such as busses or fire appliances) to straddle the cushion, but still requires smaller vehicles to reduce speeds. Rhondda Cynon Taf uses these features extensively on bus routes or roads which form important links for the emergency services.
Telephone: 01443 494700
Fax: 01443 425020 | <urn:uuid:ca27c95b-ad17-4aa4-9628-8f56fbc0bf48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rctcbc.gov.uk/en/environmentplanningandwaste/roads,highwaysandpavements/roadsafety-dangerousjunctions/roadsafety-dangerousroadandjunctions.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962632 | 476 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- Type: Attractions
- Localyte author: charlene
- The aquarium, located in a small relaxing village in the North West of Mauritius, is home to a large number of species including over 200 species of fish, invertebrates, live coral and sponges, originating from the waters around the island. The newly designed architecture of the aquarium shows off what the aquarium has to offer to a better degree. In the Aquarium you are able to enjoy a unique walk on the ocean floor observing the many types of aquatic animals that Mauritius ocean eco-system has to offer. It is fascinating to watch the crystal clear Mauritius water and observe the rich sea life from the land above. During your visit you will get to see the Crown squirrelfish and the Devil Firefish as well as a number of sharks. Also, get ready to see neon bright, glowing yellows, fluorescent greens, purples and other amazing colors you probably didn't believe could be found in any marine wildlife. There is also a special touch pool for children to experience direct contact with some of the species in the aquarium.
- The description was provided by charlene
- Pointe aux Piments, Mauritius
- No Sweat
- User Rating | <urn:uuid:8700494f-afed-40a9-8a7e-e39aba45ce98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nileguide.com/destination/port-louis-mauritius/things-to-do/mauritius-aquarium/1184414 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945868 | 256 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Six Designs for Flower Beds and Borders
Before you put in your beds and borders, reflect on how the location of your garden can give you viewing pleasure throughout the season. Plant annuals where you can most enjoy their color and fragrance during their relatively brief life. Almost everyone’s yard has some features that are ready-made for planting beds and borders
Find the situation that most closely matches your yard and discover how to re-create a design or adapt it for your own garden:
Sunny patio bed: Many homeowners have a backyard patio that they use for various summer activities. Creating a flower bed between the patio and the lawn is easy — and a perfect way to show off annuals during the warm months. Plant the tallest flowers in the interior of the bed so that your bed looks nice from both the patio and the lawn. If the bed is so large that you can’t reach the middle to weed or water, create a meandering path of a few stepping stones through the bed. When choosing your own annuals for a border around your sunny backyard patio, you can use the following criteria to limit your search.
Shady bed around a large tree: Trees are usually the largest and often the most distinctive element in a garden. One way to show them off is to plant a circular flower bed around their trunks. A mix of pastel colors looks great in the shade, particularly with the addition of plenty of white and an accent of green lawn. A nicely pruned specimen tree, encircled by a flower bed, can serve as the main element in creating a stunning front garden. Make the bed large enough to really accent the tree and to allow for a pleasing complexity of plants. A circular bed 10 feet in diameter serves nicely in this situation.
Border for a formal walkway: Annuals can brighten up the skinniest of spaces providing bright color and a sweet scent you can appreciate as you pass by. A 20-foot-long brick walkway between your entry gate and your front door may have only a 2-foot-wide border along each side. In such restricted spaces, consider a simple color scheme with a minimum of different kinds of plants. Typically, formal walkways are in full sun.
Border for an informal walkway: When you’re edging a curved walkway made of irregularly shaped paving or stepping stones, you’re likely to want different styles and colors of plants than you’d choose to line a straight brick pathway. The most appropriate planting choices for curving walkways are a loose variety of annuals that duplicate the appearance of a cottage garden border — even within such a confined space as a 3-foot-wide walkway border.
Border for a modern-style walkway: Front pathways leading to ranch-style houses, or more modern-style houses, often stretch from the driveway along the front of the house to the porch and doorway. Such pathways are usually made of poured aggregate or smoothly laid stone. The border running alongside this pathway is best planted in just one kind of flower. Your goal here is to completely fill the border. This simplicity of single-variety planting suits both the sleekness of the path and the style of house.
Even within such a simple scheme, you have plenty of choices. Consider planting zinnias in cool colors or gloriosa daisies in warm colors. Space transplants 6 to 8 inches apart, staggering them to avoid the look of soldiers lined up at attention. Deadhead and water the plants throughout the growing season, and they’ll provide a dramatic, colorful walkway border that belies the simplicity and ease of your planting scheme.
Border against a backyard fence: Large borders consisting mainly of trees and shrubs usually form a backdrop in most gardens. You can call on annual flowers to fill in bare spaces between the permanent plants and to brighten the view across the garden. A border that radiates outward from a fenced-corner and is curved in front is likely to include a variety of shrubs and maybe a small tree or two. | <urn:uuid:06f5dd69-bf38-4c88-bdbd-4ef887155d4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/six-designs-for-flower-beds-and-borders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947814 | 833 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Lancet Oncology, Volume 13, Issue 6
, Pages 560 - 561, June 2012
doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70170-5Cite or Link Using DOI
Capecitabine in the treatment of rectal cancer
The fluorouracil prodrug capecitabine was developed as an oral substitute for intravenous fluorouracil in the 1990s. Since then, many phase 2 and 3 trials have investigated capecitabine in different tumour types and stages, at various doses, and as a single agent or multiagent therapy. 1
Most phase 3 trials that compared the two drugs reported that capecitabine was at least as effective as fluorouracil, and capecitabine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of m ...
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Reportedly slept for 16 hours a day to maintain her beauty. (imdb.com)
Friend of Marlene Dietrich, who thought Dolores "the most beautiful woman in Hollywood".
Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1962
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957
Is portrayed by Lucy Cohu in RKO 281 (1999) (TV)
Often referred to as the female Valentino.
She contributed money to a statue likeness of her as the title character in Evangeline (1929). Upon completion in 1930, the statue was placed beside St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville, Louisiana. The statue rests on a spot marking the alleged burial place of Emmeline Labiche, whom local lore claims was the inspiration behind Longfellow`s tragic heroine. It has become a popular tourist attraction and is known as "The Evangeline Statue".
She won the Ariel (Mexican Academy Award) three times: on 1946 for Abandonadas, Las (1945); in 1952 for Doña Perfecta (1951) and in 1954 for Niño y la niebla, El (1953).
Cousin of Ramon Novarro.
Reported in fan magazines that she slept for 16 hours a day to maintain her beauty. | <urn:uuid:88c422c9-4d5b-4a66-947f-48acfedb20d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_12171/dolores-del-rio/trivia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.915856 | 272 | 1.976563 | 2 |
- Computer Access
- Academic Facilities
- Campus Ministry
- Recreation/Sport Facilities
- Dining Facilities
- David Brinkley Television Studio
A good library is essential to good research. You will be pleased to know that the Monsignor William Barry Library's 700,000 holdings are further enhanced by its membership in SEFLIN (South East Florida Library Information Network); the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a national library network; and the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET).
You can search the library's catalog through BLISSWeb (Barry Library Information Services System Web), a computerized online catalog which can be accessed from computers in the library, computer labs, residence halls, and offices across campus, as well as at home and off-campus sites.
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In Barry's main computer lab, you will find state-of-the-art computers and access to printers. Knowledgeable personnel are available to answer your questions.
To assist you during mid-terms and the end-of-semester period, the lab lengthens its hours. You can also use the smaller library computer lab.
If you live on campus, your room will be wired with ResNet connection (Internet access and network connectivity), enabling you to conveniently complete research and papers for classes. There is also a computer lab in the Dulton-Dunspagh Residence Hall.
Although you may not be majoring in any of these areas, you may enter a number of these facilities as you complete your course distribution requirements. Academic facilities include chemistry labs, a new nursing lab, several biology labs, a rehabilitation and athletic training facility, a human performance laboratory, a biomechanics lab, a radio station, color and black and white photography dark rooms, a lighting studio, a Photoshop lab, a music room, multimedia business classrooms, a black box theatre, a dance studio, a 1000-seat Performing Arts Center, and an education lab (the Classroom of Tomorrow).
You can attend daily or Sunday mass, learn about peace and justice issues, organize a food drive, prepare for a retreat, attend an ecumenical prayer service, or seek pastoral counseling through the Office of Campus Ministry, housed in Cor Jesu Chapel.
The University's Dominican mission is clear in its efforts to strive for social justice and to engage students in community service efforts in the neighborhood, the inner city, Haiti or elsewhere.
Whether or not you are Catholic, you can participate in common goals to enhance life; every faith is honored here.
You can join other students in an intramural basketball game against Rigor Mortis (the faculty/staff team) in the 1,500-seat gymnasium or work-out in the weight-training facility. Cool off in the pool or just catch some rays at poolside. Enjoy an intense game of racquetball or shoot some hoops on the outdoor basketball courts. You can also enjoy a game of sand volleyball at a court located near the residence halls. Or cheer for the Barry soccer teams on the outdoor fields.
The University's Fine Arts Department presents an instrumental and/or vocal performance on an almost weekly basis in Cor Jesu Chapel. Major performances are given each semester in the 1000-seat Performing Arts Center, with a play and a musical performed by students, faculty, and local talent. You can welcome the spring with a dance performance or check out the Senior Art Exhibits, located in the Library Gallery.
Whether you are a commuter or a resident student, you can take advantage of Barry's meal plans which give you the option of eating in the dining hall or the BucStop. You can pick up a colada and sandwich at the Q. And an Einstein Bagels has just recently opened! (Meal plans are accepted in the cafeteria and the Bucstop. Cash is accepted in all eateries.)
If you are interested in television production, you will find the David Brinkley Television Studio well equipped. You might have the opportunity to use video production on location for a conference you help host for the School of Social Work. Or you might have the opportunity to work with one of your professors in producing a 3-minute spot on a specific topic of concern to the community -- a spot which might air on WXEL, public television! | <urn:uuid:daf79885-4366-4905-847b-d08682195715> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barry.edu/bsw/lifeatbarry/facilities.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938087 | 882 | 1.5 | 2 |
The following procedures may be done to prevent further damage during a
This is a procedure used to treat acute strokes. A tiny, flexible tube (catheter) is threaded through the blood vessels until it reaches an area in the brain where a clot is lodged. Efforts are made to remove the clot through the catheter; or, clot-busting agents are administered through the catheter to the location of the actual clot.
Mechanical devices may be used to remove a clot. New devices have been approved by the FDA that may provide a quick way to retrieve the thrombosis (blood clot). The devices have either a corkscrew tip or a special ring used to remove the clots. They are placed in a catheter and threaded through blood vessels to the area of the blockage. Once in the proper location these devices are used to remove the clot blocking the blood vessel. The advantage of these devices is that they can remove the clot in a matter of minutes, opening blood flow and decreasing the level of damage to affected tissue. Other versions of these devices are still under investigation.
Other surgical procedures for
technically fall into the prevention category.
Two conditions in the arteries in the brain or the arteries that lead to the brain can cause a risk of stroke. These can be the result of
(fatty deposits in the arteries), which can lead to:
- Narrowing of an artery that will eventually shut off the blood supply to the brain altogether
- Ulceration of a fatty deposit (plaque) that makes it likely to break off and obstruct the artery further down stream
Surgery attempts to correct either or both events. Very careful evaluation is required to determine which lesions will benefit from surgery.
In addition, congenital (conditions at birth), post-surgical, or other heart or valve conditions can lead to stroke. Surgical interventions may be necessary to help decrease the risk of stroke.
The following surgical interventions may be necessary to manage or prevent stroke:
A narrow area of your artery, usually the carotid artery, can be bypassed by sewing in a replacement tube above and below the obstruction.
This surgery is nearly always done on the carotid arteries, which lie on either side of your windpipe. It may also be done between a scalp artery and a vessel inside your skull.
After attaching you to monitoring devices in the surgical suite, you will be under
general anesthesia. The doctor will cut the skin over the involved artery or arteries, remove a piece of your skull if necessary, and sew a piece of tubing between a healthy artery and the diseased one. The bypass may simply go around a short narrowed segment of a carotid artery, or it may connect an artery inside the skull with one from outside the skull.
Very similar to an arterial bypass (and requiring that a bypass be used temporarily during the surgery), an
simply carves out the inner lining of the carotid artery, leaving behind the outer layers to carry the blood. There are technical reasons why one procedure is preferred over the other. CEA is performed much more commonly than arterial bypass for atherosclerotic disease of the carotid arteries.
A tiny, flexible tube (catheter) is threaded through the blood vessels and into the carotid artery or (less commonly) another artery in the brain. A balloon is introduced through the catheter and inflated within the blood vessel, in an effort to widen the blood vessel and improve blood flow through it. A stent (a mesh tube) is often left within the artery to keep it as open as possible. A mesh screen may be placed within the artery to catch any bits of plaque or clots that might otherwise flow upward into the brain.
Even though endarterectomy is more invasive, it may be preferred over angioplasty for some patients. Angioplasty may be an option for patients who are have a high risk of complications from CEA.
Aneurysms are weak spots in arteries that balloon out and may rupture, allowing blood at high pressure to pump into neighboring tissues. It is sometimes possible to repair an aneurysm before it causes a major hemorrhagic stroke. An enlarging aneurysm may produce pressure in the brain before it ruptures. Or, it may leak slowly enough to allow detection and repair before the major bleeding begins.
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
Brain aneurysm surgery is brain surgery, with all the meticulous care and technology directed at safe, effective results. The goal is removal or clipping of a small weak spot on a blood vessel. Once visualized, the standard procedure is to clamp a small metal clip around the base of the aneurysm.
There are alternatives that can be accomplished without surgically entering the skull. Aneurysms are connected to the circulation and can be approached through blood vessels by threading long, thin catheters (tiny tubes) into them. It may then be possible to block the aneurysm from inside, perhaps by inserting metal coils or squirting them full of tiny beads or or other compounds. These will cause a clot to form and scar.
Four heart valves open and close to allow blood to flow properly through the heart. Surgery may be necessary if one or more of the valves does not function as it should. Problems with heart valves can significantly increase the risk of strokes. The valve may be repaired or replaced with a prosthetic valve during open or minimally invasive surgery.
Minimally invasive surgery is becoming more common. The doctor will make small incisions in the chest. Endoscopic, keyhole or robot-assisted surgical techniques may be employed to reach the heart for surgery. The heart is stopped temporarily during surgery; breathing and blood flow is done by a heart and lung machine. An incision is made in the heart or aorta to reach the valve. The valve is repaired or replaced, and the incision areas are stitched. The heart is started again.
A blood clot can form on the valves or in the chambers of the heart. This can also happen with a prosthetic heart or valve. If the blood clot is not reduced with medication, surgery may be performed. Catheter assisted or open surgical procedures may be necessary to remove the clot.
A newer technique called thrombus aspiration may also be employed to remove the blood clot in or around the heart. This technique uses a small vacuum to suction the clot during surgery.
Ventricular and atrial septum defects are congenital (present at birth). The septums are walls separating the atria or the ventricles within the heart. In certain scenarios, there is concern that these defects can be associated with increased risk of strokes. These are commonly repaired during surgery using sutures or a tissue patch.
When the atrial septum does not close properly after birth, it is called a patent foramen ovale (PFO), or “hole in the heart.” It is a very common finding, and it does not cause any problems in most people. In certain scenarios, there is concern that a PFO may predispose a person to increased risk of stroke. Using a catheter procedure through a vein in the leg, the doctor guides the catheter to the heart and places a special device over the hole. In time, new heart tissue surrounds the implant. | <urn:uuid:11c012c4-64bc-42fd-84b3-65573b5b6b61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weisshospital.com/medical-services/clinical-programs/rehab/treatments.aspx?chunkiid=20426 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939452 | 1,524 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Hear ye, all men of the world. Listen, all warriors! If you value your culture, your race, and your religion, do as the Israeli men do. Protect your women. Forget “tolerance.” Away with “compassion.” Down with inter-faith marriage, miscengenation, and multiculturalism. This is Communist inspired, perverted freedom, and the destruction of culture. “Racism!” the liberals cry. Thus they attempt to condemn those who want to protect and preserve themselves. Forget liberals.
Look at this recent report from Israel.
If you value your culture, your race, and your religion. The key word is “if.” Many people don’t value these things. Many people think culture is passé. The Jewish news report is obviously liberal, created by liberal Jews, about conservative Jews. Of course, there is one flaw in the “Jewish conservatism” as presented in the report, however. A true conservative person, who involves morality in his life, does not practice promiscuity, or sexuality outside marriage. A true conservative person does not practice adultery or fornication. In the Jewish news report, the Jewish woman involved consented to extra-marital sexual relations. Yes she was extremely offended, having been deceived by an Arab man. But, had she practiced true morality, she would never have been thus offended.
Conservatism, without fundamental morality, is perhaps an awkward position to take, at least politically, since it inevitably identifies itself with the larger scope of conservatism, yet, also brings a certain moral liberty with it.
We recently witnessed the incomparable Ann Coulter create a whirlwind of controversy when she spoke to a homosexual group in New York in September. It is true that she stood for traditional marriage (between a man and a woman) as she spoke. She did not flatter homosexuals for their condition, and her speech was essentially a rebuke, in the very final analysis. But, the fact that she would lend her reputation to even the concept that homosexuality did not prevent a homosexual from being conservative and Republican was more than many conservatives could accept, conservatives like Peter LeBarbera and Joseph Farah.
Conservatism is inevitably associated with the Biblical, Judeo-Christian religion. With conservatism comes the fundamental concern for the preservation of race, religion, and culture–at least of the white, Judeo-Christian, western culture (i.e., the American, European culture.) The war against the white race, against the Judeo-Christian religion, and against western culture, is waged by people without morality, certainly without Biblical morality. Is there another kind? A better kind? A more healthy kind, producing better people, with happier lives? I think not. There’s no evidence to support that notion. The existence of America–the envy of the world, is the strongest argument against any other kind of so-called “morality.” The blessings of America would never have evolved had the enemies of the Bible (i.e., liberals) had their way. This is abundantly clear.
The Israeli report is timely. Consensual sex is called “rape” because a man deceived a woman as to his racial (cultural and religious) identity. That’s how important race, cultural and religion are, and, the clarion implication is, that’s how important sex is. Of course, morality is not going to be the focus of the story, but rather race, religion, and culture. There are many words, terms, and much political jargon being thrown around in the story, but, Biblical morality is not one of them. Yet, that’s what the issue is really based on. The Jew is obligated to protect and preserve his people. The Jewish warrior is coming alive there in Jaffe, Israel. Amen.
May that same warrior come alive in all other races and cultures–particularly the American white race, and the American Indian race. It is time to simply understand that race and culture does not preserve itself. The natural aggressions of men and women work against preservation of anything. Special, conscious effort must be made to preserve and protect whatever is valued. I taught this to my classes at Oklahoma State University (Oklahoma City) when I was allowed to teach. “Whatever you have that is valuable, if you are not willing to fight for it, it will be taken from you”–whether its your race, your culture, your religion, your money, or your land. This is the law of the wild. This is mankind. Be advised.
I like what I hear in this Israeli report, about Jewish men taking the initiative to protect what they have. There is always the tempation of a woman to wander into “forbidden” sex with a “foreign” man. And men always want to explore women exotic to them. This is the story of humanity, really. But that same story contains a lot of war, and the fact is, people in the end prefer their own race, their own religion, their own language, and their own kind. It’s called “home.”
No political theory, no feigned liberal “morality” (which is essentially immorality), no global trend, or no media campaign will ever remove man’s desire for his own. May the Creator of all grant us understanding of these things, and remind us of our most basic intuitions of being. | <urn:uuid:3d1cdf7e-0c22-4f94-9657-a3ccfa680b77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.badeagle.com/2010/11/08/there-is-hope-in-israel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969372 | 1,138 | 1.554688 | 2 |
1. Prepare in advance.
The time to start thinking about your condition is when you first become ill. Do not wait until you are sitting on a cold examining room table, nervous, and half-naked to pull together the explanation you will give your physician. When you first develop a new and concerning symptom, start taking notes. For instance, what were you doing when you first noticed the pain? Describe the pain in detail, including where it radiates, if anywhere. What have you tried for the problem and how much did it help?
2. Prioritize your concerns.
Your doctor may be too busy to address all of your problems in one visit, so list your concerns in the order of importance. Doing so will ensure that your most important problems are addressed before any less significant issues.
3. Take notes.
When you sit down to talk to your doctor, take notes. Ask about the specific diagnosis and walk away from the office with a vague understanding of your illness, unless, of course, the diagnosis is not clear at that time. Find out how long you should expect to be sick and if you are not better in that timeframe what your next step should be, such as making another appointment or calling your doctor.
4. Ask your doctor's office manager for a list/brochure of his policies. If he does not have one printed up, at the very least, ask the following:
What is his policy on medication refills, e.g. do you have to make an appointment each time a refill is needed on a chronic medication.
Does he give samples?
Is there a fee for missing an appointment without canceling and if so, what is the cancellation notice required?
5. Opt for generic medications. While pharmaceutical companies may run elaborate advertisements for their newest products, older tried and true medications usually work just as well, and they have a proven safety record. Ask your physician about the pros and cons of the potential medications he is considering prescribing.
6. Keep a copy of your own medical records.
While your copy will not be as extensive as your physician's, you should have a list of your chronic medical conditions, drug allergies, medications, prior hospitalizations and surgeries, and family history, at the very least. Keep this in your wallet with you at all times. You cannot predict when an emergency will arise and you find yourself on a stretcher in the local ER. Having a copy of important health records can literally be life-saving!
ThePatient Whiz is a credit card-size 1 GB USB flash drive that easily fits into your wallet to empower you to keep copies of EKGs, lab results, medications lists and much more with you at all times. It doubles as a patient empowerment tool with articles such as the one above. | <urn:uuid:1f1f7590-6cda-4a01-bfad-ac604981c553> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art61250.asp | 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 | 0.954677 | 575 | 1.945313 | 2 |
The new railway passes through the heart of the West End of London and along the north edge of the Roman and Medieval city. The finds on display include prehistoric animal bones, Roman finds,
human remains from the infamous Bedlam psychiatric hospital and remnants
of Britain's industrial past.
I loved this old chamber pot uncovered at Stepney Green which dates back to the 19th century. The decoration inside the pot has a shocked male face saying "Oh What I see, I will not tell" and on the outside once can make out "when you in it want to p-ss, remember they who gave you this"
Crossrail said "One of the core objectives of the Crossrail archaeology programme is the dissemination of archaeology information to the wider archaeological community, together with a focused education and outreach programme for local communities."
The bison remains pictured above were found at Royal Oak and are around 68,000 years old. I learnt that Royal Oak bison were exceptionally small when compared to other Pleistocene bison.
The tableware above is from Paddington station and was found at Old Oak Common train maintenance depot where trains were cleaned and stabled.
The exhibition opens to the public today, Saturday 7th July 2012, and runs from 10am to 5pm at The Music Room, Grays Antiques, 26 South Molton Lane, W1K 5LF.
Talks will be given on the day by Crossrail contractors from Museum of London Archaeology and Ramboll at 11:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 15:00. More details here.
Update - London City Nights also went along to the exhibition on Saturday & have blogged about it too with more photos. I'll update you, if (hopefully) /when the exhibition goes to other parts of London. | <urn:uuid:5a6fa6a2-a537-4cef-a5e3-fbfefbaf6c8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2012/07/crossrail-archaeology-exhibition-bison.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956237 | 373 | 2.0625 | 2 |
This is the landscape from which A Poet and Bin-Laden, the new book by acclaimed BBC Writer in Residence, Hamid Ismailov, emerges. A novel in form, A Poet and Bin-Laden weaves an intricate story drawn from Ismailov’s decades of reporting from Taliban controlled Afghanistan and his experiences as an Uzbek exile in the United Kingdom.
Fiction is intertwined with documentary, as Ismailov provides wonderfully vivid accounts of historical events such as the siege of Kunduz, the breakout from Shebergan prison, and the insurgency in the Ferghana Valley as witnessed by the Byronian figure of Belgi, a poet who enters the inner sanctum of al-Qaeda, and ultimately meets Sheikh bin Laden himself.
“…The real achievement of A Poet and Bin-Laden,” writes journalist Hugh Barnes in the preface, “is an imaginative one – this is a very powerful story about the forces of extremism in human nature, good and evil, poetry and terror.”
Translated to English for the first time by renowned translator Andrew Bromfield and backed by English PEN and Arts Council England, A Poet and Bin-Laden has already garnered international attention, drawing in both the curious reader and certain national security agencies, interested in how closely reality and fiction have intertwined in the book.
Hamid Ismailov (born 1954, Kyrgyzstan) is an Uzbek journalist and writer who was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 1992 and came to the United Kingdom, where he took a job with the BBC World Service as the Head of Central Asia and Caucasus Service and their first Writer in Residence. For the BBC, he has covered Islamic radicalism in in Central Asia and in Afghanistan, traveling to Talibani Afghanistan to interview their elite. Hamid has been published in Uzbek, Russian, French, German, and Turkish. Currently, his works are banned in Uzbekistan. He is an award winning novelist and A Poet and Bin Laden is supported by grants from English PEN and Arts Council England.
A Poet and Bin-Laden will be released September 1, 2012 by Glagoslav Publications
REVIEW COPIES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
More on www.glagoslav.com | <urn:uuid:91ad5d63-aa23-4d24-9bd6-65f77e2c486a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/11965811-glagoslav-publications-releases-poet-and-bin-laden-by-bbc-writer-in-residence-hamid-ismailov.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963282 | 470 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Science will win, because it works
A day or two ago I criticised Stanley Fish on his piece “Citing Chapter and Verse,” in which he purports to show that science and religion are really on all fours so far as evidence goes, and that both require an initial act of faith before either enterprise can get going. Not content with the depth of his own grave, he has decided to dig it a bit deeper, but this time he has chosen to lie down and let his critics bury him. He thinks he has escaped suffocation by a long disclaimer, but it won’t work. Let’s hear the disclaimer first:
This, I take it, is what many readers meant when they said, in a tone of triumph, that science works. Yes, it does, but so does literary criticism (it settles interpretive disputes, at least for a while) and so does therapy (it enhances the ability to socially interact, at least sometimes), and so does religious faith (it gives meaning and direction to life, at least for some people). The parenthetical qualifications in the previous sentence acknowledge that the certainty these practices give us is, at least from the perspective of the long run, provisional; it can be replaced or overturned or dislodged. But so can the certainties science gives us. Johnny E points out that not long ago “in geology everybody believed in geosynclines, there was lots of published data about them, but … now geosynclines don’t exist and everybody … believe[s] in seafloor spreading.” Now you see them, now you don’t.
However, this simply won’t do. If Fish hasn’t noticed the difference between the provisionality of, say, literary criticism, and the provisionality of science, perhaps we can chalk it up to age and dementia, but certainly not to acuity of vision and insight. Hermeneutic provisionality is toto caelo different to scientific provisionality. In fact, it’s perfectly reasonable for two people to disagree about the interpretation of a particular poem, and continue to disagree, although all the facts of language, rhyme, metre, metaphor, subtlety, and so on are agreed by both. But it is unreasonable to suppose that the disagreement between, say, Jerry Coyne and Jim Shapiro — see Jerry Coyne’s “Jim Shapiro continues his misguided attack on neo-Darwinism“ – can continue on indefinitely without resolution. It seems clear that Shapiro’s claim that the molecular structure of the immune system is still a characteristic of organisms that either has survival value or not, and that it is either selected for, and contributes to the survivability of progeny, or it is not, and does not, and that there is something true about the world that determines one or the other. This is not something about which scientists can happily differ, as literary critics, however deeply convinced they are about the adequacy of their own interpretations, and however grudgingly, must do regarding interpretations that disagree with theirs.
At this point Fish jumps into an abstruse discussion of what constitutes evidence in science, basing himself entirely on the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry under ‘evidence, and accepts the idea that “theories determine what will count as evidence” as a comprehensive account of what evidence consists in. And, so far as it goes, it is true. What we are able to see and take note of is, to a large degree, determined by theory, but it does not follow, as Fish seems to think, that what there is is determined by theory. Indeed, at this point Fish needs a bit more philosophy, and could with benefit to his argument consult Susan Haack’s Evidence and Inquiry. Haack develops an understanding of evidence which makes use of both coherence (with existing theory) and correspondence with what exists (foundationalism). She calls it “foundherentism,” and suggests that we look at the process as analogous to solving a crossword puzzle. Answers to the puzzle clues must be consistent with each other, such that if 5-down requires an e, then 7-across can’t be ‘cow’ if it intersects with 5-down. So while our answers must be consistent with theory (with the way the answers to the clues comport together), they are also contingent upon the facts as they externally are. This is how scientific theories are constructed and progress, and are sometimes falsified and discarded. Certainly, what we see will be dependent upon theory, especially when the theory in question has been especially powerful in answering the questions that we put to the nature of things. But when it increasingly fails to account for the facts, theory itself must undergo change. There is a constant interplay between theory and observation and experiment, and while theory may determine what is seen, in the first place, the lack of fit between theory and fact must lead, in the end, to new or revised theory, and when that happens, the relationships of hitherto discovered facts undergoes a readjustment to fit new theory based upon new fact (facts which did not fit the old theory), just as, when doing a crossword puzzle, a new clue may bring about a number of cascading changes to other parts of the puzzle, as they are required to adapt to another answer.
Fish’s problem is that he assumes that evidence is never independent of theory. As he says:
But if evidence is never independent and is only evidence within the precincts of a particular theory, “adherents of rival theories,” Kelly explains [in the Standford Encyclopedia], “will irremediably differ as to the appropriate description of the data itself.”
In this case, as Fish says, “agreement between them cannot be brought about by simply pointing to the data.” Well, yes, in one sense that is true, but it is only true if scientists are irremediably locked in to the specific theories in terms of which they are interpreting what they see. And this may certainly happen, and questions may remain undecided from time to time until theory has caught up with observation. However, this is not because there is no difference between literary criticism, or theology, on the one hand, and science on the other, for the simple reason that genuinely conflicting observations in science must indicate disagreement in theory, and conflicting theories cannot stand.
And here is where Fish goes disastrously awry. He takes the old familiar saying that “Seeing is believing.” And then he tries to parlay that into a basis for saying that we should
give the label ”real” to whatever appears perspicuous to us within the evidential lenses that we happen to be wearing.
The problem, as he sees it, is that if we “withhold the adjective ‘real’ from anything that is not independently apprehended, [we] will never bestow it.” But that word ‘independent’ is doing double or triple duty here. Fish is talking in terms of theory, and claiming that nothing that we apprehend is apprehended independently of theory. It is theory all the way down, as philosophers used to say. But there are different kinds of independence here. While it is true that various gods are posited within different theologies, it does not follow that we can append the word ‘real’ to any particular gods, for the theories (the theologies, in this case) may have no relation whatever to what really exists. They may simply be elaborate surmises based on historical traditions or subjective experiences, or a combination of both. And this is just the problem. By Fish’s reckoning, gods should be just as robust, ontologically, as quarks, but they aren’t. There are reasons, traceable back to things that we can observe, for positing the existence of quarks. They are theoretical constructs in a sense in which gods are not, and it is a misrepresentation of the facts to suggest otherwise.
Fish tries to suggest that our theories differ only in respect of their persuasiveness. ”Of course,” he says,
the things we give the label ”real” to are not all real in the same way and with the same persuasiveness to everyone. There are important differences between the arguments and experiments that are taken to support the reality of quarks …, and the arguments and statistics that are taken to support the reality of faith-healing or the power of prayer.
But this is silly. The reality of faith-healing is dependent upon the very same kinds of evidence upon which the reality of quarks depends, and it has failed all such tests. There is no evidence that faith-healing works, no evidence of the so-called power of prayer. There is evidence for the reality of what have come to be known as quarks. That I cannot provide a good explanation of this evidence is neither here nor there. I depend upon the expertise of physicists who have done the experiments, and physicists who have checked the reliability of those experiments. There is no corresponding expertise in the realm of faith-healing. And that means, like it or not, that quarks are independent of theory in a way in which the efficacy of faith is not.
By suggesting otherwise, Fish effectively lays waste to objective truth claims, even though he claims not to be doing this. Objectivity means, he says,
going with the best arguments, and bodies of evidence one has at the moment.
But this is circular, because it depends upon the ability to distinguish better from best. How do we know what the best arguments are, if there is no basis, independently of theory, for at least some of our truth claims? Fish says that “science and religion cannot be distinguished on the basis of fidelity to reality.” The argument that they cannot is, he says, true, but also harmless. If this is only the claim that we cannot prove that god does not exist, then it is in fact an empty, and fairly uninteresting flourish. But I think it is trying to be more profound than this. Fish is attempting to affirm that there is a kind of ontological equivalence between scientific truth claims and religious ones, and neither can be taken to be more firmly grounded in reality than the other. And that is poppycock!
Fish’s article is a response to comments, and he says at the end that he cannot forbear mentioning a few of the most caustic ones:
Finally, [he writes] I cannot forbear noting the picture of religion assumed by some of the most caustic commentators who say that religious experts “don’t engage in … debate” (chuckwagon), that when a religious truth is announced “no further inquiry is permitted” (Kevin Brady), that “religious dogma brooks no debate” (Prakash Nadkarni), that the only arguments believers have is “The bible says so” (Kevin Grierson) and that “Faith requires a belief system by fiat” (drdave).
For these supposed howlers Fish suggests a course of reading, possibly including Job, Augustine’s Confessions, and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. However, let’s consider these few words from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter sermon:
“Easter makes a claim not just about a potentially illuminating set of human activities, but about an event in history and its relation to the action of God,” he said.
“Very simply, in the words of this morning’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we are told that ‘God raised Jesus to life’.”
He said any understanding of the significance of the resurrection that fell short of this truth would be to misunderstand it.
Compare that to Kevin Grierson’s claim that the only argument believers have is that the Bible says so. In the Acts we are told that “God raised Jesus to life,” and, according to Rowan Williams, ”any understanding of the significance of the resurrection that fell short of this truth would be to misunderstand it.” That’s a sophisticated way of saying “the Bible tells me so,” and that if you don’t agree, you’ve misunderstood. Isn’t this also to reject debate — not that there is no debate about the significance of the resurrection, or of what it means to say that Jesus was raised to life, but that this explicitly rejects the value and even the intelligibility of such debate. It also seems, not to put to fine a point on it, to suggest that we cannot enquire further about this matter. The Bible says so; that settles it. Of course, in other registers, no doubt, the archbishop would be quite prepared to have a theological debate about this, but this is precisely the problem. While there is a great deal of debate in Christian theology, in the end it all comes back to what is said in the Bible. Jesus was raised from the dead, and this religious dogma does in fact brook no debate as Prakash Nadkarni said.
It is important to note, adverting to one of the remedial readings that Fish suggests, that, after the agonised questioning and debate of Job, who was suffering for no wrong that he had done, and who challenged God to meet him in court and justify his sufferings, God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38):
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements–surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? 8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?– 9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
– and more irrelevancies of the same sort. No doubt, Job is overawed, and in the end, submits himself to God’s supremacy, and repents in dust and ashes. But God’s answer is irrelevant to Job’s concerns, and his suffering is never justified or remedied, despite being made richer than before, with daughters even more beautiful. If Fish takes this as a demonstration that there is argument and debate in religion, he must also take it as a demonstration that such argument and debate fails to demonstrate anything to the purpose.
There is no proof in religion. In the end it really does come down to dogma. Contrary to Fish, let us take Richard Holloway, one time Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, as an example. His eyes were opened at the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. He was appalled at the behaviour of some of the bishops at the conference, and their male chauvinism and homophobia. As he says in his autobiography, Leaving Alexandria:
Behind Lambeth’s contempt for gay men, there lay a deeper contempt for women themselves, because they too are incapable of the fuck in this primordial sense. Men fuck. Women get fucked. Q.E.D. [322-23]
At the conference a Nigerian bishop spread the rumour that Holloway’s daughters were lesbians. If it were true, says Holloway, it would not have mattered, but it was untrue, and the spreading of the rumour, and the nastiness behind it, he says, fortified his sense
that there was a profound sickness at the heart of so-called Biblical morality, if it could lead to such hatred and cruelty.
It won’t do to say, in response to this, as Fish suggests, that no one uses the Bible in the way that Kevin Grierson suggests in his comment, for many, if not most, Christians do precisely this. The Archbishop of Canterbury, for all his theological sophistication, did precisely this in his Easter homily, and there is no point trying to pretend otherwise. When the pope says that women cannot be ordained, that is a dogma about which there is to be no debate. These are normative moves in religious contexts, and it is simply dishonest to suggest otherwise. This does not mean that religious people do not debate. They debate all the time. But the underlying structures do not consist in evidence that is independent of theory in the way that scientific evidence must be, but in doctrinal declarations, sacred texts, and anathemas of those who disagree. There is no way to get out of the hermeneutical circle in theology, but if there were no way out in science, airplanes would not fly. Science will win, because it works. | <urn:uuid:8ca5d55d-c61e-48d2-9186-301630d5cb2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://choiceindying.com/2012/04/10/science-will-win-because-it-works/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968802 | 3,600 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Scotland's laser scanners reveal the beauty of Vienna as Minister launches commercial enterprise in digital documentation
9 June 2010
Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop met the team of experts who form Scotland’s new Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation (CDDV).
The CDDV is a new commercial partnership between Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio - using state-of-the-art laser scanning technology and 3D visualisation software to digitally record heritage sites around the globe, and enable virtual access.
The Centre grew from the Scottish Ten, a project to digitally document Scotland’s five World Heritage Sites and five international World Heritage Sites launched in 2009. The Centre will deliver the Scottish Ten project for the Scottish Government but will also undertake commercial projects to generate income for both organisations and further research and development in the field.
While launching the CDDV at Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio at Pacific Quay, the Minister saw the results of work done on the Centre’s first commercial contract at Schönbrunn Palace, the former imperial summer residence of the Habsburg monarchs and one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria.
The Minister viewed the Austrian scans taken in March and other recent projects in Lab 1, created by Glasgow School of Art as a large visualisation space with cutting edge projection and 3D technology.
The Minister for Culture and External Affairs said: “The launch of CDDV is an exciting achievement by two public sector bodies that have come together to share their expertise and knowledge. The work puts Scotland clearly at the forefront of using this technology to record and manage our heritage. We have already used these techniques to record the world-famous Rosslyn Chapel. A very thorough 3D record of the building was developed, providing practical information for the conservation project, as well as demonstrating the potential for education and interpretation.
“The centre’s work will not only raise Scotland’s profile as a leader in this field, but it is generating income that will be fed back into conservation projects and research. As everyone recognizes, we are going through a challenging time and looking at new ways to encourage investment in our heritage which will help preserve our historic environment for future generations.
“The images from Schönbrunn are stunning. It is a beautiful building and to be able to show all of the detailing with such precision is not only visually spectacular, but it will also help to monitor the condition and management of the building and offer opportunities to use the digital model to promote it as a visitor attraction.
“We have already had excellent feedback from a number of sites around the globe interested in the expertise we have built up in using this technology for conservation with the lessons learned giving us greater experience as we tackle the challenges that the five Scottish World Heritage Sites will present.
“The team is delighted to have been invited to include the Schönbrunn Palace in its work and the information they have provided will be a benefit to Schloβ Schönbrunn and its visitors for many years to come.”
Professor Seona Reid, Director of the Glasgow School of Art, said: “The launch of CDDV really is a testament to the strength of the world-leading work The Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio and Historic Scotland have undertaken in the specialised application of laser scanning technology and 3D visualisation. Its exciting the partnership has now been formalised and the Centre will provide and excellent vehicle through which the two organisations can collaborate further and continue this ground breaking research and practise.”
Wolfgang Kippes, CEO of Schönbrunn Company, said: “A detailed three-dimensional survey is very important for the Palace. It will enable us to evaluate the current exterior condition of the Palace and the other structures as well as provide accurate dimensional information for future building assessment and management.”
The laser scanners used by the team collect billions of highly precise measurements by bouncing the laser off the surfaces of the building. This information is then processed and can be used in different forms – as architectural drawings, cut through sections and fully 3D photographic quality models. The data can then be used for education, marketing and presentation of a site as well as incredibly detailed measurements to assist in the conservation of the building or monument.
For more information on the Scottish Ten visit www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/laserscanning
Notes for editors
- The Scottish Ten project was announced at Mount Rushmore on July 04 2009 by then Culture Minister Michael Russell MSP. The five Scottish World Heritage Sites are The Heart of Neolithic Orkney, The Antonine Wall, The Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, New Lanark and St Kilda. To watch footage of the team scanning Mount Rushmore visit www.youtube.com/historicscotlandtv
- Schönbrunn Palace, together with its ancillary buildings and extensive park, is by virtue of its long and colourful history one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria. The whole ensemble, including the palace, the park with its numerous architectural features, fountains, statues and zoo – the oldest of its kind in the world – was placed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1996. For more information visit www.schoenbrunn.at/en/
- Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment. The agency is fully accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament. For more information visit www.historic-scotland.gov.uk
- The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is one of the United Kingdom’s (UK) most successful higher education institutions specialising in architecture, design and fine art. It has an established reputation world wide for high quality education and research demonstrated by the outstanding successes of its students and graduates and the professional standing of its staff. It is home to an international community of 1,700 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying in the schools of Architecture, Design and Fine Art, or at the Digital Design Studio. For further information: www.gsa.ac.uk www.digitaldocumentation.co.uk
Glasgow School of Art
Tel: +44 (0)141 566 1442/ +44 7939 954 836 | <urn:uuid:94749e77-4aa4-4134-a57e-bf274d7965e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/largertext/news_article?articleid=28303 | 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 | 0.933003 | 1,309 | 1.984375 | 2 |
De Soto National Memorial has special living history presentations at specific times of the year. The Spanish encampment features daily presentations from mid-December to the last weekend in April. The Last day of the living history encampment also includes a special reenactment of De Soto's landing in 1539. The Nature Trail winds along the shoreline and through several Florida ecosystems, including a mangrove forest like the one that De Soto's men would have encountered when they landed. Trails include interpretive signage and waysides that tell the story of the De Soto Expedition and the natural history of the area. There is a Forty-five minute guided Trail Walks are offered by Park Rangers all day, staff availability and weather permitting. Inquire at the Visitor Center. For tour availability, call (941)792-0458, ext. 105. Rangers and volunteers dressed in period clothing will present talks on a variety of historical topics related to the De Soto Expedition and Florida's Native Americans. There will also be weapons and Spanish and native craft demonstrations throughout the day. The Visitor Center includes stunning displays of historic armor, weapons, and related period items. Helmets and armor are available to try on. Our newly re-modeled theater and museum features a wide array of exhibits of Spanish and Native American artifacts. The new museum exhibits are degigned to be rotating with new items and art that will be displayed periodicaly. Our thater shows our parks film Hernando De Soto in America throughout the year.
White Sand Beach Resort or Tropical Breeze Beach Club Call 941-778-2577 to make a reservation. The Beaches are Beautiful and the Water is Crystal Clear. | <urn:uuid:d56cd03c-773e-4357-aceb-6f7d80006d44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tropicalbreezebeachclub.com/de-soto-national-memorial | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930902 | 347 | 2.375 | 2 |
Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Helping us all lead longer and healthier lives
Thanks to advances in medical care and public health, our quality of life has improved and we now live on average 20 years longer than in the 1930's. By 2050, the number of people in the EU aged over 80 is expected to grow by 170%.
This means that we need to find all sorts of solutions for challenges such as helping elderly people stay independent and healthy.
Every year 400 000 infections and 25 000 deaths are reported due to the fact that medicines like antibiotics are having less and less effect on the microbes which can make us sick. This is another major challenge facing us, so put on that lab coat and be a part of the hunt for vital new drugs.
From designers to people working in medicine or developing new tools for surgeons, with a wide variety of jobs in between, we need your creativity and insight. | <urn:uuid:f3c1dd2f-b3f9-45bc-88d7-3f4bbcc62142> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://science-girl-thing.eu/en/6-reasons-science-needs-you/health-demographic-change-and-wellbeing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963365 | 184 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Bjorn Lomborg, excoriated by some and lionized by others for being a best-selling promoter of free-market problem-solving, has teamed with eight leading economists and other experts in Copenhagen to produce a “Copenhagen Consensus” — a menu for getting the most advancement of the human condition out of an extra (hypothetical) $75 billion over four years. Whichever of the above-mentioned groups you may be in, the resulting list of investments, sorted mainly through a cost-benefit analysis (a process some would reject out of hand), is worth exploring.
The goal of the effort was to set priorities among a series of proposals for confronting “10 great global challenges”: air pollution, conflicts, disease, education, global warming, malnutrition and hunger, sanitation and water, subsidies and trade barriers, terrorism, women’s role in development. Their choices and some background are below. If you have reactions or ideas related to this group’s list, please provide specific comments and I’ll add footnote-style links to your contributions.
A panel of eight economists did the sifting, after being presented with position papers by several dozen other experts advocating particular problems and solutions. The panelists were Jagdish Bhagwati, Columbia University; François Bourguignon, Paris School of Economics and former World Bank chief economist; Finn E. Kydland, University of California, Santa Barbara (Nobel laureate); Robert Mundell, Columbia University in New York (Nobel laureate); Douglass C. North, Washington University in St. Louis (Nobel laureate); Thomas Schelling, University of Maryland (Nobel laureate); Vernon L. Smith, Chapman University (Nobel laureate); and Nancy Stokey, University of Chicago.
The organizers described the winnowing process this way:
During this week’s conference the panel examined these proposals in detail. Each paper was discussed at length with its principal author and with two other specialists who had been commissioned to write critical appraisals, and then the experts met in private session. Based on the costs and benefits of the solutions, the panel ranked the proposals, in descending order of desirability, as follows:
SOLUTION / CHALLENGE
1. Micronutrient supplements for children (vitamin A and zinc) / Malnutrition
2. The Doha development agenda / Trade
3. Micronutrient fortification (iron and salt iodization) / Malnutrition
4. Expanded immunization coverage for children / Diseases
5. Biofortification / Malnutrition
6. Deworming and other nutrition programs at school / Malnutrition & Education
7. Lowering the price of schooling / Education
8. Increase and improve girls’ schooling / Women
9. Community‐based nutrition promotion / Malnutrition
10. Provide support for women’s reproductive role / Women
11. Heart attack acute management / Diseases
12. Malaria prevention and treatment / Diseases
13. Tuberculosis case finding and treatment / Diseases
14. R&D in low‐carbon energy technologies / Global Warming
15. Bio‐sand filters for household water treatment / Water
16. Rural water supply / Water
17. Conditional cash transfers / Education
18. Peace‐keeping in post‐conflict situations / Conflicts
19. HIV combination prevention / Diseases
20. Total sanitation campaign / Water
21. Improving surgical capacity at district hospital level / Diseases
22. Microfinance / Women
23. Improved stove intervention / Air Pollution
24. Large, multipurpose dam in Africa / Water
25. Inspection and maintenance of diesel vehicles / Air Pollution
26. Low sulfur diesel for urban road vehicles / Air Pollution
27. Diesel vehicle particulate control technology / Air Pollution
28. Tobacco tax / Diseases
29. R&D and mitigation / Global Warming
30. Mitigation only / Global Warming
Notes about the Challenges
Malnutrition and Hunger
The expert panel examined the following solutions to this challenge: micronutrient supplementation (Vitamin A and Zinc), micronutrient fortification (iron and salt iodization), biofortification (agricultural improvements through research and development), deworming (which also improves education), and nutritional education campaigns. The panel ranked solutions to this challenge very highly, because of the exceptionally high ratio of benefits to costs. Micronutrient supplements were the top‐ranked and fortification was the third‐ranked solution, with tremendously high benefits compared to costs.
Trade and Subsidies
In this area, the expert panel considered the following solutions: a high‐quality outcome to the Doha international trade round; and increasing the rate of migration to boost the labor force in high‐income countries. In the case of trade reform, lives are not directly and immediately a risk, and the biggest barrier is political, not financial. However, as a group, the expert panel concluded that a comprehensive conclusion to the Doha development agenda would yield such exceptionally large benefits, in relation to comparatively modest adjustment costs, that this solution was ranked second.
Under this topic, the expert panel examined solutions to the challenge of both communicable and noncommunicable disease. The solutions examined were: fighting tuberculosis through drugs and improved case identification; getting cheap drugs that treat acute heart disease to developing countries; combining a malaria prevention package (mosquito nets, DDT spray, etc.) with subsidies on new treatments; expanding immunization and micronutrient coverage for children in developing nations; tobacco taxes in developing nations; and a multiple‐intervention approach to preventing and treating H.I.V./AIDS; making investments in hospitals. Several disease solutions were ranked very highly by the expert panel, which said benefits significantly exceeded costs. These options included expanded immunization coverage for children (ranked fourth); heart attack acute management (11th); malaria prevention and treatment (12th); tuberculosis case finding and treatment (13th).
The research considered by the experts focused on targeting children who had already attended some school and then dropped out. The solutions examined by the experts were: providing nutritional supplements or treatments for intestinal parasites to raise school attendance and increase physical and mental capacity; reducing the cost of schooling; conditional cash transfers (parents are paid in exchange for sending their children to school regularly). The first of these solutions was combined with a proposed solution from the Diseases challenge paper, because both largely dealt with deworming and its benefits. This combined solution was ranked sixth. Lowering the price of schooling was ranked seventh, with an annual investment of $5.4 billion for an added three years of schooling for 12.6 million elementary dropouts.
Women and Development
Under this heading, the expert panel considered measures to increase and improve girls’ schooling; providing support for women’s reproductive role; microfinancing for poor women; and affirmative action. Measures to improve and increase girls’ schooling through conditional cash transfers to mothers was ranked eighth by the group, providing excellent benefits to costs.
The experts considered four solutions in this area: investing only in mitigation of greenhouse-gas emissions; investing in mitigation and research and development into low‐carbon energy technology; investing only in research and development into low‐carbon energy technology; investing in a combination of mitigation, research and development and adaptation. Mitigation only and a combination of mitigation and R.&D. were given the lowest two rankings by the expert panel, because of a very poor benefit/cost ratio. The option including adaptation was discarded, as the adaptation is essentially included in nearly every other option presented to the Copenhagen Consensus. An investment into research and development in low‐carbon energy technologies was ranked 14th by the expert panel.
Sanitation and Water
Under this heading, the experts considered interventions that would improve access to clean drinking water and/or sanitation. The solutions they considered were: setting up a rural water supply program providing poor communities in Africa with deep boreholes and public hand pumps; developing campaigns that raise awareness of disease transmission, health costs, and the social benefits of sanitation; ensuring affected communities have access to technology to remove contaminants in raw water supplies; building reservoirs in some parts of Africa, such as the sparsely inhabited Blue Nile gorge in Ethiopia. The expert panel considered that bio‐sand filters and the rural water supply program offered some promising benefits as intermediate solutions to this problem.
The main focus of the research that the experts examined is on reducing the risk of conflict re‐emerging in a country after civil war. It used the provision of aid as a benchmark solution, and then suggested the following: linking aid to limits on military spending; sending significant military forces into nations emerging from conflict to reduce the risk of a relapse into violence; providing (and having the ability to back up) a promise that a military force will intervene when a democratically elected government is threatened by violence. The expert panel found that peace‐keeping forces in post‐conflict situations could provide fair benefits for the cost.
The experts examined research exploring solutions to both indoor and outdoor air pollution. The solutions considered were: Providing a chimneyless rocket stove to those using unhealthy, old‐fashioned stoves; switching to low and ultra‐low sulfur vehicle fuels (diesel and gasoline) for urban vehicles; retrofitting diesel‐fuelled buses and delivery trucks with filters that reduce urban pollution and its health effects; introducing exhaust emission limits for diesel vehicles and checking tailpipe emissions in a bid to curb pollution. The solution to indoor pollution was ranked at 23, higher than the outdoor air pollution solutions, whose very high costs outweighed the benefits in a developing nation context.
The panel chose not to include any of the proposed solutions to the challenge of terrorism in the overall ranking. Though the paper presented innovative and new work on the economic costs and benefit of terror prevention, the panel found that there was not sufficient evidence regarding the proposed options.
How to spend $75 billion over four years
When the budgetary constraints of the Copenhagen Consensus framework are applied to the expert panel’s prioritized list, money can be allocated to thirteen of the solutions. The yearly budget is $18.75 billion (4 years x $18.75b = $75 b), and provides for a broad range of investments.
Solution / Yearly cost in million USD
1. Micronutrient supplements for children (vitamin A and zinc) / 60
2. The Doha development agenda / 0
3. Micronutrient fortification (iron and salt iodization) / 286
4. Expanded immunization coverage for children / 1,000
5. Biofortification / 60
6. Deworming and other nutrition programs at school / 27
7. Lowering the price of schooling / 5,400
8. Increase and improve girls’ schooling / 6,000
9. Community‐based nutrition promotion / 798
10. Provide support for women’s reproductive role / 4,000
11. Heart attack acute management / 200
12. Malaria prevention and treatment / 500
13. Tuberculosis case finding and treatment / 419
Looking at that list and looking at global discourse and investments, you can see a sharp discontinuity between what is happening and what — to these experts, at least — makes the most economic sense. Are we destined to stack things irrationally? Is rational, quantitative thinking, in fact, the best approach to limiting losses on the road toward 9 billion of us (more or less)? What’s on your list?
Note that these economists saw governance (actually the lack of it) in many of the world’s struggling places as an impediment to almost every priority on their list. Yet the list didn’t include “improving governance” as a priority. Perhaps that’s because no one knows how to do it. | <urn:uuid:475c60ea-7892-4130-8231-74ee0ad41f1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/progress-on-a-budget-how-would-you-spend/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934086 | 2,448 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Eric Norlin at cloudave.com has pointed me to a great post over at digitalcapitalism.com called "API’s Are The New Marketing Platform"
In the post Kipp Bodnar a social marketing manager says;
"The future of marketing is about companies developing useful applications for their customers that extend web services that the customers are already using. This replaces the current model which is to use web applications to communication with customers. The problem with current social media marketing is the noise. A company is one of thousands, sometimes millions of users and it is easy to get lost. Developing applications via API’s provide a way for companies to break out of the crowd and at the same time create value for customers. Brands will need to become conduits that facilitate consumer communications instead or interrupters that intermittently drop in advertisements."
This is a very interesting concept which may well fit into the context of interoperability as a marketing tool. Lately it seems that a lot of the cloud providers are using their API as the basis for marketing their cloud offerings such as Google's recent attempt to bridge into your data center or even Microsoft's Software + Services strategy. Strange as it may sound, it's starting to look like the battle for the cloud may be won or lost on the API layer.
Read more at http://digitalcapitalism.com/2009/04/api-marketing/ | <urn:uuid:bd4b401f-5c3d-4ee2-839b-a2a7f6131301> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elasticvapor.com/2009/04/apis-are-new-marketing-platform.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950355 | 286 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Civility is Good for Your Health
Andy Benjamin and Cynthia Alexander have written an article that is posted on SSRN.
Abstract: The specific rules by which civility operates may vary depending on cultural social norms, but they operate across cultures to facilitate the smooth functioning of society. That civility benefits the community at large is readily apparent, but does the practice of civility also advantage each individual biopsychosocially? There is growing evidence that incivility is associated with a wide range of risks to both mental and physical health. It is no secret that the legal profession has more than its share of job dissatisfaction, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and divorce. Research suggests that the incivility that seems to pervade the profession plays a role. | <urn:uuid:c91f69ef-5885-4483-8a2b-7b4a80aa75d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cuttingedgelaw.com/newsfeed/civility-good-your-health | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968023 | 155 | 1.898438 | 2 |
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Consideration of Priesthood and Religious Life Among Never-Married U.S. Catholics by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University - Washington, D.C.
In the second decade of the 21st century, Catholic clergy, men and women religious, and lay ecclesial ministers in the United States predominantly self-identify their race and ethnicity as non-Hispanic white. At the same time, the racial and ethnic makeup of Catholics in the pews is markedly different. How can one explain the racial and ethnic disproportionality of Catholic leaders to Catholics in the pews or to the overall population of Catholics in the United States?
Among those currently in leadership positions in the Church, many began their ministry decades ago and are of the Pre-Vatican II (born before 1943) and Vatican II (born 1943 to 1960) generations. About seven in ten or more Catholic adults of these generations self-identify their race and ethnicity as non-Hispanic white. The average ages of priests and men and women religious are in their 60s and 70s; by comparison, the average age of adult Catholics in the United States is 45.
Much of the portion of the adult Catholic population that is most racially and ethnically diverse has not reached an age at which they are likely to enter ministry or seek a vocation. The most racially and ethnically diverse generation in the Catholic population are the Millennials (born after 1981). This group did not begin to turn 30 until 2011. Most men being ordained to the priesthood and men and women entering religious life now are in their 30s. Most Catholics serving on a parish staff report that they did not hear a call to ministry until they were in their 30s.
The racial and ethnic makeup of the recently ordained and those professing perpetual vows in recent years is much more reflective of the diversity in the general Catholic population. 8 Yet, some disproportionality remains—especially for Hispanic Catholics. Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population and the Catholic population as well. 9 As Matovina notes, “no past or present group has had such a dearth of clergy vocations relative to its size as do Latinos” (p. 136). 10
Although generational differences explain much of the disproportionality between Catholic leaders and the Catholic population, there are likely other factors that may be limiting the growth of vocations among Hispanics. Yuengert notes that “Dioceses which are more heavily Hispanic…have lower ordination rates” (p. 296). 11 Ospino finds that “The number of Hispanic bishops, priests, permanent deacons, and vowed religious is growing, yet at a very slow pace” (p. 30). 12 Martínez argues that “The lack of Hispanic clergy and skilled lay leadership within a situation of an ever-continuing shortage of Catholic priests and religious is seriously compromising the future. Recent surveys indicate that the special religious needs of the Hispanics are cultural in nature” (p. 85). 13
What are the roots of Hispanic underrepresentation other than generational differences? There is a pressing need for the Church to understand these factors as Millennials reach the age at which they may begin to enter Church ministry and service. The literature specifically on this topic is sparse.
The Immigrant Experience
Research regarding Hispanic Catholics in the United States often focuses on the topic of the immigrant experience and integration of Hispanics into parish life. Fitzpatrick notes that “the lack of Hispanic clergy is critical” to understanding this dynamic (p. 160). 14 Many Catholic immigrants from Europe in earlier years came to the United States with clergy from their home country. This has not been the case with Hispanic immigration in the last few decades. As Fitzpatrick notes, “The creative response of the Church to immigrants in the last century was the creation of the national parish. This was a parish, German let us say or Italian, founded by German or Italian priests, where the life of the parish became a transfer into the new world of the central institution of the lives of the immigrants in their homeland. The same language was used by priests, sisters, brothers of the same cultural background” (p. 161).
This experience was not replicated for Hispanics as, “Bishops have been reluctant to establish ‘national parishes’ for Hispanics. One important reason is that their own priests are not coming with the newcomers to demand the formation of these parishes” (p. 161). Instead, Hispanic Catholic immigrants have more often than not been a part of an “integrated parish” where there is “a Mass in Spanish, sometimes in the lower church, sometimes in a parish hall or chapel; and pastoral services (baptism, marriage, burial) and devotions in Spanish often by a priest who has learned Spanish and is familiar with the cultural background of the Hispanic parishioners. This is a practical, but not an ideal solution” (p. 163).
In practice this process was fraught with problems and inconsistencies. Deck notes, “The resistance educated Catholic leaders, whether clerical or lay, have shown to popular religious expressions has been deep and extensive.” 15 As Sandoval describes, “In some dioceses, the Cursillo in Spanish was prohibited for a time. In some areas, pastors resisted offering the Mass in Spanish” (p. 118). 16 Matovina notes some opposed Cursillos because they felt these “can drain parishes of their most active and talented leaders, who prefer to work in the more satisfying ministries of the Cursillo than the everyday but necessary concerns of the parish” (p. 112). He adds that “one is hard pressed to find a Latino Catholic leader, especially those active during the first fervor of the movement in the 1960s and 1970s, who has never had any involvement or contact with the Cursillo” (p. 112).
Levitt notes that “the Catholic Church today fosters segmented assimilation rather than the complete assimilation it encouraged in the past. It incorporates Latinos into an Anglo-dominated institution while allowing them—and in some cases encouraging them—to remain ethnically apart” (p151). 17
Given this often inconsistent pattern of integration Odem notes that “Scholars of Mexican and Latin American immigration to the United States…have not viewed the Catholic Church as a major source of community empowerment.” (p. 28). 18 At the same time, things have improved more recently and she also argues that “As a result of changes in church policies brought on by Vatican II and the organization and protests of Latino clergy and lay leaders, the United States Catholic Church has become more responsive to Latino Catholics in the last few decades.” (p. 29). Gautier et al. explain that “It is no secret that both the Catholic Church in the United States and the priesthood itself are becoming increasingly multicultural. It is now commonplace, especially in the southern and southwestern dioceses of the United States, and in almost all large cities throughout the country, to find bilingual parishes where Mass is celebrated in both English and Spanish” (p. 92). 19
Research by Gray et al. on parish life in the United States indicates that “One in three parishes (29 percent) celebrates Mass at least once a month in a language other than English. This is an increase from 22 percent of parishes in 2000. Most of these Masses, 81 percent, are in Spanish. Overall, about 6 percent of all Masses (weekday and weekend) are celebrated in Spanish.” 20
Despite these changes, Matovina reminds that there are still challenges for more recent immigrants as “most had endured the ordeal of migrating from their homelands to blighted neighborhoods in U.S. cities, where they found relatively few priests prepared to serve them in their native tongue” and that many still face hostility generally in their communities and even “from members of their own church” (p. 42).
To the degree that Hispanic Catholics have felt or continue to feel marginalized in any way in parish life, one might expect there to be less interest in Catholic vocations among Hispanics.
Others have noted important cultural differences that may be related to Hispanics being less interested in seeking vocations. Christiano highlights the notion that “Hispanic Catholicism is rooted in a richly textured folk piety that is conveyed through common people (not priests) and centered in the home (not the church)” (p. 56). 21 Levitt concurs, noting that among Hispanic Catholics, “beliefs were manifested through popular religious practices that constitute the core of Latino religious life and that are often engaged in outside the formal church” (p 152). Matovina adds “the epicenter of Hispanic Catholicism and Hispanic Catholic ministries is the home and extended family” (p. 101).
Outside of the home, Hispanic Catholics have not always relied on their parish first. Hughes notes that “Hispanic Catholics have weak institutional ties to the Catholic Church” (p. 364). 22 Matovina cites the importance of “apostolic movements along with other small ecclesial communities” (p. 101). As Espinosa notes “The decline in native Latino Catholic clergy along with an increase in Mexican immigration between 1880 and the 1940s created a leadership vacuum in the Latino community that was filled in large part by not only Catholic lay activists but also by Latino mutual aid societies (mutualistas) like the Alianza Hispano Americano (1894) and the Sociedad Caballeros de Nuestra Sefiora de Guadalupe (ca. 1927)” (p. 154). 23 Matovina highlights the importance of Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) as “the most widespread apostolic movement among Latino Catholics today” which is centered on prayer groups—most often lay led—that are just as likely to meet in a home as in a parish setting (p. 113). At the same time, this participation in faith outside of the parish should not be interpreted as a rejection of the Church or parish life. Indeed many active in CCR have very traditional beliefs and practices and are supportive of their local parish (Matovina, p. 117).
Yet this greater relative detachment from the institutional Church, parish, and from clergy may have made the priesthood less visible as a vocation among Hispanic Catholics. Also, the effective presence of lay leaders may have demonstrated to many Hispanic Catholics the contributions they could make to their faith and communities outside of the traditional vocations of the priesthood or religious life. Others have noted the relative shortage of priests in many Latin American countries (Tibesar p. 413, Pelton p. 1). 24 To the degree that this is rooted in culture, one would expect this to also be reflected in the beliefs and practices of immigrants from these countries.
Gray and Gautier note that, “Male Latino Catholics are less likely than male non-Latino Catholics to agree that they have ‘ever known a Catholic priest on a personal basis, that is, outside formal interactions at church or school’ (47 percent compared to 61 percent). To the degree that they have had less personal exposure to priest role models, they may be less aware of the vocation as a personal option.” 25
Writing in 2006, Gray and Gautier also find that, “male Latino Catholics are less likely than male non-Latino Catholics to say they have ever considered becoming a priest or brother, and in the past four years they seem to have become even less likely to do so. At the same time, this reluctance appears not to be based on some growing negative assessment of priestly vocations. Instead it seems to be more grounded in their personal view that they themselves [emphasis added] would not consider being a priest.”
Gray and Gautier highlight a possible cause for this lack of consideration in the requirement for celibacy. “Another factor may be differing cultural responses to the requirement of celibacy. There is no significant difference between male Latino Catholics and male non-Latino Catholics in their level of agreement with the statement, ‘Have you ever considered serving in the Church as a lay minister?’ In this case, celibacy is not a requirement for lay persons (who are not vowed religious). However, this does not imply that male Latino Catholics would more seriously consider priestly vocations if celibacy were not a requirement. In fact, male Latino Catholics are much less likely [emphasis added] than male non-Latino Catholics to agree that ‘married men should be ordained as priests’ (47 percent compared to 73 percent).”
Matovina summarizes, “Explanations of the lack of Hispanic vocations include kinship ties that deter prospective candidates from leaving the family circle, the requirement for mandatory celibacy, and particularly scant educational opportunities that leave many ill prepared for the ordination requirement of completing a Master’s degree” (p. 136). The latter factor represents a critically important institutional barrier.
Ospino finds that as many as 70 percent of Hispanics that are active in Church ministry are first generation immigrants. Thus, immigrants are very quick to take up leadership roles but many lack some of background and education that parishes in the United States require for advancement or the seeking of a vocation. “The work of these leaders is often constrained by their own limitations: many speak only Spanish. …. Many do not know how ‘the system’ works and thus lack the basic knowledge to network within their dioceses, parishes, and other ecclesial and social organizations” (p. 180). Ospino also regrets that the Church appears to not be connecting with potential leaders in the second and third generation creating a “skipped” generation (p. 181).
Yet, the biggest barrier may be in education requirements. As Ospino notes, “the majority of Latino/as in the United States have very low levels of formal educational attainment, a situation that puts them in positions of extreme disadvantage” (p. 181). He concludes that “the number of Latino/as who can respond to the call to ministry within current ecclesial structures and actually succeed is very small” (p. 182).
CARA’s national surveys of adult Catholics reveal that not only are Hispanics less likely than Anglo Catholics to have a college education, they are also less likely to have ever been enrolled in a Catholic school at any level. Thus, they may be less likely to be aware of vocational opportunities or to know clergy or vowed religious outside of the parish setting.
Matovina notes that even those who meet educational prerequisites may find the seminary environment difficult. “For Hispanic young men who do sense a call to priesthood, further obstacles include an institutional culture in seminaries that often is not conducive to Hispanic emphasis on ‘personal contact and trust’ and, for some, a lack of legal immigration status that in many dioceses precludes them from pursuing seminary studies” (p. 137).
Awareness of these institutional barriers has led many bishops to alter the recruitment process in a way that makes this more inviting to and supportive of Hispanic candidates. As Matovina notes these efforts have produced results in recent years (p. 139). This is reflected in the growing proportions of new ordinands who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino. Despite this success, Matovina concludes “the shortfall of Latino clergy remains urgent” (p. 141).
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You’ve probably seen the headlines about major banks suspending foreclosure proceedings to reclaim houses from borrowers who have defaulted on their mortgages. This has the potential to be hugely disruptive—a milestone development comparable to the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, after which all hell broke loose.
Let me emphasize the word “potential.” The core of the problem is that there are serious problems in proving who actually has clear, lawful title to specific houses.
This situation arose because of the last two decades’ common practice of “securitization”—the bundling of large numbers of mortgages into a new interest-paying, tradable security. These securities are then sold and resold, often several times. This has lead to widespread confusion. I read of one case in which no fewer than four different firms claimed to own a particular title, and thus the right to foreclose, on the same property.
Because many judges have blocked foreclosure proceedings on the grounds of unclear title, Bank of America, GMAC, and other financial giants have declared a moratorium on foreclosures until the legal picture becomes less muddied.
Some commentators insist that the problem is nothing more than a few technical glitches that can be easily corrected. Others assert that there has been massive fraud, perjury (attesting to facts without having ascertained those alleged facts), and forgery (creating documents after the fact to produce a fictitious paper trail). Apparently, the states Attorneys General feel there might be fire among all the smoke, because all 50 of them have initiated investigations, and many of them appear as though they are about to go on the prosecutorial warpath.
If, in fact, the problem is not easily rectified and the various allegations of malfeasance are sustained, here is what is at stake:
We are looking at a breakdown of the housing market. Would-be buyers can’t obtain title insurance or loans to buy property without clear title. The country’s entire real-estate market could freeze up, further torpedoing home prices and throwing a monkey wrench into the plans of millions of people who want or need to relocate.
The financial industry could break down. Currently, 4.5 percent of existing mortgages are in some stage of foreclosure. If banks can neither collect mortgage payments nor replace that lost income by selling the related properties, losses could be massive, perhaps catastrophic. Then the bailout issue would be back on the front burner.
If courts rule that “robo-signing”—lenders mechanically signing off on thousands of foreclosures without taking the time to review the facts of each individual case as required by law—constitutes fraud, then the resulting tsunami of fines and lawsuits could cripple or wipe out many lenders. Here again, a breakdown of the financial sector.
If either the housing market freezes up and/or the financial industry cracks up, then the process of economic recovery itself will break down.
If lenders can no longer foreclose on properties, how many millions of other mortgage-holders will decide to stop making their monthly payments? Anecdotal evidence indicates that there are already hundreds of thousands of “strategic defaulters.” These are people who can afford their monthly payments, but have chosen to stop making payments, figuring that, at the very least, they can get away with living rent-free for a year or two before getting evicted. These numbers are bound to soar. The whole “strategic default” epidemic represents a breakdown of respect for law and also for the moral code (of honoring contracts) that constitutes the very heart of a viable economy.
The issue of clear legal titles to property is indispensable to a thriving capitalist economy, as the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto explained in his best-seller The Mystery of Capital. We either restore the clarity and inviolability of titles to property, or our capitalist system breaks down.
At the center of the foreclosure controversy is an entity named Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. MERS was hatched by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other giant players in the mortgage business to speed up the mortgage-backed securitization process and bypass various local property laws. If, in fact, MERS trampled on state and local laws, this represents a breakdown of constitutional federalism and a direct assault on the rule of law.
If all of the breakdowns listed above continue unabated, then we are peering over the precipice at a potential breakdown of social, civil, and political order, too. That’s the nightmare scenario. Let’s get back on track before it’s too late. | <urn:uuid:8da7e8a1-e8e3-4843-b86e-3ed50ff801b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visionandvalues.org/2010/10/breakdown/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952429 | 957 | 1.765625 | 2 |
|Botanical Name:||Hordeum vulgare|
Monsanto Technology, LLC
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri
United States of America
Dale Clark, Westbred, a unit of Monsanto, Bozeman, United States of America
|Agent in Canada:||
Monsanto Canada Inc.
900 One Research Road
|Grant of Rights Date:||2012-11-15|
|Grant of Rights Termination Date:||2030-11-15|
Varieties used for comparison: 'Prowashonupana' and 'CDC Fibar'
Summary: Spike emergence of 'BG46e' is late whereas it is mid-season in both 'Prowashonupana' and 'CDC Fibar'. The plants of 'BG46e' are taller than those of 'Prowashonupana' and shorter than those of 'CDC Fibar'. The spike of 'BG46e' is longer than those of both reference varieties. The lemma awns of 'BG46e' are shorter than the length of the spike whereas they are much shorter than the length of the spike of 'Prowashonupana' and longer than the length of the spike of 'CDC Fibar'. The first segment of the rachis of 'BG46e' is short to medium in length whereas it is medium to long on both reference varieties.
PLANT: two row, spring food-type barley, erect to semi-erect growth habit at tillering, absent or very sparse pubescence on the lower leaf sheaths
AURICLES: absent or very weak intensity of anthocyanin colouration, absent or very weak pubescence on the margins
FLAG LEAF SHEATH: medium glaucosity, absent or very weak pubescence
FLAG LEAF: weak pubescence on blade
SPIKE: late emergence, weak glaucosity, semi-erect attitude, v-shaped collar, parallel shape, medium density, parallel to weakly divergent attitude of sterile spikelet, glume and awn of the median spikelet is equal in length to the grain
FIRST SEGMENT OF RACHIS: short to medium length, weak curvature
LEMMA AWNS: no anthocyanin colouration of the tips, shorter than length of spike, rough spiculations on margins
KERNEL: weak intensity of anthocyanin colouration of nerves of the lemma at beginning of ripening, whitish aleurone layer, long rachilla hairs, husk absent, very weak spiculation of inner lateral nerves of dorsal side of lemma, hairiness of ventral furrow absent, clasping disposition of lodicules, transverse crease shape of basal markings, long, narrow
Origin & Breeding History: 'BG46e' arose from the cross between Westbred's short, two-rowed, hulless, Male Sterile Facilitated Recurrent Selection Population and 'Prowashonupana' made in 1990 by WestBred, a unit of Monsanto, in Bozeman, Montana, USA. The F1 seed was planted in November 1990 and harvested in May 1991, saving and planting only the seed with shrunken endosperm. Spikes were selected from the F2 plants in September 1991 and were used to plant single F3 rows near Bozeman in May 1992. Several single rows were harvested in September 1992 and planted as single F4 plots near Bozeman in May 1993. One selection was made based on desirable agronomic traits, harvested and given the experimental designation 'BZ493-46'. The F5 from this plot was grown in a single plot in May 1994 and used to plant replicated yield trials in both irrigated and dryland sites in Montana. Continued yield testing of the F7 to F10 generations was performed from 1995 to 1999 in the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana. In May 1998, one plot was harvested individually and designated 'BZ493-46e'. Breeder seed was produced from this seed in 1998 which, in 2008, after renewed interest, was used to plant and harvest a Foundation seed increase and was given the name 'BG46e'.
Tests & Trials: Trials for 'BG46e' were conducted in Neapolis, Alberta during the summer of 2010. The trials consisted of 3 replicates of each variety. Plots consisted of 5 rows of 5 metres long with a row spacing of 0.23 metres. Planting density was 290 seeds per meter square. Measured characteristics were based on a minimum of 12 measurements. Results were supported by the official technical report purchased from the Plant Variety Protection Office in the USA.
Comparison tables for 'BG46e' with reference varieties 'Prowashonupana' and 'CDC Fibar'
Plant height, including awns (cm)
Spike length, excluding awns (cm)
- Date modified: | <urn:uuid:e5e9c8df-87ef-4658-9684-a672b63db260> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/cropreport/bar/app00008140e.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90376 | 1,041 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The case of Terri Schiavo has moved back into the Bleak House realm of endless trips to the courthouse. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Schiavo lost consciousness thirteen years ago, and her husband has been trying for the past few years to have her feeding tube removed over the objections of her parents. The Florida legislature recently passed a law that gave Governor Jeb Bush the authority to order Schiavo’s tube put back in, and now her husband is going to court to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
The frenzy of editorials and TV interviews is beginning to subside, but only a little. Nat Hentoff at the Village Voice has promised a whole series of columns on the subject. In principle, this is a good thing. People with impaired consciousness are for the most part in society’s blind spot. We just don’t talk about them or their treatment unless some news forces their existence to our attention. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I’ve read has been pretty loud and strident. And even when writers seem to be offering a measured take on the subject, they frequently rely on bait-and-switch rhetoric.
Case in point is “A ‘Painless’ Death?’–an essay posted today on the Weekly Standard’s web site by attorney Wesley J. Smith. Smith takes issue with the claim that removing a feeding tube leads to a painless and gentle death by dehydration and starvation. Smith claims that the pro-removal side blur the difference between removing food and water from cognitively disabled people and conscious people refusing food and water as they die of cancer or some other disease. It’s a fair point to consider, but Smith does plenty of blurring in his own essay.
For example, he quotes a neurologist opposed to removing feeding tubes who says that “A conscious [cognitively disabled] person would fell it just as you or I would.” The neurologist then offers a gruesome picture of cracked lips and vomiting and seizures. Smith then quotes an advocated of removing tubes who offers even more details–mottled hands and feet, blood shunted to the core of the body.
All shocking stuff, of course, but if someone is not aware of pain, what does it really mean? Is Schiavo “a conscious [cognitively disabled] person” (whatever that creative bit of bracketing means)? Or is she in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of awareness?
To answer that question, Smith offers up the testimony of Kate Adamson, a woman whose feeding tube was removed even though she was fully conscious. Adamson tells of the agony she experienced going without food and water for days. She describes obsessively visualizing a bottle of Gatorade. Smith mentions briefly that Adamson was in what’s known as a “locked-in state,” but he then glides past the fact that biologically speaking, the brain of a locked-in patient is profoundly different from that of someone in a persistent vegetative state.
In a locked-in state, a person’s cerebral cortex–the region where we do most of our complex thinking–escaped major injury. Instead, the damage is restricted to nerve fibers that send commands from the brain to the body. It’s like spinal cord paralysis in your brain, and it leads to a nearly total lack of movement. As I described in my recent article for the New York Times Magazine, brain scans of people in persistent vegetative states show–at most–that only isolated fragments of the cortex are active. But the overwhelming majority of the cortex uses as much energy as the cortex of a healthy person under deep anasthesia.
It’s certainly true–and awful–that some locked-in patients have been misdiagnosed in the past, although now that the condition is better known, any good neurologist can quickly make the right diagnosis. But to dwell on Adamson’s case in the middle of an essay that’s supposedly about Terri Schiavo is a case of apples and oranges. And the emotional whiplash of Adamson’s experience distracts the reader from the non sequitur of Smith’s argument. To those who would question bringing up locked-in patients in a discussion of the vegetative state, Smith answers that “the PVS diagnosis is often mistaken–as indeed it was in Adamson’s case.” Apple, have you met Orange?
Smith offers up a few vague scraps of evidence that Schiavo can feel pain, but they don’t amount to much. I have yet to hear of a real neurologist who has concluded that she is in anything other than a vegetative state. And yet Smith somehow thinks he has fused Schiavo’s condition with Adamson’s so conclusively that he can end his essay as follows:
“The time has come to face the gut wrenching possibility that conscious cognitively disabled people whose feeding tubes are removed–as opposed to patients who are actively dying and choose to stop eating–may die agonizing deaths. This, of course, has tremendous relevance in the Terri Schiavo case and many others like it. Indeed, the last thing anyone wants is for people to die slowly and agonizingly of thirst, desperately craving a refreshing drink of orange Gatorade they know will never come.”
Instead of bringing clarity to the issue, Smith has succeeded in muddling it even more.
Here are two important issues that I think need unmuddling. One is biological, the other ethical.
First, the biological. A person in a vegetative state does not visualize bottles of Gatorade. That would call for activity in the cerebral cortex that’s just not there. As for pain, much of our experience of it relies on the cerebral cortex. It makes us aware of the pain, generates fears of future pain, and so on. With a cortex under deep anesthesia, it’s hard to argue that such people experience “agonizing deaths.” Their fully conscious loved ones may suffer at the sight of a seizure or mottled skin, but they can’t project that suffering into the mind of the patient. Furthermore, in the 2002 book The Vegetative State, the leading neurologist Bryan Jennett writes that the medical consensus is that soon after withdrawal of a feeding tube, the body’s own pain-killing opioids flood the nervous system.
Second, the ethical. Smith mentions the fact that people sometimes refuse food and water in the final stages of terminal illness, but then moves quickly away from this fact. How is it that people are allowed to refuse medical treatment and even food and water from doctors, despite being fully conscious of their own suffering? Because they have a legal right. They also have a right to make a living will to make their desires clear if they wind up in a state in which they cannot make the decision about whether to refuse care. And when there’s no living will, it’s up to a legal guardian to make that decision. Despite the fact that he’s a lawyer, Smith avoids all these legal realities. That would distract from the specter he raises of homicidal monsters trying to yank out whatever feeding tube they can find. The fact is that if a guardian decides that a patient would want to live in a vegetative state, that’s that. (People have raised questions about Terri Schiavo’s husband’s fitness as a guardian, which I have no way to judge. But that’s a separate issue–if he’s unfit, someone else can make the decision; if he’s fit, then it’s his call.)
PS–Brains and evolution are intertwined interest of mine, and so I raised an eyebrow when I saw Smith’s bio. In addition to a lawyer, he’s a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. This, some readers may recall, is the outfit that has been leading the fight against evolution in public schools. Sometimes the DI folks like to portray themselves as disinterested scientists searching for objective truth. But their agenda is actually ideological and broad–broad enough to include someone like Smith.
Update: Thanks to Pharyngula for an overview of Smith’s other writings on biotech and the like–equally untenable scientifically, and equally in tune with the overall political agenda of the Discovery Institute. | <urn:uuid:8251973c-0770-4430-9524-920c0f9d85f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2003/11/13/suffering-and-knowing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96178 | 1,767 | 1.664063 | 2 |
What we said: "When firefighters take a strong stand to outlaw certain fire retardants - on the basis of public safety - it's worth paying attention. Indeed, San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 has emerged as a prominent advocate of Assembly Bill 706, authored by San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno, that would ban two classes of toxic fire retardants that are used in upholstered furniture and various bedding products ... Californians will be able to sleep better at night if it is passed into law." - Editorial, June 6, 2007
What happened: Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered a revision of the nearly 40-year-old regulation, citing the need to "find better ways to meet fire safety standards by reducing and eliminating - whenever possible - dangerous chemicals.
What's next: The new guidelines are expected to be drafted this summer, and should be in place within a year. | <urn:uuid:e59e7094-9a29-471f-b13d-a0d4656be379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Chemical-lobby-loses-one-3646260.php | 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 | 0.946943 | 181 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Sachana ship-breaking yard told to fold
The state's forest and environment department has ordered immediate closure of the three-decade-old Sachana ship-breaking yard in Jamnagar, saying it is a part of the Marine National Sanctuary and poses threat to the aquatic flora and fauna there.
Following a meeting on November 22 which was presided over by state forest minister Mangu Patel, the principal secretary of the forest and environment department sent a notice to his counterpart in the ports department.
According to the notice (a copy is with The Indian Express), ship-breaking activity at Sachana port, which ensures an annual turnover of Rs 200 crore for the Gujarat Maritime Board and employs over 5,000 skilled and unskilled labourers, is illegal and harms Marine National Sanctuary spread over 456 square km in Gulf of Kutch near Jamnagar. The release of arsenic, mercury, asbestos and oil pose threat to aquatic fauna and flora, the notice says.
This ship-breaking yard was set up in 1978.
The notice further mentions that this activity needs a permission from Supreme Court and that the GMB should make refunds to those who recently took plots on lease as the area is part of sanctuary. The notice has ordered immediate shutdown of the yard or else GMB officials will be held responsible.
The Marine National Sanctuary is home to octopus, dolphins, jelly, star fish and rare corals.
The forest department has done no survey or reasearch so far to find out the scale of damage to ecology in all these years.
While GMB Chairman B K Sinha, to whom notice has been served, and vice-chairman Pankaj Kumar, did not respond to several calls by The Indian Express, other officials expressed their anger over terming an activity illegal 30 years later.
Though notice was served on November 22, the yard is yet to shut down, with port officer G G Pande saying he is yet to receive a copy of the notice.
- Destitute, orphan students outclass rest in Andhra Class 10 exams
- To re-energise ties, PM wants to visit US, waits for confirmation
- NIA court says no terror link, frees 'Hizbul militant' Liyaqat on bail
- CBI arrests its coal allotments investigator on bribery charge
- ‘Cricketer-bookie Amit may have used Jiju to reach Sree’
- BCCI chief N Srinivasan says police must prove spot-fixing allegations | <urn:uuid:ac5d3f9e-0e4a-40ea-8122-a7e756c6024e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sachana-shipbreaking-yard-told-to-fold/881827/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95772 | 519 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Artist Perle Fine in her studio, New York City, 1965.
Photograph by Maurice Berezov © A. E. Artworks.
Perle Fine, Theme #1, 1951
Oil on canvas
70 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches
Perle Fine, Cool Series, No. 80,
Impatient Spring, ca. 1961-1963
Oil on canvas, 86 x 68 inches
Perle Fine, Untitled, ca. 1952
Collage on canvas, 9-1/2 x 13 in.
Perle Fine was an independent-minded, highly talented artist who was committed to abstraction throughout a career that lasted fifty years. She began to exhibit her art in the 1940s and soon was at the center of the emerging Abstract Expressionist movement. With her reputation growing, Perle Fine began to receive recognition when she participated in exhibitions at Art of this Century Gallery and the Museum of Nonobjective Painting and had solo artist shows at the several galleries, including those of Nierendorf, Betty Parsons, and Tanager. Perle Fine was one of few women artists to become a member of The Club, the intellectual group at the center of the art world that was led by Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, both of whom were among her friends. She was also close to Jackson Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, and James Brooks. In 1954, Fine moved to Springs, East Hampton, where she worked with solitary concentration, while also taking part in the growing community of artists on Long Island’s East End.
Perle Fine was born in Boston in 1905, to parents who had recently emigrated from Russia. One of six children, she grew up in nearby Malden, Massachusetts. By 1920, before she had finished high school, she began to study art, enrolling in the School of Practical Art, Boston, where she took classes in illustration and graphic design; she paid for her tuition by working in the bursar’s office. At the end of the decade, she moved to New York, continuing her training at the Grand Central School of Art under Pruett Carter. In 1930, Perle Fine transferred to the Art Students League, choosing to study there under Kimon Nicolaides, who encouraged spontaneity and an academic approach to modeling the figure. At the time, Paul Cézanne was the artist whose work inspired her most. It was also in 1930 that she married Maurice Berezov, a fellow artist whom she had met at the Grand Central School of Art.
In 1933, Perle Fine chose to further her studies under Hans Hofmann, who had just moved his hugely popular Munich art school to New York. Among those at the school when Fine attended were Larry Rivers, Robert De Niro, and Lee Krasner, who became a lifelong friend. Fine also attended Hofmann’s summer school in Provincetown, where she and Berezov spent many summers. Quietly creating abstract works on her own while Regionalism and Social Realism prevailed, Fine seems to have only participated in one exhibition during the 1930s, a show held in August 1938 at the Municipal Art Galleries. After the war, when abstract art again gained prominence, she began to earn recognition, receiving a grant from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and showing at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery and the Museum of Nonobjective Painting (now, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York), which was under the directorship of Hilla Rebay.
In 1945, Perle Fine joined American Abstract Artists, a context in which she came to know many leading abstract artists of the day including Josef Albers, Fannie Hillsmith, Ibram Lassaw, I. Rice Pereira, and Ad Reinhardt—she had a particular admiration for Reinhardt, whose bravery
she found inspiring. In the same year, Fine’s first solo artist exhibition took place; it was held at the Willard Gallery on East 57th Street in February–March and was widely reviewed in the press. Within the year, Fine moved her affiliation across the street to the gallery of Karl Nierendorf, who had specialized in the Blaue Reiter group in Germany. Nierendorf provided Fine with a stipend and held shows of her art in 1946 and 1947.
In 1947, Fine was given an unusual assignment. She was asked by the collector Emily Hall Tremaine, who had acquired works by Fine, to make an exact copy of Piet Mondrian’s diamond-shaped Victory Boogie-Woogie, then in Tremaine’s collection (now in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague) as well as to prepare a complete analysis of the painting, on which the artist had been working when he died three years earlier. Perle Fine, who had come to know Mondrian after he emigrated to America in 1940, felt a deep reverence for his achievement. She executed her copy under the same conditions in which Mondrian had painted his original, working in a pure white room and using brushes and paints identical to his. In 1944, Fine began to create etchings, working with Stanley William Hayter. Her etchings were first shown in a group exhibition held that year at Wittenborn & Co., New York.
After Nierendorf ’s sudden death due to a heart attack in 1947, Perle Fine began to be represented by Betty Parsons, whose gallery (opened in September of the year), had become the leading showplace in New York for the newest art of the day. It was in 1949 that Fine was invited by de Kooning to join The Club, becoming one of its few women members.
In 1954, Perle Fine and Berezov built a one-room studio house in the woods in Springs, East Hampton, an area where they had often spent time previously while visiting with Krasner and Pollock. Fine remained in Springs throughout the year, although she traveled into the city on occasion to
see art and to hang her works in exhibitions. In 1955, Fine became affiliated with Tanager Gallery, where she had solo shows through 1960.
In the late 1950s, Perle Fine made intricate use of collage in her paintings, interweaving jagged scraps of paper, newspaper cutouts and aluminum and gold foil across white fields. In about 1961, she destroyed a show’s worth of her work and created a new group of works that she called the Cool Series. In accord with the Color Field movement, these reductive, vibrant, geometric images were praised when they were shown at Graham Gallery in 1963 and 1964. In the mid-1960s, Fine created a series of painted wood reliefs in which the parts were fragmented yet formed a cohesive totality.
From 1962 until 1973, Perle Fine served as associate professor of art at Hofstra University, Hempstead, Long Island, where a ten-year retrospective was held in 1974 following her retirement from teaching. Begun about 1970, Fine’s Accordment series included drawings, gouaches, and oils in which she utilized Mondrian’s grid construction as a framework for overall shimmering surface effects.
Perle Fine exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows during her lifetime. Following her death from pneumonia in 1988, she was featured in solo exhibitions at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, East Hampton, New York (2005) and again at Hofstra in 2009.
Perle Fine’s work is represented in many important private and public collections, including Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock; Ball State Museum of Art, Muncie, Indiana; Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Hofstra University, Long Island, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; New York University Art Collection; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York; Principia College, Saint Louis, Missouri; Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; University of California Art Museum, Berkeley; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; and Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts. | <urn:uuid:3fe836d8-8775-43aa-9b36-63a7704e274f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spaniermanmodern.com/inventory/F/Perle-Fine/Perle-Fine-Artist-Biography.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971473 | 1,868 | 1.875 | 2 |
Family names may not be important to some people but Europeans during
the Middle Ages gave a high regard for theirs even to the extent of making
their own symbols that will represent their family’s history and genealogy.
Up to this day, a family’s coat of arms is still preserved from one generation
to the next. It is a living witness of a life that has been and will be. In fact, some
people have made a business out of it by selling products that can be customized
using coats of arms by families.
Only a few have a coat of arms to represent their family. It is an identification in
itself that makes it easier for people to identify their own families. Since some
have gone abroad or left the place, locating one’s relatives have never been made
easier by using coats of arms. It also gives you a sense of family pride and
belongingness. Although anybody can make a coat of arms for their families,
only a few are able to preserve theirs. At the moment, the use of coat of arms is
rarely practiced, but there are still those who can trace theirs back from the feudal
ages in Europe.
A family’s coat of arms comes in various designs and colors. There is no limit to what one can come
up with. Some coat of arms depicts the family’s ancestry such as those who belong to the royalty.
Others use symbols such as a sword and a shield. Most coat of arms come with a saying which
represents the family’s credos or the values that the family lives by. Another salient feature found
in most coats of arms is the animal. Lions, bears or wolves are often use as a symbol of the family’s
virtues. When it comes to colors, each has a meaning as well. Gold, maroon, blue or yellow, each
represents a virtue such as patience, bravery, hope and joy.
No one knows if how or what exactly triggered the fad on having a coat of arms. However one thing
is certain and that is how this particular custom is granted only to a chosen few. In Great Britain,
heraldry is still regulated but in the United States, anybody can come up with a family coat of arms.
Nowadays, items are sold bearing the coat of arms of families. Certain items can be customized with a
family coat of arms such as mugs, glassware, mouse pads and apparel to name a few. These personalized
items are ideal giveaways during family reunions and special occasions where almost everybody is present.
Likewise, they also make nice decorations at home such as a framed crest.
Family coat of arms may only be for the privileged but if you send an email to email@example.com you will see a vast collection of items sold and they bear different coats of arms of families. You may also fill up the contact form for a more detailed description of each item. | <urn:uuid:903131d2-042e-4187-b55d-75dd20088bdc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.great-gift-ideas.org/family-coats-of-arms/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959549 | 625 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A name brought into fashion, after the battle of Steenkirk, for several articles, especially of dress, as wigs, buckles, large neckties, and powder; especially, a cravat of fine lace, loosely and negligently knotted, with long hanging ends, one of which was often passed through a buttonhole.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A kind of neckcloth worn in a loose and disorderly fashion.
“MR. RICH: Come, sister, a long periwig and a la mode steenkirk has made a worse face a perfect beau e'er now.”
“Here Bentley sneezed and coughed both together and came nigh choking outright (a highly dangerous thing in one of his weight), which necessitated my loosening his steenkirk and thumping him betwixt the shoulder-blades, while Jack strode up and down, swearing under his breath, and Mr. Tawnish took another pinch of snuff.”
“The beau in blue and silver flicked the grains of snuff lightly from the lace of his steenkirk with a white jewelled hand and smiled, slowly nodding his fair curled head.”
“Now his look had singularly changed, his face was fresher, his eye brighter, though a little feverish in its light, and he wore a new sword and velvet scabbard, a rich lace steenkirk, and a modish coat of pale violet brocade.”
“_ I hope your lordship is pleased with your steenkirk.”
“Ladies no longer ogled him and commanded the stopping of their chairs that they might call him to them with coquettish reproaches that he neither came to their assemblies nor bowed and waved hands to them as he sate on the stage at the playhouse; beaux no longer joined him in the coffee-house or on the Mall to ask his opinion of this new beauty or that, and admire the cut of his coat, or the lace on his steenkirk; the new beauty's successes would not be advanced by his opinion -- a man whom tradespeople dun from morn till night has few additions to his wardrobe and wears few novelties in lace.”
“Your aunt must find you ruffles soon, and a steenkirk. ”
“Mr.. Sarah Stout," says the writer, "whose death was charged upon Spencer Cowper, was strangled accidentally by drawing the steenkirk too tight upon her neck, as she, with four or five young persons, were at a game of romp upon the staircase; but it was not done by Mr. Cowper, though one of the company.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘steenkirk’.
Place names that have entered general speech. Toponyms that interest me in other ways are on Place Names Of Distinction
Ties and other neckwear.
Looking for tweets for steenkirk. | <urn:uuid:3753d423-77f7-4205-bb45-9a13aed170c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wordnik.com/words/steenkirk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978754 | 658 | 2.125 | 2 |
U.S. Developing New Generation of Nuclear Weapons
NEW YORK (AFP) — US scientists are quietly starting work on a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be more rugged and reliable than warheads in the existing arsenal.
About nine million dollars have been allocated so far for weapons designers at the three US nuclear weapons laboratories, the New York Times reported Monday, citing government officials and experts.
The initiative is expected to grow and could produce finished designs in five to 10 years. Congress and a future administration would then have to approve the development of prototype warheads.
Critics say the project could trigger a new arms race and topple bans on testing, while proponents say it could ultimately reduce the US nuclear arsenal, yet make it more robust.
US weapons builders have spent decades trimming the dimensions of originally massive bombs to make them easier to transport and more accurate, using the latest technologies and innovative methods.
But now they want to emphasize reliability and long shelf life, and design weapons that are easy to manufacture.
The current arsenal of about 10,000 warheads is aging and the United States can no longer be certain of the reliability of the bombs due to international bans on testing.
"Our labs have been thinking about this problem off and on for 20 years," said John Harvey, director of policy planning at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
"The goal is to see if we can make smarter, cheaper and more easily manufactured designs that we can readily certify as safe and reliable for the indefinite future — and do so without nuclear testing."
The creation of more reliable warheads could lead to a sharp reduction in the overall number of arms in the US nuclear arsenal, according to a US lawmaker.
"A more robust replacement warhead, from a reliability standpoint, will provide a hedge that is currently provided by retaining thousands of unnecessary warheads," David Hobson, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said last week.
An arms control advocate said the program could spark a new arms race, revive underground testing and possibly make use of nuclear weapons in war more tempting.
"The existing stockpile is safe and reliable by all standards," Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association, told the Times. "So to design a new warhead that is even more robust is a redundant activity that could be a pretext for designing a weapon that has a new military mission." | <urn:uuid:931e3523-dcf8-475e-a72f-63d09ac3c25c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/125551/us_developing_new_generation_of_nuclear_weapons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950108 | 480 | 2.375 | 2 |
'Optical Bookshelf Design'
This is cool and creative, making furniture with unusual shape and also has beautiful illusion for decoration. Yeah, the beautiful illusion gets from this puzzling optical bookshelf and it’s suitable to decor in minimalist interior designing. This puzzling optical bookshelf looks quite invisible and you just can see clearly the line of the bookshelf’ edge, [...]Read More
A residence was designed by Arch contemporary, Pierfrancesco Zinelli, Dipl. Eng. Verena Freudhofer. The style is contemporary and big enough for the size of residence. The aim of this project is to create a building that is looking into one. Contemporary residence contains four apartments. Geometric building consists of the floor above and below the [...]Read More
See this pavilion, and feel the magic formula of the architecture in this building. This building looks like a lump of gold that looks in irregular stone. There many access points render that unique and different from usual architectural, these varied access points render the pavilion permeable to the curiosity of the visitor who is [...]Read More
Some office space design drawings as inspiration for you to decorate your workspace.Read More
This is the green stage house architecture and design in Columbia city. This house represents a further refinement of single-family spec house. The architecture of this house made in staging with balcony, this house not treads on the ground. The theme and design is green house with garden surrounding and green wall coloring. It is [...]Read More | <urn:uuid:10cbd032-58d0-4fe0-9939-bd44c4e8a4ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bhousedesain.com/tag/optical-bookshelf-design | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947426 | 311 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Designer has spotted a delicious font being used on/offline, but there are no references what is the name of the font. The designer either gets unsatisfactory results from automatic identification services or is unable to provide a digital image of the font.
so its really hard to help :) and if he spotted this font in a design (Picture) we can make some guess and at-least nearby font or something productive answer can be shared.
1. Is there a good checklist that could be followed?
Ans: yes there is, find these point one by one
- Do the characters have serifs?
- What is the position of the upper-case 'Q' tail?
- What style is the '$' (dollar)? and so on see this kind of questions Here
2. Where in the font I should look at?
Ans : Same site which is mentioned above there is simple test showing which kind of font looks like...and where you have to look.
Find fonts by appearance
Find fonts by name
Find fonts by similarity
Find fonts by picture
Find designers and publishers
3. What defines and categorises the font?
Ans: They also want to know
& see Font Categorization
Based on: Font on which it is based on, if any (example: Bitstream Vera)
Ranges: Unicode group ranges (like Latin, Greek, Greek Extended)
OpenType layout tables: (like Latin, Cyrillic, Devanagari)
Font Family: (like Serif, Sans Serif)
Font Styles: (like Roman, Oblique, Bold, BoldOblique)
License: (like shareware, public domain, Open Font License, GPL)
4. How the graphic design professionals/enthusiasts provide answers to font identification questions at here or at other crowdsourcing sites (e.g. Typophile) — is it something else than just memorising a few hundred typefaces?
Ans. There are so many tool to identify font, and there are limited fonts which are used(i mean mostly everyone use common fonts which we see somewhere everyday) so this make sense.
and as all such question got answer on this site, they all are similar in question and they all are similar in answer...there are only few sites who provides such identification answers...
I read this lines in an article "Science sinks millions of dollars into face recognition algorithms, but they’ll never replicate the powerhouse combo of an eye and a brain. Same goes for font recognition—the only thing that can beat a font nerd is a giant horde of nerds. Once again, the Internet provides!
Most font sites have helpful forums. Two that merit special mention are the font lovers at Typophile.com and Flickr’s font identification forum. If they can’t find your font, it might not exist."
I would like to add one thing : you know we are the guys who creates automatic services to identify fonts (or to identify anything ), so you have to be sharp enough to see and recognize a font without help of automatic services...We guys made things automatic based on some concept and programs if you know these concept and ways to solve problems, you can be a FONT GURU...
Hope this will help a bit... | <urn:uuid:11f8101f-b2ba-488b-bccc-89d299cab4e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/4114/how-to-manually-identify-a-font-when-the-automatic-services-fail | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914225 | 686 | 2.21875 | 2 |
In Youngok Choi and Edie Rasmussen’s What Is Needed to Educate Future Digital Librarians; A Study of Current Practice and Staffing Patterns in Academic and Research Libraries they studied and surveyed 48 librarians from 39 institutions. Here are their results:
- While there are emerging units and positions within digital libraries, the working environment of digital libraries is collaborative in areas that range from computing systems to traditional library functions.
- Professionals working in those areas tend to be young and are relatively recent graduates. Because many libraries will eventually be transformed into digital libraries, and require professionals educated in this area, digital library jobs will be very attractive to the next generation of the library profession.
- Major tasks in which digital librarians are involved include management, leadership, and website-related tasks. Managerial tasks emphasized planning and oversight of digital library projects, while providing leadership and expertise in digital library areas contained elements of collaboration with other members of the library staff and with users. Trend analysis, such as monitoring the practice and standards of current digital libraries, is critical in these jobs.
I definitely think that library schools need to promote technology in their programs as most libraries are digital. The problem is that there is often a one size fits all approach to the classes. There are students young and old who have different skill sets and backgrounds that may or may not have prepared for the technology classes. Everyone knows which professors are the most challenging. What student is going to want to take a particularly challenging class when they don’t have the background for it. What library schools need are different levels of technology classes that students can build upon.
What are your thoughts? What do you think is needed to educate future digital librarians?
Tags21st century librarian activism ALA big data Censorship conference content curation Daily Infographic data David Lankes Design digital archives Digital Libraries Digital Preservation Ellen Mehling Hot Links INALJ infographic Information Outook information seeking behavior iSchool job hunting Kent State Librarian Libations marketing mashable METRO networking New Librarianship NYTimes PIPA privacy Save the Internet SLA social media SOPA technology TED Usability User Experience UX visual.ly web design Webinar World Usability Day | <urn:uuid:bcf8e143-4180-46c5-8fca-5bfa6be124d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wearelibrarians.com/what-is-needed-to-educate-future-digital-librarians/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933377 | 454 | 2.515625 | 3 |
WORKSHOP: Limiting biodiversity impacts from biofuels through land use mapping and certification schemes
Biofuel production is a major and increasing threat to many ecosystems of high conservation importance. To reduce such impacts, sustainability accreditation schemes have been developed, which can be used to show compliance with mandatory sustainability criteria, such as those included in the EU´s Renewable Energy Directive. The event is intended for those actively involved in developing and testing sustainability scheme mapping approaches such as the WWF Sustainable Land Use project and others involved in bioenergy policy issues.
- DATE: 08 Sep 2012
- TIME: 14:30 - 16:30
- ROOM: 102
There is an urgent need to implement biofuel sustainability criteria relating to biodiversity, carbon stocks and other ecosystem services that are appropriate and fully complied with. The criteria should include the implementation of robust and transparent procedures that involve all appropriate stakeholders and use the best available up-to-date data. Such criteria also need to be expanded to other commodities to help reduce indirect land-use change impacts.
The overall aim of the session is to share experiences and agree on best practice principles and standards for limiting direct and indirect impacts of biofuel production and other agricultural commodities on biodiversity and ecosystem services. | <urn:uuid:fba910e5-71f3-48a9-a30a-0a0705ebe7b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/europe/europe_at_the_congress/member_s_activities/?10729/WORKSHOP-Limiting-biodiversity-impacts-from-biofuels-through-land-use-mapping-and-certification-schemes | 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 | 0.91347 | 251 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Michael Palin's Brazil
Michael Palin's Brazil, Episode 01
Michael Palin undertakes another of his celebrated journeys, visiting Brazil for the first time. From the lost world of Amazonia to the buzzing modern metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, Palin explores this vast and disparate nation in his inimitable way. It's a timely look at this rising global power, host nation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The North East is where modern Brazil was born. It's where the Portuguese first landed and it's where the first slaves were brought from Africa.
Michael Palin explores the landscape, the food, the music, the beach life and the colonial heritage that makes this region the heartbeat of Brazil.
He travels from Sao Luis just south of the equator to the bustling city of Salvador, the capital of Bahia, once described as 'the most African city in the western hemisphere'. | <urn:uuid:04faf342-19c9-4f76-adb8-4d81b13313e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abc1/201211/programs/ZX9015A001D2012-11-11T193200.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932596 | 183 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Article Archive >> Business
Financial Focus/Realistic Outlook Pays Off For Investors
If you’ve been investing for at least a decade, you’ve already seen a lot of ups and downs in the financial markets. This year, you may be wondering: “What’s next?”
Unfortunately, no one can predict the future. But as long as you make investment decisions based on realistic expectations, you can continue making progress toward your long-term goals - in all market environments.
Before we look at what it means to maintain a realistic investment outlook, let’s see where we’ve been in the recent past.
As you no doubt recall, 1995 through 1999 were banner years for the stock market. During that time, the S-&-P 500’s annual returns ranged from 19.5 percent to 34 percent. (The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index and cannot be invested into directly). From 2000 through 2002, stock prices fell sharply, but in 2003, things turned around, and the major stock market indices showed strong gains.
What’s in store for the rest of the year and beyond? No one has a crystal ball, but, as you look ahead, here are a couple of things to consider:
* Interest rates and inflation are still low - Two conditions that helped drive stock prices higher in the 1990s - low inflation and low interest rates - are still present.
* Stock prices may benefit from the lower dividend tax rate - Last year, the maximum tax rate on dividends was cut to 15 percent. (In the absence of new legislation, the 15 percent tax rate will expire on Dec. 31, 2008, after which dividends will once again be taxed at your individual income tax rate.) The new, lower dividend tax rate has already induced more companies to pay out more dividends. This, in turn, has helped make dividend-paying stocks more attractive. And, of course, higher demand for stocks often translates into higher stock prices. (Keep in mind that stocks are not fixed-rate investments and may not distribute dividends. Furthermore, stocks are subject to market loss, including the potential loss of principal invested.)
If these two factors were the only ones influencing the market, you might think the immediate future looks quite bright. However, some other factors may work against a repeat of 1990s-style returns. For one thing, interest rates have been falling for about 20 years - and they may now have dropped about as far as they will go. Interest payments on debt typically represent one of the biggest costs companies face; during the 1990s, this steadily declining expense helped lead to stronger earnings and impressive returns. If interest rates start creeping up, earnings may suffer a bit.
Don’t Look for Double-digit Returns
The 1990s are gone - and, although you may wish otherwise, the stock market returns of the latter part of that decade are not likely to appear again anytime soon. Therefore, you’d be well-advised not to anticipate receiving 1990s-style returns.
So, what is a “realistic’’ rate of return? As a starting point, you might hope to earn annual returns in the 6 percent to 7 percent range over the next five to 10 years. While there’s no guarantee that you will regularly achieve these numbers, they can form the basis for some reasonable planning on your part. And if you plan for 6 percent, but you’re fortunate enough to earn 9 percent, you’ll be that much closer to achieving your long-term goals, such as college for your kids and a comfortable retirement lifestyle. On the other hand, if you think you’ll receive 12 percent, and you end up with “only” 7 percent, your plans could be jeopardized.
By assuming reasonable rates of return, and by diversifying your investment dollars across a wide array of high-quality stocks, bonds, government securities and other assets, you can help to “smooth out” your investment journey - and possibly reach your destination sooner than you think.
This article was submitted by the financial representatives of Edward Jones in Hagerstown: Greg Garner, AAMS, 301-733-9465; Dave Walker, 301-766-7300; Joan Bowers, 240-420-8514; John R. Pullaro, 301-824-7726; and Todd Streett, 717-762-0911.
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<< back to All Articles | <urn:uuid:c9dbbb12-321d-4d81-8a67-c1a033e0780e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.picketnews.com/archiveDetail.asp?cID=2&id=558 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951503 | 936 | 1.695313 | 2 |
How to send Purim Mishloach Manot (food baskets)
Mishloach Manot (Hebrew) or Slach Manos (Yiddish) means "sending portions" and refers to the food baskets given on Purim. Jewish law says to give two different types of ready-to-eat food, each of which require a different blessing, to at least one person. Given the fun of this mitzvah, many give creative baskets of many different types of food to many others.
Difficulty Level: easy Time Required: 3-4 hours
- Recipient List: Make a list of all the people to whom you want to send a basket. Think of people in your neighborhood, members of your synagogue, your children's school friends, and so on. Don't forget your extended family!
- Basket List: Make a list of what items you want to put into the food basket. Popular items are fruit or dried fruit, nuts, a small bottle of grape juice or wine, hamantashen or other baked goods, and candies.
- Baskets: Decide what kind of container you want to use. Baskets can be simple like a paper plate wrapped in cellophane or fancy like a pretty glass bowl.
- Cards: Make a "Happy Purim from the (your family name) Family" card to include in each basket. Addressing the cards is not necessary. Distributing the baskets is much easier when the cards are all the same. Young children can participate in the mitzvah of mishloach manot by coloring the cards.
- Shopping List: Make a shopping list based on the above basket list. Remember to buy ingredients to prepare baked goods you want to include in the baskets. Remember to buy the containers themselves.
- Buy and Bake: Get all you need from the store and prepare any baked goods you want to include in the baskets.
- Assembling the baskets: Children can help to fill the baskets. Always make a few extra baskets. When the family to whom you forgot to send a basket shows up at your door with a basket for you, you can run into your kitchen and pull out a basket to give back to them.
- Delivering the baskets: Baskets should be delivered on Purim. Costumed children make the best Purim basket deliverers.
- Deliver a basket to someone elderly, sick, or new to the neighborhood.
- You can be creative and give your baskets a theme. Peanuts, peanut butter cookies, and Reese cups. Grape juice, grape jelly, raisins, and grape flavored candy.
- Baskets do not have to be expensive. A small bottle of grape juice with a couple homemade cookies in a bag attached says "Happy Purim" just as well as a large container with a great variety of treats. | <urn:uuid:f60ac9f5-7cca-4582-ae0c-72c110217e5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://judaism.about.com/library/howto/ht_purimbaskets.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936014 | 593 | 2.59375 | 3 |