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Turns Out That Mother Knows Best - For The Planet Too!
by Kat Maudru,posted Mar 16 2012 9:54AM
New ammunition for you Moms out there – cleaning your plate is good for the planet!!! Yep - there’s evidence that shows that your Mama’s advice may help reduce food waste in landfills. It turns out that 30 to 50 percent of food produced in the world goes uneaten and that we Americans are responsible for tossing out 33 pounds of food each month. That’s per person!!! Some simple math means that each of us throws out 400 pounds of food a year! Did you know that in 2010, 33 million tons of food waste hit landfills and incinerators? Food is the largest solid waste product in the system.
Experts say that people of all ages contribute to the problem, but that kids are the biggest (littlest?) perpetrators. A simple solution? Start your kidlets with smaller meal portions and give them more when they ask. | <urn:uuid:ff6c09e8-8658-4b64-82dd-e02d3699eeab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eagle969.com/Turns-Out-That-Mother-Knows-Best---For-The-Planet-Too-/11278498?pid=226673&archive=1 | 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 | 0.916793 | 210 | 1.9375 | 2 |
The Little Flowers of St. Francis, tr. by W. Heywood, , at sacred-texts.com
How from the vineyard of the priest of Rieti, in whose house St. Francis prayed, the grapes were taken away and gathered by the much folk which came unto him, and how thereafter that priest miraculously made more wine than ever before, even as St. Francis had promised him. And how God revealed to St. Francis that he would have paradise for his portion
UPON a time, St. Francis being grievously diseased in his eyes, Messer Ugolino, Cardinal Protector of the Order, for the great love which he had toward him, wrote to him that he should go to hint at Rieti, where were very excellent physicians for the eyes. Then St. Francis, having received the letter of the
[paragraph continues] Cardinal, betook himself first to St. Damian, where was St. Clare, the most devoted bride of Christ, to give her some consolation; and afterward to go to the Cardinal. Now, the night after St. Francis came thither, his eyes became so much worse, that he saw no light at all. Wherefore, in that he could not depart, St. Clare made for him a little cell of reeds, wherein he might the better rest himself. But St. Francis, through the pain of his infirmity and by reason of the multitude of mice, which caused him very great annoyance, was not able on anywise to find rest, either by day or by night. And enduring for much time that pain and tribulation, he began to think and to know that that was a scourge from God for his sins: and he began to thank God with all his heart and with his mouth, and thereafter he cried with a loud voice and said: "My Lord, I am worthy of this and of much worse. My Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who showest forth Thy mercy to us sinners through divers pains and bodily afflictions, grant grace and virtue to me, Thy little sheep, that by no infirmity or anguish or pain I may depart from Thee." And, while he was thus praying, there came unto him a voice from heaven, saying: "Francis, answer Me: if all the earth were gold, and all the seas and fountains and rivers were balm, and all the mountains and hills and rocks were precious stones; and thou shouldst find another treasure more excellent than these things are, even as gold is more excellent than earth, and balm than water, and precious stones than mountains and rocks, and if instead of this infirmity that most excellent treasure were given unto thee, wouldst thou not be well content therewith and full of mirth?" St. Francis answered: "Lord, I am not worthy of so precious a treasure". And the voice of God said
unto him: "Rejoice, Francis, because that is the treasure of life eternal which I keep for thee, and from this very hour I invest thee therewith, and this infirmity and affliction is the earnest of that blessed treasure". Then St. Francis, full of very great joy at so glorious a promise, called his companion and said: "Let us go to the Cardinal". And having first consoled St. Clare with holy words, and having humbly taken leave of her, he set out towards Rieti, and when he drew nigh thereto, so great a multitude of people came forth to meet him that he did not wish to enter the city, but betook himself to a church which was distant from the city peradventure two miles. The citizens, knowing that he was in the said church, thronged it round about to look upon him, on such wise that the vineyard of the church was laid waste and all the grapes thereof were carried away; whereat the priest was sore grieved in his heart, and repented him that he had received St. Francis into his church. The thought of the priest being revealed of God to St. Francis, he sent to call him and said unto him: "Most dear father, how many measures of wine doth this vineyard yield thee a year, when it yieldeth its best?" He made answer: "Twelve measures". St. Francis said: "I pray thee, father, bear patiently my sojourning here for certain days, because I find here much repose; and do thou permit every man to take the grapes of this thy vineyard, for the love of God and of me a mendicant; and I promise thee in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ that it shall yield thee this year twenty measures". And this St. Francis did in return for his sojourn there, by reason of the great salvation of souls which was manifestly being wrought among the folk which came thither, of whom many departed drunk with Divine love, and abandoned the world. The priest, trusting
to the promise of St. Francis, abandoned his vineyard freely to those who came to him. When, behold a marvel! Albeit the vineyard was wholly wasted and despoiled so that scarcely were there left therein any bunches of grapes; yet when the time of the vintage was come, the priest gathered those few bunches and put them in the wine-press and trode upon them; and, according to the promise of St. Francis, drew therefrom twenty measures of excellent wine. By which miracle it was made manifest that, as, by the merits of St. Francis, the vineyard despoiled of grapes abounded in wine, so likewise the Christian people, barren of virtue through their sins, through the merits and doctrine of St. Francis, abounded in the good fruits of repentance. | <urn:uuid:72b62868-8108-4db3-b801-f9a3841bf800> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/lff/lff022.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98568 | 1,193 | 2.375 | 2 |
Genital Herpes In Women (cont.)
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.
William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
In this Article
- What are sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)?
- What is genital herpes?
- What causes genital herpes?
- What are genital herpes symptoms and signs?
- How is genital herpes diagnosed?
- What is the treatment for genital herpes?
- How can genital herpes be prevented?
- What is the prognosis (outlook) for genital herpes?
- Where can people get more information about genital herpes?
- Genital Herpes At A Glance
- Genital Herpes FAQs
- Find a local Obstetrician-Gynecologist in your town
What is genital herpes?
Genital herpes, also commonly called "herpes," is a viral infection by the herpes simplex virus (HSV) that is transmitted through intimate contact with the mucous-covered linings of the mouth or the vagina or the genital skin. The virus of this STD enters the linings or skin through microscopic tears. Once inside, the virus travels to the nerve roots near the spinal cord and settles there permanently.
When an infected person has a herpes outbreak, the virus travels down the nerve fibers to the site of the original infection. When it reaches the skin, the typical redness and blisters occur. After the initial outbreak, subsequent outbreaks tend to be sporadic. They may occur weekly or even years apart.
What causes genital herpes?
Two types of herpes viruses are associated with genital lesions: herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2). HSV-1 more often causes blisters of the mouth area while HSV-2 more often causes genital sores or lesions in the area around the anus. The outbreak of herpes is closely related to the functioning of the immune system. Women who have suppressed immune systems, because of stress, infection, or medications, have more frequent and longer-lasting outbreaks.
It is estimated that as many as 50 million people in the United States are infected with genital HSV. Genital herpes is spread only by direct person-to-person contact. It is believed that 60% of sexually active adults carry the herpes virus. Part of the reason for the continued high infection rate is that most women infected with the herpes virus do not know that they are infected because they have few or no symptoms. In many women, there are "atypical" outbreaks where the only symptom may be mild itching or minimal discomfort. Moreover, the longer the woman has had the virus, the fewer the symptoms they have with their outbreaks. Finally, the virus can shed from the cervix into the vagina in women who are not experiencing any symptoms.
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Find out what women really need. | <urn:uuid:609d0f56-3e25-497e-9e87-23a149a12a5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rxlist.com/genital_herpes_in_women/page2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936101 | 784 | 2.40625 | 2 |
Welcome to the Birds of North America Online!
Welcome to BNA Online, the leading source of life history information for North American breeding birds. This free, courtesy preview is just the first of 14 articles that provide detailed life history information including Distribution, Migration, Habitat, Food Habits, Sounds, Behavior and Breeding. Written by acknowledged experts on each species, there is also a comprehensive bibliography of published research on the species.
A subscription is needed to access the remaining articles for this and any other species. Subscription rates start as low as $5 USD for 30 days of complete access to the resource. To subscribe, please visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology E-Store.
If you are already a current subscriber, you will need to sign in with your login information to access BNA normally.
Subscriptions are available for as little as $5 for 30 days of full access! If you would like to subscribe to BNA Online, just visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology E-Store.
The Spruce Grouse is a species of the northern coniferous forests, with a closely related form in the eastern Palearctic. In North America it is a bird typical of the taiga and northern montane coniferous forests. Its generally remote habitat and inconspicuous behavior have, until recently, made it a rare subject of study. Most of what is known of this species is the result of research undertaken in the past 30 years.
The Spruce Grouse shows little morphological variation over its range, particularly among females. Males, however, fall into two distinct plumage and behavioral types: the southwestern subspecies (D. c. franklinii) has rectrices that differ in form and color from those of the northeastern subspecies (D. c. canadensis). Aspects of courtship behavior are also distinct in these two forms.
This grouse is a conifer specialist, feeding on pine (Pinus spp.) or spruce (Picea spp.) needles for much of the year. Populations appear to fluctuate over time, primarily in response to the degree of maturation of postfire regrowth and secondarily to predation pressure. Modern industrial forest exploitation, with its creation of open clear-cuts and subsequent single species plantations, reduces populations locally and often eliminates them entirely. | <urn:uuid:199705a9-29a3-4029-973f-00cc8543ad10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/005/articles/introduction | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933047 | 481 | 2.921875 | 3 |
When specialists from Golisano Children's Hospital noticed a large number of drug- addicted newborns, they started an internal probe.
"What we're looking for is evidence of significant opiate exposure in utero. What I mean by that is the mother who is a heroine addict or known drug abuser, using opiates or the mother who has a definitive history of a medical requirement for opiates that is used for the majority of the pregnancy and certainly into the last trimester," says Dr. William Liu, neonatalogist with Lee Memorial Health System.
The results surprised them. Within Lee Memorial Health System, the number of cases jumped 800 percent between 2005 and 2011. It's called ‘neonatal abstinence syndrome' because babies are born withdrawing from drugs they were hooked on getting through their umbilical cord.
"The types of symptoms that we see are increased jitteriness, tremulousness, inability to affectively suck, evidence of seizure activity. GI symptoms such as diarrhea, loose stools, vomiting, inability to gain weight well. The child may have excessive sweating, the infant may have increased irritability where they cause excoriation or breaking down of the skin of the elbows- the face- the knees, the infant may also develop respiratory symptoms," says Dr. Liu.
When they started tallying figures here, no one knew where it would take them. But it grew into a state task force- looking at Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and ways to treat it.
The task force recently released its findings calling it epidemic: there was a three-fold increase in NAS since 2007. With more than 1,500 (1,563) newborns diagnosed in 2011. Because hospitals weren't required to report cases, there was likely an undercount. The task force also recommended creation of a plan to detox babies before they go home.
"The medication that is most uniformly used in the United States is morphine sulfate or methadone. In our institution we use a consistent standardized concentration morphine sulfate. And we administer it by a specific medical protocol," says Dr. Liu.
Recognizing their cries for help and treating them immediately is helping babies break the cycle of addiction.
Go in-depth by following Amy Oshier Health Matters on facebook
Health Matters: Epidemic of drug addicted babiesMore>>
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3719 Central Avenue Fort Myers, FL 33901
Main Phone: (239) 939-2020 Newsroom Phone: (239) 939-6223 | <urn:uuid:b21e39a5-2b63-4ecc-a6a5-dd8a7fcaa308> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc-7.com/story/21676182/health-matters-epidemic-of-drug-addicted-babies | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948365 | 628 | 2.609375 | 3 |
|Architect:||Hermann Friedrich Waesemann|
|Height:||74 meters (bell tower)|
|242 feet (bell tower)|
The building originally replaced an entire city block of buildings including the previous Medieval City Hall. The German Reich was unified only a few years after the structure was completed, so it became the supreme administrative building.
The building was heavily damaged by bombing during WWII, but was one of few buildings in central Berlin that was not completely destroyed. In the years following, the building was repaired according to the original design and has been continually improved since.
If You Go:
The structure is generally open to the public and is well worth the visit to the main interior hall and its several exhibits. The many architectural details are easily visible close to the building.
This work by Matt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. | <urn:uuid:2f7d437e-f940-4b59-9b30-c6cbecaee823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.civicartsproject.com/2012/07/17/rotes-rathaus-red-city-hall-berlin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962943 | 189 | 2.28125 | 2 |
All-in-One Kids Computer
- App Store Info
DescriptionLet your child learn through play!
With the AllinOne Kids Computer, which has been highly praised by educators and parents alike, both you and your child can have a whole load of fun!
All children (babies included) will just love the AllinOne Kids Computer!
NOW ON SALE FOR A LIMITED TIME!
Whether your child is 1, 3, or 6, this lovingly programmed all-inclusive App has everything they need to learn as they play!
There are a total of 4 modes in which your child can learn: ABC, Words, Sounds and Effects, Quiz.
All sounds are best quality, and in Quiz mode have been recorded by a professional voiceover artist.
(E.g.: Where is the apple? Or: How do you spell umbrella?)
The AllinOne Kids Computer helps children learn:
- Their ABCs
- First numbers
- Different colors
- First words
- To write
- To listen and do
- All the senses
- To listen to and complete tasks
- How to use a computer
These kind of games usually retail in toy stores at a substantially higher price! | <urn:uuid:5a953cda-86e0-4ac6-81e6-7d8d0eaa1b19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.appspy.com/app/420704/allinone-kids-computer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938666 | 254 | 2.140625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Vice President Joe Biden "got out a little bit over his skis" when he declared his support for gay marriage, according to new excerpts of the president's interview with ABC released Thursday.
Obama became the first US president to endorse gay marriage Wednesday -- just days after Biden told NBC's "Meet The Press" that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage.
In new excerpts of the president's interview with ABC, Obama said that while he'd intended to announce his support for gay marriage closer to September's Democratic National Convention, the scrutiny that followed Biden's comments prompted him to fast-track those plans.
"I had already made a decision that we were gonna probably take this position before the election and before the convention," Obama told ABC's Robin Roberts in an interview at the White House. "He probably got out a little bit over his skis, but out of generosity of spirit."
But Obama said he was not angry over Biden's comments.
"Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms without, I think, there being a lot of notice to everybody? Sure, but all's well that ends well," Obama said.
The president also said he believed that many who oppose gay marriage are not coming from a "mean-spirited perspective," and he recognized the rights of states to ban gay marriage.
"I continue to believe that this is an issue that is going to be worked out at the local level because historically this has not been a federal issue," Obama said.
"But I think it's important for me to say to them that as much as I respect [those who oppose gay marriage], as much as I understand where they're coming from, when I meet gay and lesbian couples ... for me, I think it just has tipped the scales in that direction."
Still, the Obama campaign released a web video Thursday calling Mitt Romney, his presumptive Republican opponent, "backward on equality."
Romney on Wednesday reaffirmed his belief that "marriage is between a man and a woman."
The former Massachusetts governor has previously said he supports a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Obama also said in his ABC interview that his announcement endorsing gay marriage was not politically motivated and that his number one priority remained generating jobs and improving the US economy. | <urn:uuid:770d0692-a2f4-4a3e-b06a-206efa81dfaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/18253310/biden-got-out-a-little-bit-over-his-skis-on-gay-marriage-obama-says | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988238 | 478 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Business benefits in Serbia
The VAT rates are as follows:
Corporate Profit Tax
Corporate profit tax is paid at the uniform rate of 10%. Non-residents are taxed only based on their income generated in Serbia. The taxable base is profit determined by adjusting the accounting profit as stated in the profit and loss statement and in accordance with IFRS, accounting legislation, and the provisions of the Corporate Profit Tax Law.
Personal Income Tax
The personal income tax rate is 12% for salaries, while other personal income is predominantly taxed at the rate of 20%.
Social Insurance Contributions
Social security contributions are paid by both the employer and the employee. The base for calculation of social security contributions is the gross salary. The minimum base for contributions is 40% of the average monthly salary in Serbia, while the maximum base is 5 times the average monthly salary. | <urn:uuid:c8d62579-9ec6-4b7d-9864-c5b0d3d9785a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.investing-serbia.com/tax-sistem-in-serbia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925516 | 173 | 2 | 2 |
Daniel is a Cross Plains resident who chose not to have his face shown on camera.
He was bitten by a rattlesnake while stepping out of his car in a field along the highway.
He was bitten on his leg and didn't receive anti-venom for more than an hour.
"Spend the money, get Gators get Chaps, get the boots, protect yourself you know why have your child or your mom or your dad or yourself suffer through something that you don't have to," he said.
Doctors say that although the quicker the better, anti-venom can continue to work even after the suggested hour.
They say there are even things you can do while you wait for help.
"Trying to suck out the venom is something that the people can do you know if its possible they have to be careful not to swallow any of it things like that so its something that we prefer them not to if the ambulance is on their way very quickly," said Dr. Shayne White, head of the Abilene Regional Medical Center's Emergency Room.
Doctors say the most important goal is getting as much venom out of the system as possible since it is toxic.
They also recommend dressing appropriately when out in fields, with long pants, or purchasing protective gear like leg guards that can prevent snake bites from breaking the skin.. | <urn:uuid:15da276c-f51e-424b-ae9c-8c96a4765bb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=494332&nxd_237113_start=4730 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981535 | 276 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Ann Romney, you’ve probably heard, recently joined Twitter. You may have caught the news if you follow politics very closely. Since this story broke, however, you’ve probably not seen one of her tweets in your Twitter stream.
Now, this isn’t to single out the former first lady of Massachusetts for being slow to embrace the medium. She’s not the only one guilty of lackadaisical tweeting. In fact, there’s not much chance that you’ve seen first lady Michelle Obama’s tweets in your Twitter stream either.
Both women have Twitter accounts, and post an occasional tweet here and there, but their presence is largely absent from the conversation taking place on the social media platform. Simply put, this isn’t an effective use of their profiles and both campaigns are missing an opportunity to connect with female voters online.
To maximize Twitter’s potential of reaching the optimal amount of people, users should tweet 10 to 30 times a day depending on their goal. This may seem like a lot, but consider that a tweet stays in someone’s Twitter stream only for a few minutes, possibly seconds even. If someone is not tweeting a lot, only a fraction of potential viewers will see their message on Twitter.
Some politicians and politicos strategically disregard reaching the bulk of their followers—and thus recruiting new followers—and use Twitter mainly for earned media. But when you’re involved with a presidential campaign where victory sometimes hinges on one day’s news cycle or a small margin of votes, the once-in-a-while Twitter strategy is insufficient. The national and local press is covering your every step and, pure and simple, a campaign needs to be a part of the conversation and reach voters. That means producing tweets and reaching as many people as possible.
Here’s a look at the numbers as of May 2: Romney had tweeted 13 times from her Twitter account since her first tweet on April 11. Obama and/or her staff have tweeted 163 times since her first Tweet on Jan. 12.
Ann Romney’s Twitter production: 0.6 Tweets/day. Michelle Obama’s Twitter production: 1.4 Tweets/day.
Women are vital to a presidential campaign and, at least by all Twitter indicators, conservative women are fired up this year. There’s a great opportunity for Romney to be utilizing the energy, volunteers and activist groups on Twitter to connect with Republican women.
The recent Sandra Fluke controversy—and the one surrounding Romney’s career outside the home—energized conservative women, and two Twitter hashtags developed: #WarOnMoms and #WarOnWomen. Ultimately, in the world of hashtags, only one of them was going to live on. In the end, #WarOnWomen became more popular, and it’s still going strong.
We can compare both hashtags over time in a sample period of April 12 – 30. #WarOnMoms decreased from 2,800 uses on April 12 to only 21 uses on April 30. Meanwhile, #WarOnWomen has continued strongly, ranging from 3,500 to 7,000 uses a day.
It demonstrates that there are conservative women on Twitter who are very active and increasingly rallying around a specific theme.
The Romney camp is missing an opportunity to proactively corral these potential activists and put their energy to use. Instead of capturing this momentum and energy, Romney’s only producing 0.6 Tweets a day under her handle. And while it’s true that Obama’s Twitter account is not doing much better at 1.6 tweets a day, she has 805,000-plus followers—20 times Romney’s list.
Kellen Giuda is a partner at Digital Acumen, a technology company that focuses exclusively on the Twitter platform and, among other things, previously hosted the first ever all-Twitter presidential debate. | <urn:uuid:6374d488-f8bd-4421-994a-6845c6484d5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/318173/a-missed-opportunity-on-twitter.thtml | 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 | 0.941589 | 817 | 1.851563 | 2 |
LIES SHOWN IN YOUR LIPS: The human face can be marvelously expressive, using more than 40 muscles to express any and every emotion. A few of these are recognized as culturally universal. A one sided-smile conveys contempt, while an open mouth with a turned-down lower lip and raised upper lip, along with a wrinkled nose suggests disgust. Anger, fear, happiness, joy, sadness, and surprise are also thought to be universal.
INNATE EXPRESSIONS FOR HAPPINESS: Matsumoto studied judo athletes in the Olympic and Paralympics games from 2004. He found that the sighted athletes portrayed the same "true smile" expression after victory as blind athletes. The silver medalists in both competitions most often smiled, but used what is called a "social smile," one that uses only the mouth muscles, and not the movement around the eyes and cheeks indicative of a "true smile." Scientists hypothesize that the universality of these expressions may have developed during our evolutionary history and become innate qualities. | <urn:uuid:47a9081f-2cae-4023-aeb7-9840d76591b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aip.org/dbis/stories/2009/19072.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953996 | 212 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Department of Justice via AP
Jessica L. Hunt, Jordie L. Callahan and Daniel Brown were arrested on charges of enslaving a mentally disabled young mother and her daughter over a two-year period. Federal agents and Ashland police said on June 18, the trio forced the woman to do housework, threatened her and the girl with violence and fed their pets better than the victims.
A cognitively disabled woman and her young daughter were held against their will in an Ohio home for more than two years, forced to perform manual labor, threatened by poisonous snakes, and beaten to scare them from ever escaping, authorities announced on Tuesday.
Jessica L. Hunt, 31, and Daniel J. Brown, 33, and Jordie L. Callahan, 26, were arrested in Ashland, Ohio, and charged with forced labor for holding the woman and her child starting in May 2011, the United States Attorney for Northern Ohio said in a statement.
Callahan was also charged with tampering with a witness after allegedly forcing the mother to hit her child and videotaping the incident to use against her if she ever went to the police.
"We are yet again reminded that modern-day slavery exists all around us," said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "One of our nation's core values is freedom, yet this woman and her child were denied freedom for two years. The victims in this case endured violence, threats, sub-human living conditions and other horrific acts."
The US Attorney for Northern Ohio tells reporters three people are being accused of holding a disabled woman as a slave, and allegedly treating her "
News of the horrific case comes just over a month after the high-profile rescue of three Cleveland women who had been held captive for nearly ten years in the home of Ariel Castro, who faces charges of rape, kidnap and murder.
The Ashland victims were forced to live in inhuman conditions, tasked with shopping, cleaning, and caring for their captors pit bulls and reptiles.
They were beaten, intimidated by firearms, denied food and threatened by the dogs and reptiles which included a poisonous coral snake, a ball python and a Burmese python that weighed 130 pounds, according an affidavit filed by the FBI.
"The actions of the individuals arrested this morning defy comprehension and, quite frankly, are disgusting," said Eric Smith, a lead FBI investigator in the case, told reporters.
Police say the woman, identified only as "S.E.," suffered a head trauma at 16-years-old and had the functioning mental capacity of a 13-year-old.
For a time, S.E. and her child were forced to sleep on a cement floor with no mattress, and were later moved upstairs to a padlocked room with a freely roaming large iguana and no bed, according to the affidavit.
On multiple occasions they also injured the S.E. so that she needed pain medication which they would then take from her.
The disabled victim also received monthly public assistance payments which were frequently stolen by her captors, according to the affidavit.
Police initiated the investigation in October 2012, after S.E. was caught shoplifting a candy bar. She asked to be taken to jail, telling police the people she lived with "were mean to her," according to the statement.
Police visited Callahan and Hunt's apartment, informing them that the woman would not be returning. Authorities said Callahan then showed police the video he had taken on his mobile phone in October 2011 when the woman hit her child, investigator said.
The mother later told police that Callahan and Hunt made her strike the child, saying a much worse beating would come if she failed to do so, according to the affidavit. The two told her that if she told anyone about her living conditions, they would show the video to police and her daughter would be taken away, according to police.
"The streets are a lot safer with these folks locked up," said Ashland Police Chief David Marcelli said.
Officials said S.E. and her daughter are doing relatively well and are getting assistance from both the FBI and non-profits around the area.
"The individuals in this case preyed upon a human being's disability and her desire to protect her child," said Dettelbach. | <urn:uuid:c90e4389-0471-447e-af3c-e12b37bb3547> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usnews.nbcnews.com/?threadId=3604277&pc=25&sp=25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984274 | 882 | 1.859375 | 2 |
Euforquestra: Explorations In Afrobeat (2006)
The second release from this seven-piece ensemble seems quite purposeful. Subtitled A fusion of Nigerian and Cuban music rooted in Yoruba tradition, it explores the deep connection between West African Afrobeat and Afro-Cuban music channeled through the religious, ceremonial music of the Yoruba tradition of West Africa.
Purposeful? The detailed liner notes sure seem so. For example, they explain that the Yoruba are the largest single ethno-linguistic group in Nigeria and the second largest in Africa, and that Yoruba culture was connected with the west through the slave trade that brought West Africans to Cuba to work the sugar fields.
As dry as that may read, Explorations In Afrobeat explodes, dances and melts in your ear with sheer bliss. Two members of the septet, Matt Grundstad (percussion, lead vocals) and Adam Grosso (bass, vibes, vocals), studied in Cuba with members of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Grupo Afro-Cuba. The remaining fiveRyan Jeter (tenor saxophone, vocals), Austin Zaletel (alto saxophone, vocals), Mike Tallman (guitar, vocals), Josten Foley (drums, vocals) and Eric Quiner (keyboards, vocals)never lag behind, as they collectively whip through this set comprising the Orisha, the list of Yoruban gods each song ceremonially honors.
Flowing with thick, lusty rhythms that heat your blood, each musician's part interlocks so tightly with the others' that this music seems so coiled it might explode. Tallman strums and stabs guitar rhythms that sound both African (chiming juju in "Elegua ) and Caribbean ("Obatalá, with chords more familiar in Western ears from reggae).
African guitar and Afro-Cuban percussion blossom from electric organ swells of "Ogún, then every instrument lifts up and sings in a joyous, communal and primal rhythm, with horn charts that stab equal parts melodic and rhythmic punctuation. Jeter's tenor saxophone solo wails like a siren to stoke even higher the rhythmic flame of this dervish named for the Orisha of metal and war who "also represents all forms of energy. Wisely named, "Ogún is twelve crackling minutes of pure electricity.
"With this album we have done our best to take elements of Nigerian and Afro-Cuban music and combine them with our own ideas, notes Grundstad. "Our intent is not to 'steal' music from other cultures but to learn from them and share them with anyone who is willing to listen.
Track Listing: Elegua; Ogun; Obatala; Intro; Chango; Intro; Ochun; Elegua Outro.
Personnel: Mike Tallman: guitar, mandolin, vocals; Eric Quiner: keyboards, vocals; Adam Grosso: bass, steelpan, vibes, vocals; Josten Foley: drumset, vocals; Matt Grundstad: percussion, vocals; Ryan Jeter: tenor saxophone, vocals; Austin Zaletel: alto saxophone, vocals. | <urn:uuid:59656d7e-93f9-4809-8d9e-5f4f0e606cc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24315 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932762 | 697 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I realised a couple of days ago that I’ve chirped on about Linux in the past on here, but never really explained why anyone would want to use it, or mentioning any of the common reasons people initially resist changing, so here’s my (not so) quick rundown in a stream-of-consciousness stylee. Word.
Linux is another operating system for your computer, just in the same way ‘PCs’ use Microsoft Windows, and Macs use OSX (or whatever cat they’re on at the moment.) The big difference between those and Linux though, is that you don’t have to pay for it!
But if you don’t pay, surely it’s a bit rubbish and outdated?
No, quite the opposite. Linux is available in lots of different versions, or distributions (distros) as they’re known. Because Linux is free and open, anyone can alter it how they see fit, and whole other versions are created for one reason or another. Some of the differences are operational, some political. What it means however is that there are massive communities of people actively developing and improving it as they go, so many of the features only now appearing in the major operating systems. It’s about as cutting-edge as as you can get, and if that worries you, there are plently of tried and tested solutions available that are rock solid. If you want to see how swish it can look, have a look on YouTube for Compiz showoff videos.
I’ve heard that there are no drivers for all my hardware and things won’t work.
This used to be true to an extent, some stuff in the past was a pain to set up, but the truth is if you’ve got any hardware from the last five years or so, it’s very likely to work straight away once you install Linux. I recently bought myself a cheap new laptop (Lenovo) and installed my current favourite distro – Linux Mint – and after a quick install, just about everything worked instantly. The screen resolution was set up, bluetooth worked, wifi worked, in fact the only thing I had to install was a driver for the ethernet port, which took a two-minute google and couple of commands. Let’s face it, it’s not like you never had to download drivers for something in Windows…
I’ve never used it, is it difficult to learn after using Windows or a Mac?
Not at all. The popular desktop environments/window managers like Gnome, KDE, XFCE should be immediately familiar to anyone who’s used a computer in the last fifteen years. Some even go as far as making it look as close to windows as they can, check out PCLinuxOS for example. Best of all, if you end up with one you don’t like, you can install others to try without formatting or losing anything, in fact you can even choose which to use at the point of login.
All of my software is Windows/Mac, how am I meant to do anything without it?
True, a lot of commercial software is made for Windows or Mac, but have a look at your own most-used programs a moment. How many of them are things you bought, and how many did you download for free (legally, mind!)?. The vast majority of software people use is either available for Linux, or has a very capable alternative. Firefox? Chrome? If you spend a lot of time browsing the web, both are available and identical to use. Download a lot of stuff with uTorrent? Check out Deluge and tell me if you can spot any glaring differences. Microsoft Office? Yeah, this is usually a big sticking point, but for how much the majority of people use that suite of software, LibreOffice is more than a capable, compatible replacement.
Games! I mean games! I want to play my games!!!!
I hear you, I use my PC for games too, and it’s true, Linux has always been on the fringe, but that’s changing…
Valve (developers of Steam) recently announced a couple of things that mean life as a Linux gamer looks very rosy indeed. Gabe Newell of Valve makes no secret of his loathing of Windows – especially the debacle of version 8 – and publicly announced that Valve have started developing their software for Linux! I can vouch for this, as I’ve been playing both Half-Life and Team Fortress 2 very happily. Valve also announced a Steam Box which will be coming out this year, a PC-based living room console that will run Steam and their games catalogue, and be powered by Linux.
On top of this, a lot of Indie titles are developed for Linux, so if you’ve been smart enough to pick up any of the Humble Bundles so far, playing the likes of Trine, Super Meat Boy, VVVVVV, Braid etc. is very easy.
When it comes to other ‘big name’ titles though, like the current Darling of bedroom dungeoneers – Skyrim – there’s Wine or PlayOnLinux as a front-end for Wine. Wine lets you use windows software (games and other apps) under Linux. It doesn’t do it through emulation, so there’s often no performance hit. There can be a little bit of configuration needed, but that’s what PlayOnLinux does for you. Have a look at the curernt support games.
Ok, ok, so I like the idea of it, but which distribution should I try? And can I try it without losing my current Windows install?
Choices, choices. Linux distros have real trends, what’s true today certainly won’t be in a years time, but here’s my rundown of the current big names and who might use them.
Ubuntu – It’s practically impossible to look at Linux today without being bombarded by Ubuntu. They’ve made big inroads into making Linux easy, friendly and popular. It’s a great choice for beginners for those reasons, there’s also a ton of support available. However, they recently introduced their own window manager (Unity) which has a lot of people annoyed, as it’s very different and not very intuitive (IMO). You can install others, but that change combined with money-making changes like adding Amazon shopping search results into file searches on your computer was the final nail in the coffin for me.
Linux Mint – A fork/offshoot of Ubuntu (which is itself a fok of an older, well-regarded distro called Debian), it takes the excellent software and support base of Ubuntu and adds some nice changes. They also introduced two new window managers, namely Mate and Cinnamon. Mate is based on Gnome 2, a tried, tested and much loved older one, and Cinnamon is a bit more modern, taking Gnome 3 and changing the bits people tend not to like. The support, clean look and Ubuntu underpinning are what made me choose this as my current choice (with Cinnamon.)
Arch – Takes a bit of work to get it up to match something out-of-the-box like Ubuntu, but a real fan favourite at the moment it seems, backed up with *excellent* support on their website. Probably not the best choice for a first-timer.
Fedora – An off-shoot of stalwart Red Hat, they recently released a long-awaited new version, which has had mixed reviews. They famously seem to hold off of big updates until they’re sure everything is mature and stable.
Actually, I’m going to leave that list there. There’s really not much point in going on to the likes of Gentoo, OpenSUSE, Mageia and friends, as if you’re reading this with a view to trying it for the first time, I’d just go for Ubuntu or Mint. Preferably Mint. Whichever you go though, there are nice safe ways of trying before you commit to anything. Most distributions have a downloadable DVD iso which you can just burn and boot from, giving you a chance to play with it before deciding if you want to replace Windows, or go for a dual-boot solution, giving you the best of both worlds. More on that another time though.
I’d also recommend having a look at PenDriveLinux which lets you burn a DVD/CD iso to a USB stick, which is much faster to boot and work with than a DVD and will give you a better idea of how it suits you.
Any other business?
From a personal point of view, there are a few other things I really like about using Linux. It’s rock-solid for a start, I’ve not once had a crash or had to reboot my computer because it’s gotten so slow it’s unusable. I can’t say the same about Windows, even 7 which is my favourite version suffers to some extent from those. It’s also really, really quick, I don’t have to wait for anything to happen, it all just works, and quickly. It’s also very secure, viruses aren’t something you even need to think about really. The most popular Linux virus protection is there not to protect the user, but any Windows users who may access files sent which have come via a Linux box.
Because I’ve been throwing myself into programming and web development I’ve also found it really useful. Yes, I could do most of it under Windows, but things like Python and Django are really made to work in Linux, and for someone learning from tutorials and guides, they’re all written from a Linux point of view.
Last but not least, I have to mention the command line/shell/terminal. The command prompt in Windows is handy at times, but the Linux shell is something else. There’s a ridiculous amount of funtionality and shortcuts available by using it, if you can be bothered to learn. That said, you can really do 99.9% of tasks without ever opening it on a modern distro, but I’d encourage anyone giving Linux a whirl to get stuck in and not be scared .
I can honestly say I’ve not booted my dual-boot Windows 8/Linux Mint laptop into Windows once since I installed Mint. I’ve not missed it in the slightest.
(note: all of the above is based on my own experiences, questions asked of me and my own opinion. Please don’t take any of it as gospel, I’m still learning, but hopefully this post answers some of the questions I found myself asking when I first looked at switching.) | <urn:uuid:5c8b3786-47ab-48f2-bdb5-4c2f6e336628> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adamr.co.uk/wordpress/?cat=604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957169 | 2,274 | 1.953125 | 2 |
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Microsoft has saved nearly $7 billion off its U.S. tax bill since 2009 by using loopholes to shift profits offshore, a Senate panel said in a report released Thursday.
Hewlett-Packard also avoided paying taxes through a series of loans, some spanning 30 months, that shifted billions of dollars between two offshore subsidiaries, according to the Senate panel.
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reviewed tax loopholes used by dozens of companies in the high-tech industry to shift profits offshore. But it focused on moves by Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, according to Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who runs the panel.
The Republicans on the panel, including ranking member Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, said they support the report while stressing it found nothing illegal. Coburn said the report shows the need for reforms to the tax code and lower corporate tax rates.
The Senate investigation, which included subpoenas and voluntary correspondence with the companies, provided an in-depth look into how the companies set up and use overseas tax shelters, as well as the impact on government coffers.
Levin acknowledged that Microsoft has broken no laws. But he blamed a loose tax code, Congress and tax officials for allowing the loopholes.
"The tax practices and gimmicks range from egregious to dubious validity," Levin said. "What these gimmicks do is shift the burden of taxes to citizens that don't use armies of lawyers and accountants and subsidiaries to lower their tax bill."
In the case of Microsoft, the company transferred nearly half of its net revenue from U.S. retail sales to a Puerto Rican subsidiary between 2009 and 2011. That saved the firm $4.5 billion in U.S. taxes, according to the panel.
Tapping a different tax loophole, Microsoft saved another $2.43 billion by "checking a box" on an IRS form that tells tax officials to ignore "passive" income from royalties -- on things such as patents -- moved to its offshore subsidiaries.
Microsoft Vice President of Worldwide Tax William J. Sample defended the companies' use of legal tax avoidance maneuvers, saying it helps them be competitive overseas and creates jobs in the United States. | <urn:uuid:8d231fd1-2ed8-491c-8f9c-b1881d17c4cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbaltv.com/news/money/Offshore-havens-saved-Microsoft-7B-in-taxes-Senate-panel/-/9379180/16678378/-/t2goct/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956199 | 439 | 1.734375 | 2 |
A Georgia consumer advocacy group says a new coal-fired power plant near Sandersville will significantly increase consumers’ power bills.
A new report from Georgia Watch says customers of the electric cooperatives who buy power from Plant Washington could see a 10 percent to 20 percent jump in their monthly bills. That would mean, on average, an additional $200 per year.
“Where customers would normally see a 2 percent rate of increase in their annual household bill, they will see increases in the first year of operation of 10 to 20 percent,” said Tom Sanzillo, the report’s author and an analyst with T.R. Rose and Associates.
Sanzillo said using coal to make electricity doesn’t make sense anymore.
“From a financial perspective, in both the Georgia markets and nationally, [a combination of] natural gas, efficiency, [and] wind...seem to be working out as better choices than coal,” said Sanzillo, a financial analyst with T.R. Rose and Associates.
A spokesman for the group supporting the plant said natural gas is part of the electric cooperatives’ overall fuel mix. But he said those prices are volatile, too.
“You do not want to have [the fuel mix] oversaturated in one fuel or the other because you stand a great risk when there are [price] swings relative to those technologies,” said Dean Alford, a spokesman for Power4Georgians.
Alford said the report makes too many assumptions about rising construction costs and the potential impact of federal carbon regulations.
Report author Sanzillo also said other utilities have abandoned plans to build similar power plants because of the expense.
“One hundred fifty-three new coal plant proposals have been canceled since 2007 in the United States,” Sanzillo said. “The reasons for the cancellations are financial; coal plants are highly risky and expensive.”
But Alford said the new plant makes more sense in the long run.
“Some of the old coal-fire facilities, as an example, they’re going to have to be retrofitted with some of the newer technologies and meet some of the new emissions standards,” Alford said. “Those costs in turn will be higher than a new facility will be.”
Alford said the plant wouldn't have gotten the financing it needs if utilities didn't need the power. | <urn:uuid:048a8b1d-5176-4276-8a34-0b3ef97af927> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/06/23/watchdogs-say-coal-plant-will-hike-rates | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962045 | 507 | 2.234375 | 2 |
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A recent Business Insider report notes that many employees grow unsatisfied with their bosses simply due to a lack of professional development opportunities—a finding that has won a comment from Richard Zahn.
Longwood, FL (PRWEB) February 20, 2013
Business leader Richard Zahn points to a recent article from Business Insider, which has poignant implications for employers, recruiters, and HR departments alike. The article notes that many employees end up growing dissatisfied with their current employer and seeking out new work, all because of a problem they experience with their immediate supervisor. This is not always the kind of problem one might expect, however; it is not that the immediate supervisor is abrasive or mean-spirited, but simply that he or she fails to offer sufficient opportunities for training and professional development. Zahn, who is passionate about building strong teams of motivated employees, has issued a press statement, weighing in on this provocative report.
According to Richard Zahn, employees do long for opportunities to grow and to develop new skills. He makes a critical distinction, however, in noting that most employees receive plenty of training for their immediate responsibilities. The kinds of training that often get neglected are those that involve the development of over-arching professional skill sets, such as crisis management.
Zahn explains what he means. “All people suffer loss. Catastrophe training is a lost art because we have become a prescription society; it hurts, so we take a pill for it. This approach does not work in business life, however; in business, it is important to take basic psychological training and adapt it to everyday scenarios. Training begins with understanding loss at its core level. Handling any situation that is thrown at you in the critical work environment is expected. Compounding that with one’s personal life can be tough sometimes, so much work is missed because employees do not know how best to deal with life’s challenges.”
Zahn elaborates on his views concerning workplace training and mentoring—and how it is pivotal for employees to learn key life skills from their supervisors. “It is crucial to train employees to understand the fundamentals of life, as they relate to a business setting—fundamentals such as it's not fair, nothing is certain, people are selfish, and so forth,” remarks Richard Zahn.
Zahn says that by helping employees learn to grapple with these harsh realities, employers ultimately produce more effective end efficient workforces. “In the end, the world is unfair, fellow workers can be harsh, deadlines are typical, drama is standard, and so on,” he says. “True leadership means going beyond showing an employee how to carry out the basic tasks associated with his or her position, and offering that employee insight into how to thrive and progress, both personally and professionally.”
The article in Business Insider, meanwhile, notes that the best managers and supervisors are not necessarily the ones who push the hardest or who work the longest hours; rather, the best supervisors tend to be those who are most effective at training employees to be flexible, and to exhibit leadership traits of their own. This statement wins the affirmation of Richard Zahn.
Richard Zahn is a business leader, noted philanthropist, and real estate development professional with years of experience. He is particularly passionate about developing multifamily and master planned communities.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/2/prweb10448108.htm | <urn:uuid:69e09535-40c3-4f41-a473-c196ccfed229> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newswest9.com/story/21286119/richard-zahn-professional-development-is-key-in-employee-retention | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964349 | 754 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Asura usually are small, energetic geniuses having motherboards on the shoulder muscles. Most of us primary attained these individuals with Guild Conflicts: Eyes on the To the north, although the heritage could possibly astonish a number of people. Previous to 1078 AE (~250 a long time previous to GW2 modern-day), this asura were located metro, developing the world with black caverns. Many people not often turned out, in addition to several different backgrounds found these individuals.
Subsequently, Primordus, this Folk Flame Monster, stirred in addition to awoke unpleasant wildlife of which were located possibly greater metro: destroyers. In the event the destroyers swarmed to fruition using their company pits, many people had this asura in place in addition to available, into your light-weight connected with time. The majority of chances are you'll recall encouraging spend less this asura with Eyes on the To the north. Though gracious for being living, this asura received a challenging time period while using the change by undercover contemporary society to help exterior dwellers. The good thing is, they’re far more tenacious in comparison with a ettin gnawing using a dolyak cuboid. Many people repudiated for being persons, in addition to as a substitute, leveraged the benefits to build a fair superior in addition to even larger property intended for independently. Many people designed Rata Sum—a location of which normally takes one’s breath of air away—and include produced the “alchemagical” expertise further than of which connected with another battle.
Almost all asura work with massive text (including “alchemagical”). While using the asura, most of us internet writers employ a permission for making in place text, merge text to build anything excellent, in addition to work with recent text with weird completely new means. Subsequently, we’ve formulated sexual romantic relationships with the dictionaries in addition to thesauruses. This asura communicate such as very little smarty-pants there're. Fully short of being humble, many people display the pro on just about every flip and in some cases exaggerate the item each time possible—you could possibly claim they've already some sort of Napoleon difficult. A asura doesn’t chat with layman’s dialect except essential intended for verbal exchanges having “lesser creatures. ” The reason start using a limited concept when you might just as before verify ones remarkable learning ability simply using a concept these all around people don’t fully grasp?
Complete asura include individuals?
Very well, certainly, many people complete. They've already little ones, moms and dads, in addition to grandmother and grandfather. They've already this outrageous older brother of which not anyone mentions. They've already this folk pal who is going to complete not any inappropriate, along with the great-grandmother who have absent hard of hearing. Some sort of black color lamb from the spouse and children has effects on everyone’s name,cheap diablo 3 gold and so spouse and children worries involving asura function sizzling. Many people passionately telephone the little ones “progeny” or maybe “offspring. ” Moms and dads include excessive objectives with regards to progeny and may head over to outstanding plans to discover them to go above the mates. Typically, a asura’s children will probably have to abide by into their parents’ actions, possibly in getting started with identical krewe. These are krewes, complete asura include tasks? Without a doubt! A asura is effective using a workforce, termed some sort of krewe, and is particularly dependable going without running shoes. This asura can be reasonably competitive in addition to green with envy, possibly to the issue connected with sabotaging another. You will discover not any societal taboos next to inter-krewe espionage. To be a make any difference connected with actuality, it’s envisioned. Visualize the way enjoyment it truly is to write down clips concerning competitive asura! Snark, snark, snark!
And even more Snark!
Settle back watching this sass journey! Some sort of side effects connected with asuran learning ability in addition to self-confidence is usually of which they’re pga masters on the zinger. Many people don’t go through fools delicately in addition to don’t also believe in sparing inner thoughts. Individuals be ready to receive snide reviews using their company krewe companies, in addition to progeny be expecting the item using their company moms and dads. Youngster asura, certainly, allow the item returning competitive with many people receive it—it’s component of rising in place. That mental punishment may be mean-spirited, even so the asura don’t find it because of this. Many people don’t get in person. The reasonably competitive natures get those to larger levels connected with success. Recall, asura include live through next to bad probability, as well as the teeny statures. They’ve acquired the thought patterns, in addition to plenty of bravado will keep these individuals by currently being persons. Because of their jibes, they’re revealing to the item including many people find it, in case people can’t carry the warmth, leave this research laboratory.
Self-absorbed seeing that they might be, this asura discover how risky this dragons usually are. They've already chose that they're going to spend less Tyria on the critters, whether or not weather resistant practice it by means of using the services of different, far inferior backgrounds. They’ve found that people can’t created some sort of flame that has a sole lower connected with mineral water, as well as a krewe helps make not any advance should the pro the boss isn’t helped by means of a armed service connected with science lab assistants. Not like asuran characters, you will discover individuals who will probably hotel to help almost any suggests possible—even evil—in obtain to help deal with this dragons. Most of these asura gravitate when it comes to this Inquest, a lending broker of which doesn’t develop the similar ethical compass as a general rule daring krewes. They're going to take a look at almost nothing, possibly intending as long as to help try with different sentient backgrounds, to get a artillery that can kill this Folk Dragons. Because of their limited bodies, massive text, and in some cases even larger egos, when you however can’t visualize the way brilliant it truly is to write down with the asura, I’ll get away from people that has a tease. A couple text: asuran helps make pirates.
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What Theravada Buddhists Believe
Central tenets of this Theravada Buddhism, based on the questions in the Belief-O-Matic quiz.
|•||Belief in Deity|
The concept of a supreme Creator God is rejected or at least considered irrelevant to Theravada Buddhism. Buddha, "the Awakened One," is revered above all--not as "God" but as supreme sage, model of a fully enlightened person.
Buddha was a human, a fully enlightened spiritual teacher and inspiration. As there is no belief in or relevant God, there are no incarnations of God worshipped.
|•||Origin of Universe and Life|
Buddhists consider it the job of scientists to explain origins of the universe and life. There is no contradiction with scientific discovery, however many maintain that the world creates and recreates itself millions of times every fraction of a second.
There is no transmigration of individual souls, but through the law of karma, one's wholesome or unwholesome intentions become imprinted in the mind. Negative mental states persist through continual rebirth until one's intentions become wholesome. Once fully enlightened, one is liberated from rebirths, reaching a state of absolute selflessness resulting in ultimate bliss called Nirvana--the "Deathless State." One becomes Buddha (or one with Buddha). Some Buddhists, especially modern Western, don't emphasize or believe in literal rebirth.
People have free will to commit wrongs or rights. Evil doings may result when egoism, cravings, attachments, and ignorance are expressed as greed, hatred, and violence, which, if unmitigated, is perpetuated through rebirth.
Enlightenment is an individual journey to Nirvana (complete bliss)--liberation from suffering and cycles of rebirth--acheived by following the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. To eliminate karma, which causes rebirth, one must extinguish the belief in a separate self that give rise to cravings, desires, and attachments. The path to enlightenment includes loving-kindness and compassion, moral conduct, charity, wisdom, and meditation.
Unenlightened life is suffering, and the cessation of this suffering is the primary goal of Buddhism--to reach Nirvana, to end cycles of rebirth. Suffering is a result of past-life greed, hatred, and ignorance, which return as suffering (karma), while compassion toward others who suffer reduces the effects of karma.
Abortion is considered murder, and all violent acts cause horrific karmic consequence. Homosexuality in itself is not specifically condemned by scripture, but opinions vary, especially among various Buddhist cultures--e.g., Buddhists in the United States are generally very accepting, while some Asian Buddhists are generally strongly opposed to homosexuality. It is believed that divorce wouldn't occur if one follows Buddhist precepts, but a couple is not condemned if they separate due to vast personal differences. In Theravada countries, gender roles are generally traditional (e.g. woman as child caretakers and men as providers), but less rigid as contemporary demands are made on women (e.g. working women).
Take Another Quiz
Top Beliefnet Features | <urn:uuid:0ce7bf9b-49fe-4725-a52d-4ea8c212e37b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/06/What-Theravada-Buddhists-Believe.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925261 | 652 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I’m flashing! Back in 2006, the Ad Astra project proposed a strategy for Microsoft to outflank Google by leveraging its employee base and social technologies. One of the key insights: social computing technologies allow a company to tap into the combined energy of employees and their networks. This can be a huge asset — and one that potentially grows non-linearly as a company grows. Alas, Microsoft took another approach, investing in algorithmic search to compete with Google head-on, and ceding the social market to Facebook, LinkedIn, and others..
Five years later, it’s Google in the role of a large company trying to use its size as an advantage against a more nimble competitor. If Google’s 20,000+ employees can work together effectively and are sufficiently motivated, they’ll be a huge asset in the “battle for social.” Tying bonuses across the company to success gets everybody to focus on the company’s priority. From a strategy perspective, a great move by Google.
Which doesn’t mean it will work.
– me, in a comment Prisms, Kool-Aid and Opportunity April 2011
One way to look at Google+ through the lens of what Robert Scoble calls the game of all games: the battle between Facebook, Google, and “own identity on the internet.” In that context, it was a brilliant move against all the other big US-based corporations run and owned primarily by white guys who are fighting over who can profit from mining our personal information and selling our eyeballs to advertisers.
And in a lot of ways, it’s worked out quite well:
- Many early adopters prefer Google+ to Facebook, especially in some demographics like younger and middle-age guys, techies, photographers, and social media experts.
- With over 40 million people already signing up, Google+ is a big enough platform to woo brands, celebrities, and politicians — who, just like everybody else, often want to say things longer than 140 characters and are generally unhappy with their Facebook experience
- Google demo’ed how they can leverage their dominant position in search and advertising to reward people for using their new platform and undercut their competitors’ advertising prices — and even after reports that they pressured sites to put +1 buttons on if they want to continue to do well in search, Congress didn’t mention Google+ in their questions for Eric Schmidt.
Facebook is the next … Yahoo? MySpace? Friendster?
Facebook is certainly on the defensive right now. They’re making a lot of mistakes, and acting like a company under a lot of stress. Groups? Lists? Subscribing? Huh? It’s looking more and more like old Microsoft products where there are three somewhat-incompatible ways to do things, none of which are particularly useful. Here’s the poll I took about their latest changes.
Facebook’s fighting back, of course. On the plus side they’ve already copied much of Google+’s functionality, improving on some of it in the process. But they’ve also bewildered their users, created more privacy gotchas, and will now get rid of the Wall and introducing the Timeline instead so that you can share your whole life with advertisers, HR departments, data miners, and stalkers.
With 800,000,000 users they’re not going away any time soon but it increasingly looks that the third-largest country in the world is about to be undergoing some massive emigration at exactly the time they’re going to need to further ratchet up the exploitation to justify their valuation.
Can’t wait for the movie: Social Network II: Lockdown!
Google is the next Microsoft?
On the other hand, just because Facebook is hitting the wall, that doesn’t mean Google’s out of the woods. In fact Google’s arrogance and tone-deafness are very reminiscent of Microsoft back in the evil empire days of the mid-90s. Their dominant, and arguably monopolistic, position is scaring regulators, and open source projects and competitors are banding together.
Back in the 1990s, Microsoft successfully fought of Netscape, won the browser market, and prolonged their hold on the desktop. Even so, it wound up backfiring badly. By the end of the decade they were facing major political problems in the US and abroad, had fallen behind on the next big thing, and despite billions of dollars of investment still haven’t caught up.
Of course, times have changed; and Google’s not Microsoft. Then again, Google’s core business is under threat. In case you haven’t noticed, their advantage in search quality has largely disappeared. With its overwhelmingly male population (currently two guys for every woman) and power base (80% of the “most followed users” are guys), Google+ isn’t likely to be the magic bullet they’re hoping for — at least not with the most valuable demographic on the web.**
So it’s good news for Duck Duck Go, Blekko, Quora, and yes even Microsoft. As I predicted in February, a big chunk of the search market is up for grabs.
I’m noticing a pattern here …
But even though it’s fascinating to have a ringside seat as the lads of Silicon Valley battle over who will control our access to information, track our every move, and slice-and-dice our privacy, my first reaction to Robert’s post was that I’m really tired of playing this game – and a lot of other people are too.
At some level, how much does it really matter whether we’re carved up by Larry, Vic, and Eric or by Mark and Blake or Marc and whoever? Or for that matter Jack and Dick or Mark (no relation) or any of John’s other companies or Charlie and Adam or …
With my civil liberties activists hat on, it’s depressingly clear that in any case more and more of the world’s information under the control of US-based companies and subject to the PATRIOT Act and FISA and whatever secret interpretation the current administration chooses.
And wearing my trendy little diversity chapeau, all the systems they’re building have huge biases that lead to most of the power, influence, and profit going to white guys.
Yeah, I know, it’s always been this way. Thus does kyriarchy reproduce itself. But I don’t think it’s going to be sustainable that much longer.
And in chaos there is opportunity.
Stay tuned for my next post, tentatively titled Hey, that sounds like a pretty good idea.
* in the gender-neutral sense of the word, of course
** Aileen Lee of KPMG has some great data on this in TechCrunch, although the headline and framing are problematic; see CV Harquail’s Why women DON’T rule the internet and comments from ptp, Terri, and others on Geek Feminism for more
Check out the previous posts in the series: A Work in Progress, Why it matters, #nymwars!, A tale of two searches, The double bind of oppression, Anxious masculinity under threat, Still a Ways to Go, Booberday, Talk about a hostile environment, and The Trend is in the Wrong Direction | <urn:uuid:5419fec8-023d-4135-8def-c7e95d4cd183> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.talesfromthe.net/jon/?p=3163 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938378 | 1,563 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The 76-year-old Suleiman died Thursday in a U.S. hospital. The shadowy statesman was considered Mubarak's most trusted man, handing the regime's most sensitive issues like relations with the U.S. and Israel and the fierce battle against Islamists. Suleiman's spy agency was responsible for tracking and suppressing opposition groups at home.
Tall, thin and often shown in dark sunglasses, Suleiman was also Egypt's point man in cooperation with the United States against terrorism and was involved in the post 9/11 rendition program in which terror suspects snatched by the Americans were shipped to Egypt and other countries for interrogation, sometimes involving torture.
In one case in 2002, the U.S. asked Suleiman for DNA material from the family of Ayman el-Zawahri, the Egyptian militant who at the time was al-Qaida's deputy leader and now heads the group.
"No problem, we'll get his brother, cut off his arm and send it over," Suleiman replied.
The Americans said just a blood sample would suffice, according to the account by author Ron Suskind in his book on the rendition program, "The One Percent Doctrine."
During the 18-day uprising last year, Suleiman was
In the end, it was an ashen-faced Suleiman who appeared on state TV on Feb. 11, 2011 and read a terse announcement of Mubarak's resignation and the military's seizure of power.
Suleiman's sudden death came weeks after a member of his top nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood, succeeded Mubarak as president. The intelligence agency Suleiman headed for 20 years was central to the Mubarak regime's repression of the Islamist group.
Now President Mohammed Morsi faces new woes from Suleiman—over his funeral. Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali told the state news agency that Suleiman, who was a general in the military, should have a military funeral. That brought quick denunciations from activists against honoring a figure whom they consider stained by his regime role and who should have faced trial.
"Omar Suleiman is an international butcher," said rights lawyer Malik Adly. "All the time he was the pampered man of the regime, the old and the new. Even the Brotherhood is holding a funeral for him. Why? All the time he was never questioned despite so many lawsuits against him."
Activists on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook launched a campaign of "no to military funeral to Omar Suleiman." Adly said they planned a symbolic funeral for the revolution's "martyrs" would be held the same day as Suleiman's.
The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where Suleiman had been treated since Monday, said in a statement he died of "complications from amyloidosis, a disease affecting the heart, kidneys and other organs."
Egypt's state news agency MENA said earlier that Suleiman had suffered from lung and heart problems for months and his health condition had sharply deteriorated over the past three weeks. It said his three daughters will accompany the body to be buried in Egypt on Saturday.
Suleiman largely vanished from sight after Mubarak's fall. But he re-emerged in April in a surprise but short-lived attempt to join the race for president. He said he was running to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from coming to power, warning that it would turn Egypt into a religious state.
But he was disqualified on technical grounds along with two Islamist candidates, including the Brotherhood's initial contender.
He also testified in the trial of his former boss, Mubarak, who was eventually sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising. In his testimony, Suleiman denied Mubarak issued orders to shoot at protesters but said the president did learn about the killings when he ordered the formation of an investigative committee. Mubarak supporters blame that testimony for bringing the conviction.
But rights activists insist Suleiman should have been tried as well, for the protester deaths and for activities during Mubarak's rule. Adly, the lawyer, said Suleiman hid information that could have convicted Mubarak for directly ordering the killings.
"Suleiman himself is deeply involved. But no one brought him to justice, why? This is the thing we never know," he said.
Suleiman was born in Qena in southern Egypt and graduated from the military academy as an infantry officer in 1955. He rose through the ranks and became deputy head of military intelligence in 1987. He became military intelligence chief in 1991 during the Gulf War, when Egyptians fought alongside other Arab forces in the U.S.-led coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's military out of Kuwait.
He indirectly saved his boss's life when he advised Mubarak to take an armored Mercedes with him on a state visit to Ethiopia in 1995. Islamic militants there sprayed his convoy with gunfire as he drove from the airport after arrival, but Mubarak was unscratched.
But his name only became known to the public in the early 2000s when Mubarak began moving the most vital issues of state to Suleiman, including relations in the U.S. and Israel and dealings with the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Hossam Sweilam, a former general who has known Suleiman since they were in the military academy together, said Suleiman's lack of political ambition helped him keep his job so long in a paranoid regime.
"There was no intelligence chief who survived that long but Suleiman," he said. Mubarak was known to fear and get rid of politicians who rise in prominence.
Still, his power made some view him as a potential successor to Mubarak. That created silent tension between Suleiman and the president's younger son, Gamal, who was seen as being groomed by his father as a successor.
In one U.S. diplomatic cable released by the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, Suleiman was said to "detest" the idea of Gamal as president. Another 2007 memo reports that a purported personal friend said the spy chief was "deeply personally hurt" when Mubarak failed to make good on what he said was an earlier promise to name him vice president.
The uncertainty over the succession and the fear that Mubarak was trying to set up a family dynasty helped spark the uprising.
Sweilam said Suleiman had warned of an impending revolution after spotting activities of pro-democracy groups and that the spy chief blamed Gamal for "giving his father a dishonorable ending."
"He tried to rescue the regime from sinking at the very last stage because he is a man with strong loyalty to the political leadership." | <urn:uuid:15e02793-9422-4453-bf51-17c94306515c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eveningsun.com/nationworldnews/ci_21109236/egypt-former-vice-president-dies-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9857 | 1,358 | 1.625 | 2 |
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)
(Redirected from Wai Beta
From Sonic Retro
The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Simon Wai" prototype is a widely distributed prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, which features an array of incomplete zones. It was found by Simon Wai on a Chinese website.
In the prototype copy, only four levels can be played in "normal" gameplay (though technically this is a prerelease to test some features and so there is no real level order). The rest have to be accessed through the level select code. Many are not playable, so the debug code is used to explore the acts. Genocide City Zone and Death Egg Zone are blank, causing Sonic and Tails to fall to their deaths as soon as the Act begins.
The Simon Wai prototype was widely distributed and may have been altered slightly by pirates to hide the SEGA logo from showing when the ROM boots up. The game was put on pirate cartridges with the help of a Super Magic Drive in Asia and Brazil and was then passed on as the final version. The prototype is frequently examined by hackers to determine how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive was developed.
Yuji Naka claimed in an IGN interview that it was stolen from a toy fair in New York in 1992.
In November 2006, an earlier prototype was bought and dumped by drx. This was the very similar to the prototype that had appeared on the TV show Nick Arcade. On February 23, 2008, several other betas of the game were released.
- Instead of playing the 1-Up sound when Sonic gets 100 or 200 rings, the game plays a prototype version of the music from Death Egg Zone. (Death Egg Zone plays no music) However, if Sonic breaks open a 1-Up monitor, the proper 1-Up sound will play.
- Tails has no balancing sprites, instead he uses a tail-less slowly animated version of his waiting sprites.
- The concept for a partner is still a work in progress as Tails can lose rings for the player when hit, just like in the Nick Arcade prototype.
- Tails' AI is much simpler: he simply copies the moves that Sonic makes, and makes no attempt to keep up with Sonic.
- If Tails dies, he's will come back on screen still in his death sprite, and will spin in whatever direction Sonic is facing in as soon as he hits the ground. This is because Tails cant fly yet.
- Spindash is still a work in progress, as Sonic and Tails can only charge the spindash once, and the sound for when Sonic spins in Sonic 1 is heard, as there is no sound effect for the spindash.
- The full Blue Sphere game is unlocked when Sonic & Knuckles is locked on.
- Genocide City and Death Egg although empty, use the Emerald Hill palette.
- Final boss music for Death Egg is in the ROM and is exactly the same as the final's.
- Tails uses slightly different jumping and rolling sprites.
- Sonic's sprites use the same palette as the final, but are Sonic 1 style. There are also unused spinning sprites in the ROM.
- There is a bug where Sonic's pushing animations are used instead of his running animation
- 2P bugs:
- Tails is only playable via 2 player mode.
- Sonic may only pass the signpost
- Sonic and Tails both share the same life and ring counters
- Sonic and Tails still have to defeat the boss in Emerald Hill
- There is no countdown for Tails after Sonic passes the signpost.
- If the 2P controller isn't moved, Tails will still follow and copy Sonic.
- Even though the 2 player level music exists, it is not activated and thus the levels play their single player music.
- The SEGA screen does not show up during boot because of altering; but it can be present after a demo but it is the same as the SEGA screen from Sonic 1.
Neo Green Hill Zone
- This zone is only zone playable without Level Select cheat.
- Actually Aquatic Ruin Zone is named as Neo Green Hill Zone. Not to be confused with the Sonic Advance level of the same name.
- There are no enemies except the arrow-shooting totems.
- The layout is half-completed.
- There is a corrupted splashing animation consisting of misaligned bubbles instead of a splashing sprite. Tails has no splashing effects.
- If Sonic gets out of the water during the countdown, the music will be changed to the Emerald Hill theme.
- Water does NOT have any effect on Tails other than palette change.
- If you finish this zone you will be sent to Chemical Plant Zone.
Chemical Plant Zone
- The loop-de-loop platforms have octagonal edges instead of being flat, just like the Nick Arcade prototype.
- The platforms which move across rails (most noticeably in Act 2) are much smaller.
- Demo gameplay hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.
- There is a badnik called Bubbler's Mother that drops Bubbler that was set to appear in this zone, it can be seen through the method of hacking
Hill Top Zone
- Sonic doesn't spin when going through tunnels.
- There is no earthquake sound effect.
- The background music runs at a slightly slower tempo than in the final.
- Demo gameplay hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.
Green Hill Zone
- In this Beta, Emerald Hill Zone is referred to as Green Hill Zone.
- Demo gameplay for 2P Mode hasn't been rerecorded to fit new level design since the Nick Arcade build.
- Demo gameplay for 2P Mode illustrates a bug: both players share the ring counter (when one player gains or loses rings, so does the other). They also share the same lives counter.
- There is a snail badnik that did not make it to the final ROM. Its art offset is at $7C514 (Nemesis compression, 26 blocks).
- At one point, there is a hidden wall which is supposed to contain an extra life; it does but it is blocked off. The only way to get to it is by the use of Debug Mode.
- This is the only zone with a boss. It looks exactly the same as it does in the final, but there are slight differences in its behavior:
- The Eggpod drops straight down into the car rather than descending diagonally like the previous build.
- When defeated, there are no explosion effects, unlike the previous build although it uses the explosions from Sonic 1. This proves that the explosions were taken out and the new ones from Sonic 2 final were added in Sonic 2 Beta 4 during development.
- If Robotnik was facing left, he will not turn around as he escapes to the right.
- The boss does not turn as early as he does in prototype 4 and later. He goes all the way to the end of the road and back as opposed to halfway.
- Pistons don't throw you up as high as they do in the final.
- Metal crushers do not hurt you unless you go underneath them when they come down.
- Fire and lava have no effect.
- Sonic falls through most of the rotating nets, but one of them does work (which suggests that the one working was the test object).
- Sonic can rotate a nut upwards past the height of the supporting screw pole.
- Act 3 has a diagonal lift that was cut from the final game.
- There is a Fourth Act which is exactly the same as Act 3 except Sonic starts in a different spot. This can be accessed by hacking.
- If you ride the platforms over the lava at the beginning of the act, when they go under the lava, so will you. They are also visible while under the lava.
Oil Ocean Zone
- This zone plays different music from the final, which was later used in Casino Night Zone 2P mode, but the music for Oil Ocean can be played in the sound test. It's number 90 and 91.
- The sun scrolls with the background, and is non-animated.
- Wooden balls are embedded in the ground, and can be activated by pressing a nearby switch. They will pop up and move to the left at a fixed speed. Sonic can stand on these balls while they travel. They were dropped as a gameplay element from the final, possibly because nobody could think of a good use for them, but the chambers and switches can be placed with debug mode, and both have the same behavior as in the beta. Wooden balls were seen in prototype shots of Sonic the Hedgehog's Green Hill Zone, and can be seen in this game's debug mode, but they cannot be placed.
- Two seahorse enemies are found within the prototype ROM through hacking.
- An unused, shoot-and-flee octopus enemy is found within the prototype ROM through hacking.
- The oil splashing animation is missing and oil slides have no effect on Sonic.
- A pipe in the level's background is sucking oil up instead of pouring it out.
Mystic Cave Zone
- In this Beta, Mystic Cave Zone is referred to as Dust Hill Zone.
- Because of the lack of objects, this level requires debugging to completely explore the level.
- Act 1 has a few odd platforming issues near the end. Other than that, layout wise, both acts are identical to their final counterpart.
- It seems Act 1 was only used for object testing. Act 1 has a bunch of randomly placed objects at the beginning of the level, but once you get halfway through, the level is empty.
- Act 2 is also devoid of objects.
- The bridge object works in Act 1 but, it uses a switch to open it instead of vines seen in later builds.
- The robots don't exist yet in this build.
- The level also uses music similar to the final version.
Casino Night Zone
- Drastic art changes when compared to the final. This zone has a pink card-suit-based scheme with sky blue floors. The tile layout is pretty similar to the final, but many level pieces are broken or missing, requiring Debug Mode to go deep into the level.
- There are no objects in this zone.
- The only 2 objects in the zones object debug list are a ring and a monitor.
- There is a prototype of the Crawl badnik which can be seen by hacking the ROM, it remains as a lost sprite in the Final Sonic 2.
- Many of the flipping tiles are missing or the outlines flash and the tiles remain stationary. With hacking, it is possible to implement the rotating tile, because they exist, albeit without its flipping format.
- There are no Sonic, Miles or Casino Tiles. Instead, these are part of the layout tiles themselves.
- There is a different sound for the bouncers that give points and disappear after three hits (that don't yet exist).
- The background of Act 2 uses level layout tiles, making it somewhat harder to play Act 2.
- The Red bumpers that give 10 points per hit do not exist. If the object, obj44, is placed in the level, it instead places a solid wall, similar to the one from GHZ. Thus proving even further that Sonic 2 Beta is a build off Sonic 1.
Cheat codes are different in the Simon Wai prototype from the final Sonic 2. These codes can be accessed by inputting button sequences or by various other methods.
- Zone Select: Enabled by default. Simply press + on the title screen. You can also manually enable it by pressing then +
- Debug Mode: Press then + on the title screen, then highlight a zone in the stage select and press and hold: +
- 2 Player vs mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: + for playing 2-player split-screen mode.
- Night mode: Highlight a zone in the stage select and press: +.
Original Sound Version Recordings
See Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "Beta" OSV for a download page.
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Simon Wai prototype)
| Main Article | SCHG | <urn:uuid:3d2f89ef-aae8-4023-95a4-249903acf2be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://info.sonicretro.org/Wai_Beta | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951799 | 2,573 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Walking through Marie Selby Botanical Gardens sporting black glasses and Converse sneakers, Dr. John Clark says plant conservation and identification are in his genes. It was a love that started when he was a child, while playing in his mother’s garden.
While walking, Clark gives a lesson on epiphytes — plants that live on other plants — and two focal research plant groups, research projects that, with the addition of a new molecular research program, will address relevant questions in epiphyte diversification and conservation.
After a $133,025 grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, Clark will get a chance to further his knowledge of plant identification, classification and conservation research.
Selby Gardens’ new research program, a two-year start-up project, will provide Selby scientists with cutting-edge resources.
“Molecular research capabilities, using DNA to understand the relationships between organisms, allows us to address critical questions about plant evolution and conservation, questions that concern the identity and origin of the plants we study,” said Clark, head of molecular programs and director of the Gesneriad Research Center at Selby Gardens, in a press release. “Think of it as CSI meets Selby Gardens, where botanists, instead of forensic scientists, use DNA to identify and, ultimately, conserve plants.”
The new program will be based in Selby’s existing research facilities, with the IMLS grant providing funding to aid in salary- and research-budget support for two years.
Clark, along with other Selby scientists, will conduct molecular-based studies on the plant families Gesneriaceae and Orchidaceae, two focal research plant groups at Selby Gardens.
“The new molecular program is vital to Selby Gardens’ ongoing commitment to science and conservation,” said Bruce Holst, director of research at Selby, in a press release. “This grant and the projects it supports are a major step forward in achieving Selby Gardens’ goal of being the leading institution for advancing the scientific understanding of epiphytes.”
Contact Loren Mayo at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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20 Ageless Grace with Mary Masi
10:00 am - 11:00 am
20 Fun Fitness for Parkinsons
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
20 Simply Relax! with Kathi Sims
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
20 Ladies' Night at Darwin's on 4th
Temple Emanu–El Religious School donated its tzedakah — which means charity of righteousness in Hebrew — for the 2012-13 school year.
Sarasota Christian School sent four teams — the most in Florida — to the Odyssey of the Mind's World Finals May 23 to May 25, at Michigan State University.
The Board of Directors of Leadership Florida, the president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and four Florida Leadership graduates nominated Sarasota's Pam Truitt, of Truitt Consulting, for a position on the board of directors. | <urn:uuid:7854a786-de05-4df5-bdd2-e24eb4c12d2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yourobserver.com/news/sarasota/Neighborhood/081720091729/Selby-Gardens-receives-research-grant?page=210 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908512 | 642 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Mongolia and China - October 7th, 2009
Uvs is one of the 21 aimags (provinces) of Mongolia. It is located in the west of the country, 1336 km away from the national capital Ulan Bator. Its capital is Ulaangom, which lies 936m above sea level.
Parts of the steppe in this province are protected as the World Heritage Site Uvs Nuur Basin. In the north, just out of view, the province borders the Russian Federation for 640km, in the east 340 km of border lies between Uvs and Zavkhan province. In the south and west it borders with Khovd and Bayan-Ölgii provinces for 200km each.
The province occupies 4.45% of the national territory, which is equivalent of 69,585 sq. km. Sixty percent of the total area of the province belongs to the mountainous climatic zone, and 40% to the Gobi semi-desert.
The province is named after Mongolia’s biggest lake, Uvs Nuur, touching the top edge of the image. Also visible here are the other five major lakes of Mongolia’s Great Lakes Depression: Lakes Khyargas (below Lake Uvs), Airag (smaller, just south of the former), Khar-Us (southwest of Lake Khyargas), Khar (east of the former) and Dörgön (south of Lake Khar).
Another body of water, Lake Ulungur, is visible near the center of the left edge. This lake, as well as the rest of the land in the lower left quadrant, belongs to China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. | <urn:uuid:9023a5d6-2192-4746-a852-880a7edaef75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eosnap.com/lakes/?s=%22great+lakes+depression%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911863 | 363 | 2.796875 | 3 |
An Odyssey In Inner And Outer Space
by Fred Burke
Imagine a comic about world peace, about mankind's need to find other life in the cosmos, about the love between parent and child even in the face of cold and lonely mortality. Better still, imagine a comic about colonizing the stars, about the connection between souls, about our place in the universe, about life beyond death. Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 Nights is all of these things, and more.
Told somewhat in the fashion of The Arabian Nights, 2001 Nights gains much of its power from Hoshino's incredible ability to weave individual tales into a graceful whole. In the first Japanese volume, the stories range in length from 16 to 110 pages, each a complete and pleasing fiction on its own, each interconnecting thematically and narratively with the rest of 2001 Nights. It is a device that not only gives newcomers ample opportunity to get involved, but rewards the less-casual reader with a texture and complexity rarely seen in "serial" comics.
Although a master of the short story, Hoshino is not content to shackle himself to any one form. If a tale has a grander scope, he moves with it. A case in point is "Lucifer Rising," the seventh chapter of 2001 Nights which concludes this first Viz graphic novel. "Lucifer Rising" is about the discovery of a tenth planet in our solar system, a huge body on the far fringes, orbiting in retrograde. Hoshino names this hidden and backwards planet "Lucifer," after the "King of Demons."
When the Vatican finances a voyage to this new planet, Father Ramon Chavez must face the full mystery of Evil, a mystery ruled by a heavenly body full of malevolent power. The Pope sends him on his way with a quotation from Milton's Paradise Lost, and Chavez is left with faith and reason as his sole defense against insanity. "Lucifer Rising" combines scientific investigation, Christian mythology, Catholic theology, and a frightening new possibility for astrologers everywhere. It is also a stunningly detailed science-fiction adventure.
Although our culture is filled with benign but half-knowledgeable Western interpretations of Eastern philosophy (even I am an occasional culprit), 2001 Nights gives us the rare opportunity to see the tables turned, to take in an Eastern view of Western beliefs. It is strange and almost unsettling to see something so ingrained in our culture (in the case of "Lucifer Rising," Catholic mysticism) explored so carefully, held up to the light like an odd and fascinating gemstone. I think that perhaps now I know how a Japanese reader might react to Frank Miller's Ronin.
It is important not to accept these mythological trappings as spiritual belief, however. Hoshino precedes his forays into demonology with a clear and poignant vision of the afterlife, of astral bodies soaring free through the vast void of space. Such optimistic notes in the early stories (the coming of world peace, the discovery of life on other worlds, the planting of human seeds on distant soil) are like armor, protecting the reader from the grittier stuff of Western myth and theology.
Hoshino has more modern Western influences than Milton. 2001 Nights, subtitled "A Space Fantasy" in Japan, pays obvious graphic homage to director Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. In framing his space sequences, Hoshino sticks with the classic, and it gives 2001 Nights a grandeur of form, a slow majesty of pacing, rare in comics. Just as 2001 Nights combines Western and Eastern thought, short story and epic, it also mixes American and Japanese storytelling styles. Yukinobu neither shies away from in-depth exposition and dialogue nor feels compelled to break the silence of a sequence with words for the sake of words. It is a combination that works.
Hoshino also gives his pages a crisp clarity that makes 2001 Nights a visual joy, rendering every figure, every spaceship, as if it were a perfectly composes black and white photograph. With skillful use of gray screens and a mastery of delicate cross-hatching, Yukinobu shows his talent as an artist in the classical mode.
But it is to the basic themes of writer Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, inextricably linking spirituality with space exploration, that 2001 Nights owes its greatest debt. Hoshino proudly raises the banner of 1960s science fiction, proclaiming unequivocably that any journey to worlds outside our own will be met with accompanying revelations about the very nature of humankind.
We can but hope. | <urn:uuid:d8d60968-66ea-439c-991d-bebc552fb600> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netjaunt.com/manga/2001.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933944 | 940 | 1.765625 | 2 |
This video has been circulating the interwebs for a couple of weeks now and is really catching people’s attention now though it was posted over a year ago. A brilliant team at Aldebaran Robotics has created a sophisticated set of robots that can be programmed to perform various tasks, including dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
They do a a pretty good job, don’t you think? Their movements are surprisingly fluid. These robots can’t think for themselves or act of their own will, (if they could, we’d have viable replacements for pop stars), but they do seem to be a physical improvement on Honda’s Asimo. And, while we tend to focus on intelligence when we think of computers/robots in science fiction and how they might overtake us, there’s something to be said about whether or not they have the physical ability to do so. The simple of act of walking and being able to move around with ease does give us an advantage.
So until we reach the point where cylons– the human-like A.I. from Battlestar Galactica– rule over us, I say we embrace the technology. I personally would like a Nao robot, (the ones in the video above), as a pet. That way when do they take over, I’m on good terms with at least one of them. | <urn:uuid:2078b7d3-28a9-4462-b82e-934c3e6ba755> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mxkremzen.com/tag/science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955684 | 289 | 1.570313 | 2 |
From the group's radical beginnings in the London underground scene of the mid 1960s to the inevitable late-'80s and mid-'90s tours, the spacey Pink Floyd has had it both ways: challenging expectations and delivering more of the same, often on a single album. With merely one change in lineup during the group's primary lifespan (1966'79), Floyd made an indelible mark on psychedelic, progressive and hard rock. Working well outside the musical mainstream, and rarely (with a few notable exceptions) bowing to trends, Pink Floyd turned out a body of work that quietly influenced countless other groups and shifted many millions of units. To the uninitiated, this is the group that made Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, but their work offers rewards far beyond those two albums.
There were precious few hints on Piper at the Gates of Dawn of what the future would hold. The debut bore the unmistakable imprint of the group's leader, visionary Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett. His particularly English tales of whimsy pushed the boundaries of what was, in 1967, acceptable subject matter for pop songs. Refreshingly free of the constraints of conventional structure and meter, Barrett's tunes held a childlike wonder laced(!) with menace. Highlights include "Lucifer Sam" (about a cat), "Bike" (about a bicycle), "Scarecrow" (guess!) and the extended freakout "Interstellar Overdrive." This last cuta prototype of the group's "space rock"was nearly the only instance where the studio version of the early Floyd bore any sonic resemblance to its live incarnation. This debut album was in and of its time, but has aged reasonably well; certainly better than many other artifacts of the psychedelic era.
A few weeks into the recording of 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, Barrett was gone. Whether it was his incipient schizophrenia, the copious intake of psychedelics or (most likely) their potent combination, Syd was forced out of the band he had created by the more business-minded members, chief among them bassist Roger Waters. His replacement, David Gilmour, was originally intended as a stand-in for the erratic leader (and in fact the group played a handful of gigs as a five-piece); the clear goal for A Saucerful of Secrets was to write a bunch of Syd-like tunes. Waters gamely penned or co-wrote three of the seven tracks; keyboardist Rick Wright wrote and sang two. Much of the album is filler, but the standout tracks offered a vivid portent. The dark and foreboding "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" was an early example of the whisper-to-a-scream (literally) school of songcraft, and the wordless title track offered nearly twelve minutes of madness, veering from musique concrète, ersatz choirs and plain old noise in its distinct movements. In all, pretty innovative stuff, even for 1968.
By the following year's release of More, few musical traces of the Barrett-era group remained. Commissioned as the score to Barbet Schroeder's 1969 hippie film of the same name, the album has a more pastoral feel than was (or would be) typical of the group. Many of the tracks are mildly compelling mood pieces, with utilitarian titles ("Party Sequence," "Main Theme," "More Blues"), but "The Nile Song" is closer in sound to Black Sabbath. Waters had already assumed near-total control of the songwriting: the bassist wrote or co-wrote every track. But Gilmour's vocals proved more tuneful, so the guitarist ended up singing many of Waters' songs. Meanwhile, Gilmour's soaring Stratocaster leads, a sound which would become instantly recognizable in later years, was already settling into place. As recorded, the songs (and their solos) run short, but those songs from More that found their way into the heavy-gigging group's live repertoire ("Green Is the Colour," "Cymbaline") became extended set-pieces.
And so with the release of Ummagumma (the title is supposedly pidgin for copulation) the band went in two directions: a live set for fans of the band's elongated excursions and a studio set for self-gratification. The four live numbers, all previously released songs, are reasonably well-recorded for the era, and show off the group to good effect, offering fascinating differences from their studio originals. But Floyd was never a "jam band," thus the arrangements are fairly tight. The opus "A Saucerful of Secrets" is suitably spooky and menacing, but (as numerous bootleg recordings of the era attest) only hints at the quartet's increasing live power. The studio tracks, one for each member, are mostly indulgent, though Gilmour's "The Narrow Way" has its moments.
Music was needed for "Zabriskie Point," Michelangelo Antonioni's cinematic entry into the world of hippie exploitation, and Pink Floyd was an obvious choice. On the 1970 soundtrack album, three songs sat alongside tracks by the Grateful Dead, Patti Page and the Youngbloods. A cursory rewrite of the 1968 single "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" was joined by two shorter tunes. When Rhino rereleased the album decades later, four more interesting Pink Floyd tracks were included. Two or three other songs from the 1969 Rome,Italy sessions remain unreleased.
Released at the dawn of the new decade, Atom Heart Mother represents a breakthrough for the band. The group mines a folky, melancholy feel on Waters' "If," adds another template for a live workout (the perennial Gilmour favorite "Fat Old Sun") and gets just plain weird with the faux audio vérité of "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast." Yet the centerpiece is the title track, a collaboration with experimental composer Ron Geesin. Twenty-three-plus minutes of doom, pretentiousness and freakout, "Atom Heart Mother" contains all the ingredients for the sonic stew that Pink Floyd would serve up through the next decade. It became a live staple for a few years, performed with and without orchestras. Though the group would eventually disown the work, Atom Heart Mother is a partly successful foray into the "orchestral rock" genre, and still holds value decades later.
Meddle refined the formula. The "songs" half contains "One of These Days," with a memorably pulsing echoplexed bass line, and four other pleasant (if immediately forgettable) tracks. Waters again has a hand in all of the compositions. And if "Echoes" is in some ways "Atom Heart Mother (Slight Return)," it has a stronger melody, excellent dual-lead harmony vocals (Gilmour and Wright) and the trademark chord patterns and drum fills that would pay the bills for years to come.
Obscured by Clouds, if a step backward, is not an unpleasant one. Another film score for Barbet Schroder (for La Vallée), the album contains fine, if simpler, arrangements. According to legend, the band recorded in a foreign studio and did not have access to all of its equipment. Economical instrumentals and a lack of sonic tricks make this an accessible (and generally overlooked) item in the group's catalog. Gilmour's "Childhood's End" is a highlight, as is Waters' black-humored "Free Four."
None of which prepared the world for Dark Side of the Moon. Several changes in Pink Floyd's approach helped make this album the beginning of a new chapter. First, they enlisted engineer Alan Parsons and the mixing talents of Chris Thomas. Both were experienced with the equipment at EMI's Abbey Road studio, having proven their mettle working with the Beatles. Second, the group had learned much through the trial-and-error experiments of the preceding few albums; they now had a better sense of what worked and what did not. That the album is a marvel of sonic clarity and spaciousness contributed greatly to its phenomenal success (this was the album to use in auditioning stereo equipment, and its reissue on CD put it back on the charts), but the linear songwriting deserves credit as well.
Dark Side of the Moon is best approached as a whole. Though the "concept" is loose, the care that went into the album sequencing should be rewarded with a start-to-finish listen. The songwriting is vastly improved, thanks in part to rigorous road-testing of many of the musical themes before recording the album. Wright's "Us and Them" is a dreamy mid-tempo piece with pretty piano, soaring vocals and guitar. The group-credited "Time" starts off ominously and builds from there. All the songs are evocative, conveying in turn dread, melancholy and paranoia. The wordless "Great Gig in the Sky" is notable as the first Pink Floyd song to feature lead vocals from a non-group member (Clare Torry), and Waters' "Money," with its cynical lyrics and odd meter (7/4 and 5/4), gave Pink Floyd a worldwide hit single. A near-perfect combination of weirdness and melody, the album has repeating musical and lyrical motifs plus head-swirling sound effects (courtesy of drummer Nick Mason and a then-new VCS3 synthesizer). Dark Side of the Moon set the standard for rock of the '70s and beyond, as well as for the group itself.
Following a landmark is no piece of cake, but two years later the group released Wish You Were Here. In some respects it's a take-no-chances follow-up, recycling some of the previous album's themes (madness, isolation), but in other ways it's a return to earlier forms. Gilmour's saturnine guitar leads, coupled with Wright's ethereal keyboards (piano, organ and an increasing reliance on synthesizers) assert themselves as the core of the group's sound. The largely instrumental album is structured around the epic "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," a surprising and belated tribute to Barrett, while the doom and alienation of Waters' "Welcome to the Machine" offer the creepiest Pink Floyd sounds since Meddle's "One of These Days." The sardonic "Have a Cigar" contains the band's second (and final) guest lead vocal, this time from labelmate Roy Harper. The largely acoustic title track is the most down-to-earth thing on the album, and became a concert sing-along. With Waters' musical dominance continuing on the rise, this is the Pink Floyd's last true group effort.
Another two years passed before the release of Animals. Orwellian by design, the disc follows the same formula as its two immediate predecessors, but with a harsher, metallic sound. The bleak tone is almost too much to take on tracks like "Sheep" and "Dogs," but Gilmour's lyrical guitar playing saves the day. In many ways Animals is a Waters solo album, with his bandmates serving as sidemen. Unrelenting despair and bile are the order of the day here, with heavy-handed lyrics dividing all of humanity into dogs, pigs and sheep. Still, it's a great listen for all the extended instrumental work. And the vocoder work on Waters' nasty rewrite of the 23rd Psalm is not to be missed.
Then came The Wall. The culmination of everything Waters had to say (again) about isolation, alienation and madness, The Wall is built upon a handful of simple musical motifs, three- and four-note patterns. The playing is excellent as are the (non-Waters) vocals and the production is flawless. But the album has not stood the test of time. Designed as (another) cohesive work, it turns boring on repeated listens. With its disco shuffle, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)" gave the group its second hit single, and "Comfortably Numb" makes the strongest argument for affording Gilmour more space on the album. But tracks like "Empty Spaces" and "The Trial" though necessary to move the story alongare tough going.
Pink Floyd was inescapably crushed under the weight of The Wall. Wright left before the release of The Final Cut, a dour and aptly-named disc on which Gilmour and Mason did what they were told in the studio by Waters. While the single, "Not Now John," is best avoided ("f*ck all that" indeed), the oft-overlooked "Two Suns in the Sunset" is perhaps Waters' strongest moment on record. And his singing isn't half bad. With the release of The Final Cut, Pink Floyd effectively ceased to exist. At least that's what Waters believed, and subsequently attempted to assert in various courts of law as the group divided into acrimoniously antagonistic camps.
Gilmour had been growing as a musician and composer (if not lyricist), and still had a lot to offer musically. His two solo albums (1978's David Gilmour and 1984's About Face) were strong musically, featuring musical friends and (helpfully) guest lyricists, yet sank virtually without a trace. To most fans, Pink Floyd was relatively faceless (they rarely gave interviews or posed for photos), so Gilmour wasn't well recognized as one of its main creative forces. He and Mason relaunched Pink Floyd, using a cast of dozens (including Wright as a "guest" member but not Waters), with A Momentary Lapse of Reason, the title a comment on Waters' decision to dissolve the band. The album was a sonic return to form; that form being Dark Side-era Pink Floyd. Whether it was legitimate without Waters is more of a legal than critical issue, as it certainly sounds like Pink Floyd; "Learning to Fly" and "On the Turning Away" would have fit smoothly on a mid-period album (especially Meddle). The album was a huge commercial success.
As was the (greatly expanded) group's megatour, documented on the live Delicate Sound of Thunder. The two-disc greatest-hits-live package was meant to make up for the historical lack of a legitimate live Floyd album (excepting the first half of Ummagumma). But there's something artificial and dubious about a dozen-plus musicians, some of whom were toddlers when The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was recorded, performing these old songs as Pink Floyd.
No matter. Six years later Gilmour, Mason and Wright (now a full member again) returned with The Division Bell. It's a marked improvement over A Momentary Lapse of Reason, thanks in no small part to Wright's collaboration on more than half the tunes. Sticking to Meddle-era musical ideas, the band wisely unencumbers the album with any weighty thematic concepts. What they were lacking, however, was Waters' gravitas. Despite his overbearing dominance and limited musical appeal, Waters did provide the band with incisive, thoughtful lyrical content, the absence of which is obvious. Penned largely by Polly Samson, Gilmour's then-fiancée, the lyrics on The Division Bell are melancholy yet upbeat. The titles say it all: "A Great Day for Freedom," "Coming Back to Life," "High Hopes."
P-U-L-S-E is another double live album, released concurrently with a concert film (and packaged with a blinking red light on the spine of the CD slipcase). Nothing to see here, move along. It contains a complete Dark Side of the Moon performance, a few other hits and favorites, Barrett's "Astronomy Domine" and not a note from Animals or The Final Cut. The cassette version features a 22-minute "Soundscape" of ambient noises.
The Relics compilation doesn't fit neatly into the group's corpus. A few tracks are from previous albums, but it's certainly no greatest hits, since Floyd was never a singles band. It does boast a few non-album singles (the brilliant psych-pop of the Barrett-era "See Emily Play" and the group's first single, "Arnold Layne") and the endearingly oddball "Biding My Time," possibly the most un-Pink Floyd-sounding song the group ever committed to tape. Required listening for those wishing to fully understand the group, Relics is of little import to the less committed devotee.
In the wake of Dark Side of the Moon, Capitol/EMI rush-released A Nice Pair, a sloppy pairing of a butchered UK version of Piper at the Gates of Dawn with A Saucerful of Secrets. Still, given the rarity of those albums prior to their reissue on CD, this was for many years the only practical way for American fans to get the Barrett-era material.
2007's Oh, by the Way collects all of Pink Floyd's releases onto 16 CDs in one package, but omits the early singles found on Shine On. | <urn:uuid:dbad8d4f-9f72-4574-adbb-ceddfbd67ff4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musoscribe.com/essays/pink_floyd.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00066-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967088 | 3,549 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Net guide to elementary science fun and games for kids online.
Crystals can make interesting and fun science fair projects.
About Botany Detail explanation of what Botany is, from Botanical Society of America. Includes areas of specialization. Plants and our Environment Site created by kids, for kids.
You don't have to be a genius to understand the work of the Nobel Laureates. These games and simulations, based on Nobel Prize-awarded achievements, will teach and inspire you while you're having FUN! | <urn:uuid:817af778-bae0-46c5-b6c6-98ae7c5b67aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/sgrobare/science/id3393647 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00050-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913163 | 104 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The February 1994 cover of Scientific American showed a publicity photograph of Marilyn Monroe, from the 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch, arm and arm with an 1863 image of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner. The purpose of the cover was to show how digital photography could create photographic images for events that never happened. Lacking a film negative as reference, digital images make it impossible to distinguish between a scene that reflects an actual event and one that digitally creates a mythical event.
Although Marilyn Monroe never met Abraham Lincoln as depicted on the cover of Scientific American, she did admire him and on at least four occasions was photographed with images of Lincoln or with the greatest popularizer of Lincoln, Carl Sandburg. The number of biographies of her pales in comparison with those devoted to Abraham Lincoln, but a theme common in most is that she looked upon Lincoln as the father she never knew in childhood. During a visit to Bryant Cottage in Bement, Illinois, in August 1955, Marilyn Monroe told a reporter, “I have honored and admired Mr. Lincoln since I first heard about him. As a child, he represented sort of a father to me. But then I guess he does for everyone in the U.S.” Her appearance generated a crowd of 10,000 curious onlookers. Bringing in tow her own photographer, Eve Arnold, Monroe had her visit documented at the house museum where legend, not historical documentation, claims that Lincoln and Douglas met to establish the schedule for debates in 1858.
The earliest image of Monroe and Lincoln was taken in 1954 by the famed photographer Milton H. Greene. It shows Monroe standing in a Cadillac convertible holding up a framed photograph of Abraham Lincoln. The car was a gift from Jack Benny for Monroe’s appearance on his television show The Jack Benny Program. Milton’s son, Joshua, created a limited edition of 500 copies of this famous photograph that were each stamped, numbered, and signed. He presented one such copy in 2007 to the Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
Len Steckler, a New York City photographer, took a series of three images of Marilyn Monroe and Carl Sandburg in his apartment in December 1961. Steckler had studied photography with, among others, Edward Steichen, Carl Sandburg’s brother-in-law. As a photographer, Steckler was called upon to capture images of many celebrities, and he soon formed a friendship with Sandburg. Steckler also became acquainted with Marilyn Monroe. These professional relationships led to the meeting between the 35-year-old Monroe and the 83-year-old Sandburg.
The last meeting between Monroe and Sandburg took place in January 1962 in Hollywood. Arnold Newman, the legendary New York photographer, was at the small gathering that included Monroe and Sandburg. Seven images from that evening survive, including one that shows Sandburg teaching Monroe breathing exercises, although most people would conclude that they are dancing. Monroe had trouble sleeping, and, according to Sandburg, breathing properly would help.
An interesting reference to Lincoln is found in the 1960 George Cukor film Let’s Make Love, starring Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand. The basic plot has a playboy billionaire businessman, played by Montand, attending a rehearsal in Greenwich Village of the independent Let’s Make Love musical theater company. The director/producer of the show mistakenly thinks Montand is an actor look-alike of the billionaire who wants a part in the show. Montand pretends to be an actor to woo Marilyn Monroe, only to find it difficult at the end of the film to prove his true identity. Worried that Montand is delusional, Monroe provides the following bit of advice:
“There used to be an actor, he played Abraham Lincoln for so many years. He grew his own beard. He went around in a shawl. And you know what they used to say?
He looks like Lincoln, talks like Lincoln. But he won’t be satisfied until he gets shot.”
It would be interesting to know if Monroe had a hand in adding this reference to the script. Certainly she was one of Lincoln’s biggest fans. | <urn:uuid:ba8ddcb9-1466-47e9-a6f1-8dc9df5e7286> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alplm.org/blog/2011/04/father-abraham/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971192 | 857 | 3.21875 | 3 |
|Chant for Kids Winter
"For he that sings praise, not
only praises, but only praises with gladness: he that sings praise, not only
sings, but also loves him of whom he sings. In praise, there is the speaking
forth of one confessing; in singing, the affection of one loving."
As we begin our Lent, we realize that nearly a whole year has flown by since we completed production on Volume 1 of Gregorian Chant for Kids. The children are a year older and eager to learn new chants and to begin recording on Volume 2, and we feel like we've hardly begun getting the word out about Volume 1!
Join us on FACEBOOK, become a fan, and give us your input for the next CD.
We have just launched out facebook fan page. Once you've become a fan, please comment on our wall and let us know what Gregorian chants you would like to hear on Volume II, on which we're about to begin production. Our facebook fan page is an easy way to stay up-to-date on the production for the next CD with new soundclips, new "making of" videos, and thoughts from the kids about the recording process. Plus, if you have any feedback in general, please don't hesitate to leave comments on the wall!
Gregorian Chant for Kids - Volume I finds new distribution outlets ~
Gregorian Chant for Kids CD is now a part of the Catholic Heritage Curricula homeschool curriculum and being distributed worldwide through CHC. Also, David is producing a series of product videos for CHC's new "Virtual Homeschool Conference". The virtual conference videos will also feature the Smith kids (Nate, Patrick, Brian and Gina from the Kids Chant Choir) using, working with, and demonstrating CHC's exclusive titles and homeschool materials. Gregorian Chant for Kids is also now being sold through ChantCD.com and Halo-Works.com.
Visit our Youtube channel ~
|Youtube is giving television a run for its money in terms viewership. As you might have guessed, the standards for what is considered an inappropriate video are pretty low. We feel this is all the more reason why we must post our videos and why we're thankful to have the opportunity to present these beautiful, musical treasures of the Church on this wildly popular worldwide platform. Visit our Youtube channel, which features videos of the kids singing the Kyrie from the Missa De Angelis, as well as the Ave Maria. Please don't forget to subscribe (free) to our channel. Please comment and rate the videos too. When you do, this increases the chances that more people will see them and be drawn to the Spirit behind the innocence and purity that shines through Gregorian Chant for Kids!|
Where are my Hymns of Holy Mass CDs?
To all those who pre-ordered the Hymns of Holy Mass CDs expecting to receive them this past December:
Due to a minor licensing issue that needs to be resolved before we can fulfill any more orders, for the time being, we will be issuing refunds for your purchase in the next week if you haven't received your refund already. We're a little frustrated and annoyed by this delay (again!), but didn't feel it was right to keep payments not knowing now how long this will take to resolve. We're very excited about these CDs and are very anxious to get them to you. Once they're ready to ship, we will send you a notification. Thank you, again, for your patience!
So, we hope this E-newsletter finds you all healthy, at peace, and making the most of this beautiful season of Lent!
In the hearts of Jesus and Mary,
David and Teresa Smith
Click here to order your copy of Gregorian Chant for Kids - Volume I
Icon Catholic Music is operated by David and Teresa Smith, Catholic recording artists, business owners and home schooling parents of seven (soon to be eight!). Not finding many resources in teaching Gregorian chant to their own children, David and Teresa set out to create high quality recordings and simplified notation that allows parents the ability to easily introduce themselves and their whole family to these beautiful but too-often-forgotten musical treasures of the Church - with more volumes planned for the future. David and Teresa have worked for years as recording artists and the owners of Icon Studio Productions, one of the leading production facilities for contemporary Catholic recording artists in the U.S. David is a published songwriter and has won the United Catholic Music and Video Associations (UCMVA) awards for Songwriter of the Year and Producer of the Year, while Teresa holds her own as a professional vocalist with their duo Crossed Hearts, as a solo artist and as a session vocalist for numerous Catholic artists projects. | <urn:uuid:24818fff-20d9-457a-ba51-a55c3ee30b71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chantforkids.com/February2010Newsletter.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96034 | 986 | 2.421875 | 2 |
International Prader-Willi Syndrome Organization
Family Support Survey - please download this
survey to participate.
MS Word Format
IPWSO is an international nonprofit Prader-Willi
syndrome (PWS) organisation whose main focus is to:
Improve the quality
of life for all people with Prader-Willi syndrome and their
foundation and development of new national PWS Associations.
associations to exchange and share their PWS projects and
and support on PWS around the world.
Provide free testing
for diagnosis in countries where it is not available.
IPWSO has over 80 member nations. It is run by a President and a
Board of Directors, and has both a Scientific and Medical Advisory Board
and a Professional Providers Advisory Board. IPWSO is financed by
subscriptions from member associations, donations, and grants. It is
politically neutral, with no discrimination as to race, sex or religion.
Each IPWSO association is at a different stage of maturity and
represents a distinctive cultural approach. This unity and diversity of
our membership is the beauty of IPWSO, for when our unique experiences
blend together they generate a much richer force than any member alone
can possess. By sharing and connecting, they have created a network that
moves people’s hearts and saves countless lives.
PWSA (USA) collaboration with IPWSO
PWSA (USA) has played an active role with IPWSO since its formation in
1991. Currently, the IPWSO president is Dr. Suzanne Cassidy, a PWSA
(USA) Scientific Advisory Board member, and the IPWSO vice president is
Janalee Heinemann, PWSA (USA) Director of Research and Medical affairs.
Support and collaboration from the oldest to the youngest national
associations is vital to the international PWS family. Although IPWSO
members speak many different languages, the universal words, “love for
our children,” expresses both the mission of PWSA (USA) and IPWSO. The
rarity of a disorder or the location of education and support has no
relevance to a parent, so until we discover a cure, we must find better
methods of management and share this information. Each life we help
makes all the difference.
For more information on IPWSO, go to www.ipwso.org or email the IPWSO
Executive Director, Giorgio Fornasier at:
(Note: Internationally, the word organization is usually spelled | <urn:uuid:9dcd14dd-ff54-4113-b3fd-43d1bd6850ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pwsausa.org/IPWSO/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00075-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904598 | 543 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Jason M. Shepard & Genelle Belmas
15 Yale J.L. & Tech. 92
The Supreme Court has long protected anonymity for speakers and writers under the First Amendment. The Internet enables anonymity for individuals who post writings, download music, and participate in political discussion. However, this poses a challenge for plaintiffs who want to sue anonymous speakers for libel, copyright infringement, or election speech. This Article evaluates current legal developments in these areas and makes recommendations about how the law should deal with these different but related issues of anonymous speech. | <urn:uuid:55ab3987-8295-4f5e-bed8-66ff573ca944> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yjolt.org/anonymity-disclosure-and-first-amendment-balancing-internet-era-developments-libel-copyright-and-ele | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908229 | 108 | 2.25 | 2 |
NORWESCAP Housing and Energy Services administers the following programs: LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program), Weatherization Assistance Program, USF (Universal Service Fund), and other programs to assist low income families with thier heating and cooling costs. There are also several housing projects that are aimed at providing safe and affordable housing to low-income families.
Home Energy Assistance
Provides funds to assist eligible households to help meet their heating and cooling costs who reside in Somerset, Hunterdon, Warren or Sussex counties. Assistance payments are made directly to the fuel vendor or utility company on behalf of the eligible applicant.
Universal Service Fund (USF)
The USF program was created by the State of New Jersey to help make energy bills more affordable for low income customers. The program provides funds to assist eligible households to lower the amount that they have to pay for their gas and electric bills. Eligible applicants must apply for LIHEAP to receive consideration for USF.
Deadline for Applications: April 30*
*Unless extended by the State of New Jersey
Si usted necesita esta enformacion en español por favor mande un email a: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:3726685e-235b-4729-9cd7-80666747595d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.norwescap.org/help_program_details.php?ID=9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908342 | 253 | 1.609375 | 2 |
When should the diet be considered?
Approximately 70% of children who develop epilepsy will respond to pharmacologic treatment but about 30% will develop difficult to control seizures or experience ill-effects from antiseizure medication. These are the children that may benefit from dietary therapies. A consensus report from a panel of 26 pediatric epilepsy specialists and dietitians concluded that "the ketogenic diet should be strongly considered in a child who failed two to three anticonvulsant therapies, regardless of age or gender, and particularly in those with symptomatic generalized epilepsies" (Epilepsia 2008). In addition, the group recommends using diet therapy early in a child's life when diet is easier to control.
Who can be helped by the diet?
Children with epilepsy from infancy through adulthood may be helped by the diet. The published reviews and studies on the diet consistently show that 50-75% of children with difficult to control seizures of all types are helped by the diet. Some children, especially those over the age of 5 years may find the diet difficult to follow due to its strictness. Creative recipes and more liberal ratios have helped to make the diet more enjoyable.
What syndromes and have been found to benefit from the diet?
- Glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome
- Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency
- Myoclonic epilepsies:
- Myoclonic-astatic epilepsy (Doose syndrome)
- Severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (Dravet syndrome)
- Tuberous sclerosis complex
- Rett syndrome
- Infantile spasms
- Certain mitochondrial disorders:
- Phosphofructokinase deficiency
- Glycogenosis type V
- Mitochondrial respiratory chain complex disorders
- Landau-Kleffner syndrome
- Lafora body disease
- Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis
Are there any contraindications to the use of the diet?
Individuals with the following deficiencies or defects should not be placed on the diet. Serious adverse effects could result.
- Carnitine deficiency (primary)
- Carnitine palmitoytransferase (CPT) I or II deficiency
- Beta-oxidation defects
- Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency
Are there certain children who may have difficulty following the diet?
Children with chewing or swallowing problems or are struggling to eat a regular diet may have difficulty with the ketogenic diet. It is recommended that these children have a Feeding Evaluation before proceeding.
Are there benefits to diet therapy other than seizure control?
Some children experience benefits in development and behavior on the ketogenic diet. This may be experienced as an effect of the diet and also if seizure medications are reduced as a result of improved seizure control. | <urn:uuid:03104b36-7595-4da4-bf94-66f3ed1fdd85> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.charliefoundation.org/faq/when-to-consider-diet-therapy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91349 | 578 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Filed under: Boomer's Health
Membranous nephropathy is a disease in which the small blood vessels in the kidney (glomeruli), which filter wastes from the blood, become inflamed and thickened. As a result, proteins leak from the damaged blood vessels into the urine (proteinuria). For many, the loss of these proteins eventually causes some signs and symptoms known as nephrotic syndrome.
In mild cases, the disease often gets better on its own, without any treatment (remission). As the level of protein leakage increases, so does the risk of long-lasting damage. In many people (as many as 40 percent), the disease ultimately leads to kidney failure. Although there's no cure, treatments are available to slow the progress of the disease.
Want to know more about this article or other health related issues? Ask your question and we'll post some each week for CNN.com reader to discuss or for our experts to weight in.
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed||Top Searches| | <urn:uuid:adabc738-56d4-452c-b73f-8225e83660c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/membranous-nephropathy/DS01196.html | 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 | 0.961918 | 214 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting TANEWS to 80360, or email
Lister Mill is testament to Samuel
2:45pm Thursday 28th July 2011 in Science Heroes
The success of Samuel Cunliffe Lister as an innovator and textile manufacturer is imprinted on the Bradford skyline in the shape of the giant Lister Mills.
Lister was similar to Sir Titus Salt in the sense that he was an experimenter who took out more than 150 patents.
He endeavoured to improve various pieces of textile machinery and spent years and a not inadequate amount of money adapting silk waste.
He played a key role in the development of Bradford’s wool industry during the 19th century before his death in 1906 at the age of 91.
He invented the Lister nip-comb, which separated and straightened raw wool before it could be spun into worsted yarn. This invention revolutionised the industry.
A statue of him now stands in Lister Park, Heaton. | <urn:uuid:65c8688f-f5c3-4d8e-8bcd-aacde0835202> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archivefile/news_science/news_science_hero/9166204.Lister_Mill_is_testament_to_Samuel/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957977 | 214 | 2.671875 | 3 |
LETTUCE Red Romaine
A colorful romaine lettuce with leaves in shades of red, bronze and green. Flavor is somewhat tart and spicy. Best color and flavor are achieved when grown in the cooler parts of the growing season. Approximately 65 to 70 days to full maturity.
Special Directions for Short Season Climates
SOWING: Start early indoors or seed directly outdoors from early to mid-spring. Sow again in late summer for fall crop. Barely cover seed with 1/8 inch of fine soil.
THINNING AND TRANSPLANTING: Once plants are established thin or transplant to 10 to 12 inches apart. Transplant outdoors after danger of severe frost has passed.
SPACING: Leave 18 inches between rows. For bedding in small areas space 10 to 12 inches apart in all directions.
GERMINATION: Approximately one week to ten days. Start seed in cool 55 to 60 degree F temperatures. Keep soil moderately moist during germination.
Ed's Special Advice
Keep soil moderately moist. Well fertilized soil produces quickly grown, sweet, crisp Romaine lettuce. Sow seeds every two weeks from early to mid spring and again in late summer/early fall, in mild | <urn:uuid:9eaf3998-1afb-4f94-ad9e-c6ad96f932f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humeseeds.com/lettrr.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00071-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904324 | 249 | 2.25 | 2 |
By Chris Gallagher
The similarities between sport and business are well known. In both cases, doing things faster, differently or more efficiently can result in success. Having competed as an althete and now working as a coach, I can see three primary lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from.
1) Identifying your strengths
One of the essential things to know as an athlete is what you are good at. This might sound obvious, but it is remarkable how many athletes do not play to their strengths. This can be a tricky process, but without it, you are putting yourself at a considerable disadvantage. An athlete who is able to accelerate during the last 50m of an 800m race needs to know that they are able to do so, as it is their best way of winning. This applies for mental skills too – some athletes are able to read races. They are able to spot gaps in the race, changes of pace and the behavior of different competitors. This crucial insight can allow you to know when it is best to make a move.
In the same way, an entrepreneur needs to know what they are able to offer that is better, or at least different, from others. Just as an athlete can read a race, an entrepreneur’s advantage could be that they understand the market better. The success of a new bus company in my hometown (Bath, UK) resulted from a crucial key insight. The incumbent company was succeeding because they had little competition. The new company focused on two routes and sold tickets for a cheaper price. This simple (and successful) strategy resulted from the fact that they understood the reality of the situation – and played to it accordingly.
Finally, it is important to gauge how your strengths develop. In some cases, your core strength can change. Steve Ovett, the 800m 1980 Olympic Champion, is a prime example of this. During his junior years he was able to win races purely because of the fact that he was talented enough to be able to out-run his competitors. When he reached a world-class level, this changed; many of the people he raced against were capable of beating him. He then had to learn how to read the race and outsmart them. In the same way, Hotmail founders Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith spotted a simple problem – that email wasn’t portable enough – and exploited it. They made it possible to access email from anywhere, at no cost.
2) Growth and change
Growing your business is a process associated with risk. One entrepreneur once described to me the agony of hiring his first employee; he knew he needed to do it, but didn’t want to. Similarly, one of the biggest changes in athletics is going from junior to senior level. Unsurprisingly, it is the stage at which most athletes quit the sport. Having succeeded as a junior, they are unable to do as well as a senior. This is due to a number of key differences. First, the number of people you are competing against grows enormously. Whilst there may have been a dozen people of you caliber as a junior, there may be ten or twenty times more as a senior. Second, many senior athletes will have much more racing experience than you. You may be younger and be physically fitter, but they can still beat you because they know how to race. They can spot crucial gaps during competitions and know the strengths and weaknesses of other athletes. Finally, the competition standards are much tougher. It can take several years to achieve the necessary times and many athletes will drop out of the sport altogether.
An entrepreneur could encounter similar challenges when growing their business. If you decide to set up a new office in a larger city, you will undoubtedly find more competition. Indeed, you may find that they are outright better than you. In some cases, the businesses you are competing against may be as good as yours, but simply know how to market themselves better. With both business and sport, you cannot progress without taking on some form of risk. The athlete may quit against tougher competition and the entrepreneur may run out of money, for example. However, this should not discourage an athlete or entrepreneur from attempting to grow. It is simply a case of getting to know your competition well and working out your competitive advantages.
3) Managing information correctly
Feedback is something that a good athlete needs in order to progress, be it subjective or objective. The trick is not collecting this information, but managing it correctly. Numerous statistics are available – lap times, pulse rates and race results – but incorporating them into your training program properly is essential. One common mistake is to overanalyze a training (something I have done and seen often). The temptation is to change a training session or race tactics based on a few data points. Yet a slow race, or unusually fast session should be taken into account only in context of many months of training and racing. Otherwise, this can lead to minor adjustments being made on a regular basis that ruin the strategy for your whole season. More often than not, it is better to let your plan run its course. If not, you will never know how good it was in the first place. The lesson for entrepreneurs is clear here: once you have devised your strategy, stick to it. Take little changes into account, but allow for some variance in results. Run your strategy for a set period of time and then take stock.
These lessons emphasize the importance of working smarter, not harder, than the competition. Of course, hard work cannot be avoided, but the key is doing work efficiently. | <urn:uuid:fbb517fa-2c3d-4275-8606-7da4c4ce379c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.endeavor.org/blog/3-lessons-from-an-athlete-to-entrepreneurs-how-to-work-smarter-not-harder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981196 | 1,133 | 2 | 2 |
Postprint version. Published in Environmental Pollution, Volume 46, Issue 3, January 1, 1987, pages 163-175.
Copyright © 1987 Elsevier.
NOTE: At the time of publication, the author G. S. P. Ritchie was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.
The definitive version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0269-7491(87)90074-1.
Piggery effluent may contribute to the eutrophication of waterways, if it is not treated before disposal, because of high levels of phosphorus. Limes and red muds (a residue from bauxite refining) were used to remove phosphorus from piggery effluent (41 mg litre-1 total P). Lime-based amendments were more effective than the red muds at removing phosphorus when compared at the same liquid: solid ratios. Based on laboratory data, the cost of treating effluent increased rapidly as the final required phosphorus concentration decreased to less than 4 mg litre-1. Kiln dust was the cheapest amendment tested down to 2 mg litre-1. Hydrated lime was able to clarify and flocculate the effluent to 1 mg litre-1 within 60 min. The re-useability of all limes may be determined by a simple pH test. Red mud could be used to remove phosphorus when its pH was lowered to 6·0–6·5 and it is used at liquid:solid ratios <20:1
Food Science | Nutrition | <urn:uuid:68424c0a-cee3-4750-ae2d-b91ccd4bab4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/fsn_fac/48/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904049 | 314 | 3.25 | 3 |
If you live in Northern California and have never heard of Alice Waters - or at least her Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse - you might have spent the last three decades burrowed underground in a fallout shelter.
But last week, I sent a mass e-mail to friends and relatives in the Midwest.
"Quick answer," I asked. "No Googling allowed. Who is Alice Waters?"
The first response came almost immediately from a friend who was a fellow classmate at the University of Wisconsin:
"Isn't that the name of a dorm in Madison?"
Nope, that's Elizabeth Waters. But as the rest of the e-mails poured in - from what can only be described as a smart, enlightened crowd - all but one of the remaining 35 people on the list were equally puzzled.
This came as a surprise, but maybe it shouldn't have. Many of us who live here - or travel in food-conscious or politically active circles elsewhere - think of Alice Waters as a revolutionary, a woman who has fought fervently since Chez Panisse opened in 1971 to change the way Americans think about food and where it comes from. She's credited with popularizing California cuisine, and her mantra of sourcing seasonal ingredients that are local, sustainable and organic has become a virtual cliche in restaurants all over the country.
But clearly, she's not a household name in Middle America.
I sent the e-mail in advance of a trip, where I would shadow Waters as she swept through Chicago to promote her new cookbook, "The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution." Three long days of book signings, a trip to the Green City Market, speaking engagements and a Slow Food dinner demonstrated that while many Midwestern chefs revere her as the doyenne of responsible eating and cooking, most of their customers have no idea who she is.
Yet, despite this, her message and philosophy have gotten through. Even those who confuse her with the name of a college dorm have begun to think about healthier eating habits and whole foods - they just don't know that Waters might have been the driving force behind those thoughts.
But, according to her, "the changes are simply not taking place fast enough."
Although Chicago has become one of the most exciting cities for dining out - described as well-rounded, ethnically diverse, inventive and avant-garde - it's certainly different from San Francisco. Plus, some of the best meals I've had there have often amounted to a neon green relish-topped hot dog, smothered with out-of-season tomatoes and canned sport peppers. (For the record, when I tried to get Waters to join me for one - how do you go to Chicago and not have a hot dog? - she said, ever on task, "Well, I'd just like to see where that hot dog comes from." Um, Vienna? Not gonna happen.)
To that end, in trying to promote her message, the obvious challenges that Waters would face were further heightened by the circumstances of the weekend - the Cubs were in the playoffs, the city was gearing up for the marathon on Sunday, and the unseasonably warm October weather meant that the masses were much more intent on spending time outdoors than sitting in a lecture hall listening to her speak.
Still, by the time I arrived on Thursday, Waters had already hit the ground running, stopping in at pal Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill for a taco (organic, of course), and eating at other like-minded establishments like Blackbird, and new restaurant Sepia.
And, just two days earlier, she had met with Mayor Richard Daley to tell him about the Edible Schoolyard, her project at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Junior Middle School. The program engages children in every aspect of their school lunch, from growing food in an organic garden, to cooking and eating together, and integrating it into the curriculum wherever possible. It's a cause she has championed tirelessly, and, as she told Daley in her persuasive and fluttering tone, she wanted them in every school in the city.
"Chicago has a benevolent dictatorship," she said later, when recounting details of the meeting. "By the time we were finished, the mayor had agreed to put edible schoolyards in six schools - one for each Chicago district." She was elated.
"Now it's up to us," she urged audiences throughout the weekend, "to stay on top of it and make it happen."
But with the exception of a devoted crowd at a fundraiser to benefit Slow Food (Waters is vice president of the international organization), the audiences weren't particularly sizable. Though a book-signing event at a cafe in the suburbs on Wednesday drew a bigger crowd and the Green City Market was bustling with fans on Saturday morning, a Thursday night signing at the Borders on Michigan Avenue was downright dismal, with only 16 people. Furthermore, a weekend lecture at Northwestern University filled fewer than a quarter of the hall's 800 seats.
Those who did attend the events, however, were engaged and curious. Many nodded furiously or scribbled copious notes. Some were either Chez Panisse or Waters devotees, while others, seemingly new in their quests for a healthier, more responsible lifestyle, had recently discovered the 63-year old dynamo as the guru.
"I had never heard of Alice, but was going through an old Bon Appetit magazine a few months ago and found an article about her," said Pas, "so I brought it to the faculty. I've been researching her work ever since."
Pas, front and center, was visibly inspired by Waters' words.
Other audience members knew little about her philosophy - one woman at the Borders event insisted she was missing out if she didn't make it to the local branch of a Hawaiian-based chain restaurant.
Waters admitted that she had hoped for a better student turnout, since she feels they're the best medium to bring her message to the masses.
"The 18- to 25-year-olds are environmentally conscious," more so than any other age group, she said, adding that these were the people most concerned with going green. "There is a whole counter-culture movement going on right now, and we need to appeal to the student activists to get the word out."
She also feels strongly that people not dwell on the calories and compounds in food, but on the whole, real ingredients that go into making the type of dishes that people can sit down and eat together. It's why she wrote "The Art of Simple Food."
Her longtime message is one that seems to resonate with the new generation of chefs, especially in the Bay Area but also in the Midwest.
"There's a serious focus on integrity of product, and maintaining honesty in the food we create," said Chris Kronner, the 25-year-old chef of Slow Club in San Francisco. "What she did and what (Chez Panisse) does has had a huge influence in the Bay Area. It has become commonplace now, but can be attributed to her."
And in Chicago, the unassuming attitude, dedication to sustainable and local ingredients, and passion that went into a simple lunch at Lula Cafe brought Waters to tears.
"This really gives me hope," she said, sipping from a bowl of silken tomato bisque.
But what about restaurants like Alinea or Moto, where ingredients are made into something they're not - where pillows of lavender air, cinnamon perfume, and sushi rolls that look like spaghetti and meatballs grace the menus?
"The only difference between Chez Panisse and my restaurant is the way the food looks," says Moto chef Homaru Cantu. A native of Portland, Ore., Cantu recalls that his first fine dining experience took place at Chez Panisse on his 16th birthday, and Waters' philosophy has guided him just as much as his desire to experiment and create new things.
"Ordering organically is like getting unleaded versus leaded gas at this point," he says. "It's just what we do," speculating that his fellow chefs follow the same principles.
Six degrees of Alice
It's a trickle-down effect. Watching Waters in a new city is like playing the "Alice" version of the Kevin Bacon game, although it often takes even less than six degrees of separation to connect Waters with all of the food-conscious changes taking place.
I ran into a few old friends at the Green City Market, the city's most well-known organic farmers' market, on Saturday morning. They had never heard of Waters, but they come to the market every Saturday morning. What they did not know was that the market was organized by Abby Mandel, a local chef, cookbook author and journalist. And it was at Waters' urging that Mandel kept to her organic, sustainable and local principles.
As Waters says, "I like to connect with people who will use a loudspeaker to get the message out." And she has many like-minded visionaries. But it's the dollars that still count the most.
"We wouldn't be able to do the edible schoolyard if it weren't funded by the Chez Panisse Foundation," says Waters, referring to the organization she founded as a way to concentrate on better school lunch programs and curriculum. It takes $450,000 a year to keep her Berkeley program running. That's a pretty tall order.
In the Midwest, there are other obstacles as well.
I was able to coerce two people from my original e-mail to forgo the Cubs pre-game to attend Waters' lecture. As the crowd filed out, they voiced their frustrations.
"It's really inspiring," said 25-year old teacher Carly Leavitt, "but how are we supposed to get fresh fruits and vegetables all year-round here?"
Dana Abrams, a 24-year old social worker, added, "This is a very urban city, and it's hard to have access to the produce from rural areas."
Both agreed that while they saw the value in educating younger kids, it was difficult to find the motivation to change their own eating habits, especially given the expense of buying local and organic ingredients.
Throughout the weekend, others voiced similar concerns, but Waters was ready with an arsenal of rebuttals.
Winter? No problem. Plan ahead. Can tomatoes, pickle vegetables, preserve fruit. Enjoy nuts, dried fruits and grains. Start a greenhouse. It's all possible.
Most would call this an idealistic fantasy. Maybe, but in the 36 years she's been fighting for her cause, she's seen enough progress to keep her going, and her message hasn't changed. She wants a healthier, happier America, accomplished by eating delicious food, and eating together.
"Good food sends positive ripples through the community," says Waters, and she's intent on providing the means and ideas to make that happen.
As we drove through the city, Waters' thumb slid effortlessly over the face of her new iPhone. She looked every bit the part of the modern, accomplished celebrity. And in many ways, she is. But as we passed a McDonald's the size of an airport terminal, her face fell.
"Will you look at this?" she said, shaking her head in dismay.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter to Waters that 36 people on a mass e-mail don't know her name. She just hopes that they're eating well.
But as long as fast food chains are still taking up full city blocks, she has her work cut out for her. | <urn:uuid:ce069d30-0504-4976-8018-33292a92965a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Alice-in-the-Heartland-2534915.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981816 | 2,405 | 1.625 | 2 |
Feeding the world
One question which has always been present in the debate over GM crops and foods, has been whether they could form an important way to address malnutrition, by increasing productivity, or will have the opposite effect through adverse effects and corporate control. GeneWatch believes that the current generation of GM crops and the context of corporate control make promises of 'feeding the world' unlikely. GeneWatch works to help allow developing countries and their citizens make genuine choices about whether or not and under what conditions they use GM crops.
A poverty trap?
One of the main concerns about the use of GM crops in developing countries is that farmers will be locked into a 'poverty trap', where they are forced to pay more for seed price hikes and expensive chemicals as herbicide-tolerant superweeds or resistant pests develop, or as new pests move in.
GM seeds are patented and saving these seeds is regarded as theft of intellectual property, making farmers increasingly dependent on the major multinational seed companies. Some companies also continue to conduct research into so-called Terminator technology, designed to stop seeds being fertile so they cannot be saved and replanted. There is currently an international moratorium on this technology due to concerns about its potential impacts on poorer farmers.
Broken promises and wasted money?
Complex traits in plants such as salt-tolerance and the ability to fix nitrogen were first promised thirty years ago in a US Office of Technology Assessment report published in 1981. However, the only GM traits that have been commercialised are herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. More complex traits are very difficult to achieve because they depend on the effects of multiple genes and the plants interactions with its environment.
GeneWatch has welcomed the news that DuPont and Syngenta have developed new drought-tolerant corn (maize) varieties using conventional breeding. However, Syngenta plans to market the new seeds only after it has genetically modified them to include resistance to its own-brand herbicide and to pests. This will allow it to patent the seeds and sell them at a premium with its herbicide, restricting access, increasing costs and introducing the environmental problems associated with these crops.
A USDA report has suggested that Monsanto's new GM drought-tolerant corn will perform no better than conventional varieties.
GM crops with enhanced levels of vitamins and minerals to tackle 'hidden hunger' have also yet to be commercialised and raise new safety and environmental issues. Many conventionally-bred varieties are already available.
Lobbying and commercial interests
In 2011, Monsanto announced that it plans a marketing push to try to increase sales of GM seeds in developing countries. Kenya's Daily Nation has reported on US lobbying to introduce GM crops in Kenya, based on a Wikileaks cable. Another Wikileaks cable highlighted the US Agriculture Department's interest in GM crops in Africa.The Gates Foundation is also promoting GM crops in Africa.
Undermining real solutions?
Most GM corn (maize) and soya is used as animal feed or subsidised by the US Government for use in industrial-scale biofuels. The increasing consumption of grain-fed meat and use of land and food crops for biofuels are both thought to be factors in driving global hunger.
There are many important things that need to be done to tackle hunger, such as improving food distribution and tackling food waste, which have nothing to do with GM crops. Better land, soil and water management - including agro-ecological methods to improve yields, sustainability and dietary diversity - must also play a role.
Some of these alternatives have been undermined by the restructuring of the research funding system that has taken place since the 1980s in order to deliver the promised benefits of GM crops. The history of public subsidy for GM crops research in Britain and Europe is documented in the GeneWatch Bioscience for Life? report.
GeneWatch UK submission to Royal Society's study on food-crop production
20th October 2009
Prospect: Revolution on Ice (December 2007)
- Press articles
- The Telegraph: The inconvenient truth about GM (17th May 2013)
- Daily Mail: The 'superwheat' that boosts crops by 30%: Creation of new grain hailed as biggest advance in farming in a generation (12th May 2013)
- Business Mirror: Farmer-scientist group seeks ban on GM crops (3rd April 2013)
- AllAfrica: Uganda: We Do Not Need GMOs - Ugandan Farmers (1st April 2013)
- Farming UK: Feed is contributing to climate change, says crop expert (18th March 2013)
- International Affairs Review: Disentangling U.S. Agriculture and Food Aid: The Failure of Myopic Policy Thinking (18th March 2013)
- AgProfessional: GMO controversy delays approvals in China (11th March 2013)
- FT: India's wheat shortage, sorry, surplus (7th March 2013)
- The Hindu: GM crops will sow food insecurity (19th February 2013)
The Guardian: India's rice revolution (16th February 2013)
Reports on "super yields" of rice and other crops in India using a method of growing crops called System of Rice (or root) Intensification (SRI).
- Dawn.com: World's richest men aid 'Green Revolution' center (14th February 2013)
Farmers Guardian: African farmers can rise to food security challenge (8th February 2013)
UK scientists join GM industry body the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) to lobby for GM crops in Africa.
- Farmers Weekly: US farmers may stop planting GMs after poor global yields (6th February 2013)
- The Guardian: To stop hunger, it's not enough to change policy; we must challenge power (24th January 2013)
- BBC: Half of all food 'thrown away' claims report (10th January 2013)
- Alaska Dispatch: Genetically modified food: GMO backlash in Latin America (2nd January 2013)
- The Hindu: Biodiversity congress seeks ban on field trials of GM crops (2nd January 2013)
- DNA: Who will pay for failed GM crops? (23rd December 2012)
- Weekly Times (Australia): SA won't 'jeopardise' state with GM crops (18th December 2012)
- The Guardian: More UK aid channelled via investment funds in tax haven of Mauritius (11th December 2012)
- Independent Science News: How Millions of Farmers are Advancing Agriculture For Themselves (3rd December 2012)
- FirstPost.India: Are genetically modified crops finally on their way out of India? (3rd December 2012)
- BizCommunity: African Union requested to ban GM crops in Africa (29th November 2012)
- Kenya Broadcasting Corporation: Importation of all GMO foods banned (21st November 2012)
- The Peruvian Times: Ten Year Ban on Genetically Modified Seeds and Foods Takes Force Thursday (17th November 2012)
Tehelka: Field trials on trial (10th November 2012)
Reports that tough times lie ahead for the GM industry in India with farmers protesting crop trials and an official committee suggesting a 10-year moratorium.
- The Hindu: GM crops should go back to the lab (7th November 2012)
- New Internationalist: Is there a place for GM crops in a sustainable future? (November 2012)
Deccan Herald: Panel for 10-yr halt on GM crop trials (18th October 2012)
In India, a Supreme Court appointed technical expert committee (TEC) on genetically modified (GM) crops has recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops and advocated setting up a powerful regulatory system besides conducting studies on long-term impacts of GM crops on food and environment.
- Farming Online: Finnish research shows halving food losses could feed extra 1bn (12th October 2012)
The Guardian: Why our food is making us fat (11th June 2012)
Reports the link between US corn (maize) farming, the production of high fructose corn syrup, and obesity. Most US maize is now genetically-modified.
- New York Times: As Grain Piles Up, India's Poor Still Go Hungry (7th June 2012)
- Daily News Tanzania: MONSANTO AND SYNGENTA: FUNDING AGRA FOR AFRICA? (3rd June 2012)
- The Hindu: The politics of food for the hungry (30th May 2012)
- Huffington Post: The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition: Nothing New About Ignoring Africa's Farmers (23rd May 2012)
- Khaleej Times: Bill Gates defends focus on high-tech agriculture (25th January 2012)
- The Hindu: Unconstitutional, unethical, unscientific (28th December 2011)
- Daily Mail: Super weeds 'run rampant in fields near GM crops', scientists warn (21st October 2011)
- Forbes India Magazine: Bt Brinjal and India's Wake-up Call (20th October 2011)
- The Guardian: GM crops promote superweeds, food insecurity and pesticides, say NGOs (19th October 2011)
Financial Times: US ethanol refiners use more corn than farmers (12 July 2011)
US ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a US government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain demand.
The New Age Online: GM project faces ruin (28th June 2011)
Reports serious problems with a programme to grow GM crops in South Africa.
- Financial Times: Crop science: Global food debate presents opportunity to reap a profit (27th June 2011)
- Food Manufacture: Sir David King 'unethical' and badly informed on GM, says expert (24th June 2011)
The Guardian: Global food crisis: the speculators playing with our daily bread (2nd June 2011)
Dan Basse, president of AgResource (Chicago) states that the promise that biotech seeds would deliver big increases in yields has turned out to be illusory. He also fears that "superweeds are coming on so fast with GM that US farmers are going to have to go back to more traditional cultivation methods [as opposed to the practice with GM seeds of not tilling the soil and simply spraying to control pests] - but they don't have the capacity to do that."
- The Guardian: Eco-farming could double output of poor countries, says UN (8th March 2011)
- Freeport News (Bahamas): 'Event Horizon:' Global debate on Genetically Modified (GM) footstock - 2011 update
- External links
- YouTube: Colin Tudge on GM Crops (4th February 2013)
- War on Want: DFID and agribusiness in Africa: a toxic mix (6th December 2012)
- LEAF Initiative (India): A citizen's initiative on issues related to Livelihood, Environment, Agriculture and Food
- African Centre for Biosafety: African Civil Society calls on the African Union to ban genetically modified crops (25th November 2012)
- Agricultural Policy Analysis Centre: Feeding the world’s hungry and growing population (21st November 2012)
- Friends of the Earth International: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? An analysis of the 'sustainable intensification' of agriculture (October 2012)
- Naydanya International: The GM Emperor has no clothes (29 September 2011)
- GeneWatch Reports
- Press Releases
- GeneWatch PR: GeneWatch UK welcomes move to maintain moratorium on Terminator technology 27th March 2006
- GeneWatch PR: GeneWatch UK calls for Syngenta, the new world leader in GM crops, to abandon Terminator and Traitor Technology 11th October 2000
- GeneWatch PR: New GM foods offer no consumer benefits 13th April 2000 | <urn:uuid:9c54542b-f468-436f-b446-cf20f8308868> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.genewatch.org/sub-405262 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935796 | 2,441 | 3.296875 | 3 |
20110510 DX CHEST STUDY
Publication Date: 2012-05-09
|Patient's Birth Date||20110306|
|Body Part Examined||CHEST|
When the kitten was 6 days old, the owner noted increased respiratory effort and rate. According to the owner, chest x-rays, blood glucose, blood electrolytes were performed which were unremarkable. She has not had any respiratory difficulty since that time. Owner noted that the patient was smaller than the rest of the litter, slow to gain weight and not nursing as frequently. She started bottle feeding the kitten at 4 weeks of age. This is when she first noticed a depression in the kitten's chest.
The d/v projection is mismarked with the right side designated as left. The sternum is concave in appearance, and deviates dorsally toward the spine. This has resulted in deviation of the heart to the left hemithorax. The seventh and eight sternal segments are not visible. The cardiac silhouette appears enlarged, and the vasculature is prominent. | <urn:uuid:fb1cb2c0-f219-453c-a380-4d1f3effe390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mirc.veterinaryradiology.net/storage/ss1/docs/9999.157859033142460127563989917148822552035/MIRCdocument.xml | 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 | 0.964258 | 219 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The US House of Representatives voted in favour of a $9bn package to fund insurance claims arising from hurricane Sandy on Friday, but only after a quarter of Republican congress members – including the former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan – voted against the legislation.
Friday's vote indicates that that there could be a fight looming when a larger package for $51bn of reconstruction aid comes before the House on 15 January. There is now a real prospect of an ugly debate over the details of that package.
The passage of bill HR 41 came at the end of a tumultuous week for the GOP in the House. The was scheduled only after the outspoken governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, and other Republicans from Sandy-affected states lined up to criticise their party's leadership after a plan to vote on a larger relief bill was dropped amid the turmoil over the fiscal cliff deal earlier this week.
Christie said that Congress had shown "callous indifference" in delaying its consideration of Sandy relief.
In the vote on Friday, Ryan was the highest-profile Republican to reject the measure. The Wisconsin congressman – who earlier this week voted in favour of the fiscal cliff deal – joined a list of mostly hardline conservative Republicans in expressing dissatisfaction with Sandy package.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had earlier warned that the its national programme for flood insurance would run out of money next week if Congress did not provide the additional borrowing authority provided in the bill.
Fema has said that it has received about 140,000 insurance claims related to Sandy, which damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey, and more than 570,000 in New York. Many claimants have received only received partial payments.
The row over the bill came after the House speaker, John Boehner, reversed a decision to allow a vote on the full $60bn package on Tuesday.
Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, had threatened to leave the party before being soothed by Boehner and offered Friday's vote. Some Republicans had defended Boehner, arguing that the $60bn bill was full of "pork" – sweetener payments – that had little to do with Sandy, including $150m for fisheries in Alaska and $2m for a new roof for the Smithsonian in Washington DC.
Frustration was evident on the floor of the House on Friday. "It took only 10 days after Katrina for President Bush to sign $60bn in Katrina aid," said New Jersey Democratic representative Bill Pascrell. "How dare you come to this floor and make people think everything is OK."
The result of Friday's vote is unlikely to allay fears that the 113th Congress would be just as partisan as the 112th, with 29% of House Republicans voting against the deal. Some 67 GOP votes were against the bill, with 158 in favour. All 178 Democrat votes were in support of the package. | <urn:uuid:9e7f5b71-5381-4af6-8b98-0ff7b3e318a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/04/house-approves-hurricane-sandy-bill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97661 | 589 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Bridget Vis reports:
Sonia Leopold, a 94-year-old resident at Cedar Village Retirement Community, admits she’d never been fond of dogs.
Until she met Gates.
Today, Sonia’s face lights up whenever the 5-year-old golden retriever walks into her room.
“Gates brightens people’s moods,” said Debi Tyler, Gates’ owner and Cedar Village’s rehabilitation director. “He enriches their lives and gives them a quality of living that is better than before he arrived.”
Since his arrival as a facility dog, Gates has become a cherished part of the 300-resident community, making friends with folks like Leopold. Gates, the first and only facility dog at Cedar Village, also encourages physical therapy patients to accomplish more than they thought possible.
Gates arrived in June 2012 after Tyler adopted him from Circle Tail in Pleasant Plain in Warren County, a nonprofit that trains hearing, facility and service dogs.
“There’s something about interacting with a pet that brings out responses you can’t get any other way,” Tyler said. “He’s especially helpful in the rehab unit because he often motivates patients to do exercises that are painful or difficult for them to do.”
Her favorite story of Gates’ motivational abilities is of an older woman who suffered a stroke and couldn’t walk. But in her first week at Cedar Village, the woman saw Gates and walked to him.
“That woman has since completed her rehabilitation here, and is at home walking every day,” Tyler said.
Gates provides other physical therapy advantages, Tyler said.
“Petting a dog or throwing a toy in a game of fetch are great workouts for patients with weak hands,” Tyler said. “It also makes their therapy fun because they are entertained by Gates.”
Physical therapy assistant James Taylor agreed that his canine co-worker is making a difference.
“He’s definitely lightened up the mood here,” Taylor said. “Sometimes we get locked in exercise mode, and then Gates comes in, and he eases their minds and makes them forget about their pain for awhile.”
Gates leads the way when Tyler travels to meetings and visits patients. Roaming without a leash, staff and residents greet him with bear hugs and smiles. The only places he isn’t allowed are the dining areas for fear the residents will sneak him handouts.
Outside of the rehab unit, Tyler is most proud of Gates’ influence on the dementia floor.
“Most of those residents have trouble engaging in normal conversation,” she said. “But they have no trouble engaging with Gates.”
ABOUT CIRCLE TAIL INC.
Address: 8834 Carey Lane, Pleasant Plain, OH 45162
Purpose: Circle Tail provides service dogs to people with disabilities. It also provide dogs for adoption and offers obedience training, behavior management and boarding services.
History: Circle Tail began in 1997 and placed its first service dog (hearing) in 1998. On average, Circle Tail places five to 10 service dogs per year. Since 1998, it has placed 165 dogs.
Cost: $25 non-refundable application fee.
Information: 513-877-3325 or email firstname.lastname@example.org or visit circletail.net
TYPES OF DOGS
Service dogs assist people with disabilities, other than vision or hearing loss, by helping people with daily tasks like retrieving items and open and shutting doors.
Hearing dogs assist people with hearing impairments by alerting them to sounds such as doorbells and alarm clocks.
Facility dogs are placed with professionals working at facilities like retirement homes and physical therapy centers to help motivate patients and improve quality of residents’ lives.
Therapy dogs’ owners do not work at a facility, but the dogs are given proper training and then taken into hospitals or other facilities as a therapy mechanism. | <urn:uuid:00f60805-4089-4b55-9495-e9a0c1d826b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://masonbuzz.com/2013/02/20/this-dog-has-his-day-at-mason-retirement-home/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951734 | 854 | 1.515625 | 2 |
2011-12-07 Vatican RadioCaritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga says failure at UN climate talks in Durban is a “moral apartheid” that cannot be allowed to happen. On Sunday, thousands of people representing the nations most effected by increasingly erratic weather conditions marched peacefully on Durban, South Africa, to bring the focus of UN Climate Change talks back to the human toll of a global politics that puts industry before lives. During a special Mass at Emmanuel Cathedral in Durban, Cardinal Rodriguez noted “Just as South Africa’s Apartheid era policies sought divisions along race lines, today the world’s environment and energy policies divide man from nature”. On Saturday the U.N.'s climate chief Christiana Figueres said she believes countries can snap the deadlock that has lasted for years and sign up to fresh and binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases, after a week of climate talks between nearly 200 countries. The main issue still on the table after one week of talks is the extension of the Kyoto protocol which sets legal limits on green house gas emissions. The world’s two major economies – and two biggest emitters - China and the United States, who are not signatories of the protocol have yet to commit to agreeing to a binding deal. Canada, Russia and Japan meanwhile have said they will not renew the 1997 Kyoto Protocol pledges that expire next year, while the European Union wants to broker a new, global pact. However, China, has helped revive the troubled Durban talks by saying it could join a legally binding deal to cut its emissions of the heat-trapping gases. But the head of Brazil's delegation, Andre Correa do Lago, cautioned the focus on a legally binding deal may distract from what could be achieved, if it means concrete action is delayed. "Legally binding may at the end be more an obstacle than an advantage”. Three U.N. reports released in the last month showed time is running out to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that have led to rising sea-levels threatening to erase some island states, crop failures, amplifying droughts and intensifying storms. Below the full text of Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga’s homily: “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight ” (Mark 1:1-8) The liturgy of this Second Sunday of Advent seems to have been designed for this COP17 we are attending. The first Reading already called on us to “Console my people, console them”. Barely a week ago, torrential downpours caused a great deal of suffering and death in Durban. Don’t we realise that the climate is out of control? How long will countless people have to go on dying before adequate decisions are taken? It’s true that in faith we wait “for the new heavens and the new earth” as the second Reading told us, but this does not mean indifference or complicity with those who destroy this land where we live. “Living holy and saintly lives” means living in justice with creation and the environment, and especially with the poor people who are the primary victims of this serious problem. In the desert John “cried out” the need to prepare a way for the Lord. Today, in the desert of our planet Earth, and in the desert of our hearts, the same voice is ringing out. This conference of delegates from so many countries cannot remain as a voice silenced by economic power. It’s a voice that cries out and calls on us to: “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.” At least for the moment, we should set aside our lists of pending tasks to listen to this voice that is clamouring within us: “Console my people, console them.” Powerful nations of the world, we are expecting from you the courageous decisions the world needs to live in peace and solidarity. We need to listen to this voice crying out to all of us: “Prepare a way for the Lord.” This means getting rid of the obstacles that hinder God’s arrival in our lives, so that we may keep the gates of our hearts open to His presence. Most important is to open up new paths to God, who always comes to us. Currently, many men and women don’t know which path to follow in order to meet Him. For many, life has turned into a convoluted maze. Others live in the froth of outward show, focusing on their image, appearance, social success and the quest for power. As John told us: the Lord is coming, and we need to prepare a way for Him. It’s very easy to carry on living without paths to God. We don’t have to consciously reject God. All we need to do is follow the current general trend and ensconce ourselves in superficiality. Little by little God disappears from the horizon of our lives, and interests us less and less. Today, can we prepare a way to God, who comes towards us? We’re filling up our lives with things, but remain empty inside. We’re informed about everything, but we have no idea where to direct our lives. Today, how can we prepare a way to the Lord, who comes to us? When we focus our lives on outward things, distracted by the countless forms of escape and enjoyment our society offers us, can we really confront ourselves and mull over the meaning of our lives? Are we capable of questioning ourselves about the senseless development that is destroying the environment? “Prepare a way for the Lord.” John’s cry hasn’t lost its relevance. Whether we are aware of it or not, God is coming to us, but first of all we need to encounter ourselves deeply before being able to open ourselves up to Him. “John wore a garment of camel skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.” John seems to be man who isn’t integrated within society and far removed from social conventions. This is borne out by the place where he is (the desert) and how he feeds and clothes himself. Today’s Gospel reminds us of John’s food and clothing so that we may eliminate all the superfluous things our excessive consumer society offers us and encounter the only necessity, which suffices for us for life. Then John, referring to Jesus, says some beautiful words: “Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I… I have baptised you with water, but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” John wants to say that his baptism is only with water, namely a symbol of rebirth, a new start, which leaves behind fatalism and injustice. It isn’t possible to be pessimistic and say that COP17 will end in failure. “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit,” meaning that Jesus comes to baptise us with the force of life and the Love of God. Jesus will not immerse humanity in the waters of the river Jordan, but rather in the depths of God’s Love, which is symbolised by the Holy Spirit. No one can quash the force of the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus, God’s Messiah, who comes to save all peoples. Blessed are we if we open ourselves to His presence. In these times of crisis we’re living through, today’s Gospel reminds us in a special way of the need to be supported and guided by the Holy Spirit. We should be more like Jesus, and let ourselves be imbued by His Spirit of Love; this Spirit is Fire. At this dark and desolate time for our culture, God Himself is preparing the way in our hearts to enter into our homes. He is the key that opens what no one may lock, the shepherd who watches over our lives, the hand that cures our wounds, the love that is always awake and dispels our fears and makes us glimpse the clarity of hope. Today, we only have to open our hearts to Him and say to Him: Lord, transform our lives and lead us along the path of Peace and Love. May we learn from John to zero in on the only essential element of our lives. May this conference be a success for global solidarity, and embody a desire to make a better world for future generations. | <urn:uuid:ef05ef3a-b359-43e6-8b24-f49a5e1234a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.va/en/news/card-rodriguez-kyoto-failure-moral-apartheid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953941 | 1,735 | 2.21875 | 2 |
And there are tangible methods to obtain this brighter tomorrow. Increasing access to modern contraception, consistent healthcare, and health education help prevent high-risk pregnancies, unsafe abortion resulting from unwanted pregnancies, and closely spaced births. Lowering the health risks of over-frequent births will result in fewer maternal and infant deaths, greater opportunities to monitor ongoing conditions, and more time to breastfeed and care for children—itself constituting an improvement for infant health and child survival. In addition, increased access to prenatal, obstetric, and postpartum care will help reduce complications during and after pregnancy and increase women’s ability to maintain their own and their family’s health.
The decrease in death rates that would result from investment in reproductive care is too great to be ignored. While many women wishing to delay or avoid pregnancy use traditional methods of contraception, primarily periodic abstinence and withdrawal, the inefficacy of these methods is manifest in areas where such methods are customary. Providing access to modern contraceptives, according to the UN report on progress toward the MDGs, could reduce the number of unintended pregnancies from 75 million to 22 million, thereby decreasing annual maternal deaths by 27 percent.
The impact of increased modern contraceptive use in areas that previously relied on traditional methods has already been substantial. According to a 2010 report by the Guttmacher Institute in conjunction with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, current levels of use avert 188 million unintended pregnancies, resulting in 112 million fewer abortions, 1.2 million fewer newborn deaths, and 230,000 fewer maternal deaths. If demand for modern methods were fully met, the report continues, a further 53 million unintended pregnancies would be prevented annually—a decrease of 74 percent in Asia, 71 percent in Arab countries, and 77 percent in Africa—leading to 22 million fewer unplanned births, 25 million fewer induced abortions, and 7 million fewer miscarriages. The resulting decrease in child and maternal mortality—an estimated 150,000 women’s lives saved and 640,000 newborn deaths prevented—shows the extent to which access to modern contraceptive methods and family planning will contribute to the fulfillment of both the fourth and fifth Millennium Development Goals.
Along with this abatement in mortality rates, immediate social benefits can be expected to accompany the long-term improvement in women’s health. Lower rates of unintended pregnancies, especially among adolescents, would enable women to achieve higher levels of education and employment, to choose their family size, and to provide better care for their children. This would not only improve women’s status and gender equality, but would also contribute to family savings, poverty reduction, and economic gains. Having fewer children, or at least being able to choose how many children to have, can enable a better standard of living for individual families and potentially on a global scale. According to Janna Oberdorf, Communications Manager at the women’s rights organization Women Deliver, supporting women’s health and livelihood can engender positive social and economic impact worldwide. “Women are important not only socially as the heads of households, but they are also an economic force,” she says, adding that as women operate most small businesses and farms and contribute much of their income to their family’s health, they drive economic development. She adds that women’s unpaid work is equivalent to about one-third of world GDP. “When we let women die in childbirth, the world loses US$15 billion in productivity every year,” she says. “This is too costly an effect on national economic growth. When you take that stance, funders wake up and listen a bit more.” | <urn:uuid:cd8ecc62-b986-4279-b815-9aeb53c051c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hir.harvard.edu/pressing-change/bridging-ideologies?page=0,1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952859 | 738 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Indeed, as Pero pointed it out, it seems he meant the unity of Tibetan Buddhist Schools, especially the oneness of Madhyamaka, Dzogchen and Mahamudra, which has been stated long before by former Tibetan masters, like the 3rd Karmapa in his Aspiration Prayer:
"Free from mental fabrication, it is the great seal, mahamudra.
Free from extremes, it is the great middle way, madhyamika.
The consummation of everything, it is also called the great perfection, dzogchen.
May there be confidence that by understanding one,
the essential meaning of all is realised."
Interestingly, it was Sakya Pandita who criticised Dzogchen and (Gampopa's) Mahamudra, also separating Madhyamaka meditation from Mantrayana. Like here:
Even if they meditate the Great Seal,
they cultivate in meditation only a restriction of conceptual thought,
while they do not understand the Great Seal to be Gnosis
derived from the two processes.
The Great Seal meditation of the ignorant, it is taught,
usually becomes a cause of animal birth.
If not that, then they are born in the realm lacking even fine matter (arupadhatu),
or else they fall into the Disciples1 cessation.
Even if that meditation may be excellent,
it is no more than a Madhyamaka meditation.
The latter meditation, while very good in itself,
is nevertheless extremely difficult to accomplish.
As long as the two accumulations
have not been brought to completion,
that meditation will not be perfected.
To complete the two accomplishments for this,
it is taught that "innumerable aeons" are needed.
Our own Great Seal
consists of Gnosis risen from initiation
and the self-sprung Gnosis that ensues
from the meditations of the two processes.
Its realization will be attained in this very life
if one is skilled in the techniques of Mantra.
Besides this, the Buddha did not teach
the realization of the Great Seal otherwise.
Thus if one is interested in the Great Seal,
one should practice in accord with Mantra Vehicle texts.
No substantial difference exists between
the present-day Great Seal and the Great Perfection (rDzogs-chen)
of the Chinese tradition, other than a change
in names from "descent from above"
and "ascent from below" to "Simultaneist" and "Gradualist."
The appearance of this kind of religious tradition
came about just as the Bodhisattva Santaraksita
foretold to King Trisong Deutsan.
Listen, as I shall explain that prophecy. He said,
"O king, no Indian non-Buddhist doctrine will appear here
in your kingdom of Tibet because
master Padmasambhava has entrusted it
into the protection of the twelve protecting goddesses.
Nevertheless, a schism into two systems of doctrine
will occur because of certain interrelated circumstances and omens.
At first, after I myself have passed away,
a Chinese monk will appear and teach a path
of simultaneous enlightenment
called the White Self-Sufficient Remedy.
At that time, invite my disciple,
the great scholar Kamalasila, from India.
He will refute that.
Then let all the faithful
practice according to this system of doctrine."
Later, everything came to pass just as he had predicted.
After the Chinese tradition was suppressed,
that of the gradualists was made to flourish.
Still later, the royal rule itself vanished,
and some, who based themselves solely
on texts of the Chinese master's tradition,
changed the name of his system secretly
to Great Seal (mahamudra). The present-day Great Seal
is virtually [the same as] the Chinese religious system.
The Great Seal that Naro and Maitripa espoused
is held to consist precisely
of the seals of Action, Dharma, and Pledge,
and of the Great Seal as expounded
in tantras of the Mantra system.
In his Caturmudra, Exalted Nagarjuna himself also asserts this:
"If, through not having known the Action seal,
one is also ignorant of the seal of Dharma,
it is impossible that one might understand
even the name of the Great Seal."
King-of-tantra texts and major commentarial treatises also prohibit
the Great Seal to one who is unconnected with initiation.
If one realizes the Great Seal that is Gnosis
risen from initiation, only then does
one no longer depend on all signful efforts.
A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes, p. 117-119
"While teachers of the middle way, mind only, transcendent wisdom, mantra, and other schools may have their own assertions, the fulfillment of those intentions is the same. There is not a single thing that is not contained within mind."(Gampopa to Düsum Khyenpa, in "The First Karmapa", KTD Pub, p 254)Mahayana LinksThe European Buddhist Blog | <urn:uuid:e11041d2-18bf-428d-93a3-d1630f0ddaa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=20831 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933141 | 1,098 | 2.15625 | 2 |
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative says that of the 34 U.S. states with the death penalty, Alabama is the only jurisdiction where judges routinely override jury verdicts of life to impose capital punishment.
Since 1976, according to the report, Alabama judges have overridden jury verdicts 107 times. Although judges have authority to override life or death verdicts, in 92 percent of overrides elected judges have overruled jury verdicts of life to impose the death penalty.
"No capital sentencing procedure in the united States has come under more criticism as unreliable, unpredictable, and arbitrary than the unique Alabama practice of permitting elected trial judges to override jury verdicts of life and impose death sentences," the Montgomery-based organization wrote.
The organization claims that judicial override of jury recommendations "is the primary reason why Alabama has the highest per-capita death sentencing rate and execution rate in the country." Last year, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, Alabama, with a population of 4.5 million people, imposed more new death sentences than Texas, with a population of 24 million.
In a New York Times report today, 2 coastal Alabama judges were referenced, with Judge Ferrill D. McRae, who retired in 2006 after 40 years on the bench in Mobile, saying he thought judges need the discretion to override juries because judges have experience with many cases.
The Times report also notes a case presided over by Charles C. Partin, who sat in Bay Minette. In that case, Partin argued that the defendant was probably not mentally disabled, though the jury may have factored that in its thinking when it rendered a recommendation of life in prison. “The sociological literature suggests that Gypsies intentionally test low on standard I.Q. tests,” Partin wrote in the 1990 sentencing order.
The "Gypsy" case, according to Press-Register files, involves John Lionel Neal,
John Lionel Neal, 43, first convicted of capital murder in 1990 in the murder of 77-year-old Wilma Underwood, who was killed during a burglary of her Foley home.
Neal's fingerprints were found in a pocketbook in Underwood's ransacked house. Her television set was later found in Neal's Covington, La., home, officials with the case said. Neal was arrested in Detroit and placed in the Baldwin County jail on May 29, 1987.
Neal's first conviction and death sentence were overturned, with an appeals court faulting the jury selection process.
Then, in the spring of 1994, a second jury found Neal guilty and recommended he be executed. However, in 2008, an agreement was reached to decrease Neal's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole after lawyers continued arguing on his behalf.
That agreement came as Neal's lawyers planned to argue in a pending hearing that Neal is mentally retarded, which a state evaluation had supported. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision deemed the execution of mentally retarded individuals as cruel and unusual punishment. | <urn:uuid:59eb15a8-72e0-4df2-b422-f2f33bbc95eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/live/2011/07/alabama_judges_routinely_overr.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969947 | 620 | 1.59375 | 2 |
What: Books Through Bars is a volunteer-run organization that provides books and other reading material to prisoners. Every month Books Through Bars receives around 1,300 letters from inmates requesting books and the organization sends out an average of 900 packages—with 3 to 4 books in each. Books Through Bars also serves prison libraries, supplying them with regular donations of books.
Where: 4722 Baltimore Avenue in the A-Space.
Why: Because, says volunteer leader Lindsay Liprando, “Many people in prison have not had quality educational opportunities throughout their life and a lot of studies have shown there’s a big corollary between incarceration and level of education. The lower it is, the more likely someone is to end up in prison.” Many prisoners, she says, take it upon themselves to become more educated while incarcerated. But, she says, “oftentimes, they can’t. The array of programming in prisons is varied. Some have good programs on a variety of subjects but many do not. People who write to us often say their classes have long waiting lists. Sometimes they can enroll in a class but can’t take a book back to their cell to study.” Some prisons lack libraries, she says, and for prisoners in isolation even if there is a library, they can’t get to it.
Where do the books come from? “A lot of them are donated by people in the community,” says Liprando. “We partner with different churches and other religious organizations who collect books for us. Schools will donate textbooks if they’ve replaced them with newer versions.” Penn has also played an active role, with regular book drives.
What are the most requested books? Dictionaries, says Liprando, consistently top the most-wanted list of book requests. “We think that’s because if people are trying to educate themselves but are not sure how to begin, a dictionary is something they know about,” says Liprando. Also popular: African and African-American history and fiction, books in Spanish and books on drug and alcohol addiction and recovery. “Books about yoga and meditation to help people relax are also very in demand,” says Liprando.
Which books are the hardest to get? “We get a lot of novels donated to us, but dictionaries are pretty tough,” says Liprando. “Most people buy one and keep it for 20 or 30 years.”
How can Penn folks get involved? You can stop by to volunteer or drop off donations at A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue (free parking lot next door) on Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and on the first and third Saturdays of each month from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. To find out what books are needed, go to www.booksthroughbars.org and click on “Resources” and then the “For Volunteers and Partners” link.
What you’ll be asked to do: Liprando says she normally starts novices out reading letters from prisoners and then searching through the library to try to match up books with requests.
Originally published on April 26, 2007 | <urn:uuid:bc648a12-c635-4a6e-9a68-a658c79f995f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/node/3033 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967224 | 680 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Oak Ridge Military Academy
Oak Ridge Military Academy traces its origins to 7 Apr. 1850, when local citizens "desirous of promoting the cause of education" met and appointed a board of trustees to secure funds to erect a schoolhouse. Virtually everyone in the northwestern Guilford County community of Oak Ridge contributed to the total of $629. The school, originally named Oak Ridge Institute, opened on 3 Mar. 1853, with a classical curriculum of 18 courses and 63 students from North Carolina and Virginia. By 1856 it had 85 students, roughly three-quarters of whom were from places other than Oak Ridge.
The entire Oak Ridge Institute student body volunteered in 1862 for service in the Confederate army, which necessitated the school's temporary closing. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the school faced extinction when the main building burned to the ground the day before classes were to begin in September 1865. Classes were held in a nearby log cabin while supporters rallied to keep the school open. By 1875 J. Allen Holt had become principal and began an expansion program.
In 1899 Oak Ridge Institute became the first secondary school in North Carolina to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. By 1901 it had 259 boarding students and claimed to be the largest "preparatory and fitting" school in the South. A junior unit of Army ROTC was established at Oak Ridge in 1926, making the U.S. Army the only organization with which the school has had any official affiliation. Since that time it has become in essence a military school that has repeatedly received high marks from army inspectors.
In 1971 the school's name was changed to Oak Ridge Military Academy. That year it also became one of the first military academies in the United States to admit females. (Women had been in attendance earlier, prior to its becoming a military school.) The goal of the academy, which enrolled students in grades 7 through 12, became preparing students for college, and at the end of the twentieth century Oak Ridge offered a guarantee that "every cadet who graduates from Oak Ridge is accepted to college."
The General Assembly designated Oak Ridge Military Academy the "official military academy" of North Carolina in 1991. Its 101-acre campus is a National Historic District. Virtually all of its 11 major buildings, some of which date from the 1914 reconstruction of the school, were remodeled in the early 1990s. The exceptions were Linville Chapel, built in 1914, and the Holt infirmary, built in 1938.
William P. Pope, "The Spirit of '66," The State (15 Aug. 1970).
Oak Ridge Military Academy: http://www.oakridgemilitary.com/
Oak Ridge Institute. From the 1896-1898 Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina from the State Library of North Carolina. Available from http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibrarync/6812190101/ (accessed September 17, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Stoesen, Alexander R. | <urn:uuid:338c07e9-5a6b-4b77-b6e3-dcb16e3f78d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncpedia.org/oak-ridge-military-academy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972712 | 622 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Last modified: 2011-05-27 by andrew weeks
Keywords: yachting |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors
image by Jarig Bakker, 2 May 2007
adopted 13 Feb. 2006
Just such a yacht ensign is introduced/presented on these pages (English version available): "Slovakia has a new offshore yachting flag. This flag has been approved and registered by the Heraldic Registry of Slovak Republic. By approving a flag with a Slovak Republic state sign on it this flag has become an official flag of all Slovak yachtsmen. The flag was designed as a club flag - but with a broader spectrum - a flag for all Slovaks. This flag represents a Slovak national mainly on chartered vessels registered in other states.
State registration of the flag: W-94/2006 at the Ministry of Interior of Slovak Republic - Department of Heraldic Registry. The Heraldic Commission approved the design on 13 Feb. 2006
The flag is a lying triangle The width ratio to the length is 2:3. The height of the state sign is ý of the height of the flag. The selvage of the flag is 1/100 of the length of the flag. The blue colour of the flag is the same blue tone as the blue colour of the state flag. The flag can be used in upright position whereas the state sign will also be upright."
As to "selvage" (selvedge), this is (quoting Hornby's Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 11th Impr. 1980, OUP) a noun meaning "edge of cloth woven so that threads do not unravel". In this case, I suppose, the yellow border is meant.
Back to the pennant: the field is blue (having a narrow yellow border) and the state arms, thinly edged in yellow, are placed near the hoist. This refers to the horizontal version; a vertical or hanging version has also been created. Both are illustrated but protected (no coyping on the sly) and so is the photo on the first page (which when clicked runs off a video starring the horizontal pennant near Cape Horn):
However two jpgs (big!) have been prepared for printing. Location
of the horizontal pennant here
and of the vertical one here.
Jan Mertens, 30 Mar 2007 | <urn:uuid:f885b97a-2722-48c6-b0cf-176a3a4bd294> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/sk~yach.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920729 | 499 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Going on a vacation can be a pleasant experience. For people with health problems or those traveling to developing countries, however, it can seem downright dangerous. This article will provide advice and answer common questions regarding over-the-counter (OTC) medications and first-aid supplies to take along on a vacation.
Before You Leave
Planning ahead is important for patients with long-term medical conditions. A thorough checkup by your physician is recommended to make sure that you are healthy enough for travel. Also, ask your doctor to authorize enough medication refills for your trip. If you are traveling abroad, a letter from your doctor listing your medications and doses may help you get through customs and security checks. You should also pack a brief summary of your medical history (medical conditions, allergies) and your medical insurance card.
If you are traveling abroad, especially to developing countries, ask your doctor whether any vaccinations might be needed to protect against infectious diseases common in your vacation destination. In addition, ask your doctor about your risk of acquiring tuberculosis, hepatitis, or traveler?s diarrhea. You may also visit www.cdc.gov/travel, or contact your local health department or one of the resources listed at the end of this guide.
What to Pack
Sunscreen is necessary for fair-skinned individuals and children. The SPF number tells you how much protection a particular sunscreen provides against the sun?s damaging rays. It is important to apply sunscreen at least 30-60 minutes before going outside and to reapply it after swimming or sweating heavily.
An insect repellent is also important if you plan on being outdoors. Many types of insect repellents are available. It is a good idea to use a product containing the ingredient deet (10% to 35% is recommended). Remember to avoid touching your eyes and mouth, and do not apply the product over any open cuts or irritated skin. Do not use insect repellent containing deet on children under 8 years old. For infants and children, use Avon?s Skin-So-Soft instead.
Other items to pack include general first-aid supplies. First-aid kits usually include various-sized bandages, a thermometer, and a topical disinfectant for minor cuts or scrapes. If space permits, you may consider packing some bottled water to avoid traveler?s diarrhea.
OTC Medicines for Specific Travel Conditions
Pain and Fever
Tylenol is recommended for minor aches, pain, and fever. Fever that lasts for more than 48 hours or is accompanied by a sore throat, skin rash, persistent diarrhea, or a stiff neck requires prompt medical attention. Ibuprofen and aspirin can also be used for pain.
Poison Ivy, Insect Bites, and Rashes
Insect bites, stings, and skin rashes caused by poison ivy or related plants usually do not need medical attention. These conditions can be treated with topical hydrocortisone 1% cream, which is available without a prescription. But if you travel to a high-risk area for diseases such as malaria or Lyme disease, you should see a doctor or pharmacist if you get numerous insect bites, if a rash or irritation develops near the bite, or if you develop any new symptoms. If you have a history of serious reactions to bee stings or other insect bites, make sure that you have immediate access to emergency epinephrine (Epi-Pen).
Consuming contaminated food or drinks causes traveler?s diarrhea. It is more common in certain parts of the world. To prevent traveler?s diarrhea:
Depending on your travel destination, your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic to take in case you develop this condition. The symptoms can be treated with non-prescription drugs, such as Imodium or Pepto-Bismol. For persistent diarrhea that lasts longer than 48 hours or that does not get better with treatment, you should seek medical attention. Nonprescription drugs for diarrhea should generally be avoided if you have a high fever or notice blood in the stool, unless directed by a physician.
OTC medications for motion sickness include Dramamine, Antivert, Bonine, and Bucladin. These medications all have side effects, such as drowsiness, dry mouth, blurry vision, and urinary retention. These medications need to be taken at least 1 hour before travel to be effective.
More Health Information for Travelers | <urn:uuid:5c0fe120-0497-4cb5-8dfe-645e1a5d2e3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2002/2002-05/2002-05-6889 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918168 | 901 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Originally Posted by ArbyNav
If the battery cable was the only thing on the circuit, then it'd have to dissipate all the power - if the cable has almost zero resistance then the watts would be something like Power (watts) = 12 / 0, which is almost unlimited and a very bad thing for your generator to try (user hint, it will try but will never make it - the power generated will roughly correlate to the dollar cost of fixing the damage)
Thanks for the laugh and the explanation. Sometimes I wish I paid more attention in Physics class.
2000 Shadow 750 (the "trainer") - Sold
2005 DL650 - The "real" bike
Money gives back small echo to the cries of calumny.
- Samuel Hopkins Adams
Heaven and Hell are one and the same when desperation's all you can afford.
- Warren Haynes | <urn:uuid:368ef2de-55c0-4757-8c40-1aa9883709e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3570946&postcount=92 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904873 | 180 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Hundreds of North Texans said they felt the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that rocked Oklahoma late Saturday night.
Early Monday morning Oklahomans were rattled again by a 2.9 magnitude aftershock, which was small compared to the weekend earthquake that was felt in neighboring states.
Hundreds of North Texans report feeling the ground move or their homes shaking moments after a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook central Oklahoma Saturday night.
Saturday night's quake was recorded at 10:53 by the United States Geological Survey. The USGS originally reported the quake was a 5.3, but said it was a 5.6 after it was reviewed by a seismologist.
In Las Colinas, Marcella Villagra said she was sitting at her computer, when her chair started rolling. She looked up at a hanging pot, and saw it was moving too. That’s when she knew something was going on.
“I was freaked out, really freaked out, just not expecting an earthquake here,” Villagra said.
Camille Forsythe just moved to Plano from Memphis, Tenn. She said she was closer to a fault line in Memphis, but never felt an earthquake. Here, two months after moving, she said the ground started moving on Saturday night.
“I was on the floor reading a book and all of the sudden it just started moving, wasn’t sure what was going on,” Forsythe said.
The 5.6 rating makes it the largest quake in Oklahoma's history. Reports show that the record-setting earthquake has been felt from Texas to St. Louis.
The USGS said the epicenter of the quake was 21 miles north-northeast of Shawnee, which is roughly 40 miles east of Oklahoma City. The depth of the quake, from the USGS was 3.1 miles.
Jessica Turner with the USGS told The Associated Press that the subsequent magnitude 4.0 quake that struck at 3:39 a.m. Sunday was an aftershock centered some 36 miles east of Oklahoma City in the same region. Like Saturday night's quake, she said it was another shallow quake occurring about 3 miles underground, but experts had no immediate explanation for the spurt in seismic activity.
Saturday night's earthquake jolted Oklahoma State University's stadium shortly after the No. 3 Cowboys defeated No. 17 Kansas State. The crowd of 58,895 was still leaving when it hit, and players were in the locker rooms beneath the stands at Boone Pickens Stadium.
The temblor seemed to last the better part of a minute, rippling upward to the stadium press box.
"Everybody was looking around and no one had any idea," Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden said. "We thought the people above us were doing something. I've never felt one, so that was a first."
A series of quakes, the largest being a 4.7, shook the same area overnight Friday. As of Monday morning's 2.9 magnitude quake 5 miles west northwest of Prague, Okla., the USGS has recorded 18 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 4.0 to 2.7 in the same area.
The earthquakes are occurring on a known fault line, the Oklahoma Geological Survey told Oklahoma's NewsOn6.com.
There were no reports in the hours after the quakes of any severe injuries or major devastation.
NBC 5's Ray Villeda and Elvira Sakmari contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:a1b1d8a0-772d-4359-a78a-54e088b30bc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Oklahoma-Earthquake-Felt-in-North-Texas-133311763.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98286 | 719 | 1.640625 | 2 |
LITTLE ROCK — Legislation proposing a tax break for contributions to a program set up to pay for some public school students to attend private school in Arkansas stalled in a Senate panel Wednesday.
The Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee vote was 3-2 on Senate Bill 577. The measure needed five votes to clear the eight-member committee.
SB 577 by Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock, would provide a 100 percent tax credit for individual and business contributions to a scholarship fund. English said the program would be run by a nonprofit organization with a goal of generating about $10 million annually to provide up to 2,500 scholarships valued at $4,000 each.
Parents earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level — amounting to $28,725 for an individual, $58,875 for a family of four — would be eligible for the scholarships, which would not be available to students who live in school districts with 1,000 or fewer students.
The state fiscal office estimated the fiscal impact of the bill would be about $10 million a year, though Gary Ritter, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Arkansas, said the scholarship program would actually save the state money.
Ritter said the state pays school districts $6,267 a year per student, a payment he said would be unnecessary if the student chooses to attend a private school.
Patrick Wolf , a professor in school choice and education reform in the UA College of Education and Health Professions, said he has studied similar programs in other states that he said have succeeded in improving student test scores.
Also, Wolf said, “There’s clear evidence that … public schools improved because of competition.”
Speaking against the bill, state Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell noted the impact to state general revenue and said there is no guarantee that all private k-12 schools in the state would participate because the $4,000 scholarship tuition cap.
Kimbrell said the state school funding formula is based on a district’s enrollment from the previous year, meaning the district still would receive state funding the first year a student attended private school.
“So, those 2,500 students are still going to be generating that much money back to the school district the first year,” he said, adding it would be at least three years before the state would begin to see any savings.
“How many students will take advantage of this? How many of our private schools actually are going to step forward and say ‘I want to participate?’” Kimbrell said. “If you give that tax credit and people of the state took advantage of that income tax credit to the tune of $10 million and we did not have that many students who actually took advantage, or there weren’t that many private schools that actually accepted that many students, then you do have that loss of general revenue to the state.”
A lot of assumptions are being made, and a lot of questions still need to be answered, Kimbrell said.
Misty Newcomb, executive director of the Prism Education Center in Fayetteville, testified that the bill stipulates that the state Department of Education must immediately stop paying a district when a student receive a scholarship and transfers.
Newcomb, who said she has assisted lawmakers in trying get similar legislation passed for several years, said there are currently about 25,000 k-12 students attending private schools in Arkansas.
According to its website, Prism Education Center offers private school for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Standard tuition is $600 a month, but the center says it charges on a sliding fee schedule based on income level and household size.
In addition to income, the family of a child wishing to receive a scholarship under the bill would have to meet one of several other criteria, including:
—Must have received a scholarship from a nonprofit scholarship-funding organization or from the state during the previous school year to attend a private school.
—Must be the sibling of a student who currently attends a private school on scholarship.
Casie Shreve of Fayetteville spoke for the bill. She said she has a teenage son who attends public school and a younger son with special needs who currently is on scholarship at a private school that addresses his needs.
“This will afford a family like me the opportunity to give my child a better education and life,” Shreve said.
English said she would bring the bill back to the committee for another vote. | <urn:uuid:b7529499-02b5-4428-973c-2fbf6095a13c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arkansasnews.com/sections/news/update-tax-break-private-school-fund-donations-stalls.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977132 | 930 | 1.507813 | 2 |
this goddess was associated with love, dance, music, joy and the womanly arts.
Goddess of beauty, joy, love, dance and music as well as representing fertility, both of land and animals. Usually shown as a woman with a cow's head, or just the ears and horns.
a goddess sometimes depicted as a cow or with cow's horns and ears; associated with joy, music, and love
Egyptian; Protectress of Women in Business. A Hathor's Mirror is very important for the Witch. Hathor was cunning as well as beautiful.
A goddess represented as a cow, as a cow-headed woman, or as a woman with a horned headdress. She is the suckler of the king and "the Golden One". Equated by the Greeks with Aphrodite. Cult centres were in Dendera, Thebes and Memphis.
Goddess portrayed with cow's horns.
Hellenized Greek for Hat Ho meaning "Home of Horus." Hathor is your mother, and all the beauties of motherhood. She is source of the child’s identity and training, thus she is goddess of art and music and theater, all the entertainments of the soul which also guide and shape it. Hathor is nature and nurture.
(Pronounced ‘Haythor' or ‘Hat-hor'.) Sky goddess, daughter of Ra, depicted as a cow or cow-eared woman. Goddess of love and beauty.
Hathor was the goddess of joy, motherhood, and love. Hathor was originally worshipped in the form of a cow, sometimes as a cow with stars on her. Later she is represented as a woman with the head of a cow, and finally with a human head, the face broad and placid, sometimes she is depicted with the ears or horns of a cow.
one of the nine major gods of ancient Egypt, she is a sky goddess and is represented as a cow or as a disk flanked by two plumes; the counterpart of Osiris
In Egyptian mythology, Hathor (Egyptian for house of Horus) was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was seen as the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow. Hathor was an ancient goddess, worshipped as a cow-deity from at least 2700 BC, during the 2nd dynasty, and possibly even by the Scorpion King. The name Hathor refers to the encirclement by her, in the form of the Milky Way, of the night sky and consequently of the god of the sky, Horus.
Hathor is a fictional character on the science fiction television show Stargate SG-1, related to Hathor of Egyptian mythology. | <urn:uuid:dff35194-726c-49f1-89cc-33f84f97930d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metaglossary.com/meanings/3589146/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983476 | 563 | 3.015625 | 3 |
As @FrustratedWithFormsDesigner noted, backwards compatibility was the single biggest constraint. And the resolution they chose was to keep backward compatibility by using type erasure, i.e. removing all generic type information during compilation. This means a
List<String> and a
List<Integer> will become the same type at runtime (and the same as a pre-Java5
List). And it has a lot of negative consequences, including most of what you listed above.
The constraints set by this are much tighter than one may naively think:
What we require is that the same client code works with both the legacy and generic versions of a library. This means that the supplier and clients of a library can make completely independent choices about when to move from legacy to generic code. This is a much stronger requirement than backward compatibility; it is called migration compatibility or platform compatibility.
Java implements generics via erasure, which ensures that legacy and generic versions usually generate identical class files, save for some auxiliary information about types. It is possible to replace a legacy class file by a generic class file without changing, or even recompiling, any client code; this is called binary compatibility.
(Java Generics and Collections, Chapter 5)
Binary compatibility is not always automatically guaranteed; section 8.4 of the same book details some cases where binary compatibility may break during genericizing legacy interfaces even if all general rules have been followed.
Another aspect of backward compatibility is adherence to a type system where not everything is an object. So in Java primitive types are out of scope for generics just as for collections, and you have boxing/unboxing to complicate life (whereas in Scala everything is an object).
A third legacy in Java is native arrays which just don't fit with generics:
- arrays are always reifiable types whereas generic types are not;
- arrays can store primitive types whereas (generic) collections can not;
- array subtyping is covariant, whereas generic subtyping is invariant;
- as a consequence, arrays are less type safe than generics, and one can argue that they should be declared obsolete in favour of generic collections and not used in new code.
All this means a lot more rules to adhere to, thus corner cases and compromises to make, limiting the power and simplicity of Java generics.
Several such decisions can be seen in retrospect as wrong, but there is no way back anymore, thus no possibility to fix them without breaking backward compatibility, which - rightly or not - has become a sort of holy cow in Java over the years. I conjecture that the story of Java generics most probably brought a lot of experience and food for thought for its own designers as well, and these experiences were surely reused during the design of Scala. | <urn:uuid:a491eaa3-ca15-428d-8682-ae5927b4f5e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/167633/constraints-while-designing-the-java-generics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944661 | 573 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The White House made the formal announcement during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters -- in both English and Spanish.
"The president would like to see greater freedom for the Cuban people. There are actions that he can and has taken today to open up the flow of information to provide some important steps to help that," Gibbs said.
Under the new policy, Cuban Americans will be allowed unlimited visits to family members on the island, as well as an unlimited flow of remittances, or cash many immigrants send home to their extended families. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives in Cuba, according to the Associated Press.
The administration will also allow U.S. telecommunications networks to link the United States and Cuba in order to improve the flow of information. Humanitarian items, such as clothing and personal hygiene items, will also be allowed, according to news reports.
Mr. Obama had promised to take such steps as a presidential candidate and a policy move had been expected this week. The decision comes after the president signed a bill last month easing economic restrictions on the Communist country.
Specifically, Mr. Obama directed the Departments of State, Treasury, and Commerce to make the following changes, according to a White House press release:
-- Lift all restrictions on travel of family members to Cuba
-- Remove restrictions on remittances to family members in Cuba
-- Allow U.S. companies to establish improved communications between the United States and Cuba, including through fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the two countries
-- Permit U.S. satellite radio and television companies to provide services to customers in Cuba
-- Add certain humanitarian items, such as clothing, seeds, fishing equipment, and veterinary medicines, to the list of goods available for export to Cuba
"There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans," then-candidate Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami. "It's time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime."
The decision does not lift a trade embargo with Cuba. It will still be illegal to send items to senior government officials and Communist Party members. "These steps are being taken in support of the Cuban people's desire to freely determine their own future and to open up the space needed to see democratic progress in Cuba," a White House official told ABC News.
The announcement comes several days before President Obama travels to Mexico City and later attends to the Summit of the Americas, beginning Friday, in Trinidad and Tobago. The summit, a gathering of 34 heads of government, always excludes Cuba, but Mr. Obama is expected to tell leaders that he wants to improve relations with Havana. But Cuban leader Raul Castro must first take steps toward democracy and free elections, President Obama is expected to say, before the United States will be willing to grant the island nation full diplomatic and economic relations. | <urn:uuid:721a70f3-571e-451e-9f15-c98b9a4eb28c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/latin_america/jan-june09/cuba_04-13.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00063-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96493 | 602 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Cape Town - Your pot plant can chirp if it needs water, the couch can declare your weight and online purchases are becoming ever easier – and the online product offering keeps expanding.
The digital era is here and experts reckon that all South Africans will have a smartphone within the next three years. This means that the South African retail world will change significantly to meet the needs of consumers who expect service at their fingertips. Retail groups will be obliged to keep pace with global trends.
Kevin Meltzer, founder of the Consology agency, told the annual conference of the Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA) that online transactions are the norm today, although they are taking longer to gain a foothold in developing markets.
Amazon was one of the first companies to show that online buying works, but South Africans showed initial reluctance because of shipping costs and customs duties.
The picture is now changing as consumer awareness grows and international shipping costs come down. For digital content products, these factors do not apply. In addition, retailers like Amazon are adapting by expanding global distribution centres to reduce transport costs.
Meltzer says one of the most important reasons for the popularity of online transactions in South Africa is that people no longer have to stand in queues in a store or at the bank. “A dealer no longer differentiates himself by having an online presence – it's a necessity.”
Gary Novitzkas, chief executive of kalahari.com, reckons e-commerce is now at the point of breaking through into mainstream commerce with the use of cellphones.
“E-commerce is regarded as mainstream when it contributes more than 1% to total retail sales, and in South Africa it already constitutes 0.4%.
The internet penetration rate is however 12% – with six million people having an internet connection – and that of mobile penetration 92%. This is very positive for e-commerce.”
The use of tablet computers and smartphones has created a new market of online consumers. “This technology makes it possible for a child to use an iPad even if he still cannot tie his shoelaces,” said Meltzer.
The use of technology is no longer dependent on literacy and simple digital products are accessible to all income levels.
“Apple’s announcement that the iPhone 4 will now be sold for $99 (on contract) is indicative of how widely accessible the products are becoming. I reckon South Africans will all have smartphones within the next 36 months,” technology entrepreneur Stafford Masie
said at the conference.
“Consumers are more empowered than ever before and retailers will have to adapt the way they handle customers accordingly. An upset customer can within minutes express his dissatisfaction with a service or product to thousands of people through Twitter or Facebook.”
According to Masie, retailers and suppliers of products needed to focus more strongly on social networks like Twitter and Facebook for marketing and service because the networks have massive impact.
“The use of Google as a search engine is on the decline – people are increasingly researching services or products on social networks.”
Online purchases are also made easier as credit cards are not essential – debit cards, gift cards and loyalty points can also be used.
Masie uses the following scenario to sketch a typical example of how technology can change the retail experience for both clients and retailers: imagine you are standing in the store with your bags of shopping.
A store employee uses a smartphone like a scanner across the bags. The products and amounts register immediately.
Then you swipe your credit card across the phone to pay. Suddenly your phone vibrates, sending a message that you can postpone the transaction, because in 10 minutes’ time the price of the pasta in your bag will be reduced on the store's shelf. | <urn:uuid:b76d57e6-8369-48a3-9256-83828f0df93a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fin24.com/Companies/ICT/Technology-increasingly-empowers-consumers-20111009 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00057-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953826 | 773 | 1.664063 | 2 |
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Three golden eagles caught in separate snare traps over the past few days have raised concerns among biologists who are racing to understand what's causing the raptor's migratory population to dwindle across the region.
The Montana Raptor Conservation Center in Bozeman posted an image of one injured eagle on its Facebook page. The bird arrived at the center tangled in what remained of a wire snare.
Of the three trapped eagles, it was the only one to survive. Whoever found the raptor cut the snare, but left the bird to wander with the cable embedded in its wing and shoulder.
"It started pretty much last Thursday when we received the first eagle dead on arrival," said Becky Kean of the Bozeman center. "We got the second one in Friday and it's still with us. The third one had to be euthanized at the trap."
Kean said one of the birds was caught in a snare trap near Ringling. The other two traps were set near Big Timber. The surviving eagle is scheduled for surgery Tuesday to mend wounds left by the snare.
"That cable dug in pretty deep," Kean said. "We usually see four trapped eagles a year, but they're usually leg-hold traps. This is the first we've seen of snares, and there have been three of them now."
Biologist Rob Domenech, founder and president of the Raptor View Research Center in Missoula, said it wasn't the first time golden eagles have been caught in traps.
Yet losing three birds to snare traps in such short order has raised concerns among biologists, who are working across the region to understand why migratory golden eagles are declining in number.
"One of the trapped birds was a bird we put a satellite transmitter on in October 2010 at Nora Ridge off Flesher Pass," Domenech said. "We were tracking her, and it was the third year of us following her."
By tracking the bird, Domenech and his team learned that the eagle summered in the Brooks Range of Alaska before heading south for Montana each winter.
It traveled to the Paradise Valley and the Gardiner area, and was fond of the Bridger and Big Belt mountains. Losing the bird to a snare was a setback for the study, both scientifically and emotionally.
"We've become attached to these birds on some level, and this one had given us a ton of information in terms of migration routes and the size of wintering grounds," said Domenech. "Now she's given us information on a cause of mortality. It's not a happy ending, but it is data for our research."
Tom Barnes, president of the Montana Trappers Association, declined to comment Monday on the separate incidents until he learned how the eagles were snared and where the traps were placed.
Barnes did say that Montana has rules in place to minimize the accidental trapping of non-target animals. The rules cover where snare traps are placed and how much bait can be used.
"There are restrictions on how they (traps) can be set for exposed bait," Barnes said. "I have no idea how these (traps) were set. Without finding out what happened, I don't feel comfortable commenting on it."
Biologists have been working to understand more about golden eagles and what's killing them. When transmitters stop working, Domenech said, scientists typically find the birds dead.
He said the causes nearly always stem from human factors, including electrocution, poisoning, car collisions and accidental trapping.
"In all the years we've been doing this, I don't recall any time where we've had three incidences with eagles in snares in as many days," he said. "That throws up a red flag that there's something else going on out there."
Golden eagles may be facing a new threat in the West, where energy development is advancing at a rapid pace. While the birds have adapted to coexist in a human-dominated environment, there are limits to their ability to change.
Steve Hoffman, executive director of the Montana Audubon Society in Helena, started the Bridger Raptor Migration Project in 1991 with a focus on golden eagles. The group's 21 years of data has shown a marked decline in the population.
"We've seen a 40 to 50 percent decline since 1999," said Hoffman. "That's across all the life stages of the eagle. It's a great concern for all of us."
Like others in the field, Hoffman attributes the decline to a number of factors. Among them, he's focused on the loss of quality habitat and the abundance of prey - primarily the availability of jackrabbits on the sagebrush steppes of Montana and Wyoming.
"That's where we're seeing a huge expansion of energy development," Hoffman said. "Golden eagles are one of the most adaptable, widespread raptors on the North American continent. The environment has to change very rapidly for them to have problems."
To ramp up their study of golden eagles and understand their declining numbers, biologists have issued a call for information - a challenge to the scientific community to study the birds and do it fast.
Domenech and his team are now tagging more golden eagles in a cooperative study taking place on a Bitterroot Valley ranch. Many of the birds that migrate south for winter won't make it home, and biologists want to know what's killing them during their southern forays.
"The transmitters are part of greater mortality study," Domenech said. "We're trying to get as much information on golden eagles and causes of mortality. It'll give us a better idea of what's taking these birds out. | <urn:uuid:f5910ea0-097a-46fc-adf0-e9649edd20d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Golden-eagles-caught-in-snare-traps-2-die,85160?category_id=144&list_type=most_viewed&sub_type=stories,maps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974002 | 1,201 | 2.453125 | 2 |
In the issue of the Hand Clinics on “Congenital Hand Differences” the Guest Editor, Dr. Kevin C. Chung, invited world-renowned experts on congenital hand problems to share their insights regarding the treatments and outcomes of a variety of common and uncommon conditions. This volume will present a concise, yet practical guide in understanding and managing the diversity of presentations in these diseases. The illustrations are meticulously presented and the key points are highlighted by the “masters” of the field. This Hand Clinics volume will be an invaluable resource for those interested in advancing their knowledge regarding this intriguing field in hand surgery.
Elsevier is a leading publisher of health science books and journals, helping to advance medicine by delivering superior education, reference information and decision support tools to doctors, nurses, health practitioners and students. With titles available across a variety of media—print, online and handheld, we are able to supply the information you need in the most convenient format. | <urn:uuid:a13c7160-ff38-495c-835f-891fc926d72e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.us.elsevierhealth.com/product.jsp?isbn=9781437704839&navAction=&navCount=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919528 | 196 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Lincoln (KPTM) - The Governor's bill targeting illegal immigration hits a roadblock. A legislative panel voted five to one against advancing it to the full unicameral. On Friday Nebraska's Governor and Attorney General tried to find ways to keep it alive.
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman says, "I've felt strongly about this for a long period of time."
So strongly Governor Heineman is taking his immigration fight to the public again.
The Governor's bill would take state benefits from people who are here illegally and from their children. "It's not appropriate for illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition," Heineman says.
Heineman says hundreds of children of illegal immigrants get in-state tuition at state colleges; a benefit he says should go to National Guard members who are paying out of state tuition. "They're here defending our freedom and they aren't entitled to in-state tuition, it seems to me we have our priorities mixed up," Heineman says.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln leaders disagree. UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman says, "Many of these students were brought to the U.S. by their parents at an age when they were too young to appreciate the legal consequences of their actions."
They went on to say. "It is a mistake to think that denying these students the chance to attain an affordable college education will somehow serve as an immigration enforcement strategy."
Senator Ernie Chambers was at the Governor's press conference and took the mic quickly afterwards. Chambers says the issue isn't just about immigration.
Chambers says, "All this is that there are people coming into their community and they're people they don't like, they don't like their complexion, they don't like their language, that's what it's all about."
The battle is not yet over, State Senator Brad Ashford the head of the panel says, there's a chance the bill could be debated on again if the governor takes the in-state tuition issue out of it. | <urn:uuid:17e307ee-5d2c-4632-8b4e-570416084556> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=7947817 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987041 | 416 | 1.546875 | 2 |
You should file a report if you’re the operator of a vehicle involved in a crash where the damage to any one vehicle or
property is over $1000, or if there is an injury to any person, even if a police officer was on the scene. You should file
the report within 5 days of the date of the crash.
WHEN SHOULD YOU NOT FILE A REPORT
You should not file a report if the crash occurred on a private road, driveway, private parking lot or other private way.
WHY THIS REPORT IS IMPORTANT
Data from this report is used for many purposes including:
Identifying locations with a large number of crashes.
Improving dangerous highways and intersections.
Developing highway safety public information programs.
Developing programs to save lives and reduce highway injuries.
Use this form to report a motor vehicle crash.
Mail or Deliver one copy to the local police department in the city or town where the crash occurred. Mail one copy to your insurance agency. Mail one copy to the RMV. | <urn:uuid:7ce6f311-6808-4ee6-898c-0b092b9ecbbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dovermapd.com/forms/mvcrash.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91788 | 214 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The U.S. pork industry scored a major victory Nov. 29 when a federal appeals court denied a request for a rehearing of a landmark environmental case. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) applauded the ruling, which upholds the validity of air emissions agreements between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and livestock and poultry operations.
The agreements, which were signed by nearly 2,600 animal feeding operations, including 1,856 hog operations, protect animal feeding operations from EPA enforcement actions for past air emission violations, and violations while EPA conducts a monitoring study of emissions from farms.
The full 10-member U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the latest legal challenge from the California-based Association of Irritated Residents and other citizen advocacy groups. A three-judge panel of the same court in July dismissed the activists’ petition for review of the agreements “because exercises of EPA’s enforcement discretion are not reviewable by this court.”
The activist groups had argued that the agreements were rules disguised as enforcement actions and that EPA didn’t follow proper rulemaking procedures. The groups wanted animal feeding operations to comply more quickly with federal air emission standards, but the court disagreed.
Under the agreements, researchers from eight universities are monitoring air emissions from 24 sites in nine states. When the 30-month study is complete, EPA will write air emission standards for animal feeding operations.
“We applaud this ruling,” states Randy Spronk, a pork producer from Edgerton, MN, and chairman of NPPC’s Environmental Policy Committee. “EPA and farmers simply didn’t have the science to know whether air laws were being triggered, and a one-size-fits-all approach to environmental enforcement was not fair or effective.
“Now, because of quality scientific research and EPA’s willingness to work with America’s farmers, we have a chance to see what’s really happening, and the results will help all parties make improvements where they’re truly needed,” he says. | <urn:uuid:82bbf728-bbb0-4581-a8eb-b0a1ecf70d87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalhogfarmer.com/print/environmental-stewardship/news/court-denies-air-emissions-case | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945474 | 438 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Stereotactic radiosurgery is a non-invasive radiation therapy that focuses tiny beams of radiation (x-rays) onto a particular body part in order to make a lesion in a very precise manner. It is used by the Center for Neuromodulation at Mount Sinai to treat the following conditions:
In addition, stereotactic radiosurgery has long been used to treat brain tumors and to close off abnormal connections between blood vessels in the brain, called arteriovenous malformations that can cause neurological symptoms, pain or even stroke or death. This procedure has been investigated for uncontrolled epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.
How Does Stereotactic Radiosurgery Work?
“The beams of radiations used in stereotactic radiosurgery are very weak,” says Dr. Brian Kopell, co-director of the Center for Neuromodulation. “It’s only where the beams of radiation intersect that the destructive force of radiation is occurring.”
This convergence of radiation beams to ablate or make a lesion in tissue is called constructive interference and it is used when sparing tissue adjacent to the problematic region is of the utmost importance. (Other types of radiation therapy scatter radiation more broadly, thereby having a greater affect on neighboring tissues.)
Minimally Invasive, Same-Day Procedure
Despite its name, stereotactic radiosurgery is not a surgical procedure; it is minimally invasive and proceeded by imaging techniques such as MRI or CT scan to create 3-D images of the area to be radiated that the neurosurgeon and radiation oncologist use to direct the beams.
General anesthesia is not necessary for the procedure. As a result, patients remain awake during the treatment and most can go home the same day as the treatment.
Because this procedure creates permanent lesions, it is usually considered for the treatment of pain only more conservative treatment approaches, such as medications and therapy, have failed.
Center for Neuromodulation
1468 Madison Avenue
8th Floor Room 40
New York, NY 10029 | <urn:uuid:6ba2e980-e5af-4a6a-9dcc-283bcad54778> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountsinai.org/patient-care/service-areas/neurosurgery/areas-of-care/center-for-neuromodulation/stereotactic-radiosurgery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924102 | 432 | 3.1875 | 3 |
ASSE’s Women in Safety Engineering Group Honors D.C.’s Terry Wigfall as One of 100 Women Making a Difference
The American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Women in Safety Engineering (WISE) Common Interest Group has honored 100 women from around the world for making a difference in the safety, health and environmental (SH&E) field as part of the WISE ‘100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety’ project. Terry Wigfall of Severn, Maryland was honored for her dedication to protecting people, property and the environment and for going above and beyond to make a difference.
With more than 20 years of experience as a safety professional, Wigfall has dedicated her career to protecting and educating workers on the job, identifying hazards and reducing risks. In the late ‘80’s she took her first safety job at Stanley Proto Industrial Tools and developed into a strong leader, making a difference in subsequent roles as a safety professional in industry and government. She currently serves as the Compliance Manager for the Congressional Office of Compliance on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and manages the compliance process including a team responsible for inspections of all legislative branch buildings, researching SH&E issues, writing “Fast Facts” on various safety topics that appear on the Office of Compliance web site and assisting with the development of the ‘Biennial Report on Occupational Health and Safety Inspections’ which is submitted to Congress.
In addition to her many professional accomplishments, Wigfall is not only a member of WISE, but also helped found ASSE’s Blacks In Safety and Engineering (BISE) Common Interest Group. As Chair of BISE, Wigfall has reached hundreds of safety professionals and has helped grow the group’s membership, as well as working to develop the Common Interest Group into an excellent place for safety professionals to seek professional development and networking opportunities. Wigfall was also a part of ASSE’s planning committee for the 2011 PDC and helped develop ‘Safety 2011’ into ASSE’s biggest conference to date. In recognition of her accomplishments, Wigfall was also awarded with the prestigious President’s Award at ASSE’s House of Delegates meeting at the annual Professional Development Conference (PDC) June 12, 2011.
When asked about her dedication to the safety profession, Wigfall said, “My Dad was one of my inspirations for getting into the safety profession because of a chemical exposure that he sustained in a workplace. I love the SH&E field. There is never a dull moment, things are always changing, and I get to do things that affect the lives of people in positive ways. It has its challenges, but I wouldn’t want to do anything else!”
The ‘100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety’ project honors women who, throughout history, have dedicated their careers to promoting innovation in safety, health and environmental issues. The valuable contributions of women to the SH&E profession have been recognized through this project and later this year WISE will consolidate the profiles of all 100 honorees into a single publication, titled 100 Women, Making a Difference in the Safety, Health and Environmental Profession as part of ASSE’s (1911-2011) 100th anniversary.
WISE was established to foster the advancement of women in the SH&E profession. The group provides professional development opportunities, evaluates the ongoing state of women in SH&E, mentors women in the profession, provides opportunities for women to obtain professional certifications and promotes the development and peer review of written material related to issues specific to women in the SH&E workplace. For more information about WISE, upcoming events, and to view a complete list of the ‘WISE 100 Women, Making a Difference in Safety,’ please visit www.asse.org/practicespecialties/wise/mission.php.
Founded in 1911 and celebrating its centennial, the Des Plaines, IL-based ASSE is the oldest professional safety society and is committed to protecting people, property and the environment. Its more than 34,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professional members lead, manage, supervise, research and consult on safety, health, transportation and environmental issues in all industries, government, labor, healthcare and education. For more information, please go to www.asse.org and to view the new ASSE – A Century of Safety film go to www.asse.org/assecenturyofsafety. | <urn:uuid:2f8fe603-7b92-4694-a9bf-cad8c39678ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asse.org/en/index.php/press_releases/asses-women-in-safety-engineering-group-honors-d-c-s-terry-wigfall-as-one-of-100-women-making-a-difference/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957579 | 940 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Ask potential recommendation writers in person if they will be able to write a strong and favorable letter for you. Be appreciative of the person who honestly tells you that they cannot write you a strong recommendation. Remember that a well thought out letter of recommendation takes about 45-60 minutes to write.
Letters of recommendation are best written by people who know you well through a job, class, or organization. Try to choose a variety of people who know you in different capacities and can speak to your different strengths, abilities, and experiences. You might ask a professor in your major, a recent work supervisor, or someone you have worked with in an organization. Generally letters written by personal or family friends are not appropriate.
It is advisable to get three to five letters of recommendation, but two to three strong letters which show your specific talents and skills are better than five vague letters.
Letters of Recommendation should be written on organization or departmental letterhead. You will want to keep your recommendation letters together and in a secure location.
Education majors, note that your most important letters of recommendation are from your cooperating teachers, supervisors, principals and other individuals who have seen you perform in a school setting or interact with young people through teaching, tutoring or mentoring.
Tell the letter writers your plans or interests and how this recommendation will assist you. Remind them of your past activities and accomplishments. Encourage them to identify specific skills you may want to have mentioned and give examples when possible. If you have completed a resume, give the writer a copy.
Let the reference writer know the date by which you need the letter of recommendation completed. Try to give them at least two weeks to write the letter. Provide the writer with an addressed, stamped envelope so that there is no question of where the letter should be sent. It might be sent to you, to an employer, to a graduate school or to Career and Counseling Services at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls. You should always keep copies of your letters of recommendation.
A thank you note to each person who writes you a letter of recommendation is appreciated. Be sure to let your writers know the results of your search or application. | <urn:uuid:8c8d4b3b-1d75-4bd0-9ca4-20d664de9cbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uwrf.edu/CareerServices/LettersOfRecommendation.cfm?respOpt=FALSE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959777 | 443 | 2.21875 | 2 |
ERSKINE, TEXAS. Erskine, on a site originally known as Kickapoo Springs, was near Kickapoo Creek twenty-eight miles southwest of Paint Rock in southwestern Concho County. The settlement was established in 1883 and acquired a post office the same year. In 1884 Erskine had a hotel, a general store, and a population of seventy. Local employment centered on the shipment of livestock and wool. Erskine apparently declined after the post office was moved to the nearby community of Vigo in 1887.
W. L. Nicholson, Post Route Map of the State of Texas (1886).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Mary M. Standifer, "ERSKINE, TX," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hre55), accessed May 25, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:3d81dc90-d1e0-4e1e-a706-7361e04d6355> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hre55 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953357 | 211 | 2.78125 | 3 |
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Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English -Praise for the Maude Translation of Anna Karenina
"None of the early translations of Anna Karenina is acceptable [including the unrevised Garnett (1901)]. The appearance of the Maude version (1918) represents a turning point . . . . Louise and Aylmer Maude knew Tolstoy's pre-revolutionary Russia; she was born and educated there, and he spent many years in Moscow. They knew Tolstoy personally and had the benefit of consultation with him and his approval of their translations." | <urn:uuid:2269dbd6-26cc-48ef-bd60-4c8a5295698f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anna-karenina-maude-translation-specially-formatted-nook-edition-nookbook-complete-and-unabridged-best-novel-ever-written-best-translation-painstakingly-proofread-error-free-includes-tolstoy-biography-and-life-in-images-leo-tolstoy/1105957889?ean=2940012261656 | 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 | 0.960801 | 124 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Wed July 22, 2009
Frank McCourt--Simeone Foundation Museum--Village of Arts & Humanities--Germantown's History Hunters
We listen back to Jim Cotter's 2008 interview with Frank McCourt. The acclaimed author died on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at age 78.
Jason Peifer takes us to the Simeone Foundation Museum, home to a world-class collection of historic sports and race cars.
Susan Lewis visits North Philadelphia's Village of Arts and Humanities, which evolved from the creation of art parks on abandoned lots into a community-based arts program.
Tom Keels explores the cooperation between historic sites in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and the local school districts that have made thousands of students into "History Hunters." | <urn:uuid:8764bca9-5190-4dc2-9feb-945d14738c44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wrti.org/post/frank-mccourt-simeone-foundation-museum-village-arts-humanities-germantowns-history-hunters | 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 | 0.92545 | 158 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Recent research on monkeys indicates one brain cell may have the power to restore voluntary movement of paralyzed muscles. Nearly every neuron tested by scientists demonstrated the ability to activate muscles immobilized by drugs in monkeys.
Some suggest that if a monkey can learn how to harness the power of a single neuron to activate muscles that have paralysis, the effect should be even more powerful in humans. This research finding has significant implications for the hundreds of thousands of people with spinal cord injuries annually.
It is thought that some types of spinal cord injuries result in paralysis in which the person is fully conscious inside a body that does not respond to commands. While the brain activity that would normally result in voluntary movement is still present, the directions for such movement do not reach the muscle.
The current research on monkey brain cells suggests a potential therapeutic mechanism by bypassing the type of nerve damage that can result in such paralysis. The brain can learn to control new cells and use them to generate movements quickly. Creating electrical stimulation from new neuronal activation in muscles that are paralyzed represents a future oriented treatment direction for those who suffer paralysis. | <urn:uuid:f3203b5c-78cc-446c-85ac-46ff99e272bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fitbrains.com/blog/2009/04/02/brain-cell-paralysis/ | 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 | 0.942225 | 218 | 3.984375 | 4 |
In an annual ritual, scores of bagpipers take to the street in a multi-hued plaid pageantry of Scottish clans marching in formation. With each synchronized stride, their soulful pipes bleat out a wail. Throngs of people have come from near and far to watch the procession. Is it a funeral of a dignitary? A memorial tribute? But wait: Marching behind them are snappy pipe and drum bands, followed by prancing Scottish dancers, performing skip-change sets of reels and jigs. Then come the floats—and even jaunty Scotty dogs. It’s the annual parade in Old Town Alexandria, VA, a time-honored Christmas tradition. The event (scottishchristmaswalk.com) commences a season of holiday events, while celebrating the community’s Scottish heritage and its namesake settler John Alexander in 1669. (Two other Scots established the town as Alexandria in 1748.)
“There’s even a Celtic contingent, who come to march from the St. Andrew’s Society’s Baltimore chapter,” says David McKenzie, emcee of the parade. “They’re the ones wearing white fisherman’s sweaters above their kilts.”
Old Town Alexandria, just an hour from Baltimore, has been named one of America’s “Top 10 Christmas Towns” by HGTV, and is setting the standard for a quintessential holiday getaway.
The town, quietly peering across the Potomac shoreline at chaotic downtown D.C., exudes a quirky hip and historic vibe, reminiscent of 1970s Georgetown. In an era of contrived revival towns, Alexandria is the real deal. Having played center stage in game-changing historic events that included Revolutionary and Civil War bigwigs George Washington and Robert E. Lee, it continues to celebrate centuries-old holiday traditions in a storybook setting of original cobblestone streets, lined with preserved 17th- and 18th-century architecture.
Each holiday season, the town shimmers with twinkling boulevards and storefronts, ornamented in glittering finery, while rich aromas of cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate seep out from charming cafes into the crisp air.
By day, history buffs can explore Alexandria’s famous sites, like Gadsby’s Tavern Museum—where Washington delivered his famous farewell address to the troops—and, afterward, browse chic galleries and shops in their quaint Colonial buildings. At night, the antiquated doors of restored taverns and inns are propped open, offering imaginative cuisines and indie artisans.
As a celebrated Christmas town, Alexandria is distinguished for hosting a variety of original, high-spirited holiday activities, including reenacted Colonial events and festivals of Christmases past. While suburban folks flock to malls on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Old Town is morphing itself back into the Christmas village of its founding fathers. Costumed interpreters stroll the streets in Colonial duds and old-style holiday garb.
“It’s kind of a fitting tradition that the bagpipers from the Scottish parade end up right here, in front of our shop,” says Cheri Hennessy, owner of Alexandria’s Christmas Attic (125 S. Union St., 703-548-2829, christmasattic.com). The shop is a veritable mother lode of holiday ornaments in a circa-1785 warehouse that has never been restored, still baring its original six-brick-thick walls and antique beams. “When my parents opened this business 42 years ago, we were one of the first really nice stores here, so I’ve watched the old Christmas traditions [evolve] along with the town. Old Town is still like a step back in time—and what Christmas is all about—remembrances, families, folks visiting.”
At lunchtime, nothing speaks Colonial-revival dining better than a traditional pub, like the oyster bar at the Union Street Public House (121 S. Union St., 703-548-1785, unionstreetpublichouse.com). The crowd is a fusion of old-timers, newbie artists, and day-trippers, who come for the restaurant’s oyster po’ boy with fried oysters, cherry peppers, and remoulade ($14), to be washed down with Virginia Native Dark lager.
From Union Street, turning onto King Street, Old Town’s mile-long main drag is enchanting. Amid the flickering gas-lit lanterns, decorated cafes, antique shops, and boutiques are miniature trees with tiny white lights as far as the eye can see. It’s so holiday happy that even Scrooge could be swayed to smile here. Worthy stops along the street include the magical windows at Why Not? (200 King St., 703-548-4420), a long-standing Shangri-La-dom of toys, and The Hour Cocktail Collection (1015 King St., 703-224-4687, thehourshop.com) with its mid-century chic entertaining pieces, vintage barware, and outrageous retro cocktail jewelry.
While wandering around town, it’s worthwhile to pop into Christ Church (118 N. Washington St., 703-549-1450). This is the Episcopal church where George Washington worshipped; his family’s pew is still intact. Strolling these streets amid the restored Colonial townhomes is a treat; admittedly, one that routinely rouses our peeping-Thomas curiosity about what’s inside. But the inquisitive aren’t left out in the cold. Alexandria’s annual Holiday Designer Tour of Homes (srscampagnacenter.org/online/) offers ticketed tours of some of the town’s most exquisite homes, which have been grandly decorated by local designers with holiday adornments.
One of Old Town’s long-standing treasures is the Torpedo Factory Arts Center (105 N. Union St., 703-838-4565, torpedofactory.org). Housed in a real torpedo factory—from 1918-45—it now features three floors of working artist studios, galleries, and the Alexandria Archaeology Museum.
Just outside the arts center, at the City Marina, is where the annual Holiday Boat Parade of Lights takes place. This is a juried holiday boat-decoration competition, with prizes for the most creative and other themes. At dusk on the day of the event (Dec. 1 this year), about 50 decked-out sailboats and motorboats parade across the Potomac River from Alexandria to D.C.’s waterfront, where the judging begins. Some of last year’s winning themes included “Christmas Gone Wild” (wildlife of the North Pole), “SEAS-ons Greetings” (a snow globe), and “Surfing Santa.”
Enjoy the present by sampling New American comfort food at Virtue Feed & Grain (106 S. Union St., 571-970-3669, virtuefeedandgrain.com), located in a spectacularly restored warehouse just a few steps from the Marina. The menu boasts that the food is freezer-less, farm fresh, and seasonal. Entree standouts include Polish sausage with molasses, squash, and shallots, and whole red snapper with orange gremolata.
After dark, Colonial Christmas celebrations are reenacted by candlelight in four historic milieus. Costumed docents lead tours through decorated rooms while regaling visitors with anecdotal tales of the famous residents’ holiday activities. The Historic Candlelight Tour (tickets: $20, $15 seniors, $5 kids, 703-746-4242) includes the circa-1785 Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, which hosted several founding fathers and Civil War dignitaries. In its famous dancing room, where George and Martha Washington once twirled, there are demonstrations by 18th-century dancers in period attire.
Musicians and carolers greet visitors with Old-World holiday hymns at the circa-1753 Carlyle House (121 N. Fairfax St.), once the residence of prominent Scottish merchant John Carlyle.
Lovers, seeking a spontaneous smooch, stand under the 19th-century kissing ball at the circa-1785 Lee-Fendall House (614 Oronoco St.). The home was occupied by Robert E. Lee and 36 members of his family over a period of 118 years. Another candlelight venue is the Bank of Alexandria (133 N. Fairfax St.).
A don’t-miss nighttime adventure is searching for the clandestine hotspot PX, a reincarnated, 1920s-era speakeasy. Hint: Look for the pirate flag by a blue light outside 728 King Street and ring the concealed bell. The door will slip open and quickly shut behind you. Hint two: If you’re wearing jeans and sneakers, you’ll be back out on the street before you can say, “Revolt!” This is a classy-clothes joint. Also, on weekends, they expect a reservation, even though they don’t have a telephone. Hint three: Call 703-299-8384 and leave a message. (You’re welcome.)
Once inside the bar, a candlelit hallway leads to a vintage drawing room, furnished with glitzy chandeliers and sumptuous mahogany chairs. Here, dark-clad wait staff serve creative, modern-day libations with names like “Thymes Like These.” The cocktail, inspired by a popular Foo Fighters’s tune, is gin-based with thyme and citrus.
If you’re staying overnight, consider the Hotel Monaco (480 King St., 703-549-6080). It’s like attending a fabulous family holiday celebration. The hotel exudes nonstop merriment, with its gorgeous, glittering lobby, featuring daily and evening musical entertainment, around-the-clock cider and hot cocoa, complimentary happy-hour hors d’oeuvres, and even in-room doggy beds and treats.
Those seeking an Old-World setting might select the Morrison House (116 S. Alfred St.). With more stars, medals, and accolades than General Lee, this Federal-style inn is elegantly garnished with greenery, ribbons, and decorated trees. On Saturday afternoons in December, the hotel’s traditional high tea (from $32) features homemade holiday delicacies and beverages.
If you go: Old Town Alexandria, VA, is about 50 miles from Baltimore. A calendar and description of holiday events and activities can be found at visitalexandriava.com. Where to stay: Hotel Monaco, holiday package rates begin at $149/night and include parking. 480 King St., 703-549-6080, monoco-alexandria.com. Morrison House, holiday package rates begin at $139/night and include parking. 116 S. Alfred St., morrisonhouse.com. | <urn:uuid:f07fc725-3848-46ef-8b89-1e22e7896e08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/travel/2012/12/a-colonial-celebration?mini=events%2Fcalendar%2F2013-01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.906406 | 2,351 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Cybersecurity is becoming the biggest problem on the internet today. And now becoming a military issue. VPOS Technologies has come up with a solution for cybersecurity issues that need to be absolutely secured. Bill Bales founder of VPOS Technology is taking his idea to the United States government for a presentation of a new technology called “VPOS.” this is a totally new technology with a new programming language called MPro. Read more…
- Microsoft Endorses White House Cybersecurity Plan (blogs.wsj.com)
- The Department of Homeland Security to Hire 140 Cybersecurity Experts (securityorb.com)
- US New Cybersecurity Strategy Includes Military Option (circleid.com)
- Cyberattacks disclosed as federal security law considered (usatoday.com)
- What do we need to do to reach “cybersecurity awareness”? (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
- LulzSec, Recent Hacks Show Government Agencies Unprepared (informationweek.com)
- Calling all technogeeks: Your country needs you (newscientist.com)
- Done, that was easy. Keep your money, we do it for the lulz (blackbergsecurity.us)
These are the reasons why VPOS Technology was created.
No comments yet. | <urn:uuid:3715950b-a377-4a3e-88a7-7563c5d1b961> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://williamebales.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931164 | 273 | 1.875 | 2 |
Latin America's goal for energy independence is tied to its offshore oil and gas reserves. Experts from the illustrious O&G LA 20 committee believe that the offshore sector will become even more important in the future as the industry shifts to deeper waters.
A spokesperson for the committee set to meet in Rio de Janeiro, early next year chaired by Juan Carlos Zepeda, President CNH, Tomas Vargas, Vice President BPZ and Guimar Vaca Coca, MD Americas Petrogas stated this week "There is an apparent need to expand on the offshore services available. Whether it's deploying workers on and off rigs, improving offshore safety, or making sure subsea construction is done as efficient as possible, marine servicing has expanded thoroughly throughout the Americas."
But rapid expansion in offshore developments comes with tremendous risk. The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico highlighted how susceptible deep-water drilling has become, and how difficult a leak is to suppress at such depths. But oil extractors are left with no choice but to drill to such depths, as the global demand for crude increases, whilst shallow wells become exhausted.
Drilling deeper - to lengths greater than a mile - requires technically demanding drilling and complex equipment and seriously reduces the room for error. And as those who witnessed the spread of crude throughout the Gulf of Mexico, it also makes stemming the flow and repairing crippled riser pipes and underwater wells that much more challenging.
The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico bares stark comparisons with the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia, which many commentators have suggested was triggered by deep exploratory drilling in an environment with little-to-no room for error. In the Lusi case, those drilling failed to seal the well, which eventually led to the blow-out of catastrophic proportions. Like the Gulf of Mexico spill, both deep drilling adventures have caused a catastrophic impact on the environment.
With demand increasing, and supply dwindling, simple math dictates that more catastrophic spills and blow-outs are likely on the horizon. More drilling will take place in environmental hot-spots and difficult areas, where accidents like the Gulf of Mexico spill - major, hard to stem leaks - are likely to happen with more frequency. Safety regulations should be evolving to adjust to this new reality, resulting in better legislation for equipment like blow-out valves and shut-off triggers, and the necessary equipment in place to tackle a sprung leak.
And it is with this in mind, Latin America must tread carefully whilst securing energy independence. It will be imperative for those attending the O&G LA 20 in Rio de Janeiro to outline the safest practices whilst expanding its energy quotas.
The resurgence of petro-nationalism - Industry Focus | Refining the refinery sector - Pipelining & Refining | Varel Delivers “Value Through Technology” - Drilling | People are key - HR - NG Oil & Gas US
Like this article? Get the RSS feed: | <urn:uuid:aea62cb4-e079-44b4-8a64-8eaa3b510af9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ngoilgas.com/news/latin-americas-goal-for-energy-independence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936196 | 594 | 2.234375 | 2 |
"Welcome to my Virtual Home !!!" StefanosS's Profile
If you think of visiting Greece...
Greece is much more...
Greece is a way of living and a way of thinking...
it is a way of enjoying anything that consists living
it is a respect to anything that is life
loving life and living love
Here is a quotation about Greeks:
"I regard the Greeks as extremely healthy in their behaviour. They would never chatter senselessly about sunsets or discuss whether the shadows on the grass were dark blue or not. They found out however, that the sea was intended for the swimmer and that the sand was meant for the runners' feet. They loved the trees for their shadow, the afternoon and the forest for their silence. The wine maker crowned his hair with ivy to protect himself from the rays of the sun while he was bending over the new layer of growth. As far as the artist and the athlete are concerned, the two types of people Greece gave to us, they were making garlands from the leaves of oleander and parsley, which otherwise would be useless to man".
Oscar Wilde, De profundis-Epistola: in Carcere et Vinculis
Here is a little story:
When I was student at the University of Patras, in the 70's, a colleague bought a new motor bike. He was very happy and proud for his motor bike, but unfortunately, the bike was stolen two days later! My poor friend was shocked and started immediately his personal investigation. For one week he was looking for information about the under-world of Patras, and somebody told him to go and look in a specific place. It was a small bar named "Small Paris" (!!!) in a neighbourhood called "the gypsies'", a dirty, low-ceiling room, painted with whitewash. The furniture was just a few old tables and old chairs, an old jukebox (it would be valuable for a museum), a long refrigerator and a rotten wooden cash desk. I have personally visited the place, so the description is "first hand". Drinks served were ouzo, beer and whisky. My poor friend was scared, but being brave enough, went in there alone. A dozen of men were sitting around and drinking. The most "respectful" of the company seemed to be an unshaved guy with a big mustachio and my friend addressed to him.
"Excuse me, may I ask you something?..."
No response, just a curious look...
"Excuse me, I am looking for my motor bike... I have lost it last week, it was a new one!"
"Really? Oh dear! Have a seat boy! You want a beer?"
"Yes, thank you! it was a red HONDA, 50cc..."
"A beer for the boy!"
The beer was served and some minutes later my friend asked again:
"Do you know anything about it?"
"Where was it?"
"Kanakari street, near the University..."
"One more beer for the boy! Does anybody know about a red little HONDA stolen last week from the University?"
No response. One more beer came on the table. Time passed. My friend asked again:
"Is there any possibility..."
"We do our best, boy! One more beer?"
"Oh, no, thanks!"
"One more beer for the boy!"
The beer came on the table. Half an hour passed. Nobody got out, nobody entered. The big mustachio was the first to speak:
"Boy, around the corner there is a machine... Tell me if it is yours!"
"Here ??? !!!"
"To your left."
My friend got out and Yesssss!!! His bike was there! some parts were missing, some scratches, a mirror broken, but it was there ! He came back to the bar.
"Yes !!! It's mine!"
"Take it my boy!"
"Thank you so much!"
"Thanks for what ??? It was there !!! Take it and go with God's blessing !!!"
That's Greece !!!
Greeks like to play with everything, even with their gods, but still respecting them. Perhaps this is our great advantage, as well as our great disadvantage. An ancient Greek philosopher said:
Anyone is welcome to join our game of love and life
but remember: don't play bad games with us, you are playing with the fire...
Come on, join our game...
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- 2421 Reviews - 6530 Photos | <urn:uuid:c3398a2d-73ee-4f74-9896-e5753f35bb5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/22b26/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942362 | 1,561 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Pssst — heard the one about the lethal scandal that reaches to the upper levels of the Obama administration and may turn out to be bigger than Watergate? A crime in which two American agents have been killed, and which the Justice Department has been furiously trying to cover up for more than 18 months?
If you answered “no,” you’re not alone. The mainstream media have largely ignored the lethal — and most likely deliberate — “gunwalking” operation known as Fast and Furious. The plan, as ridiculous as it sounds, was to knowingly sell weapons to Mexican drug cartels, in hopes of tracing the guns. Of course, our government lost track of them.
With the president’s startling claim last week of executive privilege on behalf of his embattled attorney general, Eric Holder, the story’s now too big to ignore. So here’s what you need to know:
It’s about innocent victims
One of them is Brian Terry, who died at age 40 on Dec. 15, 2010 in Rio Rico, Ariz., just north of Nogales and about 10 miles from the Mexican border. The night before, Terry and his elite Border Patrol unit had encountered a “rip crew” — a Mexican gang that preys on smugglers and illegal immigrants. In the shootout, Terry was mortally wounded by an AK-47 and died the next day.
That AK-47, along with one other, was traced back to an Arizona gun shop that sold it in the Fast and Furious operation. And that kicked off a scandal that widens by the day.
The Detroit-born Terry, who served in the Marine Corps and as a police officer in Lincoln Park, Mich., before joining the Patrol, had a reputation for fitness, toughness and bravery.
“I do not fear death for I have been close enough to it on enough occasions that it no longer concerns me,” the Detroit native wrote in a poem shortly before his death. “But I do fear the loss of my honor, and would rather die fighting than have it said I was without courage.”
Terry’s family has since sued the ATF for $25 million, citing Fast and Furious as the cause.
But it’s not just Terry
Two months later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata, on assignment in Mexico, was murdered by drug cartel members, who also wounded his partner. The gun that killed him, an AK-47 knockoff, was traced back to a gun shop in Dallas.
Last week, Zapata’s family filed suits against the ATF, ICE and the FBI totaling $50 million.
The two agents’ death come in addition to the deaths of hundreds of Mexicans killed with F&F weapons in their country’s lethal drug wars.
It’s no laughing matter | <urn:uuid:77ccae55-dadb-4a28-ac64-3bd46489a7d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.republicheritage.com/2012/06/why-fast-and-furious-matters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978934 | 592 | 1.585938 | 2 |
- Historic Sites
A Son’s Tribute
Three long-lost paintings of Washington in action (above, at Germantown) were part of G.W.P. Custis’ lifelong effort to glorify the foster father he adored
February 1966 | Volume 17, Issue 2
In 1953, at Freeman’s Auction House in Philadelphia, three large paintings of Revolutionary War scenes were offered for sale. They were obviously the work of an untrained hand, and in all three the mounted figure of George Washington was the lotus of the somewhat primitive composition. The battles they depicted were not identified with any certainly, no one knew when they had been painted, and the name of ihe artist was not given. The crowd at Freeman’s showed litlle interest in the battle scenes, and the bidding was sluggish. They were finally sold to an agent representing Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell Gardiner, antiques dealers of Stamford, Connecticut. The price for the three was $600. Hut as soon as the Gardiners saw the paintings they felt certain that they had made a discovery of historic importance. For they suspected thai lhe lhtce paintings were from the hand of George Washington Parke Custis and that the canvases of red and green and gold spoke of an extraordinary link between the American Revolution and the Civil War.
Few men in American history have so completely bridged the gap between iwo eras, touched with their own hands two distant epochs, as did Custis. He was the adopted son of one great Virginian, the “Father of His Country,” who made the union of the American colonies possible, and the father-in-law of another, who led lhe armies of the rebellion against that union, which lie felt had become oppressive.
Custis’ father, John Parke Custis, the son of Martha Washington by her first marriage, died of “camp fever” in the closing hours of the Revolution, leaving four young children. George Washington—who had rushed’ from Yorktown to be at the dying man’s bedside—announced on the spot (so it is said), “I adopt the two younger children as my own.” George Custis was then six months old; the other child adopted by Washington, Eleanor (“Nelly”) Parke Custis, was about two years older. Their mother, Eleanor Calvert Custis, a granddaughter of the fifth Lord Baltimore, was quite able to take care of them, but she consented to the wishes of the childless Washingtons, who longed to have children at Mount Vernon.
“Little Wash,” or “Tub,” as he was called, was America’s first presidential child. Living with the first First Family when the federal capital was in New York and in Philadelphia, he met all the great men who came to visit the President and was fourteen when he saw Washington lay the cornerstone of the Capitol. He adored the General, and all his life gloried in the epithet, “the child of Mount Vernon.” After Washington’s death in 1799, he continued to live there with his eminent grandmother until she died in 1802.
Custis, then a young man of twenty-one, moved to Arlington—or Mount Washington as he first tailed it—a tract of more than 1,000 acres, once his father’s property, across the Potomac from the federal city. There he began to build a mansion (hat would be, above all, a shrine to George Washington. In its final form it was just that, a temple with eight heroic Doric columns that still dominates the view across (he Potomac into Virginia. “It gives the impression,” Douglas Southall Freeman wrote, “of being built to be looked at, rather lhan to be lived in.” To it young Custis brought many of the Washington family portraits, the lantern from the hall of Mount Vernon, a set of china presented to the first President by the Society of the Cincinnati, pieces of Washington’s furniture, his camp equipment, his deathbed, and even the Negro maid who had been in the room when he died.
But the master of Arlington was not content to be merely a curator of memorabilia, preserving Washington’s memory like some glorious thing trap|)ed in amber. His position as a gentleman farmer of independent means gave him the time to use his talents to add to the Washington legend. He was among the first to write plays on native American subjects, and the theme was almost invariably American patriotism as Custis believed Washington would have wanted it expressed. In addition, every year on Washington’s birthday he contributed an article to the National Intelligencer , a leading newspaper published in the capital. His subject, of course, was his “recollections” of the Pater Patriae . Amazingly enough, he found something new to say on the subject every February 22 for thirty long years.
His voice was quite as ready as his pen to serve the cause of his hero on any national holiday, especially the Glorious Fourth, in fact, it was so ready that he earned for himself the sobriquet “the inevitable Custis.” On one such occasion his verbal stamina was blamed for the death of a President. It was July 4, 1850, and Zachary Taylor, a man well into his sixties, remained for some time in a very hot sun to listen to a Custis peroration. That night the President, undoubtedly in desperate need of refreshment, ate a great quantity of fresh cherries and drank a great deal of iced milk. He took sick and five days later died. Officially his death was attributed to cholera, but there were unkind souls who blamed it all on Custis. He was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral. | <urn:uuid:c9996f31-f971-4615-983a-545563a7f9cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanheritage.com/content/son%E2%80%99s-tribute | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984895 | 1,237 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The killing of innocent children: Psalm 137:9. This sign is slightly misleading. The passage does say “your,” but this Psalm addresses Babylon. In any case, that doesn’t exactly make it any better. Any action, it seems, is permissible so long as the nation of Israel does the killing under Yahweh‘s direction. Is that about right? Just like the commandment against murder in the Ten Commandments only applies among fellow Israelites. Jews in the Bible, of course, can plunder, murder, rape and maim with impunity. | <urn:uuid:0b3842f9-8a2c-42a6-992c-fa357ec9767d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jeremystyron.com/2013/01/the-bible-says-the-darndest-things/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940711 | 121 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Arthur stood still without speaking, and no other word passed between them till they were at the side entrance, where he hoped to get in without being seen by any one. He said then, “Thank you; I needn’t trouble you any further.”
“What time will it be conven’ent for me to see you to-morrow, sir?” said Adam.
“You may send me word that you’re here at five o’clock,” said Arthur; “not before.”
“Good-night, sir,” said Adam. But he heard no reply; Arthur had turned into the house.
The Next Morning
Arthur did not pass a sleepless night; he slept long and well. For sleep comes to the perplexed—if the perplexed are only weary enough. But at seven he rang his bell and astonished Pym by declaring he was going to get up, and must have breakfast brought to him at eight.
“And see that my mare is saddled at half-past eight, and tell my grandfather when he’s down that I’m better this morning and am gone for a ride.”
He had been awake an hour, and could rest in bed no longer. In bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a present which offers some resistance to the past—sensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories. And if there were such a thing as taking averages of feeling, it would certainly be found that in the hunting and shooting seasons regret, self-reproach, and mortified pride weigh lighter on country gentlemen than in late spring and summer. Arthur felt that he should be more of a man on horseback. Even the presence of Pym, waiting on him with the usual deference, was a reassurance to him after the scenes of yesterday. For, with Arthur’s sensitiveness to opinion, the loss of Adam’s respect was a shock to his self-contentment which suffused his imagination with the sense that he had sunk in all eyes—as a sudden shock of fear from some real peril makes a nervous woman afraid even to step, because all her perceptions are suffused with a sense of danger.
Arthur’s, as you know, was a loving nature. Deeds of kindness were as easy to him as a bad habit: they were the common issue of his weaknesses and good qualities, of his egoism and his sympathy. He didn’t like to witness pain, and he liked to have grateful eyes beaming on him as the giver of pleasure. When he was a lad of seven, he one day kicked down an old gardener’s pitcher of broth, from no motive but a kicking impulse, not reflecting that it was the old man’s dinner; but on learning that sad fact, he took his favourite pencil-case and a silver-hafted knife out of his pocket and offered them as compensation. He had been the same Arthur ever since, trying to make all offences forgotten in benefits. If there were any bitterness in his nature, it could only show itself against the man who refused to be conciliated by him. And perhaps | <urn:uuid:4f0f33ca-4b5a-4203-a2e2-c900dfe141ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/507/224.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990758 | 691 | 1.953125 | 2 |
Your first class today is taught by Sofeea Icecall.
Sofeea Icecall — The Mage
The life of a mage revolves around hand size and mana potions. A mage should always try to keep a full hand, as this is going to provide the options needed to overcome encounters. Don't forget to use the Ice Block ability found on the back of the mage's card. This disrupts opponent's strategies and gives the mage control of the game. The mage's ability cards can be broken into three categories; cards that help, cards that disrupt enemy characters, and cards that help in combat.
The first set contains cards like Arcane Intellect, which reduces the price of any ability by one, and Evocation, which cycles faster through the ability deck. The real key ability in this category though, is Teleport. This card lets a mage move 3.5 inches in any direction. This sounds pretty weak, but when looking at the board, 3.5 inches can get from one branch to the next, or can be used to get out of a space with an Aggro encounter.
The second set is smaller and earns the mage a bad reputation. These cards include such spells as Counterspell, which cancels an enemy ability card just played. These cards have limited range so use them sparingly.
The last category makes up most of the ability deck. These are the cards that need to be in the mage's hand. Blink is a spell that cancels a battle, letting the mage decide when to fight. Blizzard is a ranged attack with a strength of 4, giving the mage an edge early in the game. The real powerhouse is Summon Water Elemental. This card is a ranged attack with a strength of 4, but if the opponent fails to hit, the card goes back into hand. To further compound the ability, a mana potion can be consumed to fuel the spell Frost Armor. Frost Armor increases a mage's base defense by one, making it that much harder for an opponent to hit, making Summon Water Elemental that much stronger.
The final thing to remember is mana. Without it, abilities are useless cards. Mana can be acquired through encounters, but the easier way to get it is to win a couple encounters, then use the Auction House Icon. This icon lets you swap out any item for a new one of the same level, effectively letting you swap out items until you get a mana potion.
Lesson two this afternoon is taught by Mr. Fang and his… um… associate?
Burbonn Fang — The Hunter
The most important thing to a hunter is his pet. My pet is Samson. As you can see Samson is a bear. Your pet is the one thing that can stay a constant, and will help you out immensely throughout Azeroth. The next thing are your abilities. The ability to keep your eye out for is Mend Pet. If you haven't been able to get Samson, this card lets you get him for free. On to the other abilities, the first set I'm going to talk about are the traps.
Traps give you control of the battlefield. You can use them to prevent an enemy from leaving a spot with a Freezing Trap, or you can do a fair amount of damage with a Snake Trap. One of my favorites uses Samson, it is called Intimidation. First you set up a trap, Snake Trap for preference. Then you move into a space with an enemy character, and attach Intimidation to him. Now on his turn you get to choose where he goes, and guess what, he goes right into the Snake Trap!
The next thing of note is your aspect. Depending on your aspect, you gain powers no other adventurer can obtain. Sure they can get the ability maybe once or twice a game, but you can have it until you change it. The aspects of the Cheetah and Monkey are the best for new Hunters. The Cheetah will let you move through those pesky Aggro encounters, while the Monkey will let you reroll if you rolled a 1 on your combat die. Both of these powers get better once you are green level. The other two aspects are a bit more powerful, and require a bit of know how. Aspect of the Hawk allows you to convert unspent energy into attack strength right before combat. The key here is knowing when you need that energy to fuel your other abilities, and when you can use it to power your Hawk. The last aspect is my personal favorite, Aspect of the Viper. The downside is a maximum hand of only 5 cards. To make up for that, every time you play a card, you get to draw a card. Drawing cards is a very powerful ability, and when something grants you the ability to draw potentially 5 or more cards a turn you best take notice.
The last thing is your combat cards. Half of them are used instead of a weapon, these are good at the very start, since your weapon isn't very powerful, and again towards the end as the improved green and red abilities become more powerful. The other half are abilities that add to combat, and most of these require Samson to take part. Claw makes your attack a melee attack and gives it +1 to hit. Growl is near identical to Claw, but adds to your defense. The trump card to use is Bestial Wrath. This card makes your combat die a 6, and if you are red level, prevents your opponent from rerolling! For those of you who did your homework, you know that on a combat roll of a 6 Samson provides a boost to your defense.
So to sum up, the bear is your best friend, use combinations of cards to accomplish your mission, and use the Aspect best suited to get you where you need to go.
All right bells are ringing, which brings school to a close for today. Next session begins soon and classes will cover two new subjects.
Fantasy Flight Games | <urn:uuid:cd58fce5-0ce8-44b2-add8-c9edc80fab07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=1&efcid=2&efidt=167&efpag=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952873 | 1,216 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A few days ago, I mentioned here on the blog that I had added Tony Abbott’s upcoming novel, “The Postcard” to my wishlist. Mr. Abbott himself actually stumbled upon the post and commented! He was kind enough to send an ARC to my class and he even signed it for us! When I showed my students today, they were absolutely thrilled, to say the least. I finished the book today and loved it! Below you will find my review:
Jason is your average, middle-class kid. He lives in Massachusetts, the youngest of three kids. Mom and Dad had him later in life, so he is practically an only child. Life seems great- Mom has a good job, school is going well, and it’s finally summer! But as most kids know, something always ends up going wrong. Jason’s grandmother has passed away and he is shuttled off to Florida to help his father clean out the house and help tie up some loose ends. Jason wants nothing to do with this, especially when he realizes his parents are using this time as a trial separation, of sorts. Regardless, his mother ships him off to Florida and Jason arrives in St. Petersburg within 24 hours of his grandmother’s death. St. Petersburg is “full of old people”, as my students would say. Florida is a major retirement destination for much of NJ, so I know my students will identify with this aspect of the story!
Jason figures he will help out his dad, clean the house, and be back in Massachusetts within a few days. His dad is pretty upset by the death of his mother, and Jason ends up taking care of him a lot. It turns out that his dad was an illegitimate child who never knew his own father; his mother was sick for most of his life and he spent a lot of time away at school. Jason doesn’t know much about his father’s family and is thoroughly creeped out by sleeping in the house where his grandmother died. He wants nothing more than to get back home. Everything changes when he starts receiving strange phone calls.
The phone calls lead to a strange postcard. Then, his house-bound grandmother’s funeral is full of bizarre guests. When he finds an old magazine in some boxes, a bizarre story saved by his grandmother for close to half a century becomes a mystery within the mystery.Who exactly was Jason’s grandmother? Who was his grandfather? Was his great-grandfather an evil man? Why did the guests at his grandmother’s funeral look like circus freaks and why did the funeral director refer to her as Marnie? And is the strange story in Bizarre Mysteries actually true?
Jason has stumbled into the mystery of a lifetime, and he is running out of time to solve it. Abbott effortlessly weaves together mystery and intrigue, resulting in a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat and constantly guessing. I was able to come up with bits and pieces of the solution as I got deeper into the story, but I never figured it out exactly. The novel is very unpredictable, making it all the more enjoyable.
I am strongly considering using this novel as a read-aloud for my class. I have been trying to find a fun novel with a male protagonist and none of my normal, go-to novels were doing it for me. “The Postcard” may be just what I am looking for! I love the mystery-within-a-mystery that Abbott writes using the magazine story. Jason is also very easy to relate to- I know my students will understand his parents’ separation and his relationship with his best friends. Even moreso, I know they already think of Florida as a place full of old people, so Abbott’s constant references to the influx of the elderly in Florida will make them laugh. Finally, the mystery itself is fascinating! I know I started looking at the history of the St. Petersburg area and some of the main characters. While the novel isn’t non-fiction, it brings up some very interesting historical aspects of Florida. Without ruining the mystery, I can say I learned a lot about a subject I had never really considered before.
“The Postcard” will be released in April 2008. Thank you again to Tony Abbott for getting this into my hands! My fabulous readers can’t wait to get their hands on this book! | <urn:uuid:c5089603-b61e-48e8-8990-abb6aa50f5df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thereadingzone.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/the-postcard-by-tony-abbott/?like=1&_wpnonce=84af3d0b4c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00051-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988658 | 918 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Police collected more than 2,000 firearms Wednesday in Los Angeles, during a gun buyback event held less than two weeks after the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn. Do such city initiatives help reduce gun violence?
The city of Los Angeles, one of several municipalities to hold a gun buyback event since the Dec. 14 mass shooting in Newton, Conn., collected more than 2,000 firearms – a record, police officials reported Thursday.
Los Angeles had moved up the date of its no-questions-asked gun turn-in with the hope that the Newtown tragedy would prompt residents to surrender some firearms, thereby reducing the number of guns in circulation. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city would gave $100 to $200 gift cards in exchange for each gun recovered.
At a press conference Thursday, police officials said they collected 2,037 firearms, surpassing the 1,673 guns collected last year.
Page 1 of 4 | <urn:uuid:96253167-b772-4ef3-8cff-d24e473e9caa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/1227/Los-Angeles-collects-most-guns-ever-in-post-Newtown-buyback-event | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954274 | 192 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Sequences of Numbers Lite
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Rating: 4.2 (4) Cost: Free Downloads: 1,000 - 5,000
This game is a development of our first one "link". While your child was learning numbers and associating them with words representing the digit value in the first part, this game will require your kid to understand numbers relative values between each other. The child have to put randomized numbers queue in ordered line. We have presented numbers in the form of railway cars to intensify the feeling of ordering direction. A locomotive heading shows a direction your child have to put numbers. Once all numbers are set in right order your kid hears a hooter and the train moves away. Then your kid get a prize picture that keeps an interest to the game for a long time.
There are two versions of this game: lite and regular. While the basic functionality is the same regular version contains more difficulties (numbers range 11-20 and 11-100) and more prize pictures. Lite version is available with 1-10 range only and fewer prizes. If your child experiences difficulties with recognizing numbers we'd advise to try our first game initially and once he/she recognizes numbers easily you can advance to current game.
Filed Under: Education | <urn:uuid:b2c55238-6e5f-48a7-9adf-a639b9498595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://android-apps.com/applications/education/sequences-of-numbers-lite/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937771 | 257 | 2.765625 | 3 |
It takes more than “Select *” to make a great SQL query. In this video excerpt from Vinod Kumar’s and Pinal Dave’s new course SQL Server Performance: Introduction to Query Tuning you’ll see how to view the execution plans for your queries including the differences between estimated and actual plans as well as how your query hints can affect the execution plan in unforeseen ways. In the full course, the two go on to cover topics such as indexing techniques, how order of tables and query hints affect execution, and how to use various tools to optimize queries.
Pinal Dave is a Microsoft Technology Evangelist (Database and BI). He has written over 2000 articles on the subject on his blog at http://blog.sqlauthority.com. He is the co-author of three SQL Server books – SQL Server Programming, SQL Wait Stats and SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers. Vinod Kumar has worked with SQL Server extensively since joining the industry over a decade ago. Before joining Microsoft, he was a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server for more than 3 years. He is a well-known speaker at all major Microsoft and third party technical conferences.
If you’d like to learn more about how to make your queries perform, this course is definitely for you. Do you have any special tips and tricks of your own? Click on the comment links and let us see your tuning voodoo.
You can watch the full HD version of this video along with the other 3 hr 54 min of video found in this professional course by subscribing to Pluralsight. Visit SQL Server Performance: Introduction to Query Tuning to view the full course outline. Pluralsight subscribers also benefit from cool features like mobile apps, full library search, progress tracking, exercise files, assessments, and offline viewing. Happy learning! | <urn:uuid:3b088232-a686-4a3a-bb05-9cf5701a17a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pluralsight.com/2012/06/11/video-plan-your-execution-with-sql-query-tuning/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948284 | 376 | 1.914063 | 2 |
Middle Ages it is the
time of over a thousand years between the beginning of the 5th
century and the 16th century. It is lately very popular to glorify
Middle Ages. Many historians and other scientists are trying to
capture and show the good heritage of that time. Although maybe
there were many achievements in the field of art and culture the
special characteristic of this period is quite a big restrain in
development of other scientific studies (also in study of atom).
Not being enthusiastic about Middle Ages we have kept our distance.
We have tried to find the scientific thoughts and achievements of
this period, but the only conclusion we made is that after many
successes of Greek philosophers, there is a lack of progress in the
study of atom in the Middle Ages.
What then has caused
this situation? First of all, one must remember that the special
feature of the Middle Ages' culture was its uniformity). The
Church's influence in Europe was great. This had some good and bad
sides The good thing was that the intellectual power of artists and
scientists as well new technologies could have been easily
transferred between countries. Another was,that the Church has
taken the financial responsibility for science. But the bad side
lays in the fact that every culture benefits from some and reject
some and if there is only one culture some things cannot develop.
And anyway the Church was interested in financing and supporting
the development of theology not physics.
Only few courageous
thinkers took up a challenge of researching microstructure. Most
philosophers recognised Aristotle as the greatest
authority including his opinion on matter's constitution.
Many achievements of
ancient culture were transferred into Arab countries, and that was
the case with atomistic philosophy, too.
At the same time, but in
Europe, school of Chartres began to develop. It was the institution
created to serve non theoretical science. Works of ancient
scientists were studied there, with a special emphasis on Democritus's study of atom.
Middle Ages didn't
make any important changes in the understanding of world's
microstructure. Works of ancient atomists were rarely read. Most
thinkers in Europe as well as in Islamic countries considered
theological problems. Enlightened people, like Wilhelm from Conches, were even called heretics. But
before long, came the change. The time of great physicists has
come. They were the ones to change the view of world and to begin
the contemporary science. | <urn:uuid:968704a1-4331-48af-a65b-75ed04ff1470> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/19662/high/eng/middle.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976482 | 528 | 3.4375 | 3 |
It is March, 1599. William Shakespeare has just arrived at the house of Richard Burbage, his producer, to discuss a new play. With plots, characters and sweet poetry whirling through his head, Shakespeare is nervous at the prospect of selling his vision and yet he is in equal parts excited by the ideas that rest in his heart, yearning to escape to the sanctuary of the page.
"So William, what have you got for me this time?" bellows the great figure of Burbage, as he pours himself what must be his fifth sherry of the morning. The Bard starts to speak but is immediately interrupted by his illustrious patron. "Now don't give me all your normal rubbish. Last time you went off on an half-hour-long speech about revenge and the nature of the human mind. Then all I ended up with was some bloke talking to a skull. Forget all your silly hype and just describe your play to me in one sentence."
Shakespeare pauses for a while to contemplate this unexpected task. After much pondering and fiddling with his freshly-trimmed beard, he is ready. "My lord," he respectfully begins, "my intention is to write a show about nothing."
- Jerry of Padua - A lord and successful military officer, renowned for his joke-filled speeches to troops.
- Giorgio of Constanzia - A lord and friend of Jerry, going back to their days in military school.
- Franco of Constanzia - Giorgio's father.
- Estella - Giorgio's mother.
- Leonato - Governor of Messina.
- Susan - Daughter of Leonato. Betrothed to Giorgio.
- Bennice - An orphan. Niece of Leonato. At one time had a relationship with Jerry, but are now just friends.
- Cosmo - A fool.
- Don Newman - Trusted messenger of the Leonato household. Enemy of Jerry.
The play starts with Jerry, Giorgio, Bennice and Cosmo wandering the streets of Messina, hopelessly lost. Every street looks like the last and the group have no idea where they have left their carriage. Jerry and Bennice walk the streets arguing over where to go and where they have just been. Giorgio, meanwhile is worried that he will miss a pre-wedding dinner with his parents. Furthermore, he has yet to figure out how to get out of the wedding. Cosmo tries to lighten the mood by suggesting that Bennice can transport them back home, inviting her to "giddy up, my lady".
The party return home. They are greeted by Bennice's uncle Leonato who invites them to a masked ball. This is to be held in the garden, so lovingly designed by Bennice's cousin, Jeffrey. Giorgio apologises to his parents for missing dinner, assuring his mother in the process that he does need to see a psychiatrist, whatever that is. All the characters leave the stage to prepare for the party, with the exception of Don Newman. In the following soliloquy, Don Newman professes his "hatred for the funny man". He vows to humiliate and ruin Jerry.
| For he shall see sorrow and damnation,
Control the mail, control information.
At the masked ball, Don Newman puts his plan into action, informing Jerry of a fair maiden who is eager to make his acquaintance. Don Newman then tells the audience, that the fair maiden in question is Giorgio's beloved Susan. He then finds Giorgio picking his nose. Instead of sending for Susan as Giorgio requests, Don Newman brings Jerry's wooing of Susan to his attention. Naturally, Giorgio flies into a rage and breaks off the engagement. However, Don Newman is disappointed when Giorgio does not blame Jerry and there is no duel.
The next day, Leonato is despairing at how he has yet to get either Susan or Bennice married off. Cosmo, offers his help, wagering that he can get both ladies a husband. First he plans to bring Giorgio back to Susan, by having her fake her death by poisonous letter-sealing wax. Secondly, he plans to set up Bennice with Jerry. Meanwhile, Bennice ponders whether or not one of her current suitors is a Moor.
On hearing from Cosmo of Susan's death, Giorgio curses his luck at missing out on any inheritance and considers going back and pretending the break up had never happened. However, he gives up the idea upon realising he might have to contribute to Susan's foundation. Jerry also turns away Cosmo's matchmaking attempts, arguing that "The o'er-leaping ambition of Icarus could not top this mount. Foolish is he who seeks this, that and the other". The next day, Cosmo goes back to Leonato and declares that the bet's off. He's not doing it anymore.
In the final act of the play, Leonato takes up the matchmaking himself, Jerry borrows a pen, there's fights and drama, yada yada yada, it all works out in the end.
The Critical Analysis
One constant theme running through the play is the characters' worrying and nit-picking ways. At the start of the play, Jerry casts aside a potential romance with an unseen character, Rosaline, under the pretence that "she does eat her peas one by one". This also reflects in the way that the characters dismiss chances of happiness, one by one. Later on, Jerry does not take Cosmo's matchmaking seriously, and instead is more interested in his shirt, asking "dost thou not see how I am all puffed up?"
This self-interest (further exemplified by Giorgio's worries that he may be blamed for Susan's death), blinds the characters from emotional development, explaining the noticeable lack of hugging or learning in the play.
At the beginning of the 21st century, several critics suggested that the relationship between Giorgio and Jerry is one of Shakespeare's characteristic subtexts of repressed homosexuality. At the start of the masked ball, the two are mistaken for a couple, which they quickly deny upon revealing their identities to the maiden in question. While some critics point to this incident as merely a comedic demonstration of the confusion at the ball, the sexuality point is further enforced with the characters qualification that while they're not gay, "Forsooth, there is not a thing wrong with that". It can also be argued that Cosmo is referring to Jerry's sexuality in act 2 scene 3, when he describes him as "thin, neat and single".
Much Ado About Nothing is regarded by many as Shakespeare's anti-play. Conventional actions and feelings expressed in the theatre are cast aside. Giorgio actively attempts to avoid marriage, inverting the norm where characters fall in love. When Jerry and Bennice eventually pursue "this that and the other", they do not follow their hearts. Instead, they follow a set of rules. In "Much Ado", Shakespeare expresses the idea that not everyone is the same; some people lead shallow and pointless lives.
Many great actors have taken on the parts over the years. Derek Jacobi's Giorgio is widely considered to have been the greatest of all. The dynamic energy, pitiful insecurity and utter shamelessness he brought to the role proved Jacobi to be a true master of his domain. Reflecting upon his lifetime in Shakespeare, Sir Derek considers Giorgio to have been his most highly demanding role. "Giorgio is unique in that he's not the hero with a tragic flaw. He's the loser. That is what one has to grasp. To be faced with love and turn the other way, to look death in the eyes and still worry about your worthless little self, to feel... nothing. That is the challenge," he says.
Sir Ian McKellen faced his own challenge, when playing Jerry in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1971 production. "For me it was all about one line," he recalls "the power of the hatred, the depth of feeling, all had to be summed up by the simple words: "Good morrow, Newman." | <urn:uuid:acc757e6-19cf-4631-b244-1284b15cc2a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing?diff=next&oldid=2745076 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966927 | 1,704 | 2.5 | 2 |
6 Odd Things Eaten in Japan
Because it’s surrounded on all sides by water, it makes sense that much of what the Japanese eat comes from the sea. We all know they eat whales and dolphins, but how about fish sperm and poisonous puffer fish? The short list below also includes a few specialties found on land that I just had to include. As always, if you’ve tried any of these, please let us know how they taste in the comments below.
1. Zazamushi (Aquatic Insects)
Zazamushi isn’t just one kind of insect; rather, a catch-all name applied to the larvae of insects that live at the bottom of rivers. The name “zazamushi” literally translates to “insects (mushi) that live in a place where the river makes the sound zaazaa as it flows.”
2. Fugu (Poisonous Puffer Fish)
The Japanese have been eating fugu for centuries, which means they’ve had plenty of time to figure out HOW to eat this poisonous fish. Fugu flesh is edible, but the skin, liver and ovaries contain lethal amounts of the poison tetrododoxin. If any of these elements are consumed, then the poison paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. Good times. For this reason, it’s imperative that a special, qualified fugu chef prepares your meal.
3. Shirako (Fish Sperm)
Shirako, a common item found in most Japanese pubs consisting entirely of the male genitalia of fish still fat with seminal fluid.
4. Basashi (Raw Horse Meat)
While Japan isn’t the only country that eats horse meat, I believe it’s the only one that eats it raw, as sashimi.
5. Hachinoko (Bee Larvae)
This crunchy, maggotty bee larvae is served in pubs the way we serve beer nuts. Yum!
6. Shirouo no Odorigui (Dancing Icefish)
Shirouo are very small transparent fish that are eaten alive. They dance in your mouth - or rather do the odorigui (dancing while being eaten). | <urn:uuid:52be3ead-cd06-4aa5-85d0-8cb7bf97964e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mentalfloss.com/article/28864/6-odd-things-eaten-japan | 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 | 0.938762 | 486 | 2.5 | 2 |
Question: I recently purchased a moped. Sometimes when I pull up to a stoplight at night the sensor does not pick me up. Do I have to sit there until the light changes, or may I go if there is no other traffic? Second, my top speed is 30 mph. If I am traveling on a road with a speed limit higher than that, may I ride in the bike lane?
Answer: All of the signals in Bellingham that are on a sensor should pick up your moped. What I have frequently seen, both for bicycles and mopeds, is the operator will stay too far to the right as they approach the intersection and won't activate the sensor.
This becomes more of an issue at night, when there are fewer vehicles to activate it for you. My suggestion, at night, is to move closer to the center of the lane (avoiding the actual center where the majority of the oil drips are) so you will have a better chance of activating the sensor. If you still have trouble with the sensor, contact the city of Bellingham Public Works office and let them know when and where it happened so they can look into it and fix the issue.
I have looked through both the Bellingham Municipal Code and the RCW and did not find any law that would prohibit you from using the bicycle lane on a roadway. I did find several locations that specifically prohibit mopeds from using "bicycle trails or bicycle pathways".
Q: When a bicyclist is turning left onto a one-way road with a bicycle lane, is it appropriate to turn into the nearest lane (left lane) and merge to the right to get to the bike lane, or do you disregard that law and turn directly into the bicycle lane? Example: Traveling southbound on Cornwall Avenue and taking a left turn onto Magnolia Street.
A: Your turn would be regulated the same as for a car. You would need to turn into the left-hand lane of Magnolia and then legally merge to the right (signaling your movement with hand signals) until you arrived at the bicycle lane.
ABOUT RULES OF THE ROAD
Rules of the Road is a regular column with questions and answers on road laws, safe driving habits and general police practices.
Answers come from David Wright, a retired officer from the Bellingham Police Department who is now serving on the Whatcom County Traffic Safety Task Force.
To ask a question, go to bellinghamherald.com/ask-a-question. | <urn:uuid:6ef5de33-f47a-437e-8c41-9ea195eeb5a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/09/03/2669124/what-do-i-do-if-my-moped-doesnt.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9576 | 518 | 1.742188 | 2 |
But the reputation of vegan eating got a much-needed public-relations lift this summer from an unlikely place — the Food Network’s popular new show “Cupcake Wars.”
The program, which each week features four of the country’s top bakers facing off in three elimination challenges, recently pitted a 22-year-old vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli, against three bakers of traditional high-end cupcakes.
The judges were skeptical at first. “I was surprised at the bravery and boldness to parade four different flavors of vegan cupcakes in front of the judges when everyone else was clearly going to be working with butter and eggs,” said one judge, Candace Nelson, the owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills, Calif. “I thought it was possibly working at a disadvantage.”
Ms. Coscarelli not only survived the first round, but did so to rave reviews. In the second round, her cupcakes — chocolate strawberry shortcake, raspberry tiramisù and crème-filled chocolate orange — captivated the judges. And then she took the final round — a presentation involving 1,000 cupcakes. The victory won her a $10,000 prize and the chance to supply the cupcakes for an OK! magazine celebrity event.
“Of all the shows we’ve done, the thing I hear the most is, ‘Were those vegan cupcakes really that good?’ ” Ms. Nelson said. “People are in sort of disbelief that this vegan chef beat out the rest of the competition. My answer is yes, they were delicious. It was everything we were looking for in a cupcake.”
Vegan eating has had a growth spurt in recent years. The book “Skinny Bitch,” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (Running Press, 2005), with its sassy arguments for vegan eating, has been a best seller for years. “The China Study,” by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell II (BenBella Books, 2006), which takes a scientific look at the benefits of plant-based eating, has sold more than a half-million copies. And celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and the “Glee” star Lea Michele have embraced vegan eating.
But what was different abut Ms. Coscarelli’s Food Network triumph was that it didn’t rely on health or dietary benefits, or sympathy for animals, to promote the virtues of vegan food. Instead, the vegan cupcakes just tasted better.
“I think the waves it created and the coverage it got showing that vegan food can stand up to traditional baking is enormous,” said Colleen Holland, the co-founder and associate publisher of VegNews Magazine, to which Ms. Coscarelli is a contributor. “It was a pretty big moment for getting vegan food out there and showing there’s no deprivation, and that it’s the same level of food that’s made with eggs, butter and milk.”
Ms. Coscarelli, of Los Angeles, a recent graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City, said she tried out for the show hoping to change the image of vegan baking. Still, she worried that the network and the judges might reject the notion of vegan cupcakes out of hand.
“It was a huge risk,” she said. “I think right now veganism is portrayed as that horrible stereotype of hippie food that doesn’t taste good and that’s bland. I wanted to break through with a different image, that vegan food can taste exciting.”
Since the episode was shown in June and repeated in August, Ms. Coscarelli said, she has been swamped with e-mail and inquiries to her Web site, ChefChloe.com. She’s heard from several parents of children with egg or dairy allergies who were excited by the opportunity to finally bake cupcakes for their children.
“People are really inspired,” she said. “They realize it’s not weird if they’re choosing to eat a different way or have to eliminate certain ingredients. This shows it can still be done well.”
The biggest challenge of vegan baking is to create moist, light and rich-tasting cake without eggs and butter, the traditional binding ingredients for pastry dough. “I use a combination of baking soda and vinegar — it may sound gross, but it works chemically to bind the cupcakes,” Ms. Coscarelli said. “If the flavor is there, it doesn’t matter what kinds of ingredients you’re using to hold it all together.”
For frosting, traditional bakers use butter or shortening, whipping it with powdered sugar and other ingredients. Ms. Coscarelli substitutes organic refined coconut oil or nonhydrogenated margarines to achieve the same creamy texture. Other winning ingredients, like fresh raspberries and pure dark chocolate, are vegan to begin with.
On her videos and in her recipes, Ms. Coscarelli is venturing beyond cupcakes. Recently on her blog, she offered black-bean sliders with spicy mango sauce and guacamole, accompanied by Cajun yam fries. In January, her mango masala panini (made with spiced chickpeas, roasted-cauliflower curry and mango chutney) won a sandwich competition in Brentwood, Calif., beating out panini made with animal products like spiced pork loin, ham and Gruyère cheese.
With her porcelain skin and shiny, chestnut-colored hair, Ms. Coscarelli certainly appears to be a testament to the health benefits of the vegan lifestyle. But she says her goal is not to convert people to veganism, but instead to promote balanced eating and delicious recipes made from fresh, whole ingredients that just happen to be vegan.
“I like the challenges of cooking vegan because there’s more ways to impress people by showing them that it’s delicious, and it’s vegan, and it’s healthy,” she said. “I also like if you’re making cookie dough and there are no eggs in it, you can eat the batter. That’s one of the benefits of vegan baking — you always can lick the spoon.”
A version of this article appeared in print on September 7, 2010, on page D5 of the New York edition of The Times. | <urn:uuid:4cdc3cfa-e941-4ab6-9a5f-0602a1a67fbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/tasty-vegan-food-cupcakes-show-it-can-be-done/?src=me&ref=health&apage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962082 | 1,388 | 1.554688 | 2 |
June 25, 2009 Transferring heart attack patients to specialized hospitals to undergo angioplasty within six hours after receiving clot-busting drugs reduces the risk of life-threatening complications including repeat heart attacks, according to a new study from St. Michael's Hospital and Southlake Regional Hospital.
The findings, published June 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that routine early transfer of patients after clot-busting drugs are administered results in significantly better outcomes than the current traditional practice of transferring patients only when the clot-busting drugs fail.
The study –which is the largest randomized trial of its kind to date -- followed 1,059 heart attack patients who were treated with clot-busting drugs at community hospital emergency departments in Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec. Researchers compared a strategy of transferring heart attack patients to hospitals with on-site angioplasty facilities to undergo angioplasty within six hours after administration of clot-busting drugs, as opposed to the traditional approach of transferring only those patients when clot-busting drug treatments are unsuccessful.
"When treating patients with heart attacks, timing is everything, " said Dr. Shaun Goodman, the study's chairman and associate head of cardiology at St. Michael's Hospital, "A patient's chances of recovery are significantly improved if care is provided in a setting where angioplasty can be done soon after clot-busting therapy is given."
All patients in the study initially sought treatment at a hospital without angioplasty capability and were treated with a newer clot-busting drug (tenecteplase). Patients were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: urgent transfer for angioplasty within six hours, or standard care (no transfer for angioplasty within the first 24 hours unless the clot-busting medication failed to restore blood flow in the blocked artery). Patients who received standard care often underwent angioplasty 24-72 hours after the heart attack.
Overall the research showed:
- 17 per cent of patients receiving standard care had serious cardiac complications within 30 days, compared with 11 per cent of those transferred immediately for angioplasty. That represents a 36 per cent reduction in potentially life-threatening complications, including repeat heart attacks, with no difference in major bleeding complications between the two groups.
- Patients who received the earlier angioplasty had lower rates of experiening chest pain (0.2 per cent as compared to 2.1 percent)
- These same patients had fewer episodes of second heart attacks (3.4 per cent v 5.7 per cent)
Angioplasty – which uses a combination of catheter-mounted balloons and stents to open a completely blocked coronary artery and restore blood flow to the heart – is accepted as the best initial treatment for heart attacks when performed within 90 minutes of arrival at a hospital.
"The challenge, though, is that this is a goal that few hospitals in the world can achieve unless they have angioplasty facilities on site," explained the study's primary author Dr. Warren Cantor of Southlake Regional Health Centre, adding that less than 25 per cent of hospitals in North America have these resources. Until now, physicians have been reluctant to transfer patients to another hospital to undergo angioplasty soon after administering clot-busting medication as a result of earlier studies that revealed excess bleeding and no benefit with this approach.
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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. | <urn:uuid:99f51a43-2fa8-4400-ad65-da16b3cac0de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090624193506.htm | 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 | 0.949023 | 736 | 2.015625 | 2 |
Variable rate seeding (VRS) can help maximize overall profits by selecting the best planting rates for each area of the field. VRS plans are most appropriate in fields with greatly varying soil composition or water holding capacity.
There are four basic steps to get started with a variable rate seeding program. The first step is to identify management zones within a field. Designate management zones based on soil type, yield map results over several years, and grower knowledge of yield history, cropping history, and general productivity of field areas.
After determining the management zones, select the seeding rate to be used in each zone. A standard recommendation is to select three to four seeding rates to plant within a field. Seeding rates should differ by an amount that is meaningful for the crop. For example, corn seeding rates need to differ by at least 3,000 to 4,000 seeds per acre. To help determine seeding rates, DuPont Pioneer has a planting rate estimator app available in the tools section of the Pioneer website.
Once seeding rates are selected for each management zone, create each field prescription withmapping software (such as Pioneer FIT Services). Manually implementing check strips or blocks to evaluate the productivity of each seeding rate is recommended. Pioneer sales professionals can help design field-by-field plans.
The final step is to upload the information to a variable rate controller. Set the parameters correctly in the variable rate controller, including the default planting rate and the offset distance between the GPS receiver and planter units. It is important to make sure the controller is set to record as-planted information. | <urn:uuid:2309d92e-6af9-4eb4-b25b-ff724154c503> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cornandsoybeandigest.com/precision-ag/four-steps-implement-variable-rate-seeding-2013 | 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 | 0.909053 | 332 | 2.46875 | 2 |
"The leaves and tops of Hedeoma pulegioides (Linné), Persoon"—(U. S. P.); (Melissa pulegioides, Linné; Cunila pulegioides, Willdenow; Ziziphora pulegioides, Desfontaines).
COMMON NAMES: Pennyroyal, American pennyroyal, Tick-weed, Squawmint.
ILLUSTRATIONS: Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 200; Barton, Med. Bot., 41.
Botanical Source.—This is an indigenous annual plant. It has a fibrous, yellowish root, an erect, branching, pubescent, rather angular stem, from 6 to 12 inches high. The leaves are 1/2 inch or more long, opposite, oblong, have 1 or 2 teeth on each side, are smooth above, rough below, narrowed at the base, and borne on short petioles; the floral leaves are similar. The flowers are quite small, light-blue, in 6-flowered, axillary whorls. Calyx ovoid or tubular; gibbous on the lower side near the base, with 13 striae; upper lip 3-toothed; lower 2-cleft; threat hairy. The corolla tube is as long as the calyx, downy, and 2-lipped; upper lip erect, flat and notched at the apex; the lower spreading and 3-cleft, the lobes being nearly equal. Stamens 2, ascending and filiform; the cells of the anthers diverging. Seeds 4, and oblong (W.—G.—L.).
History, Description, and Chemical Composition.—This herb was placed by Linnaeus in the genus Melissa, and afterward Cunila, from which it was removed by Persoon, and placed in the genus Hedeoma. It must not be confounded with Mentha Pulegium, Linné, or European pennyroyal, which has similar action and uses. It is a well-known plant, growing in barren woods and dry fields, and particularly in limestone countries, flowering from June to September and October, rendering the air fragrant for some distance around it. It is common to nearly all parts of the United States. It has a peculiar, aromatic odor, which, however, is very offensive to some persons, and a hot, pungent, aromatic taste. It imparts its virtues to boiling water by infusion; boiling destroys its activity by evaporating the volatile oil, on which its properties depend. The oil (see Oleum Hedeomae), its chief constituent, may be obtained by distillation with water, and is often employed, or its tincture, instead of the herb itself; it is of a light-yellow color, and specific gravity ranging from 0.930 to 0.940. Hedeoma thymoides, Gray, a Texan plant, has similar properties. The official drug is thus described. "Leaves opposite, short-petioled, about 12 Mm. (1/2 inch) long, oblong-ovate, obscurely serrate, glandular beneath; branches roundish, quadrangular, hairy; flowers in small, axillary cymules, with a tubular-ovoid, bilabiate and five-toothed calyx, and a pale blue, spotted, bilabiate corolla, containing 2 sterile and 2 fertile, exserted stamens; odor strong, mint-like, taste warm and pungent"—(U.S. P.).
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Pennyroyal is a stimulant, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, and carminative. The warm infusion used freely, will promote perspiration, restore suppressed lochia, and excite the menstrual discharge when recently checked, especially by colds; it is often used by females for this last purpose, a large draught being taken at bedtime, the feet having been previously bathed in warm water. It is an excellent remedy for common colds. A gill of brewer's yeast added to the draught is reputed a safe and certain abortive. The warm infusion may likewise be employed with advantage in the flatulent colic of children. The oil, or its tincture, is also administered as a carminative and antiemetic, and has been of benefit in hysteria, whooping-cough, spasms, etc. Hedeoma is accredited with galactagogue powers, but it acts best probably when diminished lactation is due to acute colds. Dr. M. H. Hennell (Trans. Ohio E. M. Assoc., 1895, p. 81), justly extols the remedy in flatulent colic, not only to serve as an anti-spasmodic, but to act as a calmative of the nervous phenomena. He uses it extensively in threatened convulsions of children, in hysteria from menstrual derangements, in puerperal septicaemia, and to hasten or aid the eruptive process in the exanthemata. Dr. Hennell praises it especially as a remedy for chronic amenorrhoea, and gives the indications below named. It is likewise used as a rubefacient in rheumatism, and united with linseed oil, as an application to burns and scalds. Dose of the oil, from 2 to 10 drops; of a saturated tincture, 1 to 2 fluid drachms. The infusion may be freely administered. Dr. Toothacker (Phila. Jour. of Hom., Vol. II, p. 655) reports a case of poisoning in a woman from one fluid drachm of oil of pennyroyal, The symptoms were: Severe headache, difficult swallowing, intense nausea, with severe retchings without emesis, intolerable bearing down, labor-like pains, abdominal tenderness, constipation, dyspnoea, limbs semiparalytic, and nervous weakness and prostration (Millspaugh's Amer. Med. Plants).
Specific Indications and Uses.—Amenorrhoea of long standing, with pallor and anemia, and dark circles about the eyes. Patient complains of languor and lassitude, takes cold easily, has pain in the back and limbs, and exhibits full, prominent veins (Hennell).
King's American Dispensatory, 1898, was written by Harvey Wickes Felter, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. | <urn:uuid:4ce18e8c-48ac-42ff-8a20-3352f24e8c20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/kings/hedeoma.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924669 | 1,387 | 2.5 | 2 |
died November 29, 1989, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Caribbean-American nurse and organization executive, most noted for her role in eliminating segregation in the Armed Forces Nurse Corps during World War II.
Staupers immigrated to the United States with her family in 1903. In 1914 she enrolled in the Freedmen's Hospital School of Nursing (Howard University College of Nursing) in Washington, D.C., and after graduating with honours in 1917, she became a private-duty nurse. In 1920 she joined black physicians Louis T. Wright and James Wilson to establish the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium, the first hospital in Harlem to treat black Americans with tuberculosis. Staupers served as the director of nursing of the Washington Sanitarium in 192021 and afterward accepted a working fellowship at the Henry Phipps Institute for Tuberculosis in Philadelphia.
In 1922 Staupers returned to New York City to undertake a study of the health-care needs in Harlem. Her research led to the founding of the Harlem Committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association. She became the organization's first executive secretary, a post she held for twelve years. In 1934 she was named executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), which, owing to her early efforts, would eventually help black nurses to gain unrestricted membership in state and national nursing organizations.
Taking advantage of the high public awareness of the nursing profession during World War II, Staupers launched a campaign seeking the integration of black nurses into the Armed Forces Nurse Corps. By 1941 black nurses were admitted to the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, but a strict system of quotas hindered their full integration; the U.S. Navy continued its policy of exclusion. When the War Department began to consider a draft of nurses, Staupers enlisted the help of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and orchestrated a nationwide letter-writing campaign to convince President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other political leaders of the need to recognize black nurses. Overwhelming public support of desegregation persuaded the armed forces, both Army and Navy, to wholly accept black nurses by January 1945.
Staupers' success in ending discrimination in the Armed Forces Nurse Corps buoyed her struggle for the full integration of the American Nurses Association, which was achieved in 1948. With the NACGN goal of full professional integration of black nurses having been met, the organization dissolved itself in 1951.
In 1951 Staupers was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She published her autobiography, No Time for Prejudice: A Story of the Integration of Negroes in Nursing in the United States, in 1961. | <urn:uuid:4ef32f14-1b6e-41e6-8daa-6ba93fc2b643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-9002967 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964333 | 560 | 3.390625 | 3 |
DISCLAIMER: The information in this flyer relating to the legal requirements of specific foreign countries is provided for general information only. Questions involving interpretation of specific foreign laws should be addressed to foreign legal counsel.
GENERAL INFORMATION: South Korea is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, nor are there any international or bilateral treaties in force between South Korea and the United States dealing with international parental child abduction. American citizens who travel to South Korea place themselves under the jurisdiction of local courts. American citizens planning a trip to South Korea with dual national children should bear this in mind.
CUSTODY DISPUTES: In South Korea, parents who are legally married share the custody of their children. If they are not married, custody is normally granted to the mother unless there are known facts of inappropriate behavior, or mental or social problems.
ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN JUDGMENTS: Custody orders and judgments of foreign courts are not enforceable directly under Korean law. However, under Article 203 of the Criminal Code, an applicant can request recognition of foreign court orders.
VISITATION RIGHTS: In cases where legal custody has been granted and the judgment has been rendered, the non-custodial parent can petition the court for visitation rights within the court ordered decision or come to an oral agreement with the custodial parent.
DUAL NATIONALITY: Dual U.S.-Korean nationality is recognized under Korean law until the age of 22, when the dual national must choose either Korean or U.S. citizenship. Dual-national males are subject to mandatory military service in South Korea if they do not make a decision on their nationality before the age 18.
PASSPORT APPLICATIONS FOR MINORS: A person applying for a U.S. passport for a child under 16 must demonstrate that both parents or legal guardians consent to the issuance of a passport to the child or that the applying parent has sole authority to obtain the passport. This law covers passport applications made at domestic U.S. passport agencies in the United States and at U.S. consular offices abroad. Exceptions to this requirement may be made in special family circumstances or exigent circumstance necessitating the immediate travel of the child. The purpose of the new requirement that both parents' consent be demonstrated is to lessen the possibility that a U.S. passport might be used in the course of an international parental child abduction.
CHILDREN'S PASSPORT ISSUANCE ALERT PROGRAM: Separate from the two-parent signature requirement for U.S. passport issuance, parents may also request that their children's names be entered in the U.S. passport name-check system, also know as Children's Passport Issuance Alert Program (CPIAP). A parent or legal guardian can be notified by the Department of State before a passport is issued to his/her minor child.
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS: No exit visas are required to leave Korea. However, if a parent requests through the Korean Immigration Office that a travel restriction be placed on a child, the child may be prevented from departing Korea.
CRIMINAL REMEDIES: For information on possible criminal remedies, please contact your local law enforcement authorities or the nearest office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Information is also available on the Internet at the web site of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org.
Persons who wish to pursue a child custody claim in a Korean court should retain an attorney in Korea. The American Embassy in Korea maintains a list of attorneys willing to represent American clients. A copy of this list may be obtained by requesting one from the Embassy at:
U.S. Embassy in Seoul
82 Sejong-ro, Chongro-ku
Republic of Korea
Web site: http://www.asktheconsul.org
*The workweek for the Embassy is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:30AM to 11:30AM and 1:30PM to 3:30PM. The Embassy
is closed on Wednesdays.
Questions involving Korean law should be addressed to a Korean attorney or to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States at:
Embassy of the Republic of Korea
2320 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: (202) 939-5663/60
For further information on international parental child abduction, contact the Office of Children's Issues, U.S. Department of State at (202) 736-9090 or visit its web site on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov. You may also direct inquiries to:
Office of Children's Issues
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520-2818
Fax: (202) 736-9133
For answers to general questions, please contact the Overseas Citizens Services Hotline at the toll-free number, 1-888-407-4747, which is available from 8:00AM through 8:00PM Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. holidays). Callers who are unable to use the toll-free number, such as those calling from overseas, may obtain information and assistance during the hours by calling 1-202-501-4444. This hotline provides OCS information to the general public and forwards callers to the appropriate OCS country officer as necessary. OCS information is also available on the web at: www.travel.state.gov. Please refer the general public to the Web site or to this toll free number during normal working hours. Persons seeking information or emergency assistance outside of these hours, including on weekends or holidays, should call 1-202-647-5225.
The Department of State has general information about arranging for consular visits to abducted children, hiring a foreign attorney, service of process, enforcement of child support orders, and international enforcement of judgments, which may supplement the country-specific information provided in this flier. In addition, the Department of State publishes Country Specific Information for every country in the world, providing information such as location of the U.S. Embassy, health conditions, political situations, and crime reports. If the situation in a country poses a specific threat to the safety and security of American citizens that is not addressed in the CSI for that country, the Department of State may issue a Travel Alert alerting U.S. citizens to local security situations. If conditions in a country are sufficiently serious, the Department of State may issue a Travel Alert or Travel Warning recommending that U.S. citizens avoid traveling to that country. These documents are available on the Internet www.travel.state.gov. | <urn:uuid:810f297e-d69d-4c06-8353-138ce2634b0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country_520.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903859 | 1,415 | 2.15625 | 2 |
The Intersection of Access and Quality: Examining the Effects of Child Care Subsidy System Policies and Practices on Parental Decision Making
Parish, Susan L.;
||A mixed methods examination of how child care subsidy policies and practices affect the child care decisions of parents, specifically the quality of child care parents choose. The responsiveness of child care subsidy policies to the needs of low income families and the implementation of these policies have been identified as important variables in the child care decision-making processes of parents. The devolved nature of child care subsidy disbursement to the county level has resulted in important differences in both the content and implementation of subsidy policies and provides an opportunity to examine the impact of the policies themselves, as well as their implementation. This study is designed to answer two research questions: (1) In what ways do child care subsidy policies and procedures vary in their responsiveness to family needs, both as they are written and as subsidy workers implement them?; and (2) How does the variation in the implementation of these child care subsidy policies, as determined by adherence, or lack thereof, to written policies, affect parental decision making as it relates to high quality child care choices?
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306. The End of Postcommunism
The End of Postcommunism
Andras Bozoki is Professor of Political Science at Central European University, Budapest. He spoke at an EES noon discussion on September 24, 2004, while he was a visiting professor at Columbia University. The following is a summary of his presentation. Meeting Report 306.
On May 1, 2004, ten countries joined the European Union (EU). On the day of the accession, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary all had Central-Left governments in power. One day later, Leszek Miller, the Polish premier was forced to resign. In June, Czech social democrat Prime Minister, Vladimir Spidla followed suit, and in August, the head of the Center-Left government of Hungary, Peter Medgyessy, was also forced to resign. "Too weak," "lacks energy," "cannot communicate effectively"—these were some of the accusations lodged against them. In spite of the fact that all three leaders where very popular at the beginning of their terms, it appeared that the initial success of their materialist-redistributive politics faded quickly. None of these countries was in bad shape economically—on the contrary, they were experiencing economic booms—yet political observers sensed that there was a crisis in the leadership. This situation had clear ties to EU accession. A national consensus supported the European accession almost everywhere: EU membership seemed logical and would clearly serve the common good. So, once the long-held goal of EU accession was achieved, why did these governments collapse? Was it just coincidence that all three were replaced by much younger prime ministers with very different outlooks from their predecessors? The answers to these questions are directly related to the fact that EU enlargement has brought the region to a new stage in its development, and one in which the former communists need to redefine their political roles. Indeed, this stage could be interpreted as the end of postcommunism.
After the fall of communism, Central Europeans had certain expectations from the new political elite and those in charge of the transformation: first, they wanted democracy; second, they wanted a market economy; third, they wanted a clearly demarcated political community and national identity; and fourth, they wanted their countries to "join Europe." Each wish contained one implicit desire: the desire for prosperity. Their experience being locked behind the Iron Curtain against their will was perceived as an historical injustice. Hungarians found it "natural" to demand that their living standards be raised to a level equal to that of Austria. Poles and Czechs believed that they deserved the same lifestyle as the Germans.
In the early years of the transition, Hungarians associated democracy with prosperity in their minds. People wanted democracy simply because they saw the wealth of the democratic countries. The term "capitalism" was viewed with disdain, but the phrase "well-functioning market economy" sounded like an admirable goal that would usher in prosperity. At the same time, people were absorbed with the task of redefining the concepts of national identity and political community because it was necessary to decide who could take part legitimately in the future prosperity. This push to clarify who could be a member of the "sovereign people" that make up the state eventually ebbed as European and Euro-Atlantic integration became a viable goal and the people were happy to identify with the strong and successful West.
As long as the expectations of the society were matched with international expectations, and as long as these expectations could be answered by formal, institutional arrangements, the technocratic and pragmatic elite of the Polish and Hungarian communist successor parties were politically successful. The reformed communists struck a note of accomplishment with their managerial style. The academic world cannot but acknowledge the proficiency with which the Polish and Hungarian Communist successor parties completed the democratic transition after 1989, demonstrating a readiness to reform and handled the crises of the 1990s. It was no wonder: the leaders of these parties—those politicians who were socialized in the post-Marxist, anti-ideological reform period—preferred to see themselves as "neutral experts." These pragmatic reformers abhorred political ideologies, since they still had the bitter taste of Marxism-Leninism in their mouths. Moreover, wherever they looked, they saw chaos and political crisis. First and foremost, they had to prove that they were able to think independently from the ideological outlook of the previous communist generation. They had to prove that they were able to identify a problem for what it was, without all the ideological dressing. They needed to prove that they could solve, or at least handle, the emerging issues. The great challenge of this generation was to conduct "crisis management" in the narrow space between confined political opportunities and economic rationality. While their predecessors were bound by their ideological thinking, the reformed communists were able to shed this yoke. Their mission was to see the light at the end of the tunnel at a time when the great majority was still stumbling in darkness.
By 1990, there was not one member in the Communist Party who still believed in communism. Marxism was but an empty theoretical shell. It was an unclear concept of progress with a fuzzy, linear understanding of history and no world-shaking contents attached to it. The general opinion in the years following the political transformation was that only the specific analysis of a specific situation, only conscientious management of the various crises, mattered. The post-communist political elite wanted a normal, consensus-driven world, free of ideologies. Thus the so-called "Washington consensus" was naturally embraced by these political managers, who accepted the international neo-liberal discourse and adopted it as their own. They strove to attract capital, reasoning that it would bring about a working society. The chronic patients of the transformation were injected with capital, while the labor force was tempered to be competitive by a crash diet and low wages. As far as a working democracy was concerned, it was readily available for those who bothered to vote.
This political mode could continue so long as political goals were identical to externally-determined transition course, which included institution-building, economic stabilization, democratic consolidation and EU accession. Following external prescriptions did not require articulating a clear political identity, and thus the political left prevailed. Meanwhile, for almost a decade the political right was occupied with rebuilding its base. Thus, it was the task of the reformed communist Left to manage the crises, to conduct the politics of privatization left unfinished by the rightist governments and to show a friendly face towards the West.
While in power between 1998 and 2002, the new Hungarian Right tested its newly-gained strength through provocative and confrontational behavior. It yearned impatiently to legitimize its proud and very distinct identity through any means. In its adolescent eagerness, however, it went too far. The fervor of its apostles divided the country into the decadent powers of the failed communist past and the bulging forces of the rising nation's future. It is no wonder, then, that the society returned to the well-known "old timers," the boring but normal political Left, first in Poland in 2001 and in Hungary the following year. The prevailing sentiment was that the time for symbolic politics was over, that it was a laughable residue of the past. To gain success, one simply had to show evidence of worthy accomplishments.
But, by 2004, the old paradigm of meeting external expectations while remaining "value free," "neutral" and "expert" failed. An overview of Central European politics over the last year shows that for the political Left to be successful, more was needed than remaining simply a "party of peace." The center-left coalition needed to become more than empty-vessel parties that could be filled with hot or cold liquid at a whim. The political right had recreated its identity, and now it was the turn of the other side to follow suit. Passing the external obstacles of EU enlargement was but one condition of progress. There is no value in the EU if it is only a gentleman's club for the wealthy. It was no accident, then, that for both the referendum on EU accession in 2003 and the European Parliamentary (EP) elections in 2004, the turnout was shockingly low in Central Europe. The people do not think these issues concerned them, at least not yet. They did not oppose them, but only gave their passive support.
Trouble for the reformed communists began in Hungary when Prime Minister Medgyessy introduced his concept of "welfare regime change," identifying a very serious social problem and confronting the greatest political debt of the new system. Democracy has no value for the people so long as a general poverty prevails. There is no value in the nations if—as the Hungarian writer Dezso Szabo wrote 90 years ago—"the national anthem is sung on empty stomachs." Having put the unresolved welfare question into the spotlight, it became obvious that one government and one parliamentary cycle was not enough to complete a change in welfare politics.
The inability to resolve the problem in the short term led to the present crisis of the reformed communists. Although in the 1990s they were successful in crisis management, new issues emerged that could not be resolved in the same old way. Increasingly, the correct reaction required strategic thinking, ability for innovation and commitment to a clear set of political values. The new issues were not about technocratic solutions, crisis management or modernization problems, but about the political contents of social democracy. Such values were not articulated by the "experts" anymore: the situation called for politicians. And cold "expertise" is irrelevant when it comes to choosing political values.
Nonetheless, the crisis, the transformation, the generational and philosophical renewal of the socialist parties is a promising process. It offers the hope that after 15 years of postcommunism, things have slowly fallen into place. One can finally anticipate that the political left will stop acting like the Right, and vice versa. Everything was the other way around in Central Europe throughout the 1990s: while the Left was busy privatizing, the Right was nation-building. A renewal is all the more timely now that not only the ex-communist socialist and social democratic politics must re-evaluate themselves, but the West is facing this challenge as well. Since the end of 1999, when the WTO faced riots in Seattle, neo-liberalism has faced a crisis. Although the influence of the anti-global movement decreased after September 11, 2001, the new social democratic politics of the once-successful "third way" must also be renewed. One must consider whether the fall of neo-liberalism will also destroy its central-leftist, alternative variants.
What happened in Central Europe in 2004 was the connection of the region to the present concerns of the western world. The long transition is over; the new problems of the region are not "transitional" matters anymore. Just as neither Germany nor Italy were called post-fascist countries in 1960, 15 years after the Second World War, so Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have shed the title of postcommunist states, 15 years after Communism fell. As far as politics and economics are concerned, these states are fully transformed, both structurally and institutionally. One should not talk about old and new democracies anymore, setting up a contrast between the two. True, our traditions are different, but our current problems are quite similar. These matters of concern should be approached in terms of "quality control" (examining the functioning of the democratic institutions) or as democratic criticism, but not with the "transition" approach.
There are many types of capitalism, and several forms of democracy. And it appears that the opportunities of the sort of externally-driven or "catching-up-from-behind" type of Central European technocratic democracy, which gains its identity solely from external sources and denies the autonomy and the social context of politics, has been exhausted. The postcommunist era has come to an end. | <urn:uuid:586fad4e-78b0-48de-b276-b81520307d82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/306-the-end-postcommunism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978153 | 2,428 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The great routing debate: North Carolina’s battle for the ParkwayWritten by Becky Johnson
To mountain communities, the coming of the Blue Ridge Parkway 75 years ago was seen as economic salvation.
It would provided much-needed construction jobs to a region ravaged by the Depression and ultimately bring a parade of tourists seeking natural scenery.
The Parkway symbolized America’s newfound love affair with the automobile, increasingly accessible to the
middle-class yet still a novelty.
“The Parkway was conceived very much in the vein that the car would be a pleasure vehicle,” said Ted Coyle, an anthropologist at Western Carolina University. “When the Parkway was built, no one had the idea that you would take your car to go shopping. Cars were to go out and take scenic drives with.”
Today, the Parkway seems intrinsic to the mountains and carries a sense of entitlement to the millions of locals and tourists who enjoy it annually.
“It makes us feel like the Parkway was inevitable somehow, that someone thought it up wholesale, saw the
mountains and put it right out there on the land,” said Anne Whisnant, a leading Parkway historian and author at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
But the Parkway could easily have been something quite different. It was beset by social and political battles, which shaped and reshaped its route through the landscape from its conception in the early 1930s until
its eventual completion in 1987.
No sooner had President Roosevelt endorsed the Blue Ridge Parkway under the New Deal in 1933 than a raging debate broke out between North Carolina and Tennessee about which state would win the Parkway.
It had but one parameter at first: connect Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smoky Mountains. Designers soon crafted a route that would send the Parkway veering out of North Carolina and into Tennessee around Grandfather Mountain, bypassing the established tourist magnate of Asheville entirely and bringing traffic to the Smokies via Tennessee’s doorstep.
Asheville business leaders and politicians were distraught. The Depression had brought the city to its knees, and Asheville leaders saw the Parkway as a life or death proposition.
“If the Parkway were diverted from Asheville, it seemed the situation would be entirely and permanently hopeless,” Whisnant said. “The state of North Carolina got busy writing Tennessee out of the picture.”
Asheville politicians and business leaders mounted a masterful campaign to reroute the road past their city, enlisting far reaching support from the local tourist industry to the state house and governor’s mansion.
North Carolina “flung down the gauntlet” in its bid to cut Tennessee out and the “battle for the Parkway was on,” Fred Weede, director of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce at the time, wrote in his personal account of the year-long fight. Giving the Parkway to Tennessee would be an “appalling disaster,” Weede wrote in his retrospective.
The North Carolina contingency argued that God anointed them with better scenery and higher mountains. To put the Parkway anywhere else would be an affront to the Creator. But they realized that alone would not be enough to prevail.
“God had given us better scenery but man’s strategy and energy had to win the Parkway,” Weede wrote. “There were numerous tight spots encountered in shaping up a unified front. Iron hands were sometimes necessary.”
North Carolina’s campaign would not be an easy one. President Roosevelt had already endorsed the three-state route for the Parkway in a proclamation from the summer of 1933. Tennessee was well-established as the primary gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with park headquarters located there.
The Bureau of Public Roads, which would oversee eventual construction, also preferred the Tennessee route. The mountains around Asheville were the steepest and highest in the Appalachian chain, and building a road across them was seen as too expensive and challenging.
Even the landscape architects tasked with the Parkway’s design favored the lower-lying Tennessee route to provide a diversity of scenery, rather than subjecting travelers to mile upon mile of scenic but repetitive high-elevation peaks.
In an early strategy meeting held at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, Weede impressed on the gathering the enormity of their attempt to turn the tide.
“I asserted we should face the fact we were licked before we began. But as dedicated citizens we should roll up our sleeves and fight,” Weede recounted.
Under mounting pressure from the North Carolina delegation to at least consider its pleas, Department of Interior Secretary Harold Ickes appointed a special committee tasked with selecting a route. The two states squared off in a public showdown before that committee in February 1934. In the hearing, the dueling states had three hours to present their cases.
North Carolina arrived with a well-orchestrated pitch, including large maps and photos of the “best” route for the Parkway. While several speakers made remarks, the bulk of the presentation was deferred to Getty Browning, a top road engineer with the N.C. Highway Commission, who had emerged as an effective point man for the North Carolina route.
Realizing the hue and cry from Asheville business leaders would do little to bend the committee’s ear, Browning instead focused on what he considered more objective reasoning: the superior scenery of the high mountains around Asheville.
As a locating engineer, Browning often set out cross-country on foot, climbing rugged mountains in search of the most ideal highway routes and had personally blazed every mile of the Parkway corridor North Carolina was proposing.
“He was the man on the ground in the literal sense,” said Houck Medford, director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation. “He walked the Blue Ridge Parkway boundary an untold number of times. He was certainly a man’s man, but he had these other attributes and qualities that made him successful.”
He was a well-heeled socialite — charismatic, persuasive and politically savvy — yet with the mind of an engineer and persona of an outdoorsman.
Throughout the hard-fought crusade fraught with political wars and the feuding business interests, Browning kept his sights fixed on true purpose behind the Parkway.
“For Browning, it was ultimately about letting other people see the beauty of the mountains the way he saw it. There is something noble in that,” Whisnant said. “It would be useable by everyone. It would be available for free. It wouldn’t be overly controlled by commercial or monetary influences. It had something to do with our spirit.”
Following the hearing, the committee decided to take a tour of the North Carolina route. A caravan of 15 cars left Washington in March. The traveling party included many of the key players within with the National Park Service, Department of Interior and Bureau of Public Roads who would later shepherd the Parkway’s design and construction.
Since no good roads existed along much of the proposed route for the Parkway, the party planned to take side roads up and down the mountains to get a feel for the general terrain where the Parkway might pass. But the traveling party encountered a major snowstorm after crossing into North Carolina. Some gave up on the expedition in Blowing Rock. Those who ventured on to Asheville through the snow, ice and fog quite nearly didn’t make it. They later resorted to viewing the routes from the air.
Refining a strategy
As the summer of 1934 dragged on, the North Carolina contingency grew anxious. The committee tasked with recommending a route was mum.
The strategists didn’t let the downtime go to waste, however. They constantly refined their arguments and enlisted new messengers to lobby on their behalf in Washington. They met often to plan and carry out a campaign Weede later described as a “mosaic.”
“Road blocks, and they were plentiful, were approached from all angles and various solutions were weighed,” Weede wrote. “Between us — even if otherwise disposed — all cards had to put on the table face up.”
They heralded the already developed tourist industry in Asheville, ready and able to provide Parkway travelers with the type of amenities they would expect, compared to the more industrial nature of Knoxville.
They also pointed out the dearth of New Deal spending in their state. Tennessee was meanwhile the recipient of huge federal investments from the massive network of hydroelectric dams being construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Newspapers played an integral role as well. The publisher of the Asheville Citizen, Charles Webb, brought the full force of his newsprint to bear for the campaign and convinced newspapers elsewhere in the state to follow his lead.
The strategists left no stone unturned, even throwing an extravagant dinner in honor of the wife of the Secretary of Interior at the Grove Park Inn when she visited Asheville.
But the centerpiece of the campaign came in the form of a red, Moroccan-leather bound photo album with a gold engraving of Roosevelt on the cover to be hand delivered to the President by an Asheville contingency. The photos showcased the scenery of the mountains around Asheville — scenery that would be left out by a Tennessee route.
The photos were culled from the collection of George Masa, a famous Japanese photographer who documented landscape scenes in Western North Carolina, while others were shot by a paid photographer escorted by Browning for the sole purpose of the project.
While much of the campaign was mounted on a shoestring due to the Depression, the nearly bankrupt Asheville Chamber of Commerce funded the production of the album, which included an inside pocket with a hand-drawn relief map of their favored route and artfully-lettered titles over each photo.
With still no word from the committee, Secretary of Interior Ickes announced that he would personally preside over a final hearing before selecting the route in September 1934.
A testament to the sophisticated campaign by the North Carolina delegation, a strategy was mounted to pack the hearing with their own supporters. A special train was chartered to carry their entourage to Washington. It was 18 Pullman cars long when it left Asheville with more tacked on as it traveled across the state, including a car for the governor.
A memo was read out to every car on the train instructing them to show up early for the hearing the next day. When the appointed hour arrived, nearly every chair in the room was filled by the North Carolina delegation, relegating Tennessee to standing room and the hallway outside.
Throughout the summer, Browning had bolstered his engineering case in preparation for such a final hearing, including large mounted photos offering a visual tour of the preferred route. The presentation wholly dwarfed that put on by Tennessee.
But unbeknownst to North Carolina, their opponent had an ace up its sleeve. Earlier that morning, the committee tasked with recommending a route had finally issued its decision: It unanimously favored the Tennessee route. The report was leaked to Tennessee and, although Ickes had likewise received a copy that morning, Tennessee’s delegation proudly flaunted it during the hearing.
“The announcement was a bombshell for us,” Weede wrote. “We looked at each other with considerable consternation. It was no light matter.”
To side with North Carolina, Ickes would have to rebuff his own committee.
But North Carolina had an ace of its own — one known to only a handful of key players within the campaign. It wasn’t revealed for nearly two decades and still remains a largely unknown turning point in the great routing debate.
“This ace was a very hush-hush move. No more than half a dozen individuals were in on the secret,” Weede wrote.
North Carolina’s clandestine trump card was a man named Josephus Daniels, a newspaper tycoon in the state with a summer home at Lake Junaluska near Waynesville, N.C., a town west of Asheville.
Daniels, a supporter of the North Carolina route, had personal connections that reached straight to the top. He served as the Secretary of the Navy during WWI, and his assistant secretary and right-hand man was none other than Roosevelt. Daniels was friends with Ickes to boot.
Daniels was reluctant to exploit his personal friendship with Roosevelt and Ickes, however, and throughout the agonizing spring and summer of 1934, Daniels refused to pull that lever.
“How to get him to move was our big problem,” Weede recounted.
One summer evening, Weede and Charles Webb, the publisher of the Asheville Citizen, and two other compatriots set out from Asheville to Lake Junaluska to confront what Weede called “the Daniels’ problem” head on. They arrived on the porch of Daniels’ summer home to find him already chatting with none other than Getty Browning. Daniels had clear moral objections to what the men were asking.
“Indeed our own consciences had to be stifled in urging a man to lay aside his lofty and sincere ideals of propriety and the niceties of friendship and perform an act to aid his state in its rugged battle for a great project,” Weede wrote. “It was no easy task to out argue him. But we were four against one. And we were sincere and desperate.”
They spent three hours lobbying Daniels on his porch that night, according to Weede’s account. But they left with the wording of a telegram Daniels scribbled on the back of an envelope asking Ickes for a meeting that Weede would wire the next morning.
Daniels met with both Ickes and Roosevelt that week and continued his conversations with Ickes leading up to the final showdown in September.
Two more months of waiting passed before Ickes made the announcement in November 1934 that the full route would go to North Carolina. Tennessee was livid and chastised Ickes for overruling his own advisory committee, and even appealed to Roosevelt to overturn the decision but to no avail.
The Last Front
With a route in hand, construction was imminent. But Browning’s general strokes on a map were a long way from being fixed on the landscape. The tug-of-war for the Parkway would now play out between villages and neighbors.
“You are going through a populated landscape with farms and communities. They all had different ideas about where the Parkway should go and what it should be,” Whisnant said.
While the federal government was putting up money for construction, buying rights of way fell to the states. The fabled road suddenly wasn’t so appealing to farmers along the proposed route who faced the reality of losing their land. Early descriptions of the Parkway called for a right of way of only 200 feet. But designers and engineers realized it must be five times that at least.
“If you are going to have a scenic parkway you have to preserve the scenery. They had to do that with a wide right of way,” Whisnant said. “That was a shock to landowners. It was much wider than a regular road.”
The rhetoric used when selling the Parkway wasn’t playing out like locals were led to believe. The great economic benefit seemed to evaporate with they found they couldn’t build roads and driveways from neighboring land onto the Parkway.
“Road building before that was always about giving people a way in and out,” Whisnant said.
Instead, the Parkway would have only a few appointed entrances. The Parkway was prone to trespassing and vandalism by disgruntled landowners along its length.
“A few said ‘I’m going to bulldoze a road from my property to the Parkway and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,’” Whisnant said. Others cut trees on Parkway right of way to purposely despoil roadside views.
Meanwhile, business interests were dismayed to learn they couldn’t put up billboards or signs along the route.
“It was supposed to benefit tourism but how is it going to benefit tourism if we can’t put up signs to direct people to our businesses?” Whisnant said of the sentiment. “This was sold to us as a tourism prospect but it is not.”
To make matters worse, the Parkway built its own diners and gas stations, a form of direct competition that gave tourists no compelling reason to exit the motorway.
There were also inevitable conflicts with landowners about the price being offered for rights of way. Some of the more admirable opponents were Hugh Morton of Grandfather Mountain and Harriet Clarkeson of Little Switzerland, two already developed tourism enterprises along the Parkway’s route north of Asheville. They not only understood the legal process but had political clout to take their case to the media.
Others simply lamented the passing of an era symbolized by the coming of the Parkway. Bill Watson, born in 1923, remembers when the Parkway came through the small community of Benge Gap near Boone, claiming part of his father’s farm and general store in 1938. His dad built a new one, but it wasn’t the same.
The Parkway brought rapid change to the barter-based economy that once played out inside the general store. Customers would haul in chestnuts, herbs, eggs, chickens, lumber, furs and even livestock to trade for goods from Watson’s father. Suddenly, Watson’s father found himself selling root beer to tourists.
“He much didn’t like it. He was used to being in a quiet place,” Watson said in an oral history preserved in the Parkway’s archives.
Watson moved away as a young man, but came back in the early ‘60s with a proposition for his father. He wanted to build a motel and restaurant in hopes of catering to Parkway tourists. His father was reluctant, but Watson eventually won out.
“He said that ‘Bill had lost his mind to spend his money on a motel and restaurant,’” Watson recounted. “Then so many people started coming in.”
And so it goes today. With nearly 17 million visitors every year, the Blue Ridge Parkway was indeed a prize worth fighting for.
“Certainly our forefathers, when they had the vision for the Parkway, were right on target,” said Lynn Minges, director of the N.C. Division of Tourism. “It has done exactly what they intended it to do.” | <urn:uuid:68b2850a-b6c8-491e-acba-6be98e804523> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smokymountainnews.com/aae/item/452-the-great-routing-debate-north-carolina%E2%80%99s-battle-for-the-parkway | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979553 | 3,868 | 2.796875 | 3 |
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Virginia Tech Team Creates a Self-Charging Robo-Jellyfish
Posted By Timon Singh On March 22, 2012 @ 5:12 pm In biomimicry,green technology,Renewable Energy | No Comments
A team from Virginia Tech has created the Robo-Jellyfish , a swimming robot that is powered by a hydrogen-based catalytic reaction. This robot has not only the ability to power itself indefinitely, but it could transform how underwater craft are propelled — remember that many ships and submarines are currently nuclear-powered.
If you watch the below video, you will see that the robot is very realistic in the way that it moves. It is not surprising to learn that its creation is thanks to state-of-the-art engineering which, according to a report in Smart Materials and Structures , sees the jellyfish’s body constructed from nano-platinum catalyst-coated multi-wall carbon nanotube sheets wrapped around a nickel-titanium shape memory alloy.
When the platinum catalyst layer makes contact with a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen gases, heat is released that causes the memory alloy to change shape and propel the robot through the water. This allows the jellyfish to constantly move without the need for an external power source.
“To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source,” lead author Yonas Tadesse said. “The current design allows the jellyfish to flex its eight bell segments, each operated by a fuel-powered SMA module. This should be sufficient for the jellyfish to lift itself up if all the bell segments are actuated.”
Tadesse added, “We are now researching new ways to deliver the fuel into each segment so that each one can be controlled individually. This should allow the robot to be controlled and moved in different directions.”
Unfortunately, the robot in the video is an electrically powered prototype, as the chemical power source is currently being ‘refined’. Unsurprisingly, the Office of Naval Research is very interested in the breakthrough. It probably also helps that they are footing the bill. Perhaps in a few years time we’ll see unmanned underwater ‘squidies’ monitoring pirate-infested waters or drug routes.
+ Virginia Tech
via Motherboard
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Virginia Tech: http://www.vt.edu/
the Robo-Jellyfish: http://emdl.mse.vt.edu/projects/alex.html
a report in Smart Materials and Structures: http://iopscience.iop.org/0964-1726/21/4/045013
Office of Naval Research: http://www.onr.navy.mil/
Motherboard: http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/3/21/self-charging-robo-jellyfish-are-here-and-the-navy-wants-them
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