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YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO — It’s been said that experience is the best teacher, and a Massachusetts developer’s previous experience with the Solar FlexRack made him eager to choose the innovative photovoltaic mounting solution for his most recent project.
Solar FlexRacks were specified for the recently completed Quabbin Barre Wool Solar Project in Barre, Massachusetts. A total of 286 2x11 ballasted Solar FlexRacks with three posts/ballast blocks per rack were used to hold 6,292 280-watt solar panels.
The racks are designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 100 mph and a snow load of up to 55 psf.
The project will produce a total output of 1.75 Megawatts of energy, or the equivalent of enough electricity to power 194 homes a year for the next 25 years.
Dean Iandoli, Solar Developer/Owner of the Quabbin Solar/Barre Wool Solar, knew from the start what his choice of a racking solution for the project would be. “Once again, when choosing the system components for our Barre Wool project, the only one I was adamant about using was the racking systems from Solar Flex Rack,” said Iandoli. “I have used them in other multiple megawatt installations I have developed and was not about to change."
Solar FlexRack previously supplied 497 2x8 ground-mount racks to the nearby Vernon Avenue project in Barre, for which Quabbin Solar served as the installer.
The Solar FlexRack is easy to unload and disperse at the job site. It erects by a three-man crew in five minutes or less — the simplest, fastest and most accurate installation in the industry.
This performance makes significantly accelerated construction times and dramatic savings on labor costs possible for any solar installation — an estimated $500,000+ savings per 10MW project. Thus, when the Solar FlexRack is specified in an RFP, the total bid could be as much as 40 percent lower for construction.
More information about the Solar FlexRack is available at www.SolarFlexRack.com
The information and views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on this Web site and other publications. This blog was posted directly by the author and was not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar.
To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account. | <urn:uuid:afe2212c-b15d-48b2-a3d5-a9f13d47b806> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/02/developer-was-adamant-about-using-solar-nbspflexracks-for-barre-wool-solar-project1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950697 | 521 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Presbyopia - a natural change in sight
You may like to
When you reach your 40s your eyesight starts to change. Presbyopia, or blurred near vision, affects everyone sooner or later. Don't panic - you just need an eye test to determine which eyewear is right for you.
If you need one prescription for distance vision and another for close work, then bifocals could be the answer. Two different strengths in the same lens means you won’t have to worry about carrying two pairs of glasses with you.
Varifocals give you all the benefits of different prescriptions in the same lens, but without the tell-tale line that bifocals can have. Varifocal lenses have a gradual change from your distance prescription to your close-up one, so they look just like ordinary glasses and you can use them for work, driving and when you go out.
When you need a little help to focus on the newspaper or your latest book, reading glasses offer a simple solution. With a prescription that helps keep the words pin-sharp, you can carry on enjoying the crossword or your favourite author.
When wearing glasses isn’t convenient, try our contact lenses. For sports or active recreation, or for when you want to change your outfit, our comfortable contact lenses give you more options. You can even have them with varifocal prescriptions.
If you need eyewear but don’t know what type will be best for you, your optician will recommend various options. | <urn:uuid:1d80d8fd-82e3-4a57-b663-49dc11f4f6ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.specsavers.ie/eye-health/age-and-eyesight/over-40s/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920095 | 317 | 1.757813 | 2 |
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"Lord, You Can Use My Boat"by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Simon looked up from mending his nets to see a tall man touching his boat. It was Jesus, whom heíd first met down in Judea where Simon had been listening to John the Baptistís teaching. Jesus himself was a teacher these days, Simon had heard.
Jesus was fingering the joinery of Simonís boat, admiring the handiwork. "Very smooth," he said.
"Benjamin the boatmaker finished it last fall," said Simon. "Last boat he made before he died."
Jesus ran his hand over the planks along the side of the craft. "It looks tight," he said, "Mortise and tenon joinery. Must have taken a long time to make."
"A long time is right!" Simon put down his nets. Talking was a lot more enjoyable than mending. "Benjamin and his son took seven months. I thought theyíd never finish. And he charged me a pretty penny. But then, I probably have the best boat on the lake." Simon got up and came over to the boat pulled up on the rocky beach. "You look like you know something about wood."
"Iím a carpenter like my father before me," Jesus said, extending his hand. "Good to see you again. Mind if I look at the stern?"
Simon hesitated for a split second. It was a new boat, and he didnít want just anyone clamoring all over it, especially someone not used to boats. But his pride got the better of his anxiety. "Sure, just be careful not to trip over those ropes."
Jesus climbed into the boat and examined it carefully: rudder, oarlocks, sail mount. "Benjamin built you an excellent boat," he said as he climbed out. "By the way, Iíll be teaching this evening along the beach. I was wondering if you could assist me getting the crowd seated tonight. I need a helper, if youíd be so kind."
"Glad to help, Jesus." He liked to be needed, and he liked the fact that a carpenter had pronounced his boat the masterpiece Simon knew it was.
That evening, after an attempt at crowd control, Simon sat enthralled. "The blind man you see healed before you is evidence of God's power among you to heal your life, set you free, and give you joy! The Kingdom of God is here," Jesus had preached. "Turn around and get your life right with God!"
This wasnít the learned discourse of your average itinerate teacher, quoting from Rabbi So-and-So to buttress his opinions. Jesus taught with a native authority, a boldness that left the self-righteous Pharisees in the crowd speechless and brought the common people to tears of shame and repentance. As the sun set and the people got up to leave, Simon himself had been shaken. Here he was, a loud and profane fisherman. Was he ready for Godís Kingdom and Messiah? He was a good fisherman, yes. But a good man? Not really.
No time for reflection now. Capernaumís fleet was getting ready to put out for another night of fishing. Simon and his brother Andrew pushed the boat off the beach and gave it a running start before jumping in themselves. They rowed out a few hundred feet and cast the first of many nets. They would be busy all night casting, then hauling in, casting and hauling in.
Just as dawn began to streak the sky with pink, Simon and Andrew threw out their final net of the night, ready to head in, sell their catch, and get some sleep. It had been a long night, but a better catch than most this week.
"Si-mon," a voice echoed across the water. "Si-mon."
Simon watched the net sink below the surface of the lake and then looked up. It was Jesus. Jesus, whose words of the Kingdom of God had challenged and gnawed at him all night as he had toiled.
"Si-mon." The call came a third time. Simon lifted his hand in recognition.
"Follow me!" The word was sharp, short, demanding. "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Fishers of men? Catching men rather than fish? What could he mean? But Jesus was calling. He was calling now!
The net was still in the water where Simon had thrown it, floats still bobbing, still there to trap some unsuspecting fish. But the fish wouldnít find its way to a breakfast table this morning, because both Simon and Andrew were over the side and swimming to shore. Dripping, they dropped to their knees before Jesus.
"Simon." Simon could feel the Teacherís hand on his wet, tangled hair. "Simon, follow me."
Simon looked up. "Yes, Lord, Iíll follow. Where are you going."
"Youíll see," said Jesus, pulling Simonís arm gently as a sign for him to get up. "And Simon, Iíll need your boat."
His brand new boat, pride of the town fleet? What did Jesus want with the boat? Simon looked up. "Sure, you can use it," he replied slowly, "... when we donít need it."
"But I need it," Jesus insisted. "You own the boat, donít you?"
"Of course, Lord, I own it outright. It took me three years to earn enough extra to pay for it."
"And youíve decided to follow me, havenít you, Simon?"
"Yes, of course, Lord."
"Then your boat needs to follow me, too," replied Jesus. "Not just you, but everything you are and own need to follow me, to be at my call when I need them."
Simon was ashamed. "Yes, Lord. Please take my fishing boat. Use it whenever you need it.... I really want you to. Forgive my selfishness."
"You have a house, Simon?"
"Yes, Lord, I have a house."
"I need to use that, too."
"Yes, your house."
"Eh, Jesus. How can I say this? My mother-in-law lives with us and she isnít very well right now. Iím not sure we should disturb her, with her fever and all."
"Your boat and your house and you must follow me, Simon."
"And Iíll care of your mother-in-law, youíll see. Why donít you lead the way?"
"Yes, Lord," said Simon, and he and Jesus and Andrew walked up from the beach into town as the sun peeped over the hills.
Written at Tiberias, Galilee, September 26, 1997. This story is entirely fictional, but based on the accounts in John 1:35-42 and Matthew 4:12-22. You know, of course, that when Jesus got to Peter's house, his mother-in-law was healed from her fever, and the house was used as Jesus' base-of-operations and the site for many teachings and healings. The boat, too, was used to transport Jesus and the disciples on their mission in Galilee. What do you have that needs to follow Jesus?
Copyright © 1985-2013, Ralph F. Wilson. <pastorjoyfulheart.com> All rights reserved. A single copy of this article is free. Do not put this on a website. See legal, copyright, and reprint information.
In-depth Bible study books
You can purchase one of Dr. Wilson's complete Bible studies in PDF, Kindle, or paperback format.
Other Bible Study Books
- 1, 2, and 3 John
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- 2 Peter & Jude
- 1 & 2 Thessalonians
- 1 & 2 Timothy
- 2 Corinthians
- Abraham, Faith of
- Christ Powered Life (Romans 5-8)
- Christmas Incarnation
- Colossians and Philemon
- Great Prayers of the Bible
- Jacob, Life of
- Jesus and the Kingdom of God
- JesusWalk: Beginning the Journey
- Lamb of God
- Lord's Supper
- Luke's Gospel
- Moses the Reluctant Leader
- Names and Titles of God
- Resurrection and Easter Faith
- Sermon on the Mount
- Seven Last Words of Christ | <urn:uuid:495ba513-41fb-49bd-b2c1-66c8396c6836> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.joyfulheart.com/jesus/useboat.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974193 | 1,831 | 2.109375 | 2 |
How Google's ContentID System Fails At Fair Use & The Public Domain
from the it's-a-problem dept
Tim Lee has a great post explaining how ContentID works in such situations, including the story of another video -- which involved commentary on the Curiosity landing done by Lon Seidman of the site CT Tech Junkie, which quickly received five claims from media organizations to copyright in the content.
If anything, as Tim Lee's article explains, ContentID is actually demonstrating (quite clearly) why there are so many concerns about copyright takedowns. Copyright system supporters often insist that it's "easy" for sites to recognize and take down infringing content, and use any evidence of infringement as a damning sign of a site not doing enough. But, the reality on the ground is that making a determination on whether or not something is infringing is not nearly as easy as some people believe:
Content ID, by contrast, is an opaque and proprietary system where the accuser can serve as the judge, jury, and executioner. Worse, the person whose speech is being silenced has little recourse. The Content ID system tips whatever balance is present in the DMCA and allows even more pernicious forms of manipulation and abuse. In a Wired column earlier this year, Andy Baio enumerated some of the problems that YouTube users encounter:
But there has been a dramatic rise in Content ID abuse in the past couple of years, wielded in ways never intended. Scammers are using Content ID to steal ad revenue from YouTube video creators en masse, with some companies claiming content they don’t own deliberately or not. The inability to understand context and parody regularly leads to “fair use” videos getting blocked, muted or monetized.
But even without taking scammers into account, the premise behind Content ID is just incompatible with fair use and the public domain. It's impossibly complicated to define in a set of "business rules" for automated enforcement. Allowing Content ID robots to apply the rules leads to oversimplification that chills legitimate speech.
But in accommodating the demands of large copyright holders, YouTube has inadvertently reminded us all of the crucial point that flagging copyright infringement isn't nearly as simple as it is often portrayed by rightsholders. Even scanning videos for exact content matches that exceed certain thresholds (in order to preserve at least some fair uses) actually fails in all sorts of interesting ways.ContentID certainly has some nice features -- including an innovative new revenue stream for content creators. But there are significant problems with it, concerning how it handles fair use and public domain material, which serve to highlight why the idea of a "silver bullet" solution for online infringement is so problematic.
Rather than acting as a neutral arbitrator between major content companies and independent organizations, YouTube's system favors the larger rightsholders that make use of its Content ID system over smaller creators. And because it's a private system that goes beyond the DMCA, the Content ID system is under no legal obligation to comply with the DMCA's safeguards and timelines. | <urn:uuid:7fa755ba-6c65-4b99-b73b-8a65a24c359f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120808/12301619967/how-googles-contentid-system-fails-fair-use-public-domain.shtml?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94575 | 619 | 1.59375 | 2 |
N.B. may change intercity bus regulations, says minister
Acadian Lines shutdown prompts review
Posted: Aug 9, 2012 7:33 AM AT
Last Updated: Aug 9, 2012 9:06 AM AT
The New Brunswick government will look at changing regulations governing intercity bus regulations in light of Acadian Lines’ plans to cease operations in the Maritimes, says the transportation minister.
Acadian officials announced Tuesday the company will no longer operate in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. by Nov. 30, saying government rules make it difficult to turn a profit.
“Maybe it's something that should have been looked at in the past and appropriate changes made. And maybe the company still would have been in business,” said Transportation Minister Claude Williams.
“I can't speak for the past. But certainly we can look forward to the future and see what can be done in order to alleviate the process to run a business and for it to be feasible.”
The provincial government has no plans to set up a publicly-funded bus system or to provide companies with subsidies, Williams said, but regulations could be changed to encourage a sustainable bus system and to allow for fair competition in the private sector.
Under the Motor Carrier Act, which regulates buses, Acadian currently has exclusive rights to the routes it operates.
Shuttle service plans
David Anderson, who runs Advanced Shuttle Services out of Summerside, P.E.I., is waiting to hear back about his expansion plans.
Anderson wants to make stops in Port Elgin, Aulac and Sackville, but is waiting until the Energy Utilities Board gives him the go ahead.
Anderson originally applied to supply service to Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton, but says it doesn’t make financial sense under the current regulations.
"What's in place right now is scheduled. We would be required to stop at every location we wanted to pick somebody up at. Say we wanted to stop at Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, we would have to stop every time,” he said.
It's a waste of time and money to do all that driving with no one in the shuttle, Anderson said.
Acadian — the only intercity coach line in the Maritimes — says it has lost $12 million since 2004.
Acadian had asked to make changes to its routes to make the company more profitable, but those requests were denied, officials said.
The shutdown will affect about 65 workers in New Brunswick.
Latest Nova Scotia News Headlines
- Thousands race in 10th Blue Nose Marathon
- Thousands of people in Nova Scotia are resting after competing in the 10th Annual Blue Nose Marathon on Sunday. Just under 14,000 people participated in the three-day long event, a new record. more »
- Man, 80, dies on fishing outing near Bridgewater
- An 80-year-old Nova Scotia man has died after he fell into the water on Wentzell's Lake near Bridgwater, say police. more »
- Man charged after throwing a bucket at an RCMP officer
- A 61-year-old man is facing charges of assaulting Halifax RCMP officers after an incident in the North Preston area Saturday night. more »
- Blue Nose Youth Run draws thousands
- Thousands of people joined the Blue Nose Youth Run Saturday morning. more »
Top News Headlines
- Search continues for 2 missing New Brunswick fishermen
- A search effort has resumed for two missing fishermen off the coast of New Brunswick, after a distress call was issued from their boat early Saturday. more »
- Jeep driver apologizes after stunt kills Edmonton woman
- A man claiming to be the driver of a Jeep that struck and killed a spectator at a charity event in Edmonton says he is sorry for what happened. more »
- Senior Pakistani politician shot dead
- Gunmen in Pakistan have killed a senior member of Imran Khan's Movement for Justice (PTI) party outside her home in Karachi. more »
- Virginia parade crash driver likely had medical problem
- Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday. more »
- Worker falls in ocean in Digby accident
- Blue Nose Youth Run draws thousands
- Roundup of Bluenose Marathon street closures
- Sydney `hackathon` challenges techies
- Sailor fighting cancer says AWOL charges dropped
- Luck changes for $3.2M lottery winners from Cape Breton
- UFO sightings in Canada in 2012 doubled previous record
- Rescue attempt over for New Brunswick fishermen
- Sailor with cancer charged for being AWOL over sick day | <urn:uuid:87d077d6-9f83-4e71-b673-d1a0fd6ef2e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/08/09/nb-bus-regulations-acadian-williams.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954997 | 980 | 1.695313 | 2 |
In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism.
As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine.
The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made toward social and political integration, the shifting social and demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair, persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of North African Jews.
Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for dramatic reading.
"Here is a masterful synthesis of all the studies published to date on Jews in France. From Roman Gaul to contemporary France, Esther Benbassa retraces in this new work the vicissitudes of a very ancient presence in a land that has not always been hospitable but that was the first to proclaim the emancipation of the Jews."--Lire
"In the imaginary of its Jewish citizens, as well as in that of members of other diasporas, France functions as a paradigm: it represents liberty and the Rights of Man; in their memory it is also associated with the Dreyfus affair, Vichy, as well as with fits of xenophobia and anti-Semitism. This double image, an often confusing one, is reconstructed in the work of Esther Benbassa with clearness and distinction."--Libération
"Since studies on the history of Jewish groups in France have multiplied over the last years, a synthesis is in order. Here it is, and it is remarkable.... Esther Benbassa studies Jewish reality in France over the long run, noting the interactions observed between the history of the country and that of the Jews, as well as local developments.... Fueled by the most recent research, this synthesis is never reductionist: each period (especially the Middle Ages, which is discussed in several admirable chapters) is treated in fine detail."--L'Histoire
"Esther Benbassa writes with a sense of mission. In her present book she provides a masterful, concise synthesis of the Jewish presence in France. . and describes the latest developments and ideas of the new generation."--Alexander Zvielli, The Jerusalem Post
"An impressively succinct and informative history. . . ."--David A. Bell, The New Republic
Table of Contents
A Selection of the Jewish Book Club | <urn:uuid:0fe55df4-f1cc-4e89-8b34-fbb14e221716> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6706.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938554 | 788 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Orthodox prayer ropes are usually soft and made of wool. Although we might be tempted to think of them as an Eastern version of the rosary they are not. The purpose is to help us concentrate, not to imagine an event and not necessarily to count. The prayer rope is used to aid us in concentrating on the prayer. The person praying says the Jesus Prayer for each knot on the rope. Usually the rope is 33 knots long but they come in all different colors and lengths. In the famous book, The Way of the Pilgrim, the pilgrim said the prayer 2,000, then 6,000, then 12,000 times. Is 12,000 Jesus Prayers better than 2,000? Quantity has nothing to do with love, and a living relationship with Jesus. The pilgrim did 12,000, no more and no less, as an act of obedience to his spiritual father, not because he was “making progress.” He also prayed much because that was his “heart’s desire.” Every prayer is an act of love, made to the Author of Love, Who is waiting expectantly for our desire, and our acceptance of His Love.
My mission church, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, in Mesa, AZ has a small book corner. We have prayers ropes for sale at $20. If you would like to buy one let me know, operators are standing by.
COMING UP: The Jesus Prayer: Hesychaism for the rest of us | <urn:uuid:f0cc5e9c-f9ae-4b91-a6c6-31c98e6ead3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://frjamescoles.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/the-jesus-prayer-rope/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975323 | 308 | 1.53125 | 2 |
By Shlomo Cesana and Mati Tuchfeld, ISRAEL HAYOM—
Now it’s official: Israel is going to the polls. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that the elections for the 19th Knesset will be held early next year.
“At this time, in the face of economic and security threats, it is my duty to put the nation’s best interest above all, and that means holding elections now, as soon as possible,” the prime minister said.
The elections were originally scheduled for late 2013, about eight months after the projected date of the early elections.
The prime minister’s announcement launched coalition negotiations regarding the date of the early elections. The elections will likely be held sometime between Jan. 15 and Feb. 5, 2012. Netanyahu prefers the earliest possible date.
In remarks delivered from his Jerusalem office, Netanyahu stressed his desire for a “short three-month election process, rather than a prolonged election cycle that could weigh down the economy.”
Netanyahu explained that since he has been unable to secure majority approval for the proposed 2013 budget, which currently includes austerity measures and deep budget cuts, elections were the only responsible thing to do.
Without a responsible budget, he said, Israel could be hit with a devastating financial crisis like the ones several European countries are experiencing.
“I consulted with the coalition leaders and decided that it would be impossible to approve a responsible budget,” Netanyahu said, explaining the impetus for the early elections. “I decided that it was in Israel’s best interest to hold elections now, as quickly as possible.”
Netanyahu decided to move up the elections on Tuesday after having completed a month-long series of consultations and meetings with the leaders of all the coalition parties, as well as President Shimon Peres, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and the heads of the opposition parties.
The prime minister said, “in the coming months we will complete the fourth year of the most stable administration in decades. We boosted our security during a time when the Middle East is undergoing a dangerous and deep shift, and we boosted our economy in the midst of another crisis — the ongoing global economic crisis that has toppled European economies.”
While formulating the announcement he later delivered from his office, Netanyahu and his staff also considered possible dates for the upcoming election. By law, elections can only be held 90 days after the Knesset is dispersed. To disperse the Knesset, the Knesset itself must convene to legislate the dispersal.
Aside from Netanyahu’s official reason for pushing up the elections, experts believe another reason the prime minister is eager to hold elections is to prevent new parties, namely headed by former Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or former Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, from gaining traction.
Netanyahu said Tuesday during closed meetings with fellow Likud members that his guiding principle as Likud chairman was that “I have the most experience. At this time, anyone who takes the country’s reins needs to have experience. I have served as prime minister twice, and have held a long list of senior posts in political and economic settings. Neither Shelly Yachimovich nor Yair Lapid can say that.”
Netanyahu was referring to Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich and journalist-turned-politician Yair Lapid, who are seen as two of Netanyahu’s main rivals for the prime minister’s seat, though forecasts predict a landslide victory for Netanyahu.
As he cemented the decision for early elections, Netanyahu also signaled he would announce early Likud primaries, to be held at some point next month. Netanyahu vowed that he would not secure any seats on the Knesset list in advance.
Meanwhile, an aide to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Wednesday that the latter was considering running for office to challenge Netanyahu.
Olmert is considered the candidate with the best chance of replacing Netanyahu. Olmert was recently cleared of the most serious of the bribery allegations that forced him out of office in 2009. He is still bogged down in a separate bribery trial that leaves his political future in doubt.
Still, his former cabinet secretary and confidant, Yisrael Maimon, told Army Radio Wednesday that “he is pondering it and the political system is putting a lot of pressure on him.”
Olmert was deeply unpopular while in office, but he has recently enjoyed renewed popularity and support. | <urn:uuid:59e5402e-e6d5-41c7-a915-b35cf9c0492f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/2012/10/10/early-elections-are-in-israels-best-interest.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976299 | 954 | 1.679688 | 2 |
What's Killing the Key Deer?
From land use to traffic, the deck is being stacked against this endangered species
Roger Di Silvestro
When the rains came that day to palm-shrouded Big Pine Key, the bulldozers were already lined up to go to work, cutting a road across this second-largest of the islands that make up the Florida Keys. At the same time, a phone was ringing in the Atlanta office of attorney David White, who was working on cases involving the National Wildlife Federation and the Florida Wildlife Federation.
"I got the call at 8 a.m.," he says. "By 2 p.m. I was in Miami pulling a judge away from a federal cocaine case."
By then, White had been joined by another Federation attorney, Henry Morgenstern. What he and Morgenstern wanted from the judge was an injunction to stop the road, which would bring heavy traffic into the National Key Deer Refuge, home to a diminutive, endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer unique to the Keys.
Traffic on roads penetrating deer habitat already was killing dozens of the animals yearly. The new road would compound the threat by putting 3,000 more vehicle trips per day on the road. This would tip the deer further toward extinction, the attorneys contended, and therefore was illegal under the Endangered Species Act.
The go-ahead to start construction of the road had come from the commissioners of Monroe County, which encompasses the Keys. The road was to be called Lytton's Way, named for a former county commissioner. It was designed to relieve traffic jams on Highway 1, the only road that runs the full length of the Keys. During winter months, a Saturday flea market on Big Pine backs up traffic for miles on Highway 1, an irritation to local residents tired of being stalled. Residents want an access road to get them around the jam. The access they had in mind in the late 1980s was Lytton's Way.
Local conservationists suggested elevating Highway 1 instead, allowing residents to travel under it. But businesses, fearing an elevated highway would siphon away transient customers, "went bananas," says Fred Manillo, a 17-year resident of Big Pine Key and a leader of the Key Deer Protection Alliance, Inc., a private group that seeks protection of the animals and their habitat.
The only thing that kept the bulldozers from cutting through the road that day was the rain, which gave the Federation lawyers time to present their case to the judge. The judge said he wanted to hear from the county commissioner's side of the debate, but the county attorney refused to attend the hearing. So the judge issued an injunction against the road, putting at least a temporary stop to it.
60 Years of Key Deer Controversy
The Key deer has been at the center of such controversies for at least 60 years, dating to a time when uncontrolled hunting was wiping out the species.
By 1950, the species had sunk to only an estimated 50 animals. Later, granted by Congress their own national wildlife refuge in 1957 and covered by the Endangered Species Act since 1967, the Key deer showed signs of recovery, reaching a peak of perhaps 400 animals in the 1970s.
In more recent years, however, the population has dwindled to no more than 300. The story behind the decline illustrates how weak implementation of the Endangered Species Act can undermine the protection of vanishing creatures.
More Than Just the Deer at Risk
More rides on the fate of the Key deer than just the survival of a single creature. The refuge is home to 16 listed species, including:
- Lower Keys marsh rabbit
- silver rice rat
- American crocodile
"The Key deer is the flagship for a whole fleet of species in the Keys," says Mark Robertson, head of The Nature Conservancy's Key West office. "There are many endemic plant and animal species, and they're all going to sink or swim together."
The quality of life for people who live in deer habitat also hangs in the balance, because what is good for Key deer, such as clean water, can also benefit local folks.
Moreover, recent court cases involving the Key deer have led to decisions of national significance, both for listed species and for taxpayers interested in saving billions of federal dollars.
How the Key Deer Came to the Florida Keys
The Key deer is a subspecies of white-tailed deer that lives only on a few islands in the Florida Keys, from Little Pine Key to Sugarloaf Key. The biggest and most important of those islands is 16-square-mile Big Pine Key, home to the bulk of the deer population and the base for the federal deer refuge.
Scientists speculate that white-tailed deer arrived in the Keys during the most-recent ice age, when seas were lower and the Keys were not islands but a continuous ridge of land. When the glaciers receded about 10,000 years ago, the seas rose, and the whitetails found themselves isolated from the mainland.
As a rule, species of large mammal that become isolated on islands gradually become smaller through evolution, allowing more efficient use of the limited amounts of resources available on islands. Thus, Key deer, at maturity, stand about 30 inches tall at the shoulder and weigh a maximum of only 80 pounds for males and 63 pounds for females, roughly half the weight of the average northern continental whitetail.
The deer feed on at least 180 species of Keys vegetation. They can drink brackish water, but cannot survive without some source of fresh water. Big Pine offers some of the most reliable water sources. Many of the Keys that lie off of Big Pine lack permanent drinking-water supplies, particularly during droughts.
Threats to the Key Deer
Since the 1970s, the Key deer has been dwindling. With the exception of Big Pine and No Name Keys, says Mike McMinn, assistant manager of the refuge, the population is collapsing. Cudjoe and Sugarloaf, he says, no longer even have deer. Limited to a single, declining population in a constricted range that is beleaguered by development, the deer are vulnerable to catastrophic destruction. Says McMinn, "If one force four or five hurricane hits Big Pine Key, we'll be lucky if we have any deer left."
While the deer have been declining, development has continued apace, centering on the most crucial part of Key deer habitat: Big Pine Key. Fifty years ago, only seven people lived on Big Pine. Twenty years ago, the island housed 1,500. Today, the number stands at about 4,300.
This influx of people and the development they stimulate have yielded a variety of factors dangerous to the deer:
Roads and motor vehicles: Road traffic on average kills 45 deer annually, the subspecies' single largest cause of death in an average annual mortality of 63 animals. McMinn says that the deer found dead do not represent all of those killed, however, since some crawl off to die undiscovered. Paving and other road improvements increase the number of deer killed. McMinn cites an unpaved road claimed no deer between 1985 and 1992, but on which four deer were killed within the first three years after it was paved.
Mosquito ditches: These narrow canals, about 2 feet wide and 2 or 3 feet deep, crisscross Big Pine in a chaotic network created to house gambusia, a fish imported from Africa to control mosquitos by eating them. "The ditches are a problem," says McMinn, "especially for young deer, but also for adults, which sometimes drown in them."
Fragmented habitat: "A big problem faced by the national wildlife refuge is fragmentation of deer habitat," says Manillo. The deer use a large portion of Big Pine, but development has subdivided the habitat. According to Mark Rosch, executive director of the Monroe County Land Authority, Big Pine Key is parceled out in plots of 5 acres or less. "If you have 3,000 or 5,000 parcels of land, you have 3,000 or 5,000 different expectations about what's going to be done with that land," Rosch says. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has to buy each of those parcels singly in order to create larger stretches of habitat. The price tag is $65 million, but since 1994 Congress has provided no funds for acquisition. Even before 1994, Rosch says, FWS received only about $1 million annually for buying the land.
Housing developments: When refuge biologist Tom Wilmers conducted a deer survey recently on Big Pine Key, he found more deer in the subdivisions than outside them. The animals enter yards to browse on ornamental plants and to take handouts from people. "Feeding deer is illegal," says McMinn. "When people feed the deer, the animals congregate in unnatural groups, which sets them up for disease epidemics."
Dogs: Free-roaming dogs are another threat to the tiny deer, since dogs will readily adopt the predatory habits of their wolf ancestors, chasing hoofed animals in packs. McMinn suspects that dogs are behind the deer's disappearance from some of the outer islands.
The press for more houses, roads and other development on Big Pine Key persists. Developers often ignore the needs of the deer and, in the process, ignore the restrictions of the Endangered Species Act and other laws. The county commissioners have let the developers get away with this because the developers wield powerful political clout, says Florida Wildlife Federation president Manley Fuller. One result of the developers' power was the Lytton's Way conflict.
In a similar vein, two years ago Monroe County officials gave a Big Pine Key resident permission to build a 6-foot-high, 400-foot-long fence on his lot, even though the county earlier had banned fencing in the area because fences impede deer movement. The resident said he needed the fence to keep children out of his hot tub and deer out of his shrubs. The permit was challenged by the Department of Community Affairs, a state agency that oversees development, and the case ended up in the Florida Supreme Court.
The court reached a five-to-two decision against the fence. Writing for the majority, Justice Gerald Kogan declared, "Landowners do not have an untrammeled right to use their property regardless of the legitimate environmental interest of the state." He added, "The clear policy underlying Florida environmental regulation is that our society is to be the steward of the natural world, not its unreasoning overlord."
Rosch argues that failure in Key deer management should not be blamed exclusively on the county commissioners.
"A tendency has developed to see the commission as having primary responsibility for the deer, but it doesn't," he says. FWS, he contends, has perpetuated serious management problems by failing to designate critical habitat for the deer, as required by the Endangered Species Act. Until FWS does this, he suggests, the county commissioners lack a critical guideline for development. FWS, Rosch believes, has never designated critical habitat because the agency wants to avoid the intense controversy surrounding such a decision.
Barry Stieglitz, manager of the National Key Deer Refuge, readily admits that FWS has avoided critical habitat designation for political reasons, but he considers those reasons sound.
"Designation would frighten residents already nervous about land-use issues and harden resistance to deer protection," he says. "You could go ahead and apply the additional label, but it's not going to affect the importance of the habitat."
The clouded situation surrounding the Key deer glimmers with a faint silver lining. For one thing, Florida has designated the Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, making all county-commission decisions subject to state scrutiny.
"Any new land-use regulations have to be approved by the Florida cabinet [a quasi-legislative body elected by popular vote] and the Florida Department of Community Affairs," says The Nature Conservancy's Mark Robertson. And the state has been demonstratively more protective of the Keys than have the commissioners.
Another promising development for Key deer habitat protection: The Monroe County Commission that came in with the 1991 election is an improvement over previous commissions, says Rosch. For example, the new commissioners do not claim title to Lytton's Way.
The future of the deer also brightened recently when the Florida Department of Community Affairs ordered Monroe County commissioners to revise a proposed comprehensive county plan. The order came after local conservationists won a hearing on the plan, arguing that its development bias would harm the community. The state hearing officer, Larry Sartin, ruled in 1995 that state and local governments must limit growth in Monroe County or face ecological collapse.
The reasons for Sartin's ruling went well beyond Key deer, which he said "cannot tolerate further development without facing extinction." He also feared that additional development would hamper hurricane-evacuation plans; destroy "the unique environmental characteristics and importance" of North Key Largo, Ohio Key and Coupon Bight; and threaten water quality in the area.
Floodplain Management and Key Deer Protection
Additional support for Key deer protection came out of a 1994 court case brought by National Wildlife Federation and Florida Wildlife Federation against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which refused to consult with FWS to determine whether FEMA's flood-insurance subsidies encouraged development that might harm the deer.
Attorneys for NWF and FWF, David White and Henry Morgenstern, contended that the consultation was required under the Endangered Species Act. FEMA officials argued that the agency was not subject to the law.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore agreed with White and Morgenstern. National Wildlife Federation attorney John Kostyack is now monitoring FEMA's compliance with the court order.
This ruling could affect FEMA activities across the United States.
Presently, FEMA at bargain prices underwrites insurance on buildings constructed in high-risk areas, such as floodplains and barrier islands, and spends an average of $1.5 billion yearly on disaster assistance and flood insurance claims. The court decision suggests that development under FEMA will be curtailed in some areas, saving tax dollars that would wash away in response to inevitable floods.
"This was a victory for both endangered species and the American taxpayer," White says. "The American people do not want to subsidize new development in flood zones and sensitive coastal areas which jeopardizes the existence of endangered species." Flood-prone areas provide habitat for 40 percent of U.S. endangered species and 60 percent of threatened species.
The Key to Key Deer Survival? Land
In the end, the crucial factor for Key deer is land. Without habitat, the animals and other jeopardized species will dwindle away.
"The ultimate solution is to acquire as much of the habitat as we can," says Florida Wildlife Federation's Manley Fuller. Big Pine's patchwork quilt of small lots makes land purchase a challenge, but one that shows some promise of being met. Under a state program called Conservation and Recreation Lands, Florida is acquiring undeveloped lands on Big Pine and No Name Keys. The Nature Conservancy has completed more than 200 transactions on Big Pine Key alone, acquiring a total of 550 acres.
A critical need now is to revive federal land acquistion. David Michaud, an NWF endangered-species specialist working on Key deer issues, sees land-acquisition funds as a top priority in this program.
"We need to get more acquisition money for the Monroe County Land Authority, restart federal acquisition and involve more private groups in buying land," he says.
The factors that weigh for and against the Key deer are echoed throughout the nation where other listed species struggle to survive.
"If people are willing to coexist with endangered species and the natural world," says Carolyn Waldron, NWF's acting vice president of Conservation Programs, "these creatures will survive and our quality of life will be the better for it."
Senior editor Roger DiSilvestro reports that Key deer conservation lost a valuable ally when Fred Manillo died suddenly just after he was interviewed for this article.
National Wildlife Federation and the Key Deer
The National Wildlife Federation made saving the Key deer the theme of its annual National Wildlife Week in 1952--when the subspecies numbered only 50 animals. Around that time, NWF and other groups provided funds for hiring a game warden to stop deer poaching. NWF also supported bills that led to creation of the National Key Deer Refuge.
Today, NWF has formulated a policy designed to protect the Key deer and meet the needs of the human community.
"Our goal is to protect the deer and other wildlife while ensuring a quality environment for human residents," says John Kostyack, who leads NWF's Key deer efforts. | <urn:uuid:d06759f7-d563-4c04-ab23-5bcab3a4e113> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/1997/Whats-Killing-the-Key-Deer.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956687 | 3,462 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Postcodes have been used for many years as a means of locational referencing of events for the processing and analysis of statistical data.
ONS Geography's postcode products allow users to relate an event's postcode to administrative, electoral and a wide range of other geographic areas.
National Statistics Postcode Products contain both live and terminated postcodes which means that they grow with each new version and currently contain over 2.5 million postcodes for the UK.
They are currently released quarterly in February, May, August and November.
Further information about postcode products can be found below.
Links all current and terminated UK postcodes to the geographic areas in which the postcodes fall | <urn:uuid:edee3d5f-cb9f-4006-aa88-ba56748660fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/ons/guide-method/geography/products/postcode-directories/index.html?format=hi-vis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960429 | 138 | 1.976563 | 2 |
The Lehmann Letter (SM)
Many criticized the 2008 bailout of American banks for failing to also bail out mortgage debtors. Now banks that received public assistance have foreclosed on mortgages owed by those debtors. Large numbers of these homes remain vacant, exacerbating the housing slump.
Other borrowers are under water – owing more on their homes than they are worth – because home values have fallen. They can’t obtain refinancing because the new mortgage would exceed their home’s value. Some borrowers have walked away from their homes and debts, assuming that their homes’ values will never exceed what they owe on them.
As a result many neighborhoods are blighted with vacant homes that depress the value of the housing stock. This contributes to the balance-sheet slump bedeviling American households.
Despite suggestions that federal legislation enable banks and borrowers to write down the value of distressed homes, no national program has emerged.
Now some officials in Fontana, CA are exploring a radical way out.
Read all about it in the July 15 New York Times:
“California County Weighs Drastic Plan to Aid Homeowners”
Here are some key excerpts from the article.
“Desperate for a way out of a housing collapse that has crippled the region, officials in San Bernardino County, where Fontana is one of the largest cities, are exploring a drastic option — using eminent domain to buy up mortgages for homes that are underwater.
“Then, the idea goes, the county could cut the mortgages to the current value of the homes and resell the mortgages to a private investment firm, which would allow homeowners to lower their monthly payments and hang onto their property….
“The idea to use eminent domain to seize mortgages first came from a group of venture capitalists in San Francisco, Mortgage Resolution Partners, who would collect a fee for each of the restructured loans. The firm is also trying to persuade officials in Nevada and Florida to try the idea….
““We have what we regard as a systemic problem, but it’s felt most urgently at the local level,” said Steven M. Gluckstern, the chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners. “We have all these people who want to be able to stay in their homes and keep that, but it is getting to be impossible. Until you fix this problem, you can’t fix any other problems.”
“As for the group’s eminent domain idea, “if it works, every mayor of every city is going to want to do this,” Mr. Gluckstern said….
Under the current proposal, only homeowners who are current on their payments would be eligible for the program, a policy some have criticized because it does little to help the neediest people.”
Drastic problems elicit drastic solutions.
(Summer season: The Lehmann Letter will be in summer-vacation mode during July and August.)
(To be fully informed visit http://www.beyourowneconomist.com/)
© 2012 Michael B. Lehmann | <urn:uuid:d8e0976d-921a-4849-81ab-4bd0a913ca5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beyourowneconomist.blogspot.com/2012/07/housing-assistance-radical-plan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949892 | 637 | 1.726563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ex-smoker President Barack Obama kicked the habit and now he wants to give cigarette makers a little shove too.
In a video released on Thursday to congratulate Americans taking part in a national drive to quit smoking, Obama took aim at tobacco companies fighting graphic labels his administration imposed to warn consumers about the risks of their habit.
Calling tobacco "the leading cause of preventable early deaths in this country," Obama said the labels were a new tool to keep cigarettes away from children.
Cigarette makers, he said, wanted to block them "because they don't want to be honest about the consequences of using their products. Unfortunately, this isn't surprising."
The 50-year-old president managed to quit smoking last year with the aid of nicotine gum and was confirmed as being "tobacco free" at his last physical checkup in October.
He made no bones about how difficult it was.
"Fact is, quitting smoking is hard. Believe me, I know," he said in the video for the Great American Smokeout aimed at helping some of the country's 46 million smokers to stop.
A U.S. judge last week blocked the rule requiring tobacco companies to display graphic images on cigarette packs, including pictures of dead bodies and rotting teeth. But that judgment is widely expected to be appealed and the legal battle may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Reynolds American Inc's R.J. Reynolds unit, Lorillard Inc, Liggett Group LLC and Commonwealth Brands Inc, owned by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, sued the FDA in August, citing their right to free speech.
Tobacco has also popped up in the 2012 election, when a campaign video for Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain that showed his chief of staff blowing cigarette smoke at the camera went viral on the Internet.
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Are YouMoney Smart? | <urn:uuid:8581a0bf-8fb7-44c9-a71e-af61f0ddd2b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/respiratory/news/2011/11/17/ex-smoker_obama_quitting_is_hard.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955257 | 477 | 1.671875 | 2 |
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Critics of a proposed voter photo ID law vowed Thursday to launch a vigorous effort to fight the proposal, saying it amounted to a 21st-century version of the poll tax used to keep blacks from voting.
The state NAACP leads a coalition of groups that said they planned to contest a voter ID bill in the legislature even though it is clear that the Republican majority has the votes to pass it and that GOP Gov. Pat McCrory has said he will sign it.
We will fight them in the courts, we will fight them in the streets, and voters will fight them by turning out and voting, said Penda Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, a major national civil rights group that is legally challenging voter ID laws across the country. She described North Carolina as ground zero in the national fight.
The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, rejected Republican arguments that the requirement for a photo ID at the polls was designed to protect against voter fraud. He said that North Carolinians have voted for 237 years without requiring a photo ID and that the push for the law was a conservative backlash against increased black voter registration that grew out of the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
What is going on here is a large number of African-Americans, Latinos and students who came into the electorate have scared people, have changed the electoral process, Barber said. And the only way to stop (it) is to try to put up barricades.
He said he expected the Republican legislature to also push other bills to restrict voter franchise, such as limiting early voting, Sunday voting and same-day voter registration.
But Rep. David Lewis of Dunn, who is heading the voter ID effort, said the intent of the legislative effort was to improve the integrity of the voting process, not to discourage people from voting.
The Republicans in the General Assembly are committed to making sure that every citizen who is entitled to vote has not only the opportunity to vote, but is encouraged and informed about the voting process, Lewis said. And perhaps most importantly, can have confidence that their vote counts in determining who wins elections.
He called voter ID a reasonable and logical step to make sure that people are who they say they are. He said voter ID has broad public support.
Barriers to getting an ID
Barber, however, likened the voter ID bill to a poll tax, one of the tactics used in the early 20th century by white supremacists to prevent blacks from voting. That is because, Barber said, it would likely cost voters who do not have North Carolina drivers licenses to get a state-approved identity card.
Hair, co-director of the Advancement Project, said it was often costly and time-consuming in other states such as Pennsylvania for people get birth certificates including women who had changed names in order get voter ID cards.
The Advancement Project filed an ongoing suit against Pennsylvanias voter ID law, and it has also brought voting rights actions in Ohio and Florida.
We went to the (Pennsylvania) DMV offices to see how easy it was to get this ID, Hair said. What we found was that people were being turned away. They were being told they were not eligible because they were born in other states and did not have a birth certificate, or they were a student and did not have a drivers license. | <urn:uuid:dfff6b83-4501-40b2-9bab-e6ce5409fd66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/08/3273895/naacp-vows-to-fight-nc-voter-id.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982883 | 692 | 1.929688 | 2 |
Fluency is important because
Reading fluency can be developed
*by having students repeat oral reading
Fluency is not a stage of development at which readers can read all words quickly and easily. fluency changes, depending on what readers are reading, their familiarity with the words, and the amount of their practice with reading text. | <urn:uuid:e9f78fbd-baf1-41cc-bcbe-3464f45468f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bunkerr3.k12.mo.us/teachers/bmertzlufft/fluency.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968728 | 69 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Contents | Executive summary | How to obtain this publication | Additional info
The following OECD assessment and recommendations summarise chapter 3 of the Economic survey of the Netherlands published on 31 January 2008.
Labour market participation is high; even so, there are pockets of under-participation among various groups of the population
Dutch governments have successfully sought to encourage labour market participation. Recent measures include the closing of early-retirement routes and greater emphasis on activating (long-term) unemployed, the partially disabled and social assistance recipients. Nonetheless, labour supply is still restrained by comprehensive social entitlements for those out of work, which benefit almost 17% of the working-age population. In addition, the tax-and-benefit system and labour-market policies continue to discourage participation of several groups and to incite working short hours.
Incidence of inactivity remains large(1)
1. In percent of working-age population.
Source: CPB, 2007.
Further measures are needed to stimulate continued work at older ages
Labour market participation of older workers remains low, although it has increased in recent years following the removal of tax incentives for early retirement and pre-pension schemes. The government plans to increase the work-related tax credit for workers older than 57 years. In addition, the government plans to introduce a new levy for pensioners who stopped working before the age of 65. However, this measure is only being phased in gradually and affects only people born after 1945 and with pension income above a certain threshold. Thus, a more encompassing and rapid implementation of this measure would further strengthen incentives to participate. Continued work is also discouraged by the possibility of using the unemployment benefit system in combination with generous severance payment as a transition into (early) retirement, indicating a need for reform in these areas (see below). Moreover, tax favoured saving schemes such as the life course scheme can be used for retiring early, pointing to the need for phasing out such schemes. In addition, firms that employ workers aged 65 and over must pay their wages during sickness absence (as for their other workers) for a period of up to two years, even though they cannot insure against this risk. Thus, to strengthen labour demand for older workers, the government should consider easing the obligation on enterprises to pay wages during periods of sickness leave for workers older than 65 years. Such support should be provided socially.
Activation of social assistance beneficiaries can be improved
The number of social assistance recipients has declined over recent decades, but their share of the labour force remains high internationally. Various tools have been used to enhance job-search incentives and facilitate labour market reintegration. As well, activation has been well served by transferring the budgetary and implementation responsibilities of the social assistance scheme (WWB) to the municipalities and allowing them to use budget surpluses in this area for other purposes, thus providing strong incentives to monitor and activate benefit recipients. To ensure continued success, existing availability for work requirements should be strictly enforced and the envisaged exemptions from these requirements should be reconsidered.
Successful reform of disability benefits should be continued
Several reforms since the 1990s have reduced the inflow of new recipients into the disability benefit scheme, notably by introducing more restrictive entry requirements and expanding the sickness period paid by the employer from one to two years. Nevertheless, the number of disability benefit beneficiaries remains high internationally. A sensible strategy in these circumstances is to conduct regular assessments of work capacity and encourage individuals, when possible, to resume labour market participation. In this respect, the government should reconsider its decision to apply lighter testing criteria to current beneficiaries in the age group 45 to 50. Moreover, the reduction of inflows has been concentrated on the age group 25 45, with less progress achieved in partially reintegrating older and younger benefit recipients into the labour market. A worrying development is the increasing inflow (often for unspecified psychological disorders) of young people into the special Wajong scheme for young disabled, which offers limited reintegration services. This creates a risk of excluding an increasing number of young people permanently from the labour market. To avert this risk, those registering in the Wajong scheme should be requested to first apply for social assistance and receive disability benefits only as a top-up after some waiting period. This would allow case managers in appropriate cases to apply the full range of activation measures associated with social assistance.
Incidence of disability in the OECD
1. 2003 for the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany and Italy.
Source: OECD, Going for growth, 2006.
Further reform of the unemployment benefit system is needed
Although unemployment is low, the incidence of long-term unemployment is relatively high in comparison to countries with similarly low unemployment rates reflecting, among other factors, the generosity of unemployment benefits. The duration of unemployment benefits has been reduced from 5 years to a maximum of 38 months, which is a welcome move, but benefit duration remains long by international standards, especially for workers with long seniority. In combination with non-decreasing benefits, this is likely to dampen job-search incentives and create paths into early retirement. Thus, the government should further reduce the duration of unemployment benefits. Alternatively, the replacement rate could be reduced with the length of the unemployment spell. As well, the use of sanctions penalising insufficient job-search activities could set in earlier.
Employment protection legislation should be eased
The incidence of long-term unemployment may be raised by strict employment protection legislation, which tends to reduce labour market fluidity and prolong unemployment spells for those at the margin of the labour market. A reform of the dismissal system is therefore under consideration. At present, layoffs can occur through two channels: employers can address their request to the individual employment service (CWI), but the procedure is bureaucratic, involves long notice periods and comes with unpredictable results; alternatively, employers can request a local court to dissolve the individual employment contract, which is faster but also more expensive, as firms face much higher severance pay obligations. The system should be reformed to become simpler, more predictable and less time-consuming for both employers and workers; accordingly, the rules governing layoffs should be clearly specified in law, making dismissals a more predictable process, with appeal to local courts only possible as an ex-post option, in case one of the parties feels unfairly treated. In addition, severance payments are currently quite costly by international comparison. Dismissed workers can be entitled to payments equivalent to one month of salary per year of service, which may result in costly redundancy costs for workers with long job tenure. This can also contribute to lower mobility incentives for workers concerned about losing severance pay rights. A funded severance payment system, like in Austria, could be used to preserve severance payment rights during job transfers, thus helping to increase the fluidity of the job market. Under the present system, workers see their severance pay rights increase to two months of salary for years worked after the age of 50. This is likely to be harmful to the hiring of older workers and therefore have the perverse effect of encouraging earlier retirement. Hence, the accumulation of severance payment rights of older workers should be aligned with that of other workers.
How to obtain this publication
The Policy Brief (pdf format) can be downloaded in English. It contains the OECD assessment and recommendations.The complete edition of the Economic survey of the Netherlands 2008 is available from:
For further information please contact the Netherlands Desk at the OECD Economics Department at email@example.com. The OECD Secretariat's report was prepared by Jens Hoj, Ekkehard Ernst and Jasper Kieft under the supervision of Patrick Lenain. Research assistance was provided by Laure Meuro. | <urn:uuid:4acedf5f-f60d-4eb3-be39-f40b314aa8d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economicsurveyofthenetherlands2008copingwithlabourshortageshowtobringoutsidersbacktothelabourmarket.htm | 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 | 0.94889 | 1,558 | 1.78125 | 2 |
‘Good’ is the minimum for Ofsted report
Schools must be rated at least ‘good’ by Ofsted inspectors from now on.
After a consultation with more than 5,000 teachers, headteachers, parents and governors across the country, there will no longer be a ‘satisfactory’ grade, but instead schools would be graded as ‘requires improvement’, and schools already judged as ‘inadequate’ and given notice to improve will be treated as schools with ‘serious weaknesses’.
Schools that currently have satisfactory reports will be given a clean slate by Ofsted and will be re-inspected by the end of this academic year.
Ofsted said the satisfactory grade should never have been more than a ‘staging post’ on a school’s journey towards providing a good or outstanding education for all children.
The changes also mean that from now on for a school to be judged as outstanding it must demonstrate outstanding teaching, and all inspections would be carried out at short notice, with a telephone call the afternoon before the inspectors visit.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: “I believe all children, regardless of where they live or what their parents can afford for them, have the right to a good education and that belief is at the heart of our work at Ofsted. I make no apology for introducing an inspection framework that raises expectations and focuses on the importance of teaching.”
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Weather for Cleckheaton
Thursday 20 June 2013
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: West | <urn:uuid:a247cb0b-4883-4c59-83ba-f4df233e37f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spenboroughguardian.co.uk/news/local/good-is-the-minimum-for-ofsted-report-1-4929218 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950182 | 374 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Many school districts to miss teacher evaluation deadline
An important deadline in the state’s ongoing teacher evaluation process occurred Sunday, but most schools reported they would miss it.
The law establishing new teacher evaluations set July 1 as the date for schools around the state to submit their plans to the state Education Department. The evaluations are required in order to qualify for federal grant money that New York state won under the federal Race to the Top program.
But only around 65 of the state's more than 700 school districts indicated they were ready, says New York State School Boards Association’s executive director Tim Kremer.
“Not going to make that deadline, for most districts,” Kremer said.
The major reason for the delay is that schools were waiting for Governor Andrew Cuomo and the legislature to finalize a plan to limit disclosure of teacher evaluations to the public. On June 21, the last day of the legislative session, they agreed on a bill to keep the results private, except to parents who actually have a child in the teacher’s class. Teachers and administrators were hesitant to work on evaluation plans until then.
The School Boards Association backed Cuomo’s bill, Kremer says, largely because there are too many unknowns in the unfinished teacher evaluation process to expose the very first results to wide public scrutiny.
“We’re not quite ready for primetime,” said Kremer, who said the evaluation process is a “work in progress.”
The head of the state’s largest teachers union, NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi says his understanding is that the July 1 date is the starting point to submit the teacher evaluation plans.
“I don’t think that the July 1 date was ever a line in the sand date,” said Iannuzzi.
According to guidelines sent out by the state Education Department to school districts, July 1 is the legal date to submit the teacher evaluation plans, and the department has until September 1 to accept or reject the proposals. The guidelines say teacher evaluations sent after July 1 will still be accepted, but there’s no guarantee that schools will get their answer from the department by September 1 if they are late.
Iannuzzi says the real deadline that schools have to worry about is January 17, 2013, the date of Cuomo’s next state budget submission. The governor has warned that schools that don’t have their teacher evaluation plans in place by then won’t get additional state aid monies. He predicts many schools will submit their plans “very shortly.”
The School Boards Association's Kremer says the teacher evaluation disclosure plan could still be problematic. There’s nothing in the law to prevent parents from posting their teacher’s evaluation results on the Internet, then pooling the information to “teacher shop” for their children in the next school year.
“It’s probably going to be done in this rather haphazard way,” said Kremer. “There could be some of these websites that are not accurate in the information they portray.”
But then, he says, parents have always exchanged information about their children’s teachers anyway, it just used to be done over the “back fence” in a more informal manner. | <urn:uuid:0a5471e8-f6c0-4248-a8d8-9eb5279b9bba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wrvo.org/post/many-school-districts-miss-teacher-evaluation-deadline | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974204 | 694 | 1.585938 | 2 |
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk says the size of the evacuation zones around the six nuclear power plants in Illinois should be reviewed.
Kirk and fellow U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin held a forum Friday with a panel of four nuclear experts that resembled a congressional hearing to talk about safety in Illinois in the wake of the disaster in Japan.
Four of Illinois' 11 reactors are almost identical to those involved in Japan's nuclear crisis. Exelon Corp. owns the plants and says they're safe.
Officials sought to assure the senators that Illinois plants are safe and have multiple layers of safeguards.
Kirk and Durbin also were interested in making sure the state's stockpile of potassium iodide pills for people in evacuation zones is consistent with new 2010 census numbers. | <urn:uuid:7b04b706-b44f-4895-bfe8-69f801885894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/illinois-senators-question-nuclear-experts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955391 | 160 | 1.523438 | 2 |
"After 114 days of working for government, New Yorkers can finally begin working for themselves. This year, New York State's 'Tax Freedom Day' - the day when individuals have finally earned enough to pay off their annual total tax bill - fell on April 24, some 12 days after national Tax Freedom Day, which was back on April 12. Ask any business owner and they will tell you: New York State's crushing high taxes hurt the bottom line and cost jobs.
New York is still one of America's highest-taxed states - unless we take concrete steps to reduce the cumulative burden of our property, individual income, corporate, gasoline and sales taxes, the engine of private sector job creation will remain stuck in neutral. It is not nearly enough to defeat schemes like an extension of the 'Success Tax,' or for the State Budget to merely hold the line on further tax hikes. We need to cut taxes and deliver the type of real tax relief that will jumpstart our economy, grow private sector jobs and put folks back to work."
NEW YORK STATE TAX FACTS
Facts from the non-partisan, independent Tax Foundation website.
NEW YORK'S STATE AND LOCAL TAX BURDEN SECOND-HIGHEST IN NATION
During the past three decades, New York's state and local tax burden percentage has ranked among the nation's highest, currently estimated at 12.1 percent of income (2nd nationally), above the current national average of 9.8 percent. Compared to the 1977 data, New York had a rate of 13.2 percent (1st nationally), decreasing 1.1 percent overall. Currently residents pay $6,157 per capita in state and local taxes.
NEW YORK PROPERTY TAXES AMONG NATION'S HIGHEST
New York's local governments collected $1,890.70 per capita in property taxes during fiscal year 2006, which is the latest year the Census Bureau published state-by-state property tax collections. New York is one of the 13 states that collect no state-level property taxes. Its per capita property tax collections in FY2006 ranked 5th nationally.
NEW YORK'S 2011 BUSINESS TAX CLIMATE RANKS 50th (DEAD LAST)
New York ranks 50th - dead last - in the Tax Foundation's "State Business Tax Climate Index." The Index compares the states in five areas of taxation that impact business: corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales taxes; unemployment insurance taxes; and taxes on property, including residential and commercial property. Neighboring states ranked as follows: Pennsylvania (26th), New Jersey (48th), Connecticut (47th), and Vermont (38th).
NEW YORK'S INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RATE NATION'S 8th HIGHEST
New York's personal income tax system consists of seven brackets with a top rate of 8.97 percent, kicking in at an income level of $500,000. Among states levying personal income taxes, this top rate ranks the state 8th highest nationally. New York's 2008 state-level individual income tax collections were $1,880 per person, which ranked 3rd highest in the nation.
NEW YORK'S CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATE NATION'S 24th HIGHEST
New York's corporate tax structure is composed of a flat rate of 7.1 percent on all corporate income. Among states levying corporate income taxes, New York's rate ranks 24th highest. In 2008, state-level corporate tax collections (excluding local taxes) were $259 per capita and ranked 8th highest nationally.
NEW YORK SALES AND EXCISE TAXES SOME OF AMERICA'S HIGHEST
New York levies a 4 percent general sales or use tax on consumers, below the national median of 5.85 percent. However, the state permits its localities to levy much higher sales taxes than other states do. In 2007 combined state and local general and selective sales tax collections were $1,677 per person, which ranks 11th highest nationally. New York's gasoline tax stands at 44.6 cents per gallon - the highest gas tax in the nation. New York's cigarette tax stands at $2.75 per pack of twenty - the 4th highest nationally. The sales tax was adopted in 1951, the gasoline tax in 1923 and the cigarette tax in 1941.
Editor's Note: All of these New York State-specific tax facts and are available on the Tax Foundation's official website. | <urn:uuid:128a537e-5d14-4559-b186-f4b644093671> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/Minority/20110425/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930052 | 923 | 2.109375 | 2 |
The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants
|The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants|
Dust-jacket illustration by Frank Utpatel for The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants
|Author(s)||J. Ramsey Campbell|
|Cover artist||Frank Utpatel|
|Genre(s)||fantasy, horror short stories|
|Media type||Print (Hardback)|
|Pages||xii, 207 pp|
The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by British author J. Ramsey Campbell, who dropped the initial from his name in subsequent publications. It was released in 1964 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,009 copies and was the author's first book. The stories are part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Campbell had originally written his introduction to be included in the book The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces under the title "Cthulhu in Britain". However, Arkham's editor, August Derleth, decided to use it here (retitled "A Word from the Author").
The stories utilise such settings as Brichester, Goatswood and Clotton - Campbell's equivalent English invented locales comprising the Severn Valley (Cthulhu Mythos), based upon Lovecraft's invention of such locales as Arkham, Dunwich, and Kingsport.
Later versions
The entire contents were reprinted with some of Campbell's later Lovecraftian work in his 1985 collection Cold Print. Two forewords by Campbell, both different from that in the Arkham House edition (which is titled "A Word from the Author"), were included.
The original book was reissued in an expanded and illustrated version promoted as a 'fiftieth anniversary edition' by PS Publishing in 2011. (The Arkham House edition was published in 1964, but Campbell began writing the stories that appear in it in 1961, and continued through 1963). The expanded reissue appears under the title Campbell had originally intended - The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants - and as by Ramsey Campbell. As well as the stories from the 1964 Arkham House version, the volume prints the early drafts of the tales as they were before being revised according to Derleth's suggestions, together with correspondence between Derleth and Campbell regarding the collection.
Campbell explains the story of the volume's original mistitling in his 'Afterword' to the new edition, as follows: "...I suggested The Inhabitant of the Lake. Derleth thought we might add and Other Unwelcome Tenants, and I liked that too. Alas, when he sent Frank Utpatel instructions for the cover art, he misremembered the addition as and Less Welcome Tenants (perhaps with his own forthcoming Colonel Markesan and Less Pleasant Persons in mind). The title had to be changed to match the cover, though I felt few tenants could be less welcome than Glaaki. Now, for the first time ever, the book bears the chosen title. Welcome!"
The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants contains the following tales:
- "A Word From the Author"
- "The Room in the Castle"
- "The Horror from the Bridge"
- "The Insects from Shaggai"
- "The Render of the Veils"
- "The Inhabitant of the Lake"
- "The Plain of Sound"
- "The Return of the Witch" a mythos tale with oblique & veiled references.
- "The Mine on Yuggoth"
- "The Will of Stanley Brooke" a mythos tale with an oblique & veiled reference.
- "The Moon-Lens"
References in popular culture
The band Iron Maiden's song Still Life ( from the classic 1983 album Piece of Mind ) was inspired by the story The Inhabitant of the Lake. The lyrics deal with a man who sees spirits or beings in the lake and becomes obsessed with them. After many nightmares and visions of the images in the water, he eventually becomes insane and ultimately jumps into the pool with his female companion. The lyrics end with the ominous verse " Oh,we'll drown together. It, will be forever. Nightmares...forever calling me. Nightmares...now we rest in peace", so the listener can safely assume the person has killed himself, as well the female.
- Jaffery, Sheldon (1989). The Arkham House Companion. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, Inc. pp. 71–72. ISBN 1-55742-005-X.
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 41.
- Joshi, S.T. (1999). Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0-87054-176-5.
- Nielsen, Leon (2004). Arkham House Books: A Collector's Guide. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 90. ISBN 0-7864-1785-4.
- Ramsey Campbell, 'Afterword', The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants. Hornsea, UK: PS Publishing, 2011, p. 290 | <urn:uuid:b3ee9c4a-0b73-4a17-b751-ed77ed004a87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inhabitant_of_the_Lake_and_Less_Welcome_Tenants | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922684 | 1,139 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Greece - Judicial system
The 1975 constitution designates the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos) as the highest court of appeal. It consists of both penal and civil sections. A Council of State does not hear cases but decides on administrative disputes, administrative violations of laws, and revision of disciplinary procedures affecting civil servants. The 1975 constitution also established a Special Supreme Tribunal as a final arbiter in disputes arising over general elections and referenda, in addition to exercising review of the constitutionality of laws. Other elements of the judicial system include justices of the peace, magistrates' courts, courts of first instance, courts of appeal, and various administrative courts. Judges of the Supreme Court, the courts of appeal, and the courts of first instance are appointed for life on the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice. The president has the constitutional right, with certain exceptions, to commute and reduce sentences.
The constitution provides for an independent judiciary. | <urn:uuid:eafb5642-5f0a-499f-b494-41d32066a9fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Greece-JUDICIAL-SYSTEM.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936661 | 188 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Meredith Provides Books for Elementary Students
A Meredith College effort has provided nearly 1,700 books to students at Barwell Road Elementary School in Raleigh. Meredith students distributed the books on December 9. Each elementary student received two books.
The books were collected through a book drive sponsored by Meredith’s Department of Sociology and Social Work and various student organizations on campus including WINGS, Psi Chi, Poetry Vybe, Social Work Club, Sociology/Social Work Club and others.
Sociology students have spent the fall semester volunteering at Barwell Road Elementary as part of a new effort called the Barwell Buddies Program. Each of the 120 volunteers completed 10 to 15 hours of service in classrooms and the library.
After the winter break, Meredith students will return to give out books to the students who were tracked out. More books are needed for these students so Meredith community members are asked to donate books after the break. Donations can be made on third floor Ledford Hall or by contacting Associate Professor of Sociology Lori Brown at firstname.lastname@example.org.
For more information about Sociology at Meredith, visit www.meredith.edu/sociolog.
Date Submitted: 2009-12-15 | <urn:uuid:5c77d96c-c487-4630-82e0-d05e93bccbd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.meredith.edu/marketing/archivesdetails.php?id=6708 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958914 | 253 | 1.5625 | 2 |
- (Photo: REUTERS/Juda Ngwenya/Files)
Two nights after South Africa's 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, was hospitalized in Pretoria, the office of President Jacob Zuma said on Monday he was "doing well" and there was "no cause for alarm."
"[Mandela] had a good night's rest. The doctors will still conduct further tests today [Monday]. He is in good hands," Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement on Monday, a day after President Zuma visited the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in a military hospital in the national capital.
"Today is also a special day as President Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December 1993... for his selfless contribution to the struggle for liberation, human rights and justice in South Africa," the statement added.
Mandela, who served as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, has to undergo more tests for an undisclosed condition, Maharaj said.
Mandela, who won the nation's first all-race elections in 1994 that marked the end of apartheid, was hospitalized Saturday for a second time this year, raising popular concerns over his health. Following Mandela's hospitalization, Zuma's office announced he had been admitted to a Pretoria hospital for medical tests and care that was "consistent for his age."
The following day, congregants packed landmark Regina Mundi church in Soweto, Johannesburg, to pray for him. Since the nation's largest Roman Catholic Church served as a place of gathering for the people of Soweto before, during and after the anti-apartheid struggle, it is known as "the people's church" or "the people's cathedral." In 1997, Mandela established Nov. 30 as "Regina Mundi Day" to honor the church.
"I believe not just South Africans but millions throughout the world will be praying for Madiba, and we are appealing to people to respect his privacy," Maharaj told Voice of America. "We want his treatment to be unimpeded, to be done under the least stressful conditions, and for the doctors to have a free hand to attend to him. I'm sure everybody wishes that for him."
Before Monday's presidential statement, reports had claimed that Mandela had stopped talking, and "has not been talking. He is not looking good."
In February, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint, according to The Associated Press. In January 2011, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for an acute respiratory infection.
During his years in prison, Mandela contracted tuberculosis and had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985. In 2001, Mandela underwent seven weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, ultimately beating the disease. | <urn:uuid:2d484036-0cbd-4304-8736-b6974c983847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/nelson-mandela-doing-well-after-spending-two-nights-in-hospital-86366/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978736 | 574 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Bacterial Pollution, Tracking the Sources
Tracking the Source: Where is all this pollution coming from?
As surfers and beach goers who care about the environmental health of our beaches and oceans, we are becoming increasingly aware of water quality issues that affect our favorite beaches. Our coastal towns are growing. This development brings not only more homes and businesses to our neighborhoods, but also more sources of pollution. Coastal watersheds are affected by failing septic systems, sewage leaks, pet waste, agriculture, large populations of birds and other wildlife.
Since the passage of the national BEACH Act in 2000, most states have developed water quality monitoring programs, based on national water quality critera designed to protect human health from exposure to polluted water. Decisions, based on a measurement of bacteria that indicate the presence of illness-causing pathogens, are made by local or state health departments to issue swimming advisories or close beaches. Once a beach closure sign goes up at a beach or water quality data are posted on the internet, however, the responsibility of most health agencies ends, leaving local citizens to ask “Where is all this pollution coming from and how do we stop it?”
The difficulty with determining the sources of beach water pollution is that the indicator bacteria that are measured, typically Enterococcus sp. in marine waters, are present in the gut of all warm-blooded animals. The methods approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for beach monitoring do not differentiate bacteria from an animal source, such as cow manure or pet waste, from human-based sources such as leaking sewer systems. Most watersheds are stressed by multiple sources of fecal pollution, making it very difficult to take action to clean up our waterways without knowing where to focus our attention.
Fortunately, the scientific research community has recognized this need and has been very busy over the last decade developing technologies to distinguish the sources of fecal pollution in a watershed. Microbial source tracking methods can be separated into four groups of related technologies.
Genetic methods are based on identifying a genetic ‘fingerprint’, or distinct DNA pattern, of the fecal bacteria from a known source in the watershed and comparing it to the bacteria in polluted water samples. To perform a source tracking study, samples of fecal matter from human and animal sources throughout the watershed are taken, and distinct genetic fingerprints are isolated from the bacteria from each source. The bacteria present in the receiving coastal waterbodies are then compared to the known sources.
Genetic fingerprinting not only identifies the sources of fecal pollution, but it also determines the percentage that each source is contributing to the pollution problem. For instance, a study performed in the Tualatin River Basin in Oregon revealed that in nearly all of the tested sites, birds were responsible for 50% of the pollution. Other sources were identified as rodent 16%, dog 13%, human 4%, wildlife 6%, cat 1%, and 9% of the pollution was from an unknown source. As a result of this study, the local government decided to pursue an aggressive public education program to make people aware of the consequences of feeding ducks and other birds and to get them to change their behavior (Clean Water Services, 2005).
More recently, genetic markers that are more accurate and reliable have been developed and are increasingly being used in source identification studies. Testing of various human and animal markers was recently done by researchers at Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.
Other source tracking methodologies are based on comparing the physiological differences that bacteria have acquired from different animal hosts. For instance, the bacteria present in humans have developed a greater resistance to antibiotics than those from animals. Researchers can identify the source of fecal pollution by comparing the antibiotic resistance of bacteria from water samples to known sources of pollution. This test is not as specific as those based on genetic fingerprints, but it can usually differentiate between pollution from human, livestock, and wildlife sources and can be very helpful in focusing pollution control strategies.
Other types of methodologies look for human viruses or the presence of chemicals such as caffeine or laundry detergent to indicate human sources of pollution. These methods are most useful in urban areas to identify sewer leaks and failures.
So you might be asking, why then, if the technology is available, are more coastal cities not tracking the sources of pollution in their watersheds? The answer is pretty simple. Microbial source tracking is expensive. Most methods require expensive equipment and a high level of technical expertise. The methods are also still under development and are not yet approved by the EPA for standard monitoring programs.
This shouldn’t discourage Surfrider chapters and other activists who want to become involved in solving water quality problems at their local beaches. Several chapters have had very successful involvement in source tracking efforts. After a source tracking study of a section of the inter-coastal waterway near Charleston, SC pointed the finger at domestic pet waste as the major source of fecal pollution, the Charleston Chapter obtained a small grant from the City of Folly Beach to make and install plastic bag dispensers at beach access points for dog owners’ use. The Chapter’s “Love Dogs, Hate Poop” campaign includes an education element and has led to the design of the Dog Rocket (patent pending). Chapter volunteers continue to maintain the plastic bag dispensers.
In response to high bacteria counts and beach closures at Stinson Beach in California, the Marin County Chapter partnered with the County Water Board to commission a source tracking study to identify the source of water pollution. The study showed that the National Park Service Golden Gate Recreation Area was discharging wastewater into the ocean. The chapter was very active in raising public awareness of this issue in the local papers and has continued to work with the Water Board to convince the National Park Service to upgrade the onsite septic systems in the Park.
Further down the coast, the San Luis Bay Chapter noticed an interesting trend when they evaluated three years of water quality testing data from Pismo Beach. The results show that Pismo Beach has higher levels of bacteria during the dry summer months than during the winter when storm water is more likely to flush pollutants from the landscape. The Chapter brought this to the attention of the City, who responded very favorably by forming a Pismo Beach Water Quality Group. This Group has already improved the public notification system of beach closures at Pismo Beach and has applied for a state grant to fund a source tracking study.
The Newport Chapter in Oregon has a similar story. They approached the City of Newport with their BWTF data demonstrating a problem with bacterial pollution at Nye Beach and in Nye Creek. The City formed an ad-hoc committee, and by working with this committee, the Chapter was able to improve public notification and signage. Nye Beach was also included in the State of Oregon’s Beach Monitoring Program for the first time. The Chapter has now formed its own research committee to seek collaboration and match funding to pay for a source tracking study in the Nye Creek Watershed.
Those interested in learning more should follow the links below to reference documents from EPA and other researchers.
References and Additional Information Sources
Tools for Tracking Human Fecal Pollution in Urban Storm Drains, Creeks and Beaches (City of Santa Barbara and UCSB)
Municipal Guide to Clean Water: Conducting Sanitary Surveys to Improve Coastal Water Quality (Maine Healthy Beaches Program)
Microbial Source Tracking and Identification Fact Sheet (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project)
Microbial Source Tracking Investigations and Publications (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project)
State-of-the-Science: Fecal Source Identification and Associated Risk Assessment Tools (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project)
Microbial Source Tracking Guide Document (Rutgers University)
Clean Water Services. 2005. DNA Fingerprinting of Bacteria Sources in the Tualatin Sub-basin.
Griffith, John, S. Wesiberg and C. McGee. 2003. Evaluation of microbial source tracking methods using mixed fecal sources in aqueous test samples. Journal of Water and Health. http://www.environmental-expert.com/files/19961/articles/4579/4579.pdf
Scott, Troy, J. Rose, R. Jenkins, S. Farrah and J Lukasik. 2002. Microbial Source Tracking: Current Methodology and Future Directions. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Vol 68/12. pgs 5796-5803. http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/68/12/5796.pdf | <urn:uuid:df857ae6-75fd-4d36-becd-83ccccd74881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beachapedia.org/Bacterial_Pollution,_Tracking_the_Sources | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941432 | 1,748 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof is a bit of an enigma: an apparently white gentile male with solidly liberal leanings who occasionally flirts with the reality of genetic differences. His big concern, as with many white liberals, is Africa.
But Kristof is not quite the apologist that Walter Duranty was for the Soviet Union. He lays bare the atrocities of African regimes and does not reflexively blame whites for Africa’s messes.
In his Sunday column, he actually reports that many black Africans in Zimbabwe preferred the rule of white leader Ian Smith to its present leader, black African Robert Mugabe, because under Smith, food was available.
Says Kristof, “If only Mr. Mugabe were a white racist! Then the regional powers might stand up to him. For the sake of Zimbabweans, we should be just as resolute in confronting African tyrants who are black as in confronting those who are white.”
The attacks on white farmers by Mugabe and his goons — as well as horrifying violence committed against fellow blacks — should be known to white advocates. The latter has started to get attention from the Bush administration and even Britain, which recently stripped Mugabe of his “knighthood” (what it says about the West that he ever got this in the first place is too depressing to consider.)
But for Kristof, the fate of whites shouldn’t enter into the moral calculus at all. He states, “Britain squandered its influence partly by focusing on the plight of dispossessed white farmers. (That’s tribalism for Anglo-Saxons.)”
Those tribal British! All they care about is people like themselves when they should really be finding ways to help out the blacks. Of course, the sad fact is that the British have lost the normal human sense of tribalism to the point that both major parties officially endorse Britain as a multicultural, multiethnic state.
Kristof is correct that a white Mugabe would get attention. But he’s wrong if he thinks the West should or will drop its double standard. The truth is that we expect such madness from black Africans, because it’s perfectly in line with their past behavior. The lower IQ, quickness to violence and higher rates of pathology among blacks are a compelling explanation for that behavior, but beyond that, the madness of Africa is not the business of whites (with the exception of the attacks on whites, for which I recommend military intervention and refugee status in white countries).
Africa is a hellhole not because of the legacy of colonialism, “racism” by the white West or “failures of leadership,” but because it is populated by the lowest-IQ human beings on Earth. Their evolutionary trajectory simply does not equip them to live in or make the civilized societies of the West. This is no cause for mockery or condemnation, but simple understanding and acknowledgment.
But this understanding is crucial, because whites have saddled themselves — with the prodding of men like Kristof — to feel that Africa’s situation can be remedied if we simply take the right actions. Of course, it won’t.
Even if the case could be made that whites should make humanitarian gestures toward Africa, this would be immoral given the present crisis facing whites. Whites need to be attending to their own people, who are quickly vanishing from the Earth. If Kristof wants a tragedy to cover, he should look into this.
Christopher Donovan is the pen name of an attorney and former journalist. | <urn:uuid:8b654850-14b0-493a-8f91-4a335289e56c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2008/08/eye-on-the-media-nyts-kristof-admits-a-white-mugabe-would-get-attention/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958273 | 736 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Joining Forces to Save the Snowy Plover
Two determined Southern California biologists are on a mission to save one of our cutest, and most besieged, birds. Joggers, surfers, and dogs had better watch out.
It seems remarkable that Cristina Sandoval and Stacey Vigallon had never met, never even talked on the phone, till the day I bring them together on Sandoval’s home turf in Santa Barbara, California. For the past few years the two biologists have communicated only through email chains about a cause to which both have dedicated their professional lives: staving off the extinction of the western snowy plover.
The sparrow-sized shorebird has been federally threatened on the Pacific coast since 1993, and in 2006 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected an effort to delist it. About 2,000 breeding pairs live along the U.S. Pacific Coast, 90 percent of them in California. One of the last best hopes for the species rests on the 1,500-acre Coal Oil Point Reserve, a beach and coastal wetland owned and operated by the University of California-Santa Barbara and an Audubon-designated Important Bird Area. Audubon regards a portion of the reserve as one of the top 10 birding spots in the nation west of the Mississippi. Sandoval, a biologist at the university, oversees an award-winning program that has brightened prospects for the plover and many other shorebirds.
Her efforts center on Sands Beach. In winter the 400-yard sliver of coast hosts the nation’s largest concentration of feeding and resting snowy plovers, as many as 400. Among them are 20 breeding pairs, which produce some 50 chicks each spring in a place where there had been none for several decades until nine years ago, when Sandoval began cordoning off their habitat and educating the public. “The plover biologists said maybe you’d get a nest or two because it’s such a small, dense place,” says the Brazilian-born scientist, who left her country because she grew too depressed watching sugarcane fields replace native habitat. “We were all wrong. We now have 20 pairs each year that are staying in breeding season and are a few feet away from each other.”
Vigallon’s focus is on L.A.’s Dockweiler Beach, cheek by jowl with LAX Airport. Although today she has traveled a mere 100 miles to Sands Beach, her experience as the Los Angeles Audubon Society’s director of interpretation is a world apart from Sandoval’s experience in Santa Barbara. Dockweiler hasn’t seen a plover hatch since the 1940s; the “snowies,” as they’re affectionately called, simply can’t compete with the hordes of human visitors each summer, though Vigallon’s talents are inspiring elementary and high school students to rally to her cause.
Like most endangered creatures, the snowy plover is an “umbrella species,” serving as a surrogate for protecting other wildlife sharing the same habitat. In the presence of healthy plover populations, researchers have noted higher numbers of such shorebirds as sanderlings, western sandpipers, whimbrels, black-bellied plovers, long-billed curlews, and western gulls. To understand you need look no further than the contrast at Sands Beach between the areas that are open to and off-limits to beachgoers. On one side much of the beach has been worn about as smooth as a billiard table by the foot traffic of surfers, joggers, and strollers. The other side, beyond the rope “fence,” is untrammeled sand dunes—“the most dynamic and fragile natural formations,” according to the California Coastal Commission. Sandoval received an award in 2003 for her plover program from The Natural Areas Association. On steep ridges, the vibrant colors of native wildflowers, including red and pink sand verbena, are aflame against the sand’s tan canvas. “There are species here you can find few other places,” Sandoval says. “Most people are unaware that a beach system like this can host so many plants and wildlife. A lot of them live underground.”
Bending down, she points to intricate grooves in the sand formed by the underground movements of ciliated sand beetles. She digs one up and holds it in her hand, letting it meander across her palm. “Audubon volunteers are always asking what makes that track in the sand,” Vigallon responds. “So mysterious!” Sandoval explains these beetles have wings but are flightless; it’s believed they move on driftwood. She gently puts this one back down and it promptly disappears, burrowing back into the sand. Scurrying about is the globose dune beetle, a federal species of special concern, owing to its dependence on California’s coastal dunes.
“This is what a real beach looks like,” Sandoval says, walking toward the shoreline. “The plovers love this type of overwash with rocks and kelp wrack.” This wrack consists of heaps of kelp filled with flies, maggots, and beach hoppers—a veritable avian feast. Vigallon is brimming with envy. For much of the year Dockweiler and other beaches in Los Angeles are routinely groomed with trucks to clear them of human detritus and to make the sands as welcome as the French Riviera’s. “We have literally miles of people,” she explains with a shrug. “There’s broken glass, diapers, Buffalo wings. It’s a safety hazard. If you don’t remove that, the beaches are horribly polluted.” The problem is that the cleanup crews eliminate the sand dunes as well. And there go the nesting spots.
In the distance beyond the ropes we catch our first glimpses of the feathery wisps, which weigh just two ounces. Hopping around, they look like cotton balls on chopsticks. Run and freeze. Run and freeze. They scamper and stop to avoid detection by predators. Sanderlings, for which plovers are frequently mistaken, do the same thing. Sandoval imitates the move, doing a little jitter and sticking her rump out. | <urn:uuid:a274e498-1d3f-459e-b7c3-0d00e504c492> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audubonmagazine.org/articles/birds/joining-forces-save-snowy-plover | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950054 | 1,364 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Had a weird experience I want to share
Just last night I went to to log into my Gmail account and kept getting account or password incorrect.
I initially thought, capslock, no joy. Wrong password, of the 5 main passwords I use only two have been used for gmail. At home my password isn’t saved within Firefox, at work it is. I checked this morning and I was entering the correct password.
I’m a fairly cautious PC user. Hardware firewall, antivirus is always up to date, anti add and spyware always up to date, operating system patched and strong passwords. I’m cautious about the addons and executables I use.
So how could this happen? I’m still looking into that and will let you know what I find out.
Following are my suspicions . My gmail account is firstname.lastname@gmail. I keep getting emails for a person who shares my name. A guy who lives in Scotland his is 1stname’middlenameinitial’lastname (Gmail ignores fullstops in their addresses). I have been his secretary for ages and recently i decided to stop forwarding his emails to his account. Recently he received an important email.
I was wondering whether all my passwords have been compromised but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Of concern was my WOW account and secondarily my bank account. Actually the bank was my primary concern but I couldn’t do anything about it as it was outside business hours.
They all look ok.
I couldn’t get my gmail account back as the associated email address linked to the account was a Yahoo address (i’m proud to say I have never had one). I then had to advise Google that my account had been compromised. They asked me a bunch of questions and activated my work email address as the associated email. Normally there process would have taken 5 days. I got my account back within an hour.
When I went in to update my google info. It turned out I had moved to Scotland . Thus my suspiscions.
So whilst this case looks to be a harmless identity crisis, I learnt some things.
- Ensure that any web based email account you have has an associated email account preferably one from your work or ISP. Mine was my ISP, which I had changed in the mean time. Without this you can loose your web based email account for good.
- Without an email account you can rely upon you cannot make changes to your blizzard details other than password. If a keyogger had have gotten my passwords the email account that all of my correspondence associated with my banking and wow accounts would’ve also have been compromised.
- A stolen email account would’ve given a hacker an immense amount of information about who I am.
Don’t put yourself through the stress. Makes sure your details for all you web based accounts are up to date, that you have a second email account that you don’t access from you wow computer and that you follow safe computing.
I used to root outdoors, now I root anywhere. Dave ‘the tree hugger’ | <urn:uuid:84a712d5-25dd-4af2-a59f-4ee6e7c0a9f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gnomeaggedon.net/2008/11/04/my-gmail-account-was-hijacked-or-hacked/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=1c9f85538d | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971121 | 660 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Internal Report 344
Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist
Supervising Scientist Division
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2000
About the report
In response to community concerns about environmental protection eriss has made consultation and communication tasks an integral component of research activities. We recognise that our research program needs to be developed in cooperation with the communities potentially affected, as well as regulators, mining companies and wetland managers. Thus the outcomes of our research programs need to be communicated in forms that are suitable for a diverse audience. In particular we have taken increased steps to ensure that Aboriginal people in the region are included in these processes, and where possible are able to participate in research projects. | <urn:uuid:c92860b4-0259-44a5-9159-83d74d32889a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.gov.au/ssd/publications/ir/344.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95168 | 144 | 1.960938 | 2 |
Of the most sought after career option generated in the Information Technology sector during 21st century Animation, Multimedia and Web designing has been the front runner in terms of manpower inputs till date and still it is only 5% to 10% of the sector’s requirements means there is still a lot of scope for the aspirants and this phenomenon is neither time bound nor demographically categorized in fact it is a worldwide process. Popularity of the characters like Mickey mouse, Donald Duck and Stuart little to name a few creations of the animations that are delighting the young and mature equally has made animation one of the fastest growing and most in-demand industries in the world. Multi media and Animation are among the major employment providers of the 21st century. It is a form of art that merges text, images, graphics, animation, audio and video to create magic. At best animation can be considered only as a component of multimedia. A blend of entertainment industry and technology animation is concerned with design, drawing, layout and production of graphically rich and attractive multimedia clips and using them to make movies, games or cartoons by moving the drawings or models of animals or people with the help of computers or other electronic means taking great care of time and space that play a critical role in animation.
Animation as a career can be pursued by those aspirants who posses excellent creativity and drawing skills. Animators are the talented artists who create characters for a variety of projects like movies, television, advertisements etc. Job opportunities are on the rise for an animator and they are in great demand, as it a growing industry and have become a popular feature in almost all the new generation movies and advertisements. Although to become a successful animator, one doesn't require any specific academic qualification. Those with a basic sketching skill and a passion for animation can enter this field and make their space easily. However having a formal qualification like a degree or diploma in animation or multimedia can be advantages while seeking jobs in international arena and with multinational companies.
Any body with a minimum qualification of 10+2 or equivalent is eligible for Degree and Diploma courses in animation whereas any graduate could apply for Post Graduation in animation. However some institutions of high repute like Industrial Design Center (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Design (NID) follows eligibility criterion that only graduate of architecture, technology and engineering, fine arts can apply for the PG course in these institutes.
Besides these graduate and post graduate courses, there are several professional courses that focus on various styles and techniques. These courses, i.e Courses in Traditional animation, Stop-motion animation, Rotoscoping , Computer generated 2D and 3D animation, Clay-mation, Photoshop, Human anatomy, Drawing etc. helps one to specialize in a particular area. One should also have a basic knowledge in computer handling.
Apart from professional training and basic knowledge of computer several personal skills good sense of colour, proportion and size, design etc also play a role in making a good animator.
A good animator should have an artistic bent of mind with a lot of passion and imaginative skills, creativity and of course a number of personals skills like patience, discipline and dedication to work for long hours. He/ She should also have a sound understanding of anatomy of humans, animals or birds and body movements and lighting effects. Good communication skill is also needed as most of the time he has to work in a team consisting of several specialists.
Like an animated feature film is a combined effort of a wide variety of professional from the multimedia industry. It requires around 500 animators.
Some of the jobs offered in the industry are :-
Professional who develop contents for the animation.
Modeler is the one who makes the models for animation. They should have a solid understanding of anatomy, form and volume.
Story Broad Artist
Those with strong drawing skills could be hired as storyboard artists who can visualize a sequence of events from frame to frame.
They brings characters to life and generally has knowledge of traditional animation, stop-motion animation as well as claymation
The background artist is the person who specialises to paint the background of the characters and sets the background for the project.
layout artist is just like a cinematographer of that animation project as they are decides the lighting and camera angles and he is sketching the background design for the animation.
They involves the creation of a high volume of separate drawings that define a sequence.
Compositing consists of layering individual frames of animation on top of one another to create final images. These images are then strung together to create complete shots or mini animated movies.
Special effects artist
They integrate live-action footage with Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or other elements (such as model work)
• Audio & video specialist
They applies a surface to the 3D modeled character, object or environment.
A rigging artist takes the modeled, textured 3D character or object and sets it up with a skeletal system or joints (if required).
The clean up artist checks the accuracy and consistency of the designs and drawings. To be a good clean up artist, he should have good draft-man skill with the knowledge of density, width, volume and mass.
They create variations of shade, colour intensity and shadows
Digital ink and paint artist
It is the duty of a digital ink and paint artist to give colours to each frame.
It is the compositor brings together all the different characters and backgrounds in to single frame.
Key frame animator
Key frame animator draws the pictures of a movement’s beginning and end.
They take all the data in a scene such as models, textures, animation, lighting, etc and output the correct combination in the form of individual frames of animation.
They takes the sculpted, textured and rigged 3D model and breathes life into it. This is done by putting in order the key frames such that they appear to be in motion.
They assembles various visual and audio components of the film into a coherent and effective whole.
Website designing, CD-Rom production, graphics designing and three-dimensional product modeling are some other fields where animators can gain employment. Animation is also needed in other areas like business, sales, engineering, education and advertising. It has chances in fashion designing and interior designing and even in medical, legal and insurance sector for their presentations and models. The gaming industry that includes video and mobile games are looking forward for good animators.
High pay packages are the most attractive part of this profession. Within years these professionals can earn six-digit salary. As a junior animator or trainee one could get between Rs.20000- 25000 per month. A three to five year experienced animator will get 35000 to 40000. A well-experienced animator who has a good portfolio of excellent animation work could easily get 50000- 60000 per month
Web designing is an integral and important part of Information Technology industry. Today web services are being applied in almost every walk of life be it industries, business, education or public sector. With booming IT industry, web designing has a wide scope in India. A web designer can be absorbed in different fields such as advertising agencies, publishing, audio-visual media, design studios, printers and typesetters, manufacturers and department stores, marketing firms, exhibits and displays and educational institutes and libraries. Careers in web designing can be the right option for those having a flair for creativity.Various private Technical institutes in India provide a certificate program in Web Designing. Web designer has to concentrate on designing graphics and layout. He should be visually artistic with a flair for creating a design flow. If one chooses a career in Web designing, a degree in computer science would be an added advantage. Besides this many short term specific web-designing courses are offered by many popular institutes. | <urn:uuid:07db3a42-9ba2-4f41-b4e0-b943da5b76f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uniapply.in/articles/item/1402-career-in-animation-multimedia-and-web-designing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932441 | 1,619 | 2.53125 | 3 |
"Doing nothing is not a neutral act when an individual pleas for relief from the emotional misery bullying inflicts. Doing nothing is denying the person credibility as an adult. Doing nothing is sustaining the status quo and defending the perpetrator, however implicitly or indirectly. How dare HR, the primary agent responsible for implementing or blocking the employer’s response to reported bullying, side with the bully (most often in management, 73%) against the employee who naively came to HR for “help”!"
(taken from an blog post on Dr Gariy Namie's website- NB the use of this quote does not indicate Dr Namie's endorsement of this blog) | <urn:uuid:9cc0bc5b-5599-46db-8272-73345d4d2f37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebullyinghelpline.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941613 | 137 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Posted: Jan 8, 2013 2:03 PM by Press Release
Baton Rouge, LA (January 8, 2013) - The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) is monitoring all horses entering Louisiana from Illinois after reports of at least 68 horses that tested positive in recent months for Equine Herpes Virus Type 1 (EHV-1) at the Hawthorne Race Course located in Illinois. Horse owners must provide health certificates to the Louisiana State Veterinarian's Office prior to entry.
"This is a precautionary measure to prevent exposure to horses in Louisiana. The Louisiana Office of the State Veterinarian is monitoring the outbreak at Hawthorne Race Course. This is a highly contagious disease and we will prohibit all horses from Illinois from entering the state unless they are cleared by a veterinarian," said LDAF Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M.
According to Stanley Seeling, president of the Louisiana Horseman's Benevolent and Protective Association, horses typically travel from Hawthorne Race Course to Louisiana for the winter races. EHV-1 is a DNA virus that can cause fever, lethargy, abortion, respiratory and neurological issues and can cause death. It can be spread directly from horse-to-horse or indirectly through coughing or contact with physical objects contaminated with the virus. Those objects include: tack, wipe rags or other grooming equipment, feed and water buckets and people's hands or clothing.
The health certificate must disclose that the horse has not been on Hawthorne's grounds in the preceding 30 days. EHV-1 is not contagious to humans. | <urn:uuid:c0b30195-3f71-467c-ab56-ddfa85bf7561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.katc.com/news/ldaf-works-to-deter-spread-of-virus-in-horses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937232 | 326 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Last Updated: 11:17 AM, December 23, 2012
Posted: 1:26 AM, December 23, 2012
The Midwest drought is putting a chill on the grill.
Meat prices are “through the roof,” said William Degel, owner of Uncle Jack’s Steakhouses in Midtown and Queens. “It’s at an all-time high.”
He says he’s been forced to serve smaller portions and raise prices — the porterhouse for two increased by $5 to $94 and the filet mignon by $2 to $35 for the 10-ounce and $45 for the 16-ounce.
“Even chopped meat has gone up dollars a pound,” Degel said.
The drought, the worst in at least 25 years, is affecting 80 percent of agricultural land, the US Department of Agriculture says. Midwestern farmers were hit hard by acres of shriveled corn and soybean crops over the summer.
Beef was already in short supply — a victim of earlier droughts and rises in the costs of fuel and feed. During this year’s drought, ranchers reluctant to buy expensive grain feed brought young — and thin — cattle to market early, which will spur another shortage and could threaten fatter cuts of beef.
“We have a fundamental disconnect between supply and demand,” said Richard Volpe, an economist with the Agriculture Department. “Prices are really high, and they’re only going higher.”
At the famed Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn, the New York strip is already up 11 percent, to $46.95, said owner Amy Rubenstein.
But nearly all restaurants are bracing for the worst.
Peter Glazier, owner of Michael Jordan’s Steak House, said meat purveyors are warning of increases of up to 20 percent in the coming year.
He is considering adding different choices of meat, such as sliced steak.
“You don’t have to go prime everywhere,” Glazier said.
Don’t expect any relief at the supermarket, where prices will pinch even harder.
“If you look at supermarket prices,” Volpe said, “it’s pretty clear that we’ve already seen some of the preliminary impacts of the drought. We’ve seen price hikes for things like beef, pork, poultry, eggs, dairy and other meats.”
The increases will continue by an expected 3 to 4 percent next year and will show up in the cost of packaged and processed foods — cereals and corn flour, for example — in 10 months to a year.
Chef and cookbook author Marco Canora hoped to add pheasant and venison for the Christmas season at his Hearth restaurant in the East Village. But at $38 each, he was forced to choose only one.
“It was really tough,” Canora said. “I decided to not use pheasants and use chicken instead. And we kept the venison on.” | <urn:uuid:4425311b-758a-4b57-9d37-25c47c34bf55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/local/rai_ing_the_steaks_mGHDObThO2Labxu9lvfaRL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958173 | 653 | 1.992188 | 2 |
A study by the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston found that your blood group can help determine your risk of heart disease. People with blood groups A and B are more at risk, whereas people with group AB, which is the rarest group, are most susceptible to the condition.
But people with blood group O, the most common blood type, benefit from some natural protection against heart disease. The new study based on an analysis of two large US health and lifestyle studies, involved more than ninety thousand men and women was conducted for more than twenty years. Collectively more than four thousand people developed heart disease during study period.
The researchers also taken into account the age and other factors such as diet, drinking and family history of heart attacks that could contribute to heart disease. The study compared blood groups and heart disease incidence but did not analyze the complex biological mechanisms that were involved.
The study found that people with blood group B were eleven percent more likely to suffer heart disease, people with group A were five percent at increased risk and people with group AB were twenty-three percent more prone to suffer from heart disease. Researchers believe people with group O may benefit from a substance that is thought to assist blood flow and reduce clotting.
There is evidence that blood group A is associated with higher levels of bad type of cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), which is more likely to fu up the arteries. Blood group AB is linked to inflammation, which also plays an important role in artery damage.
Lead researcher Prof Lu Qi, explained while people cannot change their blood type, their findings may help physicians better understand who is at risk for developing heart disease. It is good to know your blood type the same way you should know your cholesterol or blood pressure numbers.
If you know you’re at higher risk, you can reduce the risk by adopting a healthier lifestyle, such as eating right, exercising and not smoking. It would be interesting to study whether people with different blood types respond differently to lifestyle intervention, added Prof Qi. The study findings were published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. | <urn:uuid:460785c3-118b-4819-8344-309e013831fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehealthage.com/2012/08/how-blood-group-affect-heart-disease-risk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973954 | 434 | 3.40625 | 3 |
The bald eagle is proving what a lot of jailbirds already know: it can be a lot easier getting in than getting out.
The national symbol was supposed to have been removed from the Endangered Species List by now, but its “delisting” has been placed on hold. There doesn’t seem to be much debate over the fact that the white-headed raptor with the ferocious expression has rebounded somewhat in the years since Congress banned killing it in 1940 — long before the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973.
Outlawing the use of DDT which destroyed its eggs, and taking measures to protect its habitat helped the bald eagle rebound from its precarious level of fewer than 500 pairs in the contiguous states less than four decades ago. There are believed to be nearly 1,200 pairs today in the “Lower 48,” and outside my office window in Alaska they are more common than pigeons.
So what’s the problem here? Partly, a lack of good science.
Gauging When Enough Is Enough
Federal officials wanted to point to the eagle as a stirring example of the successful application of a popular law designed to protect critters that are dying out, largely because humans have messed up their environment. But now they say they want to think about it a bit more because if the eagle is removed from the list, how can they be sure its habitat will be protected?
Environmental groups largely oppose the delisting because they see no gain, and some threat, in any relaxation of the monitoring and protection that is required under the law for a listed species.But the chief dilemma in removing any creature from the protection of the act is deciding when enough is enough.
The Endangered Species Act “provided no criteria for deciding when a species should be listed, delisted or ‘downlisted’ from endangered to threatened,” reports a team of researchers in the current issue of American Scientist.
Addressing the broad issue of when any animal should be delisted — the scientists conclude that “no management agency has come up with a rigorous and objective definition” for when a species can be considered “recovered.”
Leah Gerber, a wildlife ecologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara and lead author of the report, says current decisions on conservation management are inconsistent and too often based on the popularity of a specific species, not the level or evidence of the threat.
Whales and eagles get a lot of attention, and any attempt to remove them from the list is bound to be met with hostility. A toad that is holding up a popular construction project is likely to get a lot less support than the national bird.
“Every year, populations of plants, insects and even microbes reach the brink of extinction, virtually unnoticed,” write Gerber and Douglas P. DeMaster, director of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, and Simona Perry Roberts, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “In the meantime, the threat of large-mammal extinctions arouses public passions, attention and, ultimately, money. It is here, at the intersection of sentimentality and scientific controversy, that conservation biologists typically face their greatest challenge.”
In other words, this is an immature science facing very mature questions in a politically-charged environment. | <urn:uuid:0067da44-5e11-4545-8104-32e95a0fd1b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=120117&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948879 | 700 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Private certification schemes are the unsung heroes of a market economy. They are far more effective than state regulation. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I have always had reservations about Fairtrade-labelled products. The foundation pounces on critics with its well-oiled publicity machine, always responding with anecdotes. But doubts remain.
There are many ways in which poor farmers can get better prices. They can do so through speciality brands, via traditional trade channels and using other labelling initiatives. Does Fairtrade help? The evidence is limited, but even proponents of Fairtrade would argue that only about 50 per cent of the extra money spent by consumers is available to spend on social projects, and others have suggested a figure much closer to zero. No clear evidence has been produced to suggest t | <urn:uuid:6196b930-9df0-4917-888c-8c576b1fbef3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iea.org.uk/print/6961 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967766 | 160 | 1.960938 | 2 |
The system of beat policing, described in detail in module four, implied a two-pronged strategy. First, this system of high-visibility policing in urban areas was designed to serve as a reminder that the police had authority and surveillance over the streets. Second, the same system regulated the presence of police officers on the their beats. Arthur Battle describes surveillance by sergeant in greater detail.
Between 1900 and 1910, up to 11 per cent of the force were disciplined annually, though by the inter-war years, the most frequent punishments were for neglecting to patrol beats and abusing refreshment times. PC Sturges was reprimanded for both of these offences in August 1933.
Punishments were meted out for a myriad of often very petty offences; at least one man was punished after being refused permission to resign. Henry Fraser wanted to resign from the police with immediate effect; this request was refused on the basis that a month's notice was required. Fraser refused to comply stating that he would not attend any further duties. His inspector completed an 'information and complaint' form seeking a magistrate to sign the appropriate warrant: Notes on the reverse of the form indicate that Henry Fraser was fined the significant sum of £5 in 1895 for resigning without permission.
Alcohol was a major cause of removals of men from the force. A parliamentary select committee in 1834 heard that four-fifths of dismissals were for drunkenness. Alcohol-related offences by officers probably declined as general alcohol consumption fell, and the job became more of a career. The loss of benefits, such as police pension, possibly reduced the inclination for malpractice. A discipline book for the 'S' (Hampstead) Division for the 1880s gives an idea of the variety of offences committed by men during that period, and shows that alcohol still played a role. Battle's memoir shows a drinking culture still present in the force in the 1930s. | <urn:uuid:80de7e10-c2fa-4517-8e69-b5780d764268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history-from-police-archives/Met6Kt/PoliceWorker/pwDiscipline.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985213 | 393 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Bowdlerization helps focus this post on traffic signal programming, also posted on my blog in a more digressive version. It was inspired by a column by CM Tuthill in the latest issue of Lowry Hill East’s neighborhood newspaper The Wedge, which has some great news about changes to signal timing at a couple key Uptown intersections. I follow with discussions of a few more types of signal programming that affect pedestrians, and I can’t help speculating on the source of certain signal frustrations. Without further ado:
Leading pedestrian interval
CM Tuthill’s column highlights the concrete action Public Works is taking to address reports of ”the difficulty pedestrians have crossing streets in Uptown” – leading pedestrian intervals at the intersections of Hennepin Ave with Lake and Lagoon Sts. CM Tuthill describes it thusly:
The Leading Pedestrian Interval gives pedestrians the walk signal 3-5 seconds before the green signal for [vehicular] traffic. Pedestrians get a head start on crossing the street and become established in the crosswalk before vehicles begin moving.
I couldn’t tell from the article whether this pattern is in operation yet, but I’m looking forward to trying them out. These intersections are both terrifying, with the one at Lake infamous for the frequency with which cars crash into the salon at the northeast corner. My guess is that the biggest improvement will be at Lagoon, where cars turning right from Hennepin to Lagoon were somehow able to see a red light as a green arrow. Email 311 to tell them how great leading pedestrian intervals are and how they should be used at every intersection with a right turn lane.
Loser pedestrian interval
On the other hand, there are still lots of intersections with loser pedestrian intervals. These give pedestrians a don’t walk hand way before the light turns red. There is actually a somewhat legitimate reason to do this on a very wide road in order to halt pedestrians when their continued crossing after the signal changes would cut too deep into the next phase. Almost no streets in Minneapolis and St Paul are wide enough for this and more common are examples like Glenwood & Royalston, at the heart of Minneapolis’ Homeless District. At this fairly narrow street – with a refuge median - a beg button must be pushed before you even get to suffer the indignity of the signal timing, which gives twice as much time to the don’t walk time as it gives to the walk and flashing don’t walk combined (40 seconds vs 10 and 10).
This leads me to speculate about the causes of this sort of affront to pedestrians. The beg buttons at Glenwood & Royalston were actually faux buttons until recently. This means one of two things:
- The signal technology is so crude that it only allows certain heinous types of programming (think about the enormous signal cabinets you see at the side of the road to house the computers that control traffic lights and then think about an iPod Nano); or
- Someone actually designed it to be this way.
I shudder about equally at each of these possibilities.
Non-conflicting pedestrian walk signal
Last year I reported that only two of the 8-10 protected left turn enabled traffic signals on Hennepin – installed during the two-way conversion just a few years ago – gave walk signs to non-conflicting pedestrian traffic. There is a good amount of foot traffic downtown, and holding them unnecessarily wasted time and encouraged non-compliance (already a good strategy for pedestrians in a auto-oriented one-way grid system). The City’s zillion-dollar traffic signal programming initiative has fixed at least a few of those – the signals at 11th & 12th work now, although 9th & 10th still don’t.
Imbecilic pedestrian walk signal
The intersection of 12th & Hennepin is alright now, but for the last few months it did something very unusual. It managed to give a walk signal to non-conflicting pedestrian traffic, but the walk was active for the same amount of time as the walk for the conflicting pedestrian signal, effectively giving them a loser pedestrian interval. In other words, the pedestrian traffic that doesn’t conflict with the protected left turn traffic gets the don’t walk signal earlier than the pedestrian traffic that does conflict with protected left turns.
This situation, and the fact that it’s subsequently been fixed, indicates to me that the source of pedestrian signal timing troubles – or “difficulty pedestrians have crossing streets” as CM Tuthill put it – is due primarily to lack of attention by traffic engineers. It may be that the software used to program signals isn’t what you’d call user-friendly, but clearly it’s possible to program a phasing pattern that’s beneficial to pedestrians. Let’s hope more policymakers follow CM Tuthill’s lead and put policies in place that would force traffic engineers to learn how to use their software for everyone’s benefit, not just for cars. | <urn:uuid:1361b85a-4b26-40dc-af94-72e5c164c1d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.streets.mn/2012/06/15/timing-is-everything-rated-g/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947618 | 1,052 | 1.65625 | 2 |
- Jessica Kostrab ’13
- Hometown: Chardon, Ohio
- Major: Geology
I chose to major in geology at Mount Union because I felt like I could make a difference and save lives by learning how to predict earthquakes.
If studying the materials, processes and history of the Earth interests you, check out our geology major. Not only is it a fascinating field, but its in demand as well. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment growth of 18 percent is expected in the field through 2018, which is faster than the average for all occupations. This growth will be fueled by the need for energy, environmental protection and responsible land and water management.
At Mount Union, our geology students combine a solid foundation in geological science with practical field skills in the field. With this preparation, you will be prepared for graduate study as well as entry-level careers in a number of fields.
- Environmental geoscience
- Oil and gas industry
- Mining and minerals
- Federal and state governments | <urn:uuid:9e497a06-9df1-4acd-8a7f-4f68d9afd7bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountunion.edu/geology-careers?css=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938669 | 212 | 1.90625 | 2 |
|"Manager's only" handbook
Some companies have separate job manuals for employees and managers. Generally, a company will distribute a manager's only handbook to guide supervisors on the procedures for disciplining employees.
|Applications and resumes
Job applications and resumes are usually the two most common ways that employers retrieve information about prospective employees. Both sources help employers screen for the qualifications, experience, and education needed to complete job duties.
An employee handbook typically contains information about a company's work rules and polices. These handbooks are designed to be helpful resources for employees, as they often provide detailed information about a company's benefit programs, discipline policies, and safety procedures.
|FMLA record-keeping requirements
Employers covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA (F-M-L-A), are required to keep all records related to their obligations under the Act for at least three years.
|Immigration Reform and Control Act
The Immigration Reform and Control Act, which makes it unlawful for companies to hire individuals who are not legally authorized to work in the United States, requires employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all new employees using the Immigration and Naturalization Form I-9.
Federal law requires all employers to report information on all new hired employees to their state's Health and Human Services Department. The information is mainly used to help prevent unemployment compensation fraud and to locate parents who owe child support.
There are no laws that require employers to keep personnel files on each employee. However, since there are specific employee records, such as W-4 (W-four) and I-9 (eye-nine) forms, that must be retained under federal laws, many companies use personnel files as a convenient means to keep track of these documents and other important employee data. | <urn:uuid:3398eb60-093c-4074-93ca-fb9b3d56f598> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wetmtv.com/guides/legal/employment/heading.aspx?heading=Documents+%26+Records | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942376 | 368 | 1.890625 | 2 |
India General Information
The most colorful land on the earth, India, is unique in itself. It is rich in exotic land of chivalry, color, valiance, invincible forts, palaces, sand dunes, snow clad peaks, serene lakes, rivers, vibrant beaches, backwaters and many more. Moreover, India represents diversity in people; culture, costumes, music and dances. There are innumerable temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras (a kind of temple) in every state which are the unique example of art and architecture. No doubt, it is a land of rich culture and heritage. There are different types of culture, dances, music and languages in every state. The unique and unmatched example of art and painting, miniature painting can be seen in the monuments, temples, palaces and architectural buildings of India.
Ample of sanctuaries, national parks and protected areas provide shelter for different kinds of flora and fauna. The migrated and native species of animals, reptiles, birds can be seen in these national parks. Similarly, India is also famous all over the world for its handicrafts and jeweler designing. So, one conscious citizen must come and experience the magic of India with Columbus Treks and Expedition.
Indian history dates back to 3000 BC. Many excavations in Punjab and Gujarat reveal that the Indus Valley civilization was a highly developed urban civilization. Similarly, the two cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, situated on two sides of the river Ravi, are known to have been built on a similar plan. This has been recorded in the Rig Veda - the earliest known literary source composed in this period that sheds light on India's past. India's history can be traced under the following grounds:
The Great Dynasties
It is reported that the Magadh rulers dominated the Northern plains during the 6th century. In the mean time, a new wave of thinking emerged in the form of Buddhism and Jainism to challenge Hindu orthodoxy. The Magadh rule was followed by the rule of Chandragupta Maurya, one of India's greatest emperors. The reign of Maurya sumited under the reign of Ashoka the Great who extended his empire from the Kashmir and Peshawar in the North to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East. Ashoka was not only a great ruler but also one of the most successful propagators of Buddhism in India. After Ashoka's death in 232 B.C., the empire began to disintegrate and the country was repeatedly raided and plundered by foreign invaders, leaving India disunited and weak for the next 400 years. Stability returned with the reign of Chandra Gupta I (380-412 A.D.). His rule is considered as the golden period in Indian history when art and culture flourished far and wide and the country prospered.
There had been little impact of invasions on life in Southern India unlike the North of India. Under the various rulers, arts and craft in the South also saw the emergence of various styles of architecture and some of the excellent architectural accomplishments in the South - the most famous being the exquisitely crafted Chola bronzes. These were followed by the Hoysala and the Vijaynagar empires - among the greatest Hindu empires.
The Muslim Invasions
It was between 1001 and 1025 A.D. that the first Muslim invasions of the country started with the Mahmud of Gazni, who plundered the sub-continent for its riches. In the later days, Mohamed Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan, the Tomar ruler of Delhi and left it in charge of his deputy, Qutub-ud-din, the man who built the Qutub Minar in Delhi. His rule was followed by that of the Khilji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodi dynasties respectively. It was during the period of Sultanate of Delhi that the Muslim rulers introduced Islamic concepts of society and governance at max, however, the South remained largely untouched. Mughal empire was established in 1525 A.D. when Babur, a descendant of Timur, as well as Genghis Khan invaded Punjab. The rule of Babur was followed by that of his son Humayun. He was ousted by Afghan chieftain Sher Shah however, resumed power after Sher Shah's death. Sher Shah is, however, remembered as the builder of Grand Trunk road spanning from Peshawar to Howrah. Later, Akbar, the son of Humayun started to reign who actually consolidated power and extended the empire across North India and parts of South India. Akbar is remembered as one of India's wisest rulers and most able administrators. He was succeeded by Jahangir, followed by his son Shah Jahan - best known as the builder of the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid. Shah Jahan's reign was followed by Aurangzeb's. The rule of Mughal declined after the death of Aurangzeb in India.
It is a matter of fact that over the centuries India had always been attractive to traders. It was Vasco da Gama, the first European to come to India who landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498. Later in the 16th century, the Portuguese established their colony and ruled till 1961 A.D. India offered liberal interests of commerce, as a result, the Portuguese, the French, the Dutch and the English, all of whom were lured. The English established themselves as the powerful ruler in India introducing revolutionary changes in social, political and economic life of the general people by the last quarter of the 18th century.
The seeds of British establishment in India were the disintegration of the Mughal empire, fighting among the Maratha rulers and inability of the various rulers across the country to unite against a common enemy, etc. However, with the wake of the 19th century, the country witnessed a revival of national pride and social reform and the revolt against the suppressive British rule. It was in the second half of the 19th century when the first war of independence in 1857 broke out in Meerut, people of all walks of life united for freedom.The anti-British sentiment became a mass movement with the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who devised a unique strategy for India's freedom struggle based on non-violence and civil disobedience. Gandhi, the father of Indian independence, conceived and led the non-cooperation movement in 1922, the Salt Satyagraha in 1930 and the Quit India Movement in 1942. Finally, the British government was compelled to transfer power on August 15, 1947 to the sovereign Indian people. Today, India stands as the world's largest democracy with a federal form of government.
Located in the northern hemisphere, India shares its borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is one of the largest countries in the world with a total land area of 3.3 million square kilometers. This Indian sub-continent is unique from the rest of Asia. We find towering Himalayas in the north which slope out into the great Indo-Gangetic plains. The Vindhya ranges separate the Deccan Peninsula from the northern plains in Central India. Bay of Bengal is on the east coast of the country, while Arabian Sea is on the west coast. The southern-most tip of the country is projected into the Indian Ocean.
India holds not only mountains, plains and the seas, but also about every geographical feature as well.Thar desert lies in Rajasthan in the west of the country, while a little south of it are the unique marshlands of Kutch. On the other hand, we find world's largest delta and a unique mangrove forest on the east. Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep Islands in the Indian Ocean include the islands of India. Thus, to sum up, India has a wide variety of flora, fauna and a climate that ranges from tropical to arctic.
India's climate varies from region to region. It is cold in the winter months in the north between November and March. We find tropical climate throughout the year in the coastal areas, while the plains and most central and southern regions of the country enjoy hot in the summer months of April and June.
India is rich in its culture. It has enjoyed an international reputation for the brass and bell metal work. The Indian culture was moulded throughout various eras of history, all the while absorbing customs, traditions and ideas from both invaders and immigrants. There is remarkable cultural and religious diversity in modern India. Different ethnic communities have their own distinct identities and almost every state carved out its own cultural niche. However, in spite of its unique cultural diversity, the whole country has been able to preserve its national identity.
India was the birth place of religious systems such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Such religions have strong influence not only in India but also in the whole world. After the invasion of the Islamic empire and the subsequent foreign domination from the tenth century onwards, the culture of India was heavily influenced by Persian, Arabic and Turkic cultures. India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition, says Mark Twain.
Indian cuisine has great variety and each region has its own distinctive flavours. Rice and wheat are the staple cereals. Chapatis or rotis, wheat based and rice are the staple meals of North Indian, eaten with a wide variety of side dishes like pickle, dals, curries, yogurt, chutney, etc. South Indian staple dishes consist of rice, sambhar, rasam, etc. Coconut and the popular snacks called idli dosa (rice-based) are other important ingredients in south Indian food. Fish is popular in coastal states, especially in Orissa, Kerala and West Bengal. Street foods like Panipuri, Vada pav, Bhelpuri, samosa, vada are also popular in different regions. Indianized version of the Chinese cuisine is also popular in the major urban areas. Like other Asian countries, tea enjoys heavy popularity, while coffee is quite popular in South India. Nimbu pani (lemonade), lassi, and coconut milk are also popular drinks of India.
Languages have created diverse traditions of culture in India so as regional diversity. India has a mosaic of languages; 216 of them are spoken by a group of 10,000 persons. Similarly, there are various other languages in India which are spoken by less then 10,000 people. Approximately, there are about 415 living languages in India. Hindi and English are the two official languages of communication for the national government as stipulated by the Constitution. Nepali is another language spoken in the northern part of India, especially in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Assam. A further 22 languages are scheduled for official use, mainly by state governments. Sanskrit is believed to be the mother of other languages spoken in India. Apart from India, Sanskrit is studied in other countries of the world as well.
The Dharmic religions are believed to be originated in India, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism and so on. It is a matter of fact that Hinduism and Buddhism are the world's third and fourth largest religions respectively, with a collective 1.4 billion followers, despite being free of any evangelistic traditions. India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with one of the most deeply religious societies and cultures. It is reported that more than 80.4% of the total population are Hindus followed by Islam (13.4%). Similarly, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism are other religions practiced in India. Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Judaism are also influential but the population is small. Despite the strong role of religion in Indian life, atheism and agnostics have also visible influences.
The colorful mosaic of Indian Festivals and fairs-as diverse as the land, is an expression of the spirit of celebration that is an essential part of the country observed with enthusiasm and gaiety; festivals are like gems, ornamenting the crown of Indian culture. They are round-the-year vibrant interludes in the mundane routine of life. Every season brings along new festivals, each a true celebration of the bounties of nature. In addition, that is not all! The birthdays of gods and goddesses, saints and prophets, great historical happening and the advent of the New Year, all find expression in colorful festivities. The same festival, though celebrated differently in the various parts of the country, exhibits an eternal harmony of sprit. Packed with fun and excitement, festivals are occasions to clean and decorate houses, to get together with friends and relatives and to exchange gifts. New attire, dance, music and ritual, all add to their joyful rhythm. It is a time for prayer, for pageantry and processions... a time to rejoice. | <urn:uuid:9be1f239-7974-47f8-8db5-2bb9ce2860c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agiletrek.com/india_general_information.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958823 | 2,699 | 3.21875 | 3 |
For much of the U.S., 2012 was the year without a winter. NOAA announced today that not only was March the warmest on record in the U.S. (lower 48 states), but so too was the entire January-February-March period.
After the onslaught of daily and monthly records, the March nationwide record comes as no surprise. The average temperature across the country was an incredible 8.6 degrees above the 20th century average (half a degree warmer than the previous record from 1910). Aside from January, 2006, no month on record had surpassed its average by such a large margin.
Here are some more amazing details about the March temperatures in the Lower 48 according to NOAA:
* 25 states east of the Rockies had their warmest March on record. An additional 15 states had monthly temperatures ranking among their ten warmest.
* There were 21 instances of low (nighttime) temperatures being as warm, or warmer, than the existing record daytime temperature for a given date. (list)
* Four locations established a new daily record high by 30 or more degrees (list)
* There were 15,292 warm temperature records broken (compared to just 890 records lows).
* Hundreds of locations broke all-time March records.
More information: NOAA March State of the Climate Report
Animation of over 15,000 daily high temperature records during March from NOAA.
Exceptionally warm January through March
While not as extreme, unseasonably mild weather preceded the March heat blast over much of the Lower 48.
For the first quarter of 2012 (January-March period), the record-breaking temperature in the Lower 48 was 6.0 degrees above average. All 25 states east of the Rockies had their warmest first quarter on record, including the cities of Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Not a single state was cooler than average.
The U.S. Climate Extremes Index, which tracks extremes in temperature, precipitation and drought (also includes tropical storms during hurricane season), was highest on record for the period - largely due to all of the warm weather records.
Weather patterns behind warm weather
During the second half of March, a massive ridge in the jet stream - or a heat dome - developed over the eastern part of the U.S. This long-lasting feature led to an incredible blitz of heat records. The Weather Channel’s Stu Ostro confirmed this heat dome (as measured by an indicator of pressure at about 18,000 feet, known as 500 mb heights) was the strongest on record (since 1948) so early in the year in the region affected.
Prior to March, the warmth in January and February resulted mostly from a pattern that kept most of the bitter Arctic air locked up towards the North Pole. Much of the continental U.S. remained under the influence of mild west to east flow (off the Pacific Ocean) with only brief southward excursions of Arctic air.
Contributions from global warming
An analysis from NOAA suggests the March heat wave was intensified by elevated greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities:
“Our current estimate of the impact of GHG [greenhouse gas] forcing is that it likely contributed on the order of 5% to 10% of the magnitude of the heat wave during 12-23 March,” it said.
While noting there is a degree of “randomness” in the occurrence of such heat waves, NOAA cautioned their odds are “growing” as greenhouse gas levels build up in the atmosphere.
“It’s [the warm weather] been ongoing for several months,” Jake Crouch, a climate scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, told the Associated Press.
Indeed, NOAA found the cold season spanning October 2011-March 2012 was second warmest on record in the Lower 48 and that the 12 month period from April 2011-March 2012 was the top warmest on record. | <urn:uuid:aeadb6d2-7375-4398-aa80-b3cd2c6a39b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/warmest-january-to-march-period-on-record-in-us/2012/04/09/gIQAk8lt5S_blog.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96594 | 810 | 2.84375 | 3 |
A total of 3,000 goldfish from 14 countries have gathered at the International Goldfish Championships in Fuzhou.
Displayed in a row of bowls at the event, the fish are battling to be named 'World Goldfish Queen'.
Ye Qichang, a judge at the pageant, told ITN that the fish are judged by a five-point criteria.
"We judge goldfish mainly by five criteria - breed, body shape, swimming gesture, colour, which is very important, and overall impression," Qichang explained.
The judge confirmed that a rare goldfish weighing in at 1.75kg is taking part in the pageant.
> New Zealand goldfish survive 134 days without food
> Tourism group posts live goldfish in failed PR stunt | <urn:uuid:18c9481b-9c5c-4c8a-af58-f2cce4a5a344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a406335/goldfish-beauty-pageant-takes-place-in-china.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962153 | 157 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Carmel Valley youth top fundraiser at FAAN Walk for Food Allergy event
By Karen Billing
Charlotte Bailey is just 5 years old but, without hesitation, she can rattle off the foods that are dangerous for her: “peanuts, pecans and coconut.”
The Carmel Valley kindergartner has become her own advocate about her life-threatening food allergies and even at her young age is doing what she can to support others just like her.
On Nov. 5, Charlotte was the top fundraiser in the FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) Walk for Food Allergy in Mission Bay Park. Team Charlotte was able to bring in $6,035.
Charlotte walked the “easy” two miles with lots of supporters, family and friends, all decked out in bright blue Team Charlotte t-shirts.The walk even included a musical performance by Kyle Dine, a musician who sings children’s music that educates and entertains about food allergies. Dine himself is allergic to peanuts, nuts, eggs, seafood and mustard, and sings about characters like EpiMan and Benji, the nut allergic chipmunk.
“It was a very special day for kids who do feel left out sometimes,” Michelle said. “I’m so grateful that I found out about FAAN.”
The Baileys were able to diagnose Charlotte’s allergy when she was just 2 years old. They tested her with a spoon of peanut butter and just touching the utensil to her lip made her break out in hives. They did a full panel of testing to find her allergies to pecans and coconut.
“When we first found out about Charlotte’s allergies it was very overwhelming,” said Michelle.
Finding FAAN was a huge base of support for Michelle, just knowing that someone was working with school, restaurant and airline policies, food labeling, promoting awareness and looking toward a possible cure.
Currently FAAN is working to pass legislation that would encourage states to adopt laws requiring schools to have on hand “stock” epinephrine auto-injectors, an epi-pen that isn’t prescribed to a single student but can be used in an emergency. While students like Charlotte are required to bring their own medication to school, data has shown that up to 25 percent of all epinephrine administrations that occur at a school involve students or adults whose allergy was unknown at the time and do not have a prescribed epi-pen.
What would happen if Charlotte ate something with peanuts, pecans or coconut? Simply put by Charlotte: “I’m sick.”
As a result, a lot of the food Charlotte eats now is made from scratch. Her entire family has become diligent about asking what ingredients are in foods when they’re ordering out, sometimes her allergic foods can be found in unexpected sources. Like the barbecue chicken pizza they ordered last weekend—it turned out it had peanut oil in it.
Charlotte said she was content to eat her “princess soup” instead — chicken noodle soup with noodles shaped like princesses.
While Charlotte wears a bracelet to indicate her allergies, Michelle wanted to drill “peanuts, pecans and coconut” into her head. When Charlotte was little, it was easy to control what her daughter ate. But sending her off to school was a different story, she had to rely on Charlotte to remember to ask: something that seems harmless, such as a snack or birthday cupcake, could have deadly consequences.
“As she does things more independently, I lose that control,” Michelle said. “I just want to cling on to her but I know I have to let go.”
Charlotte’s school, Solana Highlands, has been amazing, Michelle said, making her feel very comfortable. They even have a peanut-free table that Charlotte shares with six other students. Those seven kids are just part of the 15 million Americans, and approximately 6 million children, afflicted by potentially life-threatening food allergies.
To learn more about FAAN’s efforts, visit www.foodallergy.org.
- When foods are your foes, it could mean allergies
- What to eat: That is the question for seasonal allergy sufferers
- Food truck craze invades Carmel Valley’s Touch A Truck fundraiser
- Carmel Del Mar students get wet on ‘Walk to School Day’
- Carmel Valley: Souplantation fundraiser to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Short URL: http://www.delmartimes.net/?p=29690 | <urn:uuid:6fb77779-95fe-476a-9901-72898115cc56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.delmartimes.net/2011/11/29/carmel-valley-youth-top-fundraiser-at-faan-walk-for-food-allergy-event/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965631 | 983 | 1.9375 | 2 |
Chew Family Papers
We're on a Roll...
Avid blog followers may remember this post from back in August of 2008... Those oversized maps and documents that we unrolled for the first time so many months ago are finally receiving conservation treatment!
The rolled documents arrived to HSP housed in long plastic bags, tied at both ends with cotton tape.
Each document is removed from the bag, slowly unrolled and weights are used to hold the document open.
Most of the maps are covered with a layer of dust, soot, and dirt that is removed with vulcanized rubber erasers and Nilfisk vaccuum.
The documents are rolled around 4" diameter acid-free, lignen-free archival tubes with a layer of Microchamber paper and an outer layer of Tyvek. The tube is cut to size for each document using a hacksaw and then sanded smooth.
Cotton tape is used to secure the Tyvek around the rolled document. The newly-housed documents will be labeled and stored on shelves. | <urn:uuid:e6337c5b-9eee-481a-91fa-495d634183b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hsp.org/blogs/chew-family-papers/were-on-a-roll | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921191 | 217 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Leaf collection program
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The City Street Division is once again providing leaf recycling options to the community. In the next few weeks, street sweepers will begin working city roads to eliminate excess leaf build-up in streets and prevent the clogging of stormwater inlets, which can cause flooding and adversely impact water quality. This proactive effort helps prevent more costly emergency maintenance if drains get clogged.
Residents can help maintain the crucial operations of our City’s stormwater drainage system by properly disposing of fall leaves. Citizens are reminded to not rake or blow leaves and other yard debris into the street or storm drains. Doing so is a violation of City Code and can result in fines.
One alternative option is to mulch leaves with a mulching blade and use as compost in your yard to enrich the soil. Or, take your leaves to one of the city’s drop off locations to be turned into compost. Two drop-off locations will be available to recycle leaves.
Saturdays, Nov. 3 and 10
Recycle Yard at Hancock (1845 S. Hancock Expressway)
Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
November 19 – November 30
Hancock Salt Shed (1202 E. Caramillo St.)
Staffed Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
If leaves are brought in plastic bags, the bags will need to be emptied and taken with the resident. Hazardous materials, plastics, branches and other items are not allowed. Leaves will be taken to the City Street Division’s recycle yard and turned into compost, which is given away free to residents each spring.
Rocky Top Resources (1755 East Las Vegas Street) also takes leaves for recycling (residential only) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Recycling is free with a canned good donation for Care and Share.
Composting is a good option for leaves and yard debris because according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) it is a form of recycling that prevents filling our landfills, helps prevent pollution, enriches soils and reduces the production of methane gas.
# # # | <urn:uuid:c6df620d-e7a9-4516-af62-414cab4e5b2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.springsgov.com/News.aspx?NewsID=2243 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925918 | 456 | 2 | 2 |
After reading the comments that students and parents have posted about the proposed school uniforms, I have realized that most of the points made in opposition to the uniforms have been fueled by an emotional response.
I understand why some students are angry, but the purpose of the uniforms is to create a more learning-friendly environment and not to strip the students of their individuality and sense of personal expression.
There are many ways at SHS to express individuality beyond fashion. Students can express their individuality through sports, band, orchestra, choir or any of the many programs and groups offered at SHS. A person’s individuality comes from inside, not from their clothing. It’s their personality that makes them who they truly are, and not their choice of clothing. The fact that everyone will dress the same doesn’t mean that everyone will act the same.
The uniforms will be a way to try and promote better conduct and will teach students to think about themselves in light of their character and not by their attire.
As a student at Sandusky High School, I have come to see that some students have little regard for the school’s dress code. The fact some students choose to disobey the clearly defined dress code, and that it adds a burdensome load to the faculty to enforce it are some of the reasons uniforms should be implemented. There is no reason a student should come to school wearing pants that are too large to stay up, or a skirt that leaves little to the imagination.
Another point that needs to be made is that school is supposed to be a learning environment, not a fashion show. All students have a right to learn in school, and not to be distracted by the clothing worn by their peers. If everyone in school wore the same clothing, students would spend less time discussing the outfits of their fellow students and more time paying attention to their teachers.
Another benefit is that they would reduce the hassle that is involved in the preparation of going to school every morning. Many students spend a significant amount of time every day trying to pick out the outfit they will wear to school. This time could be more productively applied in a number of areas, such as getting to school on time and possibly even doing homework. Wearing a uniform to school every day will help students concentrate more on their studies and create a milieu more conducive to learning.
The most important reason I support the introduction of uniforms is safety. It would be very difficult for a student to hide a large weapon while wearing the clothes that the board has chosen. The fact that coats and book bags are not permitted in classes at SHS also discourages large weapons being brought into classrooms by students.
One other concern that was raised by many students opposing the uniforms was cost. The school board had suggested attire that could be bought very cheaply in stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Old Navy. Anyone can buy a good pair of Khakis from Goodwill for less than $5.
If treated properly, one or two pairs of khakis or polos would be enough to last the whole school week and then get washed during the weekend.
Overall the uniforms would be of great benefit to the school as a whole. It might take a while for the students to get used to wearing them every day but once all the students adjust to the new dress code, everything will run smoothly. | <urn:uuid:50ed9fb1-49eb-4406-931d-0a291a962ca3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/7787 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00069-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984159 | 681 | 2.21875 | 2 |
May 5, 2010
Past editions of Dinosaur Sightings have mentioned the numerous dinosaur sculptures that can be found in the state of Oregon, but the state’s neighbor to the north can also boast a few dinosaurs. As pointed out by reader Marc Shecter, in 1993 the town of Granger, Washington decided to build a number of steel, chickenwire, and cement dinosaurs to attract tourists. The first dinosaur (a “Brontosaurus”) was unveiled the following year, followed by Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and a number of other famous dinosaurs.
Have you stumbled across a dinosaur in an unexpected place? If you have, and have a photo of the encounter, send it to us via email@example.com!
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week. | <urn:uuid:70f09855-f632-4b0b-9d90-c18ad1d750eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2010/05/dinosaur-sighting-grangers-dinosaurs/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921225 | 174 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Unlike federal student loans, private student loans typically do not offer accommodations when borrowers are temporarily unable to repay — a key difference, according to Education Secretary Arne Duncan and CFPB director Richard Cordray, who spoke with reporters during a conference call Thursday ahead of the report's release.
"Federal student loans are the best deal around," Duncan said, saying borrowers benefit from features such as fixed interest rates and flexible terms when they return to school or suffer financial distress. Among his recommendations to Congress, Duncan urged it to push for similar flexibility in private student loans.
The report says current and former students, both graduates and nongraduates, owe about $150 billion to private lenders. Although the loans are just a fraction of the more than $1 trillion in total student outstanding loans, they represent a particularly troubled corner of the education-loan market, Duncan and Cordray said.
As the housing bubble ballooned, it was fueled in part by lenders' ability to make loans and then quickly resell them to so-called securitizers — Wall Street firms that packaged them as bonds — without retaining any of the risk. The report says the same thing happened in the market for private student loans.
One result was a steep rise in the volume of new loans, which quadrupled in seven years, from less than $5 billion in 2001 to more than $20 billion in 2008.
Another was a loosening of standards. For instance, the fraction of private loans made "without school involvement or certification of need" grew from 40 percent in 2005 to more than 70 percent in 2007, the report says. And it says lenders increasingly offered the loans to borrowers with lower credit scores.
The lenders also appear to have targeted borrowers at for-profit institutions. In 2008, 42 percent of undergraduates at those schools took out private student loans, compared with 14 percent of all undergraduates.
Duncan said that without the schools' involvement, students were less likely to realize that other, better financing options were available, such as the federal Pell Grant Program, which provides aid to qualifying low-income students, or fixed-rate federal Stafford loans. The report says 40 percent of private loan borrowers had not previously exhausted their eligibility for Stafford loans.
The difference can be costly. The report says the average rate among a sample of private lenders last year was about 7.8 percent. Although the most creditworthy borrowers could get rates in the range of 3 percent or 4 percent, better than a Perkins loan or an unsubsidized Stafford loan, variable rates on private loans rose as high as 19 percent.
Duncan said borrowing for college used to be the exception but has now become the rule — a trend driven by increases in higher-education expenses that have long outpaced increases in family earnings and other living costs. Credit obligations can hit former students hard, especially those who fail to complete degrees and cannot find work.
Among private-loan borrowers who started school in the 2003-04 academic year, the 2009 unemployment rate was 16 percent, the report says. And one in 10 recent graduates of four-year colleges have education-loan obligations — of all types — totaling more than a quarter of their monthly income.
Duncan said the consequences sometimes come as a shock. For many, he said, "The first time they ever really understood how much they owed was when the first bill arrived."
He urged prospective students to visit a new Education Department website, www.studentaid.gov, to help plan for costs. "Your job is to find the highest-quality education where you'll also get the best value," he said.
The lack of flexibility in private student loans can be especially tough on those in financial crisis.
Until 2005, when the finance industry persuaded Congress to toughen bankruptcy laws, private student loans were treated like other consumer loans when borrowers were unable to meet their obligations. The new law puts them in the same category as federal student loans — erasable in bankruptcy only in cases of "undue hardship," such as disability, said Henry J. Sommer, supervising attorney of Philadelphia's Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project.
Cordray repeatedly drew parallels to housing lenders' role in the 2008 crisis. "Before the financial crisis, some lenders in both markets engaged in aggressive marketing and risky underwriting," he said.
Like distressed homeowners, out-of-work student borrowers are stuck with few options, he said.
"Many borrowers told us their lenders were unable or unwilling to modify or adjust repayment terms even in these tough times," he said. "And the borrowers feel they have little leverage to negotiate reduced loan payments with their lenders."
Cordray said lenders had improved practices since 2008 — working with schools more closely, requiring cosigners, and discouraging students from borrowing more than they need. "Without investors willing to buy risky loans, lenders were forced to care more about a borrower's ability to repay," he said.
Contact Jeff Gelles at 215-854-2776 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:335a41ba-2920-4123-9302-aa8ab25f5e66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-21/business/32765198_1_private-student-loans-private-student-loan-market-stafford-loans | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977161 | 1,035 | 1.796875 | 2 |
DID you know the Australian Red Cross blood service is currently in need of A and O blood levels?
Or that a single blood donation saves three lives?
Or that from that single trip to the blood bank, your blood can contribute to making up to 22 different products?
Here are some other things about giving blood you may not be aware of.
1. It is important to donate around public holidays.
Long weekends put a strain on the nation's blood supply.
"Cancer patients, road trauma victims, burns victims and even unborn babies will still need blood products both during and immediately after the long weekend," said Gladstone Blood Donor Centre Community Relations Officer Hollie Hall.
2. Only one in 30 Australians donate blood.
Yet we as a nation require over 27,000 blood donations per week.
Hollie Hall said the need for blood was constant and the nation relied on just three percent of the population for its blood.
"Every donation you make can help save up to three lives and only takes an hour of your time," she said.
3. Your blood could save a life as soon as tomorrow.
Whole blood donations are separated into three components -red cells, platelets and plasma. After processing, red cells are refrigerated and can be stored for up to 42 days. Platelets are stored at room temperature and can be stored for up to 5 days. Plasma is frozen and can be stored for up to 12 months. All blood donations are tested and processed and available for use between 24 and 48 hours after collection
To donate call the Blood Service on 13 14 95 or visit donateblood.com.au | <urn:uuid:e2439553-542a-4c30-8eea-a6c3d59de20b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/need-blood-urgent/1412936/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944709 | 338 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Frequently Asked Questions
2012-2013 School Year
WEB SITE. JLSMS posts a detailed school supply on our school web site prior to the beginning of the school year.
CORRECT. Students are expected to cover the text books issued to them by the teachers. The JLSMS Student Council will sell them at the 6th grade social event at the beginning of the school year and they will be sold via order form during the first couple weeks of school. Students pick up order forms in their grade level House area, fill them out, submit them with payment back to the grade level house office. The Student Council r delivers them the next day to students. Costs are: $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00.
Parents/students can also purchase book covers outside of the school setting.
Parent/Student Orientation and Back to School Night:
6th GRADE & NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION.
August 24, 2012 at either 4:30 PM or 7:00 PM
Orientation is for ALL rising 6th grade parents and parents of 7th & 8th grade students who are new to JLSMS for 2012-2013.
Orientation includes a meeting with Mr. Runfola, the Principal, and an opportunity to walk around the school.
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHTS.
September 5th @ 7:00 PM for 6th Grade Parents.
September 12th @ 7:00 PM for 7th & 8th Grade Parents.
Back to school nights include a meeting with Mr. Runfola, the Principal, and meeting with all of your child’s teachers for an interval of time.
Opening School Year Items:
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. On the first day of school, students meet in a central location and are taken to their homeroom by their homeroom teacher who will provide each of their students with a class schedule.
PENCIL or PEN.
YES. All students will be given an agenda on the morning of the first day of school which includes the student handbook of school rules and policies. All students are expected to keep this agenda for the duration of the school year to note assignment due dates, homework, etc; and will be used to write passes for students to leave the classrooms and go other places in the school such as the library, bathroom, teacher rooms, etc.
If a student loses or damages his/her initial agenda, he/she can purchase a new one from the main office for $7.00 while supplies last. Once supplies are depleted, students can use a small notebook as their agenda.
Students can dropped off at school starting at . If students arrive to school between and , they will wait in the main foyer of the school until dismissed to the locations below at where they remain until .
GYM. 6th graders report to the main gym.
CAFETERIA. 7th graders report to the cafeteria.
AUDITORIUM. 8th graders report to the auditorium.
NO. Some students, especially new 6th graders, may have some trouble finding their classrooms. However, teachers are always willing to help direct students to the right location and during the first week of school the PTO has many parent volunteers located throughout the school and in the hallways to assist the students. Parents and house staff are also available to assist students in opening lockers which is something new for the 6th graders and one of their biggest worries.
HOUSES. Each grade level is set up as a House which includes many of your child’s teachers as well as a Dean, Counselor, and Secretary.
Dean. Provides leadership, supervision, and support to all teachers and students of the assigned grade level. He/she is responsible for the discipline of the students within the grade level and is available to help students with any concerns.
Counselor. Provides guidance and counseling to students having any emotional, personal, social, or academic concerns. Assists teachers in working with any students having such issues to best meet the unique needs of students. Provides classroom guidance on topics of bullying, harassment, etc.
Secretary. Provides support to the dean, counselor, teachers, and students of the assigned grade level. All early dismissal notes, bus requests, and/or student phone calls home are done through the secretary.
The dean, counselor, and secretary work very closely together to ensure a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment for students.
Late Arrival, Early Dismissal, Bus Ride with Friends:
LATE ARRIVAL. Any student arriving late to school must check in with the House C (6th Grade) secretary with a parent note.
NOTE. Yes, all students who arrive late or need to leave early must bring in a note. If leaving early, the note is submitted to the appropriate grade level secretary.
YES. Parents must send a note with their child to school giving permission to ride a different bus home with a friend or to ride home with another parent. This note is to be submitted to the grade level secretary prior to the start of school.
Bus Information and Parent Drop Off & Pick Up:
WEB SITE: This information is posted on the JLSMS and LCPS websites as soon as released by the LCPS transportation department (mid August). This information is also provided to local media and newspapers.
FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL. If you intend for your child to ride the bus on a regular basis it is a good idea to start this on the first day of school so that the LCPS transportation department is able to ensure a pick up and drop off at your child’s designated location.
. Students should NOT be dropped off at school before .
YES. Activity bus transportation will be offered 2 to 3 days per week during most of the school year. Exact days will be determined at a later date. Activity busses leave JLSMS at 4:28 PM. These busses provide regional drop off at predetermined locations and do NOT provide door-to-door service. At the beginning of the school year, a list of the drop off locations will be available at the school.
YES. Many teachers have specific requirements for how a student’s class materials are organized. This information will be given to students during the first week of school and can often be located on the teachers’ homework hotline web page.
NO. Lockers in the grade level house area have build in combination locks.
Lockers in the PE locker rooms require a combination lock that will be provided by the PE teachers.
AFTER REQUIRED PAREPWORK IS SUBMITTED. Students are issued a locker in the grade level house area after all required documents are returned with parental signatures. These documents are sent home with all students in the first day of school.
Approximately 12” Wide x 13 ½” Deep x 45” Tall
YES. The school is open until Monday through Friday on days which school is in session.
SECOND DAY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASS. The Physical Education Department begins selling uniforms the second day in which a student meets for Physical Education.
Uniforms are $10.00 (Shirts - $3.00 and Shorts - $7.00).
Payable via Cash or Check made out to
YES. Shirts are $3.00 and Shorts are $7.00.
UNIFORM RENTAL. The Physical Education has a Rental Service.
There is no cost for rental uniforms unless it becomes a frequent occurrence.
YES. But only if the sibling is a JLSMS student and preferably if a parent has submitted a note with the student to be able to use another students’ account.
CHARGE. Students are allowed to charge up to about $5.00. If a student already has a negative balance of $5.00 or more, then he/she will be required to get a cheese sandwich, fruit, and a milk at no charge.
YES. Please contact the Cafeteria Manager at 571.252.2840 if you need to find out your son/daughter’s account balance and/or what he/she has been buying for breakfast and lunch every day. The cafeteria manager can provide you with a detailed listing of items purchased every day. You can also check balances and make a payment online through Cafe Prepay at www.pay4lunch.com. You will need your son/daughter's ID number.
NO. If you child is interested in participating in sports, the Sports Division of Loudoun County Parks, Recreation, and Community Services provides recreational programs and activities to all youth and adult citizens countywide and acts as a liaison to all sport leagues for both youth and adults. The Sports Division also provides various sport camps, classes and clinics throughout the year. Details are available online at www.loudoun.gov/PRCS/
YES. Cell phones and other electronic devices, if brought to school, are required to be turned off and placed in student lockers for the full duration of the day. Electronic devices are expected to be turned off from the time of arrival at school until dismissal from school. Students will have disciplinary consequences if such devices are seen in classrooms, hallways, or other locations in the school. Electric readers are permitted for reading use only.
NO. Parents are required to bring in all medication, both over-the-counter and prescribed medications for their child directly to the nurse, with specific directions for administration. Students may NOT have any medication, cough drops, etc. in their possession. All medication is to be administered by the nurse or appropriate designee.
Music, Band, Chorus:
YES. Concert and performance dates are listed on the JLSMS web site under the “Musical Activities” quick link.
Ms. Paquette has information regarding attire for concerts on her web page.
TEACHERS will instruct students when to bring instruments to school.
They DO NOT need to bring the instruments on the first day of school.
SCHOOL YEAR. Once the school year begins, students will know whether they have band on an A day or a B day. They will need their instrument on the day they have band. Most instruments should be dropped off and stored in the band room, but some smaller instruments can be stored in lockers such as flutes and clarinets. Students should plan to take the instrument home the afternoon of the day they have band. We have limited storage space and it can be very crowded when we have entire bands leave their instruments overnight and then take them home the night before they have class to practice.
JLSMS WEB SITE. The PTO maintains a home page on the Simpson website under the “Parents” heading. The PTO calendar and all current events are maintained in this section for your review.
At the beginning of the school year blue forms will be sent home with your student. One of the forms will be important information about the various committees and opportunities available for parents to volunteer their time.
The PTO will use your email address to inform you of volunteer opportunities that arise throughout the school year.
Prior to the first day of school, rising 6th graders will have an opportunity to visit Simpson to tour the school. At this event parents will have the opportunity to meet the PTO staff, buy spirit wear, and volunteer their time during the first week of school.
Parents can also contact Sebrina Law, Dean, as she is the PTO liaison for parent volunteers at school.
Students will bring home various forms on blue paper in their first day packets. One of these forms will ask for parent and student information to be included in the student directory and the PTO email distribution list. The email address will be used to contact parents about upcoming events, newsletters, and other PTO related information. | <urn:uuid:16d27a4d-1fa1-447a-92cc-7b67b61065d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cmsweb2.loudoun.k12.va.us/domain/2763 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957532 | 2,463 | 1.578125 | 2 |
College isn’t just a next step, it’s a chance to explore the world and make it a better place.
Liberal arts colleges provide students with the tools to think deeply and critically and to lead lives of purpose and consequence informed by that thinking.
As a top liberal arts college in the South, Agnes Scott will help you acquire the skills and capabilities to navigate new and unfamiliar territory. We want you to be able to think and rethink—indeed to continually rethink—the world and your role within it.
You’ll be able to explore a wealth of subjects and interests throughout college and have greater flexibility with your career options later in life. At its core, a liberal education is intended to help you grow as an individual, gain a deeper understanding of our world and enjoy a lifetime of learning.
Do you agree with any of these statements? If so, attending a liberal arts college may be right for you.
- I like so many different subjects, I want to study all of them.
- I want flexibility in my career path.
- I like learning for its own sake.
- I like to analyze—and solve—complex problems.
- I want to be successful at many things in life; not just my professional life.
- I want to make a difference in the world. | <urn:uuid:d57558d3-c240-424f-bbae-b360a8627028> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agnesscott.edu/about/at-a-glance/why-a-liberal-arts-college.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963437 | 273 | 2 | 2 |
Intelligent content-based image retrieval framework based on semi-automated learning and historic profiles
Chung, Kien- Ping (2007) Intelligent content-based image retrieval framework based on semi-automated learning and historic profiles. PhD thesis, Murdoch University.
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Over the last decade, storage of non text-based data in databases has become an increasingly important trend in information management. Image in particular, has been gaining popularity as an alternative, and sometimes more viable, option for information storage. While this presents a wealth of information, it also creates a great problem in retrieving appropriate and relevant information during searching. This has resulted in an enormous growth of interest, and much active research, into the extraction of relevant information from non text-based databases. In particular,content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems have been one of the most active areas of research.
The retrieval principle of CBIR systems is based on visual features such as colour, texture, and shape or the semantic meaning of the images. To enhance the retrieval speed, most CBIR systems pre-process the images stored in the database. This is because feature extraction algorithms are often computationally expensive. If images are to be retrieved from the World-Wide-Web (WWW), the raw images have to be downloaded and processed in real time. In this case, the feature extraction speed becomes crucial. Ideally, systems should only use those feature extraction algorithms that are most suited for analysing the visual features that capture the common relationship between the images in hand. In this thesis, a statistical discriminant analysis based feature selection framework is proposed. Such a framework is able to select the most appropriate visual feature extraction algorithms by using relevance feedback only on the user labelled samples. The idea is that a smaller image sample group is used to analyse the appropriateness of each visual feature, and only the selected features will be used for image comparison and ranking. As the number of features is less, an improvement in the speed of retrieval is achieved. From experimental results, it is found that the retrieval accuracy for small sample data has also improved. Intelligent E-Business has been used as a case study in this thesis to demonstrate the potential of the framework in the application of image retrieval system.
In addition, an inter-query framework has been proposed in this thesis. This framework is also based on the statistical discriminant analysis technique. A common approach in inter-query for a CBIR system is to apply the term-document approach. This is done by treating each image's name or address as a term, and the query session as a document. However, scalability becomes an issue with this technique as the number of stored queries increases. Moreover, this approach is not appropriate for a dynamic image database environment. In this thesis, the proposed inter-query framework uses a cluster approach to capture the visual properties common to the previously stored queries. Thus, it is not necessary to 'memorise' the name or address of the images. In order to manage the size of the user's profile, the proposed framework also introduces a merging approach to combine clusters that are close-by and similar in their characteristics. Experiments have shown that the proposed framework has outperformed the short term learning approach. It also has the advantage that it eliminates the burden of the complex database maintenance strategies required in the term-document approach commonly needed by the interquery learning framework. Lastly, the proposed inter-query learning framework has been further extended by the incorporation of a new semantic structure. The semantic structure is used to connect the previous queries both visually and semantically. This structure provides the system with the ability to retrieve images that are semantically similar and yet visually different. To do this, an active learning strategy has been incorporated for exploring the structure. Experiments have again shown that the proposed new framework has outperformed the previous framework.
|Publication Type:||Thesis (PhD)|
|Murdoch Affiliation:||School of Information Technology|
|Supervisor:||Fung, Lance and Wong, Kevin|
|Item Control Page| | <urn:uuid:1facbb2e-cd6b-4b3a-bcbc-07c7b3b32756> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/666/ | 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 | 0.929746 | 860 | 1.945313 | 2 |
What to ask your doctor about treating gallbladder cancer
Some questions you might ask your doctor
- What can you tell me about the stage of my cancer?
- What type of treatment do I need?
- If you are not sure about the stage, when will you know?
- How do you tell the stage of the cancer?
- What written information can you give me about these treatments?
- Is there any choice of treatments?
- Should I have any treatment before surgery?
- Should I have any other treatment after surgery?
- What are the risks and benefits of these treatments?
- What are the side effects?
- How can I help to reduce the side effects?
- How often will I have to come to the hospital for treatment?
- Is there any transport available?
- Is it possible to have any help with the cost of fares to the hospital?
- How long will the treatment last?
- Can I have a second opinion?
- Are there any experimental treatments or trials that might help me?
- Is there a counsellor here I could talk things through with?
- How often will you see me when my treatment is finished?
- What will happen at my follow up appointments?
- What should I do if I am worried between appointments?
- What pain control can you offer me?
- Do I have to have morphine, or are there other ways of controlling pain?
Question about cancer? Contact our information nurse team | <urn:uuid:d22c0dda-73bc-463f-92fe-0fe57816f94b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/type/gallbladder-cancer/treatment/what-to-ask-your-doctor-about-treating-gallbladder-cancer | 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 | 0.958882 | 311 | 1.59375 | 2 |
1916 Indian 221cc Model K Featherweight
Engine no. 23H180
Oscar Hedstrom and Oliver Hendee, both active in the cycle racing world, got together to found the Hendee Manufacturing Company and build the first prototype Indian motorcycle in 1901. That first machine was powered by a single-cylinder, 'F-head' (inlet-over-exhaust) engine that formed part of the 'diamond' frame, in the Indian's case it sloped rearwards to act as the seat tube. An advanced feature in motorcycling's early pioneering days, chain drive was used by Indian right from the start. The Indian single proved immensely successful and provided the basis for the first of the powerful, large-capacity v-twins for which the marque is best remembered, the first of which appeared in 1907. Although its four-stroke twins in various capacities - would go on to form the mainstay of Indian's range, the Springfield firm was not averse to trying other motorcycle configurations. One of the lesser known - and with good reason, for it was made for the 1916 season only - is the 13.5ci (221cc) Model K Featherweight. A low-cost ($150) utility motorcycle, the Featherweight was powered by a single-cylinder two-stroke engine driving via a three-speed transmission and chain final drive. Unfortunately for Indian, the Featherweight turned out to be a sales flop and was replaced for 1917 by a new lightweight - the Model O - powered by a four-stroke, horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engine inspired by the British Douglas.
One of only a relative handful surviving worldwide, this ultra-rare Indian Featherweight was discovered in 'barn find' condition by Joaquin Yoldi in 1975. A 'must have' acquisition for the Collection, the machine was purchased in Pamplona in 2003. It is offered with sundry paperwork, Spanish registration papers and copy of a newspaper article about its discovery and subsequent restoration.
Auction terms and conditions | <urn:uuid:bdd384cd-5e20-435c-8037-5846115713a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/18362/lot/51/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965128 | 417 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Trying to shed those extra pounds? A new study shows when you eat may be just as important as what you eat.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, in collaboration with the University of Murcia and Tufts University, have found that the timing of meals can predict weight-loss effectiveness
"Our results indicate that late eaters displayed a slower weight-loss rate and lost significantly less weight than early eaters, suggesting that the timing of large meals could be an important factor in a weight loss program," Frank Scheer, PhD, MSc, director of the Medical Chronobiology Program and associate neuroscientist at BWH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and senior author on this study.
Researchers studied 420 overweight participants who followed a 20-week weight-loss treatment program in Spain. The participants were divided into two groups: Early-eaters and late-eaters, according to the self-selected timing of the main meal, which in this Mediterranean population was lunch.
During the meal, 40 percent of the total daily calories are consumed. Early eaters ate lunch any time before 3 p.m. and late eaters, after 3 p.m. They found that late eaters lost significantly less weight than early eaters and displayed a much slower rate of weight loss.
The timing of other, smaller meals did not play a role in weight loss, however the late eaters, who lost less weight, also ate fewer calories during breakfast and were more likely to skip breakfast altogether. | <urn:uuid:8b103642-e691-4a7b-b0cb-be1b8e3b3ca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcvb.com/health/Timing-of-meals-may-be-key-to-weight-loss/-/9848730/18304512/-/14qhw5t/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98069 | 310 | 3.140625 | 3 |
One federal program emerged with more money in the deficit-reduction deal signed into law this week: Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.
The White House and its allies cited the increase when they urged Democrats to vote for the broader legislation, which was almost all about cutting government spending.
The final deal "protects Pell grants from deep near-term cuts," Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said Monday on the Senate floor. "I think most of us understand how important Pell grants are to providing opportunities to young, talented people all across America to improve themselves through higher education."
It was a rare bright spot for a White House that pushed unsuccessfully for a variety of other provisions, including raising taxes on certain corporations and wealthy individuals, extending a payroll-tax cut, extending unemployment benefits and spending new money on infrastructure in hopes of stimulating the economy.
The deal to raise the government's $14.29 trillion borrowing limit reduces federal spending by $917 billion over 10 years. It also creates a special congressional committee to shrink the government's budget deficit by an additional $1.5 trillion.
The $17 billion increase in Pell-grant spending came at a price, with negotiators paying for it by killing federal subsidies for graduate-student loans. President Barack Obama had suggested that tradeoff in his budget, and other negotiators adopted it.
Under the eliminated program, lower- and middle-income graduate-school students didn't have to pay interest on their loans while they were still in school.
Killing the subsidy will affect about 1.5 million students, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, a Washington-based advocacy group that represents university executives.
More than nine million students currently have Pell grants.
Cutting the graduate-school subsidies for 10 years provided only enough money to maintain Pell grants for undergraduates for two more years, through the 2013-2014 school year.
Before the deal, Pell funding had been set to drop in the 2012-2013 school year. That would have reversed a boost Mr. Obama had won in 2009 as part of the economic-stimulus program. It increased the maximum Pell grant by $819 per student, per year to $5,550, and it was renewed as part of an education plank of the health-care overhaul.
Mr. Obama views enhanced Pell funding as one of his signature achievements, and the administration pushed hard for it early on in the deficit-reduction negotiations.
The increase in Pell funding—and cut in the graduate-school subsidies—also was included in an earlier version of the bill House Speaker John Boehner put forth, angering some House conservatives who wondered why they were increasing spending for something when the bill was supposed to be about cutting.
"Some of the conservatives were thinking, 'Man does this do what we think it does?' " said Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.). "There was some consternation there."
The topic was raised at a meeting of Republican House members during discussion of the bill. Mr. Franks said he opposes expansion of Pell grants because, in his view, they encourage colleges to raise their prices.
A Boehner spokesman said the provision was included because the bill was written to be a compromise. Still, the legislation won no Democratic votes when it passed the House, and it immediately died in the Senate.
But why Pell grants and not some other Democratic priority? Mr. Obama rarely, if ever, made a public pitch for this funding during the recent debt negotiations, whereas he talked about other spending programs and tax cuts repeatedly.
Officials in both parties explained that Pell grants fall under discretionary spending—the type that Congress must approve each year and that was facing a hard cap as part of the final measure. So unlike other administration proposals in other areas of the budget, any changes in Pell funding would have to be done here.
In addition, officials had to act by October to lock the Pell funding in place for next school year. Other issues on the White House priority list are expected to be debated again by the new congressional committee.
Write to Laura Meckler at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:57153aec-cacb-4dc4-ad0e-fcb46517b3c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903885604576486511218885134.html?mod=e2tw | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977426 | 859 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Whether you’re a freshman entering college for the first time or a soon-to-be empty-nester sending your children off to school, preparing for college can be a daunting task.
From packing for a tiny dorm room to getting along with a roommate you’ve never met, the transition to college is an adjustment for the entire family.
There are things you can do, however, to prevent common problems stemming from new college experiences.
Moving into a dorm room
The first step in preparing to move into a dorm room is to contact the college or university you’re attending.
“You need to learn what size bed you’re going to have and if your room has a refrigerator or not,” said Dr. Glennie Daniels, family and consumer sciences agent for Catawba County Cooperative Extension. “That way, you can get the right size of bed sheets, and you don’t waste time and money taking anything back that you didn’t need.”
Dealing with empty nest syndrome
Students aren’t the only people who must cope with changes from going to college. Many parents and siblings are left feeling lonely or sad after a student goes to college.
“Anticipate that this is a change in a major way for both students and their parents,” said Mike Nichols, a clinical therapist for the Family Guidance Center in Hickory.
Getting along with a new roommate
“Don’t decide in 5 minutes if you’re going to love them or hate them,” Daniels said. “You have to give it at least two to six weeks.”
Managing new responsibilities and freedom
After a move from home to college, students and their parents should anticipate changes in behavioral expectations. Students have more freedom and social opportunities and are managing a more rigorous academic schedule.
“The change is about transition. It’s about launching yourself out to the world, but you’re not ready for all of that yet,” Nichols said. “It’s all new for the student, and of course it will be for the parents, too. Relinquishing control is one of the hardest things to do.” | <urn:uuid:bc8dc855-c99c-4a66-935e-4b9b49db93ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.observernewsonline.com/print/306?quicktabs_2=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93898 | 468 | 2.21875 | 2 |
Finland Distinguished Professorship awarded to Prof. Ralf Metzler
A Finland Distinguished Professorship has been awarded to Ralf Metzler, biophysicist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. The Finland Distinguished Professor Program (FiDiPro), is a joint funding program run by the Academy of Finland and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes. The program enables Finnish research groups to invite world-class international researchers to work in Finland for a period of two to five years.
Professor Ralf Metzler’s FiDiPro professorship supports the cooperation with Professor Ilpo Vattulainen at the Tampere University of Technology with almost one million euro over a period of five years. The funding enables them to establish a research group dedicated to the investigation of the dynamics and functions in living cells. These are characterized by an interior tightly packed with a multitude of large biopolymers. Under such conditions of molecular crowding new pictures for gene regulation, transport phenomena across membranes, and biomolecular complexes need to be developed. Ultimately the research will open up new vistas toward our understanding of cellular biochemistry, and impact on current views of important topics such as drug or gene delivery. | <urn:uuid:05e9e1d9-280b-496c-8d1f-48a2df5ecf8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/meldungen/news_article.2010-11-18.6547976153 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904037 | 254 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Thu 5 Jul, 2012
This week we became aware of our fish dying in one of our ponds. Was it the heat? Was it pesticides? Was it a foreign creature? Regardless of what caused it, we are saddened by this development. We are experiencing – on a very a small scale – some of what people in third world cultures experience: a dying of a natural source of beauty and nourishment.
This event can also help us unite in spirit with all the suffering people who have no electrical power due to storms, no running water, no air conditioning, no refrigeration. Going without something we take for granted helps us see how much we truly have. Let us be grateful for both the blessings and the lessons.
We have contacted the local conservation office. We do not want to jeopardize the health of our eco-system or any animal that happens to encounter the situation. We hope for a good outcome and will let you know the answer.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment. | <urn:uuid:881694eb-3358-46f4-8559-ece5b25bc7a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clydemonastery.org/StoneStories/?p=4690 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939671 | 208 | 1.804688 | 2 |
VISA Payment Cards
With modernization and technology advancement, payroll system has evolved greatly. Employers are looking at ways to improve the overall payroll system, reduce cost related to administration and distribution of payroll issues. Gone are the days where people would queue up at banks for easy cash. With the availability of plastic money in the economy, all section of the society is benefitted.
The Visa payment cards is one such privilege given to employees who do not want to bank at financial institution, yet reap the benefit of safety, convenience and prestige. A lot of small and mid level employers are turning to Visa Payment Cards for obvious reasons like lowering recurring expenses, providing employee benefit and saving resource cost. Today, businesses have become aware of their incentives like cost savings and fraud reduction, many are reluctant to increase direct deposit participation and implement a payment cards solution. In times to come, payment cards will become the new form of payment.
Benefits to Employers:
- Reduces payroll costs
- Increase direct deposit participation
- Lowers resource cost and recurring expenses
- Eliminates Check Reconcilement Problems
- Eliminates Postage or Shipping to Remote Locations
- Reduces risk of lost checks and check fraud
- Payment cards ensure on-time delivery of payroll and reduce unclaimed property reporting obligations of employers.
Benefits to Employees:
- Employees can access their funds at ATMs and Visa-member banks across the country.
- Upon activation, employees can begin using their personalized card. Employees are able to make purchases or get cash back everywhere Visa® debit cards are accepted.
- Employees can pay their bills electronically.
- The card belongs to the employee and can be used if he/she changes jobs.
- The support team provides balance/account information or answers any account-related questions.
- Employees can make free Visa Signature and PIN based transactions. They may also receive cash back for free. | <urn:uuid:08d0f2bd-8409-4871-8214-e93740747307> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthtechnolgy.com/visa-payment-cards.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934225 | 389 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The Washington Post's Walter Pincus writes (8/9/09)(under the headline "Analysts Expect Long-Term, Costly U.S. Campaign in Afghanistan") that "military experts are warning that the United States is taking on security and political commitments that will last at least a decade and a cost that will probably eclipse that of the Iraq War."
What follows is about what you'd expect: Various pro-war analysts giving their views on how best to wage war there. But perhaps the most telling part comes early on, when Pincus writes: "Military experts insist that the additional resources are necessary. But many, including some advising [Gen. Stanley A.] McChrystal, say they fear the public has not been made aware of the significant commitments that come with Washington's new policies."
The public is aware of the Afghan War, of course–and they don't like it, according to the most recent polls. Thus, official Washington must present escalation of that war as a simple matter of fact–not something the public can debate or really do anything about. It's rather difficult to imagine the Post publishing a piece detailing the arguments of those opposed to escalating the war in Afghanistan; there is a more pressing need for the public to be "made aware" of the need for escalation. | <urn:uuid:8fd3a65f-fb61-4e31-9f41-b725c4305a53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/08/10/wapo-military-advisers-dispense-usual-military-advice/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964489 | 267 | 1.851563 | 2 |
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13 results for Delaware Indians: |
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Authors: Collamer, Jacob
Date: March 23, 1858
Collamer, a U. S. senator from Vermont, responded to a request from Hutchinson for assistance in a plan to speculate in land on the Delaware Indian reservation in Kansas Territory. Collamer informed Hutchinson that it did not appear that the anticipated treaty with the Delaware would be negotiated during the current session of Congress.
Keywords: Collamer, Jacob; Delaware Indians; Hutchinson, William, 1823-1904; Land speculation; Lecompton Constitution
Agreement concerning the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain Rail Road and the Delaware Nation of Indians
Authors: Pratt, J. G. J. G. (John Gill), 1814-1900; Robinson, Charles ; Simpson, Samuel Newell
Date: August 3, 1858
This agreement offered property to John G. Pratt if he was successful in assisting in the adoption of a treaty between the U. S. government and the Delaware's to make lands in the Delaware Reserve available to the Missouri River and Rocky Mountain Rail Road. Pratt was to receive the equivalent of two sections of land--one near the Delaware Mission and one of timber land, a total of 1280 acres, and $5,000 if the treaty was ratified.
Keywords: American Indians (see also Native Americans); Delaware Indians; Economic development; Land acquisition; Land sales; Missouri River and Rocky Mountain Railroad; Native Americans; Pratt, J. G. (John Gill), 1814-1900; Railroads; Robinson, Charles, 1818-1894; Simpson, Samuel Newell
Letter, Samuel C. [Smith] to "Dear Dr." [C. Robinson]
Authors: Smith, Samuel C.
Date: December 7, 1858
In this letter, also from Lawrence, Smith went into some detail about developments with respect to the Delaware lands, apparently connected to a railroad promotion scheme. The Indians "know that [Robert S.] Stevens is connected with the R. R. enterprise and this action of his . . . Has excited their mistrust and caused obstacles to rise in the way of such a treaty as you [Robinson] desire."
Keywords: Delaware Indian lands, Kansas Territory; Delaware Indians; English Bill; Indian treaties; Miller, Josiah; Pratt, J. G. (John Gill), 1814-1900; Railroad promotion; Railroads finance; Robinson, Charles, 1818-1894; Smith, Samuel C.; Stanton, Frederick Perry, 1814-1894; Stevens, Robert S.
Letter, J. J. I. [John James Ingalls] to Dear Father [Elias T. Ingalls]
Authors: Ingalls, John James
Date: January 2, 1859
From Lawrence, K.T., where he went to lobby the territorial legislature on behalf of Sumner's city charter and a "Pikes Peak Express Company," John J. Ingalls wrote to tell his father about the journey that took him through Leavenworth. He made some interesting observations about the condition of the roads and the general discomfort involved in overland travel ("The coaches are constructed with special reference to safety in passing over corduroy roads, through sloughs and ravines, having no regard whatever to the comfort of the passengers."), as well as nice descriptions of both cities, Leavenworth and Lawrence.
Keywords: Delaware Indian lands, Kansas Territory; Delaware Indians; Eldridge House; Ferries; Ingalls, John James, 1833-1900; Kansas Legislature; Kansas River, Kansas Territory; Lawrence, Kansas Territory; Leavenworth, Kansas Territory; Pikes Peak gold rush; Roads; Stagecoaches; Sumner, Kansas Territory; Territorial government; Transportation; Wakarusa River
Letter, Alfred Gray, Quindaro, Kansas Territory, to Geo. W. Patterson
Authors: Gray, Alfred
Date: June 18, 1860
Gray wrote this draft of a letter to George W. Patterson concerning a treaty between the U. S. government and the Delaware Indians at the request of Rev. Pratt, a missionary to the tribe. Gray was concerned that the treaty was unfair to many of the Delaware and that the U.S. government was negotiating with four older chiefs, not some of the younger members of the tribe. He wrote that many of the Delaware were too intimidated to complain.
Keywords: American Indians (see also Native Americans); Delaware Indians; Gray, Alfred; Indian lands; Indian treaties; Native Americans; Patterson, George W.; Pratt, J. G. (John Gill), 1814-1900; Quindaro, Kansas Territory; Wyandotte County, Kansas Territory
|See previous results||See results 11 - 15| | <urn:uuid:cb13c2b2-430d-46cb-9005-38b7b5e23c09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.territorialkansasonline.org/~imlskto/cgi-bin/index.php?SCREEN=keyword&selected_keyword=Delaware%20Indians&sort_by=true&submit=Go&startsearchat=5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917934 | 1,053 | 2.3125 | 2 |
by José Ignacio Cabezón and THL.
Guide to the Map
Skip guide and go straight to the interactive map.
A few words by way of orientation may help you to better make use of the interactive map you are about to see. SeraSe ra is located about two miles north of LhasaLha sa at the foot of the mountains. The monastery occupies a one-third square kilometer area (about the size of a large university campus in the U.S.). It is divided into two approximately equal halves by a kind of boulevard called the “Sand Street” (Jezhungbye gzhung). It has a variety of buildings and structures – from small (nine square meter) clay-tablet repositories to the huge “regional house” (khangtsenkhang tshan) compounds. To gain a better sense of the different types of compounds and buildings at SeraSe ra, see the “Architecture” section of this essay.
SeraSe ra is both a physical site and a social institution. As an institution, it is arranged hierarchically, and this hierarchy expresses itself in a complex way in the organization of the physical space of the monastery.
The organizational hierarchy can be expressed schematically as follows:
Jé College (Dratsang Jégrwa tshang byes)
- Seventeen or eighteen regional houses (khangtsenkhang tshan)
Mé College (Dratsang Mégrwa tshang smad)
- Sixteen regional houses
- Ngakpa (Tantric) College (Ngakpa Dratsangsngags pa grwa tshang)
This is fairly simple. The monastery is divided into three colleges, and the first two of these – the two philosophical colleges, JéByes and MéSmad – are further subdivided into regional houses. The Tantric College has no regional houses.58
This straightforward organizational scheme does not, however, translate in a simple fashion into the spatial organization of the monastery. The different buildings affiliated with the different colleges are not found together in the same part of the monastery. Instead, they are scattered throughout the entire space of SeraSe ra. The same is true of the regional houses. Buildings belonging to one regional house can be found at opposite ends of the monastery. There are also a few buildings that have no affiliation to any of the colleges, and that thus belong only to SeraSe ra as a whole. A prime example is the Great Assembly Hall. This temple complex is, as it were, the common property of SeraSe ra in general.
One of the virtues of the interactive map is that it allows you to explore how the organization of the monastery translates into – how it is expressed in – the physical space. Thus, by “turning on” the College Affiliations, for example, you can see all of the buildings affiliated to each SeraSe ra’s three colleges, and those that have no affiliation to any of the colleges, but only to SeraSe ra in general.
In addition, there are various types of building-complexes, compounds, free-standing buildings and structures in the monastery, and you can gain a sense of how these are distributed within the monastery by turning on the Features button. For example, regional houses as organizational units contained two main types of structures: the regional house headquarters (that contained the regional house temple, administration, and some monks’ living quarters, see the “Architecture” section of this essay), and apartment buildings (that contained only residential quarters for monks). Each of these is coded a different color, and is clearly distinguishable, when the Features button is turned on. Thus, Features allows you see where all of the main regional house compounds are located, and also where large temple complexes, college debate courtyards, and many other types of buildings are found in the monastery.
You can also find a specific building or group of buildings by clicking on it/them under Specific Buildingslist. For example, you can see all of the specific buildings associated with a given regional house by clicking on that particular house. Or, if you want to find the Mé College temple complex, you could click on that, and it will be highlighted on the map.
In this way, the map allows you to see how the space is organized (a) in terms of organizational affiliation, (b) in terms of types of building, and (c) in terms of specific buildings or groupings of buildings.
Finally, clicking on a building or compound on the actual map gives you access to more detailed information about that unit, and provides you with a link to information about the organizational unit to which it belongs. This data window also gives you access to the photographic archive related to that building. Since our work to date has focused mostly on the exterior architecture of buildings, do not expect to see much of their interiors, at least not yet.
Go to the interactive map now.
How the Map was Made
The map that you are about to see is the result of many hours of work on the part of many people (see Collaborations and Credits). Buchung, of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences (TASS), helped us create the necessary contacts in the monastery, and accompanied us on several data-gathering trips. Tsewang Rinchen, the head librarian at TASS, made available to us a detailed map of the monastery that was extremely helpful to us in our day-to-day fieldwork. Prof. David Germano of the University of Virginia made all of the THL media equipment in LhasaLha sa available to us.
The data on which the map is based was collected during a month-long research trip to Tibet organized by José Cabezón in 2002. Cabezón and David Newman spent almost every day at SeraSe ra. Cabezón was chiefly responsible for identifying all of the major structures within the monastery, gathering data for what was to become the database portion of the map. Newman was chiefly responsible for taking high-resolution digital images and GPS readings at all of the sites. Two student assistants, Taline Goorjian and Alyson Prude, typed up the daily field notes from a digital voice recorder. The monks of SeraSe ra-Tibet were extremely helpful whenever we had questions or problems. In August, Cabezón continued to work at SeraSe ra-India, and here too many monks were extremely helpful in answering questions.
Back in the States, the work continued. In Santa Barbara, José Cabezón created an inductive cataloguing scheme for the images of the monastery, and catalogued all of the 2000+ images, using an image database program called Cumulus. He also created a database of all of the major sub-units of SeraSe ra using Filemaker software, and he wrote narrative descriptions of each of the 80+ buildings, compounds and structures in the monastery. In Charlottesville, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software, Michael Ryan traced a digital map of the monastery from a one-meter resolution satellite image purchased from Digital Globe, and then he and David Newman encoded this digital map based on the information we had gathered in the field. David Newman then used this to create a web-deliverable, Flash map of the monastery, and he created a way to link the various portions of the map to the narrative description of the buildings, to the database, and to our image databank. This map thus represents the labor of many people, and it also represents collaboration at its best. José Cabezón wishes to thank Prof. David Germano in particular for his tremendous support of this very labor-intensive portion of the SeraSe ra Project. Without his willingness to devote THL material and human resources to the project, the map you are about to see would never have been possible.
Go to the interactive map
- En-visioning the Space of SeraSe ra: Non-Tibetan In(ter)ventions
- Tibetan Conceptions of the Site of SeraSe ra
- Architecture: The Division and Organization of the Space of SeraSe ra
- Guide to the Map
- Specify View:
- Specify Format: | <urn:uuid:84786f1b-945d-4b26-9d1a-85b5fa0447dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thlib.org/places/monasteries/sera/essays/?_escaped_fragment_=essay=/cabezon/sera/spaces/s/b5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942605 | 1,719 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Digging a new route to China? Building a sand castle? Re-creating an archaeological dig in Princeton? What were these young men and women doing? Archivists offer no information on this photo, although the presence of two women (and the hairstyles sported by the men) would indicate that it was taken in the early 1970s. A car in the background looks like a Chrysler from the early 1960s. Can any readers enlighten us regarding what these folks were up to or who they are? | <urn:uuid:7cab6acf-d88f-414c-9ab1-4366c21c7470> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2008/09/24/from-the-archives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980941 | 104 | 1.992188 | 2 |
Panther Tracks: Guides to Student Success
What are Panther Tracks?
Panther Tracks are tutorials that explain how to achieve your goals at PCC. Where ever you are in your student career, we have a track for that!
The Panther Tracks
If you've already registered for your classes and you're getting ready to start the term, this track will help you make sure all your bases are covered.
This track will teach you the habits of a successful college student, like how to manage your time and the most effective ways to study.
Confused about your educational goals? This track will help you create an academic plan that takes you where you want to go!
What services are available to you as a PCC student? Learn about clubs, tutors, counselors, and everything else that is available to you.
Student's Guide to Money
Budgets, getting out of debt, student tax issues and more: this track will help you get your bucks in a row.
Managing Your Financial Aid
This track will help you manage your financial aid, including financial aid limits, student debt, and loan repayment.
What would you like to see in Panther Tracks? It's our turn to learn from you in the feedback track. | <urn:uuid:d024fa0a-fb32-4742-8669-38a48496c0ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pcc.edu/resources/panther-tracks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943526 | 257 | 1.78125 | 2 |
In the summer of 2008, the journal Nature published a short, illuminating essay that tracked the global migration of scientific research over the centuries, as empires rose and fell. The center of world science, for instance, was in France in 1740, before it moved to Germany, then Britain, and, later, America, carrying with it, in each case, a major dimension of global leadership. The authors—J. Rogers Hollingsworth, Karl H. Müller and Ellen Jane Hollingsworth—have concluded that another scientific superpower is unlikely to emerge with the same dominance as its predecessors. They have also discovered that great shifts in global scientific leadership follow a clear pattern: “Each former scientific power, especially during the initial stages of decline, had the illusion that its system was performing better than it was, overestimating its strength and underestimating innovation elsewhere. The elite could not imagine that the centre would shift.”
American policymakers have begun to notice the relative decline of American strength in science and engineering. U.S. students currently rank twenty-first in science and twenty-fifth in math, near the bottom of the developed world, and the Obama Administration has launched a program called Educate to Innovate, which is designed to jumpstart improvements. Without being alarmist, I want to mention a few facts about China that serve to reinforce how indispensable this campaign is to the future of American competitiveness.
China, for instance, has had a fitful relationship with science. Chairman Mao was wary of the scientific “élite,” and he preached the power of “man over weapons.” But, after Chinese foot soldiers confronted American tanks in Korea, leaders reconsidered, and in 1955 they resolved to build a nuclear weapon—an absurdly audacious target, considering that China didn’t know how to mine uranium, and its people were as poor as citizens of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the nuclear race galvanized the country—science funding soared six hundred per cent in one year—and, by 1964, China had the bomb—a feat that “offers a caution to those who doubt the commitment of China’s leaders to redress their country’s weakness at all costs,” according to Evan Feigenbaum, an Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the author of “China’s Techno-Warriors.” By the eighties, however, momentum was gone, and Chinese science was in ruins. The 863 Program, which I wrote about in December, sought to recapture the spirit of the atomic race and prepare China for what Chinese-born scientist Qian Xuesen predicted would be the era of “intellectual warfare.”
China also set out to win back its émigrés. Science had never been lucrative—a Chinese saying warned that “researching atomic bombs will never earn as much as selling tea eggs”—and eventually Chinese professionals grew to be the largest group of immigrants in Silicon Valley. In 1994, China launched the 100 Talents program, to lure highly regarded scholars back with the promise of funding and prestige; between 1998 and 2004, nine hundred of them agreed. (For a detailed look, see “China’s Emerging Technological Edge” by Denis Fred Simon and Cong Cao. Also, Adam Segal at the Council on Foreign Affairs produces a stream of valuable work on this subject.) Today, China is one of only six countries involved in decoding the human genome, and the only developing country among them. In 2003, China became the third country to put a man in space. (The head of NASA, Michael Griffin, said in 2007 that he believed “China will be back on the moon before we are.”) In 2005, China passed the United States to become the world’s leading exporter of laptop computers, mobile phones, and digital cameras.
To measure the pace of scientific progress, researchers often examine how much research a country is publishing, and in 1995, China ranked fourteenth in the world in the number of papers it published in science and engineering journals. By 2007, it had climbed past Japan and was now second only to the U.S. The quality—measured by how often those papers were cited—had not grown as fast, but that gap is shrinking, too. Researcher Ronald Kostoff was working in the U.S. Office of Naval Research in 2006, when he co-wrote a five-hundred-page study on the status of Chinese science. Kostoff is retired now, but he keeps up on the numbers and runs analyses of his own now and then. I contacted him recently to get his sense of how comfortable the American lead is in science publishing. “[W]hile China is certainly not in the quality league of the USA overall, they are improving,” he said. “And I believe it is only a matter of time until they are competitive from a quality standpoint.” | <urn:uuid:1c1a6933-a888-4113-bf55-775d5db7bf93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2010/01/2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971033 | 1,023 | 2.609375 | 3 |
It’s bad news for America that President Barack Obama has abandoned the immigration reform that he promised on the campaign trail. America’s economy relies on immigrant talent, both high-skilled in research, finance, and innovation, and low-skilled in hotels, restaurants and farms.
These days, getting a legal visa takes years, thousands of dollars in legal fees and miles of bureaucratic red tape. Millions of workers are in America without legal papers, many married to citizens or permanent residents, and with American children.
When a system is broken, passions run high. Arizona passes state laws to enforce existing federal immigration law — and is criticized by the president and Congress for doing so.
Why don’t Democrats change the immigration laws if they don’t like them? After all, they control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
Now, some Republicans are calling for denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants by changing or reinterpreting the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born in the United States.”
This would be a terrible idea. America is built on immigrants, and needs more of them both for high- and low-skilled jobs. In addition, immigrants have more children than native-born Americans, and America needs children to pay the Social Security benefits of aging workers.
Conferring citizenship on babies born in America is a longstanding practice, and our openness toward immigrants has contributed toward our success. Any cursory glance at the list of American Nobel prizewinners in the sciences shows how much we owe to the immigrant community.
Immigrants have different skills and job preferences from native-born Americans, and so make American workers more productive. Many Americans have a high school diploma and some college education, but few adults are without a high school diploma or have Ph.Ds in math and science.
In contrast, immigrants are 15.5 percent of the labor force, yet represent 48 percent of the labor force without a high school diploma, 31 percent of all doctorates, and 42 percent of doctorates working in science, math and engineering. Since they have a smaller share of high school diplomas and B.A.s, they don’t compete directly with most native-born workers.
Congress needs to overhaul immigration law and create an expanded guest worker program with a path to citizenship. Innovators who want to come and start a business should be welcomed with visas, green cards and citizenship.
We need to eliminate the grey market that has resulted in check-cashing services that cost between 2.5 percent and 10 percent of the check’s proceeds. Immigrants use these services, rather than free bank accounts, to avoid taxes and to avoid being caught.
With more legal visas, payments for health care through insurance could be collected more easily. Foreigners who want to work here could pay the government for these permits, and funds from the permits could be used to buy health insurance, education, and biometric identification cards for legal workers.
In the 2008 election, President Obama and the Democrats promised to reform immigration — and criticized Republicans for failing to do so. If Democrats meant what they said, this is their chance to do better.
Examiner columnist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. | <urn:uuid:561298ab-61fd-40d7-ae5e-f04be44078e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfexaminer.com/node/226031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960272 | 691 | 2.421875 | 2 |
Hastings, Henry (1535-1595) (DNB00)
|←Hastings, Henry (d.1268)||Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 25
Hastings, Henry (1535-1595)
|Hastings, Henry (1551-1650)→|
HASTINGS, HENRY, third Earl of Huntingdon (1535–1595), born in 1535, was eldest son of Francis Hastings, second earl [q. v.], by Catherine, daughter and coheiress of Henry Pole, lord Montacute, brother of Cardinal Pole. Edward VI, whose companion he was in youth, knighted him 20 Feb. 1547–8. On 25 May 1553 he was married at Durham (afterwards Northumberland) House in the Strand, London, to Catherine, daughter of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland [q. v.] He was summoned to parliament as Baron Hastings 23 Jan. 1558–9. He succeeded to the earldom of Huntingdon on the death of his father, 20 June 1561. Through his descent on his mother's side from Edward IV's brother George, duke of Clarence, he claimed after Elizabeth the succession to the throne, in opposition to Lady Catherine Grey and Mary Queen of Scots. His claims were supported by probably the majority of protestant nobles, and during the severe illness of Elizabeth in 1562 the current of opinion pointed towards him as her successor. His pretensions to the succession sometimes occasioned Elizabeth much irritation. In a letter to his brother-in-law Leicester in 1564, Huntingdon relates that when his wife came to court ‘it pleased her Majesty to give her a privy nippe especially concerning myselfe’ (Bell, Huntingdon Peerage, 2nd ed. p. 64). Huntingdon had puritan leanings, and was a strong sympathiser with the Huguenot struggle in France. In 1569 he petitioned Elizabeth for permission to sell his estates and join the Huguenot army with ten thousand men (Don Guerau to Philip of Spain in MSS. Simancas, quoted in Froude, England, cab. ed. ix. 69).
As was only natural, Huntingdon was strongly adverse to the proposed marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Norfolk. He held meetings at his house to organise resistance to it, and his energetic measures had considerable influence in frustrating the designs of the northern conspirators in 1569. When rumours arose of a possible northern rebellion, precautions were taken by Elizabeth to prevent the escape of the Queen of Scots. Recognising that Huntingdon had special reasons of his own for opposing the schemes of the conspirators, she, on 15 Sept., gave instructions that Shrewsbury, then in charge of Mary, ‘shall, as he see cause, advertise the Earl of Huntingdon and Viscount Hereford, and require their assistance to withstand any attempt to carry her away by force, and that they be in readiness with such company of horsemen as they think themselves well assured of’ (Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 419; Haynes, Burghley State Papers, p. 522). Huntingdon arrived at Wingfield on the 19th, and assisted Shrewsbury in conveying the Queen of Scots, for greater safety, to Tutbury, which he garrisoned with five hundred men. On 22 Sept. 1569 Elizabeth sent instructions to Huntingdon to supersede Shrewsbury, the ground of the ‘direction so sudden and strange’ being ascribed to ‘the said Earls infirmities and request for help, and to the Queens fear of some escape’ (Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 422; Haynes, p. 526). The order caused much commotion in the household of the Queen of Scots, who, when she learned it, wrote to the French ambassador Fénelon to take note of the illegality of placing her in the hands of one who had rival claims with her to the throne of England (Labanoff, Letters of Mary Stuart, iii. 182). Shrewsbury affected to ignore the order, on the ground that Elizabeth was under an entire misunderstanding in regard to the state of his health, and Huntingdon, recognising that he had been placed in a false position, wrote on the 25th requesting ‘either his discharge or to be solus, or to have some other match’ (Cal. Hatfield MSS. i. 424; Haynes, p. 530). Orders had, however, been despatched on the same day making him and Shrewsbury joint custodians. This arrangement continued till November, when, finding his position uncongenial, Huntingdon on the 4th obtained liberty to depart, and on the 7th left Tutbury, ‘well contented and friendly.’ On the 20th, in view of the threatened rising in the north, Huntingdon was made a lord-lieutenant of Leicestershire and Rutlandshire, to which was added afterwards the office of lord-president of the north, 1 Dec. 1572. On the 23rd orders were sent him to remove the Queen of Scots from Tutbury to Coventry. This he and Shrewsbury did, but the place being found unsuitable, she was subsequently removed to Shrewsbury's castle at Sheffield, after which Shrewsbury returned to court.
Huntingdon was one of the nobles specially summoned to meet the privy council on 14 Dec. 1569 to consider the evidence that had been brought against the Queen of Scots by the regent Moray and the other Scottish commissioners. In 1573 he sat upon the trial of Norfolk for high treason, and the same year he was constituted lieutenant of the counties of Leicester and Rutland, as well as of those of York, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and the bishopric of Durham. In this capacity he had a conference in 1575 with the regent Morton to settle the dispute arising from the raid of Redswire. On 15 June 1579 he was installed a knight of the Garter, and the following year was appointed one of a commission to inquire into the recusancy of certain of the gentry. After the apprehension of Morton in 1581 [see Douglas, James, d. 1581], Huntingdon was directed by Elizabeth to raise in Yorkshire a force ‘of persons well affected in religion,’ and conduct them to Berwick. Here Huntingdon speedily arrived with two thousand footmen and five hundred horse, but was kept in idleness on the borders, notwithstanding repeated warnings and remonstrances on his part that the attempt to negotiate with Lennox was ‘madness,’ and his scornful condemnation of the proposal of the attempt to save Morton's life by the assassination of Lennox. His words were unheeded until the services of the troops were rendered valueless; and Randolph at last saw ‘that nothing now could save Morton's life.’ The troops were thereupon dismissed to their homes. Huntingdon was active in taking measures against the threatened Spanish invasion of 1588. He died without issue, 14 Dec. 1595, and was interred at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. His countess survived him till 4 Aug. 1620. Huntingdon had compiled in 1583, under his own immediate inspection, a complete history of his family, of which there is a manuscript copy in the British Museum (MS. Harleian 4774). He settled on Emmanuel College, Cambridge, the rectories of Loughborough and Thurcaston in Leicestershire, those of Aller and North Cadbury, Somersetshire, and the vicarage of Piddleton, Dorsetshire, but the last was lost to the college through some flaw in the deed. Camden says ‘he was of a mild disposition, but being a zealous puritan, much wasted his estate by a lavish support of those hot-headed preachers.’ By some his support of the puritans was attributed to policy and the desire to create in the country a sentiment in support of his claims to the throne. He was succeeded by his brother George as fourth earl. A portrait (dated 1588, ætatis suæ 52) by an unknown painter is in the possession of Lord Bagot.[Bell's Huntingdon Peerage, 2nd ed. 1821, pp. 62–84; Collins's Peerage of England, 5th ed., iii. 94–6; Cal. Hatfield MSS.; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser., reign of Elizabeth; Haynes's State Papers; Nichols's Leicestershire, especially iii. 583–8; Camden's Annals; Froude's Hist. of England; Hill Burton's Hist. of Scotland; Leader's Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity, 1880.] | <urn:uuid:cf218681-542f-49de-ac1e-029969c28d12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hastings,_Henry_(1535-1595)_(DNB00) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976088 | 1,874 | 2.375 | 2 |
Why Don't Taxpayers Maximize their Tax-Based Student Aid? Salience and Inertia in Program Selection
Tax-based federal student aid is designed to increase postsecondary attendance and ease the financial burden of higher education enrollment by offering students and their families a menu of tax incentives. However, many taxpayers who are eligible for more than one tax-based aid program, and who are limited to one program per student each year, fail to select the single program that offers the largest reduction in taxes. Analyzing a panel dataset of individual income tax returns, I find that in roughly one out of four returns taxpayers and paid preparers fail to select the tax-minimizing tax-based aid program. I find evidence that greater salience of federal tax effects, and inertia in program selection, leads some taxpayers and paid preparers to make non-tax-minimizing selections. Streamlining the set of tax-based aid programs into a single tax incentive is likely to be a more effective way of lowering the costs of postsecondary attendance for students and their families.
Nicholas Turner. "Why Don't Taxpayers Maximize their Tax-Based Student Aid? Salience and Inertia in Program Selection" The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 11.1 (2012).
This document is currently not available here. | <urn:uuid:2820cb7e-8f2b-4c38-874c-639d585f5939> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://works.bepress.com/nicholas_turner/1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947015 | 271 | 2.125 | 2 |
Many libraries have taken advantage of hosting teen advisory groups at their libraries, but what about the children’s library? Tween patrons offer remarkable insight into making your library the place to be. Many of them are also encouraged by becoming active participants within their community. With the recent push among libraries to increase appeal to tweens, why not implement a Kids Advisory Board for this upcoming school year?
Calling All Kids
Upon moving into our new children’s space in 2009, we decided to recruit a number of savvy young superusers to help establish a tween-friendly environment. We came to the conclusion that the best way to achieve this goal would be to set up a Kids Advisory Board (KAB). The target age group for KAB was 9 to 12, and we made it a priority to recruit up to twelve students from each of the local schools. Since KAB wasn’t going to be a book discussion group, there was also a concerted effort to ask members who were not voracious readers, but who did use the library in other ways. Broadening the scope of what we deemed a superuser allowed us to better reach out and serve a variety of kids.
Meetings and Structure
In the first KAB meeting the participants were asked for their input in setting up the group guidelines. Depending on the library, the librarian facilitating may want to make these structural decisions ahead of time, such as how frequently the group will meet or whether officers will be appointed.
Our members voted on having monthly meetings, and that there would be no officers elected for the first year. The host librarian was given the responsibility of emailing agenda items and notes for each meeting. In recent years as the group has gone more virtual, the meetings have lessened and communication is accomplished via email. Some advisory groups might also choose to create a wiki, blog, or Google Docs account for more efficient communication. Our library has also discussed setting up a KAB Tumblr account this upcoming September.
At each KAB meeting the group is given an agenda which includes updates on ongoing discussions and future projects. We always open with a time of socializing and pizza, which is a perfect opportunity to find out what’s going on at school, and what books, music, and movies the kids are excited about. When it comes time to focus there are usually between two to three topics up for discussion. Agenda items may include collection assistance with ordering Wii games, program ideas, or special projects like choosing furniture for the children’s library. The meeting traditionally ends with the distribution of ARCs, advanced readers copies, to KAB members who write reviews for the library’s website. This has been a perk that the kids look forward to each month.
KAB Programs and Projects
Over the past three years the Kids Advisory Board has been a huge asset to the library and has greatly influenced our service to the kids in the community. The group has planned and executed programs including a Harry Potter marathon and a winter craft fair. Their assistance is also greatly appreciated when it comes time to plan Summer Reading. Since we do not participate in the national program, KAB has offered guidance in developing programs, choosing prizes, and picking authors for the grand finale. It has also been an annual tradition to release the KAB Top Ten booklist for our community of avid readers.
KAB was also instrumental in the relocation of a key feature in our children’s library. The group vocalized that the Microsoft Surface was attracting toddlers and preschoolers to the area of the room designated for older kids. After discussing this with the library’s administration, the table was moved, allowing for tweens to take ownership of certain spaces within the library. As a result, KAB was encouraged to help the staff pick out tween-friendly furniture for the vacant space.
Giving Them a Voice
One of the greatest outcomes in developing this program has been observing how these young patrons feel empowered to share their thoughts and opinions. Their commitment to the group and the library far surpasses our initial expectations. Not only do the kids want to meet twice a month, but many of them volunteer their time during the week in other capacities from shelf-reading to hosting our Friday afternoon gaming program. KAB has also allowed the children’s staff to build stronger relationships with the kids in the town, while also gaining valuable feedback on current programs and initiatives. If you are seeking to further connect with your patrons, consider the possibility of a kids advisory board at your library. If anyone else has expanded their advisory groups to the children’s library as well, please feel free to share your projects and experiences in the comments section!
If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:d26ab865-19ad-42f7-a05e-5cd651e8af9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2012/07/kids-advisory-boards-in-your-library/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961496 | 992 | 2.296875 | 2 |
Chair: Desmond Jolly, University of California- Davis
Moderator: Susan Smalley, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Challenges in Documenting Program Impacts in Measurable Terms
Desmond A. Jolly
University of California
Evaluation should not be simply a requirement imposed by funding agencies whether public or private. Evaluation is a management tool. It is an essential component of intelligent management, a coordinated, coherent system of decisions designed to maximize the effectiveness of programmatic efforts, given a set of internal and external constraints.
We face a number of challenges in making evaluation an integral, essential and useful component of program efforts. Evaluations require resources and in the context of resource scarcity it is sometimes perceived as a diversion from the main purpose of a project, service delivery to clientele. The ultimate outcomes of interventions in terms of their measurable impacts on clientele performance often manifest themselves after a considerable lag. This is particularly true when our interventions are targeted to clientele that are enmeshed in a constellation of economic, institutional and cultural constraints. This is not true only for low income clients, but for highly capitalized, profit maximizing firms as well. Think of the rate of adoption of practices loosely identified as "sustain-able" designed to improve the long-run productivity of agricultural systems through better management of soils, water and pests.
A fundamental challenge to the adoption of evaluation as an integral part of our programs is the fact that agricultural and environmental education involves the strong presumption that knowledge of plants, animals, soils, insects, viruses, nematodes and the like are necessary and sufficient to promote agricultural development and environmental protection. Only grudgingly and belatedly have we come to include people and their cultural and social systems in our frameworks of study and attention. Hence, most agriculturalists feel very inadequate to intelligently design programs in the context of cultural and social systems. How can we deal with and effectively overcome these challenges? I suggest we begin at the beginning.
If behavioral change is our ultimate objective, and it almost always is, we are typically attempting to decrease or increase the occurrence of certain practices. We do this by increasing knowledge of their potential costs and benefits.
However, we often perceive the delivery of the knowledge as the outputs of our programs rather than the inputs into a change process. Few of us wish to fail or even to be perceived as doing an average job. Hence, there is a psychological bias against evaluating how users perceive the benefits of a given intervention such as a workshop, field day, research paper or demonstration project. If we perceive evaluation, however, as part of the process of product development, of continually improving the product to meet market demand, we might change our attitude towards evaluation as an integral component of program or project develop-ment. If we see it as separate and add-on, it will continue to receive short shrift in terms of our time and attention. It needs to become an integral part of program design, coequal with problem specifi-cation and intervention methodologies.
The use of evaluation requires not only skills and knowledge of methodologies, but also orientation. Both of these can be dealt with through in-service workshops. The objective will not necessarily be to transform every researcher or extension agent into an expert evaluator, but to make them conversant with the approa-ches and techniques of evaluation and, as importantly, to the value of evaluation. These workshops should engage partici-pants in as much "nitty-gritty" as possible through a hands-on approach. It may take more than a one-shot effort to create the level of interest that will change the organizational culture regarding evalua-tion. It is of little use to insist on evaluations if the organizational culture mitigates against it. Simply mandating it will go only so far and without broad acceptance is likely to engender a response of minimalism, a proforma evaluation to satisfy administrators or funding agencies. Participation in workshops on evaluation have to be positioned not as administrative mandates but as key inputs into profe-ssional development. Merits, promotions and other indicators of professional development may benefit significantly from improved evaluation skills.
Most projects, other than a narrowly conceived laboratory or field research project, can benefit from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach. Even basic research, to the extent that it could influence applied research and ultimately impact the set of choices that users face, can benefit from an understanding of the environment within which it may find application, the potential private and social costs of the innovation, and the potential opportunities and constraints that may face decision-makers. This is, of course, an ideal paradigm for a priori, research design.
For intervention approaches that more directly aim to influence clients in the direction of changed practices, a knowledge of who the target population is, their relevant attitudes, and the constraints and opportunities they face is the key to designing appropriate methodologies and products that can achieve mutually beneficial objectives. Professionals trained in one discipline are unlikely to be able to encompass all the relevant dimensions of a situational analysis. Likewise, their choices of methodologies and products may be constrained by their training and experience. The inclusion of a wider span of knowledge and experience reduces the constraints of knowledge and experience, and increases the windows of opportunity for realistic interventions with increased chances of positive outcomes.
The level of specificity with which we can articulate the problem, the methodologies designed to address the problems, and the expected outcomes will affect our abilities to carry out ongoing, as well as periodic evaluations. A good situation analysis may require extensive research to establish the scope and content of the problem. This research would reveal the particulars related to who the target clients are, their economic situations, their technological knowledge, their attitudes, beliefs and practices, the constraints they face in regard to their practices, and the systems they employ in their households, farms or business operations. Even this exploratory research, when it involves surveys of clients, must be informed by some knowledge of the cultural context in which it is applied.
Once the situation has been carefully described and analyzed, expected outcomes need to be specified in measurable terms, keeping in mind the constraints and limitations alluded to earlier. Outcomes should be projected with as much realism as possible based on the constraints and opportunities facing the project. What is the realistic level of resources that can be allocated to the project and what are their opportunity costs? What are the constraints and opportunities facing the clientele? Given the set of constraints and opportunities they and you face, how many can be reached with the new knowledge and, of those, what proportion can you realistically expect to adopt the new knowledge and practice within given time intervals. The choice of methodologies need to be appropriate to the cultural, economic and logistical circumstances of the clientele group.
At this point in the project design process, an information system must be developed to provide ongoing data on performance, to identify problem areas in order to solve them in a timely fashion, and to develop the database for the periodic evaluations, whether mid-term or terminal.
A schematic of the components of a management system to guide project performance might include the following:
Specify project objectives as a foundation for developing a detailed implementation strategy.
Develop a list of activities and delivery systems and determine required inputs and outputs.
Prepare realistic plans of work in light of resource availability, including staffing.
Allocate responsibilities appropriately among collaborators and staffs.
Develop recording systems to monitor physical and financial performance.
Establish measurable performance indicators based on feasibility, costs, and capacities.
Establish a system to supervise and monitor the performance of individuals and units involved in the project.
Monitor the project environment to keep track of evolving developments that may enhance or inhibit performance.
Provide periodic reports to interested agencies and institutions.
The World Bank, in its guidelines on project evaluation, categorizes the project sequence as comprised of inputs, outputs, effects, and impacts. Inputs would include infrastructure and exten-sion services, as well as obvious inputs as such as improved seeds, fertilizers and chemicals. Outputs would be the physical changes in productivity that result from the employment of these inputs. Effects are the agronomic benefits that derived from these changes. Impacts are the changes in living standards and the quality of life of beneficiaries. We need to include social impacts such as improvements in resource management that enhance their sustainability.Measuring Beneficiary Outcomes
The experience of beneficiaries with respect to project services is one measure of project impacts. Appropriate indicators for measuring beneficiary impacts may include:
Proportion of the target population that is aware of the project's services or inputs.
Proportion of the target population that has access to particular project services or inputs.
Proportion of the target population that received the project's message, service or input.
Proportion of the target population that received the message service or input that understood its purpose.
Proportion of this group that per-ceived the message service or input as potentially helpful.
Proportion of the exposed popula-tion that adopted at least some elements of the projects' recommendations for the first time.
Proportion of the adopting popula-tion that practiced the new recommendations in subsequent periods.
Proportion of the adopting population that continue the practices after the special efforts of the program terminates.
Scaled index of levels of satisfaction with the project.
Reasons for nonusers and nonadopters not adopting recommendations.
Put another way, both the ongoing monitoring and the information system that documents ongoing project performance, and the periodic evaluations should seek to ascertain:
The extent to which the target clientele understand the available services;
The extent to which those services are seen as meeting the needs of those who understand them;
The extent to which those services are tried by those who understands and perceive them as relevant;
The degree to which those who tried the services continue using them.
Ultimately, we want to find out who has access to the project services and inputs, how they react to these inputs, and how these inputs affect their behavior and performance.
Summary and Conclusion
Evaluation and impact assessments are not yet a comfortable part of our institutional cultures. Attitudes and skills mitigate against their incorporation into our programs and projects. But even apart from the requirements of funding agencies, evaluations and impact assessments can be invaluable tools to help move us to higher levels of performance and excellence.
I have suggested more emphasis on in-service training, the use of multi-disciplinary teams in research and outreach, and some basic guidelines for focusing on the usefulness of programs to intended beneficiaries. Change can be expected to be incremental and cumulative. But clearly, for those of our programs involved in public intervention, impact assessment is a methodology whose time has come.
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Return to Title Page | <urn:uuid:b4ec34a7-b261-429a-a16a-2a357e09a306> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/nsfc/2iic1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941694 | 2,199 | 2.28125 | 2 |
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Here we are at debate #3, but has anyone heard a Republican besides Mitt Romney utter their one-time favorite word “family?” In fact, most of the top Republican presidential nominees are studiously avoiding the biggest social problem of our time, namely, family breakdown. There’s a good reason for this, of course; aside from Romney, the leading candidates, whether committed to running or only flirting, are divorced, and at least one of them has a marital history that verges on the baroque. It’s understandable that a presidential contender would want to avoid reminding voters about a messy personal history.
Understandable, but in the end, misguided. There is simply no way to advance the principles that have made for past Republican successes without supporting strong families. Let us count the reasons:
Reason #1: Limited Government. Personal liberty and limited government have always been Republican first principles. Despite the current administration’s dubious service to these principles, they remain important to most Republicans. The problem for the Republican divorced candidates is that the foundation of limited government lies in strong, self-governing families. You only have to consider the last half century of social-welfare trends: just as divorce and nonmarital childbearing expanded, so too did the government programs and tax dollars needed to support them.
Welfare, still a budget drag even eleven years after welfare reform, is only the most obvious example. Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution estimates that between 1970 and 1996, the growth of single parent families increased federal welfare and food stamps expenditures by $229 billion. Today, the federal government spends more than $200 billion annually on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid spending, and much of this spending is driven by family breakdown. Moreover, marital failure necessarily invites the government to meddle in personal relationships. This year, for instance, federal and state governments will spend more than $5 billion in efforts to identify, hunt down, and collect money from millions of nonresidential fathers across the nation and 17 million families.
Reason #2: Law and Order. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was an outlier when he observed over 40 years ago that crime is a marriage and fatherhood issue. Today, the idea that marriage plays a key role in turning boys into law-abiding young men has become the new social scientific consensus. One recent Princeton study found that boys who grew up with their married fathers were half as likely to spend time in jail as boys who grew up in fatherless homes. Another study by Harvard sociologist Robert Sampson agreed that family breakdown was one of the strongest predictors of “urban violence across cities in the United States.” With crime rates rising again in many cities, the subject of family breakdown seems like a no-brainer.
Reason #3: The American Dream. Republicans have long seen themselves as guardians of the American dream, working to insure that individuals and businesses can prosper in a free society. It’s clear by now that prosperity depends on strong families. At the simplest level, married couples earn more money than singles. A large body of research shows married men earning between 10 and 40 percent more than men with similar levels of education and job experience, largely because they work longer, smarter, and more responsibly than their unmarried peers. Marriage is also an important source of wealth generation. On the eve of retirement, the typical married couple has accumulated about $410,000, compared to approximately $167,000 for the never-married, and about $154,000 for the divorced.
Marriage does all this by fostering a common orientation towards the future and a sense of duty among adults, qualities that are also tremendously advantageous to their children. It’s no coincidence that children of married couples, including low income couples, are more likely to graduate high school, to go to college, and to go on to earn higher incomes than kids of single parents. To put it a little differently, marriage provides the breeding ground for children’s future upward mobility.
Finally, Reason #4: The Vote. If Republican candidates don't find principle enough of a reason to put marriage policy at the top of their agenda, they might want to consider self-interest. Married Americans vote and vote Republican at significantly higher rates than do Unmarrieds. In the last presidential race, for instance, hitched Americans were more than 50 percent more likely to vote than their singleton fellow citizens, and when they did, they voted for George Bush by a 15-point margin (57 to 42 percent). This is probably because the married have tended to view the party at least they used to before Republicans became tongue-tied on all things family as more supportive of a family-centered way of life.
In other words, Republicans have every reason self-interest, party loyalty, and the American future to transcend the idea that your personal history has to limit your political beliefs, and to talk about policies that would strengthen and expand the ranks of the married.
Yes, accusations of hypocrisy may fill the airwaves. But chances are Americans, almost all of whom have been touched by the family unraveling of the past 40 years, would be in a forgiving mood. At any rate, they know that while hypocrisy is bad, moral cowardice is worse.
Original Source: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDY2YTY5YWY5Y2M1NmM0OGQxZGYxMDFkZWU4NjdkYTQ= | <urn:uuid:e1fe4bf8-e852-41fc-baf8-0289740a46af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=3322 | 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 | 0.967457 | 1,133 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Heads up pharmaceutical marketing firms: your branded “freebies” at US medical schools may be on their way out. An editorial in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine is calling for the new policies on interactions between pharma companies and physicians, even would-be medical professionals. The editorial highlights a study in that publication investigating whether medical students’ attitudes may be influenced by exposure to small branded items such as pens, clipboards, notepads, etc. That study involved 352 third and fourth-year students from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, which has a strict policy against promotional material, and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, which does not.
The research involved assessing the relative attitudes toward Lipitor (Pfizer), the branded promotional product, and Zocor (simvastatin, Merck). Results showed that fourth-year students at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine exposed to Lipitor promotional items had a more favorable implicit attitudes about that drug. Students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine had a more negative attitude about the promoted product, which researchers say may be attributed in part to the school’s policy. As they observe, “The policy … may have heightened the ability of the Penn students to exercise what has been termed ‘persuasion coping effectiveness,’ which produces a goal within oneself to achieve one’s own current learning or attitudinal goal independently of what the marketer seems to be trying to accomplish.” (There was not a significant difference with third-year students, which researchers attribute to the fact that fourth-year students have more clinical experience.)
Researchers concluded that even small branded items of low economic value may influence a medical professional’s attitude toward a particular drug product. (The study did not evaluate the students’ actions, only their implicit attitude of the product).
Efforts to eliminate pharmaceutical promotional material in medical schools would add to existing cutbacks in drug marketing to physicians as well as consumers.
In January, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) enacted a voluntary ban on promotional materials to physicians, and The Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires full disclosure of drug company payments to medical researchers (see related blog post).
Industry-wide drug manufacturers cut prescription-drug advertising to consumers by 8% last year, (from $4.8 billion in 2007 to $4.4 billion in 2008), according to one report. Congressional scrutiny of drug marketing, fewer product launches, and pressures to decrease healthcare costs have led drug makers to scale-back consumer ads.
Meanwhile legislators in Vermont are set to pass a bill that would ban or place strict controls on the gifts, samples, meals, etc. that drug companies provide to doctors. The arguments focused on, for example, whether companies should ban the practice of providing lunch during a presentation or whether these companies should disclose for public review the names of the doctors that received the lunch. According to an April 2009 report, 78 pharmaceutical manufacturers spend $2.9 million to market and provide education about their products to Vermont doctors, hospitals, and university researchers in one year. During the discussions before the state’s House Health and Welfare Committee, PhRMA representative Marjorie Powell said that “It’s easier to get everyone together if a pharmacy rep can bring in sandwiches and talk about a medication.” However, Susan Baker, healthcare advocate with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, argued that “the medical profession isn’t low income. They can afford their own food.” | <urn:uuid:5cc9217f-1f6e-47a5-ad5c-f482410ad2c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pharmtech.com/2009/05/12/should-drug-marketing-stay-out-of-med-schools/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958271 | 732 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Gare de Nantes
is the principal passenger railway station serving the French
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
city of Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
. It is a through station aligned east-west, with entrances and station facilities on both north and south sides. The two entrances are often described as Gare Nord
and Gare Sud
, as if they were separate stations, but they are in fact linked to each other and to all the platforms by a pedestrian subway.
Construction was started on the current station in 1965, and it was placed into service three years later. It is situated somewhat to the east of the old Gare d'Orléans, originally the Nantes station of the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans, which it replaced. The southern entrance hall was opened in 1989, in time for the inauguration of the TGV Atlantique.
Line 1 of the Tramway de Nantes
The Nantes tramway is a tramway system located around the city of Nantes, France. The first tramway in Nantes opened in 1879 and closed in 1958 due to bombing damage during World War II, while the present tramway was re-introduced to the city in 1985....
serves the northern hall of the station. The southern hall is served by several of the bus services of the Tan network
Semitan is the company responsible for the comprehensive public transport network of the Nantes Métropole, the urban community of the French city of Nantes. The network operated by Semitan is marketed under the name and logo of tan, and this abbreviated form is also sometimes used to refer to the...
, including the Navette Tan Air
express shuttle service to Nantes Atlantique Airport
Nantes Atlantique Airport is an international airport serving Nantes, France. It is located southwest of the city, in Bouguenais.The airport is operated by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Nantes...
. Across the road from the southern hall is the southern terminus of the Navibus
Navibus is a group of water bus routes in the French city of Nantes, operated as part of the Tan urban transit network that also includes buses and trams. Routes operate on both the River Loire and the River Erdre, and accept the full range of standard Tan tickets.The current services date back to...
service that operates through the St Felix canal tunnel and up the River Erdre
The Erdre is a river in western France, right tributary to the river Loire. Its source is in the Maine-et-Loire département, near La Pouëze. It flows through the départements Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique. It flows into the river Loire in the city Nantes...
to the University of Nantes
The University of Nantes is a well-known French university, located in the city of Nantes. Currently, it is attended by approximately 34,000 students. 10% of them are international students coming from 110 countries.-History:...
The following services currently call at Nantes:
- intercity services (Intercités) Quimper - Nantes - La Rochelle - Bordeaux - Toulouse
- intercity services (Intercités) Nantes - Tours - Bourges - Lyon
- local services (TER Bretagne) Quimper - Lorient - Vannes - Redon - Nantes | <urn:uuid:cc43b3bf-3e2a-46a5-94d8-7e6fe87f256d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gare_de_Nantes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955716 | 821 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Jordan left college in 1984 to play with the Bulls. He finished his first season (1984-1985) as one of the top scorers in the league, with an average of 28.2 points per game. He was also named rookie of the year and made the first of his nine All-Star game appearances. Jordan finished the 1986-1987 season as the second player, after Wilt Chamberlain, to score more than 3000 points in a single season. He led the NBA in scoring for seven consecutive seasons (1987-1993), tying Chamberlain's record, and averaged more than 30 points per game in each season. He also became the Bulls' all-time leading scorer and set numerous scoring records, including most points in a playoff game (63 points against the Boston Celtics in 1986); and highest scoring average for an NBA championship series (41 points per game in the 1993 NBA finals). He led the Chicago Bulls to their first NBA championship title in 1991; with Jordan, the Bulls won again in 1992 and 1993. In addition to his three league Most Valuable Player awards (1988, 1991, 1992), Jordan won the All-Star game MVP award twice (1988, 1996) and a record three-consecutive NBA championship series MVP awards (1991-1993). Jordan was also a member of the United States Olympic basketball team, known as the Dream Team, that captured the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
Stating that he had lost his desire to play professional basketball, Jordan announced his retirement prior to the 1993-1994 season. Initially noted for his scoring, his tenacious defensive play had made him one of the greatest all-around basketball players in NBA history. He had also become a worldwide celebrity due to his success in the NBA and the Olympics, and his numerous commercial endorsements.
Early in 1994 Jordan returned to professional sports, this time as a baseball player. He signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox of the American League (AL), reported to spring training, and was assigned to the team's minor league system. That summer he batted .202 with the Birmingham Barons, a class AA affiliate of the White Sox. Later in the year he batted .252 with the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. Jordan ended his retirement from professional basketball by rejoining the Bulls near the end of the 1994-1995 NBA regular season. In the 1995-1996 season he enjoyed another great year, leading the NBA in scoring with 30.4 points per game and being named league MVP. The Bulls also became the first NBA team to win 70 games in a season, finishing with 72 victories, and they went on to win the NBA championship title. Jordan was named MVP of the NBA finals, becoming the first player to earn the honor four times.
All American Speakers is a speakers bureau and booking agency providing Michael Jordan speaker, personal appearance and agent information. A booking agent coordinator for Michael Jordan. Here you can find Michael Jordan agent information including how to hire Michael Jordan for a speaking engagement, appearance, autograph signing, endorsement deal or corporate event. Contact All American Speakers booking agent for more information on speaker fee costs, scheduling and availabilty for your next event.
We offer you this printable biography of Michael Jordan, for you to bring back to your colleagues and discuss the suitability for your next corporate or organizational event. Please remember to Contact Booking Agent to Hire Michael Jordan for an Appearance or Endorsement for your next function. For more information about Michael Jordan or to check availability please contact booking agent at email@example.com or Call us at 1-800-MY-TALENT for individual consulation.
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Please Note that All American Speakers Bureau acts only as an entertainment broker/producer for corporate functions, private engagements and special events. All American Speakers Bureau does not claim or represent itself as the exclusive agent or management of any artist on this website. Speaker fees are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. Fees often vary based on a number of factors including: speakers schedule, supply and demand, length of presentation, location of event and other factors. Fee Ranges listed on this website are intended to serve only as a guideline. In some cases, the actual price quote may be above or below the stated range. For the most current fee, please contact your representative.
Related Tags: Information on keynote speaking engagements, personal appearances, appearance fees for Michael Jordan, an inspirational motivational speaker. Talent may be available for commercials, speaking, endorsements or corporate entertainment. bio for Michael Jordan agency, manager, speaker fees, speaking agency entertainment booking agency, speaker's fee, inspiration, how to book, booking agencies for lectures, speaking event, celebrity appearances for hire, celebrity, who is agent, publicist, who represents, manager management who represents Michael Jordan, special event ideas, list of top 10 famous speakers, speeches, motivational stories | <urn:uuid:a19e3f2e-60da-4277-90a8-5d2365b8d45e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/celebritytalentbios/Michael-Jordan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956693 | 1,068 | 1.5625 | 2 |
|Yorkshire||North Riding||Nearby places|
[Transcribed information mainly from the early 1820s]
"BURNESTON, a parish in the wapentake of Halikeld, and liberty of Richmondshire; 3½ miles SSE. of Bedale. The church is a large and ancient edifice (see Churches for photograph) dedicated to St Lambert, and the living is a vicarage, in the patronage of Gregory Elsley, Esq. incumbent the Rev. Henry Elsley. Here is a small Methodist chapel; also a Free Grammar school, founded by one of the ancestors of the present Lord Rokeby, in 1680, together with a hospital for five poor parishioners, aged sixty years before their admission; the endowment is upwards of sixty pounds per annum. Pop. 288."
Information on the following places in this Parish is contained on a supplementary page.
- Bromaking Grange
- Cowfold House
- Leeming Bar
- New Inn
- Newton House
- Oak Tree Inn
- Theakstone Grange | <urn:uuid:a6c3d374-8dae-41ac-b345-b4f51d5abc16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/NRY/Burneston/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900314 | 228 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Today we released MS12-001, which addresses an issue that can enable an attacker to bypass a defense in depth feature known as SafeSEH. This bypass is limited in scope to applications that make use of binaries that were built with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 RTM. Binaries that have been built with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 Service Pack 1 and beyond are not affected. In this blog post we wanted to provide more details on the issue that has been addressed and what impact it has. In addition, we’ll clarify the parameters of the “Security Feature Bypass” vulnerability category assigned to this bulletin.
What is SafeSEH?
SafeSEH is a defense–in-depth security feature that is designed to make it more difficult for attackers to exploit certain types of vulnerabilities. In particular, SafeSEH is designed to prevent attackers from using an attack technique known as an “SEH overwrite”. More details on how this is accomplished can be found in a report we released in July of last year: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9776900.
Microsoft released support for SafeSEH in Visual Studio 2003 RTM. Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 were the first versions of Windows to be built with SafeSEH enabled.
What issue is being addressed?
This issue can result in SafeSEH not being enforced for a binary that has been built with support for SafeSEH. This occurs when a binary that was built with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 RTM is loaded by an application running on a version of Windows that is affected by MS12-001.
The reason that SafeSEH is not enforced in this scenario is because Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 RTM produces binaries with metadata that is a different size than what the Windows loader expects. As a result, the loader conservatively falls back to assuming that the binary does not support SafeSEH. MS12-001 addresses this issue by allowing binaries to have metadata of the size that is produced by Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 RTM.
What impact does this issue have?
Failing to enforce SafeSEH for a binary can enable an attacker to more easily develop an exploit for a vulnerability. The attacker must have found a vulnerability that can enable code execution for this to be possible; the issue addressed by MS12-001 does not enable code execution in and of itself. Furthermore, it does not enable elevation of privilege, information disclosure, or the like. For this reason, we’ve assigned MS12-001 to the very small category of “Security Feature Bypass” vulnerabilities. Though failure to enforce SafeSEH is by no means desirable, the issue in itself does not constitute an exploit vector.
Although the set of binaries affected by this issue is limited, some of the affected binaries are extensively used by applications. For example, the redistributable C runtime DLLs (such as msvcrt.dll) from Visual Studio 2003 are affected by this issue. These DLLs also do not enable support for ASLR and are therefore an attractive target for use in developing an exploit. EMET can be used to better mitigate these concerns by enabling mandatory ASLR and SEHOP for applications that make use of such DLLs.
Do I need to rebuild my binaries if they were built with Visual C++ 2003?
Installing the update for MS12-001 will fully address this issue without requiring any binaries to be rebuilt. Alternatively, this issue can also be resolved by rebuilding affected binaries with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 Service Pack 1 or later. You can determine if your binary is affected by this issue by using the Microsoft Visual C++ linker command “link.exe /dump /headers binary.dll”. Binaries with a Load Config Directory size of 0x48 are affected as shown below.
File Type: DLL
7.10 linker version
100000 size of heap reserve
1000 size of heap commit
0 loader flags
10 number of directories
3AC74 [ 43E0] RVA [size] of Export Directory
49298 [ 28] RVA [size] of Import Directory
52000 [ 3B8] RVA [size] of Resource Directory
0 [ 0] RVA [size] of Exception Directory
0 [ 0] RVA [size] of Certificates Directory
53000 [ 2B64] RVA [size] of Base Relocation Directory
39B48 [ 38] RVA [size] of Debug Directory
0 [ 0] RVA [size] of Architecture Directory
0 [ 0] RVA [size] of Global Pointer Directory
0 [ 0] RVA [size] of Thread Storage Directory
49078 [ 48] RVA [size] of Load Configuration Directory
Thanks to Gerardo Di Giacomo and our colleagues in Windows Sustained Engineering for their work on addressing this issue.
Matt Miller, MSEC Security Science | <urn:uuid:6d77c960-b5d5-4078-990b-4d2e175707a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/01/10/more-information-on-the-impact-of-ms12-001.aspx?Redirected=true&title=More%20information%20on%20the%20impact%20of%20MS12-001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00059-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920932 | 1,042 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Gratitude Is Fine, But It Isn't Enough
If we're really people of faith we give thanks and give back.
11/28/2005 01:29:02 PM
My husband and I spoke about this very thing over our Thanksgiving holiday weekend. World poverty and hunger. I understand that our government pays farmers to NOT produce food so as to keep the market price where they feel it needs to be. So land sits idle when it could be used to produce food for the poor. Why can't both scenarios exist? Why can't farmers produce food for US consumption at the US selling rate and use the rest of their God-given land to produce food for the poor. I agree with cknuck when he states that there is enough pie for us all. We as humans can do better than we are.
11/27/2005 01:14:48 AM
Adopt a nursing home resident (or two) and spend some time with them. Many of our elderly have no family nearby. Loneliness is a terrible poverty that can't be fixed by donations of anything except personal time. Until we start addressing all types of need, even those who have physical and financial wealth will suffer from the poverty of the soul.
11/27/2005 01:14:08 AM
Let's not forget that there are many forms of poverty and need. Most realize the physical and financial poverty of the homeless and the hungry. There is also a very real spiritual and emotional poverty throughout this country. While people find it easy to recognize the need to donate food and dollars to feed and clothe the less fortunate, many fail to understand the need for a kind word or a little time for a stranger (and in many instances, a family member). Instead of just opening your wallet, try giving words of encouragement to someone having a bad day. Be patient and understanding to the clerk who's attitude may be the result of dealing with nasty people before you. Slow down and let someone on the freeway in front of you.
11/25/2005 09:51:19 PM
tootlebee, Don't feel bad. You were trying to do the right thing. Maybe you're better off giving directly to an organization, like a local food pantry, so you know exactly where the money is going and how it's being used. If you have any questions about charities, one place to research is www.guidestar.org. Another is www.networkforgood.org. One more is www.communityfoundations.net. Good luck.
11/25/2005 09:41:13 PM
I agree with cknuck, mostly. I have some stories similar to his and they are over a lifetime, so this problem has been here a long time. The administration cutting back on all the helps poor people were receiving here is throwing them all back in a hole again, while we try to correct the terrorism problem that could be solved in a differnent way. We could probably up our percentage in what we give to other countries, because I think I read we give less then most others, but I don't think it should ever exceed our own problems with the poor here.
11/25/2005 10:49:28 AM
I choose to help those less fortunate in what is to many a foolish way. I see people in front of grocery stores, on onramps, and offramps with cardboard signs saying "everyone needs a little help sometime, can you help?". Now the same people who would never miss a church service have told me that these people are just ripping me off. They probably use the money for alcohol, drugs, or a way of making a living. I know this is true for some of them, but I would rather give the money knowing that maybe half of the people are really hungry and will use the money for a good purpose. I also share my faith with anyone who accepts my money (I know that it is really more valuable). Jesus loved the unlovable and sinful and I try to always think, What Would Jesus do. If you have never been in the position where you really needed a couple of dollars just to put gas in your tank so you could drive to work, maybe you can't relate. I can. God bless you all.
11/24/2005 01:07:56 PM
C.R. I love your handle. First of all there is nothing you have posted I disagree with except maybe; "Let's not make the poor in America and the poor in the World fight over the same small slice of the pie." The pie is truly not small, and no one in the true nature of wealth should have to fight, there is enough pie for us all. Here in Phila. I was so hungry as a child; I was often chased out of trolley barns eating the road salt that was stored there. So I know a little about hunger and lack of opportunity right here at home I am blessed that I survived. There were preachers just like Mr. Campolo around then and I still starved right under their noses. I just believe we will never be effective combating poverty internationally until we are thoroughly committed to eliminating it here at home. Thanks for such a well thought out response.
11/24/2005 09:18:03 AM
To "cknuck" who posted before me, I ask, if charity starts at home, does charity ever go beyond the home? Do we wait until every child in America is fed, educated and given proper attention before we turn our attention to the poor beyond our border? Sometimes, its not just about us in America. And why must we choose between helping the poor in America and the poor elsewhere? Why don't we choose between helping the poor everywhere or helping the rich? Have you heard about welfare for the rich? For example, by 2010, all federal estate taxes will be eliminated. This benefits all person who dies with more than $1.5 to $3.5 million dollars. How many Americans will die with that much money? Let's not make the poor in America and the poor in the World fight over the same small slice of the pie. Let's stop the rich from taking the whole pie from the poor (and the rest of us). Besides, where in the Bible does it say that "charity starts at home"? Take what works and leave the rest... :-)
11/23/2005 02:34:37 PM
Not a big Tony Campolo fan, he seems to have written a good article here, certainly no one can disagree with him. But I am a hard and fast believer that charity starts at home. Here in the states we have many starving kids, not only for nutrition but also for education and attention. I think if we don't address our home front the rest of the world will in the end suffer not because of what we do, but because of what we don't do here.
11/23/2005 09:11:38 AM
Ah, Tony, my hero. Very well-written and well-said, as usual. I'm already thinking about where I'm going to give.
11/23/2005 08:51:27 AM
Part of counting our blessing is the acknowledgement that there are so many who have so much less to be thankful for. We should all do our part to help the less fortunate or run the risk of be too self absorbed and vain.
11/23/2005 12:30:53 AM
Bravo or anyone else that may be interested: If you want to donate and are concerned about which charities are trustworthy, go to the Better Business Bureau online (just enter it into any search engine) Once at the site, click on "charities" and the BBB provides you with a pretty detailed report on where your money goes with each charity that reports (it also tells you who declined to report, and who does not meet BBB standards)
11/22/2005 09:39:27 PM
I'm glad that the article writer knows that World Vision and the other organization are completely trustworthy because I worry about how trustworthy some of the charities are...
11/22/2005 09:15:10 PM
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2Cor. 9:7) There is so much more Paul describes there that perhaps we should, as Christians and non-Christians be grateful for what we do have and to share with others. In Christian Love.
11/22/2005 07:33:45 PM
The ancient Jews [invented Thanksgiving]. They called it the Passover. We read about it in Deuteronomy 14:22-27. In gratitude for God’s deliverance from their enemies and for provisions to meet their daily needs, the Jewish people were directed to come to their temple Umm, I hate to point this out, but Jews still celebrate Passover. :D So you don't have to just read about it -- it's actually happening! Good points, though, about focusing on the "giving" part of "Thanksgiving." We should definitely use gratitude to focus on giving more to people. "Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are needy, come and celebrate..." --(from traditional Passover Haggadah)
11/22/2005 07:12:54 PM
Interesting that, at the tender age of six, young Master Campolo was already hooked into recognizing the need to share in the acceptance of a notion of which he had no clear understanding - beyond the cue that, in order to be considered in good standing, he must agree. | <urn:uuid:2d948213-f088-49e9-8d9e-0b55d0c4b457> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Christianity/2005/11/Gratitude-Is-Fine-But-It-Isnt-Enough.aspx?comments=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969577 | 1,997 | 1.742188 | 2 |
- This first chapter contains scientific terms that may be too complex for younger readers or listeners. I preferred not to remove or "water-down" the content because the science is sound and expect that that you will enjoy smooth saiing in reading later stories.
- Episode 1
- Grandpa's Gift
- Mike Maloney wanted the twins to come in contact with the wider world beyond their neighborhood and school at an early age, but old enough to absorb and remember their experience. Once the twins reached “the age of reason” (seven years of age, according to tradition, when children are said to begin developing a moral sense of right and wrong), Mike said it would be good for Mal and Mel to visit interesting places one weekend a month with their parents. He would pay for all expenses, trusting his son’s and daughter-in-law’s judgment as to what would be suitable places for the family to visit.
- Mort and Agnes, after a brief protest that they didn’t want to accept such gifts from Mort’s father, agreed to try out Mike’s “experiment” (as they called it) for a year. “Let’s see how it works out,” was their approach.
- Neither Mort nor Agnes traveled much in their childhood or youth, so they decided that the first weekend excursion should be to a region with a completely different environment than their middle-class suburban community, and one that would not only fascinate the children but allow them plenty of exercise as well.
- What about Yellowstone National Park, they thought. Old Faithful, the paintpots and other natural wonders they saw on the Discovery Channel would certainly captivate the children…and themselves, since neither of them had been to Yellowstone before. And further, they rationalized, the park is far too big to visit more than just a few of the wonders in any given weekend so we can go back several more times during the year.
- You see, Mort and Agnes both had responsible positions where they worked and wanted to give their children as much of their presence as they could on evenings and weekends. They didn’t want to spend too much time researching and planning for these monthly trips, especially when the children were so young.
- First Stop: Yellowstone National Park
- So Yellowstone National Park it was for the Maloney family’s first exploratory weekend.
- “Wow, Old Faceful!” Mal exclaimed excitedly. “I can’t wait to see it. It blows its top every hour, doesn’t it?”
- “It’s Old Faithful, dear,” Agnes reminded him. “And it’s not so regular that you can set your clock by it, but it does go off often enough for you to see it a couple of times while we’re there.”
- “It’s ‘Old Faceful’ if you get close enough to it,” Mal giggled.
- “Don’t even think about it,” warned his mother. “You’d burn yourself because it’s mostly steam. Besides, they have ropes and guards so you can’t get too close.”
- “I think the paintpots sound really pretty,” said Mel. “Should I try them out with my paint brushes and drawing pad?”
- “Your paint brushes would probably melt if you were able to get close enough to dip them in, Sunshine,” said Mort, “although the colors are indeed caused by the same chemicals that are used in making paint. Let’s all remember that sometimes the most interesting things are also the most dangerous. We need to pay close attention and obey all the park’s rules and signs.”
- Soon the Maloney family arrived at Yellowstone…although “soon” is a relative measure of time that seems to be related to one’s age. Mort and Agnes spent several weeks researching and reading about the park, feeling they were not quite prepared for this adventure. For Mal and Mel, however, the time passed as slowly as it does for children the weeks before Christmas. But instead of sugar plums dancing in their heads, the twins dreamed of rocks and hills that looked like they were made of sugar.
- It was about nine in the evening when Mort pulled the rental car up to Old Faithful Inn on Friday. They were extremely lucky to get reservations…another family had to cancel at the last moment and there happened to be no one on the waiting list for that weekend.
- "Old Faceful" Lives up to Its Name!
- Despite going to bed well past their usual bedtime, Mal and Mel awoke and got dressed before their parents were ready to begin the day. “Please, can we go out and look around until it’s time for breakfast,” they pleaded. “We’ll stay close by. We just want to see if Old Faceful is ready to go off.”
- “Don’t even THINK of going anywhere near that geyser,” both parents said nearly in unison. They were a bit sorry to cause the weekend exploration to start a bit later than the twins were ready for.
- Mal and Mel were greeted by the just-rising sun as they scampered out the door. It seemed to be really early. They heard just a few birds chirping and a whooshing sound they didn’t recognize. “There it is,” Mel announced, pointing to a column of steam coming out of the ground, perhaps 200 feet from where they were standing. “Let’s go look!”
- Mal didn’t hesitate a second, and both children raced to get a better view of the most famous geyser in the park. “Wow!” was all that either of them could say when they got to the edge of the boundary around Old Faithful where no grass can grow. Steam spewed out of the ground with such a force that it reached as high as a 10 or 12-story building. And even from that safe distance, they could feel a light mist on their faces, cooled as it fell from that height. “Wow!” No other words could express what they felt. “Wow!”
- Suddenly, with no warning of any kind, a great gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and blew a huge wall of steam and super-heated water toward the twins. Mal saw it and leaped quickly out of its path, but Mel was enthralled and let it engulf her for the moment or two before it disappeared. There was never such a wind before in this area, and will probably never happen again in the next ten thousand years.
- Mal was horrified. A few tiny, stinging droplets fell on his left arm, leaving little red dots that looked like freckles but were actually burns from the steam. What had happened to Mel? He only thought and moved to save himself, and he neglected his sister and best friend. “I’m an idiot! I let it hurt my sister!”
- Mel was confused to see her brother so upset. “Wasn’t that spectacular?” she asked. “What’s the matter with you? Chicken? Afraid of a little water?”
- “Mel! You’re ok? You’re not burned?”
- “Of course not, silly. What’s gotten into you? It was like being in a cloud up in the sky,” Mel replied.
- “Look here,” said Mal, holding out his arm so she could see the red marks where the droplets landed.
- “Oh, wow. Does it hurt? We’d better get back and you need to change into your longer-sleeved shirt so mom and dad don’t see.”
- “Nah, it doesn’t hurt much now. You’re right. Let’s get back before mom and dad find out!”
- The twins raced quickly back to the inn. Just in time! The front door of the lodge opened and there were Mort and Agnes.
- The Twins' Mysterious Secret
- “What were you two up to?”
- “Nothing. Just looking around.” The twins instinctively knew how to avoid stern lectures and worse, the scolding and fussing if they revealed either of their different encounters with Old Faithful’s strange behavior. Mal said he wanted to change shirts because it was a bit chilly out and the other one he brought had slightly longer sleeves.
- After a hearty breakfast, the family took a walk (more leisurely this time) to Old Faithful. It was about time for a repeat performance of one of nature’s most magnificent shows. Agnes oohed and aahed as the geyser repeatedly shot high into the air.
- In researching Yellowstone, the Maloneys learned that certain microorganisms, called extremophiles, are found very close to Old Faithful. So while Mort was a bit less expressive about the “Water Dance” as Agnes called it, he talked excitedly about the rare ability of the extremophile microorganisms to survive and thrive in the extreme heat surrounding the geyser. Other extremophiles in Yellowstone, he informed his family, survive in conditions that are very acidic, very alkaline, high in sulfur and vary greatly in temperature.
- The adults were so enthralled with Old Faithful that they didn’t notice the twins’ pretend enthusiasm and frequent exchange of confused glances.
- The twins were confused because the cloud of steam that came over Mel for several seconds had different effects on Mal. Mel felt it to be comfortable…warm and not at all hot or painful, while a much smaller amount of that same cloud of steam that reached Mal and lasted a much shorter time hurt his arm and actually left evidence of damage on his skin.
- The twins knew that they inherited traits from each of their parents; they would later learn that as fraternal (not identical) twins they were genetically as different as any siblings might be. Even that fact, however, would not explain why Mel would be unaffected by conditions that would harm others.
- Once the Water Dance was finished, the Maloneys set out to see the paintpots.
- Please click HERE to continue reading.
SOME LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION
- LINKS: BOOK 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION TO THE BIOFABLES SERIES
BioFables 1 Teaching Brief
BioFables 1 & 2: Word Counts, Reading Levels | <urn:uuid:757211bc-dc93-4e1c-b661-b4dadb3169f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techmanage.net/BioFables/Book1/ExploringExtremophiles1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98266 | 2,292 | 2.1875 | 2 |
During the world premiere of Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, which we screened in April in conjunction with Looking at Music: 3.0, we got a great response to the riot grrrl fan zines in the exhibition. These include photocopies of several zines from the outstanding Riot Grrrl Collection at NYU’s Fales Library. Flipping through them allows you to see one of the most important cultural movements of the last few decades from the gritty personal perspective of its most distinguished icons.
These zines were made by rocker/artists like Johanna Fateman and their avid fans, to be distributed at concerts among like-minded DIY feminists. While fan zines included tributes to the post-punk girl bands they were created around, in fact their larger purpose was to voice radical opinions that even major feminist magazines at the time censored. The idea was to share stories, foment activism, and promote the riot grrrl ethos. Indeed, when riot grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy went on tour, they took zines with them to distribute at venues across the country. The information disseminated in these cheaply produced, self-published manuscripts became a major tool in the riot grrrl movement and prefigured the way blogs and social media would transform the way information is shared today. | <urn:uuid:b9d890c5-4754-49a7-84ff-e68ebdda4862> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/05/18/looking-at-zines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975026 | 285 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I. Filing a Complaint
a. Anyone may report alleged violations of State or Federal election laws subject to enforcement by the Attorney General by submitting a completed Election Law Complaint Form.
b. The Election Law Complaint Form shall:
(1) Be written legibly and signed by the complainant;
(a) If the complaint relates to a violation of a right established by Title III of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the complaint must be sworn to by the complainant in front of a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace.
(b) The Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's Office will provide Notary Public or Justice of the Peace services for an Election Law Complaint Form free of charge. Town Clerks, City Clerks, and other public officials who are Notaries Public or Justices of the Peace are encouraged to provide their services free of charge for the purpose of filing an Election Law Complaint Form.
(2) Contain a statement that an election official, a town/city/village district, a candidate, a political committee, an individual, or a corporation has violated a State election law or Federal election law subject to enforcement by the Attorney General and, if known, the requirement, statute, or regulation that has been violated;
(3) Contain a statement of the facts on which the complaint is based;
(4) Allege a violation that occurred not more than one year prior to the date the complaint is being submitted, unless a longer period is reasonable because the violation is continuing; and
(5) Identify by name, address, and phone number any known witnesses or other victims.
c. Any written communication satisfying the requirements set forth above shall constitute a complaint for the purposes of these procedures.
d. Complaints shall be mailed, faxed, or delivered to:
33 Capital Street
Concord, NH 03301
Complaints shall be considered filed on the date that they are received at the Attorney General's Office.
a. The Attorney General or his designee will evaluate each complaint.
(1) If the complaint does not state a violation of any State or Federal election law subject to enforcement by the Attorney General, the complainant and the subject(s) of the complaint shall be notified in writing.
(2) If the complaint alleges a violation of any State or Federal election law subject to enforcement by the Attorney General, an inquiry shall be initiated.
b. Unless the nature of the allegation makes doing so inappropriate, an initial step in the inquiry will be to notify the subject of the complaint and afford the subject an opportunity to provide a response to the complaint.
c. The Attorney General's Office will publicly neither confirm nor deny the receipt of a complaint nor the existence of an investigation, unless doing so is deemed necessary to gather information or alert the public to a preventable hazard.
d. If the subject of the complaint elects to provide a response, upon receipt of the response, the complaint and response will be evaluated to determine if an investigation is necessary to resolve the complaint.
e. Complaints shall be resolved in one of the following ways:
(1) Criminal Prosecution – If a criminal penalty exists for the election law violation and the evidence and circumstances warrant criminal prosecution, the Attorney General, directly or through a County Attorney or Police Prosecutor, will prosecute the alleged offender.
(2) Civil Prosecution – If a civil penalty exists for the election law violation and the evidence and circumstances warrant imposition of a civil penalty, the Attorney General will pursue imposition of a civil penalty in accordance with applicable law.
(3) Cease and Desist Order – If the election law authorizes the Attorney General to issue a Cease and Desist Order and the evidence and circumstances warrant issuance of a Cease and Desist Order, the Attorney General will pursue issuance of a Cease and Desist Order in accordance with applicable law.
(4) Written Warning – If the election law does not provide for any penalty or if the evidence and circumstances support a conclusion that wrongdoing occurred, but the evidence and circumstances do not support or warrant a criminal prosecution, a civil penalty, or a cease and desist order, the Attorney General will issue a written warning if warranted.
(5) Closure Letter with Recommendations – If the evidence and circumstances do not warrant any of the above actions, but the Attorney General concludes that the subjects of the complaint failed to follow recommendations issued by the Secretary of State or the Attorney General or recognized best practices, the Attorney General may issue a Closure Letter to the subject of the complaint with recommendations for best practices.
(6) Closure Letter, Complaint Unfounded – If the evidence and circumstances support the conclusion that the subject of the complaint did not violate any election laws and followed the published recommendations of the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, the Attorney General will issue a Closure Letter declaring the complaint unfounded.
f. If the complaint involves a violation of a right established by Title III of the Help America Vote Act and the Attorney General determines that the complaint will be resolved by a criminal prosecution or civil penalty, the complainant shall be notified and afforded an opportunity to attend any public court sessions held to resolve the complaint.
g. If the complaint involves a violation of a right established by Title III of the Help America Vote Act and the Attorney General determines that the complaint will be resolved by a Cease and Desist Order, a Written Warning, Closure Letter with Recommendations or Closure Letter Complaint Unfounded, the complainant shall be issued a copy of the closure letter.
h. The complainant and the subject of the complaint shall have a right to request a hearing on the record before a hearing officer appointed by the Attorney General. The purpose of the hearing will be to afford the complainant, the subject, and the Assistant Attorney General who handled the matter to present evidence and arguments supporting resolution or arguing for an alternative resolution.
III. Hearing Process
a. Notice – The complainant or the subject of the complaint must file a written notice challenging the resolution with the Attorney General within 30 days of the date on which the documents announcing the resolution of the complaint are issued.
b. The Attorney General shall appoint a hearing officer who shall be a senior member of the Attorney General's Office who was not previously involved in any way in the investigation of the complaint, or a private attorney.
c. The Hearing Officer shall schedule a hearing within 30 days of the receipt by the Attorney General's Office of the written request for a hearing.
d. The Hearing Officer shall issue a notice of hearing that includes:
(1) Parties names and addresses;
(2) Date, time, and location of hearing;
(3) Statute(s) in question;
(4) A copy of the Cease and Desist Order, Written Warning, Closure letter with Recommendations or Closure letter concluding the matter was unfounded;
(5) A copy of the notice filed challenging the resolution;
(6) The consequence for failure to appear at the hearing as prescribed below; and
(7) The right of the parties to be represented by counsel at the hearing at their own expense.
e. The Hearing Officer shall issue a recommendation to the Attorney General either proposing a different resolution or affirming the previously issued resolution.
f. Hearing Record
(1) The Attorney General shall cause the hearing to be recorded verbatim, and the recordings shall become part of the record.
(2) The Hearing Officer shall include in the record any documents submitted, and accepted as relevant, by the parties during the hearing
g. Procedural Rules – The hearing shall be conducted in conformance with Administrative Rules Chapter JUS 800.
h. Burden – Unless otherwise specified by law, the burden of proof shall be on the party challenging the original resolution.
i. Adjournment, Postponement, or Continuance – Adjournment, postponement, or continuance shall be directed, granted, or ordered for good cause shown, which shall include prejudice due to the inability of counsel or a critical witness to attend unless such inability is due to action or inaction on the part of the party. Notice of adjournment, postponement, or continuance shall be sent to all affected parties.
j. Failure to Request Continuance or Postponement, or to Appear – Failure to appear at any scheduled hearing, or to request for good cause a postponement or continuance of the hearing in advance thereof, shall be deemed to be a withdrawal of the complaint or waiver of right to be heard, as the case may be, and the challenge shall be closed, dismissed or a decision rendered.
k. Resolutions of complaints shall be made no later than 90 days from the receipt of the complaint (as required by 42 U.S.C. §15512(a)(2)(H)), unless the complainant has agreed to an extension.
(1) If the complaint is not resolved in 90 days, upon receipt of a written request from the complaint the matter shall be submitted to the Ballot Law Commission.
IV. Complaint Form
New Hampshire Department of Justice | 33 Capitol Street | Concord, NH | 03301 | <urn:uuid:b553337c-b9af-48d2-869f-d0787e9083cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doj.nh.gov/election-law/complaint-procedure.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917063 | 1,897 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I’ve run across a lot of Youth Ministers in my time. Whether it be at conferences, meetings, or some other encounter there is always one underlying theme: we don’t make a lot of money. Sometimes we joke about it. Sometimes we say it’s no big deal because we’re doing the Lord’s work (which is a valid point).
Most of the time, though, there is a look of worry. How am I going to keep putting food on the table? How am I going to pay for my daughter’s wedding? How am I going to have enough to retire? The easy answer to these questions is to trust the Lord, and quite obviously, that is the right answer. But, trust is demonstrated not just in our words, but also through our actions.
Here are 5 quick tips to help you put your financial trust in the Lord into action:
Before we do anything, we obviously need to pray. Prayer is where we learn how to truly trust the Lord. Years ago, I was in prayer asking God how I can be in ministry and one day hope to have a family. He told me to trust Him. So I told him I would. But then I heard Him say something else, “You’re going to have to sacrifice.” What does that mean? It means that I must live within my means.
2. Get Out of Debt
Too many of us have accepted the idea that having debt is a part of life. Well, it isn’t, and it doesn’t have to be. A few years ago, I decided that it was time to get out of debt. I was going to live within my means, and I’ve been blessed to be debt free for several years now. The feeling I got that day was similar to the feeling I get every time I leave confession. Proverbs 22:7 says, “the borrower is the slave of the lender,” and the day I became debt-free, I felt as if I was no longer enslaved any more. Imagine all that money that goes toward paying your debt every month goes into your savings, investments, or towards retirement. All of a sudden, the possibility of paying for your daughter’s wedding becomes a little more realistic, doesn’t it?
3. Cut Spending
Often times, the reason we don’t get out of debt or increase our savings is because we refuse to cut spending. Take a look at your purchases last month. Now how many can you live without? Let me give you 3 examples:
- Cable: At a minimum, cable typically costs about $30 per month, and that’s for only a few channels. Most of us are probably paying close to $100 per month after taxes and fees. If we do some quick math, that comes to $1200 per year! Now, if you still want to watch TV, grab a $10 antenna and hook it up. You’ll be able to watch all your favorite network shows for free. Then check out Hulu.com where you can watch many of your favorite cable shows for free, or at least for a substantially lower monthly rate.
- Starbucks: How much are you willing to pay for a coffee addiction? Somewhere, someone tried to sell us on the idea that we needed to pay $4 a cup for coffee. Now, let’s do the math. If you pay for a $4 cup of coffee on your way to work everyday, that’s $20 per week. Multiply that by 52 weeks a year and you’ve got $1040! That’s a pretty expensive addiction.
- Eating Out: As Youth Ministers, let’s be honest. We eat out a lot. While that is certainly not good for our health, it’s not good for our bank accounts either. If we eat out for lunch just 3 times a week for about $10, that’s $30 per week and $1560 a year. And, that’s probably a pretty conservative estimate.
4. Follow a Monthly Budget
Budgeting is one of those things I used to hate. I thought I didn’t have time. I thought I could do it in my head. The reality is that the best way to hold ourselves accountable to spending and saving is to have a monthly written budget. If you’re married, this is even more vital. After all, many studies have shown that one of the top reasons for martial stress is finances. We may say we don’t have time to budget. I say we can’t afford not to.
5. Take Time to Learn
Finances are one of those topics that many of us don’t like to talk about. Often times it’s because we really don’t know that much about them. Take time to learn. I highly suggest reading Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover. It’s a great book, written by a Christian man who is an expert in finances, and it will help you get a plan going that works for you and your family.
These are just some quick tips, and some points to ponder. We could definitely go into a lot more depth here, but it’s important to remember that as Youth Ministers, we don’t have to fear this topic. Money isn’t everything, but if we want to do the ministry we love and provide for our families, we have to consider it. While nothing is going to bring a quick fix to our situation, we need to have a plan and put in the time, effort, and sacrifice that it takes.
If you have any questions or would like additional help, please feel free to give me a call (look for Eric Porteous). While I am by no means an “expert,” I’d be happy to talk with you, help you out, or point you in the direction of someone who can. | <urn:uuid:837e396d-e8cc-4428-b040-9cd98a14942b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catholicyouthministry.com/help-i-want-to-be-a-youth-minister-and-support-a-family/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969698 | 1,259 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The hottest topic on Twitter right now is the Swine Flu outbreak. The #swineflu tag has exploded and become one of the top 2 trending topics on Twitter search. Swine Flu has killed over 60 people in Mexico and cases have been discovered here in several states, including California, Texas, and New York. None of the people stricken here in the U.S. are seriously ill, and only 20 cases total have been diagnosed.
However, if you were to simply use Twitter to get your information, you’d hear a different story. The #swineflu tag is being used to post gossip, misinformation and outright lies about the situation, which is not the least bit useful and can even be harmful. Some social networking experts say people are using the flu outbreak to get more followers. Ever since the Ashton Kutcher/CNN race to 1 million followers, it seems the prime motivation for many Twitter users is to get as many followers as possible, and posting tweets about the Swine Flu, regardless if they are accurate or not, seems to be the hot way to attract them right now.
If you’re worried about the outbreak, get your information from credible sources like your local health department or the CDC. Google has made available an interactive map that is charting the course of the outbreak, and most news outlets will have regular updates. Don’t let a tweet on Twitter scare you! | <urn:uuid:460ecfdf-b75c-485e-8a76-5e06f536d6eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.technologytell.com/gadgets/47138/hysteria-over-swine-flu-outbreak-hits-twitter/ | 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 | 0.962799 | 288 | 1.976563 | 2 |
In Middletown, New York, officials are ready to fine the owner of a building where asbestos was removed in violation of state laws.
The building is the former Classy Leather goods warehouse on Canal St. The furor arose when a city building inspector came upon a work crew leaving the building with bags of asbestos that they planned to dump, presumably in a local landfill.
The inspector shut down the operation and called New York State’s Labor Department Asbestos Control Bureau, which regulates asbestos remediation and removal. A Labor Department inspector showed up a day later.
Middletown Public Works Commissioner Jacob Tawil observed the closure, and Middletown resident West Solloway, who owns an adjacent warehouse (Fort Knox Self Storage), has been complaining about the removal for months, noting that workers are breaking up asbestos-containing material up with sledgehammers without the benefit of masks or other protective gear.
Working in such a manner can lead to asbestos-related diseases, notably mesothelioma, which is caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibers released when material is broken up or degraded.
These fibers, so small they have to be viewed under an electron microscope, set up irritation, which can lead to lesions and, from there, to cancer. This cancer, most commonly occurring in the lungs, or pleura, typically lies dormant for up to five decades, gradually involving more and more vital tissue until symptoms become so severe that those affected are compelled to seek medical help.
The prognosis for advanced pleural mesothelioma is very poor, and most patients are given a year or slightly more to live. Peritoneal (or abdominal) mesothelioma, together with pericardial mesothelioma – occurring around the heart – make up most of the balance of mesothelial cancers, with cancers of the mesothelial lining of the sexual organs (tunica) making up the smallest percentage.
According to Solloway, his repeated complaints to city and state agencies about the removal have largely been ignored, even though he has documentation from the Labor Department that verifies the presence of asbestos-related materials in the building as recently as June.
The warehouse, comprised of several contiguous buildings, also houses a Family Empowerment Council program, which provides vital services to the handicapped.
According to Labor Department spokeswoman Karen Williamson, the property owner will be charged with failing to use a licensed asbestos contractor, failing to use workers licensed in asbestos removal, failing to perform the removal according to established asbestos removal standards, and failing to dispose of materials as prescribed, in a hazardous waste-certified landfill. The amount of fines, which will be determined by the Labor Department, remains undetermined.
The owner of the property is Joe Klein, the president of Elgin Realty, which has submitted proposals to develop the warehouse property with Middletown city officials. Klein has also submitted proposals to develop the former Middletown Psychiatric Center.
Under New York State law, contractors are required to provide 10 days notice of a proposed asbestos remediation/removal project to the Labor Department in order to get a valid permit. The state also mandates removal only at the hands of a state-certified contractor.
Sources: Times Herald-Record | <urn:uuid:31a53876-2470-4d37-830d-6e5fcb6dd4fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mesotheliomaweb.org/building-owner-faces-fines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94873 | 674 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell was the prime sponsor of legislation that passed in the Assembly today that will allow New York State to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Introduced in the Assembly on May 21, 2007, the Marriage Equality Act (A.8590) had a record 56 sponsors and it garnered a ground-breaking 85 votes on the floor. Two same-sex marriage bills have been introduced this session in the Senate; no movement of either is expected this session.
The Marriage Equality Act represents a significant step towards establishing equal civil rights for gay and lesbian couples in New York State. Legal marriage confers over 1,300 state rights and responsibilities, which current law does not allow same-sex couples to assume.
Upon Governor Eliot Spitzer’s historic introduction of his program bill, Spitzer announced, “Strong, stable families are the cornerstones of our society. The responsibilities inherent in the institution of marriage benefit those individuals and society as a whole.”
The legislation establishes equal responsibilities, recognition, benefits, and protections for all married couples, regardless of the sex of the parties to a civil marriage. In consideration of the religious beliefs of clergy members, the bill also provides that no clergy member or religious institution would be compelled to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. Under current law, partners unable to enter into a civil marriage – and their children – lack legal protections taken for granted by married couples and their children in such areas as property ownership, inheritance, health care, hospital visitation, taxation, insurance coverage, and pension benefits.
Assembly Member O’Donnell will now focus his energy on the continuing struggle for equal rights for LGBT citizens. “The Assembly’s passage of this legislation represents both a personal and professional victory for me,” O’Donnell said. “Once the Marriage Equality bill passes in the Senate and is signed into law, I will be able to marry my partner of 26 years. Thousands of other couples like us will also be allowed not only to celebrate their legal commitment, but also to ensure that each partner, and their children, will be protected in the case of illness, death, or the difficult times from which no family is exempt. Marriage Equality is essential to the stability of New York’s lesbian and gay couples and their children.” | <urn:uuid:19d872aa-8004-4036-92ba-1cc3a210ebf7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Daniel-J-O'Donnell/story/23479/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962765 | 472 | 2.09375 | 2 |
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chrislbecker.com by Chris Becker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Just adding a bit to Chris’ post, it’s McD who has ”the causation roughly backward.” It’s not input prices that determine final output prices. It works the other way: Final money prices (in this case, of gold) are determined by subjective final money demand. Rising/falling demand for final products raises/lessens demand for inputs used to produce those final products.
For example, house prices weren’t rising during the housing boom because steel, cement and building sand costs were going crazy. Rather, steel, cement and building sand prices were being bid up by contractors who expected their final products to fetch much higher prices as home-buyers juiced their buying power with fractional bank credit.
This is why when people say that house prices can’t fall because it costs x to build them, they get it totally wrong. The only way for the input prices to fall is if final monetary demand falls.
Oil prices clearly do have their own independent final demand, which adds complexity to the issue. Prices are highly complex. But to say that gold and oil prices have a roughly consistent ratio only because oil is an input into gold production is to say essentially that the gold price would have risen irrespective of final subjective demand. This is not true at all. If final subjective demand for gold dropped to zero, the price of gold would drop to zero – it would become worthless to us – no matter how much it cost to pull out the ground. On the other hand, even if oil prices plummeted due to say a huge new oil discovery, if gold demand remained the same or increased, there would be no reason why gold prices should necessarily fall.
In addition, oil is used in far greater quantities for non-gold production purposes. Rising oil prices due to final fuel demand would if anything displace income that could otherwise be spent on gold and would actually cause gold prices to fall. But notice how we don’t observe this. Why? Because as Chris made clear, “it is the exchange ratio of the rand to both gold and oil that is going down because paper monies are being debased, and that this is why the price of both gold, oil, wheat, soybeans, etc. have all increased since 1971 in paper money terms.“ In other words we tend to observe roughly ‘stationary’ ratios of commodities with each other, but ‘non-stationary’ ratios of commodities with money, because money is being constantly and permanently debased by politicians. Gold money prices can rise EVEN WHEN oil money prices rise because rising oil prices are not displacing demand from elsewhere, they are merely the praxeological result of rising money supply.
This also shows the corollary: falling oil prices, due to say the discovery of new, more efficient energy technology, would release income to be spent elsewhere, and gold prices could actually rise.
Of course, what a high final price and low input prices would subsequently do is entice new producers into the market, raising gold supply. This would, all else equal, begin to depress prices. But increasing supply in this way is a separate issue from input prices determining final prices at McD asserts. In fact, as new entrants enter the market and bid for more inputs while at the same time increasing supply and lowering final prices, we would actually see input prices RISING and final prices FALLING at the same time, squeezing profit margins.
In fact the very fact of profit margin cycles shows that input and final prices OFTEN move in different directions, but market forces tend to restore their exchange ratios over time (unless there is a major technological shift), but not in the way McD asserts. | <urn:uuid:7a4fd148-8edf-4567-a662-a4805b011353> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://chrislbecker.com/2012/09/14/re-more-on-oil-priced-in-gold/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955225 | 794 | 2.390625 | 2 |
Even though the calendar says the first day of summer is still three weeks away, Memorial Day marks the kickoff of the summer recreational season for many folks. This is the weekend that most pools and swimming areas open, and many grills will be removed from storage for the first cookout of the season as groups of family and friends get together to celebrate a return to summer. But most of all, this holiday is a time of reflection and remembrance for all whose service and sacrifices have ensured the many freedoms we enjoy as a nation.
This year, Memorial Day is also the first of two Fish-For-Free days in Pennsylvania, so no fishing license is required to fish any waterway in the state. This program began in 1984 as a way to introduce new folks to fishing or to induce former anglers to return to the sport. The first Fish-For-Free day was held in September in conjunction with National Hunting and Fishing Day, with a second day, usually in late spring, added a few years later. In recent years, the Fish-For-Free days have been on the Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend and a Sunday in early June. For 2011, however, the free days return to the spring and fall format with the one tomorrow and the other on Labor Day.
Since I have owned a Pennsylvania fishing license every year since I turned 16, I've never needed the free day directly, but I have often taken friends or family members who typically don't buy a fishing license most years. If your plans for tomorrow include some fishing time, consider taking along an extra rod and reel and inviting a new angler to join you. Keep in mind, however, that while the license requirements are waived, all other fishing regulations, such as size and creel limits, are still in effect.
Memorial Day weekend is usually prime time for some of the best panfish action of the year. Crappies, bluegills, and other sunfish are plentiful in most area lakes and ponds, and the bigger ones are usually in shallow water near shore right now, either preparing to spawn or in the process of doing so. And once you find the fish, there will typically be a bunch of them.
Small live minnows are irresistible to crappies, and they are probably the best bait to use when trying to find the fish. Once I've located a school of crappies, I'll often switch to artificial lures. Small spoons or inline spinners will take crappies when the fish are in an aggressive mood. Tiny soft-plastic tube jigs or marabou jigs will usually work when they are being more finicky. Crappies can sometimes be a little more picky about lure color than most other panfish. In clear water, I'll try jigs in combinations of white, pink or yellow; in off-color water, black, chartreuse or fluorescent orange are usually good choices.
Bigger bluegills will take live minnows, but smaller baits, such as mealworms, waxworms and red worms, will catch them more consistently. Bluegills will also take most of the same jigs that crappies will but are far less fussy about color. I rarely use anything except black when targeting bluegills. On the other hand, bluegills can be maddeningly good at sucking in a jig and spitting it back out again without getting hooked. For that reason, I prefer to sight-fish for them when using jigs or other artificial lures.
As much fun as panfish are to catch, they might be even better on the table. Although I mostly practice catch-and-release for trout, bass and other game fish, anytime I can get a dozen or so nice crappies or bluegills, I'm thinking fish fry. Because their flavor is light and delicate, I prepare them as simply as possible and without any breading or batter coating to overpower them.
Just deep-fry the fillets in hot oil - 375 to 400 degrees. Be careful not to overcook the thin fillets, and use a spatula or fryer scoop to remove them from the oil to prevent breaking the fillets into small pieces. Drain the fillets on paper towels and then sprinkle them with either celery salt or Old Bay seasoning, whichever you prefer. That's all there is to it. Serve with some coleslaw, French fries or your favorite side dish and an ice-cold beer, and you have a meal that can't be beat. I have served deep-fried crappies to folks who claimed not to like fish and had them ask for seconds. | <urn:uuid:d43bec39-bf66-49ba-a08c-067f5a145939> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/550604/Anglers-can-fish-at-no-cost-Memorial-Day.html?nav=745 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963787 | 956 | 1.53125 | 2 |
As I snap pictures in Greenlake of, The Little Red Hen's, massive western-themed mural that covers most of the inner walls, the talk at the bar inevitably moves towards reminiscence. As the regulars remember good times and old friends, I can't help but feel melancholy. Murals like this seem to be fading away, as each new condo goes up, a structure must come down and it makes me wonder how many priceless works of art have been lost among the rubble or how many were painted over so a new bar can cash in on whatever the latest trend is. Seattle is transforming. It wants to be sleeker, shinier and those murals of times gone by that don't seem to fit the image disappear with little fan fare. Their stories are quickly lost and what little information remains is often muddled or spotty. I went on a hunt for the history on some of these gorgeous murals, here's what I dug up. Story and photos by Suzie Rugh.
Published on September 16, 2008 | <urn:uuid:96ef8c1a-160c-44ec-b1bd-cba31d701ab6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattleweekly.com/slideshow/bar-murals-you-must-see-before-theyre-destroyed-by-condos-144967/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974488 | 210 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Benefits of Chiropractic Care
One of the main causes of pain and disease in the human body can be traced to improper alignment of the vertebrae in your spinal column. This is called a subluxation. Through carefully applied pressure, massage, and manual manipulation of the vertebrae and joints, pressure and irritation on the nerves is relieved and joint mobility is restored, allowing your body to return to its natural state of balance, called homeostasis. Put another way, when the bones in your spine are allowed to go back to their proper positions, the nerve energy can resume its normal flow and your body's natural healing processes can function properly.
In general, proper chiropractic treatment of your body's lumbar, or lower back, region, involves very little risk and the rewards can be significant.
Chiropractic or osteopathic manipulations can be especially helpful in relieving pain for facet joint injuries, osteoarthritis, and sacroiliac joint dysfunction, because such conditions respond well to mobilization. Moreover, scores of patients with chronic headaches, sinus problems, high blood pressure, ear infections, leg pain, arthritis, and many other illnesses have reported significant relief after chiropractic therapy.
Increasingly over the past few decades, the medical community has come to accept and recognize chiropractic care as a valid form of treatment for a variety of neuro-musculoskeletal conditions, and as a conservative treatment option for patients with lower back pain. Moreover, many medical doctors recognize a chiropractic diagnosis and accept it as the first line of treatment for functional disorders of the entire musculoskeletal system.
Studies by leading medical journals in recent years have confirmed the benefits of chiropractic care:
- A 1993 report by the Ontario Ministry of Health concluded that chiropractic care was the most effective treatment for lower back pain. The agency also recommended that chiropractic care be fully integrated in the Canadian government's health care system.
- In 1994, the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research published its Clinical Practice Guidelines, which asserted that spinal manipulation was effective in reducing pain and speeding recovery among patients with acute low back symptoms without radiculopathy.
- A 1996 New England Journal of Medicine study of outcomes and costs for acute low back pain found that patients treated by chiropractors were significantly more satisfied than those who saw primary care, orthopedic or managed care practitioners.
- A 1996 study in the journal Spine echoed that study and found that patients who sought chiropractic care were more likely to feel that treatment was helpful, more likely to be satisfied with their care, and less likely to seek care from another provider for the same condition, compared to those who sought care from medical doctors.
- In 2001, the Center for Clinical Health Policy Research at Duke University concluded in a study that spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for cervicogenic headaches, or those that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headache than a commonly prescribed medication. | <urn:uuid:ba00bd01-4fe4-4aea-830d-f03160ca4135> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chiropracticcolumbia.com/library/3920/BenefitsofChiropracticCare.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946155 | 628 | 2.578125 | 3 |
From Balkan Insight >>
An exhibition of photographs and documents, entitled “The Jewish camp in Zemun – Holocaust and Collaboration in Serbia”, opened at the Atrium Gallery of Belgrade City Library on Monday to mark the International Day of Commemoration of the Holocaust.
The photographs and other archive material deal with the victims, those who collaborated with the German administration and the propagators of anti-Semitic ideology.
Culture Minister Bratislav Petkovic said at the opening of the display that it should remind people of the “shameful propaganda” conducted in Serbia in the Second World War, which supported persecution of Jews.
The documents also deal with those who helped rescue Serbia’s Jews and who thus set an outstanding example of humanity, the minister said.
Continue Reading: SOURCE | <urn:uuid:0542f405-dedc-4162-bad4-f04e1d3c163e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lemberik.org/home/?p=2583 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920205 | 171 | 2.21875 | 2 |
(Seattle, WA) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chairman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee, announced that through a program that she created in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) the effort to rebuild the South Park Bridge in Seattle will receive $34 million to complete financing plans. The funding is part of the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER II) program that Senator Murray created to invest in major transportation projects that create jobs and bolster regional economies.
“This is a huge victory for a community that deserves an economic jolt,” said Senator Murray.”A rebuilt South Park Bridge will get workers back on the job, customers back into businesses, and ease congestion through South Seattle,” said Senator Murray. “At a time when every job counts, this project will create private sector employment and will help small businesses and customers connect. These are the types of projects I fight to support in our state. The South Park community came together to support this effort, state and local leaders came up with a funding plan but they needed federal support to get to the finish line. I’m proud to have established the TIGER program to fund projects like these that create jobs through large-scale construction projects and have a lasting economic impact on communities.”
The $34 million that Senator Murray helped secure for this project will provide all the federal funding needed to complete financing plans to rebuild the bridge.
This project will replace the 81-year old South Park Bridge, closed in June of 2010 by King County for safety reasons. Before its closure, this structure connected a large manufacturing and industrial area to downtown Seattle, the Port of Seattle and Sea-Tac airport, carrying nearly 10 million tons of cargo annually. The closure of the structure has forced freight traffic onto already congested routes serving the South Seattle area. Additionally, the South Park neighborhood is home to 3,700 residents and 115 businesses whose lives and livelihoods are seriously disrupted without a safe, functioning bridge. This already economically distressed area has seen an increased downturn since the bridge’s closure.
Senator Murray created the TIGER grant program in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). As head of the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee, Murray believed that the bill needed to include a program that would invest in transportation projects of regional significance.
In September, Senator Murray directed U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood to visit the site of the bridge during a trip to announce transportation investments. Senator Murray also sent a letter of support for the project to Secretary LaHood. | <urn:uuid:63c6abc3-ae32-403f-b8df-336fd073e3b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=NewsReleases&ContentRecord_id=a7885d63-741b-4d0d-9ccd-25f8308d60fe&ContentType_id=0b98dc1b-dd08-4df2-adac-21f6ae03beed&Group_id=97a054dd-8a74-4cd0-8771-fbc3be733874 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957548 | 539 | 1.5 | 2 |
The hot topic and major concern among bloggers these days is search engine optimization and if it’s worth doing it or not.
The latest Penguin update from Google has made a significant impact on websites worldwide and dropped a shadow of doubt on all SEO efforts made by bloggers to reach higher rankings for the desired keywords.
Time will show SEO is not dead, even though Search Engines try to ensure us it is futile to invest in such services anymore.
The bloggers and webmasters have to understand, that if you don’t SEO, you don’t get noticed.
So how to proceed after this big hit? What is the SEO that we cannot go wrong with? Simple SEO methods and activities, pure white hat optimization and natural link building will never harm your site or blog.
Keep it steady, keep it cool.
SEO Basics You Cannot Go Wrong With!
Onsite/Offsite SEO -
As many of you know already, there’s the onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Okay, we all know about those but not many understand it correctly.
One is SEO work on the site, the other is SEO carried out on other sites, but closely related to the onsite seo.
Once the onsite work is done, link building can be started, by using the correct anchor text for the link created for the appropriate pages. I believe this rule will still be a rule.
The building block of all good sites, but don’t angst over this, or complicate the matter. Just think this; if someone is searching for my site, my products, or my services, what words (keywords), or phrases (key phrases) would they use.
Spend some time thinking about the words and check them out to see if people actually use them. Then pick a list of the best words (your primary list) and then a list of runner-ups (the secondary list).
Select about five in each list; Check them out to see if people actually use them and bingo, you have your keywords.
The keywords are the Lego blocks which build you the perfect website and to help the search engines find your website, their spiders (have no fear,) these are digital crawling devices which read ‘signposts’ called Tags and the text on the page.
The signposts, or Tags, are full of metadata, including the keywords, which help the spiders categorise and rank your site. So, guide the spider properly and sensibly.
No, this is not about boats, or sailors, but concerns how a site is built and how easy it is for the user to navigate their way around.
A site which is hard to move around, or has broken links, or cannot be easily understood, is a disaster for both the user and the search engine spider. And if this happens, sort it out; otherwise you’ll never get ranked properly.
In the land of SEO, the king is content. Content rules the waves and the bigger the site is of relevant and quality content, the better.
Note the words relevant and quality. That should be any webmaster’s mantra and enough said here. Apart from, use your keywords in your content but use them sparingly, or you’ll be done for spamming and that’s not good.
Yes, we all know that you can buy content pretty cheaply. In fact, many suppliers of content, and webmasters themselves, think that there is no better joke than cutting and pasting other people’s content onto their own site.
It’s cheap and used to work. Nowadays however, the spider will get very angry and you’ll fall through the rankings faster than a drunk on a Friday evening.
Your second main word of the day, relevant. Alongside quality, it’s the word you need to keep in the forefront of your mind.
Everything on your site has to be relevant to the theme of your site. If it’s about fishing tackle, don’t start writing articles about your favourite cars. It confuses the users and it confuses the spider, and they don’t like that.
Don’t Miss: 12 Steps To Successful Blogging
Learn to love blogs.
They are the SEO’s main source of power and allow a site to be built out with quality and relevant content (those words again) which the search engine spiders like.
Link Building -
The World Wide Web is a giant network so it figures that the more connected you are (as in life), the more popular you are and the more worthy in the eyes of the search engines. And popularity on the web is denoted by links.
The more links, the more popular, until naughty uber-SEO experts dreamt up ways of creating thousands of links, from irrelevant sites, which really annoyed the search engines. So use this offsite SEO tactic with care – all roads don’t lead to Rome.
Don’t Miss: 5 Ways To Make Money From Your Blog
Black Hat -
In the SEO world, being called a Black Hat is not an appreciation of your favourite head gear. It means you have wandered over to the dark side of the art and if you want to be legit, you have to resist.
Listen to Yoda, he knows.
Got any more tips about Google Penguin Update? Please share them in the comments. | <urn:uuid:75acee45-2782-4797-8479-9555d42e2491> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.monetizeblogging.com/google-penguin-update.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923741 | 1,127 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Body-scanners in railway stations in the UK?
Victoria Cohen writing in her column in The Observer, UK, on Sunday mentioned that she had read of body-scanners being used at Bath railway station. She used this as the starting point for a standard kind of warning on increasing surveillance.
Now, normally, I would thoroughly approve, and such diffusion of technologies of surveillance would fit with the trajectories we outlined in the Report on the Surveillance Society a few years back. However, it didn’t take a lot of digging (and I am probably not the only person who has discovered this) to find that she was basing her column on a misinterpretation of what had gone on in Bath. According to an Avon and Somerset Constabulary press release, what was happening was a temporary exercise conducted jointly with the British Transport Police, using not a body-scanner but a metal detector (or ‘knife arch’ as they are sometimes termed) and sniffer dogs. This was apparently part of a policy to raise awareness of nightlife safety.
There are of course still many issues with the routine use of both sniffer dogs and metal detectors, but we need to be very careful to get the facts right when we are making comments about the spread of surveillance. Get things wrong, and the whole issue can get tarnished as alarmist.
Body-scanners are not being used in UK railway stations. Not yet, anyway… | <urn:uuid:6595dbcd-1c5f-45e5-89e0-41d547f37463> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ubisurv.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/body-scanners-in-railway-stations-in-the-uk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97911 | 295 | 1.601563 | 2 |
By Michael Montgomery
This story was co-reported by Monica Lam in collaboration with the Center for Investigative Reporting
Some 26 states have passed “three strikes” laws, which impose long prison terms for repeat offenders. But only in California can prosecutors seek a life sentence, even if the third strike is for a relatively minor felony, like drug possession. That could change, if voters approve Proposition 36 on the ballot this November.
In 1997 Norman Williams was sent to state prison for a 25-to-life sentence. His crime: stealing a jack from a tow truck in Long Beach. Because Williams had two previous burglary convictions, he was swept up by California’s three strikes law. Williams was sent to a maximum-security lockup alongside murderers, rapists and other violent criminals.
“I never wanted to do my whole life in prison. Nobody wants to be caged like that,” says Williams.
But thanks to the help of an attorney and some Stanford Law School students, Williams got out. On a recent day, I met him in front of a halfway house in San Jose, where he directs cleaning crews for a program that provides work for ex-offenders. Williams says cleaning, especially floors, is the only thing he learned while locked up. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:023787b9-0d8b-40e1-81a5-c9f0e4395ea8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.kqed.org/election2012/tag/three-strikes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955232 | 261 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Grape Seed Extract
More than 200 medical studies are listed in the National Medical Library under grape seed extract and it’s active component ogligomeric proanthocyanidins (now you see why they are generally referred to as OPC’s!).
Over the last 26 years it has been shown that OPCs are among the most powerful antioxidants known. They are 50 times more powerful than vitamin E, and 20 times more powerful than vitamin C at preventing free radical formation or free radical scavenging. When taken together with vitamin C, OPCs enhance its effectiveness. As an effective antioxidant, OPCs help our body resist blood vessel and skin damage, mental deterioration, inflammation and other damages caused by harmful free radicals. However, their function is more than protection. They help repair by improving and stabilizing the skin protein collagen and improving the condition of arteries and capillaries.
Health Benefits of Grape Seed Extract
Cardiovascular Benefits Numerous studies show grape seed extract has multiple methods of protecting against and aiding recovery from heart disease.
Oxidation of LDL is implicated in the development of atherosclerotic plaques. Grape seed extract has been shown to inhibit oxidation of LDL, thus slowing hardening of the arteries.
Anti-allergic / Anti-inflammatory Activity
OPCs inhibit mast cell degradation, which mediates inflammatory and allergic reactions, edema, and other conditions.
OPCs have a particular affinity for the arterial walls and thus offer vascular protection. In Europe, grape seed extracts have been prescribed to prevent capillary fragility, to heal varicose veins and hemorrhoids and prevent edema.
OPCs are effective in preventing the formation of ulcers in animals. Flavonoids have been reported to provide significant protection against NSAIDs.
Other Health Benefits
Improvement in skin smoothness and elasticity. OPC inhibits collagenase and elastinase so to preserve collagen and elastin proteins which is responsible for the well-being of our connective tissues (skin and joints). It also reduces capillary fragility and improves resistance to bruising and strokes. Several studies indicate it aids in prevention of heart disease. A study done at University of Colorado indicates it may be effective in treating prostate cancer.
The Kitchen Sink Multivitamin
|Learn more about The World’s First Full Strength Multi Vitamin Combined with a Full Strength Anti-Aging Complex! Kitchen Sink Multivitamin|| | <urn:uuid:f79ef92c-6f22-45ba-8760-a844f4cfcbda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.algaecal.com/research/multivitamins/grape-seed-extract/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909439 | 498 | 1.929688 | 2 |
JACKSON, Miss. (WTVA) -- The Mississippi State Department of Health reports the first confirmed pediatric death from the flu in Mississippi in three years.
The agency on Friday reported the death of child from North Mississippi.
Health officials say the child had chronic underlying health conditions.
The state has recorded 11 pediatric flu deaths since 2007.
Health officials remind people Mississippi is still in the middle of flu season.
Symptoms of seasonal flu include fever, cough, and often extreme fatigue.
Sore throat, headache, muscle aches, and a runny or stuffy nose are also often present.
Officials say the flu vaccine is available for people six months of age and older.
While vaccination is the best protection, overing your mouth when coughing and sneezing, staying at home when you or your children are sick, and washing your hands frequently help prevent the spread of the flu virus. | <urn:uuid:b7bf73d2-90e5-4e02-83bf-c980ef3485a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wtva.com/content/news/mississippi/story/Pediatric-flu-death-reported-in-Mississippi/ljmBy3Ox50SF5Xj2B30vUg.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955278 | 187 | 2.359375 | 2 |
Life Teachings of Roland H. Buck - A Collection of Roland H. Buck's Last 67 Sermons Transcribed Below:
Priority#1: The Sacrifice of Jesus
Chapter 2 - He Tasted Death
I would like to bring a few thoughts on communion from God's view point. 1 Corinthians 11:24-26. This message comes from the heart of God. I hope you will be able to see the importance of Jesus' sacrifice. This communion time is important because it's when we take out our contract that God made with us, and look at it. We recognize something very special that took place.
What was referred here by the words the Lord's death? Was it merely the snuffing out of His life, the putting to death His human mortality? Thousands of people have suffered physical death, and thousands of people have suffered physical torment like Jesus. His death that He refers to here was not just the stopping of his heart, or the stopping of His breath, we know that death hurts because of separation from family. But His was not only a separation from things held dear. Even the ungodly people are cared for by God. His arms are stretched out to people when they're still in their sins. The Word tells us, "If when we were His enemies we were reconciled we were brought to Him." He loved us enough to send Christ to die for us before we knew Him.
God's eye is upon everyone here, whether you know God or not. The way of the ungodly is a rough way. There are those hurts within. There is still a ray of hope within. Gabriel brought this truth to me so forcibly. Jesus' death in which He took our place was not just a physical death. There is another kind of a death that faces mankind. That brings fear, dread and torment to him all of his life. And that's that fear of facing God and hearing those words depart from Me into eternal damnation. This is the second death, that day of doom and damnation that faces mankind.
When Jesus came the hurts and the pains that caused the anguish was not the fear of an earthly human death because all mankind faces that kind of a death and Jesus did not spare us from physical death. But when Jesus came to die those words were given in the garden, "the soul in the day you eat of this fruit will die." The Word tells us that the soul that sins it shall die. When Jesus hung there on the cross it wasn't the anguish of the physical torment, though He suffered and felt everything we can possibly feel and it wasn't the separation from people He held dear although He felt it as keenly just as anyone.
But Jesus suffered pains that the ungodly, totally separated from God on this earth have never felt, for the ungodly have never felt the pains that comes when the last little flicker of hope is extinguished and they hear the words, "depart from Me into eternal damnation." They never felt the hopelessness, the horror of the cold side of God as He turns His back on them. Jesus suffered the torment of a damned soul. He cried out, "Oh God, why have You forsaken Me?" And the cold pains of eternal damnation, those icy fingers gripped His life. Jesus suffered the judgment of God for everybody.
God let us see your love for us through this truth that you sent your only Beloved Son to become the substitute for us! Jesus literally became our substitute; it was us that were to feel the sting of separation from God. Jesus came so that He can taste death for every man. Not physical death. He came so that He could taste that total separation from God, that eternal sinking of the sun into an eternal darkness. Jesus felt the eternal damnation in His body, but because of the power of that blood, and the power of a sinless life. In Acts, Peter said Jesus partook of this death, but it was not possible that He could be held in the band of this death.
I saw Jesus coming before the throne of God, laden, full of all the sins of the world. God told Gabriel to remove those dirty garments where they would never be found. Isaiah 53:4-6. He was brought as an offering for sin. Jesus' soul travailed for you. From the agonies of a damned soul many people are coming in a right standing relationship with God. You can now be a member of a heavenly race, looking holy and without blame before God because of the blood of Jesus covering you. God has made available to you a great covering for everyone who wants to know and follow God.
There is a day coming when many people who refuse to identify with Jesus, not realizing that He already tasted death for them, and He has already become their substitute in judgment, there is a day coming when men and women will hear those same words, and on that day they will feel the agonies that Jesus already experienced, but they don't have too!! God is working; He has the hosts of heaven working overtime to spare people the awfulness of that day.
If you're not sure your sins are all covered and you want to receive eternal life by faith through God's grace, just say audibly or from your heart right now, "Dear God, thank you for tasting death for me. Thank you for destroying the root of sin that has been held against me, for removing the records of sin!" You don't have to pay the penalty of your sin; you don't have to face the second death.
See Jesus smitten of God; now look at Him complete in power. Rev. 5:6. I believe that because of what Jesus has done, the bands of sin, disease, depression, habit, any other type of a band is going to be broken as you look unto Him. Look to Jesus; believe Him to set you free. As you remember Jesus' death, as you put your faith in what He has done, you identify yourself with what He has done and become a partaker of His life, and then the life of Jesus is seen in our mortal bodies.
God hurt when Jesus was hurting because it was His own Son.
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Your Angel Encounter | Submitted | <urn:uuid:e4a59bdb-06a1-43d6-938d-21f13accb11c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.angelsonassignment.org/transcipts/priority1/he_tasted_death.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977976 | 1,304 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Article Offering 'Money Etiquette' Advice Calls Upon Prof. Bob Steele '69
February 29, 2012
"If my child doesn't go to college, must I give her the money I saved for it?," asks a Real Simple article examining "money etiquette" issues. It notes, "There are a few things to think about if you're in this situation. First, if you make it clear to your child that the savings were intended for academic use only, then you can ethically keep the money -- although ideally you would have previously disclosed the purpose of the funds to her, says Robert Steele, the director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University, in Greencastle, Indiana."
Dr. Steele is quoted in another section of the article, which appears on CNN's website.
A 1969 graduate of DePauw, Bob Steele is Distinguished Professor of Journalism Ethics at DePauw University and Phyllis W. Nicholas Director of DePauw's Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics. One of America's leading experts on media ethics, Steele is regularly quoted in news stories, including a recent NPR report. He was among the presenters at a Syracuse University symposium last week, "When Games Turn Grim: Can Media Cover Sports Scandals Responsibly?" Learn more here.
Source: Real SimpleBack | <urn:uuid:d0ec7fa2-fe62-4c4e-bad0-0a10540df378> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/category/76/details/28254/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957622 | 277 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Charting the Course of Teaching and Learning in a Networked World
Are you interested to learn Spanish?
Are you new to Spanish language?
Here is tips for you to learn the language,
Thank you for sharing
Have you additional information that can be useful for people that start to learn Spanish?
Hello Steve Lock, i would like to mention here that Spanish is most popular language world wide. I mentioned about this in one of my other thread also. So people passionate towards learning Spanish can learn it easily. | <urn:uuid:1a0ed74c-da15-4ce9-9765-246ddd57282e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/spanish-learning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957071 | 105 | 1.882813 | 2 |