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Fifty-one Tales, by Lord Dunsany, , at sacred-texts.com
All along the farmyard gables the swallows sat a-row, twittering uneasily to one another, telling of many things, but thinking only of Summer and the South, for Autumn was afoot and the North wind waiting.
And suddenly one day they were all quite gone. And everyone spoke of the swallows and the South.
"I think I shall go South myself next year," said a hen.
And the year wore on and the swallows came again, and the year wore on and they sat again on the gables, and all the poultry discussed the departure of the hen.
And very early one morning, the wind being from the North, the swallows all soared suddenly and felt the wind in their wings; and a strength came upon them and a strange old knowledge and a more than human faith, and flying high they left the smoke of our cities and small remembered eaves, and saw at last the huge and homeless sea, and steering by grey sea-currents went southward with the wind. And going South they went by glittering fog-banks and saw old islands lifting their heads above them; they saw the slow quests of the wandering ships, and divers seeking pearls, and lands at war, till there came in view the mountains that they sought and the sight of the peaks they knew; and they descended into an austral valley, and saw Summer sometimes sleeping and sometimes singing song.
"I think the wind is about right," said the hen; and she spread her wings and ran out of the poultry-yard. And she ran fluttering out on to the road and some way down it until she came to a garden.
At evening she came back panting.
And in the poultry-yard she told the poultry how she had gone South as far as the high road, and saw the great world's traffic going by, and came to lands where the potato grew, and saw the stubble upon which men live, and at the end of the road had found a garden, and there were roses in it—beautiful roses!—and the gardener himself was there with his braces on.
"How extremely interesting," the poultry said, "and what a really beautiful description!"
And the Winter wore away, and the bitter months went by, and the Spring of the year appeared, and the swallows came again.
"We have been to the South," they said, "and the valleys beyond the sea."
But the poultry would not agree that there was a sea in the South: "You should hear our hen," they said. | <urn:uuid:7186f328-e7b8-4ccf-8ef7-9f67d55aba46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sacred-texts.com/neu/dun/fotd/fotd06.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9821 | 553 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Fri November 2, 2012
Fixing NYC's Underground Power Grid Is No Easy Task
Originally published on Fri November 2, 2012 11:43 am
The fury of the great storm Sandy shocked a lot of people, like John Miksad, vice president of the New York electric utility Consolidated Edison. "We hit 14-foot tides — that was the biggest surprise," he told a press conference this week. "The water just kept rising and rising and rising."
That rising water flooded streets, buildings and parts of the city's underground electricity grid. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers lost power. But it might have been worse if the power lines had not been underground.
Manhattan's grid sits like a gigantic plate of spaghetti under the city's streets and buildings — miles and miles of electric cable. After the 14-foot tide went up and over, it went down under, soaking a lot of that spaghetti network — cables, transformers, switches; all the stuff that's hidden under those manhole covers in New York's streets.
"It's a whole different world down there, believe me," says Gregory Reed. He teaches power engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, but he used to crawl down those manholes for Con Ed, to fix their grid. "It is very cramped," he says. "There's seldom room for more than one person at a time to do their work. So it's very difficult conditions."
And that's what a small army of workers is doing now — squirming through narrow tunnels under Manhattan. They're checking hundreds of transformers that regulate the electricity's voltage — those gray cylinders you normally see perched on power poles. And they're looking for cables that got damaged. "It's not always easy to predict where that fault is in the underground system," says Reed, "because we can't see it, so what you have to do is go out and test it section by section."
Even equipment that's not obviously damaged has to be tested. And that could mean turning power off and on for a while in a neighborhood; that's pretty annoying if you just got your power back. But Reed says it would've been worse if the city's grid were aboveground.
"Consider this case," he says. "If all of the infrastructure was overhead, the vast majority would be laying on the ground." In fact, Con Ed officials say repairing aboveground regions of the area will take three or four times as long as fixing the underground network.
One reason Manhattan's underground system is resilient is that it gets wet all the time. That's according to energy expert Roger Anderson at Columbia University, who has been a consultant to Con Ed. "In the winter we put salt down on the roads," he explains. "The salt melts, and the transformers under the streets are routinely dealing with saltwater. So all that Con Edison needs to do is to drain the water out of the transformers, hose them down, and flip the circuit breaker again."
Anderson concedes, though, that flooding poses other threats. "Flooding has all kinds of contaminants in the water, a lot of oils, and also it comes in violently — it can wash away things." Things like transformers that can get knocked off their moorings.
Even as the grid gets fixed, there's the problem of the subways. Several subway tunnels have been flooded, and there's lots of electrical equipment in those tunnels. For example, if you've been on a New York subway, you've seen the red and green lights along the tunnel. Those are switches that monitor where every train is, and they all have to be checked. "And in order to do that," Anderson explains, "you've got to physically walk or ride the length of the track."
It's a big, big job with a big price tag. So, it's to be expected that New Yorkers are asking: Will climate change make this keep happening over and over? It's the second year in a row that a hurricane has hit New York. Last year it was Irene.
Climate scientists caution that no single weather event is proof of climate change. But computer projections of future warming do predict bigger storms.
At a press conference in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he's seen enough to act. "Let's assume that we decide that we're not damaging our planet and later on find that we were," the mayor said. "It literally could be too late."
But just what to do to protect New York awaits months of post-storm analysis by engineers and oceanographers and other experts, followed by action by politicians and industry, who will have to raise many billions of dollars to pay to keep the Big Apple afloat. | <urn:uuid:c9c17007-8e37-4bfe-a2cc-b03e6d99cf2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nipr.fm/post/fixing-nycs-underground-power-grid-no-easy-task | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971549 | 964 | 2.046875 | 2 |
Paternalism is forcing people to do things “for their own good”. Since force is involved, the person applying the force judges what is best for the person being forced.
Most of us would say that paternalism is sometimes acceptable for children. Parents occasionally have to force their children to do things they would rather not do, because parents often have a better idea of what’s in their child’s long-term interest than the child does.
And it is sometimes acceptable to force adults to do things for the good of others. For example, we force adults not to drink and drive for the safety of other road users. But that is a sort of collective self-defence. Paternalism occurs when adults force other adults to do things for their own good – i.e. the supposed good of the other adult. This is extremely problematic, because a normal adult has a better idea of what is in his own interest than any other adult could have.
For clarity, from here on I will refer to the agent being forced as “the subject” of paternalism.
Defenders of paternalism usually take one or other of the following approaches. Sometimes they say that other adults have better knowledge of how to achieve the subject’s goals. And sometimes they say that other adults have a better idea of which goals the subject should pursue. Please observe the difference: the first involves having false beliefs, or what Hume might call a failure of “reason”. The second involves having misdirected desires, or what Marxists might call “false consciousness”. I will return to Hume below: he would have said that misdirected desires are an impossibility.
I reject both of these defences of paternalism, and add that paternalism is one of the greatest and most insidious of social evils. I will deal with the two defences in turn.
First, it is claimed that other adults know better how to achieve the subject’s goals, given that it would be indeed be good for the subject to achieve his own goals. In other words, people do know what’s best for them, but don’t know how best to achieve it. They’re right about the ends, but wrong about the means. The claim here is that priests, doctors, lawyers etc. have “expert knowledge” that goes beyond that of ordinary people, and so they should be granted decision-making powers over ordinary people, the better for ordinary people to achieve goals that they already have (and indeed are entitled to decide for themselves).
I reply that that is a dangerously mistaken understanding of expertise. Expertise has a narrower scope and – if we’re lucky – more depth than common sense, but it buys this depth at the cost of being less trustworthy than common sense. By all means let expert opinion be expressed freely, and let ordinary people consult whichever experts they think fit to advise them. But let’s be clear: when we take action to achieve our goals, what matters is reliability, and common sense is more reliable than any other sort of judgement. Of course like all human judgement common sense is fallible. But it is less fallible than expertise. What we all do every day to make a cup of tea (say) is more reliable than what brain surgeons, economists or car mechanics do to fix our heads, the economy, or cars. The success rate of our attempts to make a cup of tea is better than the success rate of their attempts to remove a brain tumour, reverse a recession, or replace a faulty exhaust pipe. And the thing about common sense is that it is common: almost everyone has it. Almost everyone is already in possession of the most trustworthy way of making decisions. It is right that ordinary people of common sense should seek advice from experts, but wrong for them to abdicate decision-making powers to experts. It is even worse if their decision-making powers are usurped.
The other defence of paternalism assumes that agents do not know what’s good for them, because they have the wrong goals. This is what Rousseau had in mind when he wrote of people being unfree by not acting in accordance with the “general will”; it is what Marxists had in mind when they spoke of the bourgeoisie having “false consciousness”; and what Nazis had in mind when they adopted the slogan Arbeit macht frei. I need hardly say I think this is a ghastly idea. It is a conceptually confused idea as well, as it drags moral judgement into wholly factual matters of agency. It entails that we can make mistakes about what we want, but the only criteria of rightness or wrongness that can be brought to bear on desires are “moral”.
I mentioned above that Hume thought desires simply could not be directed at the “wrong” objects. He thought that – like other animals – we desire whatever it is we happen to desire, and the function of our “reason” or belief system is just to help us satisfy those desires. So for Hume, “reason is the slave of the passions”. Reason does nothing but work out the means, given our ends: “it can pretend to no other office than to serve and obey [the passions]”.
That idea is shared by many liberal thinkers, especially those in the English-speaking world. Its humaneness is obvious: it does not puritanically judge what others should or should not want, nor does it appeal to the authority of political ideologies such as those of the French or Russian Revolutions or Nazism. Instead it prompts us to accept that people want whatever they happen to want, and if we don’t like the way they behave, we should tolerate it as far as is practically possible. This sort of toleration has made life much better for homosexuals and other minority groups in recent decades, at least in the West. It is the most important civilizing trend in history.
The guiding assumption is that what is good for a person is whatever he would choose for himself if he were free to choose. Because he chooses it himself, it would be good for him no matter how much it differs from what other people would choose for themselves.
Of course we all belong to the same species, so we share many goals as a matter of biology. But there are real differences between individuals in the way we give our various goals different weighting. For example, we all want to be healthy, but some people are prepared to take greater risks with their health than others because they want to have unhealthy fun, or they want to put their energies into their work or creative projects even if that damages their health.
In countries like Ireland, there is a tradition of extreme deference towards figures in a position of supposed authority, such as priests. As the influence of the church wanes, priests have lost their revered status. But members of other professions have crowded into the space left by priests, to bask in the tradition of deference. Doctors, academics and politicians especially presume not just to advise people on how to achieve good health, but take steps to force people to live their lives as someone else sees fit. This must be resisted. It is uncivilized. | <urn:uuid:29e7c027-fbf2-4e0f-8719-cd755d5bb399> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jeremybowman.com/wordpress/?p=356 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973319 | 1,496 | 3.125 | 3 |
Decorative storage boxes are extensively used for their efficiency. The product is intended to store several distinct gadgets. It has a unique strategy for guarding its contents using its functions. The will need of the public to maintain issues for future use has been cleared by the product. You will discover a good deal of items which are involved in the business enterprise of conserving items as they’re supposed to be. The unit is somehow considered to store objects in a larger scale. Because the public would be to be responded with the product, it is the dilemma of the manufacturing businesses to meet every single single desire of the men and women. The public need to not be deprived from their correct to choose based on their will.
You will discover many supplies which are usually used in making these types of items. A few of the populace prefer to maintain their issues in the product that is created of solid wood as traditions comes along. Other people want plastic material which weight could never be a hassle any time switching and transporting is involved. Steel items of the kind have got definitely a record of their own that is impressive to humankind. Reliability of the unit is totally dependent on the supplies used in manufacturing these. Durability of the product represents a good deal for the user. It might save a good deal of money for them in the first location. The material the unit is created of would mean absolutely nothing if there is certainly something wrong in its design. The entire operation of the product is sacrificed with weak functions. Levels within the unit should be capable to support the items they’re containing. Covers need to also be correctly established to maintain harmful organisms from entering the unit and safeguard its content material.
Different shades are already used to hide the product. They’re creatively painted with high quality paint. The colours and its looks of the wedding cake boxes are the new functions of the product to be based in analyzing the suitable match for the place where it is supposed to be positioned. The particular unit is created with several diverse layouts and in diverse kinds of supplies. Regardless of what are the personal preference of the customer would be, distributors usually provide an accessible unit for it. You will discover diverse stores that use the product. Homes are highly demanding of this style of the unit. Places of work have a very particular type intended for these, so as business sites. The particular versions of the white jewelry boxes vary based on exactly what gadgets are planned to become saved by the product. | <urn:uuid:3e0963e3-609b-4f9a-b293-5088d65d5966> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spec-events.com/tag/boxes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970108 | 496 | 1.601563 | 2 |
We ecologists take a lot of flack for always having depressing news to report. It's not often we get to say there is good news on the environmental front, but those of us concerned with air pollution have certainly had reasons to smile this summer.
To begin with, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new program that will substantially reduce air pollution and acid rain in our region. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule will require power plants to reduce sulfur oxide emissions by 70 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by over 50 percent, when compared to 2005 levels. This will be positive for both the environment and human health.
These pollutants are the main culprits in the formation of acid rain. Reductions should allow faster recovery of acidified lakes, streams, and soils in the Catskills, Adirondacks and other heavily affected areas of the eastern United States. These are the largest cuts in these emissions since the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, which helped us turn the corner on acid rain, but did not solve the problem.
Even more importantly, sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions are central to the effects of air pollution on human health through the formation of tiny airborne particles and ozone gas, both of which damage our lungs.
EPA estimates the new rules will avoid at least 13,000 premature deaths because of air pollution, 15,000 nonfatal heart attacks, and 400,000 aggravated asthma cases annually.
The Northeast has lagged behind other parts of the country in reducing air pollution, in part because of our location. We receive pollution that drifts downwind from states in the Southeast and Midwest. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule tackles the problem by recognizing that cleaning up the air for everyone requires emission reductions in upwind as well as downwind states.
So how much does all this cost? The EPA estimates the new rule will produce $120 million to $280 billion per year in benefits to health and welfare, compared to a cost of about $2.4 billion per year to implement. That is clearly a bargain. Costs are kept low by a cap-and-trade system that allows industries to purchase and trade emission credits. Previous programs to reduce sulfur emissions have shown cap-and-trade systems like this to be highly efficient and cost-effective.
Because this new rule deals with electric power plants, it only solves part of the air pollution problem. Vehicle pollution is another very important part, and that is the subject of the second item of good news. On July 29, President Barack Obama announced a deal with automakers that will double the fuel economy of passenger cars from a fleet average of 27 miles per gallon today to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
While the final rule has yet to be written, the outlines presented last month are very encouraging. In addition to saving us money and reducing our dependence on oil imports, higher gas mileage will reduce smog, help curtail greenhouse gas emissions and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions that lead to ozone, acid rain, and damage to forests, lakes and estuaries.
In the midst of all the partisan wrangling about the debt ceiling this summer, it was heartening to see the executive branch of government taking actions to improve our lives in a direct and tangible way. These two new rules would result in major strides in reducing air pollution.
Let's hope partisan warfare doesn't sink these promising environmental initiatives. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor recently announced he has targeted the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule as an example of a "job-destroying regulation," and he plans to begin an effort to delay or repeal it this month. We in the Northeast will breathe easier if he does not succeed. | <urn:uuid:e0cce5b6-f83d-4b45-ba80-20b71c16dad8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caryinstitute.org/newsroom/new-rule-tackles-air-pollution?page=0%2525252C4%25252C3%252C4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950327 | 742 | 2.453125 | 2 |
President Barack Obama awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor today to Spec. Leslie H. Sabo Jr., a Pennsylvania rifleman killed after sacrificing his body to grenade fire in Vietnam during 1970's "Mother's Day Ambush".
A Defense Department description of Sabo's heroic actions says the 22-year old saved the lives of several other soldiers. He charged enemy positions and killed several North Vietnamese fighters while drawing fire away from his unit.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Horst Faas, who captured several iconic moments during the Vietnam War, died May 10. He was 79.
Haas was the chief of The Associated Press' Southeast Asia bureau from 1962 to 1974, where he covered the fighting and mentored dozens of young photographers who were sent out across Vietnam to capture images of the war's terror and inhumanity.
The last piece of published writing from one of America's greatest writers was a series of letters he sent back from the front lines of war at the age of 64.
John Steinbeck's reports shocked readers and family so much that they've never been reprinted — until now.
Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for a life's work writing about those who had been roughed up by history — most notably his Depression-era novels, Of Mice And Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Four years later, Steinbeck left for Vietnam to cover the war firsthand. | <urn:uuid:81434734-5797-43de-ba98-04efd7fcee13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kunc.org/term/vietnam?page=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972468 | 293 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Neuroscientist Ruth McKernan was a guest on Radio 4′s midweek this morning, talking about her father’s death from a mystery illness, and how her scientific background shaped her coping and grief, an experience she has described in her book Billy’s Halo. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s synopsis:
Now, she tells the story of her father’s last year as a collection of cutting-edge scientific themes – memory, consciousness, microbes, stem cells – like pearls strung together on the thread of her father’s life. The result is an inspired blending of personal emotion, love and grief, with a crystal-clear scientific explanation of the way our brains and bodies work in sickness and in health.
Midweek’s host Libby Purves commented that it was clear from McKernan’s book that as she wrote about the emotional turmoil of her father’s passing, she struggled not to take a scientific perspective. On the contrary, McKernan said she wanted to write an objective, factual account of what happened, but couldn’t help her emotions from spilling over into her words. | <urn:uuid:b5eee494-2876-4e6e-b62e-bae11641e62e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mindhacks.com/2006/03/15/a-neuroscientists-grief/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955873 | 244 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The smallest of the North African Maghreb countries, Tunisia possesses an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population, which coexists with salient religious minorities and a tradition of largely secular government. French control of Tunisia in the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in a significant Roman Catholic presence in the country, especially in the capital, and several Roman Catholic schools, clinics, and churches operate freely within the country. Most of Tunisia’s indigenous Jewish minority left the country in the 1960's for France or Israel, but the remaining community enjoys government support and operates largely free from discrimination. From independence in 1956 until January 2011, Tunisia witnessed only two presidents—both secularists who imposed stringent limits on democracy and suppressed Islamist activists. In January 2011, popular protests beginning in Tunisia rocked both the country and the entire Arab region, resulting in the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (1987-2011). Tunisia now faces the challenge of constructing a post-revolution government to satisfy both its Islamist and secular political factions. The country’s first free elections in October 2011 showed strong support for moderate Islamists. | <urn:uuid:ba575433-963f-4921-88de-ac709d7a418e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/topics/tunisia/interviews | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931447 | 219 | 2.859375 | 3 |
DECEMBER 18, 2012—The U.S. Coast Guard continues to respond to a fuel spill from a barge on the Kill van Kull Waterway at May’s Ship Repair Inc. near Mariner’s Harbor, Staten Island, NY.
The National Response Center notified the Coast Guard of the spill on the evening of Dec. 14 when No. 6 fuel oil began leaking from a cargo tank on the barge, Boston No. 30 at the shipyard.
The responsible party, Boston Marine Transport Inc., reported product was being transferred from Barge Boston No. 30 to Barge DBL 25, when personnel on scene noticed product was entering the water between the two barges. Boston Marine Transport Inc. personnel then applied containment boom around the two barges.
The source of the fuel spill was isolated to the #2 port tank of Boston No. 30, which was carrying 112,000 gallons.
There is currently boom around the barge. Boom has been deployed at Shooter's Island and Mays Shipyard and deployed along Kill Van Kull Waterway.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Gallagher Marine Systems, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have established a Unified Command in response to an oil spill that occurred at Mays Ship Repair.
The Coast Guard reports that there are 51 personnel in the Unified Command, 301 contractor personnel deploying boom and recovering spilled oil, and 47,000 feet of boom deployed to protect critical areas, especially Shooter’s Island, which is a bird sanctuary.
Equipment on site includes 29 skimmers, 12 vacuum trucks, 13 storage barges and other miscellaneous equipment is working on the response.
Thus far, 156,000 gallons of oil and water mixture has been recovered.
The total amount of oil spilled remains under investigation. | <urn:uuid:abefabf6-54bb-4542-9f55-09523e9dc515> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3356:coast-guard-continues-response-to-barge-oil-spill&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=195 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948766 | 377 | 1.625 | 2 |
As much hope as these nursing programs offer, it’s difficult to overestimate the psychological stress our servicemen face.
Consider this startling statistic: During the first five months of this year, 154 active American service members committed suicide. That’s nearly one a day — and exceeds the number who died in combat.
So what can the Veteran Affairs department do to treat traumatized vets once they return home? For more on that, we are joined from Washington by Sonja Batten. Dr. Batten is the V.A.’s deputy chief consultant for specialty mental health. | <urn:uuid:6109a706-429c-441b-83c5-e802dab0e98d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/video/video-sonja-batten-on-veterans-care/14127/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949342 | 122 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Of all the budget fights over the past several years, the sequester is the most emblematic of modern Washington. That is not a compliment. Its distant relatives — the government-shutdown fight and the debt ceiling spat and the fiscal cliff brawl — were manufactured crises, but behind the eye-glazing demagoguery lurked important issues, like the proper size of government, about which reasonable people can disagree. Everyone agrees that the sequester is terrible policy.
In fact, it was designed to be terrible policy. The sequester is a nondescript name for a poison pill, devised as a deterrent so unpalatable that Capitol Hill’s warring factions would be forced to make peace. That was back in the summer of 2011, when the threat of a debt default loomed. So the White House and Congressional Republicans crafted the Budget Control Act, which appointed a bipartisan “super committee” to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years. The super committee’s failure would trigger sequestration, a package of about $1 trillion in automatic cuts to domestic and security programs. Economists warned it would send the fragile economy into a tailspin, and possibly cause a double-dip recession. Still, peace was elusive. The super committee failed.
Now the U.S. is just weeks away from swallowing the poison pill. The fiscal cliff deal brokered on New Year’s Eve postponed the cuts for two months, but now they are set to take effect on March 1, and a solution to the sequester is nowhere in sight. Which is why President Obama on Tuesday afternoon called for Congress to stave off the sequester for a few more months, hoping such a move might buy time for lawmakers to replace it with smarter spending cuts. “The good news is, this doesn’t have to happen,” Obama said. According to a projection released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office, sequestration would cut U.S. economic growth in 2013 by half. The White House predicts it would cause the economy to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs.
This might seem like incentive enough for the two parties to find the $85 billion in deficit reduction necessary to delay sequestration from taking effect next month. But it won’t be easy. “I think the sequester is going to happen,” Republican Congressman Paul Ryan said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those cuts with others–and they’ve offered no alternatives.”
Obama, who in 2011 said he would veto any attempt to sidestep the sequester, offered an alternative Tuesday in the form of a stopgap bill. But he insisted that any deficit-reduction package to replace the sequester contain a mix of spending cuts and tweaks to the federal tax code, which means new revenues. This is a deal-breaker for Republicans, who forswore new taxes after a fiscal cliff deal that raised them for the first time in a generation.
The impasse has members of both parties warning, once again, that an unthinkable policy is becoming a very real possibility. “I think people want it to happen,” Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who favors replacing the sequester, told the New York Times. Both sides say that’s not true. But the glimpse of the wrecking ball has both parties scrambling to disown a policy that both houses of Congress passed and the President signed.
Republicans have stepped up their effort to charge the White House with cooking up the idea, hoping to pin the blame for the coming cuts on somebody else. As the Washington Post notes, House Speaker John Boehner used the phrase “the President’s sequester” (or some variant thereof) five times during a single floor speech Monday. (While the White House disputes that it came up with the sequester, Post reporter Bob Woodward and Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler say the idea originated with the White House.) “President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law,” Boehner said in a statement Tuesday. “Republicans have twice voted to replace these arbitrary cuts with common-sense cuts and reforms that protect our national defense. We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes.”
For its part, the White House will blame Republicans for refusing to reduce tax breaks that benefit the wealthy. Democrats, who are seeking some $600 billion in new revenues, want to dump sweetheart provisions that protect owners of corporate jets or financiers who benefit from low carried-interest rates.”In our view, hedge fund managers should not be paying at a significantly lower rate than bus drivers or clerical assistants or store managers,” Carney said, noting that Republicans have been open to closing tax loopholes in past negotiations. “If that was true then, it’s got to be true now.
Obama also offered to revive dormant talks to reach a sweeping deal to slash the federal deficit and overhaul the U.S. tax code and entitlement systems. ”The balanced approach of spending cuts and entitlement reform and tax reform that I put forward are still on the table,” Obama told reporters at the White House. But it would be very tough to iron out a grand bargain — a deal so thorny and elusive that it spawned the sequester in the first place — in the space of a few months, let alone a few weeks. If Republicans won’t give way on new revenues, it would become impossible. And there is no sense the GOP is prepared to cave, particularly because many of its members have sought the deep cuts the sequester would produce.
What we’re left with yet another stalemate, and yet another countdown to a self-inflicted crisis. | <urn:uuid:af955308-291c-44f9-9149-7d85475273e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/06/a-guide-to-sequestration-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-policy-that-may-wreck-the-economic-recovery/?xid=rss-topstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958146 | 1,215 | 1.945313 | 2 |
34 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
increasingly converted into paddy fields. The increase in prices coupled with the export demand for paddy led to a scarcity of foodgrains in the urban areas made palpably worse by the rich merchants. *1 The government arranged for relief work through charity; commutation of taxes in times of drought and famine, and food control devices. The British historians., apologists of the colonial regime, had this to go by to highlight the material achievements of the regime in Orissa.
Those historians who reject the ^exploitation thesis' are quick to find other reasons for the failure of the Indian economy to respond to the warming influence of the Industrial Revolution: the Indian society's other" worldliness; its ^lack of enterprise'; and ^caste-exclusiveness' of groups. These are opinions of the historians who see ^the nineteenth century as an era of stagnation., even of steady deterioration., for India" and for Orissa in particular.12 The ^economic growth' historians also analyzed the factors responsible for the infinite and increasing misery of the people. These consisted, according to them, of climatic and geographical handicaps and man-made hindrances which negated the steady growth of the best endeavours of the government for an appreciable economic development. A study of the agrarian history of nineteenth-century Orissa reveals that it was the exploitation of a dependent colony by an alien capitalist power that was at the root of Orissa's intensifying poverty > a truth overlooked by traditional historians.
Forces of Nature
Official reports attributed Orissa3 s traditional poverty to climatic and geographical factors. The long and broken coastline was susceptible to hurricanes and cyclonic weather in the autumn. Numerous references are found in the salt records to cyclonic weather and the havoc it caused to salt-making on the seaside and to the ripening crops in the fields. In a severe cyclone on 31 October 1831, tragedy overtook the molungies (salt* manufacturers) of Balasore and Cuttack agencies. In theBalasore agency, 1829 persons were reported drowned including 28 servants of the salt galahs (godowns); and 2,13,837 maunds of salt were swept away by the sea. The government advanced cash loans and sold rice at cheap rates.18 Orissa9 s seaboard was most unsuitable for shipping, and the receding sea left the Balasore and Pipli ports blocked with silt. From the writings of Fakir Mohan Senapati, a contemporary short-story-writer of Orissa, a vivid picture emerges of the decaying condition of the'seaport of Balasore where maritime trade once flourished.14 The midland plains of Balasore.Cuttack and Puri districts were fertile lands interspersed with navigable rivers like the Mahanadi and Baitarani which were liable to ruinous inundation from the sudden overflow from the main-water basins in the Chota Nagpur plateau.ls The northern hilly region was sparsely populated, covered with barren stretches broken by sporadic flora and fauna.
Luxurious vegetation in this region was not a sign of fertility | <urn:uuid:a2019a08-09ef-4d10-8d10-1936b255141c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dsal.uchicago.edu/books/socialscientist/text.html?objectid=HN681.S597_47_034.gif | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941132 | 662 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Between the lines
Jul 21, 2011
Books on the physics of animals, humans and cars, reviewed by Margaret Harris
Wildlife biology for physicists
Wildlife biology for physicists In engineering terms, animals are a mature technology. They are well adapted for the ecological niches they fill and, for the most part, they do a rather good job of surviving in an unforgiving world. But what really makes them tick? This is the central question addressed in Engineering Animals, a remarkable book by two authors, Mark Denny and Alan McFadzean, who trained as physicists before pursuing careers as engineers, and who have spent the past two years immersing themselves in biology. Appropriately, the book begins with a thermodynamics-inspired discussion of how animals use energy. Readers familiar with the second law will probably not be surprised to learn that the "food chain" linking prey species and predators is hugely inefficient, with each prey organism providing only 10% of its energy to whatever eats it. This simple observation, however, has some interesting consequences. Among other things, it underlies certain patterns in animal behaviour, including the fact that small carnivores (such as cats) eat smaller animals (mice), whereas large carnivores (such as lions) eat things that are roughly their own size (wildebeest). Energy considerations also feed into rules about animal size and shape, including "Allen's rule" that animals living in cold climates are rounder than those in warm ones, because organisms with high volume-to-surface-area ratios retain body heat better. Allen's rule was articulated in the 19th century, but the book also ventures into current debates in biology, such as arguments about why giraffes do not suffer aneurysms when they lower their heads to drink, whether systems that distribute resources around an animal's body are fractal-like, or why migrating birds fly in a V-shape (simple energy savings do not quite cover it, apparently). Written in a light and engaging style, but with plenty of references and footnotes, Engineering Animals is perfect for physicists who, like your reviewer, abandoned formal studies in biology at an early age and have always wondered what they missed.
- 2011 Harvard University Press £25.95/$35.00hb 400pp
How humans work
From the physics of animals in general, we now move to the physics of one particular animal: humans. Unlike the previous book, Physics of the Human Body is intended for medical students and professionals rather than physicists. But although most of the physics concepts in the book are familiar, a great many of the examples used to illustrate them are not. The section on forces and torques, for instance, eschews abstract rods and levers in favour of the human musculoskeletal structure. This leads nicely into a discussion about how much weight an average person can lift without injuring themselves – a topic that is certainly of practical interest to many experimental physicists, even if the physics of it is not particularly interesting. This pattern of introducing a physics concept, then concentrating on its medical applications, continues through most of the book. The coverage of pressure, for example, places a strong emphasis on how pressure-related ideas play out in the human circulatory system, as well as in organs such as the lungs, eye, brain and bladder. The exception to the rule of "physics first, medicine later" occurs in the final chapter, where author Richard McCall instead uses a medical concept – drug delivery and absorption – to illustrate how physicists model complex problems. McCall has obviously worked hard to make the physics interesting and relevant for medically minded readers, and as a physics lecturer at the St Louis College of Pharmacy in Missouri, US, he has had plenty of opportunities to field-test this approach. Anyone who teaches similar students – or who simply wants to vary the examples they use in introductory physics courses – should look at his book.
- 2010 Johns Hopkins University Press £23.50/$45.00pb 312pp
The physics of va-va-vroom
Fast Car Physics is not a book for automotive novices. If you do not know the difference between a dyno torque curve and a g-g diagram, you will find some of its chapters hard-going. If you've never heard of either, you had best steer clear altogether. Fortunately for the book's publishers, the overlap region in a Venn diagram of "people who like physics" and "people who like cars" is large. Moreover, readers who enjoy debating the relative merits of the Subaru WRX STi and the Nissan 350Z – and then plotting graphs to prove their points – will definitely find a kindred spirit in author Chuck Edmondson. A physicist at the US Naval Academy, Edmondson's other passion is car racing, and he has extensive experience in combining the two: not only has he taught a course in automotive physics, he has also raced in an amateur team with his son and daughter. His book is pretty comprehensive, taking in everything from the factors that restrict 0 to 60 mph times to the materials science of Formula 1 tyres, plus a meaty final chapter on "green racing". As Edmondson points out, oil shortages and growing concerns about the environment have not reduced interest in motor sports. The challenge for a green-minded homo automotives, then, is to find a way of combining speed and environmental friendliness. None of the possible solutions explored in this chapter (electric cars, hybrids, alternative fuels, etc) seem to hold all the answers, but it is encouraging to know that some racers are at least thinking about the problem.
- 2011 Johns Hopkins University Press £15.50/$29.95sb 248pp
About the author
Margaret Harris is reviews and careers editor of Physics World | <urn:uuid:3bad3c18-ca14-4c3e-a9cb-6dc746c3f144> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/2011/jul/21/between-the-lines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95308 | 1,179 | 2.890625 | 3 |
With the real estate market still in a tough spot, it's not too unusual for landowners to get be a little surprised by their property assessment values.
But for Elkhart County residents the shock factor is not a result of the economy, but because of changes in the way property is assessed.
More than half of residential property owners saw decreased assessments this year, according to our reporting partners at the Elkhart Truth.
The state issued new cost tables this year changing what the county charges per square foot for various add-ons, like patios and detached garages.
The depreciation schedule also changed. They're now depreciated from 2012 instead of 2009. Landowners also saw fluctuations in property values. It was the county's first time using aerial maps to classify land. That meant some plots were reclassified from farming to residential, or vice versa.
The county hired an outside firm this year to get more accurate assessments, from the Indiana Assessment Services in Rochester.
For More information visit: http://www.etruth.com/article/20120910/NEWS01/709099954. | <urn:uuid:a6b66178-0a17-4f82-bcb5-1d46ed90f7e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wndu.com/news/headlines/Changes-in-Elkhart-County-property-assessment-values-169362716.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93772 | 227 | 1.90625 | 2 |
Downtown Mom: Being Green in Battery Park City
April 18th, 2012
When we think of Battery Park City our mind envisions the parks, the promenade, the exquisite landscaping and our beautiful harbor. But one thing that might not instantly come to mind is the fact that Battery Park City is also the “greenest” community in Manhattan. In our 98 acres, we have five LEED certified buildings: The Verdesian, The Solaire, The Riverhouse, The Visionaire and Millenium Towers. And three of these five buildings were developed by the same organization, The Albanese Organization.
In the summer of 1999, the Battery Park City Authority wanted new developers to build in a sustainable way in order to reduce a building’s negative impacts on the environment and its occupants. But, when the BPCA looked for existing environmental guidelines to guide their green endeavors, they found none. So, the BPCA had to define what sustainable meant to them, which led to the creation of the Battery Park City Authority Residential Environmental Guidelines.
At the time, getting developers to accept these guidelines was a challenge. When the BPCA announced it would be taking bids from private developers to build the first green, residential high-rise, nine of New York’s top developers submitted a bid. The winning bid came from the Albanese Organization and their proposed building, The Solaire.
The Solaire was the only sustainable high-rise building in the country to receive a LEED Gold status in 2003 and the first in Battery Park City. In 2009 The Solaire became a LEED Platinum EB building. To understand the full picture of what grants a building a LEED certification, I met with Michael Gubbins, VP of Residential Management for the Albanese Organization, who gave me the grand tour of the system, of the bones of what makes this building function the way it does.
Our first stop was the Microturbines, which drives a generator to produce electricity. It is an energy-efficient method of generating electricity. The Solaire uses 60% less energy on peak demand and 40% less energy overall. Their Waste Water Treatment plant, which cost over $1 million to build, supplies the water for flushing toilets and for the cooling towers. The treatment plant filters the waste water from the sinks, showers and toilets in the apartments. This is done using an aeration system that treats the water to a high standard and filters it. The processed water then goes through an Ozone and UV disinfection process and back into a holding tank for use. Perhaps the most impressive part of their waste water treatment plant is the fact that the processed water also goes through to the Verdesian for use for flushing toilets and for the cooling tower. Because of this, Michael says “we use 55% less water from the city water supply than a typical building”.
Next, we went to the roof top, which is located on the 19th floor of the Solaire, where I saw what has become a staple for the Solaire (as well as for The Verdesian and The Visionaire): blue discs at the top of the buildings. These are solar panels that are made from recycled silicon wafers using chips and CDs discarded by the computer industry. With these panels, these buildings generate 5% of their base electrical load. Over 15,000 recycled computer discs were used in the solar panels for the Solaire and the Visionaire and over 9,000 for the Verdesian.
All of this is maintained through Building Management Systems (BMS), a dashboard located at the front desk of the Solaire where every doorman and maintenance staff has learned about the system through an intensive training program. In this system, the building staff can see any issues that may arise in real time. Michael took me through the Water Treatment System, the Microturbines and the chillers and was able to tell me how much energy the solar panels are using, how much the building is consuming in the last minute and how much energy it used in the last hour…we were able to see it all, which was all very impressive.
“We do our building inspections through our iPad everyday,” Michael says. “We also developed an app to do inspections on the buildings and tells us real time when the guys are taking a reading. All of our systems are integrated together which makes us even more efficient.” As Michael and I walked to The Verdesian, he told me: “I can tell you how much energy we used in the last ten minutes.” Now wouldn’t it be great if the weather man can be that sure if it’s going to rain tomorrow?
In 2006, The Verdesian was build and because of the experience, knowledge and passion that went into The Solaire, there was not much extra incremental cost in building the Verdesian. By then, the Albanese Organization knew the manufacturers, the suppliers and the technologies that were all being driven towards an environmental friendly building. The building was also brilliantly strategized as renters eventually turned to buyers, and The Visionaire, America’s Greenest Residential high-rise condominium, received the highest green standard: LEED Platinum. I adore every moment of living across the street from The Visionaire, which was such a profound architectural structure that I watched go up from the beginning.
Over 5,000 people have toured these three buildings, including former Head of state of the Soviet Union Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, and now communities all over the world are using Solaire as an example of green development. This was made possible with the partnership of both the private and public sector. But, the Albanese Organization, along with the Battery Park City Authority, were visionaries in seeing green be part of our lives. Mr. Albanese, in your recent passing, I am sure I speak for many when I say thank you for taking risks, thank you for your passion and may God rest your soul. Thank you.
“You are only successful when you give back to a community” – Mr. Albanese.
—Maria Hadjidemetriou. A Downtown resident for more than 12 years, Maria enjoys life as a mom to her four-year-old daughter and being a Real Estate Sales Agent for the LuxuryLoft Team of Douglas Elliman. Maria enjoys writing (presently working on an animated screenplay), bike riding, kayaking and taking walks with her daughter along the promenade of Battery Park City. She has been an active Board Member for the Cooley’s Anemia Foundation since 1998 and recently an advisor to the Foundation of American Blood Centers (FABC). You can follow Maria on twitter @downtownmomnyc or email her at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Jun 14th, 2013 | No Comments | <urn:uuid:fae6dc46-1d3f-411d-8aa0-31a6f4e7141e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://downtownmagazinenyc.com/downtown-mom-being-green-in-battery-park-city/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963757 | 1,434 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Educational Leadership Program
The Educational Leadership Program provides a program of preparation at the Masterís degree level for individuals seeking leadership roles in K-12 education as Elementary or Secondary School Principals as well as for individuals aspiring to leadership roles in college or university settings such as Residence Life, Student Affairs, Athletics, and Admissions. The program is offered in collaboration with Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) as part of the Tri-College University (TCU) agreement. As part of the TCU agreement, a joint schedule is created with faculty from each campus taking or sharing the lead on each of the required courses.
This report provides information on how the Educational Leadership Program meets the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices (ESPB) Program Approval Standards. There are parts in the report for each program standard:
1. Where the Standard is Met in the Program
2. Student Performance
3. Department Response
The program provides multiple opportunities for candidates to carry out work related to the standards. Syllabi from all the courses that support student achievement of the standard are referenced. Courses with the candidate experiences most closely aligned with each standard and those with Critical Assignments that help candidates reach the standard are included in the narrative for each standard. These Critical Assignments are included on the course curriculum map and as such, faculty are required to include the assignment in the course.
The program is characterized by the concept of Actionable Knowledge, defined as the amalgamation of theory and practice. The Recommended Course Sequence reflects this concept by organizing coursework in phases that help candidates acquire knowledge and skills with increasing amounts of opportunities for applying those skills in school settings as they move through the program. This emphasis on Actionable Knowledge is also evidenced by candidates completing a 110 hour practicum experience with a licensed principal at the end of their program and their participation in the D21 Principal Performance Center. | <urn:uuid:95065b55-0658-407c-8ed5-ead1aaedb451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ndsu.edu/education/educational_leadership/introduction/ | 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 | 0.950805 | 382 | 1.796875 | 2 |
SEO is something we’ve been doing since 1999. As a Melbourne SEO company we have worked on City of Melbourne projects as well as many Victorian Government projects.We are one of Australia’s oldest Internet companies and we know how important SEO is to a business’ success these days. Every week since 2005 our founder Jim Stewart, has produce an SEO Video blog, which is why he is often quoted in publications such as smartcompany.com.au & TV Shows such as SkyNews Switzer program.
What is SEO?
SEO or Search engine optimisation sometimes known as search marketing, also known as online marketing. SEO is not about trying to trick Google. SEO is about thinking of the Google bot as a librarian and making sure your site is tagged & sign posted properly so Google knows how to rank it.
Search Engine Optimisation is about business. Not technology.
Search marketing is different because people see your sales message exactly at the time they are looking for it. You don’t have to try and get their attention, they are looking for you! You just need to be found.
Be Searched. Be Found.
+61 3 8545 5900 | <urn:uuid:3f15f1d7-40a2-4271-a70b-e2d183f6cce8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stewartmedia.biz/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974368 | 245 | 1.65625 | 2 |
In his introduction to Kurt Vonnegut: Letters, Dan Wakefield, the book's editor and a longtime Vonnegut karass member, writes of the late author's aspiration to be a "cultivated eccentric." Over the course of six decades of letters to family, friends, admirers, detractors and fellow writers, Vonnegut shows himself to be so much more, both in terms of ambition and accomplishment. In fact, viewed in its totality, the collection — by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and mundane — is striking in just how uneccentric it shows the author to be. Vonnegut himself is a near-perfect example of the same flawed, wonderful humanity that he loved and despaired over his entire life.
This attitude toward killing is a matter between my God and me. I do not participate much in organized religion. I have read the Bible a lot. I preach, after a fashion. I write books which express my disgust for people who find it easy and reasonable to kill.
We say grace at meals, taking turns. Every member of my family has been called upon often to thank God for blessings which have been ours. What Mark is doing now is in the service of God, Whose Son was exceedingly un-warlike.
There isn't a grain of cowardice in this. Mark is a strong, courageous young man. What he is doing requires more guts than I ever had—and more decency. | <urn:uuid:9ca55d60-423c-48dc-8c40-9166da4cb304> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/11/04/kurt-vonnegut-uneccentric/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970546 | 293 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Bullet Proof on Diabetes
- Some people are genetically predisposed for the disease. So if it runs in your family, beware.
- Diabetes can lead to blindness, amputation, and kidney failure to name a few of the horrible things that can happen if it goes unchecked.
- Black men are more likely to suffer the complications of the disease and our guess is that if you are sick with out of control diabetes you will not be as good a parent as you can be.
- All African Americans are twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
- The pairing of being overweight and a genetic predisposition can be life altering, or even life ending given that African Americans are 2.2 times more likely than whites to die from diabetes.
- Luckily, diabetes is treatable, and many people with the disease live normal lives even while taking insulin. To do this requires a lifestyle change though. There is no taking the meds then having deep fried apple pie.
- Keeping a normal weight, exercising, and eating well, as well as managing blood pressure can help prevent the disease in those predisposed but without a diagnosis, and manage the disease in those with a diagnosis.
- No smoking! Smoking makes everything worse including diabetes.
Check this out if you like stats and dry but useful info: | <urn:uuid:ebf9445d-cfeb-4a15-b16e-a0605d93530b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blackdadconnection.org/wellness/5-alive/diabetes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943709 | 273 | 2.703125 | 3 |
6 Reasons iOS 6 Jailbreaks Will Be Tough
Glory hounds hoping to jailbreak Apple's newest devices won't have an easy time of it. Security experts detail the challenges.
Jailbreaking your iPhone is now legal in the United States, even if Apple has historically discouraged the process. With Apple's release last month of iOS 6, iPhone hackers have, of course, set their sites on jailbreaking the new OS. So far no automated jailbreak is available for latest-generation iOS devices that run iOS 6. But software hacker Grant Paul claimed, to All Things Digital, that he'd jailbroken an iPhone 5 less than 24 hours after its release.
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Last month, meanwhile, iPhone Dev-Team released Redsn0w, a tethered jailbreak for iOS 6, but it works only on A4-based and earlier devices, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 4th-generation. It won't, however, work on newer devices, including the iPhone 4s and 5, or the two latest generations of iPads.
[ Want to keep Apple's nose out of your browsing history? Here's how: iOS 6 Ad Tracking: How To Opt Out. ]
Could a full iOS 6 jailbreak, including for the latest Apple devices, be just around the corner? Don't bet on it. Here are six of the top challenges that would-be jailbreak developers will face:
1. Finding sufficient vulnerabilities takes smarts. "Jailbreaking is just overwriting some values in memory," said security researcher Charlie Miller, in a presentation at the RSA Conference in San Francisco earlier this year. (Miller is now a member of Twitter's security team.) But to overwrite those values, would-be jailbreakers must find unknown, exploitable vulnerabilities in iOS and then successfully chain these vulnerabilities together.
For example, Miller said, "JailbreakMe.com 3 was an end-to-end exploitation of all the security mechanisms that are in iOS 5." He noted that the software's developer, Comex, also found code signing bugs in iOS 2, and again in iOS 5, that would allow exploit processes to create memory regions to make exploitation easier.
Such knowledge is difficult to come by. "All the jailbreak developers are really freaking smart," said Dino Dai Zovi, CTO of security research firm Trail of Bits, at the RSA conference. As a result, he said, all of the exploits that have been used for jailbreaking have either been discovered by teams of researchers, "or [by] Comex, who's from the future."
2. Vulnerability hunting takes time. Finding new iOS bugs that can be chained together takes time. The self-described "Jailbreak Dream Team" behind the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, dubbed Absinthe 2.0 and introduced in January 2012, said it took them 10 months to figure out how to jailbreak the new A5 chip used on those devices.
3. Website-based untethered jailbreaking is insanely difficult. The aforementioned Comex isn't legendary in jailbreaking circles just for creating jailbreaking software by himself, but also for allowing people to do it via a website. Indeed, unlike other jailbreaks, which require a USB cable, Comex's can be installed simply by visiting the JailbreakMe.com website. But Comex's last release was JailbreakMe version 3, in July 2011, and it works only on iOS devices up to the iPhone 4.
The real identify of the iOS hacker who calls himself Comex was last year revealed by Forbes as a 20-year old Brown University student named Nicholas Allegra. Interestingly, Allegra last year announced that while on a break from Brown, he would be interning for Apple. Might Apple developers have gleaned some proactive iOS security suggestions from him? If so, it would mean further trouble for would-be jailbreakers.
4. Apple's update clock begins ticking after jailbreaks are released. Once they go public, exploits have a short shelf life. Indeed, whenever a new jailbreak appears, Apple begins patching the exploited vulnerabilities. "Let's talk about jailbreakme.com 2 [which debuted in July 2010]," said Zovi, who together with Miller helped co-author the iOS Hacker's Handbook, which was released in May 2012.
"Once you drop all these bugs, it gets fixed instantly," Zovi said, noting that after version 2 of jailbreakme.com debuted, it took Apple just two weeks to release an update that blocked the vulnerabilities that the jailbreak had used.
5. Early iOS 6 exploit was not a jailbreak. At the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month, Azimuth Security researchers Mark Dowd and Tarjei Mandt demonstrated a kernel exploit that allowed them to install and run Cydia--an application that can be used to search for and install apps onto a jailbroken iPhone--on an iPhone 5 running iOS 6. But they noted that their kernel exploit alone couldn't be used to jailbreak iOS 6 devices.
6. Apple keeps locking down iOS. Unfortunately for would-be jailbreakers, iOS 6 will arguably be the toughest mobile Apple OS to crack. According to Dowd and Mandt's presentation, Apple has added a number of features that have improved iOS 6 security, in part by better hardening the iOS kernel--the central component of the operating system--against exploits, better protecting against memory or heap corruption errors, and improving stack overflow prevention. In addition, Apple added new information leakage mitigations, including zeroing out some application programming interfaces (APIs) that had previously been used to execute successful kernel-level exploits. Apple also made address space layout randomization (ASLR) even more random and thus more difficult to circumvent.
All told, these iOS 6 mitigations significantly raise the bar, according to the researchers, who noted that many of the old tricks don't work, including bugs that previously could have been exploited to help trigger a jailbreak.
In Search of Jailbreaks
With the above discussion of jailbreaks, a caveat: there's a reason that information security managers discourage--if not actively block--jailbroken iPhones or iPads from accessing the corporate network. "What happens when you do jailbreak your phone--what does it do to the security architecture?" said Miller at RSA. "It turns out that it breaks everything. ... It turns off code signing, of course--that's why you jailbreak it. But code signing is tied to app permissions ... [and] all the things you download can run as root." That means there's no sandbox to prevent attackers from exploiting an app, then using it as a stepping stone to exploit the device in other ways.
The JailbreakMe website, however, has this to say in its FAQ: "By itself, jailbreaking does not make you vulnerable. However, a common mistake for jailbreakers is to install OpenSSH but forget to change the passwords for root and mobile; this lets anyone log into your device over the Internet."
Miller, however, disagrees. "After jailbreaking an iOS device," he said, "you really increase the risk of something bad happening."
A security information and event management system serves as a repository for all the security alerts and logging systems from a firm's devices. But this can be overkill for a company that is understaffed or has overestimated its security information needs. In our report, Does SIEM Make Sense For Your Company?, we discuss 10 questions to ask yourself in determining whether SIEM makes sense for you--and how to pick the right system if it does. (Free registration required.) | <urn:uuid:040a3644-1c1f-4d20-9e7a-a9763606900a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/security/application-security/6-reasons-ios-6-jailbreaks-will-be-tough/240008996?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Vulnerabilities_and_threats_security&itc=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Vulnerabilities_and_threats_security | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942967 | 1,642 | 1.523438 | 2 |
a talk, especially a formal one about a particular subject, given to a group of people:
a campaign speech
give/make/deliver a speech
Each child had to give a short speech to the rest of the class.
a major speech on relations with China
a conference including meals and after-dinner speeches
Collins gave the keynote speech (=most important speech).
the ability to speak:
Only humans are capable of speech.
spoken language rather than written language:
In speech we use a smaller vocabulary than in writing.
the particular way in which someone speaks:
Bob's speech was slurred, and he sounded drunk.
a set of lines that an actor must say in a play:
Hamlet's longest speech | <urn:uuid:2ad97371-5351-49fd-9aac-bc541d7807ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/speech | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936194 | 154 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Bad cholesterol, depression, high blood pressure; these are all conditions that often prompt a trip to the pharmacy. But now, physicians are administering a different treatment entirely: produce. Doctors at select clinics across the country are writing some obese patients "prescriptions" for fruits and vegetables.
The Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program provides daily $1 subsidies to buy produce at local farmers markets. FVRx, as it is also known, is funded through Wholesome Wave, a non-profit organization which operates from private donations. Each member of a family gets the $1 prescription so, for example, a family of five would end up getting $35 per week to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables.
“It is an encouragement because now I actually see that my kids love all of this stuff and before I couldn’t get it because it wasn’t cheap. Not only that but I also didn’t know how healthy it actually is,” Lopez said.
In addition to subsidies, FVRx has patients meet with their physicians to check up on their health including their height, weight, blood pressure and body mass index. The program also offers exercise and cooking classes.
“A lot of kids are picking up on how to eat vegetables and realizing they’re not actually yucky, it’s actually, ‘Oh, it’s delicious,’ because they’re learning to cook it themselves,” Lopez said.
And organizers said they use this family oriented approach because even if the whole family isn’t obese, they don’t want one member of the family eating fruits and vegetables while the rest just keep eating junk.
“When we look at these types of health interventions they’re really most successful if the entire family can make a lifestyle change rather than cherry picking who in the family can eat more fruits and vegetables while the rest of the people sit at the table and eat instant rice with a can of condensed soup stirred in,” said Michel Nischan, CEO of Wholesome Wave.
The program exists at twelve sites in seven states and the District of Columbia. It started in 2010 and has already helped over 1000 people buy healthier food.
The program targets areas where fresh produce may not be readily available or is too expensive for impoverished families. The high price ends up being a double bind; people don’t buy the produce because the price is so high and stores don’t buy large quantities of produce because people don’t buy as much, thus increasing the price.
“Fruit and vegetable producers don’t receive any subsidies right now. It’s corn, cotton, rice, wheat and soy. So fruits and vegetables, the things we’re supposed to be eating five servings a day of are the foods that receive little to no government support,” Nischan said.
Nischan said this program ultimately produces a savings for the health care system because he believes if people eat more healthily, they’re less likely to suffer from chronic conditions. Healthy food costs less than the medicine and treatment they would require in the future.
“If you advise somebody to change to see a nutritionist to change their diet, they skip the nutritionist visit. You don’t see them again for two years until their feet hurt really bad and they’ve been vomiting for three weeks and they can’t understand because they don’t have the flu and they go back to find they have Type-II Diabetes for over a year,” Nischan said. “Now we can give them free drugs because our society won’t allow someone to die (but) the drugs are more expensive than the food.”
Though the program in D.C. is new, people like Lopez are already noticing a difference in their lives. "I feel more energetic," she said. "I don’t feel as tired anymore and I see the same thing in my kids.”
From around the web | <urn:uuid:e70d5899-8f26-4ede-be3f-42889c094db3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/07/23/doctors-write-a-prescription-for-produce/?hpt=ea_c1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956802 | 842 | 2.265625 | 2 |
YOU CAN'T drown a dragon, no matter how you might try. Not through chivalry, not through valor; not through martial intensity nor advanced technological might; not by magic, not by luck; not by any method you can dream up can you succeed in causing a dragon to expire by underwater asphyxiation. This is a well known, if consternating, fact. And the reasons for it are at least twofold, if not manifold.
To begin with, the realms of dragons, the places where they are most in their element, are watery, moist regions. This is the first reason. Often they inhabit streams and lakes; sometimes they float bodily and dreamily through stormy skies. Dragons don’t have gills, but they can store up vast amounts of water and spew out torrents through their halitosis mouths; at least some of the really big ones can. It used to be that during a drought a human sacrifice might have to be made, commonly a princess — being a dragon’s most toothsome choice — so that the rains would return. In some places, however, the beast might be supplicated merely with flags, dances and incense.
West and East
Now dragons can most unequivocally be slayed, and many have been, predominantly in Europe and the West. In these places dragons most haplessly became associated with the devil, with mighty forces of evil and other unsavory qualities, and by slaying one a person almost automatically became a hero.
Dragons appear in stories throughout the world and so, naturally enough — that is, due to the natural selection inherent in great storytelling traditions — they come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. Usually serpentine and covered with scales, you can have a dragon with a lion’s head, or maybe that of an eagle or a camel; you may see horns and a tail and you may not; and you might see either claws or talons for feet, and there will be two, four, or more of them. They have the underbellies of oysters and the tongues of snakes. There is even a huge elephant dragon of India. That’s one I like; I’d have mine with silly little wings and dainty feet.
In the East, however, particularly in China, dragons represent good luck, fortune, wisdom, even spiritual tranquility. There they are often exalted and visionary creatures. The very word "dragon" is related to other ancient words having to do with vision, such as the Sanskrit darc, to see, the Avestic darstis, meaning sight, and the Old Irish derc, or eye. And like most wise and powerful beings, they guard secrets and confer favors.
The tale of Black Cui
As an example, there is the Chinese tale about poor Black Cui who made his living by carrying his tools about and mending things for people. One day he came upon a small baby dragon and took it home to feed it. Eventually the dragon grew too large to take care of so he moved it to a cave in North Mountain, where it thrived, and in time a large and powerful ginseng plant grew up at the cave’s entrance, but people feared to harvest it because of the great dragon that inhabited the cave. Eventually the emperor himself heard about the plant and decided he must have it. When it was learned that Black Cui had raised the dragon, he was told to bring the plant to the emperor or he would have his head chopped off. So Black Cui hurried to the dragon and asked for the plant, reminding it that he had raised and cared for the creature when it was small, and so the dragon let him take the powerful plant.
Some time later the emperor’s wife contracted an eye disease. Nobody could cure her and eventually she went blind. The emperor was told that with just one touch from a dragon’s eye his wife’s eyesight could be completely restored. Again Black Cui was called for and told that if he could obtain a dragon’s eye for the emperor he would be appointed as a minister; and if he could not, his entire family would be killed. Fearing death, certainly, and desiring a high station, Black Cui again returned to the cave and begged the dragon to relinquish its left eye. To this the dragon slowly nodded and allowed its eye to be cut out, afterwards shedding a big tear. The cure worked and the emperor’s wife could see again, and Black Cui was appointed a minister.
As Black Cui became ever richer and more powerful he began to enjoy his easy life and by stages he hardened into a cold-hearted and selfish man. Caring not for other people, he sought only his own happiness and to possess ever more riches. One day he recalled the valuable treasure of the dragon’s eye, so he set off for the cave in North Mountain. Once again he reminded the dragon of the care it had received from his own hands, and he asked for the dragon’s other eye. And once again the dragon slowly nodded. But when Black Cui came near to cut out the dragon’s other eye, the dragon opened its great mouth and swallowed him up whole.
* * * * *
Springing as they do from our own imaginations, dragons have much to teach us. And this, finally, is the second main reason that a dragon can never be drowned, ultimately submerged, or ignored. They are all but figments. Bold and often fearsome figments, to be sure, but figments all the same. They arise from our unconscious minds to take form as great spectral beasts, embodiments of some of our worst and deepest fears, threatening to overcome and even annihilate us. Nevertheless at times they can be paraded about peacefully and ceremoniously, emblems of the gracious, beneficent sources of life itself, full of powers and mysteries and magic.
Since dragons can be found in nearly all Old World cultures and in most cultures of the New World, it seems certain that plentiful dragons will populate the Future World as well. Such wonderful, magical beings are never likely to become extinct from the human imagination. | <urn:uuid:c8be82e1-b335-434a-9b6f-8ba45ceac17c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/pockettales/a/dragon.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979283 | 1,284 | 2.28125 | 2 |
JRE, JVM and JDK are three terms you often heard in conjunction with Java programming language and most people either confuse between them or think they all are same. In this java article we will what is Java Run-time (JRE), what is Java virtual Machine (JVM) and what is Java development Kit (JDK) along with Just in Time compiler or JIT. Once you know what JRE, JVM or JDK means you can differentiate them easily by yourself. This article is in continuation of Difference between Comparable and Comparator in Java and Difference between ConcurrentHashMap and Synchronized-map.
JRE JVM and JDK in Java Programming language
Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
Java is every where in browser, in mobile, in TV or in set-top boxes and if you are into Java programming language than you know that Java code which is bundled in JAR (Java archive) file require Java virtual machine JVM to execute it. Now JVM is an executable or program like any other program and you can install that into your machine. You have seen browser often suggesting download JRE to run a Java Applet downloaded from Internet. Various version of JRE are available in java.oracle.com and most of the user who just want to execute Java program inside browser or standalone downloads JRE. All browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome can work with JRE.
Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
When you download JRE and install on your machine you got all the code required to create JVM. Java Virtual Machine is get created when you run a java program using java command e.g. java HelloWorld. JVM is responsible for converting byte code into machine specific code and that's why you have different JVM for Windows, Linux or Solaris but one JAR can run on all this operating system. Java Virtual machine is at heart of Java programming language and provide several feature to Java programmer including Memory Management and Garbage Collection, Security and other system level services. Java Virtual Machine can be customized e.g we can specify starting memory or maximum memory of heap size located inside JVM at the time of JVM creation. If we supplied invalid argument to java command it may refuse to create Java Virtual Machine by saying "failed to create Java virtual machine: invalid argument". In short Java Virtual Machine or JVM is the one who provides Platform independence to Java.
Java Development Kit (JDK)
JDK is also loosely referred as JRE but its lot more than JRE and it provides all the tools and executable require to compile debug and execute Java Program. Just like JRE, JDK is also platform specific and you need to use separate installer for installing JDK on Linux and Windows. Current Version of JDK is 1.7 which is also referred as Java7 and it contains javac (java compiler) based on programming rules of Java7 and Java which can execute java7 code with new features like String in Switch, fork-join framework or Automatic Resource Management. When you install JDK, installation folder is often referred as JAVA_HOME. All binaries are located inside JAVA_HOME/bin which includes javac, java and other binaries and they must be in your system PATH in order to compile and execute Java programs. For details on Path see how to set PATH for Java in Windows and UNIX.
Difference between JRE, JDK and JVM
In short here are few differences between JRE, JDK and JVM:
1) JRE and JDK come as installer while JVM are bundled with them.
2) JRE only contain environment to execute java program but doesn’t contain other tool for compiling java program.
3) JVM comes along with both JDK and JRE and created when you execute Java program by giving “java” command.
Just in Time Compiler (JIT)
Initially Java has been accused of poor performance because it’s both compiles and interpret instruction. Since compilation or Java file to class file is independent of execution of Java program do not confuse. Here compilation word is used for byte code to machine instruction translation. JIT are advanced part of Java Virtual machine which optimize byte code to machine instruction conversion part by compiling similar byte codes at same time and thus reducing overall execution time. JIT is part of Java Virtual Machine and also performs several other optimizations such as in-lining function.
That’s all on JRE, JDK and Java Virtual machine and difference between them. Though they look similar they are different and having a clear idea of JVM, JIT or JDK helps in java programming. | <urn:uuid:0b5b2dcc-c5aa-4d71-b038-5d5750131f8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://javarevisited.blogspot.com/2011/12/jre-jvm-jdk-jit-in-java-programming.html?showComment=1361078761843 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929847 | 964 | 3.34375 | 3 |
This is the kit that reproduces a 1/10th-scale working model of an ancient Chinese navigation chariot that points in the same direction, regardless of the direction of travel. Invented in 225 A.D. by mechanical engineer Ma Jun during the Three Kingdoms period, the chariot's differential gearing system provided solitary cardinal direction centuries before the magnetic compass. Romantically known as the "South Pointing Chariot," it is considered by antiquarians as one of Ancient China's most complex inventions, yet it's dragon finial will point in any direction to which it is initially oriented. Made from poplar, the kit's 37 pieces snap out from three backing boards. Detailed written instructions guides builders through construction with clear pictures. Poplar's soft grain makes it easy to sand and trim. Assembly required using basic woodworking tools such as a utility knife, a flat and round file, sandpaper, wood glue, and clamps. Made in the U.S. Assembled 14" L x 7" W x 14" H. (2 lbs.)
The Ma Jun Navigation Chariot comes with The Hammacher Schlemmer Lifetime Guarantee at no additional charge. If this product ever disappoints you, for any reason, you may return your Hammacher Schlemmer purchase for exchange, credit, or refund.
Should you have any questions, we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please call 1-800-321-1484 to speak with a product specialist or email us at firstname.lastname@example.org to receive a response within one hour. | <urn:uuid:e17b8d80-ce39-4c3c-939c-26ab233edf98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hammacher.com/Product/Default.aspx?sku=81201&promo=Canada-Duty-Free-Toys-Games&catid=1379 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934262 | 329 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Ralston Hall Mansion was the country estate of William Chapman Ralston, a prominent and powerful San Francisco financier who founded the Bank of California. Purchasing the property from an Italian nobleman in 1864, Ralston began construction of an increasingly grand mansion, ultimately comprising over 80 rooms. He called his estate "Belmont," a name that was subsequently adopted by the adjacent village.
In style, the exterior of Ralston Hall is Italianate Villa. The interior incorporates many features of the 19th century "steamboat gothic" construction and design, reminiscent of Ralston's early days on the riverboats of Mississippi before he came to California.
After Ralston's death, the estate was passed to his former partner, U.S. Senator William Sharon. During that era of the Mansion's history, one of the most elaborate celebrations was the wedding of Sharon's daughter Flora to Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh of England.
In 1922, the Ralston estate became the campus of College of Notre Dame. Chartered by the state of California in 1868, it is the state's fifth oldest institution of higher education. Known today as Notre Dame de Namur University, it continues the proud tradition as a premier master's university providing professional and liberal arts programs, with an enrollment of nearly 1,600 students.
You are cordially invited to personally experience the elegance of Ralston Hall Mansion. | <urn:uuid:6f84a118-0972-40c1-b776-fcb546fb8ced> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ralstonhall.com/history/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964585 | 297 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Downtown Norristown was once the destination shopping district for central Montgomery County, but years of decline and neglect have left it a shell of its former glory.
Author Michael E. Tolle will discuss the history of the district and some of the elements that led to its decline at a public discussion on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 2:30 p.m. at the Historical Society of Montgomery County, 1654 DeKalb Street in Norristown. Tolle, a former staff member of the society, will also sign copies of his book, What Killed Downtown? Norristown,Pennsylvania, from Main Street to the Malls.
For more information, call 610-272-0297 or e-mail email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:b9670fb6-79c0-4165-8208-41c41a07c803> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://norristown.patch.com/articles/historical-society-to-host-talk-on-the-decline-of-norristown-s-main-street | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945439 | 157 | 1.664063 | 2 |
- By Region
Asking a company how many shops it has is normally a straightforward question. But in the case of Inglot, a Polish cosmetics business, the company is growing so quickly that the question prompts a hurried discussion between the owner and a senior manager.
“We had 145 foreign shops when we took off to the US for a business trip two weeks ago,” says Joanna Kobrylo, the company’s vice-president, before correcting herself. “Wait a minute, I forgot that in the meantime a shop opened in Azerbaijan. That makes 146 . . . for now.” There are also 160 outlets in Poland.
Wojciech Inglot, the owner and founder, sits in a wine bar in a shopping mall in central Warsaw with a glass of red in hand after arriving back from a hectic US trip on which he stopped off in New York, Los Angeles, Hawaii, New York again and then Warsaw. “It wasn’t a holiday,” he says with a grimace.
Glancing at the label on the wine bottle, he notes that it comes from Uruguay. “That’s funny – I’ve got someone there right now looking at the prospects in Montevideo,” he says.
The scope of the business is a far cry from its origins in the mid-1980s, when Mr Inglot abandoned his job as a chemist in a government-owned pharmaceutical company and took advantage of a command by the communist military dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski that forced state companies to sell off unneeded equipment.
Spurred by the example of relatives in the US, whom he had visited in the 1970s to earn precious hard currency, and where he had been bedazzled by the enormous variety of cosmetics, Mr Inglot seized the chance to strike out on his own. This was despite the stifling orthodoxy of communism that still gripped Poland after the imposition of martial law in 1981-83. “Even then, I was certain that Poland would turn into a normal country,” he says.
Using some of his own money and that of his sister, Mr Inglot bought machinery and began to produce cleaning fluid for cassette players, before moving on to making stick deodorants. He started making nail polish in 1987, offering a dash of colour in a grey and beaten-down country where better cosmetics were available only in special shops that sold goods for hard currency.
Mr Inglot was at the front of a wave of Polish business creation that started in late communist times and flourished once a market economy was restored in 1989 – when those with the gumption to start a business could make money very quickly. There was such a dearth of attractive products in that period that the biggest challenge was to supply a product to market; once there, shoppers snatched it up.
Avoid debt Mr Inglot fuels expansion through company earnings. “We’ve been very conservative when it comes to finances – we have no debt, which allows us to make quick decisions, but the price is that our expansion hasn’t been as fast as it would have been with credit.”
Mr Inglot, who personally holds 70 per cent of his company, shudders at the thought of going public. “We consider all sorts of things, but the stock exchange is the last place when it comes to desirability.”
Don’t spend on marketing Mr Inglot’s advertising and marketing budget? Zero. “We rely on our shop locations to build the brand.”
Expand globally with a broad footprint While consultants told him to build up his presence slowly in three or four countries to a sizeable level, he feels expansion is easier with his much broader but shallower footprint. “Once you exist in a certain country, growth is much easier. Going from one location to six isn’t much of a problem.”
But those easy sales ended with the collapse of communism. With the resulting opening of Polish markets, branded western consumer products flooded in, challenging domestic producers, many of which went bust. Mr Inglot was forced to improvise quickly, first packaging his products more attractively, then allowing women to test make-up before buying – something of a novelty in Poland.
Then he took what was probably his most important decision: he pulled his products from more than 3,000 pharmacies and supermarkets and decided to set up his own retail outlets in the shopping malls that were springing up in Polish cities.
“Our point of difference was the size of our collection. It was completely impossible to show everything in a normal retail shop where we were competing for shelf space with international cosmetics companies,” says Mr Inglot.
That risky move led to an initial steep fall in sales, but ended by opening up the world for Inglot. A Polish-Canadian businessman was walking through a Warsaw shopping centre when he noticed Inglot’s “island” display in the middle of a passageway. Enticed, he decided to open a shop in Montreal in 2006. That led to a businessman from Dubai spying the Canadian shop and deciding to open a similar shop in the Middle East. As one location led to another, from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur, Dublin and Aruba, the company developed an innovative model for franchise start-ups.
Inglot’s factory in Przemysl, on Poland’s border with Ukraine, makes the eyeshadow, blusher, nail polish and lipstick as well as display counters, furniture and advertising leaflets. It packs everything into a container, which is shipped to the new location and accompanied by trainers to teach the locals. (The one exception was India, whose fierce customs rules forced Inglot to source furniture locally.) “A shop can be set up in 24 hours,” he boasts.
The company charges no franchise fees, instead earning money by selling products to its franchisees. Last year, Inglot sold $34m of products in Poland, and $57m abroad; in recent months, foreign sales have risen by 50 per cent a month, says Ms Kobrylo. The company expects to open about 70 new shops this year.
Mr Inglot’s investment and expansion strategy is very different from the model followed by other Polish companies, which calls for growth first domestically, followed by a careful expansion to other central and east European countries, and then a jump to bigger neighbours such as Germany and Russia. Developed and distant markets such as the US and Australia are reserved for the final stages of expansion.
“Pushing into the west with our unknown brand seemed crazy,” says Mr Inglot. “But we decided to break the pattern. We decided that we would go to Moscow first through New York and Dubai, not through Warsaw.”
His global experience also allows him to put Polish bureaucracy – often decried as a drag on the economy – into perspective. “The legend about Poland’s impossible bureaucracy is simply not true,” he says. “The entrepreneurial spirit is still here.”
His rise has left Polish rivals behind. In a country still better known abroad for vodka and sausages than cosmetics, Inglot stands out – something that makes its founder glow with pride. “Even after 20 years of economic freedom, no large Polish consumer brand has been created . . . with our humble exception.”
Inglot has decided to keep its production in Przemysl instead of outsourcing to cheaper Asian countries, a bit of patriotism that Mr Inglot says makes financial sense. “In our case, quality control is the most important. The path from idea to product is also three to five times faster than if we manufactured elsewhere,” he says.
Fending off almost weekly acquisition inquiries from rivals and investment funds, Mr Inglot spends his happiest times in his Przemysl lab, an echo of his days as a communist-era researcher. “The most fun I have is sitting there late at night and coming up with new products.” | <urn:uuid:6af6e89d-2124-4459-873a-4ac6c777bb22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nicosiamoneynews.com/2012/04/17/inglot-is-more-than-a-cosmetic-model/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976483 | 1,695 | 2.0625 | 2 |
According to the records, Australia was first discovered by Dutch explorers in the early 17th century. So how did 1,000-year-old copper coins from a former African sultanate end up on a remote Australian beach?
An Australian anthropologist, Ian McIntosh, is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, which began when five coins were found buried in sand by a soldier patrolling the Wessel Islands off the continent’s north coast in 1944, two years after Darwin was bombed by the Japanese.
Maurie Isenberg, who was manning a radar station on the uninhabited but strategically important islands, stored the coins in a tin, and on coming across them again in 1979, sent them to a museum.
They were identified as originating in the former sultanate of Kilwa, near present-day Tanzania, and dated to as far back as the 900s.
So far, so mysterious, for according to the history books the first outsider to set foot on Australian soil was a Dutchman, Willem Janszoon, who landed in present-day north Queensland in 1606 – more than 160 years before Captain James Cook arrived and claimed the continent for the British throne.
Dr McIntosh believes that the coins, which have apparently been gathering dust in the museum, could rewrite Australian history, indicating that the country was visited long before Europeans arrived.
Now a World Heritage ruin, Kilwa was once a flourishing trade port and in the 13th to 16th centuries had links to India. Its trade – in gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian stoneware, Persian ceramics and Chinese porcelain – made it one of the most influential towns in East Africa.
To those of us who are well familiar with African history, this comes as no surprise.
Yes this is news (this is my first time hearing about these coins) but considering how far and wide Africans travelled at the time Europeans were still in the backwaters, it is not strange that they (at least their coins) reached Australia.
What I detest is this insistence on “discovery”, the indigenous people of Australia have been there for a while, neither Africans or Europeans (or people from the Middle East who have played roles in East African history) “discovered” Australia.
A new United Nations report says AIDS-related deaths in Africa are falling while the number of Africans getting treatment for the AIDS virus is on the rise.
The report from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS says the number of people in Africa who receive anti-retroviral drugs increased from less than 1 million in 2005 to more than 7 million last year.
It says AIDS-related deaths fell by nearly a third during that same period, and that new HIV infections are also falling.
Many African countries have taken steps over the past decade to ensure that at least some of their HIV patients have access to treatment.
The report, released Tuesday, notes that Africa continues to be affected by HIV more than any other region in the world. It says the continent accounts for nearly 70 percent of people living with the virus worldwide.
It also notes that in 2011, there were still 1.8 million new HIV infections in Africa, and 1.2 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses. | <urn:uuid:1d0ba614-5ce4-4098-8852-eb5056de1aeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/africa?language=pl_PL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978039 | 682 | 3.09375 | 3 |
'Aiming' to be PleasedThe classic Concentration memory game. The cards begin face down. Click one to turn it over. Try to find the second card that matches the first. If the second does not match, click a third card to look for a new match. Your previous selections return to a face down position. If they do match, the cards are removed to reveal part of the background rebus. Try to determine the rebus message in as few number of turns as possible.
Focus on Safety
During the past 30 years, lightning killed an average of 73 people per year in the United States. This is more than deaths caused by tornadoes and hurricanes. However, it receives much less attention than the more destructive weather-related killers.
Outdoors is the most dangerous place to be during a lightning storm. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning. Go indoors or get into a hard-topped vehicle. Visit JetStream - An Online School for Weather for more info. | <urn:uuid:89c5026e-ae9c-42b3-a98f-72f401ddfb18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/coolstuff/3/30.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941828 | 210 | 2.453125 | 2 |
By JOYCE APSEL
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 8, 1999
May this little book contribute to better understanding between all peoples.
-- Otto Frank
A diary or journal can take many forms: a special blank book, a notebook, even part of a notebook. Like Anne Frank, you may want a diary for your birthday or for a holiday gift. If you cannot afford or do not want a store-bought diary, you can make your own by putting together sheets of paper and designing your own cover.
Do you want to have a lock on your diary? For Anne Frank, the privacy of her diary was very important, and when people asked to see what she was writing she chose not to let them -- not even her parents. When Anne ran out of diary pages, she wrote on sheets of paper that the helpers brought to her in the Secret Annex. Her family respected her privacy.
In fact, Anne's father, Otto, was surprised and deeply moved by his daughter's writings. One of the helpers, Miep Gies, had saved Anne's writings after the residents of the Secret Annex were taken away by the Nazi and Dutch authorities. Mrs. Gies never looked at the papers and planned to give them to Anne upon her return. Once she found out that Anne had died in Bergen Belsen concentration camp of starvation and typhus, she immediately gave Anne's diary to Otto Frank.
After deciding to publish her writings, Otto Frank wrote, "May this little book contribute to better understanding between all peoples."
In 1967, Otto Frank said that he "was extremely surprised by Anne's deep thoughts, by how serious she was and especially by her self-criticism. It was a different Anne from the girl I knew as my daughter. And I got along very well with her. So I have to conclude that most parents don't really know their children. And that's why I know that by reading the diary, parents and teachers can learn a great deal." (Quoted from Anne Frank Magazine, Anne Frank Stichting, Amsterdam, 1998.)
* * *
Privacy: If you have a diary without a lock and don't want family or friends to read it, ask them to respect your privacy. Sometimes this is hard for family or friends to do. One of my daughters was keeping a diary and one day curiosity got the better of me and I peeked in. My daughter anticipated this might happen. After one section, she wrote an afterword that said "Mom, if you are reading this diary you are invading my privacy; please stop now."
In fact, I had invaded her right to privacy and to express herself freely, and she taught me an important lesson.
Some people try to write daily in their diaries and set aside a specific time each day to do so, but many of you may choose, like Anne Frank, to write when you have time, or set aside a special day each week, or write after special events or when you feel like getting things off your chest.
You may want to make your diary a memory book by putting in special photos, poems, drawings, cards or other mementos. Some educators believe that taking the time to write with a pen or pencil is an important part of thinking through ideas and exploring who you are.
Rewriting and revising: It was illegal in Nazi-occupied Holland, but residents of the Secret Annex listened to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) to find out about what was going on during World War II. One evening Anne heard Dutch minister-in-exile Frits Bolkestein encourage people to keep memoirs and records of their experiences so they could be published after the war. Anne began rewriting her diary entries and editing them with the thought of someday getting them published. She used loose sheets of paper to rewrite her diary, changing and combining entries, rearranging sections, adding on to discussions and using other editing/rewriting techniques.
Next: Samples of Anne Frank's original and revised work.
Dr. Joyce Apsel is director of education at the Anne Frank Center USA in New York. Please address questions or comments about this series to: Floridian, Anne Frank and Human Rights, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail Floridian@sptimes.com.
"Anne Frank: A History for Today," an international touring exhibit, opens in January at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, 55 Fifth St. S. The exhibit, which traces Anne Frank's life and times through family photographs and diary passages as well as examines prejudice and violence today, is made available through the Anne Frank Center USA.
1. Remember to write in your diary/journal at least three to four times each week.
The following questions are from Reader's Companion to The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank, The Definitive Edition, Doubleday 1995:
2. Using the article on Anne Frank on this page and other research, discuss this question: What were the ways residents of the annex got information about the outside world? How did their sources of information reflect their view of events?
3. Using research from the library and/or the Internet, compare Anne's description of an event during World War II with an "outside" (newspaper, history book) description.
-- Lee Ann Yeager, St. Petersburg Times Newspaper In Education manager | <urn:uuid:e066c6cc-0146-4f08-a71d-407dbf74175b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sptimes.com/News/110899/news_pf/NIE/Recording_your_privat.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971497 | 1,116 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The United States and other Western governments must accept the new reality that Islamists have emerged to fill the power vacuum in the Arab world after a wave of popular uprisings, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report Sunday.
The New York-based group also urged Islamist parties, which have emerged as the biggest winners in recent elections in Tunisia and Egypt and are expected to fare well in Libya, to respect the rights of women and religious minorities, saying they cannot "pick and choose" when it comes to human rights. [Ed: delusional? You make the call.]
...Since the collapse of the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia a year ago, Islamist groups once largely confined to the political sidelines, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, have formed parties and contested parliamentary polls, winning the greatest share of seats.
As background, about half of all Egyptians are "functionally illiterate"; 90% of adult women have undergone ritual, genital mutilation; and nearly a third of Egyptians marry their first or second cousins. And nearly half of Egypt's citizens live on subsistence rations, earning less than $2 a day, much of which must be spent on food.
With that as context, Spengler's "Failed treasury auction portends Egyptian disaster" in Asia Times is unsettling, to say the least.
Investors bought less an a third of the 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds (US$580 million) worth of Treasury bills offered to the market on January 22, a red flag warning that Egypt's foreign exchange position is close to the brink.
Yields on Egyptian government debt maturing in nine months jumped to nearly 16%, but the government could not place its local-currency debt to Egyptian investors, even at that exorbitant rate.
This is a new and ominous decline in the financial position of the most populous Arab country. I have been warning since last May that "Egypt is running out of food, and, more gradually, running out of the money with which to buy it." How fast this may occur is hard to specify, but the government's inability to borrow on money markets suggests that the crunch is not far off.
Why are investors fleeing?
After Islamist parties won more three-quarters of the seats in recent parliamentary elections - 47% for the Muslim Brotherhood and 25% for the even more extreme al-Nour Party - the business elite that prospered under military rule is counting the days before exile...
...Egypt's middle class will leave and tourism, down by a third over the past year, will virtually disappear in response to Salafist restrictions. The Barack Obama administration in Washington will try to appease the new Islamist government whenever it takes power, but will succeed no better than the Jimmy Carter administration did when the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979.
Spengler concludes with an ominous prediction: "Millions of Egyptians will die before this is through."
Should such a disaster come to pass, much of the blame will rightly fall on Barack Obama, who sold out a long-time U.S. ally in pursuit of heaven knows what.
Hat tip: Winterspirit. | <urn:uuid:c9a8279c-ce9d-471c-9a95-d1f05e206d6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/01/dual-disasters-boil-over-in-egypt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960486 | 644 | 1.914063 | 2 |
The Gulf Cooperation Council will fold the military of its member states under a single command structure, Bahrain's foreign minister announced Tuesday, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.
The announcement came at the end of a GCC summit at a time of heightened tensions with Iran.
Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Khalifa told reporters in the capital city of Manama that the council's command would bring together "the Peninsula Shield Forces as well as the air and naval forces" of member states in the oil-rich region, BNA reported.
"It is an entity that will bring all efforts together under one umbrella," he said.
Three representatives of each of the six GCC member states have been working on a team since last year to map out the command structure, which Al-Kalifa said was in a preliminary stage.
The GCC, which comprises Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, encourages cooperation among members in a number of areas, including economy and security.
Al-Khalifa said Bahrain has had neighborly relations with Iran, but added that "certain differences" were noted in the GCC Summit's concluding communique.
That communique "underscored Iran's right to peaceful use of nuclear power while stressing the need for safe nuclear plants which could pose a danger even in time of peace," BNA said.
Iran insists that its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes; a number of other countries, including the United States, have said they suspect Tehran seeks to build nuclear weapons.
Al-Khalifa added, "the GCC countries are keen to have sound relations with Iran."
The underlying concern is that Iran could meddle in Bahrain's internal affairs. Iran is an overwhelmingly Shiite state; Bahrain has a Shiite majority population, but its rulers are Sunni.
In March 2011, the GCC sent forces to Bahrain to help the government put down a Shiite Muslim uprising. | <urn:uuid:eb2925f7-53bf-45cf-81d1-f8b9d3fd0e87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news4jax.com/news/GCC-to-bring-together-members-militaries/-/475880/17896476/-/we0wq9/-/index.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 | 0.968255 | 392 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I have completed a small Pong project, I am quite happy with it and am looking towards the community now that I am at a point to share it. At some points it got me down, as this was my first outing with SFML and there are some aspects that I definitely need to understand better (such as the ordering of event queues and key-presses), but I am happy that i persevered.
I wasn't sure where to put this, it is kind of an announcement, but I am also looking for a code critique and some feedback. Basically, I have gone back to basics and am trying to code a game as quickly as possible, with as few mistakes as possible, but they definitely exists. Currently I am aware that the Paddle and Ball classes share some methods, and this will lead me to developing an inheritance structure, this is one of the known issues and an example of what I am aware of in my code.
I am trying to find as many shortfalls and understand why some concepts shine, through the experience of not using them.
A few things I am aware of:
- Hard-coded values,
- Movement that jutters at times.
- Over-diluted with methods that could be combined.
- Unclear comments in some places.
- A few methods that are not used or have no body.
I appreciate any feedback on my code and the application itself, and look forward to your comments. Below you will find two rar files attached, one with the exe and one with the Header/CPP files.
Edited by stitchs, 02 December 2012 - 05:19 PM. | <urn:uuid:a51d603f-326a-4e8f-8f2e-951b0b968995> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamedev.net/topic/635214-pong-project-near-completion-looking-for-critique/ | 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 | 0.979038 | 340 | 1.5 | 2 |
A Canadian beef processing company proposes to build a meat repackaging plant in Lower Macungie Township that eventually would employ up to 400 people.
The township's Planning Commission got its first look at plans for the 115,000-square-foot structure Tuesday. The plant would be built on 14 acres along Industrial Park Way in Lehigh Valley South Industrial Park, which is northeast of Alburtis.
The plant would be operated by Better Beef Limited, of Guelph, Ontario. Better Beef calls itself one of the largest beef processing companies in Canada.
The Lower Macungie operation would be a combination warehouse, distribution and repackaging plant.
No slaughtering will be done in the plant, said company spokesman John Lambe.
He said vacuum-packed boxes of beef and pork will arrive by tractor-trailer. The meat will be repackaged into consumer-size portions of steaks, ground beef and other products that will be distributed directly to supermarkets and other warehouses.
Lambe said little meat waste will be produced at the plant because trimmings will become ground beef.
Lambe hopes construction will begin by early spring and the plant will be operating before the end of this year.
He told planners it initially will have 100 employees but eventually would grow to 400 people working two shifts.
The plant has enough land for expansion, said township zoning officer James Lancsek.
Lambe said the company is relocating a plant in New Jersey. Because only its 25-member management staff is expected to come to Lower Macungie, the plant's opening will produce local jobs.
When the proposal comes back to the Planning Commission for final recommended approval, said Lancsek, information must be included regarding the amount of traffic the plant will generate.
He recommended truck traffic leaving the plant should be required to take Schoeneck Road south to Alburtis Road, rather than go north on Schoeneck to Route 100.
The proposal will require a zoning exception because the township's law does not specifically address meat repackaging. The Planning Commission voted to recommend the Zoning Hearing Board grant that exception.
Donald Miles, the commission's solicitor, said township law does not allow processing of meat and fish. He added what is being proposed "sounds like a form of distribution. They're not really processing the meat, because butchering is not involved."
Lancsek said he was taking a conservative approach to the issue, noting "cutting of steaks is a form of butchering." | <urn:uuid:132aa300-9853-488e-9515-492b551731cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.mcall.com/2005-01-12/news/3594424_1_ground-beef-beef-processing-plant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954558 | 520 | 1.835938 | 2 |
On Monday Bill Gates signed a deal with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo that binds Microsoft to several government schemes to get the country's people online and trained. The initiatives in the agreement include:
- 6000 teachers from 500 schools that teach 200,000 people will get computer training.
- A government intranet to improve interdepartmental communication and a Web portal to increase public access to government information and services will be designed and built.
- Three Microsoft training centers will be put in place to disseminate MS software skills.
Microsoft will also donate an undisclosed sum of money as well as software and services to help these initiatives. Peru is not bound to do anything in return.
The agreement comes at a time when several bills are being looked at by the Peruvian Congress that propose the use of Open Source software wherever possible to save money. In a bid to counter the Open Source bills, Microsoft has also announced that it will make the source code for Windows available (with restrictions to protect intellectual property) to universities in Peru for research and educational purposes.
The deal mirrors a similar agreement struck between Microsoft and Mexico to get that country's population online by 2006. It is unclear how the agreement with Microsoft will be affected if Peru's Open Source bills make it through Congress.
Read more at InfoWorld.
From Microsoft's point of view this could be the only logical thing to do. In countries where Open Source is being touted, free training and software now ensure Microsoft's continued presence in the IT industry for the future. As the agreement states, Microsoft will train professionals how to use its software, and when it comes to choosing which products to buy it is more likely companies will pick software that their staff have experience with.
There is a problem for Microsoft, however, that could happen in the future. Currently I believe it only has this agreement with Mexico and Peru, but I am sure it will expand this if similar things happen in other countries. What then happens if the U.S. Government starts considering Open Source software? Would Microsoft offer the same agreement? And if it doesn't, won't the government ask why, seeing as MS has done it for other countries?
By starting these agreements Microsoft may be shooting itself in the foot. Sure, it's ensuring its future in that country (at a substantial cost), but other countries may look to try and get Microsoft to offer them the same deal. If MS agrees it will cost it more money and resources; if it doesn't agree that could bolster the push for Open Source in that region.
USER COMMENTS 30 comment(s)
|Peruvian perusal (10:07am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
Peru were considering other options. Bill writes a cheque to the Peruvian president for $550k. Peru adopts MS. No link. Just news. - by English Guy
|im sure… (10:09am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
that meeting top forgien goverment officials dosent do anything to boot up his (gates) already too large ego… its gotta make him feel like a presedent or a king or something. - by next362″
|correction… (10:10am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
boost. - by nextone”
|Just threaten to go open source and get money from MS (10:25am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
Here is the link:
Peru mulls Free Software, Gates gives $550k to Peru Prez
- by get money 4 nothing
|Peruvia (10:27am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
I can't find Peruvia on my map. Also missing in Norwegia. Wherelse would Peruvians and Norwegians come from? - by Clueless
|The U.S. Government is considering Open Source software. (10:29am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
“What then happens if the U.S. Government starts considering Open Source software? Would Microsoft offer the same agreement? And if it doesn't, won't the government ask why, seeing as MS has done it for other countries? “
Microsoft lobbied the pentagon to ban open source software for security reasons. The department of defense did a study on open source software and found it was more reliable, cheaper and more secure and the use of open source should be encouraged. Oooops on Microsoft part.
Many goverment departments are running open source, such as NASA, Department of Energy, Supercomputer Research Centers, the White House, the Postal Department, etc.
|oi (10:39am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
yah…thats great. give money to countries to get them online, chop down all there forests, and than use them as extremley cheap labour when they all are starving. - by pissed off
|Norway also says No Way to Microsoft (10:40am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
“But federal agencies in such places as France, Germany, China, and the United States have adopted Linux for servers, mainly because it's cheaper and touted by many as more stable and less susceptible to viruses and hacker attacks.”
Norway Says No Way to Microsoft
|i want some (11:03am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
i have been using free software since the days of the C-64.
my pc is full of free software, like windows xp, office xp etc.
if bill gives me $550,000 i promise i will purchase his software. - by capt cdr
|Peruvian Flake (11:36am EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
Peruvian Flake!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! - by ZiggyNoseDust
|pissed off (12:03pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
yea well no one listens to stinky 'lil commie reds anyways. - by Senator McCarthy
|Dumb Mac User (12:37pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
Why doesn't MS make an open source type thang?
- by spacca
|capt cdr (12:49pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
“my pc is full of free software, like windows xp, office xp etc.”
All Your IPs are belonging to me. - by Be Prepared
|Well.. (12:56pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
…I think it's a great idea for Peru to be getting on-line, even if the Prez is enjoying a much fatter wallet courtesy of Bill. I know a couple of people who would like to do more research on the archaeology of the Andes that this would make a bit easier.
But the real Shocka is MS wanting to release the source code–I thought that was the gold ham of MS's gravy train. Do they really expect it to stay put at a university of all places?
It's a sign MS is either getting desperate, or the source code isn't the Holy Grail it's been made out to be. (But it would come in handy at the next anti-trust trial.) - by Ziwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwi
|kickbacks, kickbacks, and kickbacks! (1:20pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
This is how to get a politician to adopt your wares. You just pay them. - by the wayside
|Hrrmm… (1:22pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
So, Gates purchased himself a small country eh? - by InfiniteLoop
|Re: Ziwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwi (1:23pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
That is old news about shared Microsoft code.
Microsoft expands shared source open code program
I have not experienced any benefits from the shared source because of the restrictions placed on.
I still have new and old hardware devices that used to work on Windows 98 but does not work on Windows XP. It works fine on Linux. - by MS sharing? Joke!!!
|It won't happen. (1:48pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
The only thing that will happen it M$ opens it's source is a ton of law suits due to stolen code. - by tech
|Be Prepared (3:02pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
maby i buy it maby i dont, hope to see you kicking in my door soon )
i loves da lawsuits - by capt cdr
|re: MS Sharing (3:38pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
True, but I thought that was for system integrators, not the education world. I imagine MS would have come hefty limitations on it, but never underestimate the ability of a college student to finagle around something. - by Ziwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwi
|Peru (3:43pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
would this help their coffee beans? - by Juan Valdez
|Hah! (4:46pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
If this isn't a deal with the devil… - by Beelze Bub
|Re: Ziwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwiwi (6:54pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
“More than one million lines of source code for .Net will be made available under Microsoft's previously announced “Shared Source” licensing program to academic researchers in university computer-science departments. Shared source is Microsoft's response to the
open-source software movement and the growing popularity of the Linux operating system. Open-source software such as Linux typically is developed by programmers collaborating and freely sharing code updates.”
Microsoft opens .Net code to academics
But then again what good is shared Microsoft code when you can't modify, can't get credit for it. - by MS sharing? Joke!!!
|Hey Microsoft (7:33pm EST Wed Jul 17 2002)
I smell panic.
I wonder if they have enough money to buy out the world??
- by Rax
|microsoft saviours (1:12am EST Thu Jul 18 2002)
microsoft once again proves that they are the best company in the world. maybe they should run our government. the US bring war to other countries, that never accomplish anything. microsoft bring education and free computers, training one country at a time, advancing the human species. wonder why so many people hate them - by brad
|I am From PERU (4:17am EST Thu Jul 18 2002)
Really, I don't like it the idea, here we do not have money to pay what they ask for they products, are too expensive, the people die in the streets, … but the few computer that we have have a lot of free software (cracked), most of us do not pay for that, but when you are caught they (M$) almost want to kill you …People here use the computer for typing or for teaching, but our problems are more than getting money to pay for an expensive products … but they might have an scale based in how much the people get … the average salary is US120 Month !!! , HOW THEY EXPECT THAT WE PAY FOR THEIR PRODUCTS … NOT EAT, NOT WEAR CLOTHES …. HOW??? … IT'S AWFULL … BYE … … LINUX rules .. OPEN SOURCE rules - by Sad Peruvian
|Re: brad: yeh right (9:56am EST Thu Jul 18 2002)
“microsoft bring education and free computers”
Portland schools are running linux because the Microsoft solution was twice as expensive. Try and donate a computer and Microsoft will go down on the donator for not having legal Microsoft software (you don't actually own the software when you donate the computer and software). - by get real
|Next a pointy hat for Bill (1:02pm EST Thu Jul 18 2002)
Perhaps some of you saw the joke about M$ buying the Vatican a few years ago.
It may be closer than you think.
Will God share the source code with us all in a divine vision?
But then maybe Bill found the Windows source code on an alien spacecraft.
- by X file
|Yeah.. (10:04pm EST Thu Jul 18 2002)
I'll go down on anybody. - by Gates
|Free speech, not free beer (3:42am EST Fri Jul 19 2002)
Matthew wrote: “The agreement comes at a time when several bills are being looked at by the Peruvian Congress that propose the use of Open Source software wherever possible to save money.”
This is completely false. Congressman Villanueva stressed to Microsoft that the principles that gave rise to his bill and others were: (1) free access to public information by citizens, (2) permanence of public data, and (3) security of the state and its citizens. He made it very clear in his letter that what the his bill demands is not Open Source (which can still be proprietary even when the source is provided), but capital-F *Free Software*.
Bill 1609 demands that the State use codebase that's open to *every* citizen for public inspection, not just to personnel of the supplier's discretion. It demands that public data be encoded in non-proprietary formats.
Microsoft's recent largess fails to meet these criteria: they still control what and how much the public sees of the source code, and they still retain monopoly privilege over it.
In buying off the President, Microsoft has temporarily averted a public relations disaster. But the genie is officially out of the bottle: GNU/Linux is too big in the server space and too many governments are entertaining defection for Microsoft to keep throwing money around.
MS is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. - by Fatal Exception | <urn:uuid:6dcb1f9f-c9bc-42ea-80dc-9b9f86bc0423> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geek.com/news/microsoft-signs-it-deal-with-peruvian-government-549071/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949676 | 2,867 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Released: November 5, 2012
Record Shares of Young Adults Have Finished Both High School and College
Section 4: Attainment of Some College Education
Finally, there has been a recent surge in the share of young adults who have completed at least some college education. In 2012 a record 63% of adults ages 25 to 29 have finished at least some college. As recently as 2008, fewer than 60% of young adults had been to college. In 1971 a little more than a third of young adults had some college education. Since a record 42% share of 18- to 24-year-olds was enrolled in college in 2011 (Fry and Lopez, 2012), one might expect that the attainment of at least some college education will continue to rise over the near term.
Record levels of attainment of at least some college education are being driven by:
- In 2012 58% of men ages 25 to 29 had completed at least some college, up from the prior record level of 57% in 2011.
- In 2012 record shares of black and Hispanic adults ages 25 to 29 had completed at least some college education. Among young blacks 59% had at least completed some college education, up substantially from the prior record level (55%) observed in 2010 and 2011. For the first time in 2012 more than 40% of young Hispanics have completed at least some college education.
- Completion of some college education among young immigrant adults reached its highest level on record in 2012 (47%). | <urn:uuid:da05c9a6-f03e-4a67-aa36-ecf0056ee345> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/11/05/record-shares-of-young-adults-have-finished-both-high-school-and-college/5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983979 | 298 | 2.46875 | 2 |
CHINA, EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WORLD
Report from the Stockholm China Forum
By Shelly Han, Policy Advisor
On December 5 and 6, 2008, Commission staff participated in the Stockholm China Forum in Stockholm, Sweden. This biannual meeting aims to establish a systematic transatlantic dialogue about China and the impact of its rise on the transatlantic alliance. Attendees include government officials, policymakers, academics, journalists, and businesspeople from Europe, China and the United States. The Forum is organized by the German Marshall Fund, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education.
Through a series of panel discussions the participants focused on the following issues:
• What a new U.S. Administration will mean for U.S.-China relations;
• The current state of EU-China relations;
• China’s role in the global financial crisis; and
• China’s relationship with Russia.
The backdrop for the Forum was the severe financial crisis impacting all of the major economies. While significant focus is on actions taken by the United States to correct the market slide, it is clear that China is a lynchpin in any solution as well. China is facing significant job losses (some estimate 12-16 million potential unemployed workers over the next 12 months) as their export-led economy slows significantly. And even as China announces a $600 billion stimulus package, it is an open question whether other badly needed reforms will be made in the Chinese economy that will allow the economy to pull through.
The Chinese Government’s worry extends beyond the economy. Labor protests appear to be at an all-time high and are expected to increase as more workers are laid-off. Added to that are the difficult social and political pressures that arise from the 226 million migrant laborers concentrated in the city and industrial centers of China.
The Forum kicked-off with discussion of the big question on everyone’s mind: How might the incoming Obama Administration change current U.S. policy toward China? There was significant consensus that despite the policy failings of the Bush Administration in Europe and other regions, the one foreign policy bright spot has been the U.S.-China relationship. Given that, it was suggested that there would no sharp breaks in U.S. policy toward China under President Obama. However, three general areas were identified where the Obama Administration was expected to change U.S. behavior that would, in turn, continue to strengthen the overall U.S.-China relationship: (1) the United States will be more consultative and less unilateral; (2) the U.S. will be more engaged in regional concerns; and (3) Obama will terminate practices that have harmed U.S. soft power (Guantanamo detentions, renditions, obstruction of climate change negotiations, etc.)
Participants discussed the reasons behind the poor EU-China relationship, which stands out in sharp contrast to the U.S.-China relationship. The EU-China relationship hit a new low just a few days before the Forum when China cancelled participation in the EU-China Summit in France because French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to meet with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader. It was noted that bilateral relationships with the major EU Member States (excluding France) are generally better than interaction with the EU. This led one analyst to state that in its interactions with China, the EU was in danger of becoming “less than the sum of its parts” in almost every aspect of concern to the EU Member States.
The question of whether Russia and China might band together to create a new axis of power was deemed unlikely. Despite China and Russia’s creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, analysts see too many points of competition and too few opportunities for cooperation in the relationship to create a true partnership. In fact, some analysts suggested that Russia may be reaching out to the European Union as an ally against what the Russian Government sees as a future world stage dominated by the U.S. and China.
It is clear that despite its status as a major player in the world economy and the world’s largest carbon emitter, China is not ready to play a leadership role in climate change negotiations. This is partly because China feels it cannot afford to green their economy in the middle of a financial crisis, and also due to the lack of maturity in China’s political system. One analyst noted that China actually has an edge on the U.S. and other Western countries in some environmental technologies and therefore the West should not focus so much attention on tech transfer ideas when discussing climate change remediation, but instead help China find the economic means to implement these technologies.
Despite China’s lack of leadership, many of the analysts concluded that China has matured on the world stage and become more sophisticated in its dealings with the West. While it still loudly espouses its key foreign policy tenet of non-interference in internal affairs of other countries, it has stopped using inflammatory terms such as “hegemony” to describe U.S. foreign policy and has sought to work closely with the United States to solve the financial crisis. This is only one step in the right direction, however, and it was noted that many extremely sensitive issues such as treatment of the Tibetans, the status of Taiwan and China’s own political and economic situation could overturn whatever progress has been made. | <urn:uuid:8630de22-80a8-425c-ba4a-57afa12d20b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=456&ContentType=G&ContentRecordType=G&UserGroup_id=49®ion_id=49&year=0&month=0&Subaction=PressReleases&CFID=9242208&CFTOKEN=60601046 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956484 | 1,114 | 1.875 | 2 |
In an unusual confluence of influence, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald both gave positive reviews to Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Django Unchained.
From James Verniere’s Herald review:
Director charges into American slavery tale with guns blazing
You’ve seen “Lincoln.” Now, see the low low-down on slavery in America.
Brought to us by the much imitated, uniquely gifted and never surpassed Quentin Taran tino, the ultra-violent “Django Unchained” gives us a glimpse of a barbaric episode in American history through the twisted lenses of Tarantino and the Euro-spawned, Asian-influenced 1960s-’70s hybrid the spaghetti Western.
In addition to a terrific and fearless Jamie Foxx in the title role, a freed slave turned gunman named Django (“The d is silent”), the film has great Austrian actor Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”) in fine fettle as Dr. King Schultz, a silver-tongued German immigrant and dentist along with his horse Fritz, whom he introduces to strangers. Dr. Schultz traverses the frontier in 1858 in a small coach with a giant tooth on its roof. The truth is Schultz is a gun-slinging bounty hunter, complete with a spring-loaded derringer up his sleeve. Schultz brings in fugitives from justice dead or alive, preferably dead.
Equally enthusiastic was Globe film critic Wesley Morris:
In “Django Unchained,” Jamie Foxx plays Django, a black slave purchased for about a hundred dollars and freed by a German dentist and bounty hunter named Schultz (Christoph Waltz). A straightforward treatment might have involved having the slave run away north. But the movie Quentin Tarantino has written and directed is corkscrewed, inside-out, upside-down, simultaneously clear-eyed and completely out of its mind.
Django is married. He and his wife (Kerry Washington) were savagely lacerated and separately sold. He’s not free until she is. So he works as the bounty hunter’s sidekick, with the bounty hunter agreeing to help him find the wife and rescue her from a Mississippi plantation.
Set in 1853, this isn’t a runaway narrative. It’s a run-toward narrative, rigged for shock. Each scene lays a stick of dynamite and lights a fuse that runs down and down and down until the whole thing blows up like the Fourth of July. I’ve never seen anything like this movie, not in one 165-minute sitting, not from a single director, not made with this much conscientious bravado and unrelenting tastelessness — this much exclamatory kitsch — on a subject as loaded, gruesome, and dishonorable as American slavery.
But it was only Morris’s review that got whacked on Mediaite:
In his official review of Quentin Tarantino‘s box office smash Django Unchained, Boston Globefilm critic Wesley Morris likens the movie’s villainous “house Negro” to black Republicans like Justice Clarence Thomas or former RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
The positive review largely took note of the film’s successful twisting of the Spaghetti Western genre to fit a Civil War rebellion story, with special praise for Tarantino’s script and the actors who filled the screen.
But upon praising Samuel L. Jackson for his portrayal of Stephen, the head servant at the villainous Candie family mansion, Morris invoked the names of modern black Republicans whom he believes Jackson channeled in his “black self-loathing” performance . . .
Discuss among your self-loathing selves . . . | <urn:uuid:87f5c98d-dace-43b2-abf7-a010abf03d3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itsgoodtoliveinatwodailytown.com/2013/01/01/boston-globe-film-critic-wesley-morris-djangoed-by-mediaite/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936023 | 792 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Carved Ivory Brush Holder (a) depicts: Man with long flowing hair is a god crossing a river by standing on leaves; Seated man with bamboo fishing pole and line in hands is prime minister of Chou dynasty. One interpretation: He fishes with straight hook to show that with patience and determination fish can be caught, even in this way. Another version: Purpose not to catch fish, but to play with them. When a fish bites the line, it will not be hurt. It is only responding to fisherman's request; Man herding sheep is Suu, a beloved figure in Chinese history, who was a general conquered by the Mongols and held captive 18 years but never surrendered. In captivity, he became a hero even to his enemy; Lao Tzu with the book "I Ching"; Man with brush holder (hands holding top and bottom)thought possibly to have invented the Chinese brush. Man with fan. One source thought him possibly Hung Ming, a talented commander shown not fighting but thinking. Man wearing robe of leaves with stick in hand and face tilted upward. Inventor of clothing or dress. A man holding a peach in upstretched arms, not yet identified. Small figures, possibly apprentice who carry books for their masters. One figure standing between god crossing river and seated fisherman not yet identified. Brush Holder attached to wooden base. | <urn:uuid:2c5ce587-de0b-43bd-ab27-e22de4939bc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://contentdm.unl.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/museumspec/id/427/rec/26 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96628 | 273 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Sunday, June 20, 2010
If these walls could speak, what would they say?
They would say, ‘We see King Henry, still fit and dashing, ride up on his fine horse, all arrogance and certainty. We hear the crunch of the stones, the flash of an emerald ring, and the young Princess Elizabeth escaping her keepers as she runs towards her father. We hear the tears of Mary, already sad and angry, as she watches everything from the balcony above. And we see the King look up, catch Mary’s eye and bow ironically before grabbing her red-haired little stepsister and throwing her, giggling, into the soft sky.
These walls felt the glory of the Tudor age, the fearfulness of Henry VIII, and the dreadful, life-long anguish of Mary who lost her mother, her father and her place in the world. But best of all they knew Elizabeth who grew up here – a child of hope and destiny, who also lost her mother but who, in the gardens around these walls, received the message that she was to be queen.
There is a whole world contained within the bricks of the old palace at Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire, England. I have leaned against the ancient stone, seen the facsimiles of the letters Elizabeth wrote from this then country house, and even the pair of silk stockings she wore, still virtually intact. And when I turn a corner in the gardens I imagine her and the large-brimmed hat she wore as she strolled outside. How do I know about the hat? Because I’ve seen it.
At Hatfield, past and present merge in the most vivid of settings, and the dramas that played out here are replayed in one’s imagination with only the tiniest of nudges.
If the walls in YOUR story could speak, what would they say? How strongly and effectively does your setting carry and enhance the action that plays out against its backdrop?
In our series on Writing the Breakout Novel we have so far looked at four aspects of a great work of fiction: An inspired concept; larger-than-life characters; a high-stakes story and a deeply felt theme. Today it’s Part 5 – A Vivid Setting.
Not every story can – or should - be set around a palace or some other location of supreme geographical or historical significance. But every story does need a setting that is imbued with emotion and such a strong sense of place that your setting really becomes a character in its own right.
Did you catch that?
A vivid setting is one that is IMBUED WITH EMOTION AND SUCH A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE THAT YOUR SETTING BECOMES A CHARACTER IN ITS OWN RIGHT.
Have you ever thought about Place like this?
Think about Harper Lee’s depiction of rural Alabama in TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD. Or the town of Naomi, Florida, where India Opal Buloni first meetsWinn-Dixie in Kate DiCamillo’s famous novel. Then leap forward a little and consider how Philip Pullman uses the town of Oxford in THE GOLDEN COMPASS (NORTHERN LIGHTS in the UK), or how Carl Hiaasen brings the ecology of Florida to life in his children’s novels. Can you imagine any of these with DIFFERENT settings? How could you possibly separate story from setting in any of these works?
This integral, captivating use of Place can be spotted in MANY Greenhouse novels too. Think how Sarwat Chadda’s London, its topography and history, are the catalyst for the action in DEVIL’S KISS, and how Sarwat’s first-hand knowledge of Russia transforms his second book, DARK GODDESS (publishing July in the UK and January in the US). Jon Mayhew’s MORTLOCK also brings London to life – albeit the grim, dark London of the Victorian period.
Or what about how the sumptuous beauty of the Dutch Antilles conceals a wholly unexpected ugliness in Val Patterson’s THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE? And just wait till Tricia Springstubb’s WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET is available (Sept 1, US only) – the sense of place in THAT beautiful novel is extraordinary, despite the fact that most of the action happens in just one street.
And this brings me to one of my favourite big quotes! Are you ready?
STORY IS CREATED BY THE REVELATION OF THE INTERNAL AND THE EXTERNAL.
STORY IS CREATED BY THE REVELATION OF THE INTERNAL AND THE EXTERNAL.
Sorry, but it’s so darn good I just had to say it again.
Hatfield House. A world of human dramas haunts those walls; I feel them, I live them as I draw close and enter its grip.
As I enter your novel what will its setting tell me? Can you imbue it with emotion? Can you make me feel like I am walking its streets and breathing its air? If you can, you are for sure one step closer to writing a great – a really great – novel.
Happy writing, everyone!
Friday, June 04, 2010
Another very hectic week, and I’m writing this semi-packed for a late-afternoon flight to London. Yes, I really am leaving in just over three hours . . .
Our great news of the week, which you may already have spotted, was the fabulous deal for Megan Miranda’s debut YA novel FRACTURE, which sold during BEA in a joint transatlantic 2-book preempt to Emily Easton at Walker USA and Sarah Odedina at Bloomsbury UK (Walker US is owned by Bloomsbury, so this was a real corporate offer). All very exciting because these kinds of deals – for both sides of the Pond simultaneously – don’t happen too often. Plus a lot of toing and froing was going on by Blackberry while I was in New York for the Expo. And it was all sealed with a big hug between Emily and I in her office in Macmillan’s Flatiron Building at Broadway/23rd Street. (In case you’re wondering, Macmillan distribute for Bloomsbury, thus the location.)
FRACTURE is about Delaney Maxwell, who falls through the ice into a Maine lake. Death should happen almost instantly in this kind of cold, but when Delaney is pulled out by her friend Decker – after eleven seconds – she is somehow still living. And when she surfaces from her coma, she is well enough to look at the scans of her own traumatic brain injury. Something very strange is going on – just how did Delaney cheat death? And why does she feel a physical connection to the dying?
It’s a brilliant and chilling story – intelligent and crafted, supernatural yet very original, and we welcome Megan to the growing Greenhouse ranks of debut writers who are setting out on a whole new adventure. Sadly, you’ll have to wait till Winter 2012 for FRACTURE to publish, but no doubt we’ll have an ARC or two to give away much nearer the time.
So, continuing our series on the Breakout Novel. Sadly, a slighter shorter post this time (due to the whole imminent-and-not-ready flight thing), but nonetheless a very important topic for any new writer who wants to make their debut stand out.
A DEEPLY FELT THEME.
As someone once said (no idea whom – if you happen to know, please tell me!), ‘The best books teach us more about ourselves than about the characters.’
THE BEST BOOKS TEACH US MORE ABOUT OURSELVES THAN ABOUT THE CHARACTERS.
This one is worth capitalizing because it’s a wonderful line, and oh so true. Just think of all the books you love most. Which ones stay in your head and won’t let you go? I’m betting it’s the ones that moved you, spoke to you – and made you understand something new about yourself or your world as you read.
Please note that I do not mean you should PREACH or MORALIZE or ‘TEACH LIFE LESSONS’ in your novel. This is fiction, not an outworking of your secret agenda to do good to children the world over. And I must confess to a strong aversion to moralizing by stealth.
I am also not suggesting that you over-write, piling up adjectives, adverbs and metaphors in an effort to create an overlay of emotion. (I see a lot of this in my submissions inbox among new writers who are understandably trying so very hard to be ‘powerful’.)
Rather, I’m saying that there needs to be something DEEPLY FELT in your story that will stay with your reader after the last page is turned. Something that gives us a newly perceived truth about what it means to be human.
A NEWLY PERCEIVED TRUTH ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN.
Great, intelligent fiction, rooted in big ideas and strong themes, will also leave the reader with something to take away from the story that is implicit in its ideas and characters. And as always, I believe this is true in both ‘commercial’ and ‘literary’ work though in different ways and to different degrees perhaps.
This deeply felt theme needs to be built i to the story at planning stage at its deepest level and it should be something integral to your concept. What is YOUR theme and how will you get it across?
In FRACTURE, Delaney realizes that yes, life IS good and that it is love that overcomes fear and death.
In 13 REASONS WHY, Clay knows at the end that we all affect each other in ways we can’t always predict – and that ultimately there was nothing he could have done to stop Hannah taking her own life.
In PRINCESS FOR HIRE, Desi discovers the importance of speaking the truth – of being true to oneself.
In DEVIL’S KISS, Billi knows she must sacrifice her innermost wishes and desires for the good of the many and a destiny from which she cannot turn away.
In THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE, Cyan knows that there is hope – fragile but beautiful.
That’s a tiny snapshot of very different books – have a think about YOUR favourite works and see if you can sense that ‘deeply felt theme’ which illuminates the ending.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Find the heart. Be beautiful. Be unique. Linger with us.
I know you can do it.
Cheers from flying-away Sarah. Back in the hotseat on the 16th. | <urn:uuid:8d86a22a-e3bd-4a0c-a5b7-1d6d1e4ee69c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greenhouseliterary.com/index.php/blog/archives/2010/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954565 | 2,305 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Among Leopards and Princes
Everything in Palermo is slow except the traffic, which is as confusing as a video game and just as fast. But otherwise things pour as slowly as honey from a spoon. My bag was lost for twenty-four hours until a high official of the arts festival I was attending took the matter in hand; then it was found instantly. It had been at the airport all along. I won a nice little literary prize, the Premio Mondello, but I received it only after enduring a two-hour press conference in the morning and a three-hour ceremony in the afternoon, complete with local violinists sawing their way through a Baroque concerto in the beautiful convent cloisters of Palermo’s Galleria D’Arte Moderno. At one point, ten high school students got up to vote for another prize; each delivered a long-winded discorso, a sort of high-tone book report and a preparation for a lifetime of prolixity. That evening there was a banquet for thirty at which every other Sicilian man seemed to be a prince. They even address one another as “Principe,” which my Florentine date, Beatrice von Rezzori, told me was very “Southern.”
The next day yet another prince drove us to a strange hillside town, Salemi, which was almost entirely destroyed by the 1968 earthquake. Because things move slowly here, there are still bits of broken wall lying where they fell in the street. The cathedral has only one wall and a few columns still standing, though the nearby Piazza della Dittatura (where Garibaldi declared himself “dictator” of Italy) has been perfectly restored. One couldn’t say as much of the castle where Garibaldi for the first time flew the flag of Italy in 1860. The one place that was functioning perfectly was the new Museum of the Mafia where visitors stumble around in the dark before entering one booth after another, shutting the door and submitting to documentaries on how the Mafia has destroyed Sicily’s hospitals, how it replaced the beautiful old buildings of Palermo bombed out (by Americans) in World War II with ugly cement “projects.” How the Mafia is in cahoots with the local Catholic hierarchy. How various Mafia families are involved in perpetual vendettas from one generation to the next. The walls of the museum corridors are covered with hundreds of newspaper pages detailing Mafia murders back to the mid-nineteenth century; the sound track is of a typewriter clacking away.
A patron of the arts invited us to lunch at her country villa where she served wonderful little pasta rings (a local product) in a tomato and eggplant sauce and then slices of roast beef with potatoes, and finally six or seven different kinds of sherbet and ice cream, one lighter and more delicate than the next. Just when it seemed time for a siesta we were hurried off to a museum of bread! Yes, at Christmas time local peasant women fashion whole complicated scenes of a religious nature out of beautifully incised and toasted bread, all on display at this museum. Another man we met told us that he has a museum where living people stand about dressed as peasants of the nineteenth century practicing handicrafts.
Finally we were accompanied to the town of Gibellina, which was so badly destroyed in the 1968 earthquake that it was abandoned and paved over by the Italian artist Alberto Burri, who created a gigantic sculpture of flattened gray cement, on which some of the main streets are represented by deep incisions. It all looks like a giant launching pad stomped into a cow patty by a particularly violent space launch. Here we heard a very serious French cellist play a Kodály sonata. Then three other musicians from Paris performed an uncompromising string trio by Shostakovich. Finally we heard a violin and piano piece by Messaien, an homage to a bird or God or maybe both.
In the midst of the concert Vittorio Sgarbi, the mayor of Salemi—a television art critic, university professor (convicted of absenteeism), and newly appointed culture czar in Venice—arrived accompanied by police, read a poem or two by Juan Ramon Jimenez and chattered his way through the Shostakovich to his assistants when he wasn’t jabbering on the phone. He introduced a black call girl as “my official fiancée” to the tired smirks of his inner circle. When my date Beatrice said she had to leave by taxi to catch a plane for Florence, Vittorio told her she could be accompanied by his police escort and in that way skip the traffic lights and airport security. A long day came to an end at a nearby museum in an ancient granary; between the granary and the former farmhouse was a huge mountain of salt in which black statues of horses were foundering and sliding.
The next day another prince, the ever charming and causally elegant Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, who used to be the head of the Italian Cultural Institute at New York University, invited me to see Lampedusa’s library. Gioacchino met Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, when he was a teenager; eventually the old childless prince adopted him. The palace looks out on a terrace covered with flowers and shaded by palms that faces the port of Palermo. Inside there are vast reception rooms, lit by Venetian chandeliers; one room contains the astronomical library of the nineteenth century ancestor who was the model for The Leopard, Lampedusa’s classic novel, published in 1958, about the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy in the late nineteenth century. In another room are the books in several languages (mainly Italian, French and English) that Lampedusa read over and over again. “He didn’t have many books,” Gioacchino says. “Just six thousand, but he knew them well. A bit like Montaigne.”
Lampedusa was married to a Baltic baroness, Licy, who had her own castle, Stomersee, in Riga. The prince and the princess were seldom together in the 1930s, so they exchanged hundreds of letters, which Gioacchino is now slowly preparing for publication. They, too, are written in Italian, French and German and talk extensively about their real and mostly imaginary ills and their beloved dogs. The German and then the Russian invasions of Latvia forced her to move to Rome and then to Sicily, where she practiced psychoanalysis on the local gentry. She kept completely different hours from her husband, who was an early riser. Licy got up around eleven, then prepared herself for a long day of treating her patients.
At night she and the prince might go to the movies, or listen to Wagner records, or eat one of her strange meals. She missed her beloved herrings in cream so much that she soaked local dried herrings in milk for days on end until they started bubbling and kept her in a constant state of diarrhea. The prince fled to his favorite cafes where he could eat a decent meal and meet his young cultured friends and work, during the last three years of his life, on The Leopard. To the young men he gave talks on literature that were later published; he also published stories and books about Stendhal and French Renaissance literature. He had finally escaped the laziness of the South.
Unfortunately he did not live to see the book published, the sole important fruit of a lifetime of reading and talking. His palazzo is full of reminders of the book—a telescope on the terrace and paintings of his ancestors everywhere, including a group of family saints! Yes, several members of his family were saints or at least “blesseds,” including one unhealthy looking pious lady named Maria Crocifissa. Yet another reminder of the book is Gioacchino himself, who served as the model for the looks and the désinvolture of the dashing young hero Tancredi.
June 1, 2010, 1 p.m. | <urn:uuid:15a9fc97-5966-40e4-8fa3-5303604dae13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2010/jun/01/among-leopards-and-princes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97498 | 1,709 | 1.640625 | 2 |
We’ve all heard the phrase, “look within.”
It’s a phrase that has been used for thousands of years by various cultures. In Buddhism, one looks within to find vajra. In Sanskrit, this word means both a thunder bolt and a diamond. It is believed in the Buddhist culture that when one looks within through meditation and gains this vajra, they become indestructible. Tibetan Monks sometimes carry a symbolic object of this that represents the strength of a diamond that can pierce through anything.
Everyone has the capability to look within and gather this type of vajra strength from places they never thought humanly possible.
Gandhi said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” The greatest way to access this inner strength is through some sort of meditation practice. Gandhi gathered this strength while he was in jail. During this time, he read the Bhagavad Gita and did a tremendous amount of meditation.
Patañjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, said:
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a far greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
At times when you can’t explain why events are happening, I hope that you may find this vajra in your life.
An excerpt from a wonderful poem by Sandra Sturtz Hauss reads:
“May you find serenity and tranquility in a world you may not always understand. May the pain you have known and the conflict you have experienced give you the strength to walk through life facing each new situation with courage and optimism.”
We all doubt ourselves and strengths on a daily basis, but finding vajra through meditation can help you become a stronger person.
By looking within, you can access this vajra that can pierce through any of the life challenges that you may face.
Robert Piper is a meditation teacher, happiness enthusiast and creator of monkinthecity.com. He studied with a Taoist monk for nine and half years, and traveled extensively to Asia and Australia in search of other meditation teachers. He has spent nearly a decade researching, studying and collecting information on various meditation systems of Asia. Robert is currently in the process of writing a book on meditation to make the topic more accessible for stress relief, health, and happiness.
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Editor: Cassandra Smith | <urn:uuid:2cecadae-c125-45e5-8108-80db7797f374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/04/find-vajra-be-strong-robert-piper/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94593 | 565 | 2.234375 | 2 |
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Florida just might screw it up again
, with problems voting state-wide, with concentrations in the southern portion of the state. With the fame of the Reno vote, along with the controversial gay rights issue
on the ballot, can they afford to screw this up? And if they do, what next? More lawsuits?
posted by benjh
on Sep 10, 2002 -
Fla. OKs Election System Overhaul
"Florida's governor was eager to change the state's maligned election system after recounts delayed his brother's election for 36 days and left many Democrats believing Al Gore had won".
posted by matteo
on May 5, 2001 -
Poor user interface elects George W.
The second hole on the right does not correspond to the second candidate on the left (Gore), but rather to the first candidate on the right (Buchanan). While many people will notice this, many others, especially those with poor vision, will not. About 20% of Buchanan's votes in FL came from the county that used this ballot.
posted by tranquileye
on Nov 9, 2000 - | <urn:uuid:e002a85e-8e9d-47b6-a050-f29894409659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metafilter.com/tags/florida+vote | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948382 | 261 | 1.546875 | 2 |
NATURE OF WORK
This is advanced supervisory work with administrative responsibility in the operation of all digital computing and related peripheral equipment used in a major data processing installation.
Employees of this class plan, coordinate and direct all operations involving computers, direct access storage devices, channel switches and other magnetic media. Work involves responsibility for reviewing equipment and staff performance, all new applications and programs in order to project effects on operations for management evaluation. Additional responsibility includes consulting with the Operations Director and Unit Administrator to define scope and priorities of assignments, determining equipment requirements and allocating proper time for computer applications. Duties require the use of considerable independent judgment and discretion in establishing work standards and in interpreting management policies in terms of specific operating procedures for the division. Authority is exercised through subordinate supervisory staff by assignment of job priority and review of production for compliance with management control standards. General supervision is provided by the Unit Administrator of Operations who reviews work through conferences and written reports for achievement of purposes and goals of the Operations Section.
Supervises the installation and modification of the computer system; reviews equipment application and determines feasibility of utilization by the data processing division.
Assigns all operations staff to equipment units; evaluates section performance; recommends training; promotion and salary progression of supervisory staff.
Develops and implements operating schedules; provides for methods and performance standards; develops system for data control and coordination.
Controls integrity of all data files received, processed and produced by the operating section.
Provides for the maintenance of accurate records on equipment utilization, supplies and materials inventory, accounting control, and work production.
Prepares and distributes directives on operating standards and authorized procedures for data handling and control.
Evaluates equipment utilization statistics, schedules preventive maintenance, installation and removal of equipment.
Submits preliminary budget estimate for section, approves requests for supplies and materials, submits regular reports on operations section work flow.
Performs related work as required.
KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES, AND SKILLS
Extensive knowledge of the operating requirements of large computer installations used in a wide variety of applications.
Thorough knowledge of all types of peripheral equipment used in data processing operations.
Considerable knowledge of the operations techniques used in data processing production scheduling and in developing schedule review criteria.
Considerable knowledge of the various job applications electronically processed by the central data processing division.
Knowledge of the standard practices and procedures of modern office management.
Ability to organize equipment and staff, to analyze a variety of production requirements and to develop effective procedures.
Ability to plan, schedule and coordinate the work of subordinate supervisory staff in a manner conducive to full performance and high morale.
Ability to train and instruct supervisors in the proper methods and procedures to accomplish work.
Ability to initiate and install operating procedures and to evaluate their effectiveness.
Ability to express ideas clearly and concisely, orally and in writing.
Ability to serve the public and fellow employees with honesty and integrity in full accord with the letter and spirit of Broward County's Ethics and Conflict of Interest policies.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with the general public, co-workers, elected and appointed officials and members of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds regardless of race, religion, age, sex, disability or political affiliation.
DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING
Graduation from an accredited four year college or university with major course work in computer science or related field; six (6) years experience in the operations phase of a large data processing installation including four (4) experience in the supervisory aspects of the work; or any equivalent combination of training and experience.
Bargaining Unit: Unrepresented
FLSA Status: Exempt
Code of Ethics
Work Locations: Office of Information Technology
Class Spec Estab./Revised: E10/76 R12/06 | <urn:uuid:2c8f8975-ac3c-486f-960f-403a6da45a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://broward.org/HumanResources/Pages/ClassDescription.aspx?ClassCode=Y2211 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904178 | 783 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Revenue breakdown for IngersollRanRevenue is income that a firm generates from business activities such us rendering services or selling goods to customers. It is a crucial part of business and is important item when evaluating financial statements of a company. Revenues from a firm's main business operations can be reported on the income statement as sales revenue, net sales, or simply sales, depending on the industry in which given company operates.
Revenue is typically recorded when cash or cash equivalents are exchanged for services or goods and can includes product or services discounts, promotions, as well as early payments on invoices or services rendered in advance.
IngersollRan Revenue Assessment
Based on latest financial disclosure IngersollRand Plc reported 14.03 B of revenue. This is 130.83% higher than that of Industrial Goods sector, and 14.44% higher than that of Diversified Machinery industry, The Revenue for all stocks is 74.85% lower than the firm.
Filter other Stocks by Revenue
IngersollRand Plc is rated below average in revenue category among related companies. Market size based on revenue of Diversified Machinery industry is currently estimated at about 470.78 Billion. IngersollRan holds roughly 14.03 Billion in revenue claiming about 2.98% of equities under Diversified Machinery industry.
Follow IngersollRan Revenue with Macroaxis syndicated feed, custom widget, or your favorite custom stock ticker
Other IngersollRan Fundamentals | <urn:uuid:04fcaf0c-7238-4621-a6af-1702c6eea6ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/IR--Revenue | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933816 | 314 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Regardless of the form it takes, any suspicious spot on the lung should be diagnosed quickly and accurately so an appropriate treatment plan can be developed. Early diagnosis usually translates into early treatment, which leads to better patient outcomes. There are a number of tests that can be used to diagnose a suspicious spot or mass on the lung, and each test may be performed by a different member of our team of specialists, including a thoracic surgeon, a radiologist or a pulmonologist. The tests conducted depend on each patient’s individual circumstances.
The diagnostic tool used depends on several factors, including the location and size of the suspicious spot or mass, the patient’s overall health and personal preferences, among other things. We tailor the test to the patient, as the first step in our comprehensive, multidisciplinary care. Which doctor performs the tests depends on a number of factors, and each specialist can perform more than one type of test. Our team works together closely, even during the diagnostic phase, to deliver the best possible care.
Possible Diagnostic ToolsEach diagnostic approach has its advantages and disadvantages, and all are based on evidence and research. We review each option thoroughly to help patients make the best choice for them. The tests and exams used for ruling out or diagnosing lung cancer include:
Physical exam:A thorough physical exam and work up, including a complete medical history, is a key part of the diagnostic process.
Chest X-ray:A chest X-ray for another reason is often the reason a suspicious spot has been identified. X-ray is valuable in identifying masses that need further testing.
CT Scan:A CT scan can be used to identify abnormalities and to monitor changes or growth in a suspicious spot. We also use spiral CT, an advanced technology that uses a continuous spiraling motion to take detailed images quickly.
Bronchoscopy:This procedure uses a flexible bronchoscope, which is passed through the nose or the mouth, to see inside the lungs. It can be done under general anesthesia, or with sedation similar to that used during a colonoscopy. During a bronchoscopy, the doctor can remove tissue samples for biopsy.
Super Dimension® Bronchoscopy:Also known as electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy, this minimally invasive procedure allows the surgeon to biopsy lesions or masses from inside the lung rather than outside. It is especially effective in reaching lesions deep inside the lung and the lymph nodes in the area between the lungs, which may be out of reach of traditional bronchoscopes. Using a bronchoscope, computer-generated images and GPS-like technology, the physician can steer a catheter into the lesion to biopsy it.
This new technology is also useful for patients who might not be good candidates for a CT guided needle biopsy or a surgical biopsy. More and more patients can benefit from this procedure, which can have fewer complications than more invasive diagnostic procedures and is often more accurate, especially for lesions smaller than 2 cm.
CT Guided Needle Biopsy:This test uses CT imaging to guide a needle through the skin into the lung to remove cells or tissue from the suspected mass or lymph nodes for biopsy. It is most effective for tumors located very near the chest wall or the skin.
Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS):This minimally invasive surgical approach uses a scope inserted between the ribs to examine the lung. Other small instruments can be inserted for the surgeon to perform any necessary diagnostic or therapeutic treatment procedures, including removing tissue for biopsy or removing the mass itself. VATS procedures typically result in less pain and faster recovery times than traditional open surgical approaches.
Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS):EBUS uses an ultrasound probe at the end of a bronchoscope to help doctors see the mass they are biopsying to improve accuracy. It can be used to look at lymph nodes in the mediastinum (the area of the chest between the lungs) and a biopsy can also be obtained by passing a hollow needle through the bronchoscope.
Endoscopic Esophageal Ultrasound (EUS):This technique uses an ultrasound probe at the end of an endoscope, which is passed down the throat into the esophagus. EUS allows doctors to see some deep lymph nodes and even the adrenal gland to determine if the cancer may have spread. A biopsy can also be obtained by passing a hollow needle through the endoscope.
Last Review Date: Dec. 17, 2010
Online Editor(s): Kathryn Adam | <urn:uuid:0b980396-4ba4-4725-a02d-7865e70ada84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.froedtert.com/SpecialtyAreas/ThoracicCancerProgram/LungCancer/DiagnosingLungCancer.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930622 | 937 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Competing ND Bills Target Texting While DrivingMinot Rep. Dan Ruby used a cell phone and a sheet of paper Thursday to illustrate the North Dakota Legislature's debate about the best way to deter motorists from sending text messages as they drive.
By: Associated Press,
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Minot Rep. Dan Ruby used a cell phone and a sheet of paper Thursday to illustrate the North Dakota Legislature's debate about the best way to deter motorists from sending text messages as they drive.
Ruby is the chief sponsor of legislation that establishes a new "distracted driving" traffic offense, with a $100 penalty for violators. It does not explicitly ban texting while driving, but it would punish motorists who cause accidents by taking their eyes off the road.
The bill is an alternative to a proposal introduced by Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck, that would specifically prohibit motorists from using their cell phones to send text messages while they are driving.
"If I'm texting, or I'm reading this," Ruby said, holding up his cell phone, "that's a crime. But if I'm reading this while I'm driving," he continued, holding up a copy of his own bill, "it's just as much of a distraction, but it's fine. There's nothing wrong with it, according to our law, if we pass the texting ban."
Ruby, a Republican, told the North Dakota Senate's Transportation Committee that Klemin's bill would also allow police to stop motorists who were legally using their phones to make calls — instead of sending illegal text messages — because it would be difficult for officers to tell the difference.
The Transportation Committee held hearings on both bills, and did not take immediate action on either.
Under Klemin's bill, first offenders would be fined $100 and have two penalty points assessed against their drivers' licenses. A second offender would get a four-point penalty. Drivers who accumulate 12 or more points have their licenses suspended.
The legislation would allow police to pull over motorists if they were observed texting while driving. Ruby's is a "secondary enforcement" law, which means police could not stop an allegedly distracted driver unless he or she first committed another traffic offense.
Klemin's proposal attracted more support at Thursday's hearings. An insurance executive, a high school student and Bismarck Police Chief Keith Witt were among those who spoke in its favor. Only Ruby and a cosponsor, Rep. Kim Koppelman, R-West Fargo, testified in favor of his measure.
"By taking a stand on the issue, and making it illegal, we set the standard for acceptable behavior," Dale Haake, a claims director for Nodak Mutual Insurance Co. of Fargo, said of Klemin's bill.
The cities of Grand Forks and Bismarck have approved local texting-while-driving bans. Carrie Sandstrom, 16, a junior at Bismarck Century High School, said Thursday the Bismarck ordinance had prompted her to stop texting while driving, even though she had done so before despite her parents' orders. She predicted a state law would have the same effect for all North Dakota teenagers.
"As soon as the (Bismarck) regulations were passed, I put the phone down. My peers did, and others did too," Sandstrom said.
Witt spoke in favor of Klemin's bill, while expressing skepticism about Ruby's approach.
"You almost have to have something bad happening before you have a violation, instead of saying, just this specific conduct (texting), in and of itself, is illegal," Witt said.
Ruby's bill is HB1190. Klemin's bill is HB1195. | <urn:uuid:87fd2752-f710-465e-8958-9b0d1409122d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wdaz.com/event/article/id/7234/publisher_ID/30/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973111 | 772 | 1.992188 | 2 |
What is there to say about 2011? For a number of reasons, mostly personal, I tend to think, Good riddance, goodbye and thanks for all the fish! Moreover, rather like Scrooge’s attitude to Christmas, I cheerfully admit to a tendency to regard the whole New Year brouhaha as generalised humbug, a completely arbitrary choice of a particular day, ten days after the winter solstice, to mark the end of one revolution around the sun and the beginning of the next.
Of course I am perfectly aware of our human propensity and necessity to organise and structure the continuous flow of our experience, both individually and collectively. Indeed (as a long time existentialist) I go even further and would argue that this organising and structuring is an essential part of the continual creation of meaning we carry out in order to infuse our existence with purpose. We are inveterate storytellers, constantly creating and developing the narratives which are our lives; individual narratives, family histories, tribal traditions, religious myths, national identities. Time is one of the basic categories we use to order and structure our life and – because our subjective, unstructured, immediate experience of time is so fluid and changeable – the one on which we first create a common consensus out of shared experience and memory. (When did that happen? In the year the great storm knocked down the old oak or – already on a much more sophisticated level – When Quirinius was governor in
Any good complex story will have its subdivisions, its chapters. In an ordinary novel, chapters will have some kind of thematic form, but the narratives of our individual and communal lives are so complex that the wider shape of chapters only become evident much later – and even then are the subject of heated discussion. Thus, an initial form of standard agreed organisation becomes indispensable, and so we use years as units to give ourselves provisional, arbitrary beginnings and endings.
Endings … and new beginnings. One of the great psychological advantages this kind of dividing of time gives us is the opportunity to achieve some sort of closure (to use a modern buzz-word) for all sorts of deeds and experiences we have accumulated. A chance to put things behind us, to consign them to the past tense of a finished story so that we can, unburdened, proceed to create new stories. Of course, this can be a mixed kind of blessing in many respects (repression of all sorts of things not worked through enough which can often return to bite us nastily in the ass in all sorts of ways, convenient communal forgetting, etc.), but beyond this caveat we do seem to need this kind of mechanism to free up our energy, our enthusiasm and our creativity. Hope was what was left to humanity after Pandora opened the fateful box, thus releasing all the ills to which we are heir, and the idea of closing a chapter of the past in order to begin a new page, a new year which will be better is fundamentally an expression of hope. Unsubstantiated perhaps, illusory maybe, but none the less real for all that.
So now, the world is gearing up to put 2011 behind it and begin the new chapter of 2012. I suppose, if everything could be weighed up and cosmically balanced, some omniscient statistician might claim that it was just one more year like any other. But somehow it doesn’t feel like that – at least to me. I am of course aware that my own perception is grounded in my personal subjective experience and that this inevitably colours the way I see the wider world – and my personal view of the year gone by is dominated at the end of it by a number of negative events, culminating in the death of my brother less than a month ago. There were other deaths too in my own personal world, as well as some other difficult things which took place, so that I have a strong personal tendency to echo the judgement of Queen Elisabeth II on 1992 and refer to an annus horribilis. So it may very well be the case that this predisposes me to see the glass of 2011 as being very definitely half empty rather than half full.
There was certainly horror enough this year – though this can be said of any year; catastrophes, killings, sufferings and murders. The earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in March were bad enough for the thousands who died, but it can be argued that the world once more just managed to dodge the bullet of massive radioactive contamination in the wake of the destruction of the Fukushima plant (though, like many other events in 2011, the long term consequences still are not clear). Global warming continued, according to the experts, even if the Durban Conference managed to keep the international
process, concerning carbon emissions,
just about alive. Largely ignored by the rest of the world, hundreds of
thousands in the Horn of Africa continued to starve; I’m afraid this one is
going to get worse in 2012, proving – if proof was ever needed – that the
response to the famine in Ethiopia in 1984/85 (and to others since) was nothing
more than a Band Aid on a wound requiring major surgery. Kyoto
It was a year in which the leaders in the developed world, particularly the USA and Europe, again failed to deal with the ongoing financial crisis and finally face down the international money managers, who seem to be able to continue to hold the rest of the world (in particular the taxpayers) to ransom. While the USA paralysed itself in a struggle between an increasingly irrational Republican-dominated Congress and a President who showed his Chicago Democrat (any deal is better than no deal, as long as you keep your chances of re-election alive) roots ever more clearly, Europe – dominated by Merkozy – continued to eschew courage, vision and real leadership in favour of short-term, self-seeking, selfish narrow national advantage, thus keeping the Euro in a precarious state, destabilising most of the weaker countries and forcing them to bear the brunt of huge economic mistakes – self-made to some extent, but facilitated by the large financial concerns in Frankfurt, Paris and Wall Stret – and leaving the markets to go on calling the shots. David Cameron effectively started to take the
out of Europe, confirming that real power in Britain
belongs to the latter-day robber-baron bankers in the City of . London
If there were any grounds for hope in 2011, they can perhaps be seen in the fact that more and more ordinary people finally started to see through the various con-jobs perpetrated on them and began to protest. The various “Occupy” movements were a signal that you can’t fool all the people (or even 99% of them) all the time. A wave of courageous protest throughout the Arab world swept away corrupt regimes and dictatorships in
Egypt and – though the
ultimate results are still not clear. At the end of the year, popular protest
over the machinations of Vladimir Putin seemed to be increasing. Russia
But other brutes continued to hold on to power, increasingly apparently indifferent to criticisms of their ruthlessness, from Assad in
to Lukashenko in .
Kim Jong-Il died but the dynasty continues in power in Belarus – it looks like the
world will continue to be unpleasantly surprised by the paranoid megalomania of
the Kim clan. North Korea
Basta! (And by the way, the use of an Italian word reminds me of another positive event in 2011: Berlusconi resigned as Prime Minister of Italy.) I will cry no tears for 2011. Others may feel differently, those who fell in love this year, those who saw healthy children born, those who, in thousands of quiet, personal ways, found happiness. Indeed, on reflection, I too experienced many positive moments as well. Perhaps I need to let them shine through some more in my own personal recollection, my own story of 2011. Good stories always have sadness as well as joy, shadows as well as light. I, and my daughters and grandson, are all alive, active and basically healthy as we approach the New Year; our lives are progressing gently and positively, there are friends and family, more than enough love to go round, a modicum of security and lots to live and hope for. That should be more than enough to be going on with, going on into 2012.
My wish for you, gentle reader, for me, for all of us, is that 2012 may be better for us than 2011. And I will pay no heed to the various loonies who, on the basis of Mayan calendars or other abstruse so-called prophesies, see the world ending this year – I hope and believe that I will be writing some sort of similar post in a year’s time, looking back on 2012 and forward to 2013.
Happy New Year
Frohes Neues Jahr
One of the greatest blues rock guitarists in the world, Belfast born Gary Moore, died in 2011. Man, he could make that guitar cry ...
Pictures retrieved from: | <urn:uuid:d7094668-aa39-4872-9c1e-4449ad5d0866> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://francishunt.blogspot.com/2011/12/farewell-2011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961517 | 1,871 | 1.625 | 2 |
Klamath farmers face a new threat
In January, the power company PacifiCorp notified state officials of the expiration of a deal that for decades has supplied farmers on the Oregon-California line with some of the cheapest electricity around. It means that the owners of about 1,300 farms, most in Oregon, could be socked next year with more than tenfold rate increases.
"The profitability of growing many crops is pretty thin already," says farmer Lynn Long, who leads a group opposing the rate change. "This would push people over the edge."
Environmental groups, meanwhile, see the looming rate increases as a free-market tool that will achieve what they have not been able to: eliminate marginal farms and free up water for fish and birds.
"When this (marked-down rate) goes away, it’s going to be a big step in bringing everything back into balance," says Jim McCarthy of the Oregon Natural Resources Council.
But higher rates may not be all good for the environment, say farmers and others: New sprinkler systems underwritten with some $50 million in federal aid to promote water conservation might become unusable because of high pumping costs. Wells supplying a government-funded "water bank" that provides extra water for wildlife — but depresses the water table — would become much more expensive to operate. And farmers might return to flood irrigation, which requires less pumping but consumes more water — potentially compounding the irrigation shortages that reached a breaking point in 2001. | <urn:uuid:2bd3dd45-a576-4517-8a1a-e659ea191261> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hcn.org/issues/291/15261/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955981 | 302 | 2.421875 | 2 |
The Schonbrunn Palace main square "...where the Empress Maria Theresa lived with her 16 children and her husband Emperor Francis I..."
Saint Stephens Cathedral Exterior (Stefansdom) "...dedicated to the first martyr of Christendom: Saint Stephen (Stefan in German)..."
Belvedere Palace "...Inside this palace you will find an interesting fresco of Martino Altomonte, the Museum of Medieval Austria Art ..."
The Prater - funfair and more! "...Vienna Wurschtlprater, a fun fair with the Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad), where you can enjoy a terrific view over Vienna from 200 feet altitude..."
The Opera House (Staatsoper) "...built by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null 1861-1869..."
Vienna - welcome to the City...
Vienna Take a street by street view of the capital of Austria.
With a population of about 1.6 million, Vienna is the largest city and the cultural and political centre of Austria. Situated on both sides of the river Danube, Vienna is 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Austrian border.
Vienna is surrounded by the Austrian federal state of Lower Austria. It is one of the most well-known cities in Europe and has a prominent place in the history of Western civilization and world culture and history.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as well as other United Nations Offices and many international institutions and companies, are located in Vienna.
Vienna - History.
Vienna was originally a Celtic city founded around 500 BC. In 15 BC, it became a frontier city ("Vindobona") guarding the Roman Empire against the German tribes to the north. In the Middle Ages, it became the home of the Babenberg and, later, the Habsburg dynasties and through the latter the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ottoman Turkish invasions of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries were stopped two times in total at Vienna. See the Battle of Vienna (1683). In 1815, Vienna was the site of the Congress of Vienna which redrew national boundaries in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo.
During the Cold War, Vienna was a hotbed of international espionage owning to its location in neutral Austria, between the Western and Eastern blocs.
Other famous Viennese features include the Lipizzaner stallions of the Spanish Riding School, the Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben), Wiener Schnitzel, Sachertorte, and various pastries. Viennese cafes claim to have invented the process of filtering coffee from the captured baggage after the second Turkish siege of 1683.
Vienna has a wide array of temporary holiday lodging for travelers, timeshares for those who visit the city annually, as well as long-term options for those remaining in the city for several months. Traditional accommodation options include various hotels and hostels, many located directly around the city center, as well as bed and breakfasts located in the outer portions of the city. Timeshare rentals run around the same rate as most hotel rooms, but offer the added benefit of self-catering. A variety of apartments at all price ranges are also available in Vienna, which can be more affordable for long-term visitors.
Vienna - Architecture.
There are buildings of all architectural styles in Vienna, from the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche to the Baroque Karlskirche, and classicist buildings all the way through to modern architecture. Likewise, Art Nouveau left many architectural traces in Vienna. The Secession, Karlsplatz Metropolitan Railway Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner rank among the best known examples of Art Nouveau in the world.
Vienna - Transport.
Vienna has an extensive tram network, which is one of the largest in the world, and also large number of bus routes. As all routes in densely populated areas operated at dense intervals, even during off-peak hours, it is usually not necessary to remember the time when the train or bus goes. Public transportation is thus used quite a lot.
The Viennese public transport is connected to services of train and bus lines operating 50 kilometres into the surrounding countryside, which can be used under the same system of tickets.
Public transportation mostly closes during night hours, but there is a special bus service, the Nightline, operating on the most important routes. However, most of these buses run only every thirty minutes. Vienna uses an "honor system." There are no gates or ticket checks when boarding transit lines, but ticket checks will occur, oftentimes by undercover employees.
In Vienna there are also two park railways: the Liliputbahn Prater in the Viennese Prater and the Donauparkbahn in Danube Park.
Vienna - Nightlife.
Vienna has a variety of nightlife options. Its low crime rate and extensive public transportation network make going out at night safe and convenient. Regular public transportation (subway, tram, and bus) runs until approximately 12:30. After this, nighttime bus lines provide service every half hour (fifteen minutes on some segments). Almost all night lines circle the inner city before heading outbound. Most lines are numerated the same as their corresponding daytime line. For example, if you take the 60 tramline followed by the U4 subway into the city, you can take the N60 bus directly from the city back out. At approximately 5 a.m. the daytime lines resume. Day and night lines now use the same tickets.
Starting in the 1980s, the pedestrian zone between the St. Ruprecht's Church (the oldest in Vienna) and the Bermuda Bräu microbrewery became the now-popular "Bermuda Triangle." It is the one area of the inner city district where relatively loud music and noise is tolerated. Many bars and small clubs are located in this neighborhood.
The First District in general has an abundance of night life options for any budget. There are many Irish pubs with pint prices starting at €2. On the other side of the price-spectrum are bars such as Sky Bar and Do & Co., which are frequented by the Austrian elite. Opening hours vary essentially by neighborhood noise ordinance agreements. In the summer, bars' outdoor seating often has to be vacated by 11 p.m. Generally there is an abundance of establishments open until 4 a.m. or later, especially on the weekend.
Larger nightclubs are generally located further out. Popular ones include U4 Disco, located on the U4 subway line, two medium sized clubs in the wine-producing neighborhood of Grinzing, and an ever-increasing amount of large clubs on the eastern side of the Danube, often located in shopping malls and cinema complexes. One popular club located near the center of the city is Flex, which is on the shores of the Donaukanal, and, like U4 is also located on the U4 subway line. Flex often features world-acclaimed dance music DJs.
In the summer, the eastern shore of the Danube is very popular. It is called Copa Cagrana, which is a word-play of Copacabana and Kagran, which is a sub-district nearby.
Starting in the late 1980s, the city undertook much effort to revitalize the area around the Westgürtel (Western Beltway), which had become a red-light district. Today, large portions of the Westgürtel have been modernized, with many restaurants, bars, and mini-clubs now located under the elevated tracks of the U6 subway line.
Vienna - Parks and Gardens.
Vienna possesses many park facilities and is one of the greenest cities in the world. The most famous parks and green areas are the Stadtpark, the Burggarten and Volksgarten, which belong to the Hofburg, the Schloßpark of Castle Belvedere with the Vienna Botanic Gardens, the Donaupark, the Schönbrunner Schlosspark, the Prater, the Augarten, the Rathauspark, the Lainzer Tiergarten, the Dehnepark, the Resselpark, the Votivpark, the Kurpark Oberlaa, the Auer-Welsbach-Park and the Türkenschanzpark, Laaer-Berg with the Bohemian Prater and the foothills of the Wienerwald (Viennese Forest), which reaches into the outer areas of the city. Small parks, known by the Viennese as Beserlparks, are everywhere in the inner-city areas. | <urn:uuid:b69a0512-da5b-43dc-bb80-465025a8d303> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vrvienna.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947511 | 1,856 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Foggy Meadow Farm hosted RAFFL’s last workshop on September 7. Despite the drizzly weather, we had a great crowd and an informative workshop.
Paul Horton and Sally Beckwith have operated Foggy Meadow Farm in Benson for six years. They cultivate 4.5 acres and sell at the Rutland, Middlebury, Dorset, and Fair Haven farmers’ markets. Their crew consists of 2-4 interns, 1 full time employee, Paul, Sally, and occasional help with harvesting. Paul focuses on unique techniques and equipment, which are critical to his success.
Propagation Greenhouse: 17’ x 45’, inflated
The greenhouse uses a heated bench system: the center bench (4’x 38’) of the greenhouse is heated using Rimol’s Delta T system. The system includes tubing, plumbing and controls, and temperature sensor. Cost: $1000. Paul bought hot water heater and paid for plumbing and wiring. Construction took a couple days.
How it works: Temperature sensor (in soil block of 1020 tray) forces system to kick on if below a certain temperature (65-70), then hot water runs through tubing on center bench. Trays are set on top of tubing and soil is heated to aid in germination. In cold weather, Ag-19 remay is pull over the top, sometimes in a triple layer.
- Predictability for germination
- Lower heating bill: without the bench, heating bill could be $1000-1500. With bench, it costs only $80 to heat greenhouse.
- More even stands in the fields: all greens are started in the greenhouse, mostly in 200 cell trays, and then transplanted out 3 weeks later.
- Tractors and Cultivating Equipment:Paul has searched far and wide to find inexpensive tractors and cultivating implements.
Farmall Cub- Paul’s cost: $3500 with buddingh baskets included. Typically, the basket weeders alone could be $3000.
The basket weeders are used to kill small weeds. Paul will typically run through a planted bed two times or so. The implement also has pins to mark where the rows will be. The farm uses a system of three rows at 15” or 2 rows at 30”. That way, in transplanting and direct sowing, the rows are always exactly where they need to be for cultivation to happen. Paul is able to use the basket weeders to get within ½” on either side of the plants.
Paul has a few other 1940s Farmall tractors, which he prefers because of the ease of repairing them (more old fashioned equipment). Other cultivating equipment includes shafts with various heads, and hilling discs.
To find good used cultivators, Paul recommends looking in ditches and old farms, in Agriview, on Craigslist, etc.
- Hand Tools
A variety of hand tools are used on the farm for shallow and precise cultivation, including a Dutch push hoe, several forks and a broad fork. Paul recommends Earth Tools out of Kentucky for good high quality tools.
Three types of irrigation pipe that Paul uses:
Paul got some great deals on irrigation pipe. At least 1200 ft for $1/ft (usually $3/ft new).
Then he paid about $70 for custom fittings so that he could run his various types of pipe into each other. For custom fittings, try Charles Harris Irrigation out of Massachusetts, or Rainflo.
Pump: Monarch 9 HP pump with Honda engine.
Nozzles: Rainbird 70 Sprinkler (shoots water 120’)
Rainbird 30 Sprinkler (shoots water 60’ and is preferred by Paul for its better coverage)
Drip Irrigation: in tomato hoop-house only.
Paul puts about 1” of water on everything, every 5 days or so. It is essential for transplanting and helps with the predictability of yields.
- 8’x8’ walk-in cooler was all Paul needed for first four years of production. His cost for the used unit was $2000 including installation.
- 12’x14’ storage unit to function as a root cellar. Has a coolbot and window air conditioner. Used to store 5000 lb. of roots
- New walk-in this year, a little bigger. Really nice compressor. Cost $2500 including installation. Will be used for summer squash & tomatoes in summer, then roots in the fall/winter. Kept at 55 degrees for summer crops, then 99% relative humidity for bulk storage of roots.
Paul recommends Quality Cooling in Poultney or Gerry Guppy in Killington for finding used refrigeration equipment. He also recommends spending money on a good hygrometer (about $50) to keep track of humidity in storage areas.
Other items of note:
- Paul touched on his use of Remay to exclude flea beetles and cucumber beetles.
- He has used a bulldozer and done lots of earth moving to create shallow ditches for improved drainage.
- He plans to expand into more winter growing. He currently uses two unheated Quonset style field houses for winter growing and plans to get a high tunnel in the near future. | <urn:uuid:02d74579-d0e8-479e-a9ec-8be464285d86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://raffl.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93248 | 1,096 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Wilson, Alexander, 1766-1813. / American ornithology; or The natural history of the birds of the United States
Species 6. Scolopax vociferus. Tell-tale godwit, or snipe, pp. -120
120 TELL-TALE GODWIT, OR SNIPE. mage from the male; sometimes the vent is slightly dotted with black, and the upper parts more brown. Nature seems to have intended this bird as a kind of spy, or centinel, for the safety of the rest; and so well acquainted are they with the watchful vigilance of this species, that, while it continues silent among them, the Ducks feed in the bogs and marshes without the least suspicion. The great object of the gunner is to escape the penetrating glance of this guardian, which is sometimes extremely difficult to effect. On the first whistle of the Tell-tale, if beyond gunshot, the gunner aban- dons his design, but not without first bestowing a few left-hand- ed blessings on the author of his disappointment.
Based on date of publication, this material is presumed to be in the public domain.| For information on re-use, see http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright | <urn:uuid:3d73a17b-943e-4110-8c00-010e59a7425a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=turn&entity=DLDecArts.AmOrnWil03.p0136&id=DLDecArts.AmOrnWil03&isize=text&q1=Wilson,%20Alexander,%201766-1813 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908049 | 269 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Illinois residents can register to vote at the Main Library.
To be eligible, you must:
- Be a US citizen
- Be at least 18 years of age by election day
- Have been a resident of the precinct at least 30 days prior to election day
- Bring two forms of ID with you. You do not need a photo ID, but you do need one form of ID that shows your current address.
- Illinois driver's license
- Illinois state ID
- Employee or student ID
- Credit card
- Social security card
- Birth certificate
- Utility bill in applicant's name
- Mail postmarked to the applicant
- Valid U.S. passport
- Lease or rental contract
Registration at the library is closed during the 27 days prior to an election and the 2 days after an election. If you miss the deadline, you can register at the office of the election authority through Grace Period Registration. Locations and hours vary for each election.
You can also register to vote by downloading and mailing in a voter registration card or by visiting:
- Village of Oak Park
- Oak Park Township
- Cook County Clerk’s office
- Illinois Secretary of State's driver's license facility when obtaining or renewing your driver’s license or state identification card.
Check your voter registration, find your polling place and review a sample ballot through the office of the Cook County Clerk. | <urn:uuid:2f673326-5e8a-4834-82de-7c4ad780cb1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oppl.org/about/services/voter-registration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922531 | 291 | 1.828125 | 2 |
thrust of a nozzle
I want to determine the thrust vector for a nozzle, with the strength menu, i can find the center of pressure but i don't know if it's possible to have the coordinates of the thrust vector...
Also, i wonder if for model a nozzle (with Mach max is near 4) it's better to use Density based or Pressure based, with P-B i have results more logical in the determination of center of pressure (The velocity is very high only in the divergent of the nozzle)...
Can you help me,
|All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:22.| | <urn:uuid:0b3f2cc1-b119-45b5-8faa-3911117a7209> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/fluent/80921-thrust-nozzle-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937017 | 132 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Life of Charles Dickens
The Illustrated Edition
written by John Forster
Sterling Publishing Co | ISBN 9781402772856
Hardback – 512 pages
Member’s price: $54.00
Usually ships within 2–11 business days.
John Forster's original three-volume text is abridged and brought to life with the addition of illuminating extracts from Dickens' own work and from recent criticism, biography and fiction. It is also generously illustrated with materials including original artwork from the serial parts of Dickens' novels, rare photographs and portraits of Dickens and his circle, as well as specially commissioned images from the Charles Dickens Museum of the author's personal possessions and favoured locations. | <urn:uuid:c6cc4d47-a21b-4d9a-8b08-4d555951a734> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/item/9781402772856/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926781 | 142 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Consciousness ~=~ self-referentiality' (was Re: Consciousness, New Thinking About
jonesmat at physiology.wisc.edu
Tue Jun 4 10:11:45 EST 2002
Jim Chinnis <jchinnis at alum.mit.edu> wrote in message news:<61dlfu4464l1vldm92n9cjgucvd0op62he at 4ax.com>...
> jonesmat at physiology.wisc.edu (Matt Jones) wrote in part:
> There is the possibility, as some have suggested, that consciousness is one of
> the primitives of the universe, like matter-energy. That's very appealing in
> some ways, and intellectually frustrating in others.
I agree. Appealing and frustrating. It seems impossible to consider
this idea only part-way. If consciousness is a primitive, then like
matter/energy it must pervade everything, by definition. This means
quarks are "made of" consciousness. At first blush, many people would
reject that as utter nonsense. But what's a quark? Essentially, it's a
particular solution to an equation. That is, you can't hold one up and
point to it and say, "Here's a quark!". Instead, you do an experiment
in which you most definitely do not directly observe a quark, and then
you show that the result is consistent with the solution of an
equation that contains quarks as one of the mathematical elements. So
that's a bit like a quark being "made of" consciousness.
> Most neuroscientists probably subscribe to the different view that
> consciousness is an emergent property of certain processes. If that's true, it
> didn't exist back when there were only rocks.
Yeah, I know. But how many of those neuroscientists can provide a
precise (and non-trivial) definition of "emergent property"? Further.
how many can give a concrete example of an emergent property?
The usual definition is something like: "An emergent property of a
system is a property that is more than the sum of its parts." (This
was one of the ways that John Stewart Mill originally defined it).
Another definition is that one cannot predict an emergent property
based on knowledge of the properties of the individual components
(also used by Mill). With all due respect to Mill, these definitions
easily lead to trivial results.
Consider a rock (again) made of a particular substance, calcium
carbonate, say. There's clearly no way to predict the shape of that
rock from the properties of calcium carbonate. In that sense, "shape"
would be an emergent property. On the other hand, one could measure
the size of calcium carbonate molecules, count them and show that the
shape of the rock is indeed due to the exact spatial sum of the
components. So applying these two (very common) definitions of
emergence, one must conclude that shape is simultaneously an emergent
property and a non-emergent property.
Like I said, the example is trivial, but I think it points out the
problem that these so-called "emergent properties" are not
People often talk about emergence in the context of neural network
behavior, for example, the doistributed representation of information
in a net is often called an emergent property. But nobody would deny
that the representation is 100% deterministic (even in the presence of
noise, because if you use the same random seed you get the same
representation every time). Furthermore, after the thing has
converged, you can go back and examine all the weight changes, and do
a sort of "reverse-prediction" of exactly why the representation took
the form it did.
Anyway, I think the notion of emergent properties is just a
hand-waving fancy word for "really complicated".
> I'll go one step further. I also question the sharp boundaries we draw
> between, say, one person and another or between a person and the air in their
> lungs. We form "objects" cognitively, but we know that those objects are not
> truly physically or functionally distinct. Hmmm..."I" have consciousness or
> *am* consciousness, but what about my foot?
> Just to add to our common pool of ignorance. ;-)
Thanks! I was afraid that pool was running low. I'm always happy to
pitch in too.
More information about the Neur-sci | <urn:uuid:eb5ae388-68c8-454d-add1-38ebbff10ce9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/neur-sci/2002-June/048546.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938167 | 978 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Alsace in an uproar over varietal labeling
Yesterday, I blogged about California’s system of appellations, and how it has come to be defined by the “European model” in which a particular grape variety or varietal family is pegged to each region.
But now it turns out that the European model may be crumbling…in Europe.
Like its counterpart appellations in Burgundy and Bordeaux, Alsace has a tiered classification system, in which certain vineyards are recognized as superior Grand Crus. In the past, most bottles of Grand Cru Alsatian wine bore also the name of the grape variety, the most important being Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Muscat and Pinot Gris (Tokay). This is unusual for France. Because most appellations are so tightly tied to specific varietals, it would make no sense for, say, a bottle of red Burgundy to say “Pinot Noir” on the label, or for a Sancerre to be called “Sauvignon Blanc.” When you buy Sancerre, you know, or should, that you’re getting Sauvignon Blanc.
But Alsace evolved differently from the rest of France. Because the soils are so complex, many varieties were cultivated there and proved their worth, which is why producers decided to name the variety on the label: so consumers could know what they’re getting. For example, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht has a Grand Cru vineyard, Hengst, and another called Clos Saint Urbain Rangen de Thann. But the former is a Gewurztraminer and the latter is a Riesling. Unless it said so on the label, you wouldn’t know — unless you took the time to memorize all 51 Grand Crus and remembered what grapes they grow.
This is the background for the Alsatian civil war, sparked by a proposal from the Alsace Viticultural Association (AVA) to remove the varietal name from Grand Cru labels. Two hundred local Alsatian vintners recently signed an open letter declaring that such a move would be “a catastrophe” that would “confuse consumers” and possibly cause Alsace to lose the luster it has long held in the wine world. No less than “the future of Alsatian viticulture is at stake,” the letter warned.
Why did the AVA, via its grand cru president Jan Michel Dreiss, propose such a drastic step? For one thing, because they could; since 2005, the INAO (Institut National des Appellations d’Origine, which governs all things wine in France) has given Alsatian producers the option not to include the varietal name on the label (and a small handful have stopped doing so).
But Dreiss’s main reason seems to be that eliminating the varietal name on the label would emphasize the terroir of the Grand Cru vineyard, stressing the primacy of soil and climate over grape variety. And terroir, as we all know, always has been near and dear to the hearts of the French.
I can understand the unrest the AVA’s proposal has caused, but I can also understand the complexities of the situation. Every so often, I get sent a bottle of wine with a proprietary name and absolutely no information about what grape varieties are in it. This always annoys me, because I think that part of my job for readers is to say “This is classic Zinfandel” or something like that, and if I don’t know what the grape is, all I can do is talk about “cherries” and such. (What, you expect me to know what it is without being told?)
When I get one of those mystery bottles, it also makes me wonder why the producer omitted that vital information. Is it simply sloppy paperwork, a clerical omission for which a naive producer may be forgiven? Or is it because the producer is deliberately saying, in effect, “I’m not telling you the grapes because I don’t want you to conceptualize what you’ll find, or impose your expectations upon the wine. I want you to experience the wine for itself, not for what you think a (Zinfandel/Syrah/Sauvignon Blanc or whatever) should taste like.”
If it’s the latter case, it’s a pretty good argument. It gets back to the notion of single blind tasting, double blind tasting, open tasting, tasting in context and the whole nine yards. Maybe that’s what M. Dreiss has in mind: When you taste a Zind Humbrecht Clos Windsbuhl Grand Cru, do you really need to know it’s Gewurztraminer, or is it enough to appreciate all the qualities that slope, soil, light, temperature, stones, rain and wind have brought to the wine?
My own feeling is, let me know the grape[s] or a little context. I don’t think that will rob my appreciation of the wine’s terroir. Rather, it enhances it. | <urn:uuid:a6c8a645-6c9b-4f6f-b2a0-a8d2af2ba463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2009/07/17/alsace-in-an-uproar-over-varietal-labeling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940364 | 1,113 | 1.679688 | 2 |
It often has been said that the European Union would give power back to regional authorities by minimising the effects of centralisation, as a natural knock-on effect of its supra-national reach. So maybe it’s not such a surprise to see regions from ten different countries get together to create an innovative partnership to address the challenges of the future… We talk to Michael Gray, Cradle to Cradle Project Manager with the Suffolk County Council, representing the East of England within the European C2C Network.
The Cradle to Cradle network is primarily funded by the European Regional Development Fund and brings together 10 regional partners. In the UK, the project is being coordinated by the Suffolk County Council, and we represent the East of England as a region. The other partners are from The Netherlands – from where the project’s concept originates -, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary and Finland. In each country, a company or a public authority has taken the lead in being part of this network. The objective is to create regions that are committed to the Cradle to Cradle approach: what we try to do is disseminate the C2C principles as detailed in McDonough and Braungart’s book, and our main output will be action plans at the end of our 2-year project, which will detail how we propose to create this legacy in each of the regions. We’ve also been busy trying to find good examples of working in a C2C or eco-effective manner, and what we intend to do is to transfer the learning or the elements of these practices between the different regions. My target is to transfer at least two examples from the rest of Europe into the East of England, and I will be exporting two good practices. The project is all about creating a network and a platform for cooperation around Cradle to Cradle solutions, as well as capitalising on good learning and positive case studies. Of course, the UK is in a different place than say The Netherlands, who are ahead in terms of knowledge and implementation of the philosophy…
Part of the C2C Network, Tampere is the third biggest and fastest growing city in Finland. It has a bold strategy to become carbon-neutral. © Tampere / Sitra
Most of our work has to be done around education and dissemination, it’s about explaining what Cradle to Cradle means for different sectors. It’s also important to say that the project itself concentrates on 4 main areas: industry, built environment, master planning & town planning and governance. I guess that last aspect actually transcends all the other 3. We’ve produced a perspective study on each of these themes, analysing how C2C relates to them. We also published a Good Practice Handbook, which is really a collection of the positive examples that we found and that we actually try to transfer between regions. It’s important to emphasise that we are not assessing products or processes in the same way that the certification body (EPEA) would do, we are simply asking people who implement good practices to talk about their journey towards eco-effectiveness. What we present are examples of businesses and organisations moving towards closed loop, by no means are we pretending to produce a list of Cradle to cradle certified products or structures. It’s not that black and white.
To view the document full screen, click the “full” option in the bottom menu of the viewer
We’ve had several thematic seminars, within each of the regions. We have led on the construction perspective, and held our seminar at the University of Cambridge where all our partners plus the stakeholders from across Europe they wanted to bring along were invited (architects, builders…). We also obviously invited construction industry professionals from around the East of England, as well as environmental consultants and people who were already interested in the C2C concept. That way, we could get the discussion going between the appropriate people in our region, to know how we could apply the C2C approach locally. The seminar focusing on industry was held in Milan, Italy, the one on governance took place in Belgium (read our article about the Belgian EU presidency) while The Netherlands hosted the seminar about planning… All the learning from these events was used to produce our perspective studies. As well as that, we’ve created an online forum for the East of England for everybody who is interested in Cradle to Cradle: the idea is to come up with a platform for individuals and organisations. What’s more, the regional action plan I mentioned earlier will hopefully become the document that actually commits people to actually embedding C2C solutions within our region. It will give details on how we will import good practices from the rest of Europe, including who will take responsibility for embedding those practices, how they will do it, where the finances will come from – that’s a key point, and as part of my role I need to make sure these action plans have money behind them and don’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust.
Venlo (Limburg Province, The Netherlands) will host the World Horticulture Exhibition in 2012. The area currently being developed on a former industrial site will be transformed into a high-tech business park dedicated to innovation. Read more © Bubblebuilding
We’d like to influence policy, that will be the job of the lead partner really, at the European level they will need to disseminate our work. We have a strong group of 10 regions and obviously our aim will be to try and shape European decisions – as you’ve noticed there is quite a lot of momentum on the continent regarding the C2C concept: the Danish waste management strategy for example includes Cradle to Cradle, and we want to see more examples of that happening across Europe, with C2C embedded in policy-making at both regional and national levels. I think there is definitely growing recognition of the validity of the idea, and the economic circumstances we find ourselves in are pushing a lot of industries and public authorities… Energy and resource-wise, things are getting tighter and tighter so we have to look at using them in a much more effective and clever way: it not only makes environmental sense but it’s also a good business practice, and more and more stakeholders see the opportunity.
The first macroeconomic report series into the size of the prize for business in the transition to a circular economy
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Film clips, publications, colour graphics, presentations…raw material for a range of educational activities. | <urn:uuid:dec07401-6995-43b1-bea3-9ac6a4512f4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/explore-more/initiatives-around-the-world/facing-future-challenges-together | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958598 | 1,369 | 2.046875 | 2 |
New Targeted Treatment for Brain Tumors Shows Promise in Pre-Clinical Models
Monoclonal Antibody Targets Key Tumor Growth Factor;
Successfully Causes Brain Tumor Regression and Improves Animal Survival
BALTIMORE, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors, and also one of the most complicated cancers to treat. Currently, treatment options such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are only marginally beneficial and present significant risks for patients, including loss of physical and cognitive abilities. But, a new study published today in Clinical Cancer Research found that treatment with a novel monoclonal antibody (mAb) L2G7 inhibited the growth of glioma cells, induced glioma regression within the brain and prolonged survival -- a finding that could be translated into human trials as early as next year. "There is a tremendous need for advancement in the treatment of malignant brain tumors, which are the number one cancer killer of children under age 20 and a devastating diagnosis for adults as well," said Dr. John Laterra, M.D., Ph.D., research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and senior author of the study. "The results of this study bring us closer to developing an alternative treatment option for both adults and for pediatric patients, who are hardest hit by conventional therapies." A team of researchers, led by Dr. Jin Kim of Galaxy Biotech, LLC in Mountain View, CA and Dr. John Laterra of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD, designed the study to evaluate the effectiveness of L2G7 in treating human gliomas implanted in mouse models. Results indicate that treatment with L2G7 completely inhibited the growth of the tumors when established under the skin of animals, while control mAb had only a minimal effect. Even more promising results were observed in mice with tumors implanted within the brain. In this setting, L2G7 not only induced tumor regression, but dramatically increased survival. Animals treated with the control all died within 41 days of starting the experiment. All mice treated with L2G7 survived through day 70, and 80% of the animals were alive at day 90, six weeks after stopping the L2G7 treatment. L2G7 was developed by Dr. Kim's team to inhibit the activities of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). HGF is known to be a promising target for cancer therapy by virtue of its multiple actions that promote cancer malignancy. HGF stimulates tumor cell division, tumor angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) and tumor cell resistance to toxic agents such as chemotherapy and radiation. In this study, brain tumor cells were injected both under the skin and within the brain to specifically evaluate anti-tumor responses within the central nervous system. The central nervous system is a location often protected from cancer therapies by the "blood-brain barrier," which could possibly limit the effects of mAb therapy on tumors situated within the brain. Treatment with L2G7 or a control mAb was given to both subsets of mice twice weekly. In one experiment, the researchers delayed treatment of a subset of mice for 18 days to determine the effect of L2G7 on larger, more advanced tumors within the brain. At that time, the average tumor size was 26.7 mm3, but following only three doses of L2G7, tumors shrank to 11.7 mm3. Conversely, tumors treated with the control mAb grew 5-fold to 134.3 mm3 during the same period, with a mean volume 12 times larger than the L2G7-treated tumors. "Monoclonal antibodies to growth factors or their receptors are playing an increasingly important role in cancer therapy," said Dr. Cary Queen, President of Galaxy Biotech. "Because of its specificity for HGF, L2G7 may prove to be particularly effective at halting tumor growth while minimizing side effects and harm to the surrounding healthy brain cells." "Our company is committed to the clinical development of L2G7, and we hope to extend the current success of targeted antibody therapies in the treatment of breast, colon and lung cancer patients to the treatment of serious central nervous system malignancies such as gliomas." In a related study (Lal et al., Clin Cancer Res. 11:4479-4486, 2005), Dr. Laterra's research team showed that targeting brain tumor HGF with gene therapy can substantially enhance the anti-tumor effects of radiation therapy, again emphasizing the important role HGF plays in brain tumors. About Brain Tumors Primary brain tumors originate in the brain. As the most common primary brain tumors, gliomas are the leading cancer killer of children under age 20, now surpassing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and are the third leading cause of cancer death in young adults ages 20-39, according to the National Brain Tumor Foundation. Metastatic brain tumors (cancer that spreads from other parts of the body to the brain) occur at some point in 10-15% of persons with cancer. Each year, 190,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor. Because brain tumors are located at the control center for thought, emotion and movement, the effects of toxic modalities such as chemotherapy and radiation can be devastating, especially in young children. Surgery to remove malignant brain tumors is a complex and difficult procedure, and typically does not eliminate all of the cancer cells. About the Kennedy Krieger Institute Internationally recognized for improving the lives of children and adolescents with disorders and injuries of the brain and spinal cord, the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD serves more than 12,000 children each year through inpatient and day treatment programs, outpatient clinics, home and community services and school-based programs. Kennedy Krieger provides a wide range of services for children with developmental concerns mild to severe, and is home to a team of investigators who are contributing to the understanding of how disorders develop and pioneering new interventions and earlier diagnosis. For more information on Kennedy Krieger Institute, visit http://www.kennedykrieger.org. About Galaxy Biotech, LLC A start-up company with laboratories in Mountain View, CA, Galaxy Biotech is developing humanized antibodies against growth factors and their receptors for the treatment of cancer. The company was founded by Dr. Jin Kim, who while a senior scientist at Genentech, Inc. developed the mouse mAb from which the approved drug Avastin(R) was made, and by Dr. Cary Queen, who previously co-founded PDL BioPharma, Inc. and developed fundamental technology for the humanization of antibodies.
SOURCE Kennedy Krieger Institute
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“Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement.” – A J Heschel
Everything here on this site, and its allied sites, is about how we have to balance the myriad parts of life, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the Whole – from which everything emanates, including us.
The 1000+ ways or categories are also concepts, and HERE the concepts are gathered as a Dictionary
But our interest in concepts needs to be balanced with interest in the Whole from which all things emanate and take form, and to which they return – in the formless and infinite.
The Whole is nameless because it cannot be conceptualized. In terms of our experience we can briefly lose ourselves in the non-duality of the infinite Whole. This is beyond the logic-chopping of religions (and the illogic-chopping!) . ‘God has no religion’. God is no-thing. We can only point – and be silent. Silence is the language of God.
On the site there is a place you can go, to take you beyond concepts HERE. Let the few words dissolve as you realize the oneness of the light, and the silence that, embraces others all around the globe, who also rest right now, in the now, and the silence – and let go their egoic forms.
The greatest need humanity has is for all peoples to realize that they are the cells of a single body. That realization comes as we learn to live in the now, and the silence beyond all concepts – that is to feel the Whole. This has been the mystic teaching, the perennial philosophy, to be found at the heart of all of the world’s wisdom traditions – but so often obscured by the dust of human egotism.
But for those who love chocolate, and beautiful landscapes, and sailing and beautiful bodies we have, during our time in this world, to fly with the wing of ‘duality’ - as well as our experiences of non-duality. After enlightenment the comes the water carrying and wood chopping. After the water carrying and wood chopping – enlightenment. The two are complementaries – at least in this world. Hooray! Hallelujah! Amen! Om! Pass the chocolate!
GIF by candleworld | <urn:uuid:5c82b695-e3a6-4b1d-a9ff-4ccc2ddc9f3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sunwalked.wordpress.com/02b-resources/dictionary-of-concepts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956261 | 482 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Century 21 City
Will the Seattle area continue to be one of those global cities where the economic, social, environmental and geographic elements combine to create a vibrant economic base filled with strong companies, smart workers and an attractive quality of life?
That’s the question Michael Luis’ new book on the Seattle region, Century 21 City, sets out to answer. Luis looks at the history of the region, focuses in on Seattle’s “50-year journey from world’s fair to world stage” and places that journey in the context of the rise of regional hubs around the world. Why and how Seattle has risen to become one of those centers of technology, innovation, risk taking and success is an interesting tale, full of twists and turns.
Luis also places the story of the Seattle region’s rise within the larger question of how metro areas turn themselves into regional metropolitan centers, why they survive and what’s needed to keep them vibrant into the future. By the end of the book, you feel like you have been sitting in the classroom at a top university, listening to a case study on the ins and outs of regional development.
For anyone who has been in the Seattle area for a while, Luis takes you breezily through a familiar history — early settlers, the role of forests and fish, WWII growth, the “Boeing Bust,” the importance of world trade, the shift to technology and so forth.
Luis does pull out some interesting statistics though. The supposed “Boeing Bust” of the late 1960s wasn't such a bust after all. Boeing cut about 60,000 jobs, tough on the Boeing workers to be sure, but the regional economy did not suffer as much as job multipliers would imply. Most of the job loss was concentrated in manufacturing and construction. Other industries lost a total of only 16,000 jobs over the period of the bust. Net out-migration was significant — 85,000 over a four-year period from 1970 to 1974 — but Luis notes that, over a 10-year period from 1965 to 1974, the region gained about 140,000. And many of the engineers and skilled workers who came here before the bust apparently stayed, setting the stage for Seattle’s growth spurt to come.
We also meet Fred Haley of Brown and Haley, makers of Almond Roca candies, and his stark assessment of the regional economy in 1957: “Ours is essentially a colonial economy,” Haley said, exporting natural resource products in raw or semi-finished form and importing the finished and capital goods. That was a fair assessment of the economy then, based mostly on timber, fish and agricultural products.
Luis traces the growth of the Seattle economy away from that dependence on natural resources to its emergence in the 1980s as a knowledge center, driven by companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, Aldus and others. It reminded me of the quip that the region’s most significant economic development strategy was to have Bill Gates born here.
Luis is himself a third-generation resident of the Seattle area, living in Medina where he is a councilmember and mayor. For many years he was at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce as a vice president, giving him a ring-side view of many of the region's major changes. He is also a public policy consultant, closely associated with many of the economic strategies of the region.
All of this experience lends itself to the comprehensive nature of his book, which looks at, among other things,
- Current thinking about how cities and metropolitan areas work.
- An overview of the Seattle area economy and some of the metrics and indicators showing that the region is, on balance, economically successful.
- A chronology of Seattle’s economic story from the beginnings in the 1850s and the various boom and bust cycles that have been typical of the economy here.
- Drivers of the economy and how they have evolved over the past 50 years.
- Major industries that underpin the economy and how they have evolved, including aerospace, the ports, software and life sciences.
- Local government’s contribution to economic success has never been entirely clear, and “it becomes more difficult with the diffusion of industries and population across the metropolitan area,” according to Luis.
One of the main themes is the importance of geography. “Seattle’s history is built around the challenge of creating a vital and growing economy in a remote part of the country,” Luis writes. “Not too long ago we got used to hearing confident predictions of the diminishing role of place and the death of distance."
"While transportation and communications have certainly speeded up, Seattle remains a unique place, with a unique set of opportunities and challenges, as does every other metropolitan region around the world. . . . I hope you will see how the region’s location both in the upper-left-hand-corner of the U.S. map and in a key spot on the Pacific Ocean have shaped its history. I hope you will think about how trees, fish, rain, mountains and water have contributed to the trajectory of Seattle’s evolution from a resource-based economy to a diversified technology and commercial center.
And I hope you will think about why so many people have become rooted here, through good times and bad.”
What are Luis’ conclusions on the region as a Century 21 City? We’ve made it so far, despite the fact that the Seattle area is one of those mid-sized metro areas vulnerable to outside change. We have the spirit, the resources, the workers, the enlightened corporate leadership, government and a global outlook that will make the region work well into the future.
No guarantees, of course, but the region has the ingredients it needs. One in particular Luis cites is innovation, which he writes will be key to the future for any region that fancies itself a global leader. The University of Washington and other important research institutions will keep the region competitive.
Another is the region’s ability to attract smart, highly talented people. Luis says much needs to be done in this area.
“If the economic development establishment finds out that a business is thinking of bringing a factory to the region, the alarm is sounded and it’s all hands on deck,” he writes. “But if a bunch of big brains are thinking of moving here, we generally have no idea about their intention and few tools with which to recruit them. We understand how to attract physical capital but not how to recruit intellectual capital.”
Luis looks also at some issues that could affect growth. One is climate change and his take is unusual – the West Coast has the “most climate friendly weather patterns” in the country and could begin to absorb a larger share of national growth. The folks in the Lesser Seattle, anti-growth camp will not like that idea.
Luis ends his book interestingly. He is sitting at the Tully’s Coffee shop in Lincoln Square in Downtown Bellevue. Above him are Microsoft offices and the corporate headquarters of Eddie Bauer. Next door at the Hyatt is Brooks Sports. If he broke through the back wall he’d be at the headquarters of Paccar. Nearby is Expedia. Down the street is the Bellevue library with a statue of Mohandas Gandhi, a gift from the Indian government in recognition of the Eastside’s large Indian population.
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I have a 7 month old that is struggling with sitting up, I have tried the pillow around the waist, holding onto his fingers but he throws himself backwards or falls to one side or the other. As long as he sits in my lap he will sit up. He is getting to big for his infant car seat and I want to move him into his bigger car seat but was told not to until he could sit up on his own and can balance his head. Any ideas?
Maybe you could try sitting behind him and backing off of him a little and give him enough room to sit up, but not enough to let him fall backwards. This may help him get more used to being in that position and provide an opportunity to get used to using his abdominal muscles to keep himself up. Hope that does it for you!
I feel your concern. The first thing I would do is discuss this with your pediatrician to make sure that he feels this part of your baby's development on-track. Some babies are just "late bloomers" so-to-speak. Most wind up hitting these milestones in their own time. But it may make you feel better if your doctor weighs in with his opinion.
I will offer a word of caution on the car seat issue, though. Most recommendations are not to move to a forward-facing seat until your baby is 20 pounds AND one year. This is not just because of weight, but also for muscle and bone development. Have you looked into one of those convertable car seats that can be used both backward and forward? They're designed bigger to accomodate babies until they are big enough for the booster seat. That may ease your car seat worries, as well.
I totally agree with writemommy. He may just have to sit up in his own time, but be sure to mention it to his doctor. Is he on track in other ways? Does he smile and babble? Does he roll over well?
We've always used large convertible carseats that hold 5-65lbs. You can use it with a smaller baby (whether they sit up or not) rear facing and then turn it around when they are big and old enough.
Learning to sit up, like any other big step comes at different periods for each child. Try sitting behind him and moving incrementally back over time until he learns to sit on his own. When sitting in front of him put your face near his so he will be inclined to "lean" towards it instead of throwing himself backwards.
When riding in a car a padded headrest may make things easier, especially if you want to move him into a bigger seat (remember to keep it rear facing until he is old enough). It will provide stability and comfort until he is better able to control his muscles.
I think I will try this and see what happends. Thank you!!
Let us know how it goes!
my daughter is 5 months next week and is alredy sitting up fairly well but my nefue is 10 months now and didn't sit up untill almost 9 months, he wouldn't sit still enough, he was crawling before sitting, every baby does it at there own time, he will get there. | <urn:uuid:5f3e7481-1758-4f67-8b38-4bfba3c83012> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://similac.com/community/boards/forums/p/81/263.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986457 | 729 | 1.554688 | 2 |
April 6, 2012
Massanutten Regional Governor's School is planning a study to determine whether there's sufficient wind to provide electricity for the school and Triplett Tech.
The Virginia Center for Wind Energy has loaned Massanutten a 66-foot meteorological wind tower. Data collected by students will be given to researchers at James Madison University.
The data also will be used in the classroom and will be available to the public.
Remy Pangle with the center tells The Daily News-Record that the project's goal is primarily to provide education about wind power.
The project is part of the national Wind for Schools program.
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Last week I received one of the most surprising SMS messages of my life... it was from my grandmother! At the rip old age of 80 she has decided to join in the mobile revolution and has bought a mobile phone. What's more, she has taken to using it like a fish takes to water - including sending SMS messages. While it makes prefect sense for my Gran to have a mobile phone so she is connected to the rest of the family while she is out and about, I was surprised to see how quickly she accepted this new technology. Of course she's had some heavy duty tuition from my sister who has shown her all the ins and outs of her new phone, as well as teaching her how to send and read SMS messages. She even knows about popular SMS emoticons such as :-). I guess I shouldn't really be surprised by my Grandmother's use of a mobile phone for voice and SMS messages. According to research earlier this year, mobile phone use amongst the over 65s is on the increase both in North American and in much of Europe, although voice is more popular than SMS.
The 19 year old juror blatantly ignored the court's instructions not to communicate with others by sending her text messages, and she showed very poor judgement by continuing to text to her new found 'friend' even though she had been warned off. Passing on overheard gossip in the text messages only made matters worse and was a clear case of trying to influence a juror - a big 'no no'. Moreover, shouldn't she have been paying attention to her own case – not sending text about another one? But by all accounts the young British woman was not the brightest of sparks, as well as very immature. I guess you could question whether a 19 year old has the maturity and presence of mind to undertake jury service, but I am sure there are many that would take jury service in their stride. To me it boils down to realising that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. There are times when texting is appropriate and times when it isn't (such as while on jury service or driving) and a bit of common sense is all you need. | <urn:uuid:7987a061-c2a8-45ef-8687-706cedeb4c4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telesignmobile.com/Blog/Entry/22-texting-trouble-for-british-juror.pmx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987758 | 437 | 1.640625 | 2 |
We're all here in Psychology 1001 only touching the basics of many different fields of psychology. Some of us know what we want to do and where we want to be in five years, and some of us don't, and that may or may not include psychology. But even by taking this 1001 course, we've learned so many topics that there's got to be at least one thing that everyone remembers, from biological psychology to psychology disorders. For me, I know there will be one thing from psychology that I will bring with me for the rest of my life, and it was covered in every chapter. That concept is the six principles of scientific thinking.
Every day we hear so many personal anecdotes, media headlines, advertisements and much more. But how do we know if what we hear is real or not? These six principles touch on that and they teach you to take everything with a grain of salt and be cautious of what you read at face value. I really enjoy following the news and what's happening around the world, and these principles have already helped me evaluate and form my opinions for everything I hear. I know I will take this with me the rest of my life and be a true critical thinker. | <urn:uuid:c13b99e8-4a90-48db-b620-fe50a8831b5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.lib.umn.edu/huber195/psy1001spring12/2012/04/what-i-want-to-be-when-i-grow-up.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96601 | 245 | 2.359375 | 2 |
About a week ago, all news channels tuned in to cover the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, while the rest of America didn't really care. It's an annual ritual that's more about inside baseball than what gets done around the country. The event is more symbol than substance. Yet, during an election, symbols get covered more than substance and, overwhelmingly, media reports came back saying that our president was...cool. Many hailed this as a good thing. After all, being cool is a personality trait that many American's admire. We listen to cool people. We buy things advertised by cool people. Cool people do big things in America.
Yet, John Cassidy over at the New York Times makes an interesting point. President Obama's hipness is easily enjoyed by most partisan Democrats. It's one of the many reasons we elected him to replace our seemingly tone-deaf President Bush. And with Mitt Romney being, in public at least, somewhat of a cardboard cutout, the prevailing opinion is this competition has already been won. But, Cassidy points out that the essence of hipness is that "you operate on a more refined plane than most: you are more fashionable, more discerning, and more discriminating than the average boob." Another word for all of this? Elitist, and this is a word that carries a much more loaded tone for this President, especially amongst independents.
So, do voters really vote for cool? The United States is unique in the sense that we don't separate ceremonial and political duties between two heads of state; our president is responsible for both. Americans want a leader that represents us well on the world stage and at home. Not only that, the confidence and ease reflected by a leader cracking jokes smoothly during a dinner or while interacting with normal Americans can translate into confidence in the nation itself. It's a subtle relationship, but it’s there.
The issue is that, while we're in a recovering economy, it’s not recovering with the certainty that the market needs it to have. Who cares about cool when you don't have a job? Putting food on the table for oneself and their family tends to make people more focused on the bottom line and a 'What can you do for me?' mentality. Different qualities than inspiration matter the most to people in that situation, and there are far too many Americans facing this set of circumstances right now.
It's not unfair to say that a President's personality plays a lot into how well they do in elections or manage a country. But, how much is 'coolness' a part of that package? For folks dealing with the effects of the Great Recession, it’s not much, and they’re a sizable part of our country at the moment. Yet, with small signs of economic recovery, this same population might not feel that they are suffering as much of a burden and react accordingly. Either way, being cool is probably more beneficial for the president during boom times rather than bust, but any edge counts when an election is going to be as close as the one we're experiencing this year. | <urn:uuid:52acc46d-786b-409e-a4d4-da1e6ba610ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://loganville.patch.com/blog_posts/do-you-vote-for-cool | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974229 | 632 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Bush Says Military Commissions Act Will Bring Justice
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2006 President Bush today signed into law an act he said will bring justice to terrorists who attacked America.
Bush signed the Military Commission Act of 2006 into law during a White House ceremony.
The act will allow the Central Intelligence Agency to continue gathering information that will save American lives, the president said, and it sends a clear message to those who threaten it.
“This nation is patient and decent and fair, and we will never back down from the threats to our freedom,” he said. “We are as determined today as we were on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001. We will meet our obligation to protect our people, and no matter how long it takes, justice will be done.”
The new law establishes the procedures military commissions will use in trying unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States. Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives fall into the definition of unlawful enemy combatants.
The act lays out exactly how the military commissions are convened, and what procedural safeguards must be in place. These include a presumption of innocence, proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the right of the accused to represent himself, and inadmissibility of statements obtained through torture.
In addition, the law provides for a right to call and cross-examine witnesses, lawyer/client privilege, no presumption of guilt from remaining silent, and representation by a military defense counsel. “These military commissions are lawful, they are fair, and they are necessary,” Bush said.
The act will allow the commissions to try those accused with masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the attack on the USS Cole in a Yemeni harbor in 2000 and bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. “With our actions, we will send a clear message to those who kill Americans: We will find you and we will bring you to justice,” the president said.
DoD officials said motions under the new bill may be heard as early as January. Trials probably will not start much before the summer, officials said.
The majority of the 440 detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base detainee facility in Cuba will not face military commissions. Only detainees who will be charged with law-of-war violations and other grave offenses – about 75, officials estimated – will be subject to the commissions.
Military commissions have a long history in the United States. The colonies used military commissions during the Revolutionary War. The U.S. military used them during the Civil War and during World War II. | <urn:uuid:2b63daad-d95b-40d6-8342-ab8bb5bc820a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1633 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953699 | 549 | 1.8125 | 2 |
As millions begin to recover from the devastation inflicted on us all, we need to be aware that human activities made Sandy a stronger and wetter storm. Global warming has made the oceans warmer and has caused sea levels to rise – both of which worked to exacerbate the impacts of Sandy. See Figures 1, 2, 3, 4.
The fuel for hurricanes is warm ocean water that releases tons of water vapor. This water vapor then condenses into clouds and rain which releases heat known as “latent heat”. This latent heat drives the power of the winds much like stepping on the gas pedal makes the engine output more power. The warmer ocean, in essence, put a turbocharger on Hurricane Sandy’s engine.
This extra water from the warmer oceans must eventually come down and it does so as flooding rains. Some places in the mid-Atlantic had over 12” of rain and a few higher locations to the west saw nearly 3 feet of snow as colder air wrapped around the backside of the storm. As Governor Cuomo said to President Obama, “We now have a 100 year flood every two years”. Global warming = heavier rains and floods. We saw this last year with Hurricane Irene.
Global warming also causes sea levels to rise for two reasons: 1) as water warms, the molecules move faster and take up more space (known as thermal expansion) and 2) a warmer climate melts ice sheets and glaciers and that water over time makes its way into the ocean. Due to global warming, storms are now riding on much higher sea levels which is causing the storm surge to reach higher levels and farther inland. Residents on Long Island and NY City saw this phenomenon first-hand. NY City saw surges approaching 14 feet – higher than for any storm in the past 400 years! Sea levels have risen over a foot in the past 100 years and are projected to increase another 2-5 feet by the year 2100. Imagine Sandy coming in on an ocean that is 5 feet higher than today? The surge would be nearly 19 feet.
If somebody asks you, “Did global warming cause Hurricane Sandy?” they are asking the wrong question. Sandy certainly may have occurred in the absence of global warming but it would not have been as strong nor as damaging. I tell people, “Think of a hurricane as a fire in a fireplace. Global warming did not start that fire but it is certainly adding a few logs to it.”
Some sobering facts about hurricanes and climate change:
• Of the 11 most intense North Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, five have occurred in the last eight years (Wilma, Rita, Katrina, Dean and Ivan).
• The record-breaking rainfall dumped by Hurricane Irene in 2011 was the main impact of the storm in which flooding and other damage totaled over $15 billion,
making Irene the 10th billion-dollar disaster in 2011 and the sixth most expensive hurricane in U.S. history.
• With more than $100 billion in damages, Hurricane Katrina remains the costliest
weather-related disaster on record.
• In June 2012, tropical storm Debby produced record-breaking rainfall across Florida, in some locations dropping over 20 inches of rain in 24 hours. When Tropical Storm Debby formed on June 23, it was the first time ever that four storms formed before July since record keeping began in 1851.
• According to data from 2007, the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has increased by nearly 75% since 1970.
There is a strong scientific consensus that the most intense Atlantic hurricanes will become more frequent in the coming decades if greenhouse gas pollution continues to grow even at a moderate rate. The increase in damages due to climate change will rise to an average of over $40 billion per year, as stronger hurricanes are exponentially more destructive than weaker storms.
We have choices to make. The sooner we begin to shift away from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to using cleaner energies such as solar, wind, wave, and geothermal, we will prevent the oceans from becoming even warmer and sea levels from rising even higher.
We will always have hurricanes but we do not need to make them worse! | <urn:uuid:7dc1acb1-4a68-48e6-904f-35640240d890> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://millerplace-rockypoint.patch.com/groups/scott-a-mandias-blog/p/bp--global-warming-made-hurricane-sandy-worse | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963561 | 858 | 3.65625 | 4 |
So lately I’ve been planning my relocation. My roommate is moving out, I’ve got no current roommates (and that may change), and I want to take full advantage of being in Silicon Valley.
So since relocation is important to we progeeks (since too many of us need to for work), I wanted to share some insights I found in relocating. It’ll be useful to you progeeks because my goal was essentially “how do I get further into geeky silicon valley, but still find a place that fits my job and career needs.” That . . . was informative.
Apartments Are The New Houses:
In several places in Silicon Valley, and I imagine elsewhere in the world, I was finding a surprising amount of apartment construction. It was enough that locals remarked on how ridiculous it was. So my guess is that this is the new “houses” in searches for quick living-related cash.
What it means is that some areas are going to have downward pressure on living prices in some locations here – and you should check your relocation targets for the same thing.
Public Transport Isn’t Always Obvious:
This is a big one. I quickly discovered that “obvious” public transport benefits weren’t often the case. There may be issues with timing, distance of stations, exchanges, and more. Don’t take for granted that something is “near enough to take a bus to” until you check.
I found this was easy to test these by taking target locations and seeing:
- How I could find my way to and from them from any target apartment via Google maps.
- How they were served by public transport.
- What the times of this transport was.
Any Reasonably Big Megaregion is not “Sensibile”:
Ever try and figure out all the small towns around Boston? Navigate the “good” and “bad” areas of Silicon Valley? Figured out the best places to live in Toronto? Yeah then you know – regions that are the big boisterous geeky areas are not “reasonable” in many cases.
These areas in general have build up over the years, decades, and centuries. You’ll find good areas next to bad, odd businesses sandwiched between apartment complex (really, I found a costume store), and more. No it doesn’t make sense, and that’s OK. You just have to figure out what it all means.
If things are confusing, looked for planned communities, they may add some sanity.
Work All The Costs:
I found a nice but expensive apartment complex at one point that didn’t seem to have the best public transportation, but when I realized it’s big advantages was buses that could reach anywhere (even with one or two exchanges) I realized its value. The savings were disturbingly high.
People Want Amenities:
A lot of people renting apartments out noted that washer, dryer, and central air were becoming bigger deals. The difference in prices got pretty substantial.
Plus, if you’re going cheap, and don’t mind hauling to the laundry room, you have a way to save some scratch.
Some Apartment Communities are Communities:
It depends on your region, but I’ve been to apartment complexes that were fully active communities. Parties, events, parks, etc. Some have stores on property (one had a Starbucks). These may give you the community you seek (others may just seem overdone.
Also? These communities have their own feel. If you need one with the right “sense,” make sure you look.
Could your company move? Do you plan to change jobs? Can you access all the offices? Can you reach your clients from your new location? Think about the financial/career choices of where you go.
I hope these observations help. The quest for the right area to live is hard, but worth it. | <urn:uuid:00994830-c13f-4024-9684-b4be6952fe0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musehack.com/blog/2012/05/thoughts-on-relocation.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972851 | 847 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Giacobbe - Meaning of Giacobbe
[ 4 syll. gia-cob-be, gi-aco-bbe ] The baby boy name Giacobbe is pronounced as JHiy-aa-KOWBeh- †. Giacobbe is largely used in Italian and it is derived from Hebrew origins. Giacobbe is a variant transcription of the name Jacob (Dutch, English, German, and Scandinavian).
Giacobbe is not popular as a baby name for boys. It is not listed within the top 1000 names. Within the group of boy names directly related to Giacobbe, Jacob was the most regularly used in 2011.
Baby names that sound like Giacobbe include Giuseppea, Giuseppee, Josephie, Giacopo (Italian), Giuseppe (Italian and English), Giuseppey, Giuseppi, Giuseppie, Giuseppy, Jabulanee, Jabulaney, Jabulanie, Jacobey, Jacobie, Jacobo (Spanish), Jacoby (Hebrew and English), Jacopo (Italian), Jobee, Joosepi, and Jooseppi (Finnish).
† English pronunciation for Giacobbe: JH as in "joy (JH.OY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; K as in "key (K.IY)" ; OW as in "oak (OW.K)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)" | <urn:uuid:3dc9043d-19d4-4a10-8e4a-4bce74a9a5ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Giacobbe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931528 | 350 | 2.1875 | 2 |
has been released. Source and binaries for Linux x86, Linux x86_64, Mac OS X and Solaris. This is a stable release. JPAM has been now been used in production for five months and extensively tested.
Jpam is a Java-PAM bridge. It supports JAAS along with its own simple API. PAM
, or Pluggable Authentication Modules, is a standard security architecture used on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X and other Unix systems. With Jpam, Java applications can utilise more than 70 native security PAM modules available on Unix-like platforms.
Java developers often shy away from native code. Other APIs are often used for security purposes, including JDBC and JNDI for directories such as Novell NDS or Active Directory. Hardware token based systems such as SecureId and DigiPass, however, generally provide PAM modules in native code. Utilising these is a difficult and expensive proposition. Jpam solves that problem, enabling utilisation of any PAM module you can install on your system.
When Sun added JAAS to J2EE and now J2SE they did not provide access to existing PAM modules, even though PAM itself was introduced by Sun.
What do you think the applications for PAM in your system deployments might be? | <urn:uuid:e2127fe2-6631-4795-a811-b408d5284ec9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theserverside.com/discussions/thread.tss?thread_id=34668 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939837 | 276 | 2.578125 | 3 |
ACCORD hosted Professors Ajay Dubey and Aparajita Biswas from India on Wednesday 15 July 2010, as part of ACCORD’s commemoration of 150 years of Indian settlers in KwaZulu Natal. The academics are in South Africa is to look into the contribution of the Indian Diaspora to the development of South Africa over the last 150 years.
(L-R) Ela Gandhi, Prof Biswas, Prof Duby and Indian Consulate General, Anil Sharan.
Professor Ajay Dubey presented on “The Role of the Indian Diaspora in East Africa and Mauritius” to members of the 1860 Indian Settlers’ Group including such guests as Dr Dilly Naidoo and Mr Swami Gounden. Professor Dubey’s research was then put up for debate in an open floor discussion chaired by Ela Gandhi. The group was most concerned about the economic investment to India by the South African Indian Diaspora and the apparent growing apathy of South African Indians to integration initiatives in the community. Also of high concern was questions posed about the youth of South Africa and how to increase youth involvement in humanitarian campaigns.
The Indian Consulate General, Mr Anil Sharan, congratulated Professor Dubey on an excellent presentation and floor discussion.
Prof Dubey has done extensive work on the Indian Diaspora in East Africa and Mauritius. He is the President of the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives and Director of Francophone African Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Indian Professors were taken on a tour of ACCORD’s refurbished offices and were most impressed by the facilities and the work of our institution. | <urn:uuid:3d5748b3-2c80-422b-909f-b5c0d4fcd8ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accord.org.za/news/90-general/760-accord-commemorates-150-years-of-the-indian-diaspora- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957726 | 351 | 1.8125 | 2 |
About 30 people showed up at Port Coquitlam MLA Mike Farnworth's constituency office Wednesday to lend their opposing voices to any future oil pipeline expansion and increased tanker traffic in the province.
The show of solidarity was part of a larger movement called Defend Our Coast Day, and demonstrations took place at dozens of MLA offices across the province.
Though Farnworth was out of town and unable to attend the event, Port Coquitlam Coun. Brad West spoke on his behalf and voiced his opposition to both the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and the potential for increased oil tanker traffic along the B.C. coast.
"Unlike any other issue that I can remember in recent times, the issue of Enbridge and pipelines and defending our coast has really attracted young people towards this cause," said West, 27. "I'm glad that young people are standing up and expressing their opinions on this important issue."
Like West, Amy Ann Lubik, the organizer of Wednesday's rally, was amongst those in the Generation Y category who felt impassioned to speak up.
She spoke to her love for the areas throughout central and northern B.C. known as the Great Bear Rainforest, which is home to Kermode, or Spirit Bear, populations.
Should the Enbridge project receive approval, the pipeline will be built in the Spirit Bear's habitat.
"According to native legends, the raven made the Great Bear rainforest for the Spirit Bear, which is a symbol of peace on Earth," Lubik said. "I think that habitat warrants protection as I think all the habitats along that pipeline route warrant protections."
Outside of those speeches, those in attendance held an informal question-and-answer period around the Enbridge proposal, and many took aim at the Conservative government.
[Prime Minister Stephen Harper] seems to want to sell off everything that we have," said Sandy Budd. "There are alternative fuel sources: there's wind, there's the sun, there's solar power, there are so many sources. Other countries are doing it and we're being shamed because of our reliance on oil. And we should be ashamed."
Similar protests were also staged at Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Diane Thorne's office, Port Moody-Coquitlam MLA Joe Trasolini's office and Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA Doug Horne's office.
Wednesday's events were preceded by a massive demonstration Monday on the lawn of the legislature in Victoria. | <urn:uuid:7b660dbf-7185-4d92-b44e-594ecee7e4ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenownews.com/news/story.html?id=7450857 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973546 | 502 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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Visit the Online Store to purchase exhibition catalogues, e-books, and more.
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"Russian Art of the First Half of the 19th Century"
Published in 2005
10 pages, fully illustrated
Mikhail Allenov presents a historical account of a new generation of Russian artists—artists fortunate to have both social status and a formal education. Examining the influence that the Hermitage and great European masters had on both the style and technique of the artists of 19th-century Russia, Allenov analyzes their subject, color, and spirit.
The expanded artistic perspective of this period, one that reflected a striving to comprehend the whole world and its history, relates to one of the basic concepts of Romanticism: "Suddenly, one could see far to the very ends of the earth." That phrase from Gogol's "Terrible Vengeance" (1832) was often used as a formula to express the Romantic perspective. But to the degree that the phrase is applicable to Russian art of the first half of the nineteenth century, "suddenly"—which the poet Vasily Zhukovsky referred to as "unexpected comprehension" and saw as the prerogative of genius—is at least as essential to its understanding as the rest of the words. | <urn:uuid:b8ea8f12-abd3-4117-9c58-b6dc1fd2e45c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/publications/essays/items/view/202 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946653 | 290 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Front Page Display: Stock Market Crash of 1929, Wednesday, 10/28
The Everett Cafe features thematic news displays on a wide range of educational topics, in addition to daily postings of headlines from around the world. Stay tuned into current events and consider how the news may impact teaching and learning.
- Censorship in the News: Travel the World, Wednesday, 10/1-Friday, 10/3
Censorship, whether moral, military, political, religious, or corporate, is the act of removing material on the basis that it is obscene, vulgar, or highly objectionable. Starting on Monday, 9/29, concomitant to Banned Books Week, the Gottesman Libraries is posting stories in the news that document the debate on censorship in different countries and different periods of time, from the early destruction of the Alexandria Library, to the Nazi book burnings, through to the suppression of intellectual thought during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ponder the following questions: Are there instances when censorship is good? What can we do to better protect our children? Why ban websites, including Wikipedia, Google, YouTube? How does suppression of information impact our work as parents, educators, and citizens?
- The Columbus Controversy, Monday, 10/13
Christopher Columbus was a fifteenth century Genovese explorer who set out from Spain to find India, but discovered the Americas, a new continent unknown to the Europeans. Determined to prove that the world was round and that he could find the other hemisphere, Columbus was joined by ninety other men on the Santa Maria flagship and her accompanying vessels, the Nina, and Pinta.
Columbus’ landing on October 12, 1492 became cause for celebration. He popularized his discoveries and arranged return voyages with success.
Though America was named after the Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci, a ceremony was held in New York honoring Columbus in 1791. A statue of Columbus was raised in 1892 at the beginning of Columbus Avenue in New York City. In later decades various states, including Colorado and California, began observing Columbus Day. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as a federal holiday, and since 1971, Columbus Day has been celebrated every second Monday in October.
Yet there remains controversy over the discovery of the Americas, as well as his treatment of the Indians. Some claim that the early Scandinavian Vikings or Irish missionaries first sighted the Americas. Others, like Howard Zinn, in A People’s History of the United States, assert that Columbus and later, the conquistadors, used murder, conversion, or enslavement to eliminate non-Christians. Also, that they brought small pox and other atrocious diseases to the new land, devastating the Taino or Arawak tribes, among other indigenous peoples. In 1990 began the first Intercontinental Gathering of Indigenous People in the Americas, which led to the proclamation in 1992 of October 12 as International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People.
On Monday, October 13th the Gottesman Libraries will display stories about the voyage of Christopher Columbus and ensuing public debate.
- Boston School Busing and Desegregation, Wednesday, 10/15
Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against racial segregation in public schools in the case of Brown versus Board of Education, a federal court had found that Boston was intentionally drawing school district lines based on race.
Forced busing was an attempt to integrate schools by assigning students based on their race, rather than geographic proximity. In 1974 Judge Arthur W. Garrity used a busing plan developed by the Massachusetts Board of Education that required schools that were more than 50% white to be balanced by other races. Among the Boston districts most affected were West Roxbury, Roslindale, Hyde Park, the North End, Charlestown, South Boston, and Dorchester. The integration plan provoked fierce criticism and led to violence, with attacks at City Hall and Boston High School. On October 15, 1974 the National Guard was deployed to mobilize Boston and restore order in schools.
Headlines of papers will portray the Boston conflict, as well as related stories about busing and the effect on education in California, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, and other states.
- Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis, Wednesday, 10/22
The Cuban Missile Crisis represents a major confrontation between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. U.S. spy planes revealed on October 16th the presence of nuclear missiles on ships and nuclear missile bases established in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy gave a public speech on October 22nd, warning that any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere was seen as an attack on the United States and would require a full retaliatory response. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade against Cuban-bound Soviet ships, preventing further shipments of supplies. In response to the U.S. blockade, Khrushchev authorized Soviet field commanders in Cuba to launch tactical nuclear weapons if U.S. forces invaded. The crisis ended thirteen days later when the Kennedy Administration and the United Nations reached an agreement with the Soviets to dismantle the Cuban missiles in exchange for a no-invasion agreement and the secret removal of the American Thor and Jupiter missiles in Turkey. Cuba remained a Communist country, still embargoed by the United States, but Kennedy’s desire for peace helped end the crisis, as close as nations were to nuclear war.
On Wednesday, October 22nd the Gottesman Libraries will display stories about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its significance in the timeline of the Cold War.
- Stock Market Crash of 1929, Wednesday, 10/29
The Great Crash of 1929 stated on October 24th, “Black Thursday” and continued through “Black Tuesday”, October 29th when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, leading people out of the Roaring Twenties, a period of rapid economic boom, into the Great Depression. With panic selling of stocks, failing banks, lost savings and credit lines, came hard times, massive unemployment, and political upheaval. The slump lasted decades and affected all Western industrialized countries; construction stopped; farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell; industries went bankrupt, among other severe economic consequences.
To avoid such widespread economic devastation, stock markets around the world instituted measures to temporarily suspend trading in the event of rapid declines. The Federal Reserve could intervene to assist failing businesses.
Still more crashes have occurred: December 12, 1914, when the DJIA fell 24.39% with the start of the First World War; October 19, 1987, a “black swan” day when, for no apparent reason, the Dow Jones fell over 500 points, followed by other global markets; September 17, 2001, the first opening day of trade after the collapse of the World Trade Center; and even more recently on September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, coupled with a restructuring of the giant insurance company, AIG, (American International Group), and a buy-out of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.
Join us on Wednesday, October 29th as we highlight stories about the Stock Market Crash of 1929: why it happened; what was done; and how other crashes have occurred.
Where: Everett Cafe
The Gottesman Libraries @ Teachers College | 525 W. 120th St. | New York, NY 10027 | Contact Us | intranet | facebook | twitter | <urn:uuid:f9002d1d-57f7-4b5d-8d7e-9501f26d9ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.tc.columbia.edu/news.php?id=364 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950872 | 1,527 | 3.015625 | 3 |
CEC Policy Manual, 1997
Section Three, Professional Policies, Part 1 Chapter 4
Administrative and Fiscal Identity
- Responsibility Defined
- Administrative Hierarchy
- Special Education and School Budgets
Responsibility for administering special education programs should be clearly defined so that accountability for service effectiveness can be maintained.
In the administration of the special education system, it must be clarified (a) who is to be responsible for various functions and decisions and (b) what procedures can be developed to provide adequate protection of the individual child's rights. When services essential to the improvement of a child's condition are rendered under several administrative auspices, as is so often the case with children and youth with exceptionalities, which agent or agency is to be responsible for providing which aspects of treatment needs to be clearly defined at every level to produce the most effective outcomes for the child.
The major functions commonly assigned to administrators of special education programs include the following:
a.Establishing and maintaining effective ways of identifying children with special education needs.
b.Assessing the special needs of children to determine what kinds of special programs and services should be provided for them.
c.Planning and organizing an appropriate variety of interventions or program alternatives for children with exceptionalities.
d.Marshalling the resources needed to conduct a comprehensive program of special education.
e.Using direction, coordination, and consultation as required to guide the efforts of all those who are engaged in the special education enterprise.
f.Conducting evaluation and research activities to reflect new emphases and to incorporate new knowledge and constantly improve special instruction and the quality of special services.
g.Involving community representatives in planning programs to ensure their understanding and support.
h.Conducting programs for staff development, such as inservice or continuing education.
The Council urges state/provincial and local education agencies to develop administrative structures on a policy-making level and to staff such programs with professionally qualified personnel who can provide dynamic leadership. Creative leadership at all levels of government is imperative for the development and improvement of programs for children and youth with exceptionalities. For this reason, The Council supports efforts to improve the quality of leadership and administrative operations in all phases of educational endeavor.
Every school system should contain a visible central administrative unit for special education programs and services which is at the same administrative hierarchical level as other major instructional program units.
The parameters of regular and special education should be articulated so that children may be afforded equal educational opportunity through the resources of either or both instructional programs.
Such articulation should be achieved through sensitive negotiations between the responsible agents of both regular and special education who meet in full parity. To protect the rights of all children to equal educational opportunity, the policy-making bodies of school systems should include administrators of both regular and special education.
Programs to meet the needs of children with exceptionalities are no less important than those designed to meet the needs of other children. The importance of programs to meet human needs should not be judged on the basis of the number of clients the programs are expected to serve.
Special Education and School Budgets
Success of all education programs is dependent on the provision of adequate funding. This is essentially true of programs for children and youth with exceptionalities. Often funding for such programs becomes buried in general budgeting procedures. In such cases, children and youth with exceptionalities do not have the opportunity to have their needs directly considered by the decision-making bodies of government. Therefore, The Council urges that efforts be undertaken to assure that budgetary provisions for children and youth with exceptionalities be clearly identified. The Council opposes general funding procedures that would circumvent direct aid to programs for children and youth with exceptionalities.
Since children with exceptionalities have the same rights to education as other children, the educational needs of children with exceptionalities cannot be delayed until the needs and service demands of the majority of children have been satisfied. Educational resources are always likely to be finite. The application of the principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number" to determine which children's needs shall be met first directly contradicts our democratic society's declared commitment to equal educational opportunity for all children. History confirms that the social injustices and ill effects that flow from the application of the majority-first principle to educational budgeting are too serious for this principle to be used in educational financing.
Children with exceptionalities constitute a minority of the school population. The programs serving them represent a comparatively high financial investment in relation to the numbers of children served. In some school systems, money allocated to special education is regarded as an alternative to the improvement of regular school programs. The climate of competitive interests thus produced can jeopardize the stability of special education services.
The interests of the community are ill served if competition for funds is conducted on the basis of special interests. What is needed, rather, is the cooperation of both regular and special educators to educate the public in the desirability of meeting the needs of all children without discrimination or favoritism.
There is every reason to believe that the public interest is best protected when the responsibility for the deployment of public resources is placed in the hands of persons who are qualified by training and experience to make the necessary judgments. Thus, special education should play an active role in determining how resources are to be allocated. However, the community has the ultimate responsibility to determine goals and to evaluate performance.
Resources should be allocated to special education on the basis of programs to be provided, not on the basis of traditional categorical incidence estimates.
The mandate to provide all children with equal educational opportunities requires that all educators, whether regular or special, be equally concerned with the funding of both regular and special education programs. No school system can fulfill the mandate if rivalries for dollars are permitted to supersede the needs of children.
The Council for Exceptional Children.
(1997). CEC Policy Manual, Section Three (pp. 71--92)
Reston, VA: Author | <urn:uuid:2781e784-a5a5-4a50-ab4e-de26f21392d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cec.sped.org/Policy-and-Advocacy/CEC-Professional-Policies/Administrative-and-Fiscal-Identity?sc_lang=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945212 | 1,209 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Geometric Fourth Edition
In your answer to the question about the uses of the 4th
dimension, you only refered to time as the 4th dimension. Why not
consider the 4th dim. to be a geometric dimension as in a hypercube? If
we consider a 2D world (as in Flatland by Abbott), time still exists but
not as the 3rd dimension. If you do consider the 4th dim. to be
geometric, would there be any uses for it? If so, what would they be.
Other than tradition, there is nothing special about referring to time as the
4th dimension. You may label the time dimension any way you like.
As to a use for a hypercube: Stuck as I am here in 3-D. I cannot think of a
use for one -- other than it's fun to contemplate the model I built and have
hanging in my office.
There are ways to use more than three dimensions geometrically. One is to
create a model of a set of quantities that can be linked quadratically. If
there are four quantities related in such a way that A^2+B^2+C^2+D^2 has to
equal a constant value(k^2), you can use A,B,C,& D as four geometric
dimensions. All possible combinations of the four variables map onto a
four-dimensional sphere of radius k. Any geometric rules that apply to a
4-D sphere also apply to these variables. Geometry is used frequently in
such cases. because the geometric rules have already been worked out.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Illinois Central College
Time is used as the "4th dimension" because the theory of relativity says
that physics is described in terms of "space-time" not "space" + "time". The
latter works O.K. for the everyday world, but not in the relativistic world
when things are happening at speeds approaching the speed of light. In such
cases, position, velocity, and time must be considered together. Things like
fields must be independent of the frame of reference. Mathematically
"space-time" does this by a set of equations called Lorenz transformations.
See Feynman's "Lectures on Physics" for the details.
Four or more geometric dimensions do not pose any mathematical problems. All
the geometric operations -- dot product, cross product, gradient, etc. can
be, and have been, generalized to "n" dimensions.
I cannot think of an application, but there are not any mathematical
Click here to return to the Physics Archives
Update: June 2012 | <urn:uuid:901ee2fd-22bb-47af-855b-455adda82c02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00280.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926211 | 566 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Lesson Plan: Albrecht Durer and Printmaking (on the cheap)
This is a fabulous lesson plan I stumbled across nearly a decade ago on The Incredible Online Art Department. Over the years, I’ve varied it and seen all sorts of incarnations. This project is recommended for students in 6th grade or older as it makes use of linoleum cutters. However, with modifications like Styrofoam printing plates it could suit students as young as 4th grade.
Additionally, I’ve modified the original project requirements to create a less expensive version of relief-printmaking. It is important, especially in Title I environments, to find ways to incorporate advanced techniques and materials alongside frugality.
This project usually takes my students 2 weeks to complete. We meet every day for one 45 minute session. Even though my Art quarters are only 9 weeks long, I can justify this project because students are using so many different artistic skills to complete one amazing work.
Here are the steps I follow:
1. Introduce students to the art, history, and style of Albrecht Durer and Printmaking. I use the presentation below
2. As a class we examine the Rhinoceros by Durer . I hang a sheet of paper over the board (or use a SmartBoard) and students come up and trace over the patterns and textures on the animal. I then remove the artwork and just leave the student-traced textures. In this way students can see how important texture is to an artwork.
3. Students invent textures using the texture/pattern worksheet below
4. Students go online and print out an image of an animal of their choosing. You can modify this by providing pre-selected images. I find, however, that students engage more when they have more ownership over their selections.
5. Students draw their animal in pencil on a 10 inch x 12 inch sheet of paper
6. Students add texture to animals
7. Students trace all pencil lines with a dark marker
8. Students paint animal with watercolors
9. Students learn how to create a relief printmaking plate; includes teacher demo
10. Students sketch for plate. This should be their “signature” and can be a design or a set of letters (like Albrecht Durer’s signature). Remind students that letters should be reversed and words must be backwards (tricky!)
11. Students sketch and carve plate (I use very soft linoleum to avoid cuts etc. and because it is easier for students to get details). I pre-cut the linoleum into 2 inch x 2 inch squares. . .But, I have considered using erasers too!
12. Demo how to print the plates using stamp pads (this is a huge money saver for me. . .Though, if you can, using brayers and tube ink is best!)
13. Students print a border around a 2nd sheet of paper that is 14 inches x 16 inches. I’ve used white and colors; they all look great!
14. Students glue painting into the center of their 2nd sheet of paper
15. Finished! (whew!) | <urn:uuid:0527daf2-b964-489c-acb7-9b41c13c4d3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artfulartsyamy.blogspot.jp/2012/01/lesson-plan-albrecht-durer-and.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922823 | 668 | 3.4375 | 3 |
The Omaha City Council is set to vote on a 22 cent per-pack tax on cigarettes Tuesday.
The money would help fund the University of Nebraska Medical Center's new cancer center.
The center is scheduled for completion in 2016 but that's only with help from the city. Without the tobacco tax, the project would have to be radically altered.
"(In the) construction phase alone, with a $370 million investment it is going to generate economic activity at almost $600 million," UNMC's Vice Chancellor for Business & Finance Don Leuenberger said.
The new cancer center will create about 4,800 construction jobs, and should permanently employ about 4,600 people by 2020.
"This is a dream job, an unbelievable opportunity for our city and our state," Omaha Federation of Labor President Terry Moore said.
However, some businesses are raising serious concerns about the cost of the opportunity.
"There's no question you're going to be putting some of these businesses in the city of Omaha out of business," said Steve Moskovits, chief financial officer of No Frills, Bag & Save
He claims sales at his Council Bluffs store dropped 30 percent when Iowa imposed its own tobacco tax.
Business owner Randy Conrad makes his living behind the counter at Four Aces Snacks & Tobacco. He said he'll be "in a very bad spot" if the city passes the 22 cent tax on cigarettes. | <urn:uuid:d5865683-a666-4eb7-8358-2dbd087bf869> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/Vote-on-Omaha-tobacco-tax-looms/-/9674510/16810490/-/bke9lx/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962229 | 289 | 1.5625 | 2 |
C-print with sculpted resin frames, and color dye
15.25 x 10 inches
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
None of The Above: Contemporary Work by Puerto Rican Artists
Curated by Silvia Karman Cubina, Deborah Cullen and Steven Holmes.
May 1-September 19, 2004, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut
January 22-April 17, 2005, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan
Malika is an artist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, 1968. She is a self named, self taught artist who grew up in a small town called Aguas Buenas in the mountains of Puerto Rico. She is the youngest in a family of three siblings. Her mother was a spanish literature teacher with a passion for making clothes. Her father was a lawyer, a senator and a judge with a bohemian heart. "Music and literature where the main artistic influences in this family". Malika and her two older brothers grew up experimenting with different musical instruments and styles.
After years of many relocations, having lived in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California, Malika settled in New York City. After the death of her parents to AIDS, she fixed herself into an artistic lifestyle in part, as a way to cope with her emotions.
In his youth her father spent some time in Germany in the USA army. He came back with a Leica camera and endless black and white photographs. At eight years of age Malika began experimenting with her parents cameras and has kept this fascination with imagery ever since.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in Europe, Latin America and North America, in cities such as New York, San Juan, Caracas, Reykjavik and Paris. Her photographs have been published in magazines, ad campaigns, album covers and books. Some of these include Index, VIBE, IO Donna, Harper's Bazaar, Travel & Leisure, Architectural Digest, Jane, Details as well as book covers for Platform by Michel Houellebecq, Lost Souls by Michael Collins and featured in Here is New York a Democracy of Photographs.
None of The Above: Contemporary Work by Puerto Rican Artists catalogue published by Real Art Ways in collaboration with Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. | <urn:uuid:cfa17f28-6e84-4ca1-af83-214313d83bad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artincontext.com/image/image_main.aspx?id=187 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953827 | 470 | 1.507813 | 2 |
We found this Robin hopping around in the grass looking for bugs or worms to take home to the family. When we lived in the Northeast, seeing a Robin was often the first sign of Spring, but Robins winter here so we see lots of them even in the snowy months.
We decided to look down first and we found lots of green shoots pushing up.
Some flowers are already up and in bloom.
This Bleeding Heart makes me smile. I've actually tried to kill this plant several times and it keeps coming back. It's poisonous to dogs and when the pups were younger, they loved to chew on plants in the garden. I tried cutting it down and pulling it out, but it's still here. Fortunately, the dogs pay no attention to it anymore.
The Clematis are climbing up the trellis and will be flowering soon.
Do you see the Periwinkle flowers hiding under the leaves? These are growing under the porch and around the front steps.
Now Tsar and I looked up. | <urn:uuid:aefd6490-8d14-421c-b4e6-22aa71b0eaca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theportuguesewaterblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/here-they-come.html?showComment=1303082272118 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975906 | 211 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Maryland residents would have to opt out of the state's organ donation system under legislation before the General Assembly, angering religious groups that oppose it for ostensibly placing the state's law above God's.
The measure would require Marylanders to opt out of organ donation when they applied for a driver's license or state ID, as opposed to the current system, in which they can volunteer to opt in.
"The government does not have a lien on our bodies," said Catholic League President Bill Donohue. "The whole idea of opting out is offensive, because the predicate here is that the state has some claim on our organs."
The Catholic League joined Orthodox Jewish groups to defeat a similar New York bill in 2010.
"It cheapens the whole culture because the way we look at human life from conception to natural death becomes coarser and coarser," Donohue said. "The premise is that somehow the government owns your body unless you opt out ... if we accept that, what's next?"
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ron Young, D-Washington and Frederick counties, would require the Motor Vehicle Administration to notify people applying for or renewing driver's licenses or IDs that they will be an organ donor unless they expressly choose not to. It doesn't specify how the MVA must notify applicants. Donor organs and tissue can be used for transplants, therapy, or medical research and education.
A House version is being sponsored by Del. Galen Clagett, D-Frederick County. Neither Young nor Clagett returned calls.
Few religions expressly forbid organ donation. Jehova's Witnesses believe blood from one person's body should never enter another's, and the Japanese Shinto religion believes that dead bodies are impure and taking organs equates to defiling a corpse.
Some Orthodox Jewish interpretations also hold that organ donation defiles a corpse.
About half of Maryland adults are registered organ donors, ranking it 27th among states, according to a 2012 report by organ donation group Donate Life.
Libby Wolfe, executive director of Donate Life Maryland, said 2,300 people in Maryland are awaiting a donation, with 116,000 waiting nationwide. Donate Life Maryland opposes the "presumed consent" bill because countries with opt-out systems have seen a decrease in donors.
If Maryland passes the bill, it would be the first state to have such a law. The legislatures in Virginia and New Jersey are also considering bills to create presumed-consent organ donation systems, according to the University of North Carolina Kidney Center, which tracks transplant-related bills. | <urn:uuid:489d4325-1924-4777-b4f3-8afdafd3e771> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/religious-groups-oppose-maryland-organ-donation-bill/article/2520221 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941539 | 531 | 1.867188 | 2 |
North West London Local Information: 10 top things to know... more
The earliest known settlement in the North West London area dates back to the Mesolithic age around 7000BC. For centuries the area was heavily forested until the Saxons built their city to the west of the Roman city of Londinium. The 1086 Domesday Survey recorded that the residents of the North West London area mainly lived in small hamlets where they ploughed their land and ...Read more
North West London is a culturally diverse and bustling area of the capital city and includes popular areas Camden, Queen’s Park, Wembley and Primrose Hill. Many of these neighbourhoods are fashionable areas to live in and visit.
Camden Crawl takes place every early May Bay Holiday over a two-mile stretch of venues and historic pubs in Camden. The weekend-long festival plays host to hundreds of acts ranging from live music to comedy, storytelling, independent film screenings and fringe theatre. Queen’s Park Day is a popular free community event that happens every September at Queen’s Park in North ...Read more
London Zoo, the world’s oldest scientific zoo, is in North West London. London Zoo is one of Britain’s top attractions and is home to an amazing 750 different species of animals including lions, camels, giraffes, meerkats, monkeys, tigers and penguins. The zoo is divided into different areas which include Butterfly Paradise, Gorilla Kingdom and Penguin Beach, which has Engl...Read more
5. Things To Do
Camden in North West London is famous for several large markets that sell an incredible range of clothes, jewellery, books, accessories and much more. The markets in Camden include Camden Lock market, Buck street market, Camden Lock village, Stables market and an indoor market in the Electric Ballroom. There are no chain stores in Camden market so you will always be able to fin...Read more
North West London once had an extensive manufacturing industry but most of the factories closed in the 1980s. The main industries in the area now are retail and tourism. Camden markets are so popular that Camden town tube station is only open to incoming passengers on Sunday afternoons.
North West London has links to the rest of London with the city’s extensive bus and underground network. The rest of the UK can be easily accessed from London by train and the nearest airport to the North West area of London is Heathrow airport. Heathrow is the UK’s busiest airport and the third biggest airport in the world. It has frequent flights to a great number of coun...Read more
Camden has a reputation for offering a great deal of alternative theatre and musical performances at venues such as KOKO and the Roundhouse Theatre. The Roundhouse Theatre is a converted locomotive engine roundhouse that has been renovated and now acts as a popular theatre and music venue. KOKO is a rock and dance music venue on Camden High Street that has seen performances fro...Read more
9. Famous Landmarks
Wembley Arena in North West London was built in 2003-2007 at a cost of £827 million. The arena was designed by architects Foster + Partners and Populous and has a sliding roof so that it can be used in all weather. It has a capacity of 90,000.
10. Interesting Fact
Famous Victorian writer Charles Dickens once lived in Camden and so did some of his characters including Bob Cratchit's family in A Christmas Carol and the Micawbers in David Copperfield.
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22 September 2012 - 04 April 2014
NLP School is the home of the best practical and life change techniques the NLP has to offer for both business and personal life. We provide accredited NLP training at all levels, from an introductory course through to Practitioner and Master Practitioner training. Trai ...more
01 May 2013 - 31 May 2013
The Camden Crawl takes place every early May Bank Holiday in the Camden area of North West London. The event is held over the two mile stretch of pubs and venues in Camden and sees performances from new talent over thirty hours of entertainment on Friday, Saturday and S ...more
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North West London Blog
A couple from Dollis Hill who have opened their home up to foster children for the last ten years have been awarded a long service award for all of their hard work and dedication. Velma and Jim Dunne were given their special...
Colonel Anthony Ian Denison, an army officer from North West London has been rewarded for his 34 years of voluntary work with an OBE. Colonel Denison is the former commandant of the Middlesex and North West London Army Cadets, and has been...
Jim Carter, the star of Downtown Abbey, has joined the campaign to get the Mayor of London to bring his bicycle scheme to Hampstead and Highgate. Mr Carter, who plays butler Carson in the smash hit show, lives in West Hampstead and...
Tinie Tempah, the popular South London rapper has been named by GQ magazine as Britain’s best-dressed man. The magazine gave the rapper the accolade and described him as having a “true passion for elegance and proportions.” However, North...
- See more blogs | <urn:uuid:99bf0b66-5aa9-49ed-82e6-2b6807fee472> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cityvisitor.co.uk/northwestlondon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958696 | 1,097 | 1.875 | 2 |
Question: My neighbor just told me that he has termites. He found out because of a hole in his foundation. In working on that they found the termites. He’s going to get sprayed next week.
Does the spraying kill the termites? What can/should we do to prevent the termites from coming over to our home?
ANSWER: Termites don’t create holes in the foundation, and spraying will not solve the problem … so, I’m not sure what is going on at the neighbor’s. Termites are out to destroy your most valuable possession, your home. Termite work is not a project for a do-it-yourself person, no matter how handy that person may be. This is a job for a professional Pest Control Operator. Call your local Orkin branch office today. A highly qualified and trained Orkin Termite inspector will come to your home and complete a comprehensive inspection, looking at conditions that are attractive to termites, entry points, construction issues that could result in termite infestations, and so on. Once the inspection is complete, the Orkin Termite Inspector will develop a customized treatment plan, whether it is corrective or preventive, based on extensive knowledge and science to protect your biggest investment. | <urn:uuid:1a26766c-be81-44c8-811c-a8b43acf706f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orkin.com/ask-the-orkin-man/spray-for-termites/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942463 | 264 | 1.945313 | 2 |
Most parents today prefer to make their own healthy baby food. It seems like the better choice because of the increasing pollution and the scarcity of supplies that causes prices to skyrocket. Additionally, the babyfoods prepared at home are usually much healthier than store bought foods because they do not contain the preservatives, food colorings and artificial flavors that are seen in almost every store item. It only requires a little of your time and effort each day to make your own delicious healthy food for you and your baby in the comfort of your abode. Here are some suggestions that you can use to make wholesome foods for your bundles of joy.
Fruit and Veggie Puree
Purees are healthy wholesome baby foods that are easy to prepare. All you need is a blender and the food ingredients. Because your baby might not have the taste for certain foods, it is a good idea to include fruits that provide sweetness so that you don’t need to add any sugar.
Also make sure it is soft enough for your baby.
Thoroughly clean all fruits and veggies and then boil them to kill all harmful germs. Be sure to remove all seeds pits and stems so that the baby will not choke on them. Be creative with the food combinations so that your baby can have an enjoyable meal. When your baby gets used to eating purees, you can include nutritional baby supplements for greater benefit.
Wholesome Grain Rice
This requires rice flour or rice powder. You can buy it or grind rice grains to get it. Mix with boiling water and stir for minimum ten minutes. Add a bit of sugar. Cool it to body temperature before serving it to your baby. Make sure any ingredient in it such as carrot is soft and small enough to swallow easily.
These are just a few examples of what you can make.
the internet hold a great selection of ideas. Don’t forget to consider whether your child has any food allergies. Also, be sure to give your baby variety so that all the needed nutrients are acquired. If you need further advice about the nutritional value of the ingredients you are using for your baby food, consult a pediatrician.
For more information go to Wholesome Baby Food | <urn:uuid:cfc87b8c-5330-496c-b191-8206573d555d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foodtweets.info/homemade-baby-food-recipes/making-homemade-baby-food.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944345 | 449 | 2.5 | 2 |
There's definitely some research out there about the ways that people navigate the web, and whether different ways of structuring a site might have different effects on people's ability to navigate and engage with its content. Below are some of the sources I've come across, but there are almost certainly others.
People's existing knowledge interacts with information structure. Calisir & Gurel (2003) suggest that having pages in a traditional hierarchical structure may be more useful for people with low knowledge of the relevant topic area, because it gives them some kind of structure to hang the information on (if you're an expert, you're less reliant on structure, because you've already built your own).
In a similar vein, Chambrot's 2008 Masters thesis found that people remembered parent-page content better than linked-to content. It also found, interestingly, that the content of unrelated linked-to pages was recalled better than information from related linked-to pages. However, the author does point out that the study lacks ecological validity — i.e. that some of the results may relate to the non-real-world nature of the experimental task, which involved many visits back to the parent pages. (I'd also guess that the first few pages you encounter on your web wanderings are remembered better because of the serial position effect)
Information structure affects refindability:
There's a really interesting paper by McDonald & Stevenson (1996?)
about people surfing between hypertext documents and then trying to navigate back via hypertext links to a particular piece of information in a hypertext document (cached version, sorry; the original seems to have disappeared). People seemed to find it easier to find something again in a linearly-structured document (think conventional Word doc or similar) than in a hierarchically-structured document (think traditional website with parent and child pages). In turn, it was easier to find something again in a hierarchical document than it was in a non-linear document (think wiki). This makes intuitive sense; we often have a sense of how long ago/how far through a book or magazine something was).
Is wandering the web intrinsically rewarding?
The instinct to seek, and how clicking links on the Internet supposedly turns us into rats pressing buttons in search of the 'reward' of finding new things, has been widely written about, such as this article from Slate about how we are predisposed to find the web addictive.
Should we be seeking to minimise wandering, or are we just evolving ways of coping with our desire to do so?
There's also been some blog commentary about this in the last year or two, revisiting the idea that instead of putting in distracting links mid-post, it might be better to put all the links at the end, more in the style of a bibliography - concise explanation and example here. However, according to research by Mozilla, it seems that people often use browser tabs as placeholders for linked content while they're reading a page — that is, they open the links as they encounter them, but will often finish reading the page before they go and explore those links.
This feels like an inadequate summary, but I hope it gives you some useful starting-points :) | <urn:uuid:ddfa9732-a6d8-4022-b9a2-e4e1b6e5c274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/23812/web-surfing-people-wandering-from-page-to-page-vs-people-following-their-goal/23819 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954181 | 657 | 2.5 | 2 |
New Day Earrings
A colorful conbination of Turquoise, Gaspeite and Red Spiney Oyster hanging from sterling silver earwires.
Turquoise continues to increase in price as more imitations are created but imitations won’t bring the gifts that the true gemstones carry. Some of what is sold as Turquoise is actually howlite or magnesite that is dyed blue and not Turquoise at all. Turquoise assists in spiritual attunement, strength and grounding. It is protective and excellent for astral travel. It heals this life and past life blocks in the throat chakra; opens, heals, and releases this life and past life fear and grief. It heals sadness about one’s life and deeds, heals karmic and this life shame and guilt. It connects physical and spiritual awareness and develops inner strength and calm. Turquoise also heals the emotions and emotional body and enhances communication and creativity.
Spiny Oyster Shell thrives in the warmer waters off the South American coast of Ecuador and Northern Peru and off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Part of its value to the ancient Peruvians was due to the difficulties involved in harvesting these beautiful shells. They were used by the ancient Incas in jewelry and as money in other pre-Columbian cultures. Shell color will vary due to the changing temperatures in ocean waters and is available in various shades of orange, red and purple and occasionally yellow. It was the shell most loved by the Mayan people, and has been found in abundance in archeological excavations of the Anasazi, Mogollon and Hohokam of Southwest. There are limited suppliers for the Spiny Oyster beads and due to it’s rarity it brings a higher price. It has always been a favorite of the Native American Indian jewelry artists. The quality is determined by the amount of color in the beads as opposed to the amount of white. The colors are difficult to capture with a camera but they’re a deep rich rust orange. Spiny Oyster is thought to encourage joy, security and adaptability.
Gaspeite is a relatively rare mineral, found only in a few localities. Its light green, almost apple green color is quite unique and some varieties are almost a neon green. It may contain brownish patches which may give it a distinctive character. Gaspeite is found around nickel sulfide deposits and is named for the locality of Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, Canada where it was originally found. Sources are Canada and Western Australia. Emotionally, it reduces distress and brings assurance. It also reduces ignorance, particularly emotional ignorance. It also helps attracts friends and friendship. Aboriginals use gaspeite to bring visions and grant success. Metaphysically, gaspeite is best known for helping to bring spirituality into every day life. It brings good fortune and helps prevent loss. Physically gaspeite has been used for heart problems, lungs, and gallbladder. Gaspeite is primarily related to the Heart Chakra.
What a fun pair of earrings to wear on those days when you need some color! Length-3/4 inch drop. | <urn:uuid:29365452-99df-412a-957f-13182bd060e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oceandreamersjewelry.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=3newday&portrelay=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952044 | 656 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Capt. Fred Benko, a longtime staple of the Santa Barbara waterfront and founder of Sea Landing and Condor Cruises, died early Thursday after a long struggle with an undisclosed illness. He was 73.
He moved to California as a district manager for Pfizer Labs, and founded the Sea Landing in 1973 as a charter service offering sport fishing, diving, harbor cruises and limited whale watching.
During his time at the harbor, Benko owned the fishing vessels Hornet and Sea Hawk, and the bait boat Scout.
He built the original Condor in 1979, and eventually sold Sea Landing to go into whale watching full time in 1985 as the Pacific gray whale population rose.
The business began to run exclusively for whale-watching and natural-history tours in 2002, with the launch of a new, more-modern vessel, the Condor Express.
Mat Curto, operations manager for the Condor Express, who has worked with Benko since 1995, told Noozhawk that he received a call from Benko’s wife, Hiroko, at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday confirming the death.
Benko died at 2 a.m. at his home, where he had been receiving hospice care for the last two days, he said, adding that Benko’s health had been declining for several months.
“He was very easy to work for and really cared about his business,” Curto said.
Whether Benko was traveling in Cabo San Lucas or Croatia, he called every day to check on the people who worked for him and how things were going.
“I’m going to miss the phone calls,” Curto said. “Wherever he was, he would say, ‘Hey, tell me about it.’”
Seeing Benko in his element at sea “was awesome,” said Curto, recalling the annual fishing trips Benko took with the crew to Cabo San Lucas, as well as sailing with Benko on the original Condor.
Benko spent nine months building that ship in a shipyard in Bellingham, Wash., Curto said, and also designed the Condor Express that is currently used by the operation.
“Fred was a person to whom you were easily attracted due to his energy and vision,” said Mick Kronman, Santa Barbara harbormaster. “When he brought the Condor here, he took whale watching to a new level.
“He was a fixture in the community and will be deeply missed.”
City Councilman Randy Rowse called Benko a “great advocate for channel health,” who did much to enhance the public’s understanding of whales and the marine environment.
In terms of whale watching locally, “Fred put it all together,” said Hillary Hauser, executive director of Heal the Ocean and a longtime friend of Benko.
“Fred’s legacy to Santa Barbara is that he really built Sea Landing,” Hauser said. “He was the one who made it happen.”
Hauser also noted that Benko had another side that many didn’t know about: he was a talented musician who had a love for the theater, and performed with the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera.
“He was a renaissance man and had an incredible voice,” she said.
Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton contributed to this article. | <urn:uuid:2464c7d5-e151-4a79-84e4-e1a4288620c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/capt._fred_benko_founder_of_condor_cruises_dies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983561 | 724 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Spring Cottonwoods, Zion Canyon
Posted on 23 May 2012
Spring Cottonwoods, Zion Canyon. Zion National Park, Utah. April 3, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
New spring leaves appear on cottonwood trees along the Virgin River in Zion Canyon, Zion National Park.
This is a type of photograph that I enjoy searching out – though it is also a type that can be difficult to present effectively in online jpg form, given the amount of fine detail that is present. The challenge is in trying to capture both the dense complexity of the thick foliage and the complex patterns of rock – and these things fill the frame completely – and still try to find some sort of compositional logic that might still be visible in the end. In general, I think these things work better in fairly large prints.
The scene is along a section of the Virgin River in Zion Canyon of Zion National Park. A trail continues up the canyon beyond the point that is accessible via the park service shuttles. Here the canyon gradually narrows, and thickets of young cottonwood trees grow on the valley floor in what I believe must be the sediment left behind by floods. The canyon itself becomes a bit more convoluted, twisting right and left around the vertical sandstone walls. For much of the day there is little or no direct sunlight at the bottom of the canyon, and that was certainly the case during the time when I made this photograph.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell. | <urn:uuid:e8286697-1ffe-4069-8a5c-feff95d6fa5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2012/05/23/spring-cottonwoods-zion-canyon-2/comment-page-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934679 | 408 | 1.875 | 2 |
I'm trying to obtain a deeper understanding of access token requirements in relation to reading the Events a Page is attending from graph.facebook.com.
Firstly, why is an access token required to read a list of Events a Page is attending, when this information is publicly available from Facebook?
The documentation is as follows:
This says that to access the Events connection for the Page, I need "any valid token, or a user access token" to read the Events a Page is attending.
What exactly is "any valid token"?
My application is presented in a Page Tab, so it can read the 'oauth_token' that is passed in the Signed Request that is sent to every app presented in a Page Tab. If I use this token when querying the Graph for Events a Page is attending, it seems to work, but I don't understand what the relationship is between this token and the Page Events. I always thought this token related to the user who was using the app.
Is it the case that "any valid token" means any token issued by Facebook for anything provided that token hasn't expired?
If so, what's the point in requiring a token at all? | <urn:uuid:16f9d744-bb08-4b62-adc0-4c691d83561f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://facebook.stackoverflow.com/questions/13824094/page-events-and-access-tokens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955352 | 244 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Tablets transforming the mobile marketplace
Not long ago, tablet computers were barely on the minds of businesses and consumers. Once perceived as a luxury gadget for niche users, the tablet is now changing the entire landscape of mobile computing.
According to Don Reisinger of eWeek, the increasingly powerful market influence held by tablets is the sum of many factors. Most importantly, the device serves the mobility demands of enterprises and consumers alike. Simple, fast connections allow business professionals to access and share a full range of relevant data and applications without having to haul around and set up their laptops in conference rooms and colleagues' offices. Media-rich presentation features also allow consumers to stream movies, read magazines and listen to playlists whenever and wherever they want.
Tablets are also cutting into the popularity of netbooks and laptops. By offering an optimal balance of portability and productivity, tablets are consistently making alternative devices obsolete.
As the technology has matured and taken hold in the marketplace, the tablet industry has become big business. As Reisinger notes, multi-billion dollar revenues have caught the attention of the world's leading technology brands and tablets are now forcing their way into an increasing amount of company product lines. Market forecasts from the International Data Corporation now predict 53.5 million tablets will be shipped by year's end. | <urn:uuid:bc3540b8-37c0-4040-a888-0fd3f59f048f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lenovo.com/articles/us/en/news/tablets-transforming-the-mobile-marketplace.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948702 | 263 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A possible norovirus outbreak at the Baywood Golf and Country Club over the last week left at least 40 people ill with food poisoning-type symptoms, according to county officials.
Humboldt County Environmental Health Division Director Brian Cox said they've received dozens of reports of illness from people who attended events at the club on Saturday and Sunday.
The cause of the possible norovirus outbreak -- a highly contagious virus which causes the stomach flu or gastroenteritis -- is unknown, he said, but he's narrowed it down to two possibilities: A customer or an employee.
”This is an unusual case for us,” Cox said. “We may never identify the exact cause, but we're looking into it.”
The norovirus is typically spread from person to person and is contracted when individuals do not wash their hands after using the restroom, he said.
The onset of illness occurs within 24 to 48 hours after ingesting the virus, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, but can appear as early as 12 hours after infection. There is no vaccine to prevent the infection and no antiviral medication or antibiotics that work against norovirus, as antibiotics fight bacteria, not viruses.
The Arcata club shut down its food and beverage services Wednesday at the health department's request, and won't re-open its banquet room and bar until the health department gives it the OK.
”It's an unfortunate situation
The health department started receiving calls Monday from people who became sick after eating at the club sometime between Saturday and Wednesday, Cox said. Up to 600 people dined at the club in those five days, he said.
Among those were the Purkersons, who fell ill with what felt like food poisoning over the weekend. Lee Purkerson and his wife were still recovering Thursday afternoon.
”I was deathly sick,” said Purkerson, 72, who ate “a little bit of everything” at the club with his wife Saturday. “My wife is having a rougher time than I am.”
Public health nursing staff have since interviewed employees and club guests, while environmental health staff members have inspected the facility for sanitation purposes and went over handwashing practices with employees, Cox said.
One of the greatest concerns is the potential for secondary infections, Cox said.
”Because it's highly transmissible, we're hoping if anyone is sick, they stay home, especially if they're food service workers,” he said.
Those who are sick should wait 24 hours after recovering before returning to work, Cox said.
”Our main concern right now is getting the facility back in working condition and getting a level of confidence so we know there won't be continued illness,” he said.
The investigation and report should be done next week, Cox said.
Hoff said the staff at Baywood Golf and Country Club feel terrible about the situation. “We're all here saying, 'What could we have done to prevent it?' And at this point, I don't know. It's very difficult to monitor people who come in the door,” he said.
Karen Wilkinson can be reached 441-0514 or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:e49c8941-5711-4cda-9117-bf79a776e049> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/ci_7658551 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975659 | 677 | 1.789063 | 2 |
A new study from Sweden reveals that having low peer status in adolescence is a strong risk factor for regular and heavy smoking in adulthood.
Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden used a large database that followed the lives of more than 15,000 Swedes, mainly from the Stockholm area, from birth to middle age. The researchers isolated 2,329 people who were interviewed once at age 13 about peer status at school and again at age 32 about their smoking habits. The results indicate that the lower a young person’s status is among his or her school peers, the more likely that person is to become a regular (less than 20 cigarettes per day) or heavy (20+ cigarettes) smoker in adulthood.
Unlike some previous studies of peer status and health-related behaviours, this study benefited from an objective measure of peer status, in that the students were not asked to assess their own status but instead nominated the three classmates they ‘best liked to work with at school’. By checking the responses of all classmates from each school, the researchers identified individuals nominated 0 times by their classmates (marginalised students), 1 time (peripheral), 2-3 times (accepted), 4-6 times (popular), and 7+ times (class favourites). Students with few nominations were assumed to be less accepted and respected within the group and to have fewer friends.
There are several possible reasons why low status children grow up to become smokers. Marginalized adolescents may come to believe in their low status, which may then affect future prospects and ambitions and influence their choices (e.g. smoking) over the course of a lifetime. Marginalized people may be more likely to adopt controversial behaviours, such as smoking, while ‘favourites’ conform to social expectations of good behaviour. Unaccepted youngsters may take up smoking in school as a bid for attention or popularity, with the smoking habit – via nicotine addiction -- continuing into adulthood.
What is clear, however, is that anti-smoking programs in schools are likely to be more effective if they increase integration and foster acceptance among students as well as transmitting negative attitudes towards smoking. Not only would adolescent smoking rates be reduced, but the benefits gained from integrating marginalised students could have wide-ranging positive influences on health and health behaviours into adulthood.
-- Ends --
Almquist YB and Östberg V. Special relationships and subsequent health-related behaviours: Linkages between adolescent peer status and levels of adult smoking in a Stockholm cohort. Addiction, 108: doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.04097.x
This paper is free to download from the Wiley Online Library for one month from the date of online publication: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291360-0443 or by contacting Jean O’Reilly, Editorial Manager, Addiction, firstname.lastname@example.org, tel +44 (0)20 7848 0853.
Media seeking interviews may contact Viveca Östberg at the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University by email (email@example.com) or telephone (+46 8 162650).
Addiction (www.addictionjournal.org) is a monthly international scientific journal publishing peer-reviewed research reports on alcohol, illicit drugs, tobacco, and gambling as well as editorials and other debate pieces. Owned by the Society for the Study of Addiction, it has been in continuous publication since 1884. Addiction is the number one journal in the 2011 ISI Journal Citation Reports Ranking in the Substance Abuse Category (Social Science Edition). Membership to the Society for the Study of Addiction (http://www.addiction-ssa.org/) is £85 and includes an annual subscription to Addiction. | <urn:uuid:2d48de3d-1456-4c7b-a96f-a7eb95100436> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.addictionjournal.org/press-releases/adolescents-with-low-status-among-peers-are-more-likely-to-become-adult-smokers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937413 | 789 | 3.03125 | 3 |
From a Nov. 15 editorial in the Los Angeles Times:
One of the most valuable pieces of information about a video game is also the simplest: the rating that tells parents what ages the story and graphics are suitable for and why it might not be right for younger users. But as games have moved from computers and consoles to mobile devices, the rating systems have multiplied. Apps for the iPhone and the iPad, Facebook, Android devices, BlackBerrys, Kindles and Windows phones all go through separate ratings processes, each with its own set of labels.
The lack of a common system confuses parents and irritates game publishers, whose titles often span multiple platforms with incompatible ratings. Entertainment Software Association Chairman John Riccitiello, head of game developer Electronic Arts, has called for a single rating system that would work across all platforms. Its the right move.
The video game industry established a voluntary rating system in 1994, creating the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to evaluate and rate games before they were released. Its not a perfect system, but the boards ratings are simple and clear, and they come with important enforcement mechanisms: Consoles can be programmed not to allow games rated for older players, and major retailers have agreed not to sell those games to minors.
But the arrival of new platforms led to so many new downloadable games, the ratings board couldnt keep up with the volume. That left each platform provider such as Apple, Facebook and Google to come up with its own system. The most common approach is to have game providers assign an age-based rating for their products, then let parents set the highest rating their children can download.
Those age-based ratings are not only inconsistent across platforms, they reveal nothing about a games content. Riccitiello is backing the Entertainment Software Associations effort to extend the boards familiar, descriptive ratings to all platforms and to any country that wants to sign on. Instead of evaluating games itself, the ratings board would have developers rate their own games through an interactive process designed to apply the same standards the board uses on packaged video games. The board would then monitor compliance, paying particular attention to the most popular titles and the ones that draw complaints.
This approach wont satisfy people who dont like the industry applying its own ratings to its products. But the associations effort, which is expected to be ready for global use next year, would be a significant improvement over the inconsistencies of the current system. Embracing it would raise a number of tough issues, including what to do about the thousands of games that are already available. Thats all the more reason for those companies to get on board sooner rather than later. | <urn:uuid:dc2d9e88-99fe-4cd7-8321-a5a458196e91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/19/3677052/clearing-up-confusion-over-video.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955751 | 531 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Looking for another "take" on that lecture about the American Revolution? Still unclear about the "Cold War"? LecturePoint: U.S. History can help! In each of 32 animated audio lectures that follow the traditional U.S. History course, an experienced instructor describes the significant people, events, and movements of American history. Maps, photos, and artwork punctuate each lesson. This is not a replacement for lectures or reading, but a useful review tool to help you succeed in your class. Whether your class is in-person or online, you'll find it easy to review lessons whenever you need them.
A quick reference copy of the original document.
Enter here to take self-tests on chapters of your choice.
Abundant primary sources for reading and research, listed according to chapters in Norton et al., A People and a Nation. Each source is accompanied by helpful study questions.
Each Legacy Activity for A People and a Nation, one feature for every chapter in the Sixth Edition, has a corresponding web activity. The activities are broken into three sections — Questions to Consider, Investigation, and Further Exploration—that can be used for homework assignments, discussion topics, research, or just for studying.
A quick reference guide to the past presidents and their corresponding administrations.
Enter here to join a discussion with other students and professors currently using A People and a Nation in their classrooms.
Links to quality web sites covering 14 periods in United States history.
100 interactive maps with questions to test your knowledge of history and geography, grouped by major historical periods.
Hundreds of primary source documents with questions to test your analysis of historical evidence, grouped by major historical periods. | <urn:uuid:851d6417-0cdc-4346-acb2-caed88b686f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://college.cengage.com/history/us/norton/people_nation/6e/students/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920035 | 341 | 3.65625 | 4 |
The first Calibre 135 joined the world of watchmaking in 1948. The mechanism boasted a number of innovative and sophisticated technical peculiarities and was awarded with multiple highly coveted Neuchatel Observatory chronometry prizes, with record-breaking five years in a row in the period between 1950 -1954. The list of recognitions features about 200 individual awards, with two-thirds of them being first prizes, and five for series-honors.
Ephrem Jobin, born in 1909, the world’s oldest living watchmaker, celebrating his 100th birthday in November 2009, played an important role in the development of the brand. In the period between 1939 - 1954, the watchmaker worked on the development of three complete calibres, and the legendary Calibre 135 in particular.
In 1946, Ephrem Jobin was responsible for inventing a 30mm calibre to correspond to the standards of the Neuchatel Observatory competition. The watchmaker conceived and developed the movement with the best possible chronometric performances. He was the one in charge of the entire project.
Working on Calibre 135, Ephrem Jobin provided it with a large barrel for increased power reserve, and an oversized balance for enhanced precision. The watchmaker had to rethink the movement design. He offset the minute wheel from the central axis to offer enough space for the bigger balance. The Calibre 135.0 that participated in the observatory competition incorporated a Breguet overcoil balance-spring, and a single or double arrow-shaped index or regulator to guarantee balanced friction and optimal adjustment.
In addition, Calibre 135 was also developed in commercialized versions that boasted chronometer certificates and were available with a rating certificate. The movements were fitted with an off-center disc regulator and embellished with Cotes de Geneve.
The chronometer characteristics of Calibre 135 implied its limited production volume. The mechanism was meant to animate exclusively high-end timepieces. It was produced in a number of 11 000 pieces and watches accommodating the calibre are highly coveted among passionate watch connoisseurs and collectors.
Once named by specialized press as one of the best wristwatch movement in horological history, Calibre 135 with its outstanding performances and appealing modern construction, along with the classic design and meticulous finishing, perfectly matches the pure classicism of Zenith watches.
Zenith, one of the favorite brands of Watches.InfoNIAC.com, commemorates Ephrem Jobin’s jubilee and honors his remarkable achievements by unveiling a special 100-piece limited-edition watch. The watchmaker has been presented with the N°100 model. The timepiece accommodates a self-winding COSC-certified Elite 689 movement born due to the technical progress reached by Zenith when Mr. Jobin worked for the company.
The case of the Zenith watch is sculptured in 18K rose gold and incorporates sapphire crystals on both sides. The refined brown sunray dial is completed with 18K rose gold faceted hands and applied hour-markers mounted by hand. The watch is presented on a hand-crafted brown crocodile leather strap lined with silky Alvazel calfskin. The strap is equipped with an 18K rose gold pin buckle.
Enjoy a rich selection of Zenith Watches: | <urn:uuid:0d35bba6-08cf-452f-bf52-b026a589b7eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watches.infoniac.com/calibre-135-amazing-movement-zenith.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948719 | 686 | 2.46875 | 2 |
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Carnival of Dunces
Carnival of Dunces
Smith Op-Ed in National Review
July 06, 1992
Rio is a beautiful city, shoehorned between steep granite mountains and seemingly infinite sandy beaches where, despite the thinning of the ozone layer, eco-efficient clothing (less is more") dominates. The city was even more beautiful than usual during the Earth Summit, because its street children and poor had been pushed out of sight to ensure that the Summit's opposition to economic growth would not be mocked by the reality of Third World poverty. Rio's shantytowns clustered on the sides of the mountains, lacking sewers and potable water, received little emphasis at an Earth Summit where the preferred topics were pesticide residues and subtle changes in temperature over the next several hundred years. The Rio skyline is dominated by the massive statue of Christ the Redeemer, and He is the only one Who will be able to help the Brazilian poor as plans to crucify mankind on a cross of green proceed.
The official United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) was headquartered at Rio Center, 45 minutes from downtown. The soldiers were decked out in fresh green uniforms—environmentalism is nothing if not chic—and one was reminded that India has already established "Green Brigades" to act as "ecological vigilantes" throughout the country. Were these the harbingers of that eco-police state that would be needed to impose the full-scale green agenda? The requisite thought control was already in evidence.
Maurice Strong, the conference's secretary general, declared at the official opening that the human race is "a species out of control." He is a member of the Club of Rome, which predicted in 1972 that the world would run out of gold by 1981, mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, petroleum by 1992, and copper, lead, and natural gas by 1993. But no one at Rio was likely to remind Strong or anyone else of the Club's absurd predictions.
There were few skeptics, fewer heroes—but the Vatican delegation did stand out. All the leaders at Rio believed that population was the key problem. Sterilizing the brown people of the underdeveloped world remains a green goal. But the Vatican demurred—and won.
Others defended their particular corner, like the Saudis defending fossil fuels and the Malaysians, timber exports. Perhaps the most poignant voice for common sense belonged to Sam Moyo,is.Executive Secretary of the Regional Network of Environmental Experts. He was indignant about the environmental establishment's refusal to accept ideas such as Zimbabwe's program of elephant "conservation through use," which gave that country one of the few African elephant populations that has increased in the past few years. "They talk about sustainable development," he told me, "yet we developed a means of sustaining wildlife, and they have stopped it." The recent Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species ruled that the market in ivory, even though it can provide an economic incentive to preserve elephants and their habitat, was not an acceptable program of conservation. Instead the environmentalists would talk about "eco-tourism," which Moyo points out could never sustain an entire economy. Other Third World representatives view it as nothing less than ecological imperialism.
Crosstown from the conference itself was the Global Forum, a New Age extravaganza, complete with Shirley MacLaine, the Dalai Lama, and a star-studded "Concert for Life." Here was the center of activity for the "non-governmental organizations," or NGOs—so-called because most of them are paid for by taxpayers—where group after group had set up booths to hawk their recycled ideologies. There one could find every element of the political environment, from the "essential role of women" in sustainable development (Bella Abzug serves as one of Strong's advisors) to the need to give animals complete dominion over the earth.
A single handwritten page produced by the environmental and developmental NGOs condemned the Saudis for opposing anti-energy policies, the Malaysians for raising the eco-imperialism theme, and the United States, "unanimously and without debate," as the worst participant in the Earth Summit. Not since the Vietnam War has the U.S. been so widely vilified for its "isolation" from the sentiments of the world.
What We Should Have Said
ALL THIS could have been avoided. The concerns dominant at Rio—climate change, biodiversity, deforestation, sustainable development—are all policy areas about which the U.S. boasts solid achievements. (See James R. Dunn, p. 34.)
The U.S. itself offers a valuable model on how economic and ecological values can be reconciled. Those resources which have been integrated into the market system of voluntary exchanges are increasingly abundant. In the U. S. gasoline is cheaper than Perrier.
But we have found that most environmental fears have been vastly overstated, and the risks (economic and health) of current environmental policies (the Clean Air Act, Superfund, the Endangered Species Act, the proposed carbon taxes) are much greater—and the effectiveness far less—than once believed. But the U.S. made no effort to raise these points, or the science of climate change, biodiversity, or anything else. It accepted the general premise that the time for thinking was over; it was time for action. The major risks of politicizing the world's economy were not even recognized. The U.S. presented no policy alternatives at Rio and the world was understandably confused.
Rather than aggressively promote a privatization strategy as the dominant means of achieving sustainable development, the Bush Administration has ceded all moral and intellectual premises to the opposition. As EPA administrator William Reilly proudly proclaimed the day the Earth Summit opened, "The United States embraces enthusiastically the goals of this conference." Despite continuing scientific uncertainty over the likelihood and impact of a global warming, Reilly beamed that "the United States strongly supports the climate-change agreement." He did his best to embarrass the Administration with his efforts to reverse the White House position on the Biodiversity Treaty.
No one should have been surprised. Reilly and the President's other key Rio advisor, "Buff" Bohlen at the State Department, were both formerly employed by the World Wildlife Fund, a leading proponent of the green trade restrictions that now threaten to undermine economically rational environmental programs in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. The normal OMB check on environmental imperialism was neutralized by Mr. Bush's appointment to the OMB review post of Robert Grady, another environmental true believer. At Rio, the world also saw a growing liaison between the environmental ministers of the world. Reilly and German environmental minister Klaus Topfer have far more in common with each other than with their respective countrymen, indeed than with their respective political bosses.
The widespread nonsense at the Rio conference would not be quite so disheartening but for the endorsement it received from President Bush's attendance. Along with others, I had sought to dissuade the President from going. That anyone favoring economic growth would support a move to reject progress as a goal of Western Civilization seemed insane.
True, he did recognize that some of the Earth Summit treaties were particularly damaging, for example that extending the Endangered Species Act (most recently applied in the spotted-owl controversy) to the world was a bad idea. But he compromised by signing one economically destructive treaty, that dealing with climate change. This treaty accepts the view that carbon dioxide—the substance we exhale—is a "pollutant" and that it should be reduced as soon as possible. No timetables have been announced, but Mr. Reilly and the President have rushed around saying how rapidly they intend to move. Mandatory energy conservation steps—higher gasoline taxes, further coercive steps to force Americans into smaller (and less safe) cars, bans on driving—all have been given a boost by the decision to sign this treaty.
Rio may well mark the demise of the Western idea of progress—the belief that Man's efforts can make the world a better place. Belief in progress has been replaced by the notion of a planet in peril caused by too many people consuming too much. And a solution, which the U.S. seems to have adopted without realizing it, is that more people must consume less. | <urn:uuid:a729310f-600c-4127-bd65-086e83e64a88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/carnival-dunces | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967622 | 1,703 | 2.203125 | 2 |
Qincheng is strictly isolated from the outside world. Only former prisoners, their families, and close friends know about it. The prison is administered by the Fifth Section of the Ministry of Public Security, whose members are solely responsible for it. Regular policemen do not know the nature of Qincheng. The guards are carefully selected. One criterion is age; prisoners report never seeing guards over twenty. They are replaced at regular intervals.
Prisoners are divided into four classes according to whether their food costs eight, fifteen, twenty-five, or forty yuan [per month]. Actually, corruption on the part of both personnel and the institution prevents the prisoners from receiving what they are officially allotted. For example, if the official monthly ration is 17.5 kilograms, a person who never exercises actually cannot even eat half of that. The entire amount is nonetheless purchased, even though what is left over cannot be stored. It is said that the guards feed it to the pigs, which are then sold to supplement the guards' own diet.
When it comes to dispensing food, the Qincheng guards are reported to be quite ingenious. Food is withheld as a means of punishment. One of the lightest and most common punishments is first to starve the prisoner and then give him or her a bowl of very greasy noodles as "compensation." Most, of course, become ill as a result and have to miss the next few meals as well.
Each inmate occupies a separate one-by-three-meter cell containing a basin of water, a chamber pot, and a plank bunk with a thin bed cover. The black prison uniform is replaced every six months.
Certain prisoners are granted special privileges, such as the right to read Marxist Leninist works or People's Daily. Ordinary prisoners whose attitude is deemed "cooperative" may engage in a number of unpaid activities such as making rope or hats out of straw, or exercising to keep the body from becoming stiff. But those who make a bad impression on the prison staff are subjected to all sorts of punitive or restrictive measures, including being denied the right to exercise. They may not take walks or even engage in movement within the cell. These restrictions are imposed for as long as half a year. A former deputy director of the People's Liberation Army Institute, who had been deputy chief of staff during the Korean War, was kept immobile here for six months, after which he was no longer able to walk.
Quite separate from the cubicles is an exercise area of approximately one
hundred meters square. It is laid out in rows of connected squares like rice
paddies in southern
The inmates' lives are governed by all sorts of irrational regulations. They have to sleep facing the door. To turn one's back to the doorway is not permitted, and if one happens to do so while sleeping, he is awakened, over and over if necessary, until the prisoner learns to face the glass pane. There was a Tibetan who, after sleeping on one side of his face for more than ten years, developed a swollen ear that became infected and numb. He tried sleeping on the other side, but was repeatedly awakened and scolded by the guards until, driven beyond endurance, he went berserk and tried to strangle them. Only then was he granted special dispensation to roll over in his sleep.
Sanitary conditions are poor. Soap is not provided, and bathing is permitted only once a month, regardless of the season. A few privileged prisoners are given semi-annual physical examinations.
All of this is filled with irony. These prisoners are gifted individuals who
had joined the Communist Party to fight for the freedom and well-being of
The torments of daily life alone would not suffice to break the will of these stalwart people. Indeed, Qincheng is said to be equipped with modem instruments of torture. For example, former prisoners recall that they had been subjected to a strange instrument which caused terrible pain in the head. When the pain became unbearable, the torture suddenly ceased, but then it would resume again until either a confession was extracted or they concluded that the procedure would not be effective. There are other less modem but still effective methods of torture. For example, a prisoner may be exposed night and day to a strong light; after a while he feels that he is going crazy.
The most common form of torture is simple beating. The prisoner is summoned
and surrounded by a group of men who slug and kick until he is bruised, bloody,
and completely breathless. Even more common is for prisoners to be so heavily
drugged that they become mentally unstable. The justification for administering
these drugs is to cure "mental illness." Sometimes people are sent to
the hospital for further "treatment." One person who had received the
treatment recalls that after taking the medicine he had talked to himself
constantly for days on end. Naturally, such monologues were recorded for use
during the next interrogation. Among the hospitals that participate in such
practices are the
In the movie Zhuipu the villain gets punished in the end. But in Qincheng the scenario is very different. The evil deeds there are committed under the direction of the government. The institution is more real than any movie. Even high government officials are ever under threat of being "invited" there for a "visit." Nearby, carefree foreigners are enchanted as they visit the Great Wall. There is nothing carefree about an official who is going to visit Qincheng. On the contrary, he will tremble with fear.
Wardens will not accommodate prisoner's requests. Some inmates, unable to
endure such conditions, attempt suicide. Others go on hunger strikes. For
example, the Panchen Lama [from
Prison terms at Qincheng have generally run more that ten years. Indeed, hardly anyone was ever released before the 1970s, which is why one never heard of the place. Before the end of the Cultural Revolution it was extremely rare for anyone to be permitted to visit there. Relatives did not know where the inmates were or what their condition was. (Even wardens have been ignorant of the true identity of prisoners, who are identified by number rather than name.) A family, when unable to obtain information from the Ministry of Public Security, normally considers that the person has permanently disappeared. Likewise, prisoners are not given any information about their families, though they can assume that the families are encountering political difficulties. The state of mind of a political prisoner can only be comprehended by those who have had the same experience.
A human being is more that just flesh and bones. Even atheistic materialists must recognize the existence of man's spiritual side. What does Qincheng do for its prisoners to provide for the well-being of the mind? Some former inmates recall not being allowed to converse with anyone. Sometimes, even at the risk of being punished as a "troublemaker," an inmate would curse a warden just to spark some conversation. Only during the interrogation sessions did inmates have an opportunity to talk. One man, after ten years of confinement, was so overwhelmed when he finally heard his name called out that he was literally unable to speak. Even those who have not actually been subjected to prolonged physical and mental torture still show hidden signs of disorder after their release. Some, including those of strong character, could not speak fluently for two years after a decade of solitary confinement.
But even when denied any external stimulation, the human mind continues to function. Whoever invented this "mental therapy" understood quite well that a prisoner, for example, is bound to be concerned about his family and friends. In particular he worries about his wife and children. The most effective way to break a prisoner's will is to keep him in an unbalanced state of mind. Unable to obtain any information about his family and friends, a prisoner worries that they are being discriminated against and is frustrated by his inability to assist them. He realizes that their suffering is a result of his own "offenses" against the authorities.
The proverb "psychology works better than force is born out by reports from many released prisoners, who had been told such things as: Your wife has remarried and is well adjusted in her new home. Your son has violated socialist order; he was not convicted, but was simply sent to a labor camp for reeducation. Your attractive daughter has had many suitors. Your son has been ill, but the government is doing everything possible to treat him. Etc. etc., It has been common for prisoners to eventually discover that the stories were untrue. Why had the stories been told? The answer is to be understood in the context of the anguish which such stories cause... In short, Qincheng officials have utilized every conceivable means of squeezing "the last drop of surplus" value out of these hapless souls.
Through a hundred years of bloody struggle, the proletariat obtained freedoms of expression, press, assembly, organization, religion, and the right to strike. Why did these freedoms disappear after the so-called proletarian Community Party gained power? Why do all "Proletarian" governments dictate to their masses and repress those who really speak for the masses? It is because their basic approach to government is incorrect. If the majority benefits from democracy and freedom, why do we go to such extremes to maintain dictatorship? Why is it necessary to arrest people who simply express their opinions? Qincheng proves that our government is not the people's government, because it has deprived the people of free speech. Those who have been tortured are usually the masses' friends, whereas the prosecutors are the enemies of the people. Only those who lack the support of the people have resort to making false charges and torturing their opponents in order to perpetuate their dictatorship.
We must get rid of Qincheng forever. We must be permanently rid of all political persecution and imprisonment. At stake are not simply a few unfortunate victims, but rather the basic political and personal rights of an entire people. Do you believe that every individual has the right to express his or her opinion on national policy? If you do, then you must oppose the arrest of those who have expressed their political views. If you do not believe others have the right to express their opinion then how can you argue that you have any rights? After all, your opinion might be absolutely correct, but having the right express it is another matter.
We might ask the former officials emerging from Qincheng: When you used to suppress the rights of others, what did that do to help secure your own rights? When you engaged in political persecution yourself, did you foresee yourselves being subjected to the same kind of persecution? The masses realize now that freedom of speech can only be secured through the abolition of political imprisonment and oppression. People's rights cannot be protected by a dictatorship which strips people of their rights. They can only be secured by the mutual protection of everyone's rights. | <urn:uuid:db8d5be9-2181-40c3-b114-0e558baa0a1b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.weijingsheng.org/doc/en/Excerpts%20from%20Qincheng.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978964 | 2,231 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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