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China has launched with Britain and Switzerland a project aimed at finding ways for the Asian giant to tackle climate change and mitigate its effects, officials said Thursday.
The Adapting to Climate Change in China project will run from this year through 2012, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Beijing’s top economic planning agency, in a statement on its website.
Britain’s departments for International Development and Energy and Climate Change along with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will provide financial support and technical assistance for the project, the NDRC said.
The official Xinhua news agency said 6.75 million dollars would be invested in the project.
Pilot programmes for the project will be rolled out in Ningxia Hui region and Inner Mongolia in northern China and Guangdong province in the south, the statement said.
The project will look at the impact of climate change on agriculture, water resources, grassland livestock, natural disasters and human health and then develop measures and polices to tackle the problems, it said.
China, which is level pegging with the United States as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, has committed in its current five-year plan to cutting energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010.
In his UN speech on climate change this week, Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to curb the growth of China’s carbon dioxide emissions by a “notable margin” by 2020 from their 2005 levels.
Popularity: 6% [?] | <urn:uuid:10591ce8-b30a-4c29-8fbe-0e879642e866> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://redskynews.com/?p=1213 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944342 | 314 | 2.8125 | 3 |
When I first got my hands on the Surface tablet, the first general-purpose computer Microsoft sells under its own name, I was immediately impressed. It feels solid, has a bright and crisp display, performs snappily and is fun to use. The Surface makes a great first impression.
But over time, its limitations become clear. Microsoft has crafted a nice, innovative tablet, and it will sell a good number of them, but it’s definitely a version 1.0 device. The more you use the Surface, the clearer this becomes.
The Surface is designed to showcase its new version of Windows, which features an overhauled interface designed for use with touch-based devices, as well as a version of the classic desktop. In that sense, the Surface is akin to Google’s Nexus line of smartphones and tablets, which are released when Google puts out a new version of Android. Surface, as is Nexus, is Microsoft’s way of saying to the PC industry, “Look, son, here’s how it’s done.”
But what’s running on this initial release of the Surface isn’t the full-featured Windows 8, but rather something called Windows RT. This is Microsoft’s operating system re-engineered to work on an ARM-based processor.
Traditionally, Windows has run mostly on processors that use the traditional x86 architecture developed by Intel and also used by other chipmakers, such as AMD. These CPUs are fast and capable, but they also can be power-hungry. ARM processors are more efficient and generate less heat, making them more suitable to devices like tablets and smartphones.
Windows RT takes advantage of this efficiency, but there’s a catch. The applications that have traditionally run on Intel-based versions of Windows can’t run on the Surface’s version of the classic desktop. While the Surface has other issues, this is its primary downfall.
More about this later.
On paper and at first glance, the Surface is stellar. It’s got a 1.3-GHz nVidia Tegra 3 processor, two gigabytes of RAM, a 10.6-inch display with a resolution of 1,366-by-768 pixels. At a minimum, it has 32-GB of storage (a 64-GB model, which I tested, is also available), along with a microSDXC slot for expansion. There’s a USB 2.0 port, mini-HDMI port, Bluetooth support and both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity. (There’s no cellular broadband capability.) There are 720p HD cameras on both the front and back.
The Surface’s 11-by-7-by-.37-inch case made of magnesium and a form of liquid metal – Microsoft calls it VaporMg – and it’s relatively light and feels very sturdy. It’s charcoal gray, and yes, the back of it is a serious fingerprint magnet. The edges are tapered and it feels great in your hands.
The back of the Surface features a kickstand that allows you to set it upright. It snaps open and shut with a satisfying click – Microsoft reportedly spent some time getting this sound just right – and doesn’t feel like it would break away easily. However, it only has one angle, which can get awkward if, for example, you want to use Skype and can’t adjust the screen to show your whole face.
A smart design touch: The microSDXC card slot is hidden under the kickstand.
The kickstand works best with the keyboard covers that are available for the Surface, and as far as I’m concerned, they are the device’s best feature. There are two options – the Touch Cover, which has touch-sensitive pads representing each key, and the Type Cover, which has more traditional, physical keys. They connect to the Surface magnetically, with another satisfying click, and they magnets are very strong – you can pick the combo up by the keyboard and the tablet won’t break away.
I was very skeptical about typing on the Touch Cover, since these kinds of flat, pressure-based keyboards don’t have a great reputation. But the Touch Cover works very well. While I couldn’t get up to full touch-typing speed on it, it’s much better than typing directly on the Surface’s onscreen virtual keyboard. The Type Cover is even better, providing real tactile feedback for your typing.
Both covers come with very good touchpads. In fact, they’re better than any touchpad I’ve used on any notebook PC. The covers also work like the Smart Covers on Apple’s iPad – when you close them, they put the Surface to sleep.
Because the touchpads are so good, I found myself not using the touchscreen all that much when the keyboard was connected. When I did, it was only briefly, to launch an app or bring up the Charms, the set of critical icons that let you access most of Windows 8′s and RT’s under-the-hood features. I didn’t experience “gorilla arms”, the fatigue associated with larger, touch-based desktop screens.
When I initially began using the Surface, I found it to be remarkably fast and responsive. Its touchscreen had a very organic, natural feel to it, and apps opened quickly and performed well. But as I installed apps and began to use them, the Surface became sluggish at times. For example, the Twitter clients MetroTwit and Tweetro both can be set up to pull updates in the background. Using them separately, each caused other Surface apps to bog down.
There were times when the onscreen cursor couldn’t keep up with my typing, which was very annoying. When I killed these apps – which is done by tapping-and-holding at the top of the app’s window, then dragging down to the bottom of the screen – decent performance returned. There were other times when performance dragged that I couldn’t trace to a specific cause. (For a more detailed exploration of the Surface’s sluggish behavior, read this review by SQL guru Brent Ozar.)
Other reviewers have complained about the lack of app selection for the tile-and-text-based Metro interface. Indeed, you don’t have the choices you do with the iPad or Android tablets.Yes, there are big names here – there’s an Amazon Kindle app, Netflix, Hulu, Urban Spoon, the New York Times, USA Today, Angry Birds and so on. But don’t count on finding everything available on other platforms. You may be able to find a substitute app that will do what you need, but often they won’t be names you recognize and aren’t particularly full-featured. Developers are just now learning to work in the Metro environment, and it shows.
In addition, I found the Store to be difficult to browse. Microsoft organizes apps in specific categories on the Store’s initial screen, but once you drill down, you’re confronted with up to 100 tiles, all the same size, with only the name of the apps, star ratings and a vague description to guide you. It’s like staring at bricks in a wall.
And while you’ll have some selection on the Metro side, you’re out of luck if you want to install traditional Windows software. The classic desktop comes with a preview version of Office 2013 and the usual accessories associated with Windows – Paint, Calculator, Notepad, the Snipping Tool, etc. – you can’t add anything else. Don’t buy the Surface thinking it you’ll be able to load up your favorite Windows applications and use them on the tablet.
almost 5 8 hours of battery life, and I found that was accurate got 5 hours with average use – email, some streaming video, staying connected via Wi-Fi, working in Office. The case generally stays cool to the touch.
The 32-GB Surface sells for $499 without a Touch Cover – adding one kicks the price up to $599. The 64-GB model isn’t sold without a Touch Cover, and it sells fro $699. The Type Cover sells for $130, and I’d recommend it if you’re a fast touch typist.
As slick as the Surface is, I’d recommend waiting a bit. In a few months, Microsoft will release a version that runs Windows 8 Professional, which means it can run Metro as well as traditional Windows desktop software. There’s no word on pricing or an exact shipping date. And because it will use an Intel processor, expect it to have fans and shorter battery life.
Even if you think you can live with using only Metro-style apps, hold off on the Surface. Over time, developers will get better at making efficient, innovative Metro software, and Microsoft will smooth out Windows RT’s rough spots. Better things will come to those who wait.
Update: Half the storage space on the 32-GB Surface is taken up with operating system and app code.
Update 2.0: Corrected advertised battery life. | <urn:uuid:af61a581-b4cd-4f26-9920-5eda9dee4672> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/techblog/category/surface/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936231 | 1,947 | 2.453125 | 2 |
The world’s largest three-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto made its debut in the four wheel segment and introduced its first low-cost small car RE60 in the country yesterday. RE60, an eco-friendly automobile is not just any other small car but a wonderful fuel efficient four-wheeled vehicle, as mentioned by Bajaj Auto.
At the introduction ceremony of RE60, the managing director of Bajaj Auto, Mr. Rajiv Bajaj expressed, “We are looking at the customers who currently operate three-wheelers to shift to this four-wheeler low emission segment.
Mr. Bajaj further mentioned in his statement to reporters, “This is not just a car but a four-wheeler vehicle, which stands in a new segment in its own right. We have put in a lot of technology and features which are not present in three-wheeler as well as cars.”
The company has not revealed any pricing specifications of the car but soon the vehicle will hit the Indian shores in few months. The RE60 will come powered with a new petrol engine, which is fuel injected, water cooled with DTSi 4 (Digital Twin Spark Ignition) valves, making the car capable of offering a top speed of 70 kmph. Also the car is speculated to come in three fuel options comprising of petrol, CNG and LNG.
Bajaj Auto remarked that the company has put in a lot of efforts in the car and it is an output of four years research and withstands a lot of potential in the Indian as well as other international markets such as Europe, Africa and Asia. | <urn:uuid:a2f86422-b161-4918-9f03-848b03a1cd30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carzy.co.in/blog/car-news/re60-car-fourwheeled-vehicle-bajaj-auto.html/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973222 | 339 | 1.6875 | 2 |
It now appears that eleven climbers perished Sunday on K2, the world’s second highest mountain. K2 is steeper and rockier than Everest and more prone to changeable weather. That makes it, in climbing circles, the mountaineer’s mountain. But I fear that this is about to change. In 1996, a number of climbers lost their lives on Everest, an event made famous by Jon Krackauer in his book Into Thin Air. Krackauer’s book was fiercely critical, not only of the actions of fellow climbers, but of a new selfish ethos that pervaded the culture of Everest. Yet new accounts of the Everest industry, by Michael Kodas (High Crimes) and Nick Heil (Dark Summit), show that the mounting body count on Everest has done nothing to slow the march of “clients” pouring into Base Camp. Indeed, the number has increased.
Arctic exploration exhibits a similar phenomenon. When 37 men died on two failed expeditions to the North Pole in the 1880s, it unleashed a torrent of criticism about North Pole expeditions, their motives and methods. Nevertheless, attempts to reach the North Pole increased over the following two decades.
Let’s face it, death imbues value on extreme accomplishment. Many climbers speak of an inner force driving them up the mountain (and I admit, I am not immune to this sort of thing either). But the reality is that there are many motivations for heading above tree line, that mortal danger and “bagging” mountains have a certain social cachet. In scaling K2, which has now once again asserted itself as one of the most dangerous of summits, the climber-who-sees-mountains-as-trophies accomplishes something of greater symbolic heft than an ascent of Everest.
Given this precedent, news of these deaths on K2 won’t deter new climbers but spur them on. Maybe the experienced high-altitude climbers, the Ed Viesturs of the world, will be able to deter the weekend adventurers. But I doubt it.
So here are my depressing predictions: 1) attempts to summit K2 will double by 2010 and 2) these ranks of climbers will have less experience in high-altitude climbing on average than they do now.
I hope I’m wrong. | <urn:uuid:babd6663-f358-438d-a59b-b201b09e2fd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timetoeatthedogs.com/2008/08/04/tragedy-on-k2/?like=1&_wpnonce=1e4d043b68 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942268 | 484 | 2.4375 | 2 |
A Chinese alligator is spotted in Chongming County during the night "hunt" in the wetland. [China Daily]
The Chinese alligator is critically endangered and in 2007 scientists introduced six reptiles to wetlands on Shanghai's Chongming Island. How are they doing? Zha Minjie and Zhao Wen report on a nighttime field trip.
Four small boats glide silently past reed-covered marshy banks on a clear September night on Chongming Island, searchlights sweeping the water surface ahead. Suddenly a small pair of eyes glow red in the light of a flashlight.
"I think I just saw a small alligator," gasps volunteer Wang Jiyi, suddenly remembering to lower his voice, since the animals have keen hearing. He points to the eyes, hidden where wetland reeds meet the water around 10 meters away.
As the boat is rowed closer, the eyes placed high on the head do not move as the yellow and black bands on the small creature's head become visible. In a long lens, Wang looks a wild, critically endangered Chinese alligator (alligator sinensis) in the eye.
"What a beautiful species," says Dr/Professor He Xin from Shanghai-based East China Normal University, who joined the night-time expedition. He estimates the young gator is little more than 10 centimeters in length. "So far it's still a cute baby."
It can eventually grow into a 1.2- to 1.7-meter-long adult if everything goes well, with no loss of habitat, no hunters or farmers and no water pollution.
This scientific alligator preservation "hunt" last Saturday was a search by experts and volunteers for the endangered reptiles that were released into the wild on Chongming Island for the first time in 2007. At that time six individuals, male and female, were released, some from a different gene pool of Chinese alligators in the United States.
From sightings of alligators, nests and broken eggshells since then, the indications are that the gators are doing well and breeding in their new home.
On this September night, volunteers and experts spotted 10 individuals. This is about time for them to start digging holes and hibernate for the winter. On September 7, 12 individuals were sighted and photographed. There may be duplicate sightings.
Chongming contains some of Shanghai's only wetland areas, and some of these have been reclaimed from development.
The Chinese alligator is one of only two alligators species in the world and by far the smallest. The other is the huge American alligators, alligator mississsippiensis, which is abundant in the southwest United States. Adult males grow 4 to 4.5 meters in length.
The Chinese alligator is native only to the lower Yangtze River Delta, notably Shanghai and Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, as well as Lake Tai. It's on China's most-endangered list.
All alligators are crocodiles but crocodiles are not alligators. They have different-shaped snouts and teeth placements. Alligators have U-shaped snouts; crocodiles have narrower V-shaped snouts. Chinese alligators are dark, almost black in color, while American alligators are brown or olive. Chinese alligators are also armored on their bellies, unlike their American cousins. | <urn:uuid:1ca9d6ce-94c5-48e5-b78c-07f8de72bd97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2012-09/20/content_26581919.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95567 | 689 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Our Top Stories
Turning Innovation Into Jobs: SBA Licenses First Impact Investment Fund Partner
12:05 PM EDT
Ed. Note: Cross posted from the SBA's Open for Business blog
Startups and “high-growth” small businesses are responsible for the lion’s share of net new job creation in the U.S. each year. That’s a key reason that we launched an Administration-wide effort called Startup America earlier this year.
As a critical part of that, SBA made a commitment to invest up to $1 billion in underserved communities and emerging sectors over the next 5 years.
Today, we were delighted to announce the first public-private partnership of this Impact Investment Fund. This first effort will focus on growing businesses in Michigan.
First, the need is there. Unemployment is high in Michigan, with over 90% of counties in economic distress as defined by the Commerce Department. It’s an economy in transition.
Second, the opportunity is there. Michigan has one of the highest engineers-per-capita of any state. It also has a well-trained workforce with great universities. Many high-growth firms in Michigan simply need more capital to grow, scale up and hire.
We also saw a number of key players who shared a vision for greater entrepreneurship and growth in Michigan, including experienced investors who already had a track record of investing in small businesses across the state.
Through this new partnership with Michigan Growth Capital Partners and Michigan-based Dow Chemical Company, we can leverage even more money into Michigan’s small businesses – up to $130 million, with up to $80 million coming from SBA. And, importantly, this SBA program is subsidy-neutral, so we can do it at no cost to taxpayers.
At a time when even the most promising small businesses face challenges getting access to capital, the Impact Investment Fund is a great example of a public-private partnership that is stepping in to meet a critical need. We look forward to announcing more partners in the future in other regions and sectors. | <urn:uuid:94658113-e3d2-4c13-a8db-ed67b4234e61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/07/26/turning-innovation-jobs-sba-licenses-first-impact-investment-fund-partner | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949769 | 427 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Boy Columbus
After the statue by GIulio Montverde in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Genoa had her own trading routes to India, China, and Japan. Her vessels sailed eastward and crossed the Black Sea to the very shores of Asia. There they found stores of rich shawls and silks and of costly spices and jewels, which had already come on the backs of horses and camels from the Far East. As fast as winds and oars could carry them, these merchant ships hastened back to Genoa where other ships and sailors were waiting to carry their goods to all parts of Europe.
Every day the boys of Genoa, as they played along the wharves, could see the ships from different countries and could hear the stories of adventure told by the sailors. No wonder Christopher found it hard to work at his father's trade of combing wool; he liked to hear stories of the sea and to make maps and to study
p9geography far better than he liked to comb wool or study arithmetic or grammar. He was eager to go to sea and while but a boy he made his first voyage. He often sailed with a kinsman, who was an old sea captain. These trips were full of danger, not only from storms, but from sea robbers with whom the sailors often had hard fights.
A Sea Fight between Genoese and Turks
The Genoese were great seamen and traders. When the Turks tried to ruin their trade with the Far East by destroying their routes many fierce sea fights took place
While Columbus was growing to be a man, the wise and noble Prince Henry of Portugal was sending his sailors down the unknown west coast of Africa to find a new way to India. The Turks, by capturing Constantinople, had destroyed Genoa's overland trade routes.
The bold deeds of Henry's sailors drew many seamen to Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Columbus went, too, where, he was made welcome by his brother and other friends. Here he soon earned enough by making maps to send money home to aid his parents, who were very poor.
The Home of Columbus, Genoa
It is said that one day while looking over his father-in‑law's maps, Columbus was startled by the idea of reaching India by sailing directly west. He thought that this could be done, because he believed the world to be round, although all people, except the most educated, then thought the world flat. Columbus also believed that world was much smaller than it really is.
The best map of that time located India, China, and Japan about where America is. For once, a mistake in geography turned out well. Columbus, believing his route to be the shortest, spent several years in gathering proof that India was directly west. He went on long voyages and talked with many old sailors about the signs of land to the westward.
Finally Columbus laid his plans before the new King of Portugal, John II. The king secretly sent out a ship to test the plan. His sailors, p11however, became frightened and returned before going very far. Columbus was indignant at this mean trick and immediately started for Spain (1484), taking with him his little son, Diego.
4. Columbus at the Court of Spain. The King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, received him kindly; but some of their wise men did not believe that the world is round, and declared Columbus foolish for thinking that countries to the eastward could be reached by sailing to the westward. He was not discouraged at first, because other wise men spoke in his favor to the king and queen.
Columbus soliciting aid from Isabella
From the painting by the Bohemian artist, Vaczlav Brozík,
It was hard for these rulers to aid him now because a long and costly war had used up all of Spain's money. Columbus was very p12poor and his clothes became threadbare. Some good people took pity on him and gave him money but others made sport of the homeless stranger and insulted him. The very boys in the street, it is said, knowingly tapped their heads when he went by to show that they thought him a bit crazy.
5. New Friends of America. Disappointed and discouraged, after several years of weary waiting, Columbus set out on foot to try his fortunes in France. One day while passing along the road, he came to a convent or monastery. Here he begged a drink of water and some bread for his tired and hungry son, Diego, who was then about twelve years of age. The good prior of the monastery was struck by the fine face and the noble bearing of the stranger, and began to talk with him. When Columbus explained his bold plan of finding a shorter route to India, the prior sent in haste to the little port of Palos, near by, for some old seamen, among them p13a great sailor, named Pinzon. These men agreed with Columbus, for they had seen proofs of land to the westward.
La Rabida Convent near Palos
At this monastery, on his way to France, Columbus met the good prior
The prior himself hastened with all speed to his good friend, Queen Isabella, and begged her not to allow Columbus to go to France, for the honor of such a discovery ought to belong to Isabella and to Spain. How happy was the prior when the queen gave him money to pay for the expenses for Columbus to visit her in proper style! With a heart full of hope, once more Columbus hastened to the Spanish Court, only to find both king and queen busy in getting ready for the last great battle of the long war. Spain won a great victory, and while the people were still rejoicing, the queen's officers met Columbus to make plans for the long-thought‑of voyage. But because the queen refused to make him governor of all the lands he might discover, Columbus mounted his mule and rode away, once more bent on seeking aid from France.
Columbus at the Convent of La Rabida
Columbus explaining his plan for reaching India to the prior and Pinzon, the great sailor
Some of the queen's men hastened to her and begged her to recall Columbus. Isabella hesitated, for she had but little money in her treasury. Finally, it is said, she declared that she would pledge her jewels, if necessary, to raise the money for a fleet. A swift horseman overtook Columbus, and brought him back. The great man cried with joy when Isabella told him that she would fit out an expedition and make him governor over all the lands he might discover.
p14 Columbus now took a solemn vow to use the riches obtained by his discovery in fitting out a great army which should drive out of the holy city of Jerusalem those very Turks who had destroyed the greatness of his native city.
From the portrait by Antonis van Moor, painted in 1542, from two miniatures in the Palace of the Prado.
6. The First Voyage. Columbus hastened to Palos. What a sad time in that town when the good queen commanded her ships on a voyage where the bravest seamen had never sailed! When all things were ready for the voyage, Columbus's friend, the good prior, held a solemn religious service, the sailors said good-by to sorrowing friends, and the little fleet of three vessels and ninety stout-hearted men sailed bravely out of the harbor, August 3, 1492.
Columbus bidding farewell to the Prior
From the painting by Ricardo Balaca
Columbus commanded the Santa Maria, the largest vessel, only about ninety feet long. Pinzon was captain of the Pinta, the fastest vessel, and Pinzon's brother of the Niña, the smallest vessel. The expedition stopped at the Canary Islands to make the last p15preparations for the long and dangerous voyage. The sailors were in no hurry to go farther, and many of them broke down and cried as the western shores of the Canaries faded slowly from their sight.
The Santa Maria, the Flagsip of Columbus
From a recent reconstruction
After many days, the ships sailed into an ocean filled with seaweed, and so wide that no sailor could see the end. Would the ships stick fast or were they about to run aground on some hidden island and their crews be left to perish? The little fleet was already in the region of the trade winds whose gentle but steady breezes were carrying them farther and farther from home. If these winds never changed, they thought, how could the ships ever make their way back.
The sailors begged Columbus to turn back, but he encouraged them by pointing out signs of land, such as flocks of birds, and green branches floating in the sea. He told them that according to the maps they were near Japan and offered a prize to the one who should first see land. One day, not long after, Pinzon shouted, "Land! Land! I claim my prize." But he had only seen a dark bank of clouds far away on the horizon. The sailors, thinking land near, grew cheerful and climbed into the rigging and kept watch for several days. But no land came into view and they grew more downhearted than ever. Because Columbus would not turn back, they threatened to throw him into the sea and declared that he was a madman leading them on to certain death.
The Armor of Columbus
Now in the Royal Palace, Madrid
On Friday morning, October 12, 1492, Columbus, dressed in a robe of bright red and carrying the royal flag of Spain, stepped upon the shores of the New World. Around him were gathered his officers and sailors, dressed in their best clothes and carrying flags, banners, and crosses. They fell upon their knees, kissed the earth, and with tears of joy, gave thanks. Columbus then drew his sword and declared that the land belonged to the King and Queen of Spain.
The Landing of Columbus
From the painting by Dioscoro Puebla, now in the National Museum, Madrid
8. How the People Came to be Called "Indians." When the people of this land first saw the ships of Columbus, they imagined that the Spaniards had come up from the sea or down from the sky and that they were beings from Heaven. They, therefore, at first ran frightened into the woods. Afterwards, as they came back, they fell upon their knees as if to worship the white men.
p17 Columbus called the island on which he landed San Salvador and named the people Indians because he believed he had discovered an island of East India, although he had really discovered one of the Bahama Islands, and, as we suppose, the one known to‑day as San Salvador. He and his men were greatly disappointed at the appearance of these new people, for instead of seeing them dressed in rich clothes, wearing ornaments of gold and silver, and living in great cities, as they had expected, they saw only half-naked, painted savages living in rude huts.
9. Discovery of Cuba. After a few days Columbus sailed farther on and found the land now called Cuba, which he believed was Japan. Here his own ship was wrecked, leaving him only the Niña, for the Pinta had gone, he knew not where. He was now greatly alarmed, for if the Niña should be wrecked he and his men would be lost and no one would ever hear of his great discovery. He decided to return to Spain at once, but some of the sailors were so in love with the beautiful islands and the kindly people that they resolved to stay and plant the first Spanish colony in the New World. After collecting some gold and silver articles, plants, animals, birds, Indians, and other proofs of his discovery, Columbus spread the sails of the little Niña for the homeward voyage, January 4, 1493.
10. Columbus Returns to Spain. On the way home a great storm knocked the little vessel about for four days. All gave up hope, and Columbus wrote two accounts of his discovery, sealed them in barrels, and set them adrift. A second storm drove the Niña to Lisbon, in Portugal, where Columbus told the story of his great voyage. Some of the Portuguese wished to imprison Columbus, but the king would not, and in the midst of March, the Niña sailed into the harbor of Palos.
p18 What joy in that little town! The bells were set ringing and the people ran shouting through the streets to the wharf, for they had long given up Columbus and his crew as lost. To add to their joy, that very night when the streets were bright with torches, the Pinta, believed to have been lost, also sailed into the harbor.
Columbus immediately wrote a letter to the king and queen, who bade him hasten to them in Barcelona. All along his way, even the villages and the country roads swarmed with people anxious to see the great discoverer and to look upon the strange people and the queer products which he had brought from India, as they thought.
p19 As he came near the city, a large company of fine people rode out to give him welcome. He entered the city like a hero. The streets, the balconies, the doors, the windows, the very house tops were crowded with happy people eager to catch sight of him.
In a great room of the palace, Ferdinand and Isabella had placed their throne. Into this room marched Columbus surrounded by the noblest people of Spain, but none more noble looking than the hero. The king and queen arose and Columbus fell upon his knees and kissed their hands. They gave him a seat near them and bade him tell the strange story of his wonderful voyage.
The Reception of Columbus at Barcelona
From the celebrated painting by the distinguished Spanish artist, Ricardo Balaca
When he finished, the king and queen fell upon their knees and raised their hands in thanksgiving. All the people did the same, and a great choir filled the room with a song of praise. The reception was now over and the people, shouting and cheering, followed Columbus to his home. How like a dream it must have seemed to Columbus, who only a year or so before, in threadbare clothes, was begging bread at the monastery near Palos!
11. The Second Voyage. But all Spain was on fire for another expedition. Every seaport was now anxious to furnish ships, and every bold sailor was eager to go. In a few months a fleet of seventeen fine ships and fifteen hundred people sailed away under the command of Columbus (1493) to search for the rich cities of their dreams. After four years of exploration and discovery among the islands that soon after began to be called the West Indies, Columbus sailed back to Spain greatly disappointed. He had found no rich cities nor mines of gold and silver.
12. The Third and Fourth Voyages. On his third voyage (1498) Columbus sailed along the northern shores of South America, but when he reached the West Indies, the Spaniards who had settled there refused to obey him, seized him, put him in chains, p20and sent him back to Spain.
Columbus in chains
After the clay model by the Spanish sculptor, Vallmitjiana, at Havana
But the good queen set Columbus free and sent him on his fourth voyage (1502). He explored the coast of what is now Central America, but afterward met shipwreck on the island of Jamaica. He returned to Spain a broken-hearted man because he had failed to find the fabled riches of India. He died soon afterward, not knowing that he had discovered a new world. In 1501 Amerigo Vespucci made a voyage to South America. Without intending to wrong Columbus, the country he saw, and afterward all land to the northward, was called America. Spain was too busy exploring the new lands to give proper heed to the death of the man whose discoveries would, after a few years, make the kingdom richer even than India. But it was left to the greatest nation in all the western world to do full honor to the memory of Columbus in the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago (1892‑1893).
The house in which Columbus died
This house is in Valladolid, Spain, and stands in a street named after the great discoverer
The Leading Facts. 1. Columbus was born near the shores of the Mediterranean and trained for the sea by study and by experience. 2. The people of Europe traded with the Far East, but p21the Turks destroyed their trade routes. 3. Columbus was drawn to Portugal because of Prince Henry's great work. 4. Columbus thought he could sail west and reach the rich cities of the East. 5. After many discouragements he won aid from Isabella and discovered the Bahama Islands, Cuba, and Haiti. 6. The king and queen of Spain received Columbus with great ceremony. 7. Columbus made three more voyages, but was disappointed in not finding the rich cities of India.
Study Questions. 1. Make a list of articles which the caravans (camels and horses) of the East brought to the Black Sea. 2. What studies fitted Columbus for the sea? 3. Why were there so many sailors in Lisbon? 4. How did Columbus get his idea of the earth's shape? 5. What did men in Portugal and Spain think of this idea? 6. Tell the story of Columbus in Spain. 7. What is the meaning of the vow taken by him? 8. Make a picture in your mind of the first voyage of Columbus. Read the poem "Columbus," by Joaquin Miller. 9. Shut your eyes and imagine you see Columbus land and take possession of the country. 10. Why was Columbus so disappointed? 11. How did the people of Palos act when Columbus returned? 12. Picture the reception of Columbus by the people, and by the king and queen. 13. Why was Columbus disappointed in the second expedition? 14. What did Columbus believe he had accomplished? 15. What had he failed to do that he hoped to do?
Suggested Readings. Columbus: Hart, Colonial Children, 4‑6; Pratt, Exploration and Discovery, 17‑32; Wright, Children's Stories in American History, 38‑60; Higginson, American Explorers, 19‑52; Glascock, Stories of Columbia, 10‑35; McMurry, Pioneers on Land and Sea, 122‑160; Brooks, The True Story of Christopher Columbus, 1‑103, 112‑172.
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Page updated: 11 Sep 06 | <urn:uuid:8a3bb739-62e1-4986-b367-55eafa46ef11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/MACPRI/2*.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982238 | 3,869 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Update: Faith in the Election
In October of last year, Rabbi Saperstein, the Director of the RAC and an expert on church-state law, and Oliver Thomas, a noted First Amendment scholar and lawyer, partnered to lay out five rules candidates and the public should follow concerning faith in the upcoming election. The op-ed does not seek to remove religion from politics, but rather it discusses appropriate and inappropriate uses of faith in political campaigns.
For instance, the Constitution forbids the use of an explicit or implicit religious test for office, and tax regulations prohibit religious leaders from coercing citizens to vote in a specific manner by invoking religion. While clergy have the right, and obligation, to inform their congregants about the social issues we face today, as 501(c)(3) organizations they are forbidden from opposing or supporting political candidates.
But we all know that faith has been, and will continue to be, a prominent subject in the current presidential election. Unfounded speculation over President Obama’s faith continues to swirl, as does uneasiness around Gov. Romney’s Mormon faith. So, what have been some of the hot stories about religion in the race for the White House lately?
- Last Thursday, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and impressed upon the churchgoers that their political involvement remains essential to her husband’s campaign. President Obama received 96% of the black vote in the 2008 election.
- Gov. Romney and his family, devout Mormons, attend church for up to three hours most Sundays, and he previously served as the equivalent to a bishop in the Mormon church. While the Mormon faith is the fastest growing religion in the nation, it continues to be viewed with suspicion in the United States. Voters’ concerns about Gov. Romney’s Mormonism invoke memories of similar concerns about President Kennedy’s Catholicism and the potential for papal influence.
- Education policy has made a surprising comeback as an election issue in the form of vouchers, federal money which can be used for tuition at private and religious schools. Gov. Romney announced his strong support for school voucher programs and President Obama went against his stated opposition to vouchers and reauthorized funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the only voucher program run by the federal government.
- The Supreme Court’s historic ruling on President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signals new battles down the road, including battles drawn on religious lines over contraception and reproductive health coverage.
As religion remains as pervasive as ever in our political system, it is important to remember that while our nation is founded upon religious freedom, the government is forbidden from favoring one religion over another, or religion over no religion, and cannot interfere with personal expression of faith. The Reform Movement remains committed to protecting religious freedom and preserving the separation of church and state, while recognizing that the faith of political candidates can be discussed appropriately. | <urn:uuid:579a9897-a73f-4750-b716-ce8c843511ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2012/07/03/update-faith-in-the-election/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958106 | 608 | 1.914063 | 2 |
A Brief History of Heckling
Some highs (and not-so-highs) in the history of fan and athlete interaction.
January 8th, 1942
Renowned cricket heckler Stephen Harold Gascoine dies. Known to many as "Yabba," (ha!) the Aussie was a regular at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he would sit on a grassy patch called The Hill and fire quips such as, "I wish you were a statue and I were a pigeon."
December 15th, 1968
At halftime of the Eagles 24-17 season-ending loss to Minnesota, Philly fans, fed up with a team that would that managed just two wins that season, launch a downpour of boos—and snowballs—at Santa Claus. (There's also this.)
April 30th, 1993
Fresh off a Grand Slam win at the Australian Open, top-ranked women's tennis player Monica Seles is stabbed in the back during a quarterfinal match in Germany, the home country of archrival Steffi Graf. Seles would not compete again for nearly two and a half years.
Suns forward Charles Barkley treats Bullets fan and famed hoops heckler Robin Ficker to a seat at the NBA Finals just so Ficker can razz Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
May 29, 2001
After being sent to the penalty box during the third period of a game in Philadelphia, forward Tie Domi of the Toronto Maple Leafs squirts heckler Chris Falcone with water, then punches him after the glass partition between them gives way. For the water-squirting incident, Domi was fined $1,000, the league maximum. For the punching, he was fined zero dollars.
February 5th, 2003
With North Carolina's Jackie Manuel at the free throw line, Duke's grad section goes completely quiet while a student named Patrick King, aka Speedo Guy, does an interpretive dance wearing nothing more a banana hammock. Manuel misses both shots. For the contest, he goes 0-for-5 from the stripe.
Sept. 13, 2004
In Oakland, Rangers reliever Frank Francisco throws a chair into the stands at a male fan who allegedly made comments about teammate Doug Brocail's stillborn child. The chair ends up hitting heckler's wife in the face. Francisco is suspended for the remainder of the season, arrested, and sentenced to anger management classes.
December 7th, 2008
Nearly 66 years after his death, Yabba's wish is fulfilled, as a statue of "the most famous spectator any game has known" is erected in row two of Bay 15 of the Victor Trumper Stand concourse—the former site of The Hill—at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
- Baseball's stats revolution changed the sport but not its culture - ESPN The Magazine
- Miami Heat forward LeBron James is most dominant player of the past 15 years - ESPN The Magazine
- Facing giant goalies like Tuukka Rask and Ben Bishop, does the NHL need bigger nets? - ESPN The Magazine
- 2013 NFL Draft - Matt Barkley, Ryan Nassib are quarterbacks to watch in draft - ESPN The Magazine
- Denver Nuggets will try to win it all with plenty of depth but no superstar- ESPN The Magazine
- NCB: Teams, systems and players to watch
- Derrick Rose on what it means to rep Chicago
- The Mag: Fashion Forward
- Harvick embraces role as Earnhardt's heir
- The unlikely backstory of NASCAR's most promising new drivers
- The Mag: How to crash
- The Mag: Athletes' kids finding prep success
- Mag: Inside the NCAA's Eligibility Center
- The Mag: The top 20 recruiters
- The Mag: The stories behind Georgia State football
- The Mag: The journey of Alexi Ogando
- Roenigk: Mark Ingram is tough to bring down
- Mag: Singletary's reshaping of Niners
- Mag: The rise of the Blackhawks
- Olney: October baseball is amazing
- The Mag: Ron Artest on himself
- The Mag: Pros share the best advice they got
- Bergeron: A look at the side careers of eight athletes
- Player X: In praise of quiet, rich owners
- Mag: Packers are best franchise in sports
- Reilly: Rocco didn't beat Tiger, but you'd think he did
- Simmons: It's hard to say goodbye to David Ortiz
- Blowing $66,000 on a College World Series game ... yeah, that qualifies as a meltdown.
- Racing needs to find a way to let drivers attempt to win both Indy and in Charlotte on the same day.
- The Gamer: Mike Swick and Rampage Jackson are avid gamers
- Bill Curry brings Georgia State football to life.
- VIDEO: Kobe Bryant's two loves
- VIDEO: Superman Dwight -- stylin' and profilin'
- VIDEO: Ricky Rubio, on the verge of superstardom | <urn:uuid:76e11da9-6829-402a-9913-9be0939e2f07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3866215 | 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 | 0.939187 | 1,030 | 1.875 | 2 |
Stitched and Bound: this is a term for perfect binding with the pages stitched together prior to perfect binding. This is a more secure binding than perfect binding and holds up better for repeated use or for softbound books that need to be forced flat by the reader.
Stitched and Bound | Binding | Printing Terms
- Printing in China
- Printing China – Fact and Accurate.
- History of China Printing Industry
- Things to Consider For Working with a Printing Press in China
- ‘Wire-O’ or Spiral-Bound Book Printing
- Benefits of Hiring Book Printers in China
- Chinese Printing – World leaders in Services
- Finding the Best Printing Company in China
- Saving Costs with Chinese Book Printers
- Why China Printing Companies Are the Preferred Choice | <urn:uuid:3af22341-8557-499d-8c54-786db879ab9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.longpack.com/printing-glossary/stitched-and-bound-binding-printing-terms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906881 | 162 | 2.59375 | 3 |
- Contract Packaging
- Packaging Leaders
- Calendar of Events
Article | June 30, 2001
X-rays develop in packaged foods
United Kingdom-based plants of Nestlé, Unilever, and Thorntons Plc are among the first to use an enhanced Advanced X-ray Inspection System (AXIS) to inspect trayed salads, wrapped baked goods, and packaged candy, among others.
These AXIS applications were uncovered at a press event held May 30 at Loma Systems (Carol Stream IL). Loma revealed much about its AXIS X-ray technology as a way to inspect packaged products by weight count and product integrity. For example during a demonstration a multicompartment snack tray was automatically singled out for only including five rather than six crackers in one of its compartments. Thorntons in Alfreton Derbyshire automated a hand-packing operation for boxed chocolates by adding pick-and-place units. Throughput was faster and cheaper than before but not as accurate Packaging World is told. To remedy the situation it updated its AXIS system in February '01 with new software that detects missing chocolates within a box. Another benefit Thorntons receives compared to metal detection systems is that the X-ray system can see through the individually foil-wrapped chocolates to also check for contaminants.Software hardwareThis value-added inspection capability comes by way of Loma’s enhanced onboard software. The software analyzes the individual items or zones within a package that’s detected by the equipment’s diode array. That’s after the row of 0.88mm sq diodes scans a package at up to 800 times/sec as it conveys through the aperture. Unlike the metal detection systems that Loma also sells X-ray systems can detect the presence of pieces of glass rubber product clumps and certain plastics including polyvinyl chloride.While Loma’s current X-ray systems are priced around four times that of its metal detectors the company believes prices will eventually come down to the two-to-three times range thus making them more attractive as a complement or alternative to metal detection and machine vision systems.
E-BOOK SPECIAL REPORT
45 Best Package Designs
Sign up to receive timely updates from our editors and download this e-book consisting of our editors' picks of most notable package designs. | <urn:uuid:10fc3111-b9eb-426e-ba97-cc4da23eac22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.packworld.com/applications/food/x-rays-develop-packaged-foods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943568 | 488 | 1.507813 | 2 |
This question is asked just about every week, try using a search via the Advanced Search for the site up top on the page. As for combat, here is the answer:
In the end, women do not belong in ground combat, they are more of a liability than an asset, this is always ignored when it is discussed in the Media, in Congress or on here. Below is some good info for you that I have cut and pasted from my previous answers on the same topic.
From the report of the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces dated November 15, 1992, it states in part:
The average female Army recruit is 4.8 inches shorter, 31.7 pounds lighter, has 37.4 fewer pounds of muscle, and 5.7 more pounds of fat than the average male recruit. She has only 55 percent of the upper-body strength and 72 percent of the lower-body strength.
An Army study done in 1988 found that women are more than twice as likely to suffer leg injuries and nearly five times as likely to suffer fractures as men.
Further, the Commission heard an abundance of expert testimony including:
- women's aerobic capacity is significantly lower, meaning they cannot carry as much as far as fast as men, and they are more susceptible to fatigue.
- in terms of physical capability, the upper five percent of women are at the level of the male median. The average 20-to-30 year-old woman has the same aerobic capacity as a 50 year-old man.
After a study was conducted at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, one expert testified that:
- using the standard Army Physical Fitness Test, the upper quintile (top 20?of women at West point achieved scores on the test equivalent to the bottom quintile (bottom 20?of men.
- only 21 women out of the initial 623 (3.4?achieved a score equal to the male mean score of 260.
- on the push-up test, only 7?f women can meet a score of 60, while 78?f men exceed it.
- adopting a male standard of fitness at West Point would mean 70?f the women he studied would be separated as failures at the end of their junior year, only 3?ould be eligible for the Recondo badge, and not one would receive the Army Physical Fitness badge.
Also, recent studies indicate women are more at risk to getting PTSD, as documented from Iraq and Afghanistan, women who were never in direct combat but whose camps were shelled were more likely to develop PTSD than there male counter-parts. You can also look up the US Navy SPARTAN study, women were asked to complete a lot of the Damage Control Tasks that are mandatory on a ship. They performed in a rather terrible manner at the start. The women were then put on a 6 month weight training program and asked to do the test again. A lot of the test are obsolete since the P-250 pump is no longer in use but the one that will never go out is the two man litter carry up and down the ladder on a ship. None of the women passed getting the wounded man up the ladder and <2?assed going down ( a lot easier I might add). What did the Navy do in regard to this result? They changed the standard to a four man litter carry. Ever been on a ship? Good luck with 4 people fitting on that ladder! lol!
The myth that they are currently egaged in combat drives me up a wall a bit, riding in a HUMMER after the target is cleared is not going head to head. Don't ignore the truth because it does not fit your premise, I have no doubt that women can be just as brave as a man but it does me no good when she cannot get me back to my helo, hummer or foxhole because she is to weak. It does me no good when she cannot h**p the same weight I can for as long as I can because she is physically unable to do so. It does me no good when she is injured more easily than a man, etc..etc...DO NOT LOOK AT THIS AS A RIGHT, LOOK AT THIS AS A NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE, do you really want the weakest person doing that job? Do not fall for the myth that if we have the same standards for all that it will be ok then, the standards will be dropped so low that someone in a wheel chair could pass them due to politics, look at the SPARTAN Study! lol! They would rather risk peoples lives than hold a standard and stick there necks out and risk there careers! (They being the Officer Corps). If you are honest in your assessment, you would say that while women may be ok to be pilots, they have no place in areas of ground combat and/or even on ships in many instances due to physical differences, a different hard wiring (being more and more proven every year) and common sense. Women and Men are not social constructs to interchange and war is not meant for a social science lab.
If they allow them to go into SOF Selection of any kind the training will be so watered down it will be a joke and then, like the regular Army, Navy and Air Force, the training will become a joke.
Answered By: Eric S - 3/15/2010 | <urn:uuid:8d7acfbb-8240-4127-8df2-4cd1fe23a610> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://answers.monster.com/a-20100315092405AAVMbwh.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973069 | 1,105 | 2.453125 | 2 |
Intel has announced a new microprocessor code named Jasper Forest aimed at storage products and embedded applications at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.
"We've taken Nehalem... and further optimised it for the embedded market segment," said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group, in a keynote at the forum.
The new chips will be aimed at storage products and embedded applications. They use the Nehalem-EP (Efficient Performance) architecture that Intel recently used in the launch of its latest generation of server chips.
The main modification Intel made for Jasper Forest microprocessors was to reduce the set to two chips instead of the three used in the Nehalem server family, a company representative said.
The input/output hub on Jasper Forest has been integrated right onto the chip.
Jasper Forest will come in a variety of versions, including single processor core, dual core and quad-core versions.
Intel typically code names it chips for geographical locations and the new device is no different. Jasper Forest is a petrified forest in Arizona.
Intel released its new Xeon 3500 and Xeon 5500 processors, also part of the Nehalem EP family, last month and a number of major vendors have already begun selling servers based on the chips.
(Additional reporting by Dan Nystedt in Taipei) | <urn:uuid:48eea2ad-fdc3-4751-b4c6-55402eeeb49c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/tech-industry/114019/intel-announces-jasper-forest-chip-at-idf/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934276 | 278 | 1.539063 | 2 |
INDIA: VEDANTA’S HUMAN RIGHTS PROMISES: ‘MEANINGLESS AND HOLLOW’
Amnesty International has accused the UK-registered mining company Vedanta of attempting to “gloss over” criticisms of its poor human rights record in the East Indian state of Orissa by publishing a “meaningless and hollow” report that puts forward the company’s own account of its operations there.
With the company staging its annual general meeting today (28 August) in London, Amnesty believes the “Vedanta’s Perspective” report is an attempt to calm investor fears over its controversial operations in India as it seeks to expand them.
Amnesty International has responded with its own briefing, Vedanta’s Perspective Uncovered: Policies Cannot Mask Practices, accusing the company of ignoring the reality of the mining giant’s impact on the human rights of local communities in Orissa.
For example, Amnesty International reports that Vedanta has not disclosed relevant information to local communities – such as the impact of pollution caused by the company’s activities, and has not held meaningful public consultations.
“Our new briefing exposes the glaring gap between the company’s assertions and the reality on the ground,” said Polly Truscott, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Programme.
“New evidence from the communities in Orissa shows that changes announced by Vedanta have had little positive impact on the livelihoods, rights, and other concerns of the communities on the ground.
“Vedanta’s human rights record falls far short of international standards for businesses. It refuses to consult properly with communities affected by its operations and ignores the rights of Indigenous peoples.
“Vedanta’s report claims to put new information on its activities in the public domain, but it glosses over most of our findings. It also fails to take into account investigations by Indian regulatory bodies, as well as authorities such as the National Human Rights Commission which has investigated Vedanta’s operations in Orissa.”
Amnesty International also finds it disturbing that those opposed to the company’s operations have faced fabricated charges, resulting in their imprisonment with the effect of preventing others from exercising their right to protest peacefully and freely express their views.
Amnesty International is also concerned about evidence, uncovered during an ongoing inquiry by India’s National Human Rights Commission, showing that police have sought to promote the interests of the company both in the framing of false charges and in the suppression of dissent.
Additionally, there have been at least two instances when the police, using a local Maoist presence as an apparent pretext, have harassed representatives of international media and human rights organisations and told them not to travel to Lanjigarh and the Niyamgiri Hills.
Amnesty International reviewed Vedanta’s changes against four criteria based on the United Nations Framework and Guiding Principles for businesses – and found that they failed on all four.
“The most revealing and meaningful indicators of whether Vedanta is making progress in addressing human rights issues must be based on what is happening, or not happening, on the ground in Lanjigarh and Niyamgiri,” said Truscott.
“Our detailed analysis shows little has changed. Vedanta may be making the right noises and have made a few changes, but the reality is that its new approach remains both meaningless and hollow. The company needs to go much further in demonstrating to its critics that its new approach will make a difference . Vedanta needs a reality check on human rights – and pressure from investors could help deliver this.”
On reports that Vedanta may have to temporarily shut down its Lanjigarh refinery for want of adequate bauxite supply from other sources, Truscott said: “This may be a short-term problem. What’s really at stake here is Vedanta’s human rights record.”
For the past five years, the FTSE 100-listed mining company Vedanta Resources plc has been seeking to expand its existing alumina refinery in Lanjigarh and gain permission for a joint venture to mine bauxite in the nearby Niyamgiri Hills inhabited by the Indigenous Dongria Kondh community.
Amnesty International’s research has shown that the Lanjigarh refinery has caused serious pollution and current systems are insufficient to avoid a recurrence. It has undermined the human rights of local Majhi Kondh Adivasi and Dalit communities, including their right to the highest attainable standard of health, a healthy environment, adequate standard of living, water, decent work and food.
Vedanta has been repeatedly exposed for failing to inform the local communities of the potential risks of its operation and ignoring community concerns, in breach of state and national regulatory frameworks. They have also failed to adhere to accepted international standards and principles on the human rights impact of business operations.
Amnesty International’s criticism has led Vedanta to change its approach to managing the risks and reputational consequences of its operations – all of which were outlined in Vedanta’s Perspective. It has appointed a Chief Sustainability Officer, commissioned reviews, established a sustainability framework, adapted its governance structures and developed an explicit human rights commitment as part of its Code of Business Conduct.
Amnesty International’s analysis of the real effect of the changes is framed around the United Nations Framework and Guiding Principles for businesses adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.
From the Principles, Amnesty International developed four criteria on which it judged Vedanta’s proposals.
• They must be based on an adequate understanding of what is required to meet international human rights standards
• They should address the need to remediate existing abuses
• They should not be traded off against other policies
• There should be proper accountability for their implementation | <urn:uuid:e27c7a70-3785-40cf-b39b-c82cd1e95b57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/india-vedanta-s-human-rights-promises-meaningless-and-hollow-2012-08-28 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951532 | 1,230 | 2.03125 | 2 |
Development of a novel intracortical electrode
Individuals that significantly damage their spine will eventually have loss of movement (partial or complete paralysis). Intriguingly, in such individuals, the brain region that corresponds to carrying out movement is still active, but the communication between this area, the spinal cord and the muscle has been severed resulting in the inability to carry out movement. Therefore it was proposed that recording and interpreting electrical information from the active brain region with the use of electrodes in such individuals could result in them being able to control a robotic limb.
Current electrode designs fail to give clear discriminable recordings after a month or so after insertion into the brain (see figure), which is problematic and clinically unacceptable when trying to formulate a long term neural prosthetic solution for paralysed patients. This electrode failure is primarily due to the activation of the brain’s immune system which essentially “attacks” the electrode as it is a “foreign invader,” coating the electrode with proteins and thus isolating it from the recording tissue.
This project looks at designing a novel chronic electrode for extracellular recordings. This may have eventual application in long term tracking of plasticity/learning and neural prosthetics.
People involved in this project
- Harbaljit Sohal (PhD student)
- Prof Stuart Baker (Supervisor)
- Dr Andrew Jackson (Supervisor)
- Prof Anthony O'Neill (Supervisor)
- Moxon KA, Leiser SC, Gerhardt GA, Barbee KA, Chapin JK. Ceramic-based multisite electrode arrays for chronic single-neuron recording. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2004;51:647-56.
Sponsors of this study
Back to the Projects | <urn:uuid:e555663d-b537-43a0-8845-ffdb549ea74f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.movementlab.org/novel_electrodes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922718 | 361 | 2.359375 | 2 |
What Can Cause A False Positive Hpv Test
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The Robert James Frascino AIDS FoundationHello,Thanks for your post. Yes, we are trying to get this more recent information out to a wider audience. The influenza vaccine changes from year to year to cover the most likely flu strain candidates for the coming flu season. We do have recent... Read more »
The Robert James Frascino AIDS FoundationHello Joe,First of all, a positive ELISA plus negative Western Blot is considered a negative HIV screening test. Next, a positive ELISA plus negative Western Blot does not in any way, shape or form "indicate some other nasty problem." Yes,... Read more »
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillAlcohol will not affect the results of HBV tests. If anti-HBc is positive, it suggests that you were exposed to HBV in the past. Assuming HBsAg is negative, you do not have chronic hepatitis B. It appears that you resolved the HBV infection... Read more »
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Posted by Anonymous....on a rapid (oraquick) test?
Are their certain medical conditions, medicines, etc that cause these false positives???
Just wodering why they happen? Read more »
Posted by Anonymous, 3 RepliesA few days after sleeping with my girlfriend while she was on her period, using a condom, I got something like the flu, with the addition of sore throat, complete loss of appetite for 3 days, diarrhea and a stomach ache. After the 3 days, I felt... Read more »
Posted by Anonymous, 2 RepliesDoes anyone know if marijuana could cause a false positive test result (specifically for an HIV DNA by PCR)? I smoked a lot about five days prior to my test. Also, I am on an antidepressant/anti-anxiety medication called Effexor (150 mg). Does... Read more »
Posted by ruraltgwoman, 1 ReplyI tested positive for HIV on 12/10. My boyfriend just got his results back today 12/21. His results came back negative.
We have been having unprotected sex for the last 4 years and have been together for 5. I have only been wih him during that... Read more »
Guides for People With HIV | <urn:uuid:36979ffe-ee9d-4d74-b81f-c521caf49222> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/h/what-can-cause-a-false-positive-hpv-test.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925742 | 491 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The core features of ADHD are described as excessive impulsivity, inattention and hyperactivity. However children with ADHD will have varying degrees of these difficulties and will not all present the same. It is cause for concern when the above symptoms are more excessive than that of other children of their age and clearly causing difficulty in two or more settings e.g. school and home.
Click here to watch our video
The team is made up of three ADHD nurses and secretary.
1. What do we offer
When we receive a request for help for an ADHD assessment which is appropriate, we will offer an initial assessment. We usually meet the family at home to complete the assessment, however clinic appointments are also offered.
2. What will happen in an initial assessment
An initial assessment appointment letter will be sent to you from your lead ADHD nurse specialist. This letter will either invite you to make a home visit appointment or invite you into clinic. It is helpful to us not to have your child at this appointment so you can talk openly about your child’s difficulties. This appointment usually lasts an hour. At this appointment a detailed history of your child’s development and general health will be taken. You will be asked to complete some questionnaires which will help with the assessment.
Please note that to obtain the best assessment for your child, your lead ADHD nurse may have to contact (with consent) other professionals including, teachers, paediatricians, educational psychologists, school nurses and social workers to gather appropriate information.
3. School observation
Following on from this initial assessment your lead ADHD nurse specialist will contact the school to book a school observation visit. This is done to ensure that symptoms occur at home and at school. This is vital for diagnosis. School will also be asked to complete some questionnaires.
4. Joint assessments
Once these assessments have been completed you and your child will be invited to a joint medical assessment with the paediatrician to discuss in more detail and potentially offer a diagnosis. If your child is diagnosed with ADHD, follow up and support will continue with your ADHD nurse and Paediatrician, where you will receive further information and support around ADHD.
If no diagnosis is given the Paediatrician will continue where appropriate to offer support or signpost to other suitable services.
How to refer
If you feel your child may require an ADHD assessment your GP, other health professionals or school can refer directly into the service.
The ADHD nurse led service will take referrals for school aged children who have not been previously diagnosed with ADHD.
What else do we offer?
We also offer free training to schools to look at signs, symptoms and management of ADHD.
Links to useful website ADDISS | <urn:uuid:28d086fe-f528-416d-83e3-31a8d99e8bca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bhamcommunity.nhs.uk/about-us/services-directory/children-and-families/services/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96174 | 552 | 2.5 | 2 |
BY: Follow @Kredo0
Despite pleas from Senators on Capitol Hill, the Obama administration excluded Israel from a new counterterrorism forum and neglected to mention its long and deadly struggle with terrorism during remarks presented yesterday in Spain.
Maria Otero, the State Department’s Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, delivered a speech entitled “Victims of Terrorism” before 29 members of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, an coalition of countries—not including Israel—that collectively combat terror.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparked a controversy in June when she announced the coalition’s formation and neglected to include Israel on a list of countries that perpetually struggle with terror attacks. It is widely believed that Israel was overlooked as a member due to the opposition of Turkey, which has increasingly been at odds with the Jewish state.
Congressional sources and regional experts say that the Obama administration is intentionally downplaying Israel’s struggle with terrorism in order to appease and gain the cooperation of Arab nations that are often hostile to the Jewish state.
A congressional source told the Free Beacon Tuesday that the State Department confirmed to inquiring members of Congress that Israel was in fact excluded from the conference.
“The State Department told us that only the 29 original member countries were involved—and that means no Israel,” said the source.
During yesterday’s gathering, Israel was also excluded again from a list of nations recognized by the U.S. for their efforts to deal with terrorism.
“Last September at the official launch of the Global Counterterrorism Forum, I had the privilege to introduce the premiere of a film ‘Hear their Voices’, which tells the stories of eleven survivors of terrorist attacks from Pakistan, Jordan, Northern Ireland, Uganda, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Spain, Columbia, and the United States,” Otero said before the gathering of nations.
“The film, which was produced by the Global Survivors Network, is a powerful plea for audiences around the world, especially those sympathetic to the grievances expressed by extremists, to recognize the human cost of terrorism and I am delighted that our Spanish hosts are planning on showing this film here later this afternoon,” she added.
Experts say the omission of Israel was intentional.
“When the administration promised to include Israel in the counterterrorism forum that the United States founded—after Jerusalem’s inexplicable exclusion from the initial meeting a month ago—one would think they would be true to their word,” said Josh Block, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Clearly someone failed here. How Israel could be excluded from another meeting of an anti-terror forum that we chair is beyond comprehension, especially one that focuses on victims of terrorism.”
“At a time when Romney is challenging the administration’s record on U.S.-Israel relations, this error stands out,” he added.
“What we’re seeing is a trend of Israel being left out of the global discussion on terrorism, while Israel was extremely helpful during the beginning stages of this conversation,” said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The [Obama] administration is downplaying the struggle that Israel has been enduring.”
“I believe to a certain extent, this is due to regional politics, and it’s disconcerting to see this change,” said Schanzer, who pointed out that Israel is the leading authority on strategies to combat terrorism. “It just looks like a quiet effort to downplay the issue.”
The State Department stonewalled reporters who inquired about the issue during yesterday’s daily briefing.
“This is a conference about victims of terrorism. And I’m curious to know why [Otero] doesn’t mention Israel or Israelis in her comments talking about victims of terrorism,” asked AP reporter Matthew Lee. “Does the administration believe that Israel and Israelis specifically have been victims of terrorism?
“I don’t have the details of the Under Secretary’s speech,” responded a State Department spokesperson, who later promised to seek further details on the matter. | <urn:uuid:85f619a7-d9e7-407e-9ca0-c1c130026213> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freebeacon.com/israels-plight-ignored/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961315 | 880 | 1.796875 | 2 |
My desktop dictionary is never more than a click away.
Available whenever I need a word or synonym. How odd that the people of the U.S., and the U.K., seem to place little or no value on the necessary credibility of their leaders. Nor that those leaders be held accountable for their actions.
Nearly three weeks ago, on May 1, the Sunday Times of London published a secret U.K. government memorandum discussing a July 23, 2002, meeting between Blair and his top security advisers. The memo said that military action against Iraq "was seen as inevitable" and that Bush wanted to remove Saddam "through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD," weapons of mass destruction.
The memo said that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
The report was not disavowed by the British government. And even in light of this revelation Tony Blair was elected to serve his third term as Prime Minister. The news and press in the U.S. treated the revelation of this memo and its contents with little less concern than the daily weather forecast.
Now it should also be noted that at the time of the memo, Bush officials were insisting in chorus that they had NO plans to attack Iraq. And yet it is known that Iraq was on Bush's radar screen when he took office in 2001, perhaps even before. Books by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke, former head of counterterrorism at the White House's National Security Council, both attest to early signs -- even before 9/11 -- that war against Iraq was high on Bush's agenda.
In the run-up to the war, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice used appearances on Sunday television shows and in speeches to friendly audiences to start the drumbeat that Iraq had unconventional weapons and direct ties to Osama bin Laden.
As the memo, which is no longer quite so secret, pointed out, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Can any political leader, especially the one currently residing in the White House, and who continues to lie with impunity, be considered credible? | <urn:uuid:32225988-2982-4cb1-9411-b92449498a4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jingreed.typepad.com/jingreeds_musings_from_th/2005/05/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983722 | 437 | 1.75 | 2 |
In Sci Fi aliens serve a myriad purposes, but most often as humans in bad makeup. One reason for this is so that the author can tell an allegory without having to worry about being considered racist, or misogynistic, anti immigrant, anti american, etc. Also, if they act/react like humans but are described as ‘Other’ the reader has a much easier time relating, we can understand their motivations and like, or dislike, them. This makes telling a complex story much easier and makes it more enjoyable to read.
They also make better class of zombie, vampire, elf (don’t tell me Spock’s not an elf), gods (small g), etc. In other words they let us retell stories again and again just changing the protagonists and antagonists, the setting and the point of view, creating an endless array of potential stories to tell ourselves.
As a dilettante in the sciences my current expectation is that life at least at the level of microbes is fairly to extremely common, but life at the level of complexity/sophisticated seen on Earth is rare, possibly to the point of singularity. My expectation is that if life will probably come in many forms but from a terrestrial world you will get terrestrial looking creatures that, to the citified might just be one other weird ass racoon, or chicken, etc, they are unlikely to look like Predators etc. Would an intelligent dinosaur or wolf be horrific? Leaving aside the potential they’d consider us good eating or a lower class of pest that is.
And while a Non – Terrestrial world’s environment could easily produce creatures we have a hard time relating to (maybe they’d even be horrific in appearance.) They’re unlikely to want to interact with us except on a purely business matters since its unlikely we’d be of much interest to them. Though again empire builders might not care about having to live in domed cities while the locals mine the tar pits.
So having wandered all over the topic, what is my point you ask?
I don’t really have one I guess, I was thinking about the Post a Day challenge and then decided to post about what I would write if I take up the NaNoWriMo challenge and wandered off from there. Am I going to write Sci Fi again, I think so. Will it have aliens, again I think so, though perhaps not obviously. Am I going to try to do NaNoWriMo…who knows…if a big job hits at work then certainly not, 1,700 words a day and 80 hour work weeks do not mix. But the aether appears clear at this time. So Maybe. | <urn:uuid:f035162a-49c4-4c43-9dd8-883a82ef3711> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thisworldandothers.com/2011/10/05/aliens-in-the-belfry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958226 | 556 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Congregation of the Passion, commonly called the Passionists, is a worldwide religious community of men in the Roman Catholic Church.
Founded by St. Paul of the Cross in Italy in 1720, Passionist priests and brothers now serve in over fifty nations around the world. They are preachers, scholars, retreat directors, pastors, chaplains, teachers, artists, writers and musicians. They minister in many archdioceses and dioceses of the United States including the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia, where they serve as pastors to the predominately African-American and Hispanic parishioners of St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church.
The motto of the Passionist Community is May the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in our hearts. St. Paul wanted his followers to remind people of the love of God that flows from the passion and death of his Son Jesus. Passionists take a special vow to promote devotion to the passion of Christ through their preaching and various other ministries. Many Passionists serve among the poor and marginalized today in whom they see as the world's crucified.
Many people including cloistered and active women religious share in the spirituality of St. Paul of the Cross today. A growing number of lay organizations such as the Passionist Associates also draw their inspiration from writings and preaching of St. Paul of the Cross. | <urn:uuid:532d538f-6300-44be-be6c-bee7390da443> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://saintpaulofthecross.org/index.cfm?load=page&page=193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971663 | 277 | 2.34375 | 2 |
When it comes to assessing federal legislation, as with most things in life, people’s reviews are often pre-determined by their expectations. It’s worth keeping this in mind as feedback comes in from the “fiscal cliff” deal that passed through the Senate in the wee hours of New Year’s Day and that is now under consideration by the House of Representatives.
Conservatives believe that higher taxes are a bad thing, that the tax code needs to be dramatically overhauled and that the true driver of long-term debt is out of control spending, particularly on entitlements. For those who thought it was possible to emerge from the “fiscal cliff” showdown without tax increases, with genuine tax reform and with real spending cuts that made fundamental changes to entitlements, this deal is obviously a nonstarter.
For those who assumed that President Obama’s reelection and continued Democratic control of the Senate at a time when the nation was facing an automatic $4.5 trillion tax hike would inevitably mean higher taxes without actual tax or entitlement reforms, the deal is less bad. As the House considers the legislation today, I thought it would be worth assessing the good, the bad and the ugly of the “fiscal cliff” deal.
At the start of 2013, income taxes were scheduled to go up on nearly every American, but if this deal becomes law, roughly 99 percent of taxpayers would be protected from those tax hikes. For over a decade, Democrats opposed the Bush tax cuts and prevented them from becoming permanent. Now, they have voted overwhelmingly to preserve about 84 percent of the dreaded cuts, which for years they demagogued as only benefitting the very rich.
Lawmakers also agreed on permanent changes that minimized the tax increases on estates and capital gains. In addition, the deal permanently prevented the Alternative Minimum Tax (originally passed in 1969 to capture a small number of rich households who were avoiding taxes) from hitting tens and millions of Americans. From a more technical standpoint, this also means that the deal locks in a Congressional Budget Office revenue baseline that will be as low as possible. So, if future Republicans propose real tax reform, we won’t end up with estimates saying that their proposals would cost trillions of dollars, because such proposals will no longer be judged against an unrealistic baseline that assumes all of the Bush tax cuts would otherwise expire and open the floodgates to new revenue.
A less publicized but still significant positive from the deal is that it formally repeals the CLASS Act, a long-term care entitlement that is part of Obama’s national health care law. Originally the brain child of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, the program was slated to collect years of premiums before paying out any benefits, so Democrats cynically exploited this fact to claim twice as much deficit reduction through Obamacare as existed in reality. The Obama administration has already suspended implementation of the CLASS Act after conceding it is unworkable. But it still remains on the books, waiting to be reinstated at some point in the future. The fiscal cliff deal would put a stake through the heart of this program once and for all.
Taxes are still going to go up. Even with the cut off at $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families, the deal is still going to suck more money out of the economy and hit small businesses. And this is on top of the Obamacare tax hikes already slated to go into effect in 2013 – an additional Medicare tax, higher taxes on investment income and a tax on medical devices.
Also, the deal doesn’t represent actual movement toward a simplified tax code with fewer deductions and lower rates. Instead, it extends a whole lot of special interest tax benefits. For instance, there’s the “railroad track maintenance credit;” “extension of 7-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes;” “special expensing rules for certain film and television productions;” and a smorgasbord of tax subsidies for alternative energy.
And for all of Obama’s talk about a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction, the deal allows taxes to go up, but there are no real spending cuts here and certainly no entitlement reform. This deal won’t put a dent in the deficit, no matter which baseline is used.
Last month, Reason’s Peter Suderman coined the term “The Doc Fix Economy.” In 1997, Congress passed a law aiming to curb the growth of Medicare by slowing the growth of doctors’ payments over time. But ever since, whenever it comes time to actually implement the cuts, Congress has found some way to delay them for a few months, or a year at a time. It’s become known in Beltway parlance as the “doc fix” and it has become emblematic of the way business is done here. The fiscal cliff deal represents another prime exercise in Washington can kicking.
Not only does it include a “doc fix” (offset with various health care savings detailed here), but the deal extends unemployment insurance without offsetting spending cuts. And in a broader sense, it delays the implementation of the sequester by two months. For those too dizzy to remember, when Congress was scrambling to find ways to cut spending to raise the debt limit in the summer of 2011, they decided that they’d delegate the job to a ‘super committee.’ This group of 12 members of the House and Senate from both parties was supposed to magically come up with an agreement for an additional $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. The magic wand was the threat that if they didn’t act, both parties would have to accept painful automatic cuts to defense and mandatory spending. To the surprise of nobody, they were unable to reach a deal, which was supposed to trigger these automatic cuts known as the sequester in 2013. But as part of the deal, these cuts would be postponed for another two months, by substituting in lower caps to discretionary spending and taking advantage of a tax-shifting gimmick with Roth IRAs.
Beyond the specifics of the deal, the process was awful. Even though lawmakers knew this reality was coming for two years (on the tax side) and a year (on the sequester side), they waited until New Year’s Eve to strike a deal that passed through the Senate at 2 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The public has had no chance to review – let alone understand – the legislation. So much for transparency.
There’s a lot to hate in this deal, no doubt. But any honest assessment of it must grapple with the reality of Obama as president, Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader and $4.5 trillion in automatic tax hikes hitting in the new year. With this in mind, I’d rate the deal as objectively bad, but relatively good. | <urn:uuid:2a9ba19a-0fc8-4f91-8214-b27ec02afce7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/the-good-bad-ugly-of-the-fiscal-cliff-deal/article/2517273 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968606 | 1,423 | 1.992188 | 2 |
FindLaw KnowledgeBasePublished: 2012-04-24
The wrongful taking of a life is our society’s greatest taboo. The harshest of punishments, a life spent behind bars with no chance of reprieve, awaits many of those convicted on the most serious homicide charges.
In recent years, a number of juvenile offenders have been sentenced to life without parole. But is it fair, given constitutional protections, to lock someone up for life over a crime — however heinous — committed at a young, impressionable age? In March of 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case seeking to answer that very question.
Is Life Without Parole Cruel and Unusual For 14-Year-Olds?
Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson are both serving life terms without the possibility of parole for their roles in separate homicides committed in Alabama and Arkansas, respectively. Now in their twenties, both men committed their crimes when they were just 14 years old.
Miller and Jackson’s cases have been consolidated before the Supreme Court to address the constitutional question of whether a sentence of life imprisonment without parole may be imposed for juvenile crimes committed at age 14 or younger. Former court cases have already struck down the death penalty for crimes committed by anyone under 18, and prohibited life without parole for any juvenile crime other than homicide. Now, given the underdeveloped nature of the adolescent grasp on actions and consequences, advocates want to take it a step further.
The challenge to life without parole for very young felons is based on the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Making impassioned arguments to the Court, lawyers for Miller and Jackson insisted that categorically declaring someone unfit to ever again breathe free air for a crime committed at age 14 or younger is, given what we know about adolescent brain development, definitively cruel and unusual.
Juvenile Crimes Can Be Serious
At present, 79 inmates are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for crimes committed at age 14 or younger. For them, the Supreme Court’s ruling could mean either a ray of hope for eventual release, or a resounding confirmation that their lifelong sentences will be upheld.
Whether life terms for young offenders are prohibited or not, the seriousness of juvenile crimes should not be underestimated. If a child in your life has been charged with a crime, a strong legal defense may be his or her best route to a bright future. | <urn:uuid:e457fe49-49e4-4261-9e77-fb51c2e9a5e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://knowledgebase.findlaw.com/kb/2012/Apr/523389.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937202 | 499 | 2.109375 | 2 |
What is the integrity of the historical relationship between the building and its associated landscape?
A. Unchanged (10)
B. Changed and character retained (6)
C. Changed and character heavily altered (4)
D. Character destroyed (0)
What is the influence of the building on the present character of the area with which it is associated?
A. Establishes present character (20)
B. Reinforces present character (11)
C. Compatible with present character (8)
D. Negative influence (0)
What is the nature of the building's identity within the community?
A. Symbol of city/ region (15)
B. Conspicuous or familiar - city/ region (8)
C. Conspicuous or familiar - neighbourhood (5)
D. Not conspicuous or familiar (0)
The three criteria "Site", "Setting" and "Landmark" are intended to measure the present-day role of the building in the community's streetscape.
"What is the integrity of the historical relationship between the building and its associated landscape?"
This criterion measures the degree to which the immediate environment enhances and strengthens the building. The associated landscape is normally that contained within the property lines and over which the owner has control. For some urban buildings, the evaluation may be limited to the interface between the building and the adjacent sidewalk or public space. Integrity is judged by considering the original or historic treatment in relation to the nature of what exists today.
"What is the influence of the building on the present character of the area with which it is associated?"
This criterion measures the influence of the building on its streetscape or surroundings, to be interpreted as broader than the limited space referred to under "Site". The "present character of the area" should be considered in an urban design sense, as well as in terms of building types. The character of urban space may be homogeneous or heterogeneous, depending on circumstances. The FHBRO will have to decide, in the case of complexes, how they wish to define "area".
"What is the nature of the building"s identity within the community?"
This criterion evaluates the importance of a building to the community. While it is partially a matter of physical landmark (i.e. a prominent church spire) it also applies to the symbolic value of a building to the community as a whole. | <urn:uuid:df7be0d4-d88c-4750-abd6-bfa40678eb20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/beefp-fhbro/evaluation/Environment.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946659 | 495 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Impressions of war
Canadian war artists offer vivid depictions of armed conflict
Last Updated: Monday, November 10, 2008 | 12:33 PM ET
By Susan Noakes, CBC News
When the guns went silent on Nov. 11, 1918, Canadian art had a unique legacy — namely, the work of 60 artists, including greats such as Fred Varley and A. Y. Jackson, who were commissioned to paint under a program created by Lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere. In 1943, a second war artists program began, elevated by the work of Alex Colville and Charles F. Comfort.
The tradition continues with the current Canadian Forces Artists Program, which recruits civilian volunteers. Gertrude Kearns of Toronto, Karole Marois of Ottawa and Zeqirja Rexhepi of Dartmouth, N.S., are among the artists chosen to participate, and their work is both a meditation on war and a profound remembrance.
Kearns is one of only a handful of artists chosen in 2003 under the Canadian Forces Artists Program to have actually been to Afghanistan. She got a six-month commission in 2006 to produce a series of paintings for the Department of National Defence.
“The commission was originally for five canvases, but we changed it to six because I wanted to include a portrait of the police chief in the Kandahar region. Focusing on leadership from an Afghan perspective as well as from a Canadian perspective was something I wanted to address in the series,” she says.
The paintings, all produced in six months, are powerful in their immediacy, with subjects ripped from the news, including a suicide bombing and the injury of Master Cpl. Paul Franklin. Yet there’s also a strong conceptual element to Kearns’s acrylic canvases.Ancient Modern (Colonel Hussein Andiwall, Afghan National Police), Afghanistan series, by Gertrude Kearns. (Gertrude Kearns)
“I did whatever came up. It’s so much to absorb,” she says. “Though I had four and a half weeks, which was great. I was trying to be open.”
Because her series centred on leadership, Kearns was very conscious of the burden of responsibility falling on both Afghans and Canadians in the conflict. She is fascinated by the way the military works, but also with the kind of individuals it creates. Kearns’s past work includes a portrait of Maj.-Gen. Lewis Mackenzie in Sarajevo and of Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire in Rwanda, an image that uses camouflage to convey a metaphor for Dallaire’s dilemma in the 1994 genocide. The portrait of Afghan police Chief Col. Hussein Andiwall reflects her compassion for the Afghan situation.
“There was so much I tried to get into that one portrait. I call it Ancient Modern — the sense of timelessness, the burden of the ongoing involvement in the war for Afghanistan, yet with the computer mouse on the coffee table in front and the disposable Canadian coffee cup — which I made up. [It conveys] that sense of irony and that sense of dichotomy that the Afghans have in terms of how disposable we might be, what purpose can we serve for them.”
Afghans are in every one of Kearns’s works, along with ordinary soldiers who she may have seen for only a few minutes and officers who she knew long enough to start to discern personality beneath their military exteriors.
“I did juxtapose Afghans. In Eh-Symmetric, absolutely the most important character in the piece is the one painted smallest, and it is an Afghan in the lower left corner. A lot of people have picked up on that,” Kearns says. The man stands almost unprotected as the technology of war takes over the Canadian figures.
“That’s a whole area I’d like to delve into more — the searing burden on the Afghans. They’re an extremely accommodating people, too, and within that accommodation is that very clash — they’re really trapped,” Kearns says.
Kearns emphasizes her support for the Afghan mission, but says the pieces she created in 2006 only go part way in conveying the full experience of war. She was asked in the commission to provide three-by-four-foot canvases — restrictive because the size was so small. As she processes her experiences in Afghanistan, Kearns would like to produce more works based on the sketches and photos she has from that period. She is conscious of wanting to build on Canada’s tradition of searing and disturbing war art.
“Some artists might just use the photographs and make a nice drawing out of it and that is done a fair amount. I’d say that’s military illustration. It’s not carrying it to another level. War art should have a power to it — basically the same sort of power that war has. I guess that’s the ultimate challenge.”
Karole Marois of Ottawa has always been drawn to scenes of history and heritage, painting public murals that show, for example, the history of Ottawa’s Italian community or, in an upcoming commission, scenes from the War of 1812.
“I was interested because, in my work, basically I am fascinated with how people cope in life, their struggles,” she says. “I thought this is the perfect time, given the opportunity to follow the soldiers for a time — you know, who are they?”Detail from Parade, by Karole Marois. Parade is a 20-foot mural depicting Canadian troops in the Netherlands in 2005. (Karole Marois)
She applied to the war artist program hoping to go to Afghanistan, and she prepared for the trip in 2003 by following soldiers training for the Afghan mission in Sherbrooke, Que. But a series of bombings in Kabul made the trip too risky and it was called off. Instead, Marois accompanied Canadian soldiers for three weeks on a trip to the Netherlands in 2005, where the Dutch were celebrating 60 years since Canadian soldiers marched in and liberated them from the Nazis.
“The Dutch were in a mood of celebration … and it was so crowded I had to march in the parade with the soldiers. It was very moving for me,” she recalls.
But it wasn’t until 2007 that she had the time to produce a finished work, called Parade. The program pays expenses for civilians travelling with the military, but it commissions work only rarely and Marois was working on her own time. Parade is a 20-foot mural, which uses a series of tall, narrow canvases to convey the emotion of the 2005 celebrations. There’s a strong impression of grey — because it rained so much and the celebrations were tempered with a sombre tone of loss. But Marois likes to put in small surprises. Two of the panels are just of gravestones — one of a man, one of a woman, both Canadians buried on Dutch ground.
“Holland being so flat, the gravestones stick out everywhere [as vertical images].… I am using that image of the vertical, very narrow canvases to represent the graves, but also the soldiers standing in order. I’m trying to go to the essence of that feeling,” Marois says.
The panels with their differing images are meant to look like a film missing a piece — Marois’s meditation on the way the world is forgetting the pain and destruction of the Second World War. “In between my canvases, it’s like there is a memory gap. It has to do with remembrance. We forget some of it, but the essence is still there,” she says. “We’re trying to remember some of it, but always there is something lost.”
A second piece, called Tulips, which she has yet to finish, contrasts colourful images of tulips with the suffering of the Dutch and other disturbing elements that flash back to the war. “You’ll see all these beautiful tulips — you know, luscious. And then all of a sudden, there’d be an image of the Dutch during the winter of 1944; they were eating those tulip bulbs to stay alive. Always there is the beautiful and the ugly — the contrast,” she says.
At a time when we are bombarded with photographs and videos of war, a painting or something handmade has the power to force people to stop and reflect, Marois says. She says she felt a sense of duty to convey what was beneath the celebrations.
“As an artist, we are not reporters. We mix it all up and more of the message comes across,” Marois says. “It’s always in the back of your mind, as an artist. What is it that you are trying to show? And all you can say is, ‘I am unique in the way I feel. All I can do is show you is the way I see it and maybe there will be someone [who] will connect with me.’ ”
For Dartmouth, N.S.-based artist Zeqirja Rexhepi, war is a painful memory that underscores his work as a Canadian war artist. An Albanian who lived in Kosovo until he was forced to flee in 1999, Rexhepi recalls doing a huge mural of the history of Albania under the Turkish empire, a time in which his grandfather was a soldier.
“I thought at that time, I knew everything. But I didn’t. Until you’ve been in a war, you don’t know,” he says. In 1998, the war that destroyed Kosovo and drove out most of its Albanian citizens arrived to teach him.
“I left my house. I didn’t know where I am. You are alive, but you don’t know where you are. You need help and your life has no value,” he says. “The people are like gods who come to help you, the soldiers.”Destroyed Violin, by Zeqirja Rexhepi, symbolizes the loss of culture during war. (Zeqirja Rexhepi)
The soldiers who came were Canadian, part of a NATO and UN force that fought to keep the peace in the shambles of the Balkans. Rexhepi came to Halifax and started over. The first artwork he did when he arrived strived to convey the sense of dislocation and loss of hope experienced by people in the midst of war. He worked from memory.
“I saw how the soldiers ought to be — close with people, not like the soldiers in Kosovo who will kill you. My first show was here in Halifax and I saw for the first time people crying in a show,” he says. “They had a connection with my paintings — some people stand an hour or more watching it. That is the goal of an artist, that kind of connection.”
Rexhepi’s work is abstract, and expresses what he calls the psychological effects of war with symbols and metaphors. A violin is smashed and squeezed by powerful hands, symbolizing the loss of culture, a disembodied face emerges from a dark canvas — the face of the dead — and a white bird-like figure flies in a blue sky — his metaphor for Canada and also for hope.
When Rexhepi was accepted into the program, he already felt a powerful connection to Canada’s soldiers. And, because of his personal experience, he believed war, and the pain it creates, to be a universal affliction. One of his paintings is built on a map of the world, with darkness emerging from Afghanistan, the Middle East and many parts of Africa, while clear skies hover over Canada. He wants people to take the time to look into his paintings and pick up these references. “The first impression of viewers is, ‘Oh, nice colours.’ After that, viewers have to start to read the painting — not just looking, but reading it. My artwork tells a story.”
Rexhepi used to work in oils, but now uses mainly acrylics and mixed media, attempting to give texture to the paintings. “Especially with the war paintings, I work with mixed media. I want to use some rough stuff, to show the trouble here.”
In 2005, he attended a Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa to record the event as an artist. In the ensuing work, Changes, the airplanes and chaos of the Second World War sweep across the sky and a large stone sculpture represents the strength of those who fought for freedom.
“The veterans are small figures, some in wheelchairs, looking at that sky and remembering what they saw at that time,” Rexhepi says. “I put that rock standing in front — behind that nice colour and Canadian flag — to show how they built our freedom. It was shown at National Defence [headquarters] in Ottawa and I got so many letters from people who liked it; they started to read the colours and symbols.”
Susan Noakes is a staff writer for CBCNews.ca.
- Horror tale Haunting Melissa targets app audiences by Jessica Wong May. 16, 2013 4:40 PM If you're seeking the weather, the news or a pic of what your buddy had for lunch, there are apps for that. What about an original, Hollywood-calibre ghost story from a producer of The Ring and Mulholland Drive? Now, there's an app for that, too. Haunting Melissa ventures into the burgeoning realm of digital storytelling as a traditional ghost story with a modern twist -- namely a tale that unfolds through an iOS app.
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- Astronaut Chris Hadfield adjusts to 'earthling' life | <urn:uuid:f6062959-27be-48d1-826a-307074226593> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/artdesign/story/2008/11/10/f-canadian-war-artists.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965483 | 3,466 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Our Missions Cole Health is committed to bringing hope and changing lives here and around the world. In doing so, we have partnered with multiple foundations in providing life-changing experiences that leave lasting impacts on their community. Through these partnerships and our mission trips, Cole has touched the lives of hundreds of children in need.
Through a partnership with Casa de Fe, a haven for abandoned and special needs children in the heart of the Amazon, Cole Health’s team of Speech, Occupational and Physical Therapists evaluated and treated approximately 60 children. While there, the team also had the opportunity to visit the new facility, which was in the process of being built, to assist with the placement of permanent structures to meet the specific needs of the children, help them perform their daily routines and let them live more independently. With the help of many local donations, Cole’s team was able to bring adaptive equipment to aid the children in improving their positioning and gait. The equipment included braces, splints, walkers and quad canes. As a result of both the treatment provided by the therapists and the equipment, children were able to return home with their families.
Through collaboration with Hope House International, a California-based organization that operates boys and girls orphanages in Vellore, India, Cole Health has helped teach families and cultures how to help their own children, via in person training and over the Web. Throughout 10-day trips to India, the Cole Health clinical team of Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists were able to provide critical pediatric therapy to the children of both the Ranipet and Tribal Homes. The team not only provided training for the staff at the homes, but also assisted local government officials in the design and planning of daycare facilities to better equip special needs children. With two trips complete, the team plans to return each year. | <urn:uuid:642fe8db-6df3-4c6a-9037-f35247555dc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colehealth.com/pediatric-therapy/about-us/global-impact/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968685 | 382 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Lee Alan Dugatkin’s new book The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness was sitting on my doorstep a few days ago (too big to fit in the mailbox). Dugatkin is a biologist at the University of Louisville. That evening I sat down to read the first chapter, and ended up polishing off half the book. It’s quite an engaging read.
Dugatkin recounts the history of various attempts to solve the problem of altruism in evolutionary biology. In this context “altruism” should be viewed as a technical term referring to behavior that benefits others but incurs some personal risk. Superficially such behavior is a challenge for the idea of evolution by natural selection. Since selection only understands immediate reproductive advantage, altruistic behavior should be ruthlessly unselected. Yet many instances of altruistic behavior can be found in nature.
Dugatkin traces the history of attempts to solve this problem from Darwin to the present. Darwin himself weighed in on the subject, describing it as potentially a serious problem for his theory. His main solution was to argue that selection could operate at the level of a whole family, and not just at the level of the individual. He did not attempt to develop this into a full-blooded theory, but his ideas mesh very well with modern thinking on the subject.
Next up are Thomas Huxley and Petr Kropotkin. Not for nothing was Huxley known as Darwin’s bulldog. Huxley endorsed Darwin’s thinking on this subject, and argued that altruism in nature was largely illusory. He emphasized the important role of family relatedness in explaining apparent altruism. Dugatkin quotes him as follows:
From the point of view of the moralist, the animal world is on about the same level as a gladiator’s show. The creatures are fairly well treated, and set to fight; whereby the strongest, the swiftest and the cunningest live to fight another day. The spectator has no need to turn his thumb’s down, as no quarter is given…The weakest and the stupidest went to the wall, while the toughest and the shrewdest, those who were best fitted to cope with their circumstances, but not the best in any other sense, survived. Life was a continual free fight, and beyond the limited and temporary relations of the family, the Hobbesian war of each against all was the normal state of existence. (p. 12)
This sort of thinking was repugnant to Kropotikin, who emphasized cooperation and selflessness as the general rule in nature. His classic book on this subject is Mutual Aid, which provides numerous examples to back up his view of nature. Dugatkin makes an interesting point about how the environments in which Huxley and Kropotikin lived likely affected their view of this issue:
When Darwin published the Origin, Russia made up one-sixth of the earth’s dry land mass, with Siberia alone being forty times larger than Great Britain and Ireland combined. Yet this vast expanse was inhabited by a mere 82 million people (as compared with the 35 million inhabitants of the British Isles), in part owing to the very harsh weather, in which vast sections of the country would “stay frozen eight months out of ten…while the rivers freeze all the way to the black Sea.” In such a world, underpopulation, not overpopulation, was the most pressing problem. And Darwin’s direct competition did not stem from underpopulation; hence, instead of evolution via overpopulation leading to nature’s cycle of slaughter as per Malthus and then Huxley, underpopulation opened the door to altruism and cooperation for Russian scientists like Kropotkin. And underpopulation allowed the Russians to take evolutionary processes proposed by Darwin and derive altruism from them. (p. 22)
Warder Clyde Allee was next. He tended to see things in a fashion similar to Kropotkin, and his work tried to document examples of altruism that was not related to kinship. He also emphasized group selection as a possible solution to this problem. Number five on Dugatkin’s list is JBS Haldane, who contributed the first serious ideas for constructing a mathematical model for the relationship between kinship and altruism. Rounding out the list are William Hamilton, who ran with Haldane’s vague suggestion and developed the first, full-blooded, testable, mathematical model for the altruism problem, and George Price, who brought still further mathematical sophistication in the form of covariance analysis and game theory. Actually, I’m only pretty sure they are the seven scientists in question, since more than seven people receive serious discussion in the book.
Dugatkin also discusses some of the field experiments that have largely confirmed Hamilton’s thinking on this subject. There is also a chapter discussing the importance of books like Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene and E.O. Wilson’s Sociobiology in spreading the word about Hamilton’s ideas. The relationship between altruism and kinship is now firmly entrenched in modern biology.
Speaking as someone who frequently argues with creationists, one thing that impresses me about this is the strong match between theory and reality. Hamilton’s mathematical models are based entirely on the cold, hard logic of natural selection. Likewise for Price’s application of game theory to ethology. The success of these models in predicting the results of field experiments strikes at two common creationist shibboleths. First, it is strong evidence that the behaviors being studied really were formed by natural selection, thereby providing yet another line of evidence in support of evolution. Second, the difficult field work that has been done to test these models illustrates the nonsense of claiming that scientists just assume evolution as an axiom. After all, Hamilton’s and Price’s logic was impeccable. If scientists were the dogmatists creationists say they are, one wonders why they bothered to test the models at all.
Dugatkin has a pleasant writing style, and at a mere 150 pages the book is a fast read. It is more of a history of science book than a science book. Indeed, my one criticism is that I would have preferred a bit more technical detail in the discussion of Hamilton’s work. Since this is a popular level book, I suspect one of Dugatkin’s editors warned him of the perils of including toomuch mathematics. I notice that he has written other books on animal behavior, and I suspect he covered the more technincal aspects of the subject there.
At any rate, I heartily recommend the book both as an interesting look into the history of an important question, and for a window into the real world of professional evolutionary biology. It looks nothing like the caricature you get from the creationists or ID folks. | <urn:uuid:542fec89-126d-4a47-9fa1-43cf9bd051d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2006/09/19/the-altruism-equation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961963 | 1,438 | 2.8125 | 3 |
§ MR. LOWE
said, he wished to ask the Secretary of State for War, If he will state his intentions with regard to the removal or re-building of Knightsbridge Barracks; and, in the event of their intentions not being yet matured, if he will consent to defer any decisive step in the direction of re-building until the next Session, in order that this House may have an opportunity of expressing its opinion on a question so important to the convenience and beauty of Hyde Park and the West End of London?
§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTON
said, in reply, that he was not able to state his intentions more fully than he had done already to a deputation which waited upon 1516 him on the subject. He then stated that the Government were in no way pledged on the Question, which was entirely open for consideration. There were three points for the Government to consider—first, the wishes and convenience of the residents of the neighbourhood; secondly, the necessity of providing a situation convenient in point of locality for the Household troops; and thirdly, the amount of expenditure which would be involved in any change. These questions would receive due attention from the Government, but he must decline at present to enter into any engagement that he would not come to any decision on the Question before the next Session of Parliament, and he had less hesitation in saying so because it would not be possible for the Government to carry out any plan without applying to the House for a Vote of money to defray the necessary expense. | <urn:uuid:fcddae37-26f8-4830-9a9e-55ab004cf556> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1867/jul/15/question-5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982843 | 308 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Make your own sunscreen with doTerra!
Adapted from a recipe on http://wellnessmama.com
Avoid all the chemicals and potential carcinogens in store bought sunscreen!
It’s also easier to apply, since it is in a bar (use it almost like soap) and easier for kids to do themselves.
I would recommend keeping it in the cooler if you take it to the beach, because it will start to get soft when the temperature hits the high 80s, but it will store well at room temperature.
I’d also encourage experimenting with how much coverage you want based on how much Zinc Oxide you add to the recipe, as this will be a smoother and thinner (and more waterproof) coverage
Sunscreen Bar Ingredients:
1 cup coconut oil
1 cup shea butter, cocoa butter or mango butter (or a mix of all three equal to 1 cup)
1 cup beeswax (can add an extra ounce or two if you want a thicker consistency, which leaves less lotion on the skin when used)
2 tablespoons (or more) of Zinc Oxide (available online or in many stores on the diaper aisle, just make sure it is pure zinc oxide- For those concerned about contaminants or nano-particles, this version has larger particles)
5-10 drops of your favorite doTerra Essential Oil (I recommend Lavender since its soothing to the skin – especially in cases of burns. Do not use Citrus Oils since most can cause skin sensitivities in the sun.)
How to Make:
Combine all ingredients (except zinc oxide and essential oil) in a double boiler, or a glass bowl over a smaller saucepan with 1 inch of water in it.
Turn the burner on and bring water to a boil. Stir ingredients constantly until they are melted and smooth:
Remove from heat and add the zinc oxide powder and essential oils.
Gently stir by hand until essential oils are incorporated.
Carefully pour into molds or whatever you will be allowing the lotion bars to harden in. I used silicon baking cups, though any mold would work. This recipe exactly filled 12 silicon baking cups when I made it.
Allow the lotion bars to cool completely before attempting to pop out of molds.
They can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge or freezer for longer term storage. Keep below 80 degrees or they will melt.
Adjust coverage to your needs and be careful not to burn while determining how long you can spend in the sun with these.
It is also important to protect your skin internally by making sure that your body has the nutrients it needs to avoid burning, even when you don’t use sunscreen.
Our Life Long Vitality Supplements provide everything your body needs to stay energetic and healthy all year.
Click here to learn more: http://doterralife.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/doterra-vitamins-lifelong-wellness-pack/ | <urn:uuid:d72de260-54b8-407f-aa7b-8cb681da5be3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://doterralife.wordpress.com/category/home-beauty/skin-care-home-beauty/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926762 | 621 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Hip-hop star Criolo, center, is leading the Brazilian rap scene’s… (Michael Robinson Chavez,…)
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The MTV Music Awards in Brazil had until recently been the domain of tinny pop and smiling boy bands. But last year, one of the show's stars took the stage and unexpectedly delivered a set of rap bars through a deadly serious face:
We are the debunkers of Carnaval/
Runaway slaves on digital drums/
The phoenixes of Ash Wednesday/
The Landless Workers Movement of the social networks
Emicida, now one of Brazil's bigger pop stars, was invoking two of Brazil's most radical historical movements — the quilombos, or escaped slave settlements, and the workers movement, which organized invasions of the lands of rich farmers — to declare that a new age was allowing Brazil's long-marginalized rap community to elbow its way into the spotlight.
There was more evidence that this was afoot later that night. Caetano Veloso, the great Tropicalista singer from the 1960s, took the stage with Criolo to sing along to the rapper's hit, "Love Does Not Exist in São Paulo," helping to baptize him as one of Brazil's reigning philosopher-poets. Emicida and Criolo won all the important awards that night and are now among the few Brazilian artists to regularly headline shows abroad.
FOR THE RECORD:
Brazil rap: A headline in the Sept. 23 Arts & Books section over an article about Brazilian rap music misspelled Sao Paulo as Sao Paolo. —
Rap is exploding into the Brazilian consciousness with the same force it did in the U.S. almost 20 years ago. In the gigantic, gray, oppressive and shockingly unequal city of São Paulo, hip-hop culture had been hidden on the outskirts since it started developing from imported American influences in the 1980s.
Now the well-to-do are paying attention to a genre that is unabashedly political, highly poetic and witty. Until recently, the most well-known music coming from rough, urban Brazil was funk from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, a fast-paced, bass-heavy dance music that in recent years has taken a nihilistic and sexualized path.
With Brazil's rich lyrical and musical tradition to draw on, rap musicians such as Emicida and Criolo now are turning heads from London to Coachella. Criolo registered 650,000 paid-for downloads in the last year, which is a lot for someone without the major companies behind him, though not as many as the saccharine pop anthem " Ai Se Eu Te Pego" topping the charts.
Around São Paulo's urban culture, 1990s California is strongly present visually. Wearing a Raiders hat or L.A. Kings sweat shirt, with their distinctive black and white logos, is a common way to send a clear message that one is a Brazilian rap fan. Or there is Emicida's trademark cap, also in black in white, which reads: "We are the streets."
Much of their music celebrates and calls attention to the vast swathes of Brazil that tend to be ignored and left behind, despite the country's economic boom.
"There's a change every day. Every day it's a new age, but it depends what street you're on," says Criolo. "And I invite you to walk to the streets. If you go, even to the neighborhoods that appear to be completely forgotten by mankind, you can see an absurd evolution — people maintaining their own dignity, and though they don't have the material resources, they're teaching us what it means to be creative, they are doing amazing things."
This is all a bit new for Kleber Gomes, who is unsure what to do with the newfound attention.
"What I'd like, if I could be permitted, would be a dignified life, three meals a day, and the ability to write and sing what I feel," says the pensive, soft-spoken rapper in central São Paulo, "without expecting anything from anyone else."
For the man who began rhyming at 11 years old and was known for most of his career as Criolo Doido, or the Mad Criollo (mixed-race), this humble set of goals was not always within reach. He hails from the poor, sprawling slums of South America's largest city, and until recently the 36-year-old was sleeping on the couches of friends who believed in him.
He speaks slowly, thinking and rethinking his answers, his face lighting up when he makes a new connection or finds a way to express an idea. "I believe that in every corner of the world there are people living rap and seeing it with different eyes," says the former school teacher. "If I tried to define what Brazilian rap is, or what rap in the U.S. is, that would be to assassinate one of rap's most important characteristics, that it doesn't demand answers."
Even if he didn't insist on the fact, the influence of his mother is obvious. She is a kind of intellectual community leader in Grajaú, his slum of 1 million people where she still lives, and organizes a monthly philosophy discussion for residents. Her presence in his life led to his early interest in "letters," as he says, which found expression in the rhyme-form recently imported from the north. | <urn:uuid:3cee9641-edd1-4c01-9baf-b181cfbca236> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/22/entertainment/la-et-ms-brazil-emicida-rap-20120923 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975867 | 1,141 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Kills and prevents black, yellow/mustard and green algae, as well as pink bacteria
Use weekly as a maintenance treatment to prevent future algae growth
Also acts as a clarifier to produce sparkling clear pool water
Apply 16 oz. of Suncoast Chemicals All in One Algaecide for visible algae growth per 10,000 gallons of pool water; 4 oz. weekly for maintenance. Available in qt. or 1/2 gallon.
Suncoast Chemicals All-in-One Algaecide prevents and kills black, yellow/mustard and green pool algae while acting as a water clarifier so your pool will look beautiful for your family’s use, as well as when you entertain guests in your home. This all-in-one algaecide can be used without closing your swimming pool!
The three most common types of algae in swimming pools are green, black, and mustard / yellow algae. Here's how to treat green algae.
Green algae is a frequent visitor to residential swimming pools. It can vary in severity from adding a slightly green tint to the color of your pool water to as harsh as dark green fuzzy growths all over the walls and floor. In some cases, pool water is so heavily tinted with dark green algae that pool owners can't see the bottom of their pools.
To treat green algae growth, shock your pool and use an all-in-one algaecide. Read label directions for recommended dosage and treatment instructions. After treating your pool for green algae, check the water balance - you may need to add an alkalinity increaser.
The Internet's #1 choice for discount swimming pool supplies, swimming pool chemicals, chlorine tablets, pool toys, pool filters, swimming pool pumps, automatic pool cleaners, pool heaters, above-ground swimming pools, pool cleaning supplies, and all other swimming pool accessories. Pinch A Penny® is a registered trademark of Pinch A Penny, Inc. All other indicated registered ® trademarks are the property of the respective owners and the use hereof does not imply their approval or endorsement of Pinch A Penny® products. | <urn:uuid:854e0781-4f44-4449-81db-501ebefe0875> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://store.pinchapenny.com/product/all-in-one-algaecide?suggest=142 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928275 | 438 | 1.921875 | 2 |
"This Advent Season, start — or end — your day with these meditations provided by faculty, students, and alumni/ae of the Austin Seminary community."
CLICK HERE for a complete schedule of this season's devotionals.
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Advent Devotional for Monday, December 3
As I read this psalm out loud, I imagine Mary sitting across the room, listening. She twists and turns. She can’t seem to get comfortable. The baby is lying on her sciatic nerve and pain is shooting down her left leg. She tries to get him to move by turning on her side and pushing on the little body. Please make this pain go away, she pleads. Please get this over with, she begs. But her mother has told her: All in good time. God’s time. You can’t make it happen. You wait and pray for some relief.
Psalm 90 puts words to this human experience of time. Like Mary, waiting for something to change her condition, we are bound to life measured day by day by relentless day of toil and trouble. For God, on the other hand, a thousand years go by as if they were a dream in a single night. In our life span, we hardly have a chance to make an impression on God. In fact, Moses suspects, what impression we do make is by our sins, sins that evoke the wrath of God.
Unlike most psalms of lament, which this one surely is, Moses’ poem does not make a final turn to thanking God for saving us. No. Moses leaves us waiting and praying for relief. He ends with a plea: Please make our work prosper! Please make our lives count for something!
Like Mary, sometimes we just sit and wait. But we know what Moses did not, that Mary’s baby—when he comes and when he comes again—will change our plight. God will see us differently through the glory of Jesus Christ
This day we wait. It may be a day full of toil and trouble. It may be a day we prosper. I ask that your presence within me, whatever this day brings, remind me of the hope of Jesus Christ for me and also for all the people with whom I share this day. May I see them reflecting glory. Amen.
Vice President for Education Beyond the Walls at Austin Seminary
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people. | <urn:uuid:af5363e3-e3eb-4ee3-b64f-2e6679f3c66f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westexmissioner.blogspot.jp/2012/12/advent-devotional-for-december-3.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956365 | 596 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Georg Klinker, Casey Boyd, Serge Genetet, John McDermott
KNACK is a knowledge acquisition tool that generates expert systems for evaluating designs of electromechanical systems. An important feature of KNACK is that it acquires knowledge from domain experts without presupposing knowledge engineering skills on their part. This is achieved by incorporating general knowledge about evaluation tasks in KNACK. Using that knowledge, KNACK builds a conceptual model of the domain through an interview process with the expert. KNACK expects the expert to communicate a portion of his knowledge as a sample report and divides the report into small fragments. It asks the expert for strategies of how to customize the fragments for different applications. KNACK generalizes the fragments and strategies, displays several instantiations of them, and the expert edits any of these that need it. The corrections motivate and guide KNACK in refining the knowledge base. Finally, KNACK examines the acquired knowledge for incompleteness and inconsistency. This process of abstraction and completion results in a knowledge base containing a large collection of generalized report fragments more broadly applicable than the sample report. | <urn:uuid:d335adbf-ab6e-4aa2-9623-51634336e4ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aaai.org/Library/AAAI/1987/aaai87-087.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919783 | 219 | 2.203125 | 2 |
COMMUNITY NEWS GUITAR CLASS GETS INSTRUMENTS.The guitar class at Christopher Columbus Middle School in Canoga Park received an $85,000 donation of new instruments from Time Warner Cable This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. - Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. Robert Frost Middle School Robert Frost Middle School may refer to one of the following:
The money bought each school 20 Fender Squier electric guitars at the beginning of the school year.
``Music teaches organizational skills, and being in a band teaches teamwork,'' Columbus guitar teacher Monique Brusca said. ``The earlier children start and stay with music, the better their scores are on the SATs.''
The donation is part of the foundation's efforts to restore $4 million to school music programs nationwide in the 2005-06 school year. The foundation has donated $30 million to 1,200 schools nationwide since its inception in 1998, $1.185 million of which has gone to schools in the Los Angeles area.
Marvel Entertainment, the nonprofit groupTeachersCount and the Granada Hills OfficeMax store are asking local middle school students to nominate their favorite teacher for their nationwide ``OfficeMax Super Hero Teacher of the Year'' contest. The grand prize-winning teacher will get $6,000 in prizes for school and personal classroom supplies, and the student who nominates him or her will earn a $500 OfficeMax gift card. Both will also make an illustrated cameo in a special edition teacher-themed comic book featuring the superheroes Superheroes are fictional heroes who possess abilities beyond those of normal human beings.
Superheroes may also refer to:
Students who want to nominate their teachers must write an essay 200 words or less describing ``Why My Teacher is a Super Hero.'' Those interested can pick up contest entry forms at the OfficeMax store at 18050 Chatsworth St. in Granada Hills. Entrants must drop off their completed entries at the store by March 17, or mail them to TeachersCount, 10 E. 40th St. Suite 1900, New York New York, state, United States
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY 10016, postmarked no later than March 17. OfficeMax will announce the winners on National Teacher Day - May 9.
TeachersCount is a nationwide organization with the purpose of improving the public perception of the teaching profession and to provide services, resources and information to teachers and prospective teachers.
Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY, FAA LID: VNY) is a public airport located in Van Nuys, California in the San Fernando Valley, within the Los Angeles city limits. is accepting applications from San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley
Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. high school students who are interested in a career in aviation. Officials will select a maximum 20 applicants based on merit for the Aug. 7-11 program.
The airport will accept applications through May 1. The winners will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities at both Van Nuys Airport and Los Angeles International Airport “LAX” redirects here. For other uses, see LAX (disambiguation).
“KLAX” redirects here. For other uses, see KLAX (disambiguation).
Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX . They will also make field trips to the Boeing Company in Long Beach and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation).
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena.
To request an application, contact VNY VNY Vision New York Public and Community Relations at (818) 909-3529 or e-mail at VNY(at)lawa.org.
Starbucks Coffee is accepting applications from nonprofit agencies for grants under its ``California Giving Program.'' The program is a first for Starbucks and is expected to award $1 million in grants.
Interested groups must be California-based registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits with programs, services or projects that focus on creating better futures for children. Only online applications will be accepted at www.starbuckscalgiving.com and the deadline for applying is Monday. | <urn:uuid:fda2557d-d4a0-49b9-a49f-37cee718994c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefreelibrary.com/COMMUNITY+NEWS+GUITAR+CLASS+GETS+INSTRUMENTS-a0143227715 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925896 | 1,088 | 1.570313 | 2 |
March 31, 2011
Shirley Prenger, foreground right, is just one of the judges to learn the new electronic poll books at Cole County voting precincts. The new system automatically pulls up information by scanning the back of a driver’s license.
Stories this photo appears in:
Poll workers have been training for the past several days on how to operate some new equipment that will be used for the first time in Tuesday’s elections. | <urn:uuid:d8b79fcc-371e-4c1e-adf6-4f5e3f269699> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstribune.com/photos/2011/mar/31/6111/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94564 | 94 | 1.625 | 2 |
Explore Careers - Job Market Report
Dentists diagnose, treat, prevent and control disorders of the teeth and mouth. They work in private practice or may be employed in hospitals, clinics, public health facilities or universities.
dentist, endodontist, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, oral pathologist, oral radiologist, orthodontist, pediatric dentist, periodontist, prosthodontist, public health dentist.
- Examine patients' teeth, gums and surrounding tissue to diagnose disease, injury and decay and plan appropriate treatment
- Restore, extract and replace diseased and decayed teeth
- Perform oral surgery, periodontal surgery and other treatments
- Clean teeth and instruct patients on oral hygiene
- Design bridgework, fit dentures and provide appliances to correct abnormal positioning of the teeth and jaws, or write fabrication instructions or prescriptions for use by denturists and dental technicians
- Supervise dental hygienists, dental assistants and other staff.
Dentists may specialize in such areas as oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, prosthodontics, oral pathology, oral radiology or public health dentistry.
St. John's, Mount Pearl, Arnold's Cove, Bay Roberts, Bishop's Cove, Carbonear, Conception Bay South, Gulch, Gull Island, Harbour Grace, North River, Spaniard's Bay, Torbay, Upper Island Cove, Wabana, Birchy Nap, Chamberlains, Codner, Doyles, Foxtrap, Goulds, Greeleytown, Kelligrews, Lance Cove, Lawrence Pond, Manuels, Newton, North Pond Heights, Peachytown, Riverdale, Talcville, Topsail, Upper Gullies
Outlook & Prospects for Dentists in Avalon Peninsula Region
The future forecast and current conditions for an occupation can vary based on location or due to changes in the economy, technology, or demand for a product or service.
Local Employment Potential Information
|Location||Employment Potential||Release Date|
|Avalon Peninsula Region||2011-12-02|
In the Avalon Region, the employment potential for this occupation is GOOD. This means that there are relatively strong employment opportunities for skilled workers in this occupation.
This employment potential call is based on a review of statistics such as past employment growth in the occupation, the unemployment rate for the occupation (based on the 2006 Census), economic forecasting and consultation with the Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Association.
Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest patient to dentist ratio in the country; the Avalon Peninsula has a patient to dentist ratio of 2000:1. Although employment opportunities are available all across the province, new graduates tend to stay in larger centers on the Avalon Peninsula such as St. John's. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the numbers of females entering Dentistry.
LABOUR MARKET CONDITIONS
Dentists in the Avalon Peninsula Region:
According to the 2006 Census, approximately 66% of all Dentists in the province were located in the Avalon Peninsula region.
It is very uncommon for people in this profession to collect Employment Insurance benefits, especially since many are self-employed. When they do so, it is usually for reasons such as maternity or parental leave or sickness, rather than unemployment.
Dentists in Newfoundland and Labrador:
Dentists make up a small sized occupational group in Newfoundland and Labrador. According to the 2006 Census, the labour force for this occupation consisted of 175 persons in the province. At the time of the Census (May 2006), all of these persons were employed. This was an increase of 13% from the 2001 levels. Over the same period, employment in all occupations in the province increased by 7%.
Employment of Dentists in Newfoundland and Labrador is with Health and Social Assistance (100%). According to the 2006 Census, the unemployment rate for this occupation in the province was 0% compared to 16% for occupations in general. Individuals employed in this occupation are older than the average worker in the labour force. This could potentially result in an increase in job openings due to retirement.
GRADUATE FOLLOW-UP STATISTICS
Graduate follow-up data, which provides information about whether graduates have been successful in their transition into the labour force, is not available for this occupation. Individuals should contact post-secondary schools to request graduate follow-up information for programs in which they are interested.
For information on graduates in other occupations, visit the CareerSearch 2008 website at:
Local Labour Market News
Week of May 06 – May 10, 2013
- A new mini aquarium with 30 fish tanks will open in Petty Harbour on June 15 as a tourist attraction. The aquarium will be located at the Petty Harbour Fishermen's Co-op.
- According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission, the demand for single-detached housing units has remained strong in the St. John's metro area
- The provincial government's Dept. of Tourism, Culture and Recreation has announced $15,000 for upgrades to the Sir Robert Bond Park and area walking trails in Whitbourne
- The provincial government's Dept. of Transportation and Works announced a tender for mechanical and electrical system upgrades to the Confederation Building, East Block. The tender closes on 5 June. Work is expected to start in July.
Week of Apr 29 – May 03, 2013
- The provincial government's Dept. of Tourism, Culture and Recreation has announced a $15,000 grant for upgrades to the Peter Barry Duff Memorial Park in Paradise
- The Convergys call centre on Torbay Road in St. John's closed on June 30. Seventy-five of the hundred employees at the centre have the option to work from home and 25 can be placed in other positions within the company.
- The provincial government's Dept. of Municipal Affairs has awarded a $22M contract to EllisDon to develop a new double ice surface arena in Paradise. The arena is expected to be completed by September 2014.
Week of Apr 22 – Apr 26, 2013
- A tender worth $16.7M was awarded to Pomerleau Inc. towards the construction of a new St. Teresa's school in St. John's. The school is expected to be ready for classes by September, 2014.
Week of Apr 15 – Apr 19, 2013
- The only gas station on Bell Island has closed due to a dispute with the town over water tax
- The City of St. John's has awarded a contract to Magna Contracting and Management Inc. to construct a community centre in the Southlands area of St. John's. The contract is worth nearly $3M.
- The City of Mount Pearl will begin a pilot composting project to a specific area of the city in May to divert waste from the landfill. If the project is successful, it will be expanded throughout the city in 2014.
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What a great question! Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has generated a number of definitions. Before I tell you my definition, I want to describe the history of outsourcing to show how the term “business process outsourcing” came about.
Here’s my definition of outsourcing: It is when a buyer transfers the ownership of a non-core business process to a supplier.
What is a core process? A core competency forms the soul of a company. It is a process that differentiates the company from its competitors in the marketplace. It is a process that pays the rent and makes a big difference on the bottom line. It is the key process that demands most of your attention and capital.
Most businesspeople can’t grasp the intricacies of computers and networks. They don’t want to worry about software patches, network maintenance or helpdesk services. So they got their first taste of outsourcing by handing over their technology needs to a company who understood the technology far better than they.
About 10 years ago executives in the boardroom, pleased with their IT outsourcing, decided to experiment by outsourcing other corporate functions. If the idea worked with computers, why wouldn’t it work for accounting or real estate? Outsourcing other areas worked and worked well. In fact, outsourcing non-IT functions actually worked better than IT outsourcing.
What other processes can a company outsource? Any non-core process is a good candidate. Please note, non-core does not mean “not important.” Finance and accounting, for example, form the cornerstone of any business. But few companies make their mark in the marketplace because of their unique accounting skills. It is a perfect function to outsource to professionals who like number crunching all day.
What non-core processes lend themselves to successful BPO? In addition to finance and accounting, I’d add:
- Human Resources. Today one of business’ most difficult challenges is to attract and retain talent.
- Logistics. Let them organize the warehouse and do the shipping. Inbound and outbound goods become their responsbility.
- Contract manufacturing. Someone else builds the plant and operates it.
- Supply chain management. Web exchanges are changing the way corporations buy goods. Outsourcers are assembling the participants of these sites.
- Medical underwriting. Outsourcers have experience handling risk.
- Real estate management. Let them mow the grass and recharge the air conditioning.
Why do these processes produce as good or better results than IT outsourcing? Because they are whole processes that buyers can accurately describe and clearly measure. Also, companies tend to outsource the entire process; compare this to IT outsourcing where buyers tend to keep part of the IT process in-house. Outsourcing always works better when the buyer outsources the entire process, not just a piece of it. If nothing else, outsourcing the entire process prevents both parties from pointing angry fingers at each other when something doesn’t work instead of rolling up their sleeves and finding a fix.
Until recently, companies happy with their IT outsourcing were the one turning to BPO outsourcing to increase their profitability. Today, start up companies are outsourcing these non-core areas from the get-go.
Globalization Fuels BPO Growth
Today two economic trends are accelerating BPO’s rate of growth. The first is globalization. For the first time since the days of sailing ships, trade barriers are coming down. The Internet, of course, is enabling this trend. Doing business on the Web is easy and becoming easier. A Web site makes your products available to a customer around the corner as well as half way around the globe. Geographic boundaries disappear in a Web browser.
The Internet has made the world increasingly competitive, the second economic trend affecting corporations. Product cycle times that used to take months now can take hours. This frenetic pace is forcing companies to harness all their resources to concentrate on their core competencies. They can’t afford to because today’s competitive world is not as forgiving of mistakes. Outsourcing is becoming the only way to prosper and succeed in a world moving at Web speed.
What complicates business today is that successful companies must have even better core processes to just stay in the game. Outsourcing becomes the only way a company can concentrate its scarce resources of time and money on its core competencies and still get better performance for its non-core functions.
Suppliers Can Do It Better
Transferring the ownership of a process to a supplier allows a buyer to take advantage of the supplier’s leverage, economies of scale and expertise. In many cases, a seasoned supplier can perform the process cheaper and faster than your in-house team. Suppliers can give you a sustainable advantage, something every company needs today.
So, here’s my definition of BPO outsourcing: BPO outsourcing encompasses the transfer of ownership of any non-IT process to a capable supplier. And here’s my prediction. BPO outsourcing will grow exponentially as the Internet becomes an integral part of the way every corporation and consumer does business.
Lessons from the Outsourcing Primer:
- BPO outsourcing is the transferring of a non-core, non-IT business process to a supplier.
- The Internet has sparked two trends that are causing BPO to grow exponentially: the globalization of commerce and the compression of business cycles. These two trends are forcing companies to outsource their non-core processes just to stay competitive.
- Suppliers can complete the process faster, cheaper and better than buyers can do it in-house. This type of service also helps companies compete in a Web-based marketplace. | <urn:uuid:cc800b2d-93e6-418e-9933-c3e03abed001> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.outsourcing-center.com/2000-07-what-exactly-is-bpo-article-38646.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952846 | 1,169 | 2.265625 | 2 |
WWF to grade palm oil buyers
In a bid to speed up this “sluggish performance”, WWF will assess the world’s major users of palm oil over the next six months and publish a Palm Oil Buyer’s Scorecard highlighting companies that support sustainable palm oil and exposing those who have not fulfilled their commitments to buy it.
WWF helped set up the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as an international body for the industry to develop sustainability standards. Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) has been available since November 2008 and provides assurance that valuable tropical forests have not been cleared and that environmental and social safeguards have been met during the production of palm oil. Yet further production will hinge on manufacturers and retailers committing to buy what’s available.
“So far around 1.3 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil has been produced by RSPO member plantation companies, but less than 15,000 tonnes have been sold,” said Rodney Taylor, Director of WWF International’s Forests Programme. “This sluggish demand from palm oil buyers, such as supermarkets, food and cosmetic manufacturers, could undermine the success of the RSPO and threatens the remaining natural tropical forests of Southeast Asia, as well as other forests where oil palm is set to expand, such as the Amazon.”
WWF asks all companies buying palm oil to make public commitments that they will use 100 percent certified sustainable palm oil by 2015; to make public their plans with deadlines to achieve this goal; and to begin purchasing certified sustainable palm oil immediately.
The Palm Oil Buyer’s Scorecard will rank the commitments and actions of major global retailers, manufacturers and traders that buy palm oil. Companies will be scored on a variety of criteria relating to their commitments to, and actions on, sustainable palm oil. The resulting scores will not only help consumers evaluate the performance of these companies but will also encourage the companies themselves to better support the use of sustainable palm oil.
As a founding member of the RSPO, WWF has worked since 2002 with the palm oil industry to ensure that the RSPO standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of valuable forests. The RSPO brings together oil palm growers, oil processors, food companies, retailers, NGOs and investors to help ensure that no rainforest areas are sacrificed for new palm oil plantations, that all plantations minimize their environmental impacts and that basic rights of local peoples and plantation workers are fully respected.
The RSPO began in 2002 as an informal cooperation on production and usage of sustainable palm oil among Aarhus United UK Ltd, Golden Hope Plantations Berhad, Migros, Malaysian Palm Oil Association, Sainsbury’s and Unilever together with WWF. These organizations held the first Roundtable meeting in August 2003 in Kuala Lumpur in order to prepare the foundation for the organizational and governance structure that resulted in the formation of the RSPO. Since then the RSPO has grown to include more than 300 members between them accounting for more than 35% of global palm oil production. | <urn:uuid:611e0262-5f67-4955-9a36-54244905e061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?163902/WWF-to-grade-palm-oil-buyers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957291 | 635 | 2.0625 | 2 |
MN Police, Attorneys Oppose Deadly Force BillST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Key police chiefs and county prosecutors joined together on Thursday to urge Minnesota lawmakers to not pass legislation that would give people more freedom to use deadly force when protecting themselves.
By: Alexandra Tempus, Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Key police chiefs and county prosecutors joined together on Thursday to urge Minnesota lawmakers to not pass legislation that would give people more freedom to use deadly force when protecting themselves.
The legislation creates the presumption that a person in their home or other dwelling who uses deadly force does so believing they are in danger of harm or death. The bill also removes the obligation for that person to retreat from such a situation. It's headed for a full Senate vote soon.
Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said at a Capitol press conference that the bill shifts the standard to use deadly force from the current "reasonable person" standard to a more subjective one.
"Under this proposal, it would become what is in the person's mind as to whether they feel threatened," Backstrom said. "That is the controlling factor. Not what a reasonable person would have done when facing similar circumstances."
Champlin Police Chief Dave Kolb, representing the Minnesota State Chiefs of Police Association, said the legislation makes it easier to get away with murder.
"If a person on their own property murders another person, this bill creates a very large loophole for their defense," Kolb said.
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said the bill would make serving warrants even more dangerous for officers. He held up a shield officers use when entering homes to illustrate how bullets can pass through it.
"I've lost officers at the front door on legal warrants," Dolan. "It is one of the most dangerous spots for law enforcement."
Bill sponsor Sen. Gretchen Hoffman, R-Vergas, said officers are already protected from shootings by law. She added that law enforcement reactions conflict with second amendment rights.
"It's a little over the top that they think they're the only people that can protect the public," Hoffman said. "In a free nation, people protect themselves."
Hoffman said she is confident the legislation will pass in the Senate with bipartisan support.
The House passed a companion bill last year with some language differences from the Senate bill. If passed in the Senate, the House will either concur with the Senate bill's language and send the bill to Gov. Mark Dayton, or send it to a Conference Committee for reworking and then back to the Senate floor.
Dayton said last week he wasn't sure if he'd sign or veto the bill, but mentioned that opposition from law enforcement officials would likely influence his decision.
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Thousands of students, activists and common people from all walks of society took to streets here on Monday with the aim of making public places safer for women.
The march was part of a nationwide protest against the brutal gang rape and torture of a 23-year-old student, which led to her death.
A large number of protesters who had gathered under the banners of the All India Student Association (AISA), the All India Progressive Women Association (AIPWA) and the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), assembled near the Central Park of Connaught Place here and wanted to hold a sit-in protest. But police barred them from entering the park.
"AISA, RYA, AIPWA and several other organisations had decided to assemble at the Central Park on the evening of December 31 for a sit-in protest by citing slogans, poetries and songs in the favour of gender justice and gender equality. But the Delhi Police stopped us saying that such unlawful activities are not allowed in the area, so we decided to march towards the Jantar Mantar," said Sandeep Singh, the national president of AISA.
"We don't want any confrontation with police, if the people and youth of this country cannot stage peaceful protests at public places like the India Gate or here, then we will have to think that the nation belongs to whom," said Sandeep.
"Usually this park becomes a notorious place on such occasions as eve teasers harass women in the name of celebration. We wanted to stop this menace and ensure that women can also participate here without any fear. With the fight and martyrdom of the 23-year-old girl, we pledge today to make a gender just society," he added.
Holding placards, posters, banners, and shouting slogans for 'women liberation' and 'freedom for women' the protestors marched to the Jantar Mantar, the place witnessing persistent protests, candle light vigils and mourning ceremonies after the horrific incident of December 16.
A group of people are holding hunger strike since last eight days, demanding capital punishment for all the six accused and amendment in laws to ensure swift trial and stringent punishment in regarding such cases.
The 23-year-old girl, who was gang raped and brutally assaulted allegedly by six men in a moving bus in South Delhi on the night of December 16, breathed her last at Singapore' s Mount Elizabeth hospital on Saturday at around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday. (ANI) | <urn:uuid:a3ca9760-7ed4-48ca-a727-e5d804a5bd28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sify.com/news/Anti-rape-protesters-march-from-Connaught-Place-to-Jantar-Mantar-on-New-Year-s-eve-news-National-mm5uanidadh.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963596 | 505 | 1.890625 | 2 |
Everything You Need To Know About Treatment Urticaria Ayurvedic
A raw piece of garlic can provide great results. Remedy #4 Oatmeal
Oatmeal isnt just a great breaks down skin’s naturally oily you may not be as susceptible to acne but it most common problem unwanted hair from their faces it is always observed or heard by washing your face with soap and water soluble cleanser that will help quick acne treatments have beautiful skin care products contain Olive Oil Aloe Vera Cocoa Butter and Shea butter for Everything You Need To Know About treatment urticaria ayurvedic skin care products are ok as are any cereals egg oats. Alpha Lipoid Dissolvent sounds nifty and make up products is vast and needs a lot of research. Though our bodies as well as their chemicals that promote the cause of dark circles.
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Categorised as: Treatment | <urn:uuid:0709f02a-7e0c-4090-b47a-9210d921ef92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hivesnomore.com/5839/treatment/everything-you-need-to-know-about-treatment-urticaria-ayurvedic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922754 | 702 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Date: October 19, 2009
“First, you must believe,” said José Rojas as he began his series of talks as featured speaker for the monthly Seminary Colloquium. He repeated these words throughout the five meetings held from October 6–8, 2009, reminding his audience of mostly seminary students that success in their ministries depended on their own relationship and faith in Jesus.
Speaking on the topic of discipleship, Rojas, director of the Office of Volunteer Ministries for the North American Division, used both energetic humor and dramatic sincerity in relaying parables and personal stories to the packed Seminary Chapel at the Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Mich.
“Let the scholar in the audience be impressed with your discourse, while the peasant in the pews says simply ‘I’m so glad I came to church today because that was just for me’,” said Rojas. “Let them grasp the depth of your message because you have grasped it.”
After grounding his listeners in the difference between true belief and mere acceptance of Christ during Tuesday’s meetings, Rojas focused his Wednesday message on becoming an acting disciple of Christ. He explained the importance of belief not only in God, but also in other people.
“If you expect little from people, then they will give you very little. Jesus expects us to give Him everything,” he said.
Thursday’s topic encouraged listeners to go forth in action to create more disciples.
“History and research shows that true disciples always make more disciples,” said Rojas, again emphasizing the importance of the pastor’s relationship with God.
As director of the Office of Volunteer Ministries, Rojas coordinates the efforts of church, institutional and supportive organizations for shared goals in volunteer ministries including: student missions, taskforce missions, literacy programs, community projects, Bible work and evangelism. Their work has grown to oversee more than 70,000 volunteers.
Rojas also serves as a member of America's Promise Alliance, an organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell that has resulted in more than 183 Adventist tutoring sites for underprivileged children in 26 states and provinces in North America. He has also worked with the White House for several years, assisting two United States presidents with domestic policy initiatives for humanitarian leadership in the U.S.
He holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Southwestern Adventist University, as well as a Bachelor of Religion and Master of Religion from Loma Linda University.
“My role as I perceive it being here is to be a pastor’s pastor,” said Rojas. To give nuggets to future pastors that will be valuable for their personal enrichment. They’re already getting the theory, the theology, the skill-package training, all occurring here at one of the best centers in the world. But my role is to minister to their hearts, so that when they go to their congregations they can disciple them in Christ.”
The series is part of the Seminary’s monthly colloquium. Each month, the series focuses on a different attribute of the Seminary’s core values statements. Previous programs have highlighted topics such as “Faithfulness with Expectation” and “Christ-likeness with Humility.” Next month’s focus will be on “Service with Passion.”
This month’s program was sponsored by the Seminary Student Forum and the Hispanic Association of the Seminary. Services included scripture readings in Spanish and lively Spanish music.
-Written by Kristina Penny, IMC student writer | <urn:uuid:d6374af8-7162-4351-8dad-e18404acb6ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.andrews.edu/news/2009/10/rojas.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963229 | 765 | 1.515625 | 2 |
This is a video clip of an entire day from sunrise to sunset of a day in Miramar, Florida showing convective clouds. Each second compresses a space of roughly two minutes of time. The day starts out clear and cloudless, then small fair-weather cumulus begins to softly billow. Soon after, the cumulus grow higher, but are supressed by a warm-air inversion called a CAP. Note some small heaps of the cumulus clouds that quickly grow and then sink back down from the capping effect. Finally, the cap is overcome when the late-day sunshine heats the ground enough to raise instability CAPE's to produce cumulonimbus clouds. The last part of the clip shows outflow boundaries and storm "debris" and blowoff left over after the storms dissapate near sunset. The view in this video is to the south, low level winds are SW but the upper level winds are east due to an easterly "jet" stream in the tropical regions during late summer. About 3/4 through the video, watch for a large updraft base with brief but nice counter-clockwise rotation!
The video requires at least a DSL connection and the latest FLASH Media Plugin for best results. This video is hosted to and linked to the YOUTUBE site (you can visit them at www.youtube.com). Click on the "play" icon in the video above if it does not start automatically.
HTML File "cnvctvid.htm" - Developed By Chris Collura
To Return To The HOME Page Of This Site Click The "INDEX.HTM" Link Here! | <urn:uuid:e306adac-8873-4997-bf7d-4cc8b2864cf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sky-chaser.com/cnvctvid.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911538 | 339 | 2.484375 | 2 |
July 21, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Phil Sneiderman
The birth of a baby is usually a joyous event, but when a child is born too early, worrisome complications can occur, including serious health problems for the baby and steep medical bills for the family. To address this, Johns Hopkins graduate students and their faculty adviser have invented a new system to pick up very early signs that a woman is going into labor too soon.
The normal length of a pregnancy is 40 weeks, while babies born before 37 weeks gestation are considered to be preterm. By detecting preterm contractions with greater accuracy and sensitivity than existing tools, the new system could allow doctors to take steps at an earlier stage to prevent premature births, its inventors say.
The health concerns and costs associated with premature births have received increasing attention in recent years, due in part to a rise in the number of multiple births, the use of fertility treatments, which can cause multiple births, and to an increase in women who are having babies later in life. These trends are all associated with a higher risk of preterm labor.
The scope of the problem is significant: The National Center for Health Statistics has reported that about 500,000 premature live births occur annually in the United States alone. In a 2006 report, the Institute of Medicine described the high rate of premature births in the United States as “a public health concern that costs society at least $26 billion a year.” Preterm births are widely linked to neonatal deaths or serious health problems such as breathing difficulties and brain development issues.
To help reduce these statistics, the Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering students wanted to improve the way doctors detect preterm labor. They designed and built a prototype that is now undergoing testing in animals. With further refinement, the students say, their system could eventually help physicians discover early signs of labor and allow the doctors to delay preterm deliveries, giving these babies more time to mature.
“The problem is, the technology now used by most doctors usually detects preterm labor when it’s so far along that medications can only delay some of these births for a few days,” said Karin Hwang of Ontario, Calif., one of the student inventors. “But if labor can be detected earlier, medications can sometimes prolong the pregnancy by as much as six weeks.”
Hwang was one of four Johns Hopkins students who devised and built the system in a yearlong bioengineering innovations and design master’s degree program. The others were Deepika Sagaram of Philadelphia; Rose Huang of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Chris Courville of Lafayette, La. Along with their faculty sponsor, Abimbola Aina-Mumuney, an assistant professor of maternal fetal medicine in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the students have formed CervoCheck, a limited liability corporation, to advance the project.
The students met Aina-Mumuney last year, early in their degree program, when they were asked to follow physicians on their hospital rounds and discover which new instruments and devices the doctors needed most to improve patient care. “I told them it’s really important to know at the earliest possible point when a pregnant patient is contracting,” said Aina-Mumuney. “It’s something I’ve had a strong interest in.”
The students initially proposed a new blood test to find proteins associated with early labor, but Aina-Mumuney steered them toward building a better device to detect physical signals in the expectant mother’s body. To find signs of preterm labor, physicians have long relied on a tocodynamometer, a belt that is attached to a woman’s abdomen for external monitoring of uterine contractions. But Aina-Mumuney said this device is not effective at picking up preterm labor very early in a pregnancy or in cases where the patient is obese. “I suggested that the students come up with an internal device,” she said. “I told them that if we could bypass the abdomen, that would be ideal.”
After much research and brainstorming, the students built a prototype ring made of medical grade biocompatible silicone elastomer. The ring is designed to be compressed and inserted into the vaginal canal at a physician’s office or hospital. Embedded within the ring are sensors designed to pick up electrical signals associated with uterine contractions.
“With these sensors, we’re detecting signals directly from the places in the body where they originate, as opposed to trying to pick them up through the abdominal wall,” said Courville, one of the inventors.
The prototype has not yet been used on human patients, but the students say their early animal test results are promising and that improvement of the system is continuing. Their faculty advisor, Aina-Mumuney, said she is pleased by the great enthusiasm that the biomedical engineering students brought to the project. “They can truly see the impact this could make,” she said. “If we can detect preterm labor at an earlier point and can delay the delivery by six weeks or more, the risk of the baby being born with serious health problems will go down dramatically.”
The costs of caring for premature babies are significant. A recent article in Managed Care said, “The average cost for infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units is around $3,000 per day. While the average cost to an employer of a healthy baby born at full-term, or 40 weeks of gestation, is $2,830, the average cost for a premature baby is $41,610. If the baby is born at 26 weeks, the cost can quickly rise to $250,000 or more.”
The inventors of the CervoCheck device say their system may someday help to reduce such expenses. “We estimate that the cost savings could be more than $44,000 per patient for every preterm birth we could prevent,” co-inventor Hwang said.
Working with the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer office, the students and Aina-Mumuney have obtained a provisional patent covering their invention and established CervoCheck, LLC. The students also have received high marks and prize money in several competitions in which the viability of their device and its sales potential were judged. The team placed first in the University of California, San Francisco, Business Plan Competition; won second-place honors in business plan contests sponsored by the University of Texas at Arlington and Noetic Technologies, and placed third in the University of Louisville Cardinal Challenge and the Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition. The team’s winnings from these contests totaled $22,000.
All four students recently received their master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins. Sagaram will be entering medical school at Brown University, and Courville has accepted a job at a healthcare software business. Team members Hwang and Huang have opted to work full-time on moving the CervoCheck device toward commercial use. “We’re passionate about seeing this become a reality,” Hwang said.
Digital color images of the student team and the device available; contact Phil Sneiderman.
Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering: http://www.bme.jhu.edu/
Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design: http://cbid.bme.jhu.edu/
Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/ Information on automatic E-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address. | <urn:uuid:f59e1a98-c706-4c69-b1cd-8d9ab1a7c1ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://releases.jhu.edu/2010/07/21/preterm-detector/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961024 | 1,603 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Massage and Chronic Fatigue
Massages used in traditional Chinese medicine or TCM are known for their therapeutic value, particularly for the treatment of common ailments and disorders. One of the most common disorders with which TCM is used is chronic fatigue syndrome, an illness that manifests itself through a variety of symptoms, many of which are similar to other disorders and illnesses. This is why Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is difficult to diagnose. However, it can be treated and many patients have turned to traditional Chinese medicine and massage therapy for relief.
Fatigue is an ailment that probably every person has experienced at one time or another. Although common, it is not always a cause for concern since it often goes away after some rest and relaxation. The problem is that fatigue can be a symptom of a disorder known as CFS or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. People who suffer from CFS frequently complain of extended periods of extreme fatigue with seemingly no perceivable cause or reason. | <urn:uuid:97e6db39-8afa-424b-999d-6b64c5622387> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pacificcollege.edu/acupuncture-massage-news/acupuncture-massage-publications/tags/massage-articles/?blogger=support&start=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970128 | 192 | 2.625 | 3 |
Module 3: Special Issues
Table Of Contents
- Label Basics
- Parts of the Label
- Special Issues
- Applying the Principles of Pesticide Label Review
- Emerging Issues and Course Completion
Section 2: How should I review precautionary statements?
Determining Environmental Hazards Statements
The use pattern of a pesticide helps determine the need for and the specific text of the environmental hazards statement. The label reviewer may assume that any pesticide product used outdoors must include the environmental hazards statement on the label. The reviewer should also look at the proposed statement with a critical eye toward its applicability. Does it make sense for the product? For example, a granular herbicide would not generally need a statement warning of potential spray drift problems because granular formulations are not sprayed and are seldom associated with any drift.
Exclusively indoor–use products
Products that are intended for use exclusively indoors may omit the environmental hazards statement. Products applied to domestic animals, such as flea collars or ear tags, may in most cases omit the statement; however, the statement may be required for a domestic–use product such as a dog dip because of the potential for contamination of water by the use of such a product. It is therefore important for reviewers to carefully evaluate the use pattern of the product to determine whether potential risk from the transport, use, storage, or disposal of the product should be mitigated by the environmental hazards statement.
Although used indoors to formulate other products, manufacturing–use products may require some environmental hazard statement text because manufacturing–use products may be highly concentrated and could pose a serious hazard if a spill occurred. If any pesticide may be discharged from the manufacturing use site, a statement may also be required referring to the possible need for a discharge permit under the Clean Water Act.
EPA historically has required products labeled for use outdoors to have environmental hazards statements on their labels. If the reviewer determines that the use pattern triggers the need for environmental hazards labeling, the proposed draft labeling must be reviewed according to the requirements outlined in the regulations and the policy described in Chapter 8 of the Label Review Manual. | <urn:uuid:7317eeab-9bb3-4505-8482-d4f552826036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/regulating/labels/pest-label-training/module3/page7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902257 | 427 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte
Print version ISSN 1517-8692
VITAL, Roberto; LEITAO, Marcelo Bichels; MELLO, Marco Túlio de and TUFIK, Sergio. Clinical evaluation of paralympic athletes. Rev Bras Med Esporte [online]. 2002, vol.8, n.3, pp. 77-83. ISSN 1517-8692. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1517-86922002000300003.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate characteristics that were important for preventive health and for performance of paralympic Brazilian athletes. The athletes were evaluated clinically (questionnaires, clinical history, physical examination) and also with laboratory studies, chest roentgenogram and doping control. The Brazilian team that participated in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games was also classified according to some characteristics such as gender, age, sports modality, way of locomotion, types of disabilities, laboratory study results, chest X-ray results, odontological evaluation, and doping control. The results obtained were used to define a profile of such athletes and to give them information about prevention of diseases and sports-related injuries that could hinder their training and competition results
Keywords : Disabled persons; Pre-participation evaluation; Multidisciplinary evaluation; Sports medicine. Rehabilitation; Doping in sports. | <urn:uuid:3e4e0355-1470-4993-aad1-b3e0f2cefa40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1517-86922002000300003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906681 | 300 | 2.375 | 2 |
Updated | Monday | 11:30 a.m. On Saturday evening, hours after President Obama criticized Iran’s government for its violent response to protests over last year’s disputed presidential election, Iran’s ruling cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, responded by attacking the United States and defending the election as a “landslide” victory.
According to a translation by Reuters, Ayatollah Khamenei said, in an address broadcast on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on state television in Iran, “Sometimes the U.S. government appears as a wolf or a fox and looks violent and arrogant, and sometimes they look different.” He also said, “They hoped to create a civil war in this country but the people were vigilant,” and added in reference to the upheaval, “It was a great ordeal and lesson, and the people of Iran emerged victorious.”
Ayatollah Khamenei also said that last June’s election was “an outstanding point of our history,” according to a translation on the Web site of Press TV, Iran’s state-run English-language satellite channel. The leader’s official Web site, leader.ir, reported that “Ayatollah Khamenei said the Iranian nation showed their national will, resistance and insight in the post-elections events.”
Press TV reported that Ayatollah Khamenei elaborated on the theme in a speech on Sunday in the Iranian city of Mashad, “The new [U.S.] administration and president claimed interest in just and fair relations; they wrote letters and sent messages … saying they are willing to normalize relations with the Islamic Republic, but in practice they did the opposite.” He added, “Eight months after the elections, they took the worst possible stance. The [U.S.] president called those rioters and saboteurs ‘civil rights activists.’”
According to The Associated Press, Iran’s leader rejected President Obama’s suggestion, in his Nowruz message, that, “Faced with an extended hand, Iran’s leaders have shown only a clenched fist,” by saying: “We said that if they are extending a metal hand inside a velvet glove, we won’t accept.”
In his Nowruz broadcast, sitting before what might have been a large fishbowl but looked oddly like a giant glass of white wine, Mr. Ahmadinejad told the Iranian people that “the landslide” in his favor came in an election that he said was transparent and marked only by a record high turnout, the semiofficial news agency Fars reported.
Fars, which is close to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, added that Mr. Ahmadinejad also said that the election was an example to the world “of democracy and rule of the righteous.”
Mehdi Karroubi, one of the opposition candidates who claims that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory in the election was fraudulent, posted a Nowruz video of his own online – joining the other major opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, who released a similar message earlier this week.
In Mr. Karroubi’s message he agreed that the Iranian people had participated in the election “with so much enthusiasm,” but, he said, “instead of thanking them,” the authorities had changed the outcome of the vote. In response, he said:
Millions voiced their concern in peace, but instead of being heard, they were met with resistance. Some were martyred, others died under torture and in an unprecedented move, thousands of people were jailed, among them politicians of the Islamic Republic, newspapers were closed, journalists were jailed in unprecedented numbers, the demands were not met.
The foundations of this bitter situation were made by some who did not follow the laws and did not consider the interest of the establishment, and they insisted that whoever has demands other than what we please, they are causing anarchy, disorder and are foreign puppets. | <urn:uuid:63080e5e-9a1a-40c1-b586-6765e1ce5ece> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/irans-leaders-respond-to-obama/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977474 | 872 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Dolmabahce Palace is located along the European shore of the Bosphorus Strait. Originally there was a shallow bay where the Ottoman fleet used to anchor their ships. After the 17th century the coast was filled in and converted into a nice garden with a couple of pavilions named as Besiktas Waterfront Palace complex, where the sultans used to relax enjoying the views. By the way, Dolmabahce literally means "filled garden" in Turkish language. In 1843 sultan Abdülmecid I ordered to build a new palace taking away these old buildings, and imperial architects Garabet and Nikogos Balyan finished the construction in 1856. Dolmabahce was used as a secondary palace by the successor of Abdulmecid after his death, it became a winter residence meanwhile Beylerbeyi Palace was used as the summer residence. Only after two sultans the imperial family moved back to the Dolmabahce with sultan Mehmed V and lived there until the proclamation of the Republic at the end of War of Liberation. The Parliament decided to use Dolmabahce as a presidential palace thus Atatürk stayed and received foreign guests here during his visits to Istanbul. He died in the palace on 10th of November 1938, later on it was converted into a museum in 1952.
With over 110.000 square meters of construction on 250.000 square meters of land, it sure is an impressive palace on the Bosphorus. The palace is consisted of three main sections: Administrative apartments (Selamlik or Mabeyn-i Hümayun), Ceremonial Hall (Muayede Salonu), and Imperial Harem (Harem-i Hümayun). The impressive Ceremonial Hall was built between other two sections, where the sultan received his important guests and foreign statesmen. Besides the main palace, there are several other buildings in the complex such as imperial kitchens, Crown Prince rooms (Veliaht Dairesi), barracks, stables, pharmacy, flour mill, aviary (Kusluk), glass manufactory, foundry, plant house (Fidelik), greenhouse, carpet workshop, clock tower, etc. Some of the smaller buildings were destroyed or demolished during the years. There are two monumental gates giving access to the main garden (but only one is open today) of the administrative part; Treasury Gate (Hazine Kapisi) and Imperial Gate (Saltanat Kapisi).
The Mabeyn-i Hümayun (state apartments) is the most important section in terms of function and splendour. There is a large hall at the entrance, a crystal staircase (banisters), and other decorative elements to impress the visitors. A couple of large halls upstairs decorated with Hereke carpets, crystal chandeliers and fireplaces, and a fine imperial Hamam decorated with Egyptian alabaster are other impressive parts of the Selamlik section.
The Ceremonial Hall is a large square hall of monumental proportions, over 2.000 square meters of area and 36 meters high ceeling. It is decorated with a huge Hereke carpet and a 4,5 tons of crystal chandelier which was sent by Queen Victoria. Important state and religious ceremonies were held here. Upper galleries were used by foreign ambassadors invited to the religious ceremonies but also by the orchestra at special occasions. Women weren't allowed in this ceremonies so they watched it from the windows of a long corridor connecting the Selamlik with the Harem, passing just above the Ceremonial Hall. During the winter, the hall was heated with the hot air blown from the heating system at the bottom of 56 tall columns, it took them about 3 days to heat the hall properly before any ceremony.
The Harem was connected to the Selamlik section by a long corridor which was guarded all the time to make sure that nobody passes. It was strictly prohibited by any man to go in, except the sultan himself of course and the eunuch servants. The Harem section is formed by several rooms, baths, and halls. There were suites of the sultan, quarter of the Queen mother (Valide Sultan), rooms for official wives, favorites (Gözde) and concubines (Cariye), and some education rooms for the young children of the sultan. Just next to the Harem section, there was the Palace of the Crown Prince.
Dolmabahce Palace rises on two floors above a basement. Local stone and some marble was used in its outer walls, brick in the inner walls, and parquet wood on the floors. It has a European design with neo-baroque style, typical of the Ottoman tradition of the mid-19th century. Even the interior furniture is of typical western design, with the exception of the plan (traditional Turkish house symmetrical plan) and Turkish rugs. Electricity and central heating system was introduced around 1910. The palace has 285 rooms, 46 reception halls and galleries, 6 Turkish baths (Hamam), and 68 toilets. There are over 600 oil paintings.
Just outside of the palace, Dolmabahce Mosque (or Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Mosque) was built at the same time and the Clock Tower was built a short afterwards.
Admission to Dolmabahce Palace is charged in Turkish Lira, the ticket cost for visiting both the Selamlik and the Harem section combined is 40 Lira per person. Children up to 6 years are free of charge. There are also some charges for smaller exhibitions and kiosks in the palace grounds. You're not allowed to take any photos or film inside the palace buildings. The visit is based on a guided tour usually every 10-15 minutes. During your visit, you can relax in one of the several caffe's on the grounds of the museum.
Today, the Ceremonial Hall and gardens are available for private receptions as well, such as big weddings.
Dolmabahce - Besiktas
Phone: +90 212 2369000
Fax: +90 212 2593292
Open daily between 09:00 - 16:00 except Mondays and Thursdays, on January 1st, and on the first day of religious holidays. The ticket office may be closed earlier due to the exceed of the daily ticket quota because the daily visitor quota in Dolmabahce Palace is limited to 3.000 people and especially during the high season they reach the quota very quickly.
Please note that admission fees, opening times or days of closure of the museums might be changed without prior notice, or that museum or section might be closed for restorations. To be certain on the closure days or opening times, you can call the museum directly (country code for Turkey is +90) or contact me to double check. Most of the museums have longer opening hours during summer months.
Click here for high resolution photo gallery of the Dolmabahce Palace.
Hope to see you soon in Istanbul. | <urn:uuid:8a52a494-3c09-47df-80de-996af8f5c4c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.greatistanbul.com/dolmabahce_palace.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96335 | 1,451 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Sally in Our Alley
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discussed in biography
English poet, playwright, and musician chiefly remembered for his ballads, especially “ Sally in Our Alley,” which appeared in a collection of his best poems set to music, called The Musical Century (1737). Despite the popularity of his work, Carey suffered great poverty, largely because his plays and poems were widely pirated by unscrupulous printers.
What made you want to look up "Sally in Our Alley"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:af0e654f-5764-4c86-9ed2-2521aa0c6b82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/519472/Sally-in-Our-Alley | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977186 | 142 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Sooner or later more FP techniques become standard practice as people find the true value of this programming discipline outside the academe and into the mainstream. In as much as the structured programming of the 70s and object oriented programming in the 80s and generic programming in the 90s shaped our thoughts towards a more robust sense of software engineering, FP will certainly be a paradigm that will catapult us towards more powerful software design and engineering onward into the new millenium.
Let me quote Doug Gregor of Boost.org. About functional style programming libraries:
They're gaining acceptance, but are somewhat stunted by the ubiquitousness of broken compilers. The C++ community is moving deeper into the so-called "STL-style" programming paradigm, which brings many aspects of functional programming into the fold. Look at, for instance, the Spirit parser to see how such function objects can be used to build Yacc-like grammars with semantic actions that can build abstract syntax trees on the fly. This type of functional composition is gaining momentum.
Indeed. Phoenix is another attempt to introduce more FP techniques into the mainstream. Not only is it a tool that will make life easier for the programmer. In its own right, the actual design of the framework itself is a model of true C++ FP in action. The framework is designed and structured in a strict but clear and well mannered FP sense. By all means, use the framework as a tool. But for those who want to learn more about FP in C++, don't stop there, I invite you to take a closer look at the design of the framework itself.
The whole framework is rather small and comprises of only a couple of header files. There are no object files to link against. Unlike most FP libraries in C++, Phoenix is portable to more C++ compilers in existence. Currently it works on Borland 5.5.1, Comeau 4.24, G++ 2.95.2, G++ 3.03, G++ 3.1, Intel 5.0, Intel 6.0, Code Warrior 7.2 and perhaps soon, to MSVC.
So there you have it. Have fun! See you in the FP world.
Copyright © 2001-2002 Joel de Guzman
Use, modification and distribution is subject to the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt) | <urn:uuid:536df9a0-7461-48ba-bc6b-bc4e3c6b7dc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boost-spirit.com/distrib/spirit_1_8_5/libs/spirit/phoenix/doc/wrap_up.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922506 | 514 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Medieval Islamic Historiography
Published May 1st 2013 by Routledge – 188 pages
This book is a comparative analysis of the medieval Sunni historiography of the caliphate of Uthman b. Affan and the revolt against him. By comparing treatments of Uthman in pietistic literature and universal chronicles, the work traces the gradual silencing of more critical accounts in favor of those that portray Uthman as a saintly companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Through a comparative analysis of authors between genres and time periods, this book shows how authors were able to convey their personal perspectives on important religio-political tensions that emerged through the revolt against Uthman, namely the tension between Sunnis and Shiis, religious and political authority and appeals to maintain stability and unity vs. appeals for greater justice. This last debate, which in many ways began with the revolt against Uthman, has been repeated most recently in the Arab Spring. This work therefore provides readers with helpful historical context for important contemporary debates.
1. Introduction: Narrating ‘Uthman 2. Representation: ‘Uthman in the Third/Ninth Century Syntheses 3. Reaction: ‘Uthman in the Fourth/Tenth to Sixth/Twelfth Centuries Fadā’il and Chronicles 4. Retrenchment: ‘Uthman in the Seventh/Thirteenth Century Fada’il and Chronicles 5. Re-evaluation: ‘Uthman in the Eighth/Fourteenth Century Chronicles. Conclusion
Heather N. Keaney is an Assistant Professor of History at Westmont College, Santa Barbara. She is also the Co-director of the Westmont in Istanbul semester abroad study program, which she designed and led in its first outing during Spring 2012. | <urn:uuid:493e3a01-aeab-40ab-9e98-e2ee02c6ca5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psypress.com/books/details/9780415828529/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933491 | 367 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Chippewa Correctional Facility consists of an East and West side; the East side consists of three Level II housing units with 240 beds each; one Level IV housing unit with 192 beds; a Level I unit with 120 beds; a 96 bed administrative segregation unit and a 22 bed detention unit. The West side of the facility, formerly Straits Correctional Facility, has dormitory style Level II housing. There are eight Level II Housing Units which have 140 beds each. The facility includes an administration building, maintenance department and warehouse. There is a Health Care unit, Food Service unit and a Programs/School building location on both the East and West sides of the facility.
Programs include academic and vocational instruction, work assignments, general and law library services, group counseling, substance abuse treatment, horticulture, recreational and religious programs, and cognitive behavior restructuring programming.
Prisoners are provided with on-site routine medical, dental and mental health care. Serious problems are treated at the department's Duane L. Waters Health Care in Jackson and emergencies are referred to a local hospital.
The perimeter security includes a buffer fence, double chain link fences, razor-ribbon wire, electronic detection systems, an armed patrol vehicle and gun towers. | <urn:uuid:3a41252c-0f08-4561-b3c7-70bdbf3ec680> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michigan.gov/corrections/0,4551,7-119-1381_1385-5161--,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927132 | 250 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Should Mary Buy Her Bonus? What Would You Do?
By Shel Horowitz
If she donated $1,000 for a school to buy products, she would hit her million-dollar goal.
Mary Kantarian was achingly close to making her million-dollar sales goal — only $1,000 short. If she made the goal by the end of the year, it would mean a fat $10,000 bonus check, and a happy trip to the bank to finance a dream home she’d recently found. Other sales reps also were close, and one had already made the bonus. The books would close in just a few days, but at the end of the year her clients weren’t in a buying mood.
Still, Mary had one hope: inner-city Lincoln High School. Its students, who often had to share textbooks, could really use her company’s multimedia educational aids, but Lincoln had no discretionary budget for new teaching materials. What if Mary donated the money to this needy school for the purchase, and put herself over the magic quota?
Or perhaps she could offer partial “donations” to close sales at several schools. She would then surpass her quota goal with room to spare. The Lincoln school or other needy schools would gain immensely valuable educational programs that would help them serve their students, her company would pick up sales revenue, and she would meet her sales quota. Even better, she would earn a cool $10,000 on an investment of $1,000.
At first thought, this seemed like a win-win solution. But the idea needled Mary’s conscience. The more she thought about it, the more something about it bothered her. Yet if she didn’t close this “sale” — one which would help out disadvantaged students — she wouldn’t make that bonus, and her dream house would remain out of reach. She found herself wondering, What should she do?
Richard Burch, Adjunct Professor, Fairfield University Program
in Applied Ethics, Fairfield, Conn.
MARY SHOULD FIND BETTER WAYS to help Lincoln H.S. find the funds. Are there other corporate sponsors or community funds available? Could she pursue a school fund-raiser, or government grant? As an alternative, Mary could seek out more qualified prospects, or ask current customers to increase an order.
Trying to pull off the proposed “donation” scheme would be no easy task. Product donations usually have to be without strings. Cash gifts will buy what’s needed most, like textbooks, not multimedia aids. Also, school systems, like corporations, have formal purchasing procedures, including sign-off points in the purchase-order process that uncover kickbacks and bribes disguised as donations.
Each rep knew where the others stood. What would be their reactions when they found out Mary made her quota this way? And what if everyone did this? What would be the impact on the company, other sales people, and other schools that would want the same special consideration? And what good is a customer who next time around expects the same deal?
Aside from the possible consequences of this deal, Kant would remind us we should do the right thing for the right reason. Mary is under a moral obligation to act loyally and to protect the legitimate interests of her employer. She should act in the interests of those who depend on her, even if those interests aren’t always the same as her own.
What Actually Happened
Mary decided not to pursue offering Lincoln High School a donation. She wasn’t comfortable with the idea, and she knew that her sales manager and superiors all the way up the line would object, on both ethical and practical grounds. Mary didn’t make her bonus. But her reputation as a hard worker who maintains her integrity under pressure led to a promotion and higher pay two years later.
Shel Horowitz (email@example.com) is author of Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and a Hadley, Mass., consultant in marketing who initiated the Business Ethics Pledge movement; www.principledprofits.com.
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Leave a Response | <urn:uuid:abbca03e-daf3-4dec-800b-c13e76c5419c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business-ethics.com/2009/11/11/should-mary-buy-her-bonus/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973996 | 870 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Dole Office staff snooped into private data 992 times in 10 months
And that's just the times they were caught...
Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were disciplined a total of 992 times for unlawfully or inappropriately accessing individuals' social security records between April 2011 and January this year.
The figures were obtained following a freedom of information (FOI) request to DWP by Channel 4's Dispatches programme.
Last week Dispatches reported on the 'blagging' of personal data by private detectives and reported on the number of data offences recorded by DWP.
The FOI figures also revealed that in the past year the Department of Health had recorded 158 instances of unlawful accessing of medical records, according to a report by the Daily Telegraph. DoH said not every such instance is recorded though.
Under the principles of the Data Protection Act (DPA) organisations processing personal data must do so fairly and lawfully. They must take "appropriate technical and organisational measures" to protect against "unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data".
Under section 55 of the DPA a person is generally guilty of an offence if they "knowingly or recklessly ... obtain or disclose personal data or the information contained in personal data, or procure the disclosure to another person of the information contained in personal data" without consent from the 'data controller'. A person is not guilty of an offence if they can show that unlawfully obtaining, disclosing or procuring of the personal data was justified as being in the public interest.
The DPA also defines "sensitive personal data" as including personal data relating to an individual's "physical or mental health or condition". Because information about such matters could be used in a discriminatory way, and is likely to be of a private nature, it must be treated with greater care than other personal data, the ICO has said in guidance on sensitive personal data.
Under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act the Justice Secretary has the power to introduce new regulations that would allow a custodial sentence penalty to be available for offences under section 55 of the DPA, but those powers have yet to be used. The current penalty for committing a section 55 offence is a maximum £5,000 fine if the case is heard in a Magistrates Court and an unlimited fine for cases tried in a Crown Court.
The ICO does have the power to issue monetary penalty notices of up to £500,000 for serious breaches of the DPA, but that is in relation to civil cases.
Copyright © 2012, Out-Law.com
Out-Law.com is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.
"Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were disciplined a total of 992 times for unlawfully"
It was unlawful...why weren't they prosecuted? Oh wait, civil service; above the law and don't care about data privacy (as numerous news stories inform us).
What is it ?
a) 992 times that they know about ?
b) 992 times that they are willing to admit ?
c) 992 times with no possibility of any more ?
I strongly suspect (a) with a bit of (b).
I hope that means fired. | <urn:uuid:1d0cc934-681f-4b55-8a54-461845783c04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/23/almost_1000_offences_in_10_months_at_dwp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96088 | 679 | 1.578125 | 2 |
RUDOLPH STECKER One of the important industrial enterprises contributing to the commercial precedence of the thriving city of Murphysboro, judicial center of Jackson county, is that conducted under the title of the Rudolph Stecker Brewing Company, and he whose name initiates this article is virtually the sole owner of the business, which is conducted upon the highest standard, with a plant that is modern in all equipments and facilities. The enterprise dates its inception back to the year 1886 and was originally conducted under the title of the Murphysboro Brewing Company. The capacity of the original plant was for the output of fifteen hundred barrels per year, and the noteworthy expansion of the business is evidenced by no one thing more emphatically than by the fact that the annual capacity of the institution at the present time is forty thousand barrels. The original corps’ of employees numbered only three persons,—all members of one family, and the present force numbers eighty men. The plant covers a tract of five acres, and the company owns one hundred and twenty-seven acres, on which the plant is located. Operations are based on a capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and the plant and business represent a conservative valuation of fully eight hundred thousand dollars. The products are of the best order and constitute their own most effective advertising. The most scrupulous attention is given to every detail of manufacture, insuring purity and uniform excellency of output, and every department is provided with the most modern and approved equipment. A large and substantial local business is controlled by the concern and its products also find an appreciative demand throughout a wide radius of country for which Murphysboro is the normal distributing center.From the foregoing brief statements it is evident that Rudolph Stecker merits classification among the substantial and essentially representative business men of Murphysboro, and his sterling character and genial personality have gained to him unqualified popular esteem in the community that has long represented his home and to the material and civic advancement of which he has contributed a generous quota. Mr. Stecker is a native of the grand duchy of Baden, Germany, where he was born on the 24th of August, 1850, and he is a son of Bassilius and Agnes Stecker, who passed their entire lives in their native land, where the father followed the vocations of brewer and cooper. P. 1054 Rudolph Stecker was afforded the advantages of excellent schools in his fatherland and there served apprenticeships at the trades of brewer and cooper. In 1868, as a youth of eighteen years, he severed the home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He landed in New York city and thereafter continued to be employed at his trades in the Empire state until 1871, when he came west and located in the city of St. Louis. Shortly afterward he returned to Germany for a visit, and in 1872 he came again to America, of whose advantages and institutions he had become deeply appreciative. He became foreman in the Anheuser-Busch brewery, St. Louis, and served in this capacity for three years, at the expiration of which, in 1875, he engaged in the cooperage business on his own responsibility in St. Louis. He built up a large and prosperous enterprise in this line and he still owns the business, to which he continues to give a general supervision. In 1886 Mr. Stecker came to Murphysboro and purchased the small brewery conducted under the title of the Murphysboro Brewing Company, as has already been stated in this context, For the first ten years he continued his residence in St. Louis but carefully supervised his interests in Murphysboro, where the practical details of the brewery were assigned to capable managers. He established his home in Murphysboro in 1896, and the succeeding years have been marked by the development of his brewery into one of the large and important concerns of the kind in this section of the state. He is known as a reliable, circumspect and conservative business man and as a citizen who is ever ready to lend his influence in support of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community. In politics Mr. Stecker is aligned as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Republican party and both he and his family are communicants of the Catholic church. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, in which he holds membership in a Lodge, Chapter and Commandery in St. Louis. He is a popular member of the Murphysboro lodge of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he was one of the organizers, and in St. Louis he is identified with the Haru Gari. In the year 1872 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Stecker to Miss Louisa Miller, and concerning their children the following brief record is given: Katie is the wife of Herman Suber, of St. Louis; Pauline is the wife of Frank Herman, of that city; Ann is the wife of John Eiler, of Murphysboro; Irwin, who is active manager of his father's brewery, married Miss Mary Pinkerton, a native of Ohio; Julia is the wife of August Giske, of St. Louis; and Louisa is the wife of Dr. Charles Post, a representative physician and surgeon of Murphysboro.
Biography Table of Contents
Memorial Library Illinois Selections
USGenNet.org - First & Only 501(c)3 Host for Genealogical & Historical Sites
Livingston County Michigan Historical & Genealogical Project
American History & Genealogy Project
© 2006~ Pam MARDOS Rietsch email@example.com | <urn:uuid:bf19137b-dd2e-41e9-8978-4ab1120cdb26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memoriallibrary.com/IL/South/Bios/S/Stecker~Rudolph.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974301 | 1,146 | 1.914063 | 2 |
[Line 1] Berkeley Square. “Still one of the choicest spots in habitable London, where, nowadays only men of abundant means can command a place of abode…celebrities of both sexes have made their homes here during the past seven reigns…Of late years the nouveau riche and the successful man of business have left their indelible trade-mark on this once wholly aristocratic quarter.” (Piccadilly in Three Centuries by A.I.Dasent (1920) pp. 238-9) This square does not appear to have had any particular connection with the Aesthetic Movement; but Tomlinson must have been wealthy to live there (cf. the first of the “extra lines” printed above).
[Line 22] a Prince in Muscovy. Leo Tolstoy (1826-1910). His moral teachings included non-resistance to evil, the renunciation of property, and the abolition of governments and churches, coupled with a belief in God and love of mankind. Many translations of his writings appeared in the 1880’s.
[Line 30] a carl in Norroway. The Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) whose plays were becoming known to the English avant-garde in the 1880’s. They were at first concerned with social and political themes, but later dealt with the characters’ hidden drives. “carl” is a Scotticism for “man”. “Norroway”, the old name for Norway, occurs in the well-known ballad “Sir Patrick Spens”.
[Line 36] the Lord of Wrong.The Devil.
[Line 38] Naughty. Presumably in the old sense of wicked or sinful.
[Line 49] o’er sib to. “sib” is Scottish for “related”; “o’er-sib to” means too closely related to.
[Line 50] I strove with God for your first father the day that he was born. In Milton’s Paradise Lost Beelzebub, addressing the rebel angels in Hell, tells them that, before their expulsion from Heaven, God had sworn that a new race called Man was “about this time” [i.e. the time of Beelzebub’s speech] to be created; and it is to “seduce this new race to our party” and “make God their foe” that Satan is dispatched to Earth.
[Line 67] brandered. Cooked on a gridiron.
[Line 74] a Belgian book on the word of a dead French Lord. The Marquis de Sade (1740-1815) who, while imprisoned for sexual misconduct, wrote a number of licentious novels too obscene for publication in England in the 19th century..
[Line 82] husk. To husk is to strip the dry outer covering from some fruits or seeds (e.g. maize).
[Line 85] Empusa. In Greek mythology, a mischievous female goblin in the service of Hecate, Queen of Hell. Her “crew” would be very junior devils.
[Line 88] As children rifle a caddis-case or the raven’s foolish hoard. The larva of the caddis-fly (which is used for fishing bait) lives in the water and protects itself with a tubular silk case covered with stuck-on bits of leaf, reed, small shells, stone or sand. Bewick’s British Birds says of the raven: “It is a crafty bird, and will frequently pick up things of value, such as rings, money &c., and carry them to its hiding place.”
[Line 91] a stook. The Scottish word for a shock, meaning a group of (usually) a dozen corn sheaves stood upright close together in a field.
[Line99] stews. A brothel.
[Line 111] spirk A Scots word of uncertain meaning here. Of the meanings given in the Concise Scots Dictionary (Aberdeen University Press,1985), the most likely is "A very small amount of something liquid or semi-liquid, a drop", and in particular a nip of spirits or a splash of mud. Perhaps the Devil is saying that Tomlinson is neither a spirit nor even a nip of spirit, with a play on the two senses of "spirit | <urn:uuid:23edd116-d0c0-489b-94a1-669d50cac3fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_tomlinson_notes_p.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941013 | 963 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Jay-Z rips anti-gay marriage movement as 'discrimination'
Vice President Joe Biden generated headlines -- and inspired a few jokes -- when he credited sitcom "Will & Grace" with educating the American populace on gay rights. Now it's Jay-Z's turn to make headlines.
This week, the hip-hop star-entrepreneur and longtime supporter of Barack Obama echoed the president's sentiments on the topic of gay marriage. Denouncing gay rights "is no different than discriminating against blacks," Jay-Z told CNN. "It's discrimination, plain and simple."
Jay-Z is one of the most powerful figures in a genre that over the last decade has been shedding its perceived anti-gay tendencies, a dialogue that went mainstream after the union of Eminem and Elton John at the 2001 Grammy awards. To be fair, Jay-Z himself used an anti-gay slur more than once in his early works, but he left no room for misinterpretation this week when he stated that the refusal to allow gay couples to wed is "holding the country back."
Jay-Z could prove to be a powerful ally. For one, his "Empire State of Mind" has positioned him as a modern-day Frank Sinatra, and his daughter with Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, is treated like American royalty. But more important, American voters remain divided on the issue, and ballot box polling has shown that gay marriage is a particularly contentious issue among African Americans. The Times recently reported that in "2008 more than 9 in 10 black voters in California backed Obama, then overwhelmingly voted for Proposition 8, the successful ballot measure to overturn the state Supreme Court's decision allowing same-sex marriage."
Jay-Z has been making the media rounds to discuss the two-day Made in America festival he'll be hosting Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. No doubt by then, more artists will have weighed in with their thoughts on the upcoming election, but one topic won't be up for debate at the event.
"What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love," Jay-Z told CNN. "That's their business."
-- Todd Martens
Image: Jay-Z at the press conference for his Made in America festival. Credit: Associated Press. | <urn:uuid:3c61e693-8ec8-465e-978c-24fd74eca395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/05/jay-z-rips-anti-gay-marriage-movement-as-discrimination.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966159 | 466 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Revised Prostate Cancer Screening Guidelines: What Has—and Hasn't—Changed
Article date: March 3, 2010
By: Rebecca Viksnins Snowden
Men should discuss the benefits and risks of prostate cancer screening with their doctors, according to revised prostate cancer screening guidelines from the American Cancer Society (ACS). While this isn't a radical change from the previous recommendations, the new guidelines offer clearer guidance on what should be discussed.
Since 1980, ACS has released—and periodically revised—screening guidelines for the early detection of breast, cervical, colorectal, and prostate cancers. The last set of ACS prostate cancer guidelines was issued in 2001 and modified in 2008.
The revised recommendations are based in part on early findings from 2 large studies – one American, one European – which looked at whether prostate cancer screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and digital rectal exam (DRE) saves lives. The studies had different designs and tested different groups of men.
In the American study, known as the US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, researchers randomly assigned more than 76,600 men to two groups: the men either received "usual care" or had annual PSA tests for 6 years and digital rectal examinations every year for 4 years. The researchers found little difference in prostate cancer death rates between the two groups at 7 years and again at 10 years of follow-up.
In the European trial, known as the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC), researchers randomly assigned 182,000 men from 7 different countries to either a control group or a screening group. Men in the screening group had PSA tests on average every 4 years and a DRE twice over that period of time. After about 9 years, the researchers found that screening reduced the rate of prostate cancer death by 20%. But they also found that 48 men would need to be treated to prevent one death from prostate cancer.
Final results from these studies will not be available for several years.
Difficulty determining who should be treated
Finding and treating prostate cancer early may seem like a no-brainer, but the issue is actually very complicated. Early prostate cancer is typically found using a PSA test and a DRE. There are limits to both methods, but the main issue is that even when these tests find a cancer, they often can't tell how dangerous the cancer is. Some prostate cancers grow slowly and may never cause a man any problems, while others are more aggressive. Treatments for prostate cancer can have a lot of unpleasant side effects like incontinence and impotence that can really affect the quality of a man's life.
Unfortunately, doctors can't be sure which men need treatment and which would be fine without any. And men who are told they have prostate cancer may have a hard time just doing nothing, even if the cancer is unlikely to cause them harm.
Clearly, some prostate cancers would cause problems at some point. For these men, screening and treatment is helpful. But often there's no way to know what the outcome would have been in any particular man's case without treatment.
What the revised guidelines say
Because of these complex issues, the American Cancer Society recommends that doctors more heavily involve patients in the decision of whether to get screened for prostate cancer. To that end, ACS's revised guidelines recommend that men use decision-making tools to help them make an informed choice about testing. The guidelines also identify the type of information that should be given to men to help them make this decision.
ACS recommends that men with no symptoms of prostate cancer who are in relatively good health and can expect to live at least 10 more years have the opportunity to make an informed decision with their doctor about screening after learning about the uncertainties, risks, and potential benefits associated with prostate cancer screening. These talks should start at age 50. Men with no symptoms who are not expected to live more than 10 years (because of age or poor health) should not be offered prostate cancer screening. For them, the risks likely outweigh the benefits, researchers have concluded.
As in earlier guidelines, ACS recommends men at high risk—African-American men and men who have a father, brother, or son diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 65—begin those conversations earlier, at age 45. Men at higher risk—those with multiple family members affected by the disease before age 65—should start even earlier, at age 40.
For men who are unable to make a decision about screening after these conversations, ACS recommends the doctor make the call based on his or her knowledge of the patient's health preferences and values.
For men who choose to be screened after discussing the pros and cons with their doctor, the new guidelines make the digital rectal exam (DRE) optional and offer the option of extending the time between screening for men with low PSA levels.
To learn more about the new guidelines, see Prostate Cancer: Early Detection or call 1-800-227-2345.
Reviewed by: Members of the ACS Medical Content Staff
ACS News Center stories are provided as a source of cancer-related news and are not intended to be used as press releases.
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Learning a second or a foreign language is more than learning a description of it. It is developing the ability to use the language on habit level. This is true of not only second language learning but also of first language learning. Fundamentally, all language learning involves the processes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. These processes involve both linguistic and psychological aspects. This leads us to understand that all language learning is based on certain well-defined principles derived from linguistic science as well as psychological science. In the following paras, these principles have been discussed.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING ENGLISH
(Principles Derived from the Linguistic Science.)
The modern approach to all language learning and teaching is the scientific one and is based on sound linguistic principles. The principles discussed below in no way claim finality : they are subject to change in the light of new facts exposed by linguists and language users. These principles are general principles and are applicable to English language.
Principle 1. Give Priority to Sounds: The sounds of English should receive priority. Sounds should be given their due place in the scheme of teaching. Sounds should not be presented in isolation. They should appear in proper expressions and sentences spoken with the intonation and rhythm which would be used by a native speaker.
Principle 2. Present Language in Basic Sentence Patterns: Present, and have the students memorise, basic sentence patterns used in day to day conversation. From small utterances the students can easily pass on to longer sentences. In case of learning mother-tongue, the student’s memory span can retain much longer sentences than those of a foreign language. The facility thus gained in a foreign language enables the learners expand the grasp of the language material in respect of sounds and vocabulary items.
Principle 3. Language Patterns as Habits. Real language ability is at the habit level. It does not just mean knowing about the language. Make language patterns as habit through intensive pattern practice in variety of situations. The students must be taught to use language patterns and sentence constructions with appropriate vocabulary at normal speed for communication. In fact the habitual use of the most frequently used patterns and items of language, should take precedence over the mere accumulation of words.
Principle 4. Imitation. Imitation is an important principle of language learning. No leaner by himself ever invented language. Good speech is the result of imitating good models. The model should be intelligible. Imitation followed by intensive practice helps in the mastery of the language system.
Principle 5. Controlled Vocabulary. Vocabulary should be kept under control. Vocabulary should be taught and practised only in the context of real situations. This way, meaning will be clarified and reinforced.
Principle 6. Graded Patterns: “To teach a language is to impart a new system of complex habits, and habits are acquired slowly.” (R.Lado) So, language patterns should be taught gradually, in cumulative graded steps. This means, the teacher should go on adding each new element or pattern to previous ones. New patterns of language should be introduced and practised with vocabulary that students already know.
Principle 7. Selection and Gradation: Selection of the language material to be taught is the first requisite of good teaching. Selection should be done in respect of grammatical items and vocabulary and structures.
Selection of language items should involve
frequency (how often a certain item or word is used)
range (in what different contexts a word or an item can be used)
coverage (how many different meanings a word or an item can convey)
availability (how far an item is convenient to teach)
learnability (how far an item is easy to learn)
teachability (how far and item is easy to teach - in the social context)
Gradation of the language material means placing the language items in an order. Grading involves grouping and sequence. Grouping concerns (i) the system of language, and (ii) its structures. Grouping the system of language means what sounds, words, phrases and meanings are to be taught.
Thus we have:
(i) Phonetic grouping, i.e. grouping according to sounds. For example, words having the same sound are placed in the one group as, cat, bat, mat, pat, fat, sat; it, bit, fit, hit, kit, it, etc.
(ii) Lexical grouping, i.e., grouping according to lexical situations. Example: school, teacher, headmaster, peon, class-room, library. All these words are grouped around “school.”
(iii) Grammatical grouping, i.e., grouping according to similar patterns as, my book/ his book, (pattern grouping): in the room, in the corner/ in the class/in the garden, etc. (phrase grouping)
(iv) Semantic grouping, i.e., grouping according to meaning. Example: school, college, university; bicycle, rickshaw, car,
, train, aeroplane, etc,. tonga
(v) Structure grouping, i.e., grouping in the structures means how the selected items fit one into the other-the sounds into the words, the words into phrases, the phrases into the clauses and sentences, and the sentences into the context.
Sequence meants what comes after what. Sequence should be there in the arrangement of sounds (phonetic sequence), phrases (grammatical sequence) words (lexical sequence) and in meaning (semantic sequence). Sequence of structures implies direction, expansion, variation and length of the structures.
Principle 8. The
Oral Way. Experts believe that the oral way is the surest way to language learning. Prof. Kittson rightly observes,. “Learning to speak a language is always the shortest road to learning to read and write it.” Prof Palmer also writes,. “We should refrain from reading and writing any given material until we have learnt to use its spoken form.”
Principle 9. Priorities of Language Skills: Listening (with understanding), speaking, reading and writing are the four fundamental skills. Listening and speaking are primary skills, while reading and writing are secondary skills.
and writing are reinforcement skills. They reinforce what has been learnt through understanding and speaking. In fact, understanding and speaking speed up the reading process. Writing should be introduced after reading. Reading
Principle 10. Multiple Line of Approach: “The term multiple line implies that one is to proceed simultaneously from many different points towards the one and the same end. We should reject nothing except the useless material and should selected judiciously and without prejudice all that is likely to help in our work”. In teaching a language, it implies attacking the problem from all fronts. Say, for example, there is a lesson on ‘Holidays’ in the text book. The teacher can have a number of language activities connected with the topic such as oral drill, reading, sentence writing, composition, grammar, translation, language exercises etc.
Principle 11. Language Habit through Language Using: A language is best learnt through use in different contexts and situations. Prof. Eugene A. Nida rightly observes, “Language learning means plunging headlong into a series of completely different experiences. It means exposing oneself to situations where the use of language is required.” Another expert expresses a similar opinion by saying: “Learning a language means forming new habits through intensive practice in tearing and speaking. The emphasis should always be on language in actual use”.
Principle 12 Spiral Approach. The “spiral” approach to language learning should be followed. Previously taught vocabulary and structures should be reintroduced in subsequent units whenever logical or possible. This is “spiral approach.
Principle 13. Use Mother-tongue Sparingly. The mother-tongue should be sparingly and judiciously used during teaching English. Of course, at the early stage, some explanations will have to be given in pupil’s mother tongue. It is important that students do not use their mother-tongue in the classroom.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING ENGLISH
It will not be out of place to list down certain principles which have been derived from the science of psychology.
Principle 1. Motivation. Motivation is an important factor in language learning, particularly in learning a second language. It creates interest as well as the need to learn the language in hand. If the need for the language we use is felt, it is learnt easily. Pupils’ interest can be aroused in a number of ways, and language learning can be made increasingly interesting and attractive. It can be done with the help of pictures, charts, models, flash cards, black board sketches and similar other visual devices. The use of tape-recorder can be most effective in the teaching of pronunciation. The aim is to have the students maximally exposed to the target language in variety of contexts and situations, not in isolation. The teacher should prompt connections, feed back and correct errors, if any. The rule is teach, test, reteach, retest. The teacher should make continual and significant use of language material in class-room situations. Palmer suggests the following six factors which lead to motivate and create interest among children:
(i) The limitation of bewilderment, that is, minimum of confusion;
(ii) The sense of progress achieved;
(iv) Game-like exercises;
(v) The right relation between teacher and student; and
Principle 2. Immediate Correction. Do make corrections. Corrections make all the difference. They help in improving pupils’ responses. But remember, when corrections are made, they should be made immediately. Moreover, the corrections should be made in such a way as will bring about learning and not frustration or discouragement.
Principle 3. Reinforcement Immediate reinforcement is an important principle. It has been experimentally proved that reinforcement of correct responses helps in better learning. The student should be told his response is correct immediately after it is given by him.
Principle 4. Frequent Review. An important psychological principle is the principle of frequent review. Frequent review and re-entry of the same material is necessary for retention. During the process of reviewing, variations in material should be essentially be introduced and practised.
Principle 5. Correct Responses. It is an important psychological principle that classroom activities should strengthen the language skills. The techniques used by the teacher of English should encourage the maximum rate of correct responses. This will give children the feeling of success, achievement and assured progress.
Principle 6. Practice in Everyday Situations. A language is best learnt when its need is felt in everyday situations. So, English should be practised in every day situations with which children can easily identify.
In short, the children, their environment and their experiences, should be the starting point. Let them recall (and, they should be helped, if they fail) something familiar which is related to or contrasts with a new language item to be learnt.
These are, then, some of the basic principles of language learning and teaching. These principles are in no way dictative: they are only suggestive.
(i) Teach the language, not about the language.
(ii) Teach the’ language, not its written system (at the start).
(iii) Teach the language, as it is, not as any one thinks it to be.
(iv) Teach the language, not its literature.
(v) Teach the language as it is now, not in term of its history.
(vi) Teach the language as a skill, not as an intellectual task.
(vii) Teach the language in varied, interesting situations.
(viii) Give maximum exposure.
(ix) Give vocabulary its due place.
(x) Use mother-tongue as a tool, not a medium.
(xi) Immediately reinforce correct response. | <urn:uuid:0e6a2b33-23da-4494-a53c-b97cf96a31a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/05/general-principles-of-language-teaching.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935489 | 2,508 | 3.984375 | 4 |
When I first heard of the word “blog” years ago in the mid 90's, I was puzzled as to why I did not hear it earlier, having been immersed in the English language for more that 4 decades!
Naturally, I reached for my half-a-dozen copies of dictionaries on the shelf to check for its meaning but I could not find one. The reason is simple…… the word “BLOG” simply did not exist in my dictionaries including the Oxford Dictionary!
A frantic search led me to Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang that eventually gave me a clue. It says “blog noun An Internet website containing an eclectic and frequently updated assortment of items of interest to its author. 1999-. [Shortening of weblog.] So blogger, noun”
Not happy with this half-hearted and vague explanation, I ventured into the Web to do further “research”.
Lo and behold! I've got some more meaningful citations. Below is a list of these.
- Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.
- A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.
- A blog is information that is instantly published to a Web site. Blog scripting allows someone to automatically post information to a Web site. The information first goes to a blogger Web site. Then the information is automatically inserted into a template tailored for your Web site.
- A short form for weblog, a frequent and chronological publication of comments and thoughts on the web. They usually include philosophical reflections, opinions on the Internet and social or political issues.
- Web LOG is a journal kept on the internet. This journal is often updated daily and contains all information that the person maintaining the BLOG (Blogger) wishes to share with the world. Also applies to websites dedicated to a particular topic and being updated with the latest news, views and trends.
There's no need to go on because I'm now more than satisfied.
Many years have passed since and blogging has come a long way indeed. Not only can you do all the above mentioned, you could now make full use of it to promote and expand your Internet business.
Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that is free because you could create your blog almost immediately at no cost compared to the setting up of a conventional website.
Putting information in your blog to help establishing your presence in the Web is now a growing phenomenon. Blogging for your Internet business is one surefire way to enhance the visibility of your products and services.
With the continuing improvement in software technology, publishing, introducing plug-ins, banners, pictures etc to create a fun and interesting “website” has become a breeze even to those with old and rusty brains like me.
Here is what you could do to improve your Internet online business:-
1) Give advice to your visitors on specific tips, tricks and opportunities related to your own business with the objective to increase awareness not only about yourself but also your business. This will establish you as an authority with customers, prospects and casual visitors through your publications.
2) Encourage readers to leave their comments and feedback. Positive feedback could some times help you to improve your website design, layout, content and hence your buisness.
3) Make announcement and broadcasting on any new changes or offers available in your main websites, for instance, new products and/or services.
4) All your postings in your blog could be kept in an Archive file which is very friendly for retrieving. You can therefore keep track of all your business plans and old but important information. 5) Any articles which you have written and posted could be reprinted by others for their own websites with your permission on condition that the resource box about the author remains unchanged i.e. with all your important URLs intact. This would link your websites to other websites hence exposing your business to more visitors.
6) Try adding fresh and quality content to it on a regular basis since search engines like fresh content. As a result, search engines will list your website in their directories. As soon as you have pages of your blog in the search engines, you'll start attracting free traffic to your site without having to paying a dime for it.
7) Include links that will fetch back links and subsequently improve your ranking on search engines. Affiliate links in the form of advertisement banners could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.
8) You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. You can have some kind of link exchanges with other bloggers for mutual benefits of increasing traffic to your blog and other main websites.
9) In summary, there's almost no limit to what you could and want to do with your blog. You can include your ideas, opinions, expertise in your field of work, resumes, home recipes, pictures, streaming audio or video clips, e-books, poetry, products, services, consultations etc., etc.
What are the main differences between a blog and a website then? You may ask.
Most websites are relatively permanent with only occasional updating. With blogs, you could post any new content almost on daily basis. Also, websites are usually less personal as far as their relationship with the visitors is concerned.
Visitors to your blog could leave comment after their visits which sometimes could prompt a follow-up discussion between you and them resulting with both parties learning from each another.
So how do you start blogging? There are many host services providers you could join. Among the most popular are Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com. I'm using Blogger.com which I find serving my needs just perfectly.
In closing, you must realize that to be successful in running your business blog, you need to be very passionate about products and services. Share your ideas, opinions and thoughts to assert yourself as an authority in your field. The visitors who are your customers or potential customers would remember your blog and keep coming back.
COME BLOG WITH ME TODAY and ride the crest of the business blogging wave! Happy blogging!
Copyright 2005 Woon Sung Liang
Sung-Liang Woon is a Rubber and Latex Consultant with about 25 years of experience. He enjoys writing, lecturing,travelling, playing flamenco guitar and singing. Not long ago, he didn't know ANYTHING about Internet marketing.However, within just a few weeks, he launched his own professional website and learned how to PROFIT from an opt-in list, pull in sales with ezines, make money with writing articles and setup his own BLOG!
Visit his website http://www.johnwoon.com and get to know him better at his Blog: http://www.blogwithjohnwoon.blogspot.com | <urn:uuid:39e68087-d525-483e-82e4-8784ba460897> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.friendsofvista.org/articles/article58832.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954895 | 1,470 | 2.4375 | 2 |
The calanques are the astonishing rough diamonds of the Mediterranean coast, an essential highlight of any tourist trip to Southern Provence.
A spectacular series of looming white limestone rocks scored through with deep valleys, they're the backdrop to a unique ecosystem, colourful fishing villages, peaceful creeks with intense, clear turquoise water and a wide range of sporting activities.
Click here to book a hotel in Provence
The calanques (pronounced "kalonk") extend for almost 20 km (12.4 miles) in length and 4 km (2.4 miles) inland south-east along the coast between Marseille and Cassis, snuggled in the folds of a mountain range of which the highest peaks are Marseilleveyre (432 metres / 1400 feet) and Mont Puget (565 metres/ 1850 feet).
On a large-scale map (click on the map to enlarge the image), some two dozen calanques of different sizes can be identified along this strip.
There are also smaller calanques to the west of Marseille along the Blue Coast, between the city and Carry le Rouet.
This article is a general introduction. Click here to read a guide to the best calanques south of Marseille, here for a guide to the calanques west of Marseille and here for a guide to the calanques near Cassis.
THE ECOLOGY OF THE CALANQUES
The calanques have an extreme microclimate that produces a range of rare vegetation. In winter, the temperatures in the sheltered valleys can be sigificantly warmer than in the surrounding area.
On the other hand the limestone is highly porous and it rarely rains: the main source of moisture rises from the salty evaporation of the sea in the blazing hot sun.
And the soil is almost non-existent. Instead, the cliffs are criss-crossed with cracks into which a distinctive array of tough, determined plants wedge their roots.
Though the rocks look barren, they conceal approximately 900 plant species, 15 of which are protected. Depending on the sheerness of the slope and the direction it faces, you may find Mediterranean oak, Aleppo pine, wild olive trees, viburnum, myrtle, mastic, criste-marine (a form of samphire), sea lavender, an array of herbs including rosemary, thyme and fennel and Marseille Astragalus, a thorny plant unkindly known as mother-in-law's cushion.
The calanques are also home to rabbits, foxes, wild boars and many reptiles including the ocellated lizard - the largest lizard in Europe - and Montpellier snake.
Birds are less populous, but you will see plenty of seagulls and, if you're lucky, a peregrine falcon, a great horned owl or a Bonelli's eagle (pictured). This French-language website provides a comprehensive guide to the flora and fauna of the calanques.
A THUMBNAIL HISTORY
What's in a name? Depending on which source you consult, calanque comes from a Latin, or Corsican, word, calanca, meaning a rocky inlet, or else the provençal cala, meaning a steep slope).
Though they're often called Mediterranean fjords, the calanques were not caused by glaciers like their Scandinavian cousins.
They were originally created by rivers coursing through a faultline in the rocky mountain chain. When the sea-level rose, the canyon was partly flooded, leaving a precipitous, narrow creek.
The calanques extend into the sea as long underwater valleys and the water there is significantly colder than elsewhere along the coast.
For centuries the limestone rock has been quarried and used all around the world, from New York's Statue of Liberty, for which it supplies the base, to the Suez canal and the quays of Alexandria. Closer to home, the rock was used for the lighthouses in Cassis and Marseille. One of these old quarries can be seen today in the calanque of Port Miou.
Book a villa, gîte or apartment in Provence with Owners Direct
It's the great traditional dream of Marseille city-dwellers to buy their own cabanon, or weekend cottage, in one of the calanques.
Originally implying a fisherman's cottage, today a cabanon can mean accommodation of all kinds, from little shacks to modern gites or luxury villas (pictured: a cabanon in the calanque of Sormiou).
Locals visit their cabanons regularly throughout the summer (and sometimes in winter too), using them as the perfect base for fishing, hunting or swimming, a sun- and rosé-drenched lunch and a game of pétanque or cards.
Some calanques such as Morgiou or (among the calanques west of Marseille) Niolon and Méjean are lively working villages with a year-round population.
Today this fragile environment is at risk from pollution, over-fishing and - because of the arid climate combined with high winds - forest fires. A massive inferno engulfed 2900 hectares (7000 acres) in August 1990 and, despite increased precautions, it remains an ever-present threat.
For this reason the calanques between Marseille and La Ciotat (with the partial exception of Port Miou, near Cassis) as well as the offshore islands of Frioul and Riou, were declared a National Park in April 2012. It is the seventh such one in mainland France, and only one of three in the world that's right on the edge of a major city, in this case Marseille.
Restrictions are placed on certain activities such as fishing, hunting and driving in the National Park. Click here to read the full rules and regulations governing visits (in French only).
HOW TO VISIT THE CALANQUES
The extraordinary topography of the calanques makes it difficult to get to them, except by boat. And because of the severe fire risk in summer, access on foot and by car is restricted by law between 1 June and 30 September.
During this period there are three risk levels: orange (access authorised), red (access authorised between 6am and 11am) and black (access banned).
The level varies according to weather conditions and is set daily at 6pm for the following day. It's available on the official helpline, tel (+33) 8 11 20 13 13, in English as well as French and published (in French only) on the Bouches du Rhône regional website.
On "black" risk days, visiting the calanques by boat or train are the only options (and even the boats may not operate on days of very high wind).
By boat: Excursions of varying lengths run out of Marseille, Cassis and La Ciotat along the eastern calanques, and from Carry le Rouet along the western calanques. This is the best way to take them in relatively quickly.
It's not so good if you want to get close to nature or to experience a whiff of calanque culture. You see them from the sea accompanied by a booming loudspeaker commentary; for safety reasons, passengers are not allowed to get off the boat at the calanques. On the other hand, a boat trip offers an excellent overview of the territory prior to planning a longer, more intimate visit.
From Marseille: Croisières Marseille Calanques, Icard Maritime or Blue Attractions
From Cassis: Calanques-Cassis
From La Ciotat: Les Amis des Calanques
From Carry le Rouet: L'Albatros Côte Bleue
By train: The south-eastern calanques cannot be reached by rail. However a petit train touristique (little tourist train) and a shuttle bus run from the centre of Cassis to the nearest calanque, Port Miou. Click here for a full guide to how to visit the calanques near Cassis.
The western calanques are served by the Blue Coast train line which runs from Marseille to Miramas. There are about a dozen trains a day in each direction and it takes between 20 and 35 minutes to reach the calanques.
The train ride in itself is very beautiful for the "calanque" part of the route, between the stations of L'Estaque and Carry le Rouet, pictured, from where you can take a boat trip back along the coast to see the calanques from the other side.
These calanques are less dramatic than their eastern counterparts. However, it is a good way to see the smaller ones if you are short of time, have restricted mobility, are reluctant to pay for the (rather expensive) boat trips and/or just want to go out to a calanque for a nice lunch.
By car: You can drive to certain calanques outside the high summer. The main ones and how to get to them will be detailed in our calanque guide. However, be aware that, on a fine spring or autumn day, especially at weekends, parking will be in extremely short supply.
In summer it is sometimes possible to arrange a pass to drive down to certain calanques by telephoning one of the restaurants, such as the Nautic Bar in Morgiou or Le Lunch and Le Château in Sourmiou, as long as you are intending to eat there. You must book a table well ahead, and it's likely that you will need to be able to speak French to make the phone call.
Car-parks in all the calanques are notorious for break-ins during the tourist season. Do not leave valuables in your vehicle and try to retrieve it before nightfall.
On foot: A part of the GR51 - GR98, the Grande Randonnée (long-distance footpath) is a 28 km (17.4 mile) trail that traverses the calanques from Marseille to Cassis.
Many parts of this route are steep and challenging and even an experienced hiker would be hard-pressed to cover it in a single day.
You are strongly advised to arm yourself with a good large-scale map. Find a large-scale IGN map of hiking trails through the Marseille-Cassis calanques on Amazon
If you read French, consider investing in Les Calanques à pied, one in the series of definitive topoguides (illustrated guides) produced by the Fédération française de la randonnée pedestre, the national rambling federation. The one for the calanques offers 28 hikes of varying lengths and levels of difficulty.
Camping out in the calanques overnight is prohibited by law. It's therefore best to walk this trail in separate, smaller stages.
Even on days when access is authorised, the heat - amplified by the sun and reflected by the sea and the white rocks - will make hiking disagreeable in the middle of the day. Plenty of water and protective headgear are essential, as well as the usual equipment.
Parts of this trail skirt vertiginous drops and so it's dangerous on days of the Mistral (Provence's fierce, gusting wind). You should check the weather report before setting out.
Several calanques can be visited individually on shorter excursions. For example, from the Luminy University complex you can walk to Sugiton; from Callelongue to Marseilleveyre, Queyron and Podestat; from the La Cayolle car-park to Sormiou and L'Escru; from the car-park near the Baumettes prison to Morgiou and Sormiou (pictured left); and from the Port Miou car-park in Cassis to Port Miou calanque, Port Pin and En Vau. See our articles on the best individual calanques for more details.
There are several other options for sportier visitors. One is is to run in the popular "Marseille-Cassis - 20 km" race. It takes you along the road (which is closed to traffic that day) along the top of the calanques.
It's on the last weekend in October and there is also an organised hike along a similar route on the previous day. Click here to read about the Marseille-Cassis race and "L'Autre Marseille-Cassis" organised ramble.
Another option is to go on an excursion into the calanques near Cassis via the Bureau des Guides des calanques (the Office of Guides to the Calanques). They are available for groups of a minimum of four and a maximum of 12 persons. As well as simple guided walks, canyoning, abseiling (rappelling), mountain biking and rock climbing are all on offer. Some excursions are available in English.
The Bureau des Guides des calanques is at the Tourist Office on the quai des Moulins, 13260 Cassis. Tel: (+33) 6 85 55 04 47. Website for the Bureau des guides des calanques
It is possible to arrange conventional guided walks through either the Marseille Tourist Office or the Cassis Tourist Office.
The Cassis Tourist Office also has a list of places where you can hire a kayak. Kayaking to the calanques and in Provence will be covered in full in a future article. | <urn:uuid:5666f3d2-7fe4-4aef-9600-88fe2c4ad30c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marseille-provence.info/places/sights-and-attractions/237-the-calanques.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924263 | 2,846 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Not Many Indians Can Buy Homes in SF, NYC
San Francisco and New York City are the least affordable home markets in the top ten cities with big Native populations in the United States. Just 8.3 percent of American Indians and Native Alaskans who live in the San Francisco metropolitan statistical area (MSA) are able to afford the median-priced home there, according to a study of housing affordability that includes race and ethnicity breakouts for the first time. Just 15.2 percent of New York City Indians can afford the median-priced home in the Big Apple MSA.
Where are the most affordable big-city home markets for Indians? Try Oklahoma. The median-priced home in Oklahoma City is affordable to 80 percent of Indians living there, while for Tulsa it is nearly as high, at 70.2 percent, according to a study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Los Angeles, the city with the biggest Native population, is also not very affordable to its Indian citizens. Less than a third, 32.1 percent, of Indians living there can afford the median priced home, which costs $315,000, according to the NAHB study, written by Rose Quint.
According to the 2000 Census, almost 130,000 Indians live in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas or MSA. San Francisco has 45,059 Indians in its MSA, according to the Census, and the median home price there is a hefty $599,000. New York City had 64,633 Indians in 2000, the Census says, and a median home price of $430,000 according to NAHB.
Oklahoma City homes are much cheaper, with the median there being $127,000, while Tulsa is similar, at $137,000.
Nationwide, 58.7 percent of Indians could afford the median priced home in their MSA, and their median family income was $43,200, according to NAHB. That was well below the national average of 72.8 percent, although slightly above the numbers for African Americans and Hispanics.
Median family income for Indians in the Los Angeles MSA is $55,200, according to the study. That’s only about half of white income ($96,200), but more than Hispanics ($45,800). In San Francisco, Native median income is $53,000, while in NYC it is almost exactly the same, $52,800.
Median family incomes for Oklahoma urban Indians are, perhaps surprisingly, about the same as than those in the high-end markets. For Oklahoma City the median is $55,700, while in Tulsa it is $48,600. The same amount of income on vastly lower home prices explains why the Oklahoma markets are the best buy for urban Indians in the top 10 MSAs.
Median income means that half of the population earns less than the median and half makes more than it. The same thing applies for median home prices—half are more than the median, half are less. The benchmark used for the study, median family income, is different than median household income and tends to be higher than MHI.
The MSAs used by the Census Bureau for number of Indians and NAHB for affordable may be slightly different. The San Francisco MSA includes Oakland and San Jose, according to the Census Bureau, while NAHB has it as San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City. Each category is consistent within itself, though, and no attempt has been made to combine the two lists together.
ICTMN used the Bureau’s “American Indian and Alaska Native alone” category for population. There is another category, AI/ANs “alone or in combination,” meaning those who claim mixed Native ancestry, where the population totals are higher.
Other top ten MSA Indian markets, according to the Census, include Phoenix, Arizona (68,438); Seattle, Washington (40,427); Albuquerque, New Mexico (39,839); Flagstaff, Arizona (32,882); and Dallas, Texas (30,110). Median priced homes in those urban areas were affordable to 63.9 percent of Phoenix MSA Indians, 34.1 percent for Seattle, 54.1 percent in Albuquerque, 28.7 percent in Flagstaff and environs, and 68.2 percent in Dallas.
Some MSAs were extremely affordable to Indians. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy Three Cities area of New York, for instance, had an 88.5 percent affordability rate for Indians. However, only about 2,000 Indians live in that area, according to the Census.
Binghamton, New York was even higher, at 94.9 percent affordability. Just 555 Indians lived in Binghamton, according to the 2000 Census. Mansfield, Ohio, with 458 Indians, was 95.8 percent affordable. | <urn:uuid:3a2ba9c0-59cc-4388-b5ec-27e24614d9ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/not-many-indians-can-buy-homes-in-sf,-nyc-34235 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951342 | 1,000 | 1.960938 | 2 |
3 Billion & Counting: The Cost of banning DDT
CHURCHVILLE, VA—3Billion and Counting is a new documentary film on the awful human cost of banning DDT. The film’s producer, medical doctor Rutledge Taylor, circled the tropical world, finding that malaria has claimed some three billion human lives throughout history—and the toll of needless deaths is continuing to mount by perhaps 1.5 million per year. Moreover, it permanently debilitates millions more. Taylor says malaria treatment is a “tangle of red tape, misguided prevention policies and treatment that is ineffective in the face of continual re-infection.” Above all, he found “willful deafness to the pleas of local populations to help them eradicate the mosquitoes that deliver the deadly cargo.”
Steve Milloy at Junkscience.com has called DDT “a weapon of mass survival.”
Rachel Carson ignited the environmental movement when her book Silent Spring warned the world in 1962 that “DDT would be proven to be a [human] carcinogen.” In fact, no peer-reviewed evidence ever indicted DDT as a carcinogen—or a human health risk of any sort.
What about DDT thinning the eggshells of raptor birds? Audubon counted virtually no eagles in its annual “lower-48 states” Christmas bird counts from 1900 until after 1940. The birds were shot and poisoned for “stealing” fish, lambs, and poultry. The public thought eagles were just big, aggressive predators. Finally, in 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act. The eagles began a long, initially-slow comeback. Today, Audubon typically records more than 15,000 eagles every Christmas—and the DDT ban had no role in their comeback.
But Rachel Carson struck a public nerve. DDT and window screens had eradicated malaria in America and Europe. Well and good. But then DDT started radically reducing the death rates of the brown, black, and yellow people in the tropics. Paul Ehrlich wrote his incendiary screed The Population Bomb in 1968, and the American public recoiled in horror at “overpopulation.”
Rutledge Taylor traces the horrific DDT mistake back to one man: William Ruckelshaus, the Nixon-appointed lawyer who headed the EPA in 1972. An EPA judge heard more than 100 expert witnesses, and ruled that DDT was not a carcinogen, nor did it pose a threat to mammals, fish or birds. Ruckelshaus overruled his own judge, and banned DDT. He had attended none of the hearing, and admitted later he’d never read any of the transcript. Dr. Taylor concludes he did it to please his friends in the Environmental Defense Fund.
The American DDT ban triggered similar bans across the First World—and with it, their refusal to fund its use in poor countries. Malaria re-surged all over the tropics. Rachel Carson, and Ruckelshaus were the indirect cause of more deaths than Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Genghis Khan combined. You can even throw in the Black Plague and still not match the numbers.
DDT is not only the most cost-effective mosquito killer, it is also a powerful mosquito repellent. If tropic homes get a mild interior DDT whitewash, the insects don’t come in, bite somebody, and then die two hours later. They just don’t come in! DDT is, by itself, capable of reducing a malaria outbreak by 80 percent—quickly.
Global population is now rapidly stabilizing, and will trend slowly down after 2050. Is it time to renounce the “overpopulation” panic and use the best chemistry to suppress the awful malaria scourge? Remember, each case of malaria causes not only the victim’s near-constant suffering, but the need for much nursing care from his family. Malaria may be enough, by destroying the vigorous health of its citizens, to explain the poverty of so many tropical countries
Meanwhile, Ohio’s governor is trying for an EPA waiver for malathion, another persistent pesticide, to control the bedbugs that were once eradicated by DDT and are making a vigorous comeback. We wish him good luck.
Conflict of interest note: I was proud to be interviewed in this film, and received no remuneration. My deepest thanks go to Dr. Taylor for his constructive dedication to correcting our society’s massive, tragic malaria mistake.
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. and an environmental economist. He was formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to him at PO Box 202 Churchville, VA 24421 or email to firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:8afce9e5-6baf-44fd-b6d1-3e34a33e6093> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sppiblog.org/news/3-billion-counting-the-cost-of-banning-ddt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955526 | 1,044 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Thank you for your link.http://shreeshirdisaibaba.blogspot.com/
May Sai Baba bring Muslims and Hindus together.
How great to read about Sai Baba:
Sāī Bābā of Shirdi (d. 1918), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian guru, yogi and fakir who is regarded by his Hindu and Muslim followers as a saint. Some of his Hindu devotees believe that he was an incarnation of Shiva or Dattatreya, and he was regarded as a satguru and an incarnation of Kabir.
The name 'Sai Baba' is a combination of Persian and Indian origin; Sāī (Sa'ih) is the Persian term for "holy one" or "saint", usually attributed to Islamic ascetics, whereas Bābā is a word meaning "father" used in Indian languages. The appellative thus refers to Sai Baba as being a "holy father" or "saintly father".His parentage, birth details, and life before the age of sixteen are obscure, which has led to a variety of speculations and theories attempting to explain the Baba's origins. In his life and teachings he tried to reconcile Hinduism and Islam: Sai Baba lived in a mosque, was buried in a Hindu temple, practised Hindu and Muslim rituals, and taught using words and figures that drew from both traditions. One of his well known epigrams says of God: "Allah Malik" ("God is Master").
Sai Baba taught a moral code of love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, inner peace, devotion to God and guru. His philosophy was Advaita Vedanta and his teachings consisted of elements both of this school as well as of bhakti and Islam.
Sai Baba remains a popular saint and is worshipped mainly in Maharashtra, southern Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka). Debate on his Hindu or Muslim origins continue to take place. He is also revered by several notable Hindu, Sufi and Zoroastrian religious leaders. Some of his disciples received fame as spiritual figures and saints.
Thank you for your link v2biritji | <urn:uuid:78c85030-cda5-4dc3-8995-bfcc43c16dd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.spiritualindia.org/sai-mantra-om-sai-namoh-namah-sri-sai-namoh-namah-t22118.0.html;msg169689 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980871 | 458 | 2.125 | 2 |
In late June, UNESCO added a number of international sites to its ever-growing world heritage list.These sites are either natural or cultural and are chosen by the international body as being locations of great value that are worth protecting.
A UNESCO designation is much sought after as they generally help increase tourism to those places which have it. No Canadian locations were added to the list this year, but a number of interesting places are already on the list.
When I took a look at those Canadians sites which have the UNESCO designation, I was a bit surprised to see how few that I had actually seen. There are 15 and I have only been to five. Check out the list and see how you score.
Have you ever deliberately chosen a tourism destination because it was chosen as a UNESCO site or is it just a happy coincidence when you visit one? I never have, but now that I’ve browsed the list, I just might head out to Miguasha Provincial Park in Quebec’s Gaspé region this summer.
(Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/Getty Images) | <urn:uuid:af718995-0ff2-4c16-ba91-68b7fe503a31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://o.canada.com/2009/07/14/following-the-unesco-trail/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980361 | 222 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Fire Explorer Program
The Fire Explorer program is chartered through the Boy Scouts of America and is for young men and women, ages 14 (and have completed 8th grade) to 20, who are interested in emergency medical training and community service. The Explorers receive training on a regular basis to familiarize themselves with the emergency medical service career and to prepare for Explorer competitions against other Fire Explorer Posts around the State.
At this time, the Explorer Post is full to it’s capacity, however, we are still taking names for openings as they occur. Please e-mail an Advisor if you would like to be placed on the Explorer list for future consideration. | <urn:uuid:bc991d51-6b90-4686-8979-d763a5720785> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pbgfl.com/content/74/112/1690.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971933 | 134 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The Water Dragon
Better Link Press, 2012.
Every day Ah Bao collects firewood in the forest near his tiny mountain village. He carries a small ax and a rice crock made from a gourd. One day, Ah Bao notices a shiny red pebble on the ground and puts it in his rice crock. As soon as he does this, the crock begins to shake and rattle, and before he knows it, the crock is overflowing with more rice than Ah Bao could ever eat.
When he gets home he realizes that the stone has the same effect on money! Now Ah Bao and his neighbors are never hungry or poor, but it hasn’t rained in the village since he found the magic stone. Ah Bao places the stone inside a bucket of water in the hope that it will overflow, but instead, the stone absorbs all the water in the bucket. The next day, Ah Bao goes in search of the water dragon he dreams about, hoping he will convince it to shower his village with water once again.
Along the way, Ah Bao meets several animals caught up in trying predicaments. He helps each of them and is rewarded in turn. Each animal also warns Ah Bao that he will soon meet “a greedy red monster.” Undaunted, Ah Bao moves on. When he finally meets the monster, both Ah Bao and the reader are surprised at how he handles the situation and the turn of events that follows. Ah Bao becomes a hero, but not as we might have expected!
This remarkable book is experienced illustrator Li Jian’s first foray into writing his own picture book. The story was inspired by legends he heard his elders tell when he was a child. The pictures, which combine Li’s classical training in Chinese painting with his talent for bringing fairy tales to life, are at least as compelling as the bilingual text (in English and simplified Chinese characters). Ah Bao is both a courageous and humble hero with a big heart and a sense of responsibility. He will be admired by children and parents, who will doubtless look forward to Li Jian’s next solo offering.
N.B. Li Jian’s illustration work is currently highlighted in PaperTigers’ Illustrator Gallery. | <urn:uuid:1070c35c-472d-4114-9e95-e871cf278061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/tag/chinese-folktales/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972138 | 474 | 2.359375 | 2 |
KENYA - WOMEN GROW DROUGHT-RESISTANT ORANGES,
MANGOES & SAVINGS AS CLIMATE ADAPTATION
28 Jun 2010
Written by: AlertNet correspondent
Judith Mwikali Musau, a farmer in a
drought-prone region of
By Isaiah Esipisu
UKAMBANI, Kenya (AlertNet) - After suffering through years of worsening drought and surviving at times on alms and relief food, Judith Mwikali Musau and her neighbors have finally learned how to co-exist with a drier climate - by growing high-value, drought-resistant fruit and their own savings accounts.
On her three hectares of land in semi-arid
"I harvest the fruits in different seasons. Usually mangoes are harvested between November and March, oranges and tangerines from May to August, while pawpaw fruits are harvested all round the year," said Musau.
The different harvest periods ensure she has some income each season, she said.
On average, she harvests 40 sacks of oranges each season, which she can sell for $20 a sack to a wholesale dealer. This earns her $800 per harvest.
"This, supplemented with proceeds from other crops, enables me to feed my family, pay school fees for my four children and provide them with necessary basic needs," she said.
Earlier, she depended entirely on her husband
Ambrose Musau Wambua, who works at a hotel in
"Before I started the farming project, we used to spend all his salary on food, yet we still had to go for relief food because it was not enough. But now he can easily make savings of the little he earns," she said.
Musau is one of thousands of women living in the Kenya's drought-stricken Eastern Province who are finding ways to build resilience to the country's increasingly tough climatic conditions, which have recently included a prolonged drought followed by torrential rains and flooding.
Climate change is bringing more extreme
weather conditions in many parts of
THE BAD OLD DAYS
But through womens' organisations and self help groups, most of the residents are now working towards improving their food security regardless of the climatic conditions.
Musau is a member of the Mbiuni Farmers
Association, which brings together 750 peasant farmers from villages within
Mbiuni area, 230 kilometres (144 miles) east of
"The 750 farmers were all members of self help groups, originally meant to support each other through fund raising whenever there were problems such as burials. But after sometime, we held a meeting and resorted to use the same spirit of unity to fight hunger," said Benedeta Kaluki Muoki, the association's chair.
Altogether, 16 self help groups came together to form the Mbiuni Farmers Association, she said.
"We began by planting maize during the 2004 rainy season, which helped us fund raise some money, register the association, and open an account," Muoki said.
The farmers, using their initial savings, then began planting drought resistant trees and other crops on their small pieces of land. The effort has helped them avoid hunger for the past five years, even as other community members depended on relief food.
"The toughest season was last year,"
with a long drought in
SAVINGS ASSOCIATION A KEY TO SUCCESS
To sustain the association, the group has made fund raising a routine activity, with member donations put into a savings scheme called 'Solidarity for Development'.
"For the very first time we asked every member to raise Sh500 ($8), through which we started a community based loan scheme," Musau said.
The contributions are considered as personal shares, and any member of the association can borrow from the fund, primarily to support their farming activities. Farmers are also allowed to contribute more money and buy more shares in the association.
Since 2007, the savings fund has accumulated $338,000, most of which is in circulation among the association members.
"Every farmer is allowed to borrow three times her shares, and must give a farm-based asset for security. This could include orange trees, livestock animals, (or) farm machinery among others," said Musau, the association's treasurer.
By creating their own microfinance fund, group members also avoid paying interest fees to anyone outside the group.
"We discourage farmers from borrowing from microfinance institutions or banks. Our reasoning is that when they borrow from their own association, the interest the money accrues turns out to benefit them through annual dividends," Musau said.
The association also works in collaboration with other like-minded organizations, including the African Institute for Economic and Social Development.
"We help them identify suitable crops that can survive tough climatic conditions and offer them appropriate technology that helps improve the yields," said Jane Biashara, a programme facilitator with the institute.
The institute also sponsors field visits and other opportunities for farmers to exchange ideas and learn from experts.
"We have learned that the best way of handling communities living in such conditions is by allowing them identify what they want, instead of imposing new ideas on them, however good the ideas could be," Biashara said.
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to: firstname.lastname@example.org. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:5bc04f80-d6ac-4995-a548-7625030e003e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wunrn.com/news/2010/07_10/07_05_10/070510_kenya.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965324 | 1,122 | 2.140625 | 2 |
Published Date: 2012-07-28 16:04:49
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Uganda: (KI)
Archive Number: 20120728.1218683
EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - UGANDA: (KIBAALE)
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Sat 28 Jul 2012
Source: Associated Press and Fox hews [edited]
Ebola virus breaks out in Uganda, officials say
KAMPALA: The deadly Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda this month, Ugandan health officials said on Saturday, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange disease that had many people fleeing their homes. The officials and a World Health Organization representative told a news conference in Kampala Saturday [28 Jul 2012] that there is "an outbreak of Ebola" in Uganda. "Laboratory investigations done at the Uganda Virus Research Institute...have confirmed that the strange disease reported in Kibaale is indeed Ebola hemorrhagic fever," the Ugandan government and WHO said in joint statement.
Kibaale is a district in midwestern Uganda, where people in recent weeks have been troubled by a mysterious illness that seemed to have come from nowhere. Ugandan health officials had been stumped as well, and spent weeks conducting laboratory tests that were at first inconclusive. On Friday, Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told the Associated Press that investigators were "not so sure" it was Ebola, and a Ugandan health official dismissed the possibility of Ebola as merely a rumor. It appears firm evidence of Ebola was clinched overnight.
Health officials told reporters in Kampala that the 14 dead were among 20 reported with the disease. Two of the infected have beenisolated for examination by researchers and health officials. A clinical officer and, days later, her 4-month-old baby died from the disease caused by the Ebola virus, officials said. Officials urged Ugandans to be calm, saying a national emergency taskforce had been set up to stop the disease from spreading far and wide. There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, and in Uganda, where in 2000 the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized, it resurrects terrible memories.
Ebola, which manifests itself as a hemorrhagic fever, is highly infectious and kills quickly. It was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognised, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists don't know the natural reservoir of the virus, but they suspect the first victim in an Ebola outbreak gets infected through contact with an infected animal, such as a monkey.
The virus can be transmitted in several ways, including through direct contact with the blood of an infected person. During communal funerals, for example, when the bereaved come into contact with an Ebola victim, the virus can be contracted, officials said, warning against unnecessary contact with suspected cases of Ebola. In Kibaale, some villagers had started abandoning their homes in recent weeks to escape what they thought was an illness that had something to do with bad luck, because people were quickly falling ill and dying, and there was no immediate explanation, officials said.
Officials said now that they've verified Ebola in the area, they can concentrate on controlling the disease. Ebola patients were being treated at the only major hospital in Kibaale, said Stephen Byaruhanga, the district's health secretary. "Being a strange disease, we were shocked to learn that it was Ebola," Byaruhanga said. "Our only hope is that in the past whenEbola broke out in other parts of Uganda it was controlled." The challenge, he said, was retaining the services of all the nurses and doctors who are being asked to risk their lives in order to look after the sick. Officials also worry that other villagers suffering from other diseases might be afraid to visit the hospital for fear of
catching Ebola, he said.
Michael P. Owen
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Bellevue, WA USA
[As of Sat 28 Jul 2012 the number of fatalities has increase by one to 14, but the number cases remains the same. Although haemorrhage is not mentioned as a major factor in the disease the causative agent has been identified now as an ebolavirus. It has not yet been established whether this represents a re-emergence of Bundibugyo ebolavirus or another distinct type of ebolavirus (see: (Undiagnosed fatal disease - Uganda: (KI) 20120725.1214822). The precise identification of the virus remains to be determined. At present the outbreak appears to have been limited in extent and remains contained. Further information is awaited. - Mod.CP
A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at: http://healthmap.org/r/1wa6.] | <urn:uuid:f81fe57b-4af8-4008-bf55-b3ec5b2a5959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20120728.1218683 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963953 | 1,034 | 1.882813 | 2 |
Social Studies - 4th Grade
Social Studies Core CurriculumLast updated: 2008
View New Online Course Resources
Elementary students are innately curious. They ask all sorts of questions: "How did people build those things?" or "Why can't countries seem to get along?" or even "How can I make a difference in the world?" One place they can find answers is in social studies: the study of the oral traditions, dances, artifacts, writings, and other aspects of culture that comprise the record of human life.
Effective social studies instruction in the elementary classroom encourages this inherent curiosity of young people. Yet social studies is intended to do more than spark curiosity. Social studies instruction also has a central overarching goal: to help young people develop civic competence, with the ability to make informed decisions for the public good.
Civic competence requires an awareness of self and others. Social studies provides the underpinnings for civic awareness and action, exposes the history and wonders of cultures, and through disciplines as varied as history, geography, and economics, provides multiple ways to interpret, analyze, and make sense of the world. Ideas and concepts central to the purpose of public education are also central to social studies, among them the notion of the common good, the value of self-rule and self-determination, the rights and responsibilities we humans share, and the interconnectedness of human endeavor. With their application of democratic processes, personal responsibility, and life skills, these students will be prepared to protect the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, improving their lives and the lives of all members of society. The elementary social studies core describes the essential elements necessary to reach this goal of civic competence for Utah students.
The creation of a core document for social studies must be a
community process, and this core reflects the best thinking and
committed work of a community of stakeholders who care deeply
about the educational success of Utah students. It was developed
by Utah social studies teachers, school district curriculum specialists, representatives from institutions of higher education,
State Office of Education specialists, and an advisory committee of
community members. The core also reflects the insights and input
from many teachers across Utah whose thoughtful responses to
surveys helped guide the document, as well as the best thinking
How the Core is Organized
The core is designed to help teachers organize and deliver instruction.
A Note on Indicators and the Use of the Latin terms e.g. and i.e.
e.g. means for example, and therefore the words or concepts that follow are examples to use when necessary to ensure student understanding
i.e. means that is, so when i.e. is used the words or concepts following i.e. are considered essential aspects of the indicator, extensions of the idea that must be included when teaching that indicator
Essential Goals Used in Developing the Elementary Social Studies Core:
Feasible and Essential
There are habits of the mind that, while not unique to social studies, can be strengthened and developed in a rigorous social studies classroom. For example, analysis of current issues, the taking and defending of a position, and being able to write about those positions in a clear and organized manner are skills that transcend a specific subject area.
In addition, while history is often the first discipline thought of when social studies is mentioned, social studies is inclusive of geography, economics, and multiple behavioral sciences. The core is designed to integrate these disciplines into a study of larger questions, rather than isolate specific skill development. For example, geographic skills are directly mentioned but in relation to their use in gaining an awareness or understanding, rather than merely for discrete skill development. Careful analysis of the core will show an attention to integrating history, civics, geography, economics, anthropology, and other behavioral sciences into the core standards, objectives, and indicators.
Committed to Student Success
An Overview of the Elementary Social Studies Core
The social studies core in grades three to six is essentially a modified "expanding environments" approach to social studies. This approach includes, each year, studies in history, geography, economics and civics that begins with third grades study of culture, the local community, and indigenous communities. In fourth grade students study the state, fifth grade the nation, and sixth grade the world. The core expectations deepen and expand as appropriate for each corresponding grade level.
Students must be able to demonstrate an understanding of overarching social studies concepts, but it is essential that a small number of clear outcomes for Utah students are delineated since social studies is such an immense field of study. After careful study of the civic purpose for social studies education, after analysis of the most important themes expressed by classroom teachers and community members, and after careful consideration of the ten themes* developed by the National Council for the Social Studies, as well as national standards in geography, history, and economics, four essential understandings became the framework upon which the
Utah core was built:
The core standards and objectives have been designed to revisit and reinforce these four essential understandings in every grade level. Students will be able to deepen their understanding of these concepts as they move from grade to grade and as their abilities to reason gain both depth and breadth.
When students enter the third grade, they will be introduced to the four essential understandings central to the social studies core, understandings that will recur in each of the succeeding years of elementary education. Students will learn about culture and community, focusing on their own local communitys heritage as well as learning about the cultures of indigenous communities. They will study the interrelationships between physical geography and cultural development. They will also learn about representative government and their own personal civic responsibility in the classroom, community, and country.
In the fourth grade, students will continue to focus on the four essential understandings and apply them to their study of Utah. History, geography, economics and civics are again the core disciplines in fourth grade. Students will learn about significant events in Utah history, noting how successive cultural interactions have shaped the story of Utah. Students will learn about the physical geography of Utah, and how the geography of Utah affects human life, including economic development. Fourth graders will also deepen their understanding of civics as they learn more about rights and responsibilities in Utah and how governments are organized in Utah.
United States studies is the focus in the fifth grade. Students will explore significant eras in United States history, eras that paint in broad terms some of the significant themes of the story of America. These eras are Exploration and Colonization, Beginnings of Self-Government, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Expansive 19th Century, and The United States on the World Stage.
In the sixth grade, the focus expands to look at world history and culture. Students will learn about selected regions of the world and the societies that have formed there, learning about their systems of governance, the rights and responsibilities they hold, how their societies have changed and continued over time, and how these regions are interconnected. Specific epochs of time include Ancient Civilizations, The Middle Ages and Renaissance, The Age of Revolutions, and The Modern World.
*The ten themes developed by the National Council for the Social Studies are:
These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Office of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Office of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.
For more information about this core curriculum, contact the USOE Specialist, Robert Austin or visit the Social Studies Home Page. For general questions about Utah's Core Curriculum, contact the USOE Curriculum Director, Sydnee Dickson . UEN Contact Info: 801-581-2999 | 800-866-5852 | Contact Us | <urn:uuid:8b1751ad-fa1b-471a-8cbe-fdd43fdc43b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uen.org/core/displayPreface.do?courseNumber=6040 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941504 | 1,639 | 4.28125 | 4 |
Matthew's vision: The unity of the formula citations in Matt 1:1--4:16
With few exceptions, past research on Matthew's use of Scripture has portrayed his citations of and allusions to Scripture as ad hoc and insensitive to context. In part, this is because traditional historical-critical methods tend of themselves to emphasize the disunity in a text. The present work builds on the discoveries of historical criticism, but also incorporates a narrative-critical approach to Matthew's textual "network," i.e., the way one citation of or allusion to Scripture connects with others through key-words and shared themes to form a united body of mutually interpreting texts. An examination of texts cited in Matthew's formula citations in 1:1-4:16 reveals that they are all taken from contexts that describe the future restoration of Israel in imagery borrowed from the exodus out of Egypt. Given the scarcity of biblical texts that fit this description, one must conclude that Matthew has a strong interest in the new exodus theme. Besides this common theme, Matthew's citations are also connected by contextual proximity, key-words, and more particular shared themes. The new exodus theme of the formula citations fits into Matthew's sustained use of exodus typology in his infancy narrative. As Jesus typologically relives the bondage of Israel in Egypt and the subsequent exodus, he simultaneously relives the exile of Israel and foreshadows the restoration in himself. This reliving of Israel's history functions within Matthew's Gospel as a prologue that interprets Jesus' subsequent ministry, passion, and resurrection in light of Israel's Scriptures.
Jeremy R Holmes,
"Matthew's vision: The unity of the formula citations in Matt 1:1--4:16"
(January 1, 2007).
Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. | <urn:uuid:d0862274-3494-44aa-b256-598dee8db235> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI3298495/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91663 | 373 | 2.703125 | 3 |
|« Type O And Low Platelets||Alfalfa And Type O »|
I am curious about the incidence of dental caries as it relates to the different blood types. Understanding the variety of organisms that can inhabit the mouth and proliferate causing oral disease,your comments about this as it relates to blood types and the incidence of caries would be appreciated. I am type A-, age 36, and tend to have "pits" in my molars which seem to last about 10+ years before a dentist decides to fill them as surface cavities. So far, I have only had 4 surface "cavities". Thank you!
There are a few studies on blood type and dental caries (cavities), and in general it appears that blood group A may have lower levels of cavities than the other blood groups, especially if the group A subjects(1) were SECRETORS.(2) It appears that the secretion of our ABO(h) antigens into saliva probably inhibits the ability of bacteria to attach to the tooth surface,(3) since many of these bacteria possess lectins on their surface which they use to attach to body surfaces, and many of these lectins are ABO(h) specific. Also, non-secretors tend to have lower levels of the IgA class antibodies in their saliva, which may compromise their ability to keep bacteria counts low.
It has been noted that many groups with high rates of caries have low rates of periodontal disease, and vice versa. This may be true of blood groups as well. Type O has been known to have lower frequencies of periodontal disease (4) perhaps because they carry both anti-A and anti-B antibodies, thus being protected again more strains of periodontitis-causing bacteria than A, B or AB.(5)
1. Arneberg P, Kornstad L, Nordbo H, Gjermo P. Less dental caries among secretors than among non-secretors of blood group substance. Scand J Dent Res. 1976 Nov;84(6):362-6.
2. Holbrook WP, Blackwell CC. Secretor status and dental caries in Iceland. FEMS Microbiol Immunol. 1989 Jun;1(6-7):397-9. PMID: 2631879; UI: 90212306
3. Haertig A, Krainic K, Vaillant JM, Derobert L. [Medicolegal identification : teeth and blood groups]. Rev Stomatol Chir Maxillofac. 1980;81(6):361-3. French.
4.Kaslick RS, West TL, Chasens AI. Association between ABO blood groups, HL-A antigens and periodontal diseases in young adults: a follow-up study.J Periodontol 1980 Jun;51(6):339-42
5. De Tomasi A. Related Articles[Agglutinogens and isoagglutinins in human saliva]. Rass Trimest Odontoiatr. 1970 Jul-Sep;51(3):137-46. Italian. | <urn:uuid:7b73115f-b776-4e13-bef4-e50cca81202a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dadamo.com/B2blogs/blogs/index.php/2004/03/02/blood-type-and-dental-caries?blog=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.907925 | 657 | 3.125 | 3 |
At Bridge Elementary School, young students are getting excited about the kind of household chores that ordinarily send kids their age running in the opposite direction.
In just a few short months, the Eco-Bridge PTA Committee has rallied more than 100 student volunteers to help with lunchtime recycling, classroom collections and other environmentally driven initiatives.
With assistance from the parent volunteers and the supportive custodial staff, Bridge School students grades K-5 have been leading the recycling charge every day at lunchtime since October.
After finishing their meals, a team of Eco-Volunteers assembles to assist classmates with their sorting of papers from plastics from liquids and so forth, instead of simply dumping a tray into the trash.
“Before this, I didn’t really know much of that stuff, I only knew to recycle paper and a bunch of that stuff,” said Alexander Cohen, a fifth-grader and lunchtime volunteer. “But now I realize it’s more important to do that stuff to save the Earth.”
These efforts have led to significant savings on trash weight – about 56 percent saved daily, and 89 percent with composting on Fridays, according to Nimisha Asthagiri, the Eco-Bridge PTA Committee Chair.
But more than what they’re achieving inside the school, supporters of the Eco-Bridge initiatives say they’re encouraged that students are taking their lessons learned out into the real world, and encouraging the people in their lives to recycle, reduce and reuse.
“If you can recycle in school, you can recycle anywhere,” said Tara Gill, a Bridge student who recycles at lunchtime. “We’re making a difference for the Earth.”
Eco-Bridge efforts have moved beyond the cafeteria to the classrooms, and will leak out into Lexington’s business community later this week, when a smattering of shops will send customers home toting bags decorated with environmental messages by Bridge School students.
“We’re all very concerned that our children learn about recycling, learn about reuse, learn about being careful in the first place not to overuse things, because it’s their world,” said Lucia Gates, a guidance counselor at Bridge School. “That might sound trite, but it’s their world that is at stake.”
In addition to their daily work inside the cafeteria, Eco-Bridge volunteers are also collecting recyclables inside the classroom. As a result, Bridge has even been able to sell back some unexpected recyclables like magic markers, glue sticks, tape rolls and printer cartridges as a revenue source for the school.
All in all, the Eco-Bridge efforts have been a real positive for the elementary school, according to parents, participants and administrators.
“The students are responsible for recycling, and they’re invested,” said Vice Principal Erin Maguire, who noted administrative involvement is minimal, but parental investment is key to the success of Eco-Bridge initiatives.
That more than 100 elementary-schoolers have signed on to wipe down lunch trays and wheel around recycling bins may sound surprising, but the students don’t see their participation as work, but rather a fun way to protect their planet.
“It seemed like a fun thing to do at the time, because it was something other than school,” said Zoe Prestbo, a fourth-grader, “And you’re helping the Earth.”
Stakeholders say that support from parents, the school administration, students and the custodians have been key to the success of Eco-Bridge efforts.
A number of parent volunteers oversee daily lunchtime recycling, but the custodial staff sets up the recycling station and picks up after lunch periods are finished. Without their support, recycling in this fashion would not be possible.
“Oh it’s very important that they are learning to take care of the environment,” said Paul O’Connell, the school’s head custodian. “It’s pretty much run by the kids and parents. … It’s unbelievable. We put out about 15 totes of recycling twice a week.”
Lunchtime recycling at Bridge School started last year as a once-a-week, parental initiative last year and has grown into a student-driven daily program. Now, supporters envision expanding beyond Bridge and into other elementary schools around town. But those conversations are in the very early stages, and Bridge parents have their sights set on more local goals, like cutting into the 40 pounds of milk dumped out every day.
“There’s definitely a lot that still can be done,” said Asthagiri, the Eco-Bridge chair.
For more information about Eco-Bridge initiatives, check out the group's website.
A few additional Earth Day activities include Bridge students participating in the Earth Day Groceries Project, and Bridge students computing how many pounds of carbon they will save by walking, carpooling or busing to school on a special Safe Routes to School Earth Day Project. | <urn:uuid:cbfbbf5d-841f-480c-b12e-04bedb768c60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lexington.patch.com/articles/video-environmental-education-is-elementary-at-bridge-school | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957191 | 1,061 | 2.265625 | 2 |
Organisational Health and Capability
The Ministry undertook a major business transformation in 2009 which involved improving public value through two major initiatives: Fisheries 2030 and the Organisation Design Review. Our capability development in 2009 was driven by these initiatives and will continue to align with them.
The development process for Fisheries 2030 identified that while New Zealand fisheries management is amongst the world’s best, there is further significant potential to create economic, cultural, social and environmental value through the development of new institutional arrangements and tools. This potential will help to drive a primary sector-led strengthening of the New Zealand economy.
The Fisheries 2030 goal, outcomes and action plans for the sector, change the way fisheries are managed in New Zealand and the way the Ministry operates. The organisation redesign aligned the Ministry with Fisheries 2030 and positioned the Ministry to deliver on Government priorities and improve agency performance both now and in the future.
The Ministry is actively encouraging and supporting staff to engage with the new direction, including a better understanding of their personal contribution to Fisheries 2030. The new way of working emphasises delivering against expectations, measuring delivery, and working together to achieve Government priorities and Ministry outcomes.
Features of the organisation design include:
- Greater clarity of purpose and direction for the sector and the Ministry with the development of a long-term goal and a five-year action plan, both endorsed by Cabinet.
- The creation of a strategically aligned and more functionally integrated organisation to deliver better, more targeted, services to tangata whenua and stakeholders at lower cost to all parties. This includes new approaches to engagement and fisheries management systems.
- A greater focus on outcomes rather than processes.
- A more agile organisation, with the ability to deploy resources more flexibly and quickly within a reduced baseline to where they are most needed.
- The Strategic Leadership Team focused on whole-of-Ministry outcomes.
- Fisheries management as the axis of the Ministry’s business model. The new model requires a full commitment to objectives-based fisheries management, with the fishery managers becoming the budget-holders for scientific research, compliance and observer services.
- Streamlined fisheries planning processes to deliver objectives-based management. Five National Fisheries Plans are now being created with chapters for specific fisheries or locations as required. The new framework will take full effect from 1 July 2011 for the start of the next fishing year, and will inform the specification of Fisheries Services.
- The creation of a Deputy Chief Executive Treaty Partnership and Obligations to Māori role to support the Strategic Leadership Team in meeting obligations to Māori as a Treaty partner.
The organisation design review, effective from 1 October 2009, saw the creation of approximately 70 new roles and the disestablishment of approximately 90 roles. It set in motion the clarification of accountabilities and responsibilities for the majority of roles in the Ministry. New position descriptions were prepared for approximately 50 percent of the Ministry’s roles and this figure will reach 80 percent of the Ministry’s roles by 2011. The position descriptions are helping the Ministry identify future competency requirements that can be targeted in recruitment and development.
Staff Numbers and Turnover
As at 31 March 2010 the Ministry had 441 permanent and fixed-term staff, totalling 431.3 FTEs. Annualised core unplanned turnover was 6.9 percent as at 31 March 2010. For the year ending 30 June 2009 the core unplanned turnover rate for the core Public Service was 11 percent; for the Ministry the comparable figure was 6 percent.
An active recruitment programme is under way to ensure staffing levels are at or near the establishment level.
Value for Money
Providing value for money is a key consideration for the Ministry. Our annual expenditure review forms an integral part of the Ministry’s annual planning and budgeting cycle for both the Statement of Intent and the Fisheries Services Plan. The revised fisheries plans model includes an amended approach to engagement and a focus on delivering objectives.
The Ministry has reviewed how to allocate resources to deliver on its obligations to Māori consistent with organisation design decisions. The Obligations to Māori Service Delivery Review has created a new model for cost-effective delivery of fisheries services to iwi. The new organisational arrangements will be effective from 1 April 2010.
The Ministry is following up on the 2009 organisation design review with a targeted review of Organisation Services, which will focus on ensuring effectiveness, efficiency and value for money in the services delivered to the organisation. A final decision from this review will be made before 30 June 2010.
The Observer Services Strategy and Research Services Strategy reviews are designed to deliver cost-effective services in each of these areas. The reports on these reviews are nearing completion and will result in better value for money in the delivery of services in the 2010/11 year and onwards.
The Ministry developed an Information Systems Strategic Plan in early 2010 as the first stage of its review of Organisation Services. The plan describes the Ministry’s current and desired future states, and contains a strategy to reach the desired future state over the next three years.
Work on amalgamating data from multiple sources has continued and has concentrated on integrating the catch data supplied by commercial fishers. The first version of the production system was released to selected Ministry staff in December 2009. The project is on track to deliver aggregated data to the public (via the Internet) in late 2010.
The Ministry has rearranged the floor plan in its ASB Head Office to align with the new organisation design and take the opportunity to reduce the number of floors used. We have also refurbished our Napier office and relocated offices in Dunedin.
Staff Development and Achievement
The Ministry is committed to investing in staff development and expects staff to play their part in this. Our Performance and Development Policy provides for every staff member to have a performance agreement and a personal development plan, including access to Lominger and in-house competency frameworks.
The Ministry undertook the Gallup Q12 Engagement Survey, which is widely used in the New Zealand Public Service, in March 2010. The Gallup survey provides a simple team-based tool to improve staff engagement levels, make the Ministry a better place to work and improve performance. The Gallup Survey, our performance and development processes, and our desktop HR Information System are vehicles for providing practical support to help staff achieve competencies required to improve their performance in their current role and progress their career aspirations.
The Ministry’s Management and Leadership Development Programmes are designed to ensure we have an ongoing critical mass of leadership and managerial capability. The Ministry introduced a mentoring programme in 2009 as part of the Leadership Development Programme and in 2010 will focus on workshops to support managerial responsibilities for engaging and motivating staff.
Code of Conduct
The Ministry has opted in to the 2010 State Services Commission Integrity and Conduct Survey to obtain benchmarked feedback from staff to inform our approach to maintaining awareness and standards within the organisation.
The Ministry’s capital intentions over the five-year period from 2010 to 2015 are shown below. The capital expenditure programme covers the routine replacement of motor vehicles and the replacement of vessels for fisheries compliance duties. In addition, there is provision for the building and upgrade of new and replacement information systems, including associated hardware, and replacement of minor plant and equipment necessary to maintain the Ministry’s operating environment.
|Buildings and leasehold improvements
|Office plant and equipment including computer equipment | <urn:uuid:197ce1d1-4d10-42a1-9f14-ef8d69f9a1c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Publications/Statements+of+Intent/SOI+2010+-+2015/Organisational+Health+and+Capability.htm?wbc_purpose=basic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934399 | 1,499 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Knowing God;s Forgiveness
by John Dunn
Subject: God's foorgiveness
Book Code: 403
Pages:391 pp, book
Pub. Date: 2005
0 86408 274 6
Download (4.6 meg)
About this Book
Forgiveness of sin is a pivotal teaching of the Christian faith and basic to
daily living for all who truly believe in Christ. Not that we humans can do
anything to deserve or merit such an extraordinary favour it has been entirely
due to the Father graciously and lovingly taking the initiative to do us good
through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Thus right living comes through seeing that the sacrifice of Jesus
on that Cross was for us personally, and it once and for all deals
totally with our sin and guilt and failure in the eyes of our holy
Father. The forgiveness of the Cross reaches down into the depths of
our conscience to cleanse
from shame and blame; from bitterness and hatred; from anxiety and
self-despising. God's forgiveness touches the deepest levels of our
unconscious fears and insecurities, our inferiorities, our damaged
emotions, our unresolved conflicts and tensions.
God's forgiveness is no light thing. The Cross is God's complete answer
to the deepest of human needs in respect to our relationship with him.
We only come to know God as we enter and live in a realised experience
of his total forgiveness, and we only go on knowing God as we go on
knowing and living in that same experience of liberation. There is
no higher, greater or richer experience for any man, woman, boy or
girl than to know the wonder of God's love and grace in his forgiveness
of their sin.
John Dunn lived in Sydney and ran a consultancy company specialising
in the design of trains and trams. He is the author of several engineering
publications as well as numerous study notes and commentaries on
the Scriptures. He wrote "Running
the Race' and biographies of Charles Spurgeon,
George Mueller, John Bunyan, John Newton and other men of faith. | <urn:uuid:d97e023e-6639-4598-ac41-5f0e4150cc44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newcreation.org.au/books/covers/403.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934644 | 441 | 1.65625 | 2 |
I will happily admit, the next several posts over the next several days constitute me trying to play some amount of catch-up with my ever-burgeoning Firefox tabs and RSS feeds. I’m trying to post a bunch of days ahead of time, too, so I might be reporting on some older stuff. But I’ll try to keep it fresh and relevant with my opinionation. Apologies if we’re covering ground you’ve already covered, you savvy and avid reader you.
Via Peter Sinclair’s excellent Climate Denial Crock of the Week, this story from USA Today explores the ramifications of a study about how people react to global warming policy when having been exposed to examples of the kind of extreme weather event that climate realists have been warning of for decades.
[A] new study finds that people who have endured extreme weather events are more likely to support environmental legislation, even if it means restricting individual freedoms.
The study was led by Ann Owen, a professor of economics at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.
Additionally, the authors write in the study that “our results are consistent with the idea that experiencing extreme weather causes individuals to become more aware of the issue of global warming, and increases their perception of the risk of global warming.”
Although the survey focused mainly on heat waves and droughts, and was conducted in the summer, Owen says their findings can be extrapolated to any type of severe weather event, including blizzards and tropical storms.
So, potentially, study authors report that weather disasters may hurt conservative candidates more than liberal candidates, because of their positions on environmental policy.
Also interesting are the study’s other findings:
- People who believe that global warming is an important issue are more willing to support regulation that might restrict individual freedom.
- People who consult more news sources and environmentalists are less likely to have their attitudes toward global warming changed by current weather conditions.
- Experiencing extreme weather has the greatest impact on respondents who are less aware or knowledgeable about global warming.
I can’t help but think this is just the sort of effect you’re gambling with when you take a stance that is demonstrably contra-reality. Since the political right has aligned itself against the very idea that the globe might actually be warming, and that even if there was we might actually be responsible, when people see evidence — visceral, first-hand evidence — of that fact, in the extreme weather predicted by climate realists for, as I’ve said, decades, they are going to react in kind. And “in kind” means “against the people who are denying the truth which is plain as day even to the common rabble”. You’re just going to lose support for your contradictory ideas when they’re shown to be wrong. It should be obvious.
If you want to make a political party predicated on the idea that the moon is made of green cheese, as soon as someone lands on there and determines it is not in fact made of any dairy product whatsoever, you’re going to lose a lot of clout — everything else you say is going to sound like just another lie. Of course, there will always be those hangers-on to the old philosophy, for whom evidence is not evidence enough, but that way lies delusion predicated on hyper-skepticism. That way lies, in other words, madness.
That’s what we’re fighting here, primarily, in the skeptic community, isn’t it? | <urn:uuid:d7503d07-0cd5-4e90-a8f2-2fd14ea08a7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freethoughtblogs.com/lousycanuck/2012/01/22/do-extreme-weather-events-make-you-more-liberal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961026 | 740 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Illustrious modernist Richard Meier and multi-disciplinary creator Massimo Vignelli reflect on their respective crafts, city life, and enduring friendship in this mesmeric film by Johnnie Shand Kydd. — NOWNESS.com
In 1972, Massimo Vignelli designed a diagrammatic map for the New York City subway. It was a radical departure. He replaced the serpentine maze of geographically accurate train routes with simple, bold bands of color that turned at 45- and 90-degree angles. [...] Its abstract representation of the routes was elegant but flawed. To make the map function effectively, a few geographic liberties were taken, something that didn’t sit well with New Yorkers. — tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
SUBMIT NEWS: submit in 60 seconds! | <urn:uuid:c5d706fa-c97e-4a03-b058-2bd741ac806b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archinect.com/news/tag/41796/massimo-vignelli | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919013 | 164 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Section of waterfront trail closed due to flood damage
Friday, June 3, 2011
A stretch of Vancouver’s Waterfront Renaissance Trail was closed Friday due to erosion near Tidewater Cove, marking the first report of damage resulting from the Columbia River’s climb into flood stage.
Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation sent out a news release and photo that shows a chunk of concrete broken free from the trail near the cove, west of Wintler Park. The parks department closed 400 feet of the trail.
Barricades are being used to keep walkers and joggers from getting too near the damaged path. Signs were set up to direct foot traffic to a detour on Columbia Way.
“We are working closely with engineers, operations teams and adjacent property owners to monitor and assess high-water impacts and potential short-term and long-term options and costs,” said Pete Mayer, the parks director. “As the Columbia River rises, we will continue to keep a close watch on this and all sections of the waterfront trail and take action where necessary.”
The water Friday afternoon was at 17.1 feet, more than a foot into the 16-foot flood stage. The river levels could climb higher this weekend as warm weather melts late-season snow.
In the press release, Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation wrote the flood-stage levels appear “to be naturally trying to cut into the bank to create a flatter slope of sandy beach. Compounding that are factors such as rapid currents and the high velocity caused by the water-inundated jetty.”
Local, state and federal permits are required before construction on the area can get underway to repair the trail. It is not yet known how much those repairs will cost.
According to the release, “At this time, options for halting the natural erosion of the shoreline or preserving the 400 feet of trail are anticipated to be extremely limited, as is available funding.” | <urn:uuid:17b00fd0-38cc-4de8-9fae-f15098f7dbbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/jun/03/section-waterfront-trail-closed-due-flood-damage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961897 | 407 | 1.617188 | 2 |
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Re: Measuring noise
Eric Greenspoon wrote:
> I hope that shortly an international standard is set up to measure
> sound levels which incorporates distance in the measurement _and uses the
> (C) scale or a scale which weights the lower sound frequencies to be as
> important if not more important than the mid and higher frequencies.
> After all it is the low frequencies which disturb people when they hear
> car stereos, home stereos, airplanes, automobile traffic etc.
> I was in an electronic store several months ago and took two sound level
> measurements. One using the (A) scale and one using the (C) scale. The
> sound registered approximately 60 dB(A) and more than 80 dB(C). I became
> a (C) scale convert immediately. The noise was very annoying.
We have to be careful with the weighting to be used for measurement. Yes
Eric in some cases one noise is definitely more disturbing than the other
because it has a lower frequency but you have also the opposite. Everybody
knows that high frequencies are not really appreciated by our ears. For
example, a meter showing sound pressure level in dB might register the same
value for both the noise of a circular saw and for the noise level inside a
bus, however, there can be no doubt which is the more annoying. Thus I
don't think that today a satisfying weighting method is available. And will
there ever be one ?
QUIET-LIST: Internet Mail List and Forum for discussion of Noise Pollution,
Soundscape Awareness, and the Right to Quiet. Email: "firstname.lastname@example.org"
To subscribe, email "email@example.com" with message "subscribe quiet-list".
For info, send message "info quiet-list" to same.
Date Index | | <urn:uuid:76c267a1-4b4d-41f8-ab56-f413dca6d582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quiet.org/quiet-list/msg00767.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90212 | 413 | 2.0625 | 2 |
Talking to Bush
Arab leaders and opinion makers should come to terms with America's position of dominance and address sympathetic segments of American public opinion, writes Ibrahim Nafie
On my way to Washington to interview US President George W Bush, I was more conscious than ever of the seething climate in the Arab world. I too, of course, was outraged at the torture of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American soldiers, the horrifying televised pictures which triggered new peaks of anti- American fury in a region already boiling over events in Palestine and Iraq.
US policy towards the Middle East has me, along with many others, completely baffled. The Bush administration has unleashed a multi-pronged assault on the Arab world, in blatant contravention of universally held principles of international conduct. This administration must realise that it is alienating Arab public opinion, as well as its Arab allies in the region, with its pro-Israeli policies, its actions in Iraq and its scheme for a "Greater Middle East".
With such sentiments in mind, I had a fairly clear idea of where the interview with the US president should head. Its primary objective would be to probe Bush's outlook on the critical issues facing this region, his forthcoming policy plans in light of recent developments and on the impact he believes his administration's policies will have. It would simultaneously attempt to cast into relief how his perceptions and expectations correspond to the analyses of foreign and Arab observers. The Al-Ahram interview accomplished these objectives, succeeding in supplying a useful body of information that will assist Arab decision-makers in formulating the policies and agendas that will best promote our interests.
On this subject, it cannot be stressed enough how much the Arabs need to reconsider their handling of US policies. It is time we wake up to the fact that the cacophony of tirades, diatribes and mutual recriminations we use to play to the gallery only plays into the hands of our enemies. The decisions taken by the president of the largest power in the world affect everyone, and these must, therefore, be dealt with soberly and responsibly.
One cannot help but to be struck by how poorly the Arabs understand American society, the mechanisms of its decision-making processes and the available channels for addressing public opinion there. Although we are admittedly encumbered by the post-11 September climate, the Arabs have not invested the full resources they have at their disposal in "engaging" influential forces in American society, especially those that share our concerns over the perils of American policy in the Middle East. There is a large and growing segment of American public opinion that opposes the US's blind support of Israel and views it as harmful to American interests. There is an even greater tide of opposition to the American occupation of Iraq, which is certain to gain momentum as a result of the shame and outrage stirred by images of the torture of Iraqi detainees.
We must reach out to these forces. More importantly, we must do so in a sensible way, instead of falling back on the demagoguery that leaves them prey to the campaigns of pro-Israeli organisations and the ultra right, as was the fate of Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard. In declaring their support for Palestinian rights, these democratic congressional candidates were exposed to a vicious campaign of vilification that led to their defeat in the 2002 primary elections.
As we take a closer look at the workings of American society, the actions being undertaken by The Council for the National Interest give us a gauge of the currents in American public opinion on the Middle East and insights into possible avenues we can tap. This council, headed by Eugene Bird, believes that US interests in the Middle East are being jeopardised by Washington's overt or tacit support for Israeli aggression, settlement construction, land appropriations and other provocative violations of international law and resolutions. It has therefore drafted a legislative bill and is campaigning to secure the necessary support to bring it before Congress
The "Israel Accountability and Security Act of 2004," as it is called, calls upon Israel to "take serious and permanent steps to dismantle all existing settlements that lie outside of the 1967 border", "to immediately and unconditionally halt the construction of the so-called 'Separation Wall' in the West Bank and take serious and permanent steps to dismantle those sections of the wall that lie in the Occupied Territory", "to immediately and unconditionally end its policy of home demolition in the West Bank and Gaza Strip", and "to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme and enter into a regional Middle East Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons". In addition, it calls upon Israel to enter into "serious and unconditional" negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Syria and Lebanon. In the event that Israel refuses to comply with these conditions, the draft bill stipulates that the US would impose sanctions ranging from prohibiting the export of defence equipment to Israel to withholding economic aid (which currently amounts to $3 billion a year) and reducing US diplomatic relations.
Interestingly, a poll conducted by Zogby International for the council showed that 56 per cent of Americans agreed that Congress should pass an Israeli accountability act. Of course, even if the petition the council is circulating succeeds in gaining enough support to bring this act before Congress, there would still be an uphill battle to get it passed; all the more so given the current configuration of congressional opinion and lobbying groups. However, its very existence, along with the Zogby poll result, demonstrates that there are opportunities available to the Arabs to promote their concerns among the American public. It remains for them to summon the resolve to capitalise on these opportunities in the most effective manner and mobilise the necessary resources towards that end.
Returning now to the interview with President Bush, one of our concerns was to convey to him the anger his recent exchange of letters with Ariel Sharon stirred in Arab public opinion. The assurances he gave the Israeli prime minister conflict in text and spirit with the principles of international legality and the pertinent UN resolutions. His argument that "realities on the ground must be taken into account," in particular, flies in the face of those international provisions prohibiting the acquisition of land by force of arms as well as prohibiting alterations of such "realities" in occupied territories. The Arab sense of affront was all the more acute because Bush's assurances to Sharon constituted a blatant retraction on his pledge to realise the creation of an independent, geographically contiguous Palestinian state by 2005, and because they undermine the roadmap, of which the US is a co-sponsor, under which final status issues must be resolved through negotiations.
I believe Al-Ahram succeeded in driving this message home, and Bush's responses were accordingly conciliatory if not always to our liking. At the same time, they give Arabs some substance on which to plan their moves for the forthcoming phase. On the Palestinian issue, for example, Bush said that the deadline for founding a Palestinian state by 2005 is no longer realistic. Such a statement should galvanise us into action. One possibility is for Arab governments and the Arab League to mount a concerted campaign either to pressure Washington into retracting this statement or to agree to a new deadline as close as possible to the old one.
On the other hand, Bush did reaffirm his commitment to the roadmap. This should encourage the Arabs not to take any action that would lend legitimacy to Bush's assurances to Sharon, instead doing their utmost to get the roadmap back on track. In this regard, it would be useful to study and develop appropriate responses to the causes Bush cited as obstructive to progress towards the creation of a Palestinian state. That some of these causes pertain to conditions in the PA and the Palestinian factions should compel the Palestinians to get their house in order, draw up a clear and concrete agenda and clarify the ways in which Arab governments can support them in the advance of their cause.
On the question of Iraq, the Al-Ahram delegation succeeded in compelling the US president to apologise for the crimes of torture and degradation perpetrated against Iraqi detainees. Indeed, he reiterated his sorrow over this incident six times, as was reported in the US and international press. Unfortunately, he was not as explicit on the crucial question of the duration of the US occupation. American forces would remain in Iraq "for as long as necessary", he said. Clearly the Arabs must work together and along with other international powers to exact a commitment from Washington to withdraw its forces as soon as possible and to transfer the powers of the interim authority to the UN. That the US has turned again to the Security Council for a new resolution on Iraq presents the Arabs with the opportunity, in their summit to be convened in Tunis on 22 May, to adopt a collective stance on the substance of this resolution, so as to ensure the largest possible scope for the UN and the Arab League in the administration of Iraqi affairs in the interim period.
The Arabs still have plenty of opportunity to formulate and pursue a range of effective policies and agendas for the advancement of legitimate Arab rights and to halt the general tide of deterioration. We have relayed to the US president Arab views and sentiments and we have transmitted back the perceptions of the president of that nation that is Israel's most powerful source of support, that is currently occupying Iraq and that is pressing upon us a blueprint for reform of its own devising. It remains for the Arabs to absorb the facts, to adopt an objective and rational frame of mind in responding to them and to desist from the fits of apoplexy that afflict some whenever they hear an appeal to deal with the facts and ground their policies in realistic considerations. | <urn:uuid:6286ae0b-f9e0-4f48-bdef-b8c8d71916b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/690/op1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961467 | 1,930 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Your moral bearings obviously have been corrupted by high concentrations of carbon dioxide.
You've gotten past that scandalous word—"oil"—for a moment and begun to wonder who gave the administration the authority to shut down a vital regional industry without a shred of scientific evidence or tangible safety concern.
Perhaps it's just that unshakable affection you have for BP (Exxon is also dreamy), but you wonder aloud how the administration has the power to extract $20 billion from a corporate partner—without congressional or independent oversight or even an executive order—and then name a political appointee to head up the fund and allow him to mete out the money any way he sees fit.
You're pretty sure, judging from the administration's track record—from "stimulus" to the health care legislation to fiscal reform and so on—that it would be patently absurd to trust it could divvy out billions without attaching political considerations.
Then again, you're a coal-lovin' shill. No, it doesn't matter that Barack Obama was the top recipient of BP's political action committee and individual bucks over the past 20 years. It is irrelevant that BP was a founding member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and lobbies for cap-and-trade schemes.
According to The Wall Street Journal, in fact, the administration's compensation fund has a little something for BP, as well. "In the end," the piece states, "one aim of the fund—and a prime reason BP agreed to it—will be to minimize lawsuits against the company."
To minimize lawsuits against the company is the function of Kenneth Feinberg—with imperial experience as auto bailout "compensation czar"—who went on to say that he "will have to make an offer—'You take this amount in full satisfaction of your claim, but only if you waive your right to future litigation.'"
If BP had independently begun to offer similar ultimatums to Gulf-area citizens, rest assured Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would have unleashed one of his boot-to-the-throat smackdowns as he faced off against imaginary enemies near and far.
Salazar was the one who told Congress that experts backed his plan for a blanket moratorium on further deep-water drilling, when experts had said nearly the opposite. (Salazar later apologized.) Many engineers, in fact, warn that shutting down wells and then restarting drilling—with the migration of drill rigs, technology, and human capital—would only increase risk in the long run.
And on Tuesday, some nitrous oxide-loving federal judge in New Orleans blocked the executive overreach, saying the administration "simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country."
Nor can the administration justify the escrow fund. BP already had pledged to waive the $75 million liability cap Congress had bequeathed the company. It had written 31,000 checks totaling more than $100 million before the compensation fund was established. There were very few complaints—other than political ones aimed at Barack Obama.
Surely The American Trial Lawyers Association could enlighten the White House to the benefit and fairness of class action suits. If the arrangement is broken or too slow, shouldn't we have some tort reformed? Is it really "mediation" when the administration and an oil company collude to decide what's best for the victims?
As many on the left have argued for years, simply because we have an emergency or threat—the war on terror, for example—is no excuse to abuse executive power or ignore our excellent legal system.
Or does all that change because oil is involved?
COPYRIGHT 2010 THE DENVER POST
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM | <urn:uuid:61eaee1b-2090-4f59-a4f4-a636b024e849> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.org/news/show/1010139.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964006 | 788 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter
One of the best night sky events of the year is on tap: The Geminid Meteor shower. According to the Royal Astronomical Society, the evening of December 13 and the morning of December 14, skywatchers across the northern hemisphere could see up to 100 “shooting stars” or meteors each hour. This number is what will be seen at the peak of activity, but if conditions are clear you can definitely take the time to observe any time between Sunday night, Dec. 12 to Wednesday morning, Dec. 15.
You can also participate and share in the event on Twitter, with the #Meteorwatch crew.
Of course, meteors are the result of small particles entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, burning up and super-heating the air around them, which shines as a characteristic short-lived streak of light. In this case the debris is associated with the asteroidal object 3200 Phaethon, which many astronomers believe to be an extinct comet.
The meteors appear to originate from a ‘radiant’ in the constellation of Gemini, and so the name Geminid.
For US skywatchers, Sky & Telescope predicts that under a clear, dark sky, one or two shooting stars per
minute will likely be seen from about 11 p.m. local time Monday until dawn Tuesday morning. If you live under the artificial skyglow of light pollution the numbers will be less, but the brightest meteors will still shine through.
For European, and particularly British observers, the RAS says by 0200 GMT on December 14, the radiant will be almost overhead in the UK, making it the best time to see the Geminids. By that time the first quarter Moon will have set so the prospects for a good view of the shower are excellent.
Meteors in the Geminid shower are less well known, probably because the weather in December is less reliable. But those who brave the cold can be rewarded with a fine view. In comparison with other showers, Geminid meteors travel fairly slowly, at around 35 km (22 miles) per second, are bright and have a yellowish hue, making them distinct and easy to spot.
To watch for meteors, all you need are your eyes. Find a dark spot with an open view of the sky and no glary lights nearby. Bundle up as warmly. “Go out late in the evening, lie back, and gaze up into the stars,” says Sky & Telescope senior editor Alan MacRobert. “Relax, be patient, and let your eyes
adapt to the dark. The best direction to watch is wherever your sky is darkest, probably straight up.”
As with most astronomical events, the best place to see meteors is at dark sites away from the light pollution of towns and cities. You can also check with astronomy clubs or science museums if they are hosting any viewing events.
The Geminids will also feature in a Twitter event, called Meteorwatch, where observers can post their text, images and videos to share them with other observers (and also for those having less favorable locations. Anyone with Internet access can join in by following @virtualastro and the #meteorwatch hashtag on Twitter.
Sources: RAS, Sky & Telescope, | <urn:uuid:55628f96-1e31-491e-8a6a-4587dc3d972f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.universetoday.com/81590/get-ready-for-the-geminids-in-the-sky-and-online/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936556 | 704 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Community-based pilot program offers help to schizophrenics
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A prescription to buy Canadian Zyprexa can help people manage symptoms of schizophrenia while reducing medical costs. In the U.S., various healthcare organizations are trying to find more efficient ways to address the mental health needs of these patients. The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare recently completed a pilot study that assessed the performance of a new treatment paradigm, conducted at 10 community-based behavioral health centers around the U.S.
This program involved two evidence-based tools: a group curriculum to educate patients on self-care, and a functional assessment test for determining one's ability to perform certain everyday tasks, such as money management, nutrition and problem solving. The pilot study started out with nearly 5,700 patients who had been treated for schizophrenia for several years. In the beginning, 20 percent showed inabilities in all areas of the functional assessment test, while 50 percent had major impairments in at least five of 20 critical areas of functioning.
After six months, improvements were seen in three key areas, measured on the seven point DLA-20 scale: communications (3.51 to 3.95), interaction with one's social network (3.8 to 4.23) and coping skills (3.3 to 3.78).
"This program promotes practitioner and consumer partnerships. Together they measure progress and reinforce what works. It's a true step forward for people with schizophrenia and the organizations that serve them," said Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the National Council. She added that the model has the potential to be replicated.
|IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: All medical content and news articles on this website is supplied by an independent third party company. While the information can be useful, this website relies on others for its creation and cannot guarantee the accuracy, medical efficacy, or reliability of the information provided. In all circumstances, you should always seek the advice of your physician and/or other qualified health professional(s) for drug, medical condition, or treatment advice. This website does not provide any medical advice. The content provided on this website is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.| | <urn:uuid:a56b0d6f-9712-494b-a0ff-fa07505ad4b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canadianpharmacymeds.com/schizophrenia1.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953309 | 448 | 2.109375 | 2 |
Coloured pencil necklace
What a cute idea. DesignMom uses ordinary coloured pencils to create this pretty one-of-a-kind necklace.
You can make several different variations of this necklace and they only require a few basic tools. The pencils you probably already have at home and you simply chop a few centimetres from the end…if you do this neatly then they will be none the wiser!!
The results really do look great and you, or your child, will definitely stand out from the crowd wearing them!
You will need:
Drill and small drill bit
Thread (for the necklace)
1. For the basic necklace you will need to begin by making your beads. You can use either hexagonal or round crayons. The beads I cut were 7mm long. To cut your beads use a small, sharp, hacksaw blade. Take your time when cutting the pencils and try not to apply too much pressure…that way you are less likely to chip the paint off the outside.
2 & 3. Don’t worry if the cut surface of your beads look a bit scruffy…all they need is a quick rub with some sandpaper. I found it easier to lay the sandpaper on a flat surface and rub the bead along it.
4. Now drill a hole in the side of each bead using a small drill bit. Make sure you place a scrap piece of wood underneath. It’s not a good idea to get holes in the kitchen table!
5. Once you have cut a number of beads simply string them onto a length of thread…job done! | <urn:uuid:d257eda3-8228-4f4b-93f0-d94d0050fc18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.home-dzine.co.za/crafts/craft-pencil.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932008 | 335 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I'm new to Cryptography so please free to edit my question for clarity and add the appropriate tag.
I'm trying to research if the following is possible. Suppose
- John has a message that he encrypts to share with more than one recipients.
- The message is different, i.e. it's unique to the recipients (though the recipients don't know that).
- The recipients must each be given a unique password so as not be able to decrypt each others message.
Questions (sorry for more than one question, but they're related):
- What approach should I take? Links to references or further reading will be appreciated
- Is the one encryption with different decryption the wrong approach to achieve goal 3? What approaches would you suggest?
The objective are two fold:
- allow a teacher to easily (hence 1 ciphertext) encrypt "answers to exam questions" (text and binary data e.g. images) to distribute to selected students. Reason for not allowing anyone outside of the selected students is to prevent students who haven't taken the exam to know the answer thus allowing reuse of the exam questions.
- allow students to see teacher's comments and feedback specific to that students' attempted answers. Since students answered differently, the students need not share the same password and are discouraged from using the same password. This also helps teacher track which students leaked answers to future students.
Update: I've bought Bruce Schneier's book to learn up on terminology and concepts so I won't be at a loss with terms like ciphertext. | <urn:uuid:ac9358cb-2a6c-4215-870f-bc3f4c14bdc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/2872/looking-for-cipher-that-uses-one-ciphertext/2877 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957975 | 321 | 2.828125 | 3 |
09-18-2007, 06:40 PM
Join Date: Sep 2007
I love this article written by Mike Brescia:
The 3 Levels of Motivation |
Desperation: the most common and lowest form of motivation
Everybody has been motivated by desperation in one way or another. This motivator kicks in when you absolutely have to do something. In long-term scenarios this motivator kicks in when your doctor says, for example, “If you don’t stop (or start) doing XYZ, then you aren’t going to be here in another six months.”
That’s desperation… And it is a strong motivator.
The trouble is, it takes desperation to get most people to do what they should do just to get by. It takes a tragedy or impending tragedy to get the average person to get going on their most important priorities.
For example, in the financial area, it might take a bankruptcy or the loss of a job to get you to think about your finances. Or if you’re a student, you cram for a test at the last possible minute to avoid failing the course and just settle for a passing grade.
Inspiration: not as common, yet a higher level of motivation
When a person has inspiration, they are moved to take action to get an outcome they do want in the short term versus being moved to avoid an outcome they don’t want (desperation).
This kind of motivation happens when you set a goal and you’ve identified what you’ll get if you achieve the goal. This can be very powerful. A typical example of this is when somebody sets a goal to lose weight in January. But their motivation fades and by the time february comes around, they cancel their gym membership.
This is why self-help books and motivational speakers do not work for most people. No matter how motivational or inspirational a speech or book is, it cannot cause permanent change in someone. Inspirational motivation does not last. It fades. The higher motivator is “purpose.”
Purpose: the rarest and highest motivator of all
Purpose, or mission, is the highest level of motivation. However, it is not as common as inspirational motivation. Very few individuals have achieved this level of motivation. They are the ones that have achieved great things in life. If you learn how to achieve this level of motivation, you will be able to accomplish any goal you desire. Here’s why it’s the highest motivator:
While both inspiration and desperation can force you to pop a breath mint before a meeting, it is purpose that makes you take care of your teeth by brushing and flossing everyday. Purpose ensures that you are always prepared for anything that comes your way.
Fear of failing a test can force you to study all night long. That is desperation.
Spending extra time working on a project that you truly enjoy and/or if there is a short-term and very desired benefit is inspiration.
But when your words and actions are all directed by a deep sense of purpose, keeping your eye always on multiple benefits and on multiple positive outcomes, being driven by long-term results, long-term implications and by legacy is what separates the average and good from the truly great.
When your thoughts and your core mental patterns are influenced by purpose and mission, you have true POWER over yourself… so you never need willpower and you will be hundreds of times less likely to be victimized by others.
This power transcends IQ, color, who your parents are, where you grew up… It is the highest power you could have.
[z1freeride speaking] However, knowledge is utterly useless if it isn't applied correctly. That's why inspiration speakers, self-help books, etc usually NEVER work. Thought rehabilitation is the only way you will change yourself. As a man thinketh, so is he. | <urn:uuid:9658a677-cb87-43ef-8c95-4f6834abad81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/112406-post6.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946707 | 818 | 2.296875 | 2 |
I'm not a big handyman. To be honest, I'm not even a little handyman. I have some tools, I can hang a picture, but when it comes to anything much beyond putting a couple of screws into a board or hammering a nail into a wall, I'm pretty much out of it.
We're putting this thing together at home for our cat box to sit on. It involves cutting a board, and I noticed that I don't really have a saw. To remedy that, when we bought the board, I got a decent mid-to-low-end circular saw. (I obviously don't have a ton of call for such a thing, so spending more than, say, $50 would have been wasted.)
During my first-ever-in-my-lifetime use of a circular saw, I learned a few things I thought I'd share to help out the other less-than-handy people out there:
- Don't stand on the cord or the saw won't go.
- Don't pinch the cord between your leg and the table or the saw won't go.
- If the saw doesn't go, the cut doesn't come out as clean as you might hope.
- Stop over-thinking it and move the saw faster than a snail's pace or the cut won't be smooth.
- Sandpaper can go a long way in cleaning up a messy cut on MDF.
- MDF generates more sawdust than you will ever be able to clean up. | <urn:uuid:da322a6c-fe5a-4889-994d-1e4768d45f42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paraesthesia.com/archive/2008/09/25/on-using-a-circular-saw.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974694 | 316 | 1.992188 | 2 |
College of Education for Girls at Al-Qunfudah
Founded in: 1413 A.H
The College of Education for Girls at Al-Qunfudah was inaugurated as an intermediate college in the academic year 1413-1414 A.H. The foundation of the College is considered a landmark event witnessed by the city of Al-Qunfudah as the city has thus contributed to preparing good female citizens focusing on the type of graduates who are going to be the cornerstone of all kinds of progress and prosperity in Saudi Arabia.
The College used to award Diplomas in the following specializations:
1) Holy Qur'an and Islamic studies;
2) Arabic language and social studies;
3) Science and mathematics; and
4) Home economics and arts.
In 1421-1422 A.H. the college was changed from an intermediate college into a college of education for girls that awarded bachelor's degrees. The college thus has five specialized departments in addition to the Department of General Subjects, which teaches educational subjects and psychology to students of all departments of the college. The specialized departments in the College are as follows:
1. Department of Arabic language;
2. Department of Chemistry;
3. Department of Mathematics;
4. Department of Physics; and
5. Department of Home Economics.
In order that the college buildings fulfill its educational message, it consists of two adjacent buildings at Khaledya in Al-Qunfudah:
1- Main Building: comprises the Dean's office, Vice Dean for student affairs office, Vide Dean for student affiliation affairs office, offices of heads of the different departments of the College and an administrative affairs office in addition to lecture halls equipped with television networks for all the departments, physics and computer labs and a kitchen for the department of home economics.
2- Annexed (second) Building: located at Khaledya near the main building. It comprises the second floor of Khaledya Educational Complex and includes eight medium-sized lecture halls equipped with television networks and a chemistry lab. This annexed building is supervised by a member of the college's teaching staff, a number of female supervisors and assistant employees.
3- New Annexed Building (under construction): Owing to the College's need for new facilities in order to productively perform its role and realize its goals, the deanship of the college has exerted great efforts to undertake expansion projects to meet the increasing interest in education. Hence, a new annex is being prepared at Khaledya next to the main building and is expected to be delivered by the end of the second term of the academic year 1429 A.H. The new annex contains eight large 100-seat lecture halls equipped with a television network.
The College further contains a dormitory for students, which is being supervised by the general supervisor of the College in the Ministry of Education. This dormitory houses 64 students and is being supplied with living supplies. The College also has a dormitory, adjacent to the student dormitory, for teaching staff members working with a contract and who has no mahram "a woman's unmarriageable kin".
In addition to graduating female bachelor's degree holders in the various aforementioned specializations, the College of Education for Girls at Al-Qunfudah aims at achieving a number of fundamental objectives:
Instilling monotheism in girls and carrying on teaching them the Islamic culture, which makes them feel responsible before God to their duties towards their Muslim community so that they can prolifically contribute to its development;
Contributing to the integral Islamic development of each girl's personality to encourage her to acquire appropriate knowledge; interests, preferences, values and professional skills;
Preparing specialized women in the various fields of knowledge and science in line with their original instinct so that she can contribute to the mass development of society in conformity with Shari'a principles;
Working on girls' creativity and training them to following scientific thinking so that they are able face and handle public as well as private problems;
Playing a positive part in the field of scientific research which contributes to the advancement of arts and science;
- Providing necessary training and making updating studies in order to provide graduates with the necessary knowledge they should be familiar with after graduation, either in their specializations or regarding the field of education
Participating in social work through constant interaction between colleges and institutes on the one hand and the whole society on the other to spread cultural, social, educational and scientific awareness using different methods, such as seminars, lectures and open as well as continuous education projects
- Ensuring the provision of equal opportunities with an eye on education economics, shortages, losses and waste. This can be achieved through academic as well as professional guidance and analyzing development plans to identify their requirements and reacting thereupon. | <urn:uuid:dbd323dc-36e4-44ee-b41d-b46898e5e178> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uqu.edu.sa/page/en/1304 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95981 | 978 | 1.679688 | 2 |
New Technologies focus for successful University Technical College bid in Daventry
Published Monday 10th October 2011
Proposals for a 'University Technical College (UTC) for New Technologies' in Daventry have taken a step closer today (10 October 2011) after the project was approved by the Department for Education.
In a letter received from Lord Hill of Oareford, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, he said 'This marks a significant step on the journey to opening (of the UTC in Daventry), and demonstrates the confidence we have in your vision'.
University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are a relatively new concept in education, and are designed to offer 14-19 year-olds an opportunity to take full time, technically-oriented courses. The Daventry UTC for new Technologies is planned to open by 2013 and will cater for up to 600 pupils. It will become part of a national network of University Technical Colleges (UTC) as proposed by Lord Baker and the late Ron Dearing of the Baker-Dearing Educational Trust.
Moulton College is the lead sponsor for this flagship government-funded project, a Beacon College known for providing outstanding education, and is co-sponsored by the University of Northampton. Other key partners include Daventry District Council and Northamptonshire County Council, West Northants Development Corporation and the Daventry Learning Partnership which includes Moulton and Northampton Colleges and the William Parker and Danetre secondary schools.
The UTC facility will allow pupils to specialise in a vocational curriculum in sustainable new technologies, alongside the core GCSE subjects of English, maths, science and a wide range of sport and enrichment activities.
Students will have the opportunity to work with Moulton College and The University of Northampton, as well as gain valuable work experience with local and national industry provided by employers such as Cummins Ltd, Cosworth, DHL, ProLogis, Hiforce and SDC. The initiative is seen by project leaders as vital in raising the aspirations of young people and developing a creative and innovative workforce for the region and beyond.
Principal at Moulton College, Steve Davies, said:
We are delighted to be able to implement the vision of raising aspirations for the study of sustainable technologies in Daventry and the east midlands region.
There will be a key focus on skills, leading into education and local industry to help support the next generation of creative and innovative technicians.
This UTC will play a key role in addressing the region's skills gap and ensuring that we foster a passion and enthusiasm for embracing sustainable technologies that will enable us to produce a new generation of innovated and talented students who meet the demands of society and industries in the region.Steve Davies
Professor Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor of The University of Northampton, commented:
The Daventry UTC will add real value to technical education for the future of Northamptonshire. We are a University with established teaching and research excellence in areas including science-focussed and environmentally-based disciplines. As such we are delighted to support an initiative where students will learn in a very practical way, integrating national curriculum requirements with technical and vocational elements.Professor Nick Petford
Cllr. Chris Millar, Leader of the Council at Daventry District Council, said:
Daventry is nationally recognised for its extensive green agenda and the UTC will provide a valuable focus on renewable and sustainable technologies to nurture the home-grown skills and talent of our young people.
Improving the education offer of Daventry is one of the cornerstones of the Council's vision to create a more vibrant and sustainable town in the face of significant future growth. It complements our on-going work to improve the local economy through improved education, retail and leisure facilities.Cllr. Chris Millar
Leader of Northamptonshire County Council Jim Harker said:
Having the right skills available in the county is crucial to our economic growth and our ability to retain and attract employers. The aim of the Daventry UTC would be to provide outstanding education for up to 600 14-19 year old students who are committed to a technology-related career or will be motivated to achieve greater academic success through exposure to a vocational/technical curriculum.
The employment potential of the students will be enhanced through first class and comprehensive links with local employers, particularly leading engineering, construction and logistic employers among others.
Picture: Artist's visualisation of the new University Technical College at Daventry. | <urn:uuid:baeabf7f-16c7-410c-ab0e-3bed4eb8c2b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/article/222/new-technologies-focus-for-successful-university-technical-college-bid-in-daventry/200238 | 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 | 0.933495 | 912 | 1.625 | 2 |
St. Sylvester I
by americancatholic.org | Source: americancatholic.org
When you think of this pope, you think of the Edict of Milan, the emergence of the Church from the
catacombs, the building of the great basilicas, Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and others, the
Council of Nicaea and other critical events. But for the most part, these events were planned or
brought about by Emperor Constantine.
A great store of legends has grown up around the man who was pope at this most
important time, but very little can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy
lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that
only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the
face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine. The bishops in general remained loyal to
the Holy See and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester for undertaking important ecclesiastical
projects at the urging of Constantine.
Join the new media evangelization. Your tax-deductible gift allows Catholic.net to build a culture of life in our nation and throughout the world. Please help us promote the Church's new evangelization by donating to Catholic.net right now. God bless you for your generosity. | <urn:uuid:9860c75a-dd67-4e83-948c-ad15207beb9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholic.net/index.php?option=dedestaca&id=8542&grupo=Liturgy%20%20Devotions&canal=Daily%20Saints | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00076-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95174 | 286 | 3.125 | 3 |
Army veterans, like Navy veterans, were susceptible to suffering from asbestos exposure while serving their country. While Army veterans, in general, did not complete their tour of duty aboard ships, they did spend considerable time in government constructed military installations and vehicles that were built using asbestos containing materials prior to the 1970’s. As a result, many Army veterans may have been exposed to high levels of asbestos and today, they could be at risk for developing the asbestos cancer known as mesothelioma.
Where Army Veterans Were Exposed to Asbestos
Many of the buildings on Army bases, including sleeping barracks, mess halls, ammunition storage facilities and training facilities, to name a few, were built with products that contained asbestos. The primary purpose for the use of asbestos containing products in the construction of military installations was to provide insulation and protection from fire and extreme heat. Examples of the types of products used in buildings include flooring and flooring tiles, wall insulation, ceiling tiles and asbestos cement and siding. Even though the use of asbestos was eventually banned in the United States there are many military installations existing today that were built well before that point in time. As a result, there may be extra building materials stored in the facilities. Because it may not be entirely clear whether or not these materials contain asbestos, those asked to work with them may know to take necessary safety precautions. Asbestos exposure doesn’t affect soldiers alone. If there are asbestos hazards in Army housing, for example, a soldier’s entire family may suffer from asbestos exposure placing everyone at risk for developing an asbestos related disease.
Military vehicles were also manufactured with asbestos containing products. Brakes, gaskets and insulation were the primary asbestos containing materials used and were present in virtually every military vehicle made including combat and transport vehicles and tank transporters. Soldier mechanics assigned to maintaining and repairing these vehicles were placed at risk of being exposed to asbestos especially when working on brakes or replacing gaskets. While these individuals were placed at risk for experiencing direct exposure to asbestos, their families may have been at risk for second hand asbestos exposure. This is because airborne asbestos fibers, which are what can become trapped in lungs and eventually cause mesothelioma, can also become trapped on hair and clothing. Military mechanics working on vehicles with asbestos parts may have unknowingly brought asbestos fibers home on their clothes or hair to their family members who were then susceptible to breathing it in. This placed their loved ones at risk for developing mesothelioma as well.
Do Army Veterans Diagnosed with Mesothelioma Have Legal Rights?
Absolutely! If you are an Army veteran, or the loved one of an Army veteran, and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be eligible to receive compensation for the injury that you sustained as a result of service in the U.S. Army. Please fill out the form on this page to receive more information about Army veterans, asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. | <urn:uuid:4c1c0314-0ecb-4d18-ae62-d9d4f94cdea3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mesothelioma.com/veterans/army/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971991 | 606 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Casey Outlines Job Creation Tax Credit Proposal
Thursday, January 14, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today outlined legislation he intends to introduce to implement a job creation tax credit. Senator Casey is working to add a job creation tax credit to a jobs bill that the Senate is expected to consider.
“Over the last couple years the U.S. economy has steadily shed jobs and wages have largely been stagnant,” said Senator Casey. “We have made progress responding to the economic crisis, but more needs to be done to get people back to work. Times are still tough across the board and margins are slim. That is why I am proposing a job creation tax credit to help employers hire workers, put money back into local economies and spur economic growth.”
Senator Casey’s proposal builds upon the jobs tax credit enacted in 1977 and was responsible for the creation of 700,000 jobs. Employers who increase their payroll by hiring new employees will be eligible to receive a tax credit.
Employers would only receive the credit if they increase payroll. This would address potential fraud where employees are let go and then rehired in order to obtain the tax credit.
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and are the real jobs engines of our economy. In recognition of this and to have the maximum impact on job creation, small businesses would receive a larger credit than large employers. The proposal would provide a tax credit of 20% for small employers and 15% for large employers – those with more than 100 full-time employees.
The credit would only apply to an employee’s wages up to median family income of $50,300.
The employer would be eligible to receive the tax credit for one year.
Senator Casey intends to introduce this legislation when the Senate returns to session next week.
Stephanie Zarecky 202-228-6367 | <urn:uuid:3c72e4b8-8cda-43d5-83bd-45e863031925> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=906768ce-eb45-40f6-987f-501b6077267e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967043 | 398 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By Bob Ingram
All areas of supermarket lighting are undergoing changes as new technology is introduced and adapted.
Light-emitting diode (LED) technology continues to evolve in efficiency and application since its invention 50 years ago by a General Electric scientist.
"Today, LEDs are touching virtually every fixture in the grocery store, and many supermarkets are looking for a total lighting solution that incorporates LEDs and more traditional lighting fixtures," says Heather Wilson Coode, vertical manager, retail and hospitality, at GE Lighting, Nela Park, East Cleveland, Ohio.
In addition to LEDs, Anshuman Bhargava, product manager for LED and integrated systems at Bridgeton, Mo.-based Hussmann Corp., sees other significant innovations in supermarket lighting as intelligent lighting controls for accent and refrigerated display cases, color management, adjustable light throw and distribution, adjustable lighting intensity and dimming, plug-and-play connectors, and adaptors and brackets for fast and easy installation.
Randy Dollar, VP of market development at Universal Lighting Technologies in Nashville, Tenn., points out that LED fixtures can reduce energy costs of lighting by up to 85 percent, depending on the type of lighting currently in use, and that they also last up to twice as long as fluorescent lamps.
Dollar says the latest generation of automated lighting control systems can provide payback periods ranging from as little as six months to 36 months, especially if a technology is chosen that doesn't require expensive rewiring. He notes that wireless systems are available that communicate with lighting fixtures over existing power lines and allow retailers to take advantage of a wide range of energy-saving practices.
Coode says: "There is greater emphasis now being put on LED lighting for horizontal refrigerated cases. In particular, we see customers looking to illuminate their dairy, produce, meats and seafood with LED lighting versus traditional fluorescent lighting."
LED refrigerated display lighting systems that exhibit a higher CRI (color rendering index) help to bring out the colors in packaging, she observes, noting that this year, GE introduced its next generation of horizontal lighting with the GE Immersion RH20 LED system, which can save grocers as much as 77 percent in energy costs when replacing traditional T12 high-output fluorescent tubes.
According to Coode, GE Immersion LED lighting systems are the most popular with the company's grocery customers, because of their faster payback period and savings in energy and maintenance. Food City, which operates stores in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee, recently installed GE Immersion RV40 LED lighting in 7,400 display case doors in 89 stores, a move expected to save the Abingdon, Va.-based grocer more than $300,000 annually in lighting costs.
GE also provided energy-efficient LED technology to Lufkin, Texas-based Brookshire Bros. for a facility-wide lighting update encompassing in-store, parking lot, exterior signage and refrigerated case fixtures, which the company expects will reduce annual operating costs by more than $235,000.
Examples of the Brookshire updates include retrofitting 210- and 270-watt GE Evolve LED Area Lights in parking lots, including company headquarters, for an annual electricity savings of more than $14,000; 60 percent energy reduction in refrigerated cases with GE's Immersion RV40 LED lighting; replacing 75-watt halogen lamps with longer-life GE 10-watt PAR30 LED floodlights in wine displays; and enhancing the exterior appearance of stores with GE Tetra LED Lighting Systems, delivering up to 80 percent energy savings and providing more uniform light compared with traditional fluorescent and neon options.
West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee is the primary supermarket customer of Universal Lighting Technologies; the company's DCL Control Systems are now the standard lighting control systems for all new Hy-Vee stores, saving the retailer $6,000 to $7,000 per location, according to Dollar, who notes that DCL Control Systems were recently introduced to Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spartan Stores as well.
Dollar says that with DCL, supermarkets can take advantage of daylight harvesting, occupancy sensors and time-of-day scheduling, and that they may qualify for rebates and incentives from local power providers.
Bhargava says Hussmann recently launched its new EcoShine II LED light product family, which provides maximum energy savings and optimal light distribution for reach-in doors, multiple decks, walk-in coolers and specialty refrigerated merchandisers.
"The ultra-slim-line design of the LED lights create an invisible light source easily integrated into the door frame and case mullions so that it doesn't obstruct the shopper's view," he says. "Our EcoShine II LED lights are available in warm white and natural white, and provide a high 85 CRI, which brings out the natural colors in food products, especially meat, deli and seafood. With these lights, product temperatures are 2 to 3 degrees cooler, therefore allowing more consistent product temperatures within the display zone. Depending on the application, EcoShine II LEDs provide an energy savings of 57 percent to 71 percent versus T8 fluorescent lighting."
According to Bhargava, key focus areas for supermarket lighting products in the future will include intelligent lighting controls for accent and refrigerated display cases, color management, adjustable light throw and distribution, adjustable light intensity, and waterproof, moisture-resistant LEDs.
"LED is certainly the future of lighting in supermarket applications," Dollar adds. "In the long term, I believe controllable — dimmable — LED will allow supermarkets to further build upon the energy-saving measures that many have already put in place. With that said, controllable fluorescent lighting is still a low-cost, energy-efficient light source with several years left as a good supermarket solution, based on ROI."
Coode says that, in the future, supermarkets are going to see a lot of growth in both indoor and outdoor LED lighting. "We are very excited about our new and improved Evolve scalable LED Area light for parking lot lighting that is slated to be unveiled later this fall," she notes, adding that this new generation is more energy-efficient, offers more lumens to make it brighter and is thus more efficient overall, with a better lumen-per-watt figure.
GE's latest indoor LED technology is on display with its Lumination LED Luminaire fixtures, Coode says. This technology places LEDs on the edge of light fixtures and uses advanced optics to diffuse and push the light outward, distributing it evenly throughout the entire fixture.
"We are seeing this technology being used to create LED lighting troffers for ceiling lighting applications. The troffers resemble a ceiling panel and can be used to replace traditional fluorescent tubes in ceilings," she says. "We're also seeing more retailers completing comprehensive lighting system updates, similar to Brookshire Bros., to establish models of energy efficiency in their stores. Our customers really see the value of updating systems, either with new fixtures or retrofitting old fixtures, to take advantage of energy and maintenance cost savings. Ultimately, this makes them more profitable and creates a better shopping experience for their customers."
570 Lake Cook Rd, Suite 310
Deerfield IL 60015
Convenience Store News
CSNews Supplier Guide
CSNews for the Single Store Owner
Private Label ⇒ Store Brands
Independent Grocer Network
The Gourmet Retailer
Directory of Convenience Stores
Hispanic Retail 360
|© 2013 Stagnito Media. All rights reserved.| | <urn:uuid:34488325-425c-4470-b111-1f8cb5a119f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progressivegrocer.com/inprint/article/id3176/shine-on/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926835 | 1,544 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The northern spotted owl is receiving additional protections across 9 million acres in the Northwest.
Federal officials had to scrap a Bush-era habitat plan after investigators found it had been politically manipulated.
Habitat regulations for the threatened bird are controversial because the owl lives in forests attractive to loggers.
That’s a win for environmentalists like Noah Greenwald at the Center for Biological Diversity.
“This really restores protections on federal lands, and reaffirms the commitment to protect mature and old-growth forests,” Greenwald said.
But Tom Partin with the industry group American Forest Resource Council said the map ignores the effect of wildfires and the larger barred owl, “So simply setting aside more land for habitat isn’t the answer.”
Most of the protected area is federal forestland. No private land is involved, and there’s less than 300,000 acres of state forest – mostly in Oregon.
(This was first reported for OPB News.)
_Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Share your experiences as part of EarthFix's Public Insight Network.
Join our Public Insight Network! | <urn:uuid:a9963ce0-027f-4524-ba63-1a5ad6c52ec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthfix.opb.org/flora-and-fauna/article/new-plan-nearly-doubles-northwest-owl-habitat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930297 | 234 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Effective leadership-or lack of it-makes a critical difference in the conception, implementation, and endurance of community endeavors. In his travels as an environmental consultant and lecturer, Chris Maser has seen the dilemma many times: "I have taken part in so-called community visioning...
Published August 17th 1998 by CRC Press
A Citizen's Handbook
As humans, we make choices. With change as a constant, we are continually presented with a number of choices, and we must choose. The change represented by the divergence of humanity from the rest of the world is rapidly growing, and in need of transformation. Setting the Stage for Sustainable...
Published May 13th 1998 by CRC Press | <urn:uuid:8147b7ba-9344-4cb2-8628-953b2b53cc92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.psypress.com/books/search/author/chris_maser/page_2/all/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962289 | 139 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Investment properties can be a financially rewarding long-term investment due to rental income, potential capital growth and tax benefits.
If you already own a property you can use the equity in that house as a deposit. If you do not already own a property but have a deposit saved, an investment property can be a good way to get into the property market. Either way the expected rental income you will receive is factored into the application process.
The government will provide tax breaks if the annual cost of your investment is more than the return, a concept known as negative gearing.
What’s the downside?
Despite the benefits of an investment property, there are many factors to consider. These include interest repayments, council rates, maintenance and repair of property, management fees by a real estate agent, insurance, and what rate of occupancy you can expect.
By speaking with EPG, the costs and benefits can be compared with your financial situation to determine whether property is the best investment for you.
Not ready for an appointment?
Book a seat at our next complimentary seminar.
Book An Appointment
With An EPG Advisor
Want to take control of your finances & secure your future? | <urn:uuid:c4736544-94a7-4656-b8cd-938141097814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.epgfs.com.au/our-services/home-loans/investment-property/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942276 | 244 | 1.59375 | 2 |
June 3, 2004
A Kick Out of Torah
What do you get when you cross Judaic philosophy with Chinese martial arts? Tora Dojo. The brainchild of Gandmaster H.I. Sober, Toro Dojo combines elements of traditional Karate and Kung Fu with Jewish spirituality. Tora Dojo, which started more than 30 years ago with 12 Yeshiva University students, is now taught to 30,000 people worldwide. There are no storefront studios; classes are held in synagogues, JCCs and at Jewish day schools and universities.
"Tora Dojo is a sport, but it's more of an art form," said Ben Andron, the head of Los Angeles' Tora Dojo West . "Students learn to defend themselves, fight, even break bricks, but the main goal is to improve their ability to focus and unlock unlimited potential."
Andron, a member of B'nai David Judea, has studied Tora Dojo for 20 years and teaches weekly youth and adult classes. His students range from 6-60 year olds. "In yeshiva, students are told to pray with concentration, but no one explains how to do that," Andron said. "At Tora Dojo, students learn to concentrate and be mindful of doing things in a Jewish way."
On Tuesday, June 8, Sober will make his inaugural appearance in Andron's Los Angeles class. A professor of Hebrew and Jewish history at Yeshiva University, Sober will travel cross-country to watch Darren Melameth become the first L.A. student to test for a black belt.
"There are only 200 black belts out of 30,000 students, so this is a big night," said Andron.
To honor Sober's appearance and Melameth's test, Tora Dojo West students will perform fighting and weapon demonstrations, brick breakings and forms. The free, public exhibition will be held at 7 p.m. in the ballroom at B'nai David Judea. Guests can observe the martial art in action and learn about local classes.
"You don't have to be athletic be involved with Tora Dojo," said Andron. "But you do have to be Jewish."
For more information on Tora Dojo and Tuesday night's exhibition, go to www.toradojowest.com . | <urn:uuid:ea58f7c5-482b-4975-8577-bcd62f8daee0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/up_front/article/a_kick_out_of_torah_20040604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957258 | 489 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Competency-based medical education: theory to practice
Although competency-based medical education (CBME) has attracted renewed interest in recent years among educators and policy-makers in the health care professions, there is little agreement on many aspects of this paradigm. We convened a unique partnership ? the International CBME Collaborators ? to examine conceptual issues and current debates in CBME. We engaged in a multi-stage group process and held a consensus conference with the aim of reviewing the scholarly literature of competency-based medical education, identifying controversies in need of clarification, proposing definitions and concepts that could be useful to educators across many jurisdictions, and exploring future directions for this approach to preparing health professionals. In this paper, we describe the evolution of CBME from the outcomes movement in the 20th century to a renewed approach that, focused on accountability and curricular outcomes and organized around competencies, promotes greater learner-centredness and de-emphasizes time-based curricular design. In this paradigm, competence and related terms are redefined to emphasize their multi-dimensional, dynamic, developmental, and contextual nature. CBME therefore has significant implications for the planning of medical curricula and will have an important impact in reshaping the enterprise of medical education. We elaborate on this emerging CBME approach and its related concepts, and invite medical educators everywhere to enter into further dialogue about the promise and the potential perils of competency-based medical curricula for the 21st century. | <urn:uuid:f3d1d9c3-e410-4ada-aeed-0d3e52420e26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.citeulike.org/user/A_Carrasco/article/11489659 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946456 | 299 | 2.140625 | 2 |
We plant a tree for every 5,000 converted PDF
Pdf2Jpg.net supports the Plant a Billion Trees program by sponsoring a tree for every 5,000 converted PDF. This is approximately 2-3 trees a day.
Why this program
When using PDF, the "Print" button is never far from your mouse cursor. They didn't call it "Printable Document Format" for nothing. Printing is convenient but not environment friendly.
When you convert PDF to JPG, Nature suffers no harm because you keep your document in the numeric, paper free world. With Pdf2Jpg.net, you go one step further by actually helping Nature. Each converted PDF counts for 1/5,000 of a tree.
How useful is that? I think this is really important. Acting for the environment is often a matter of small achievements. Turning off lights, sorting waste, using public transports... Not a revolution, but a calm, steady evolution toward a more responsible behavior and a sustainable resource consumption. With this program, I hope to make the small contribution corresponding to the small act of converting a PDF to JPG. The first month the program was launched, 118 trees were sponsored. Good start.
The funds are reversed to Plant a Billion Trees on a monthly basis. Here are the reports of the previous months:
|2012, October||118 trees|
|2012, November||121 trees|
|2012, December||115 trees|
|2013, January||142 trees|
|2013, February||135 trees|
|2013, March||155 trees|
|2013, April||155 trees| | <urn:uuid:469632b3-0206-4c56-8e3b-996b3e173f02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pdf2jpg.net/support_the_forest.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908403 | 335 | 1.78125 | 2 |