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In case you missed anything, here are highlights from this past week. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!
We can be anyone we want to be, more so because Wicca can encompass anything. We are everyone. We are kind and loving. We can be mean, because we are only human. We are not better than anyone else, but we are equal to everyone else.
This isn’t about rights, it’s about respect. We need to find a way for people to respect us, regardless of those who try to bring us down. And maybe, we can even look to Christianity for examples. Is this our arena, and are the Christians our lions? Perhaps. Not all of them certainly. Obviously, however, some of them fall under this category. We are in a young religion, and we are being forged in the fires. Will we break, or come out stronger? Read more…
Botanical Name: Acorus Calamus
Folk Names: Gladden, Myrtle Flag, Myrtle Grass, Myrtle Sedge, Lubigan, Sweet Cane, Sweet Flag, Sweet Grass, Sweet Root, Sweet Rush, Sweet Sedge
Calamus are perennial flowering plants from the Acorus family. Native to to North America and northern and eastern Asia. The leaves grow between 0.7 and 1.7 cm wide, with average of 1 cm, and the flower is between 3 and 4 mm.
The Penobscot people would cut the root and hang it throughout the house to cure illness. When traveling, they would take a piece of the root, and chew to ward off sickness. To cure a runny nose, The Potawatomi people would powder the dried root and put up their nose. The Teton-Dakota warriors believed it prevented excitement and fear when facing their enemy, they would chew it to a paste and rub it on their face. Read more …
- New Zealand earthquake strikes Christchurch, killing at least 65 people
- Burial ground of Bunyan, Defoe and Blake earns protected status
- Planet could be ‘unrecognizable’ by 2050, experts say
- ‘Yoga’ – Another Serious Acid Test For Naga Christians?
- The Theological Dilemma of Medieval Neuroscience
- On the edge of history
- Pilots, boaters adjust to shift in magnetic north
Thanks for stopping by! Well wishes to you all and have a great day! | <urn:uuid:1d1986a5-e0d4-437d-a482-c3a1a9c66e6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pagansworld.org/tag/afp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952199 | 509 | 1.921875 | 2 |
On Monday, June 22, Xunlight Corporation announced the successful installation of its first 25-megawatt wide-web, roll-to-roll photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing module. The 25-megawatt rating is, as far as I can tell, the amount of energy generated by the thin film produced by the module in a year. If someone can enlighten me on this, though, please speak up.
It’s a press release, so it reads like a translation from a Japanese computer manual, but the essence is that the module spits out mile-long sheets of silicon solar-enhanced flexible stainless steel sheets three feet wide that can be laid on roofs or placed on the sides of buildings to generate solar energy.
The module itself is a series of interconnected vacuum deposition chambers, 200 feet long, which use a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to bond thin-film silicon to the stainless sheets.
Say that again? Okay, plasma is an ionized gas (in this case, probably silane and oxygen) that, via the application of electricity, resolves itself into a solid state as silicon dioxide. This is deposited (possibly via “sputtering") on to the steel as a uniform substrate, or layer. Roll-to-roll simply refers to the fact that a roll of stainless steel goes in one end of the machine, and a roll of solar-collecting silicon/steel – plus a few other interesting ingredients - comes out the other, at a rate of 720 square feet per hour.
This particular piece of equipment is reportedly Xunlight’s first, and is aimed at commercializing its thin film process. Installed at the company’s Toledo, Ohio plant, the module is the first step toward mass production, and Xunlight (which designed and built the module) plans to add three more by the end of 2010, upping the company’s production capacity to 100 megawatts. Xunlight says the equipment will redefine the solar energy industry by lowering production costs.
Thin-film solar is cheaper than conventional solar panels, because less silicon is used. It is also, unfortunately, less efficient in terms of capturing sunlight and converting it to energy. Xunlight says its thin film has a maximum of 9.2-percent initial efficiency, expected to stabilize at about 7.8 percent. A similarly-sized solar panel achieves about 22 percent efficiency. Rated in watts, Xunlight’s panel achieves 330, while the same-sized solar panel is 740 watts. However, Xunlight has achieved added efficiencies by creating triple junction cells; that is, they use three different materials, each aimed at capturing a different portion of the solar spectrum. This is something no solar panel can do.
Thin film manufacturers argue that the way efficiency is currently measured is the real drawback to thin film's advance in the solar industry. This efficiency is based on peak power, or the maximum amount of electricity that a panel can produce under ideal conditions, and is often noted as kWp (kilowatt hours, kW, at peak, or p). Solar panels “peak” in the morning (just like people after that first cup of java), but energy production declines as the panels heat up (been there, done that). Thin films, stable at higher temperatures, run the race like turtles – slow and steady all day long.
Thin films also produce electricity on partly cloudy days, or in smoggy conditions, which solar panels don’t. Of course, thin films, with their thin and less-than perfectly uniform surfaces, also tend to degrade faster in the presence of light and air, even when the surface is sealed, so their “lifetime” (rated at 25 years for solar panels) is somewhat less than solar panels.
Nonetheless, thin films, and companies like Xunlight, are starting to make serious inroads into what was formerly a silicone cell-dominated solar industry, and driving down production costs (and, hopefully, consumer costs) through mass manufacturing can only help spur the industry to new heights.
Image courtesy of Xunlight
Any opinion contained in this article is solely that of the writers, and does not necessarily shape or reflect the editorial opinions of Energy Boom. Energy Boom content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be advice regarding the investment merits of, or a recommendation regarding the purchase or sale of, any security identified on, or linked through, this site. | <urn:uuid:74710366-509f-4acb-b151-88685171988e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://energyboom.com/xunlight-builds-first-commercial-scale-thin-film-production-module | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934261 | 933 | 3.078125 | 3 |
WASHINGTON: The World Bank said the impact of recent turbulence in financial markets on developing countries has been limited and global economic growth remains strong.
The bank also called on donor governments to meet their commitments to boost aid for development and said countries with fast-growing economies and mounting currency reserves could bring new resources to this effort.
The bank's policy-setting Development Committee said Sunday that its members ``agreed that strengthened support for the inclusion and empowerment of the poorest in development, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and for engagement by the bank group in fragile and conflict-afflicted states must be key elements in the strategic framework.
The Development Committee session followed a meeting of the bank's sister institution the International Monetary Fund.
In a lecture sponsored by the IMF, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that rising protectionism could undermine the ability of the United States to deal with large deficits.
"If the pernicious drift toward fiscal instability in the United States and elsewhere is not arrested and is compounded by a protectionist reversal of globalization, the current account deficit adjustment process could be quite painful for the United States and our trading partners," he said.
At a news conference the bank's new president Robert Zoellick and the head of the IMF, Rodrigo de Rato, said they were exploring ways the fund could start the ball rolling on reducing debt for Liberia.
"This is a country that is helping itself and deserves to be helped by the international community," de Rato said.
In February, the United States forgave $358 million (euro250 million) that Liberia, a West African country emerging from civil war, owed the country and pushed for further action at the IMF-World Bank meetings. Liberia's inherited debt to international institutions totals $1.6 billion (euro1.1 billion), including $740 million (euro518 million) to the IMF. Its total international debt is $3.7 billion (euro2.6 billion).
The World Bank should further strengthen its work as a knowledge broker on development policy while continuing its existing lending activities, its Development Committee said.
Countries that are bank clients, the committee said, should sharpen their focus on poverty reduction strategies ``on stronger, shared private-sector led growth to link these strategies better to budgetary frameworks and to implement them effectively.''
The bank also should help developing countries deal with the causes and impacts of climate change.
The members of the committee welcomed the commitment by the bank's new president, Robert Zoellick to develop a new strategy for the bank in consultation with the banks's 24-member executive board.
Zoellick, who took over as head of the bank July 1, has called on the United States and other developed countries to ``translate their words from summit declarations into serious numbers'' and contribute to the bank branch that makes low interest loans to poor countries. He hopes to raise $33 billion (euro23.1 billion) by early 2008.
He said South Africa had already set a good standard by pledging a 30 percent boost in its contribution to the loan facility.
Zoellick faces a stiff challenge because in recent years wealthier countries have preferred to channel their aid to poor countries directly through their development agencies or through foundations that specialize on an issue such as malaria.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the World Bank would have to become more efficient and demand more flexibility from its staff.
"Too often the bank group has been slow in redeploying its resources and has deployed the wrong mix of resources at the expense of poor execution on high priority projects," he said. Paulson also said the bank needs more budget discipline.
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel welcomed Zoellick's emphasis on helping to overcome poverty and promote sustainable growth in poor countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.
He said the strategic objectives Zoellick has outlined in his first 100 days in office suggests a new pragmatism at the bank that could be of real benefit to countries in our constituency.
Germany's minister for economic cooperation and development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said it was encouraging, despite the turbulence in financial markets, that most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing the highest rates of growth since their independence and a further increase in their growth rates is projected.
"Here, it is crucial that the poor can have a share in this process, too," she said.
Based in Washington, the 185-nation World Bank lends $24 billion (euro16.8 billion) a year for projects in the developing world such as building roads, schools and health clinic. But its role as a lender has been declining as middle income countries have access to financing from other sources.
Zoellick a former US deputy secretary of state, trade representative and investment banker took over from Paul Wolfowitz, a former deputy defense secretary, who resigned in May in an ethics scandal.
Zoellick has been trying to calm the waters that were stirred by differences Wolfowitz had with some of the member governments and the bank staff. A new strategy he has outlined would have the bank combat poverty, especially in Africa, help aid countries emerging from wars, and promote regional cooperation to combat disease and climate change. | <urn:uuid:1287bc5a-b610-4ab0-8075-1566cfc77221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2007-10-22/news/27667821_1_liberia-international-monetary-fund-globalization | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00070-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965708 | 1,066 | 1.96875 | 2 |
Although Western-style psychiatry was founded in China in the late-19th century, and has been growing rapidly since the 1980′s, it has failed to completely replace other illness explanations. It is reported that many patients with mental disorders and their family members prefer to explain their illnesses in non-biomedical terms and seek help from Chinese medical doctors or folk healers rather than psychiatric professionals. Why do patients and their family members resist psychiatry? How do they resist? Underlying the struggle between different illness narratives and practices is the clash between different culturally shaped subjectivities, which the study of schizophrenia can help illuminate. My study thus aims to address the questions above by looking at daily life and illness narratives in and beyond the schizophrenia wards of a psychiatric hospital in Southern China.
The results of my preliminary research on patients at both male and female wards and their lives beyond the institution show that with the assumptions of mind-body dualism and biological reductionism, biomedical psychiatry simultaneously exerted power effects of individual-making and institutional, pharmaceutical control. Some patients and families used Chinese Medicine or folk religion to recuperate the social person and to reconstruct a socio-moral-cosmic world where they granted their lives meaning, reconceived normality, reclaimed agency, and negotiated change. For example, while biomedicine saw schizophrenia as the ultimate breakdown of the normal self that could only be restored by the pharmaceuticals, patients and families tried to weave a continuum between the normal and the pathological with the functional and holistic language of Chinese Medicine, to cultivate a subjectivity that flows through and beyond the individual body, and to assert the power of moral thoughts-emotions in transforming the utmost precariousness. While the pharmaceuticals created side effects, entailed high expenses and limited personal agency, patients and families resorted to Chinese Medicine for an inexpensive resolution that allowed them to regain some control, and that went beyond treating local symptoms to strengthening the constitution, pacifying the heart-mind and harmonizing social as well as cosmic relationships. Overall, my study shows that by resisting biomedical individualization with culturally inscribed forms of sociality, Chinese traditions rather than modern individualism became the basis of agency for some psychiatric patients and their families. | <urn:uuid:f93333d5-a66a-4173-a733-7d43b03b0a01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aaanet.org/sections/spa/?page_id=353 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00055-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956518 | 440 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Off Campus Access
Off-campus access to online databases and e-books is available to current Montgomery College students, faculty, & staff. You will be asked to log in with your M number.
Why use an Encyclopedia?
Encyclopedias are great places to start your research, especially when you are unfamiliar with a topic. Encyclopedias can:
- provide a succinct overview of a topic written by experts
- identify and define terms used in the field
- help in narrowing a topic
- guide you to other closely related topics
- provide references to other works on the topic that can be used to supplement your research
Wikipedia vs Encyclopedias
In 2005, the journal Nature reported the results of a study saying that Wikipedia was nearly as accurate as Encyclopaedia Britannica when it came to articles on science topics. Nevertheless, "Nature said its reviewers found that Wikipedia entries were often poorly structured and confused" (BBC News).
So, what does this mean for researchers? It may be useful to turn to Wikipedia for quick lookups but be aware that information may be incorrect. It is never a good idea to rely solely on one source for information, whether in print or online or freely available on the Web. | <urn:uuid:2910e43b-ebe7-434f-9667-d91c39dd74a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://libguides.montgomerycollege.edu/encyclopedias | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918994 | 253 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Photograph of an exterior view of a water mill at Bartlett's Cedar Lake, ca.1950. The structure can be seen at center with a sloped roof. It is composed of wooden planks, although a stone chimney is visible to the left. A water wheel is visible to the right. Several men can be seen throughout, including a man unloading planks from a pickup truck in the left foreground. Another automobile can be seen in the right foreground. The lake is visible at left, while boulders and pine trees can be seen in the background.; Originally, the lake was identified as Lake Arrowhead. | <urn:uuid:977bd748-c613-43eb-87c8-c14b89ae0f96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll65/id/8690/rec/15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961057 | 126 | 2.015625 | 2 |
When an exchange of opinions gets into egoistic territory and becomes almost a battle of wits, it's best to bow and walk away.
Some people are so prone to argument they exhaust you! Some efforts are so exhaustive, they don't really seem worth the result achieved! In a world that makes more demands on us than we have the strength or patience to meet, it would be reasonable to fight for only that which is worth the effort! Why waste time, breath and mental armoury if the end result is not really worth it!
Just as a long distance runner or swimmer is taught to phase out his strength in an intelligent manner so as to have enough breath left for the last lap, similarly, it makes sense to save our efforts for the bigger battles in life rather than to sweat out the small stuff. Many years ago I witnessed the modus operandi of small time thieves in a bus. A couple of women kept me busy pushing and jostling from both sides and as I vent my irritation on them, a third unzipped my bag and escaped with my wallet! The idea was to irritate and distract me with a minor matter while the bigger theft took place! A lesson if ever there was any, to train yourself to close your eyes to minor irritants and keep attuned to the bigger problems!
This is as true of something as mundane as prolonged bargaining with a vegetable vendor as efforts over a flagging relationship that is pointless anyway. What purpose does a long drawn out haranguing with the vegetable vendor serve if you end up exhausted and feeling petty, with just a paltry saving? What is the idea of making an all-out effort to save a relationship that never really gave you anything worthwhile in the first place! You cannot blame a woman who walks out of an abusive marriage that gave her no moments of happiness at all; on the other hand, if she has had more happy times than sad, she would actually want to make an effort to get those back! And any efforts she makes in that direction would be worthwhile. When an exchange of opinions gets into egoistic territory and becomes almost a battle of wits, it's best to bow and walk away rather than fight to the finish and risk a friendship going sour. In the long run, who cares who won that particular fight? So long as you are sure of what you believe in, there is only so much you can do to convince the rest of the world! And beyond that point, it shouldn't matter. Why waste time and energy?
There is much to be said for the phrase, "Quit while the going is good…" And then again, "Don't sweat the small stuff" isn't a bad learning either. There are those around us who are most happy to take control of our lives and dictate our each small move. How does it matter if you stop arguing and fighting against the controlling tactics and just let them believe you are doing as they desire, while clearly following your own path? At some point the message is bound to strike home.
But how about when you are sure what you are fighting for really deserves all you can give it? That's the time to go for it hammer and tong. If you are clear about what you want, you have to get the focus right. And then, give it your all. The only way you can create a goal for yourself and then shift complete focus to it is when you make that a growling need within you, when that need eats away at your insides and doesn't let you rest in peace. It has to be a passion that fast becomes an obsession. You have to be conscious that if you do not get there you will lose your identity somewhere along the way — that's the kind of obsession it has to be. You have to think of nothing but how to get your heart's desire and tell yourself there is no option. Once you close the door to other options, you have no choice but to go for the jugular!
Related Blog Posts
Networkingitimes | Dating & Chat | Email | <urn:uuid:7bbeee03-8990-4b29-a595-f79fcd3b43ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/O-zone/entry/is-it-worth-fighting-for | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976439 | 828 | 1.59375 | 2 |
This final lecture on Aristotle focuses on controlling conflict between factions. Polity as a mixture of the principles of oligarchy and democracy, is the regime that, according to Aristotle, can most successfully control factions and avoid dominance by either extreme. Professor Smith asserts that the idea of the polity anticipates Madison's call for a government in which powers are separated and kept in check and balance, avoiding therefore the extremes of both tyranny and civil war.
As one of the world's great universities, Yale traces its roots back to the early 1640s when colonial clergyman sought to establish a school in order to continue the tradition of European education within the Americas. Yale has now grown to educate over 11,000 students from over 100 countries on a 310-acre campus in New Haven, Connecticut. Within the school's 260 buildings are over 2,000 undergraduate programs in 65 departments taught by a distinguished faculty. As Academic Earth's first partner school, Yale has been a leader within the space of OpenCourseWare by consistently delivering on its esteemed mission to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn. | <urn:uuid:98f05e6e-06d8-492e-a5ad-4e069213a85c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/the-mixed-regime-and-rule-of-law-aristotle-politics-vii/page:1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952664 | 220 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Wed October 19, 2011
In The Rush To Deport, Expelling U.S. Citizens
The government is not shy about its success deporting people from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently sent out videos of early-morning raids conducted across the country. Uniformed ICE agents are shown planning to capture suspects, followed by shots of the suspects being handcuffed and put into vehicles.
A record 396,000 people were deported from the country during the federal fiscal year that just ended. Some were caught in raids, while others were detained by ICE after being arrested by local police. But Northwestern University political science professor Jacqueline Stevens says some of those held weren't illegal immigrants at all.
"I think it's pretty fair to say that there's a low but persistent rate of people who are being held by ICE in violation of the law, who are U.S. citizens," Stevens says.
Mark Lyttle was deported to Mexico in 2008. Lyttle, who has a history of mental illness, gave ICE agents conflicting stories, telling them that he was a U.S. citizen and also that he was a Mexican to avoid an argument.
ICE apparently ignored records that he was born in North Carolina, and had no relatives in Mexico. Eventually Lyttle returned to the U.S.
Earlier this year, the government admitted another deported man named Andres Robles was a citizen.
They sent Robles a letter, with an odd offer.
The letter said the government was prepared to issue a certificate of U.S. citizenship to Robles, but said he would have to pick it up, adding that it realized it wouldn't be possible for him to do because he was deported.
The case of a Phoenix man, George Ibarra, isn't so clear-cut. He's been deported twice over the last 15-years while trying to prove his citizenship.
"I'm up against a big old juggernaut," Ibarra says. "You know, a bureaucratic juggernaut that just doesn't want to let go, you know they just keep wanting to stick it to me."
Ibarra was being held in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix for shooting a gun into the air, he says, in frustration.
"I've been just sitting there in my house going crazy man," Ibarra says. "My lawyer told me I can't do nothing can't go to work till this thing's over."
Ibarra was a Marine. He has the Marine insignia—the eagle, anchor and globe—tattooed on his chest. He suffers from PTSD after being wounded in the first Gulf War. Ibarra grew up in Phoenix. What he didn't know was that his mother was born just over the border in Nogales, Mexico. That's where Ibarra was born. His mother brought him to Arizona when he was a baby and the fact that his mother has lived in the U.S. for decades and that his grandfather was born in Arizona should make Ibarra eligible for what's called "derived citizenship".
"He never knew about this legal right to citizenship through his grandfather and his mother," says Luis Parra, Ibarra's lawyer. "He never knew about that."
Like many caught in ICE detention, Ibarra was ignorant of the law. The first time he was picked up, he faced nine months in the detention center in Florence, Arizona. That's when he made a mistake — when ICE said he could get out early if he voluntarily deported himself. He said yes.
"They put me on a bus and shipped me to Mexico," Ibarra says. "I was in Mexico. I was like, 'Where do I go? What do I do?'"
He turned right around with his military ID and driver's license and came back through the Nogales Port of Entry. Then he got into trouble with the local police again—a drug use charge. But now he had a deportation on his record, calling into question his claim to citizenship. But faced with another long stint in detention he volunteered to be deported a second time.
"He made some mistakes, that's for sure," Parra says.
After getting Parra as a lawyer, an immigration judge looked at the evidence and ruled that George Ibarra does have a right to citizenship. But ICE has appealed that ruling.
"Why hasn't it stopped?" Parra asks. "Despite the fact that he's a veteran and despite the fact that he's a fourth-generation American?"
We asked ICE for an interview, but a spokesperson said the agency doesn't comment on specific cases because of privacy concerns. The government denies that it holds U.S. citizens in immigration detention.
But Northwestern University professor Jacqueline Stevens says government policy allows people with a credible claim to citizenship to remain free while their status is determined. Stevens says the way deportation proceedings are conducted causes problems. Unlike criminal courts—immigration courts have few checks.
"I've never seen an ICE agent who filed an arrest report appear in an immigration proceeding," Stevens says. "Not once and I've watched literally hundreds of these cases and not once do they have to go to court to be interrogated by a judge about the accuracy of the information that's presented."
Stevens looked at about 8,000 cases in just two immigration detention facilities. She found that about one percent of the time, people were eventually let go because they were U.S. citizens. However, that meant the citizens were held between one week and four years in detention.
Stevens says that when members of Congress here the figure is one percent, they think it's not bad.
"However, if we think about the magnitude of our deportation process, that means that thousands of U.S. citizens each year and tens of thousands in the course of a decade will be detained for substantial periods of time in absolute violation of the law and their civil rights," she says.
In other words, in the rush to deport record numbers of illegal immigrants, the government may also be deporting people who aren't illegal immigrants at all. | <urn:uuid:b92e1491-a9a5-491a-9757-1567da6feb2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kazu.org/post/rush-deport-expelling-us-citizens | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989883 | 1,262 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Zumba dancing is turning out to be one of the most famous forms of Cardio exercises ever introduced! This fun-filled exercise is a source of many different health benefits. Best of all, Zumba is nothing like the boring traditional exercise, it is like a one hour party! The Zumba trend is growing every day; over 10 million people around the globe are now regularly practicing Zumba. This makes us wonder, what makes Zumba so amazing? Well, here is a list of health benefits for Zumba.
Zumba Health Benefit # 1 – Promotes Cardiac Health
Zumba dancing is one of the best forms of cardio exercises available out there! Zumba plays a major role in improving your cardiac health. The constant movement in the dance routine will get your heart rate elevated instantly; this promotes healthy functioning of the heart. It also encourages efficient blood flow throughout the body. If you suffer from problems such as Fatigue and Shortness of breath, then Zumba is the best way to treat these problems. This means that Zumba helps to strengthen the entire cardiovascular system, a weak cardiac system often leads to health problems such as Heart attack. Hence, 30 minutes or 1 hour of Zumba can prove to be very beneficial.
Zumba Health Benefit # 2 – Burning Calories
This is the main aim for exercising for a lot of people, Zumba dancing is an excellent way to burn calories and lose weight. 1 hour of Zumba can burn up to 350 calories! Why is Zumba helpful for burning calories? Well Zumba dancing is classified as a cardio exercise, all cardio exercise help to lose weight. Zumba involves moving around a lot, this means that at the end of class you will be drenched in sweat. Burning calories means you will burn extra body fat, this will further lead to weight loss.
Zumba Health Benefit # 3 – Elevated Mood
Different studies have indicated that exercises such as Zumba which involves moving around a lot can help improve your mood. How? Well, the movement leads to the release of “feel good” hormones in our body, these hormones play a major role in elimination depression and sadness, it will also get you in a good mood. This means that you will always leave a Zumba class smiling.
Zumba Health Benefit # 4 – Improved Coordination
Zumba is an excellent way to improve coordination amongst both elderly and children. The different dance steps can be very effective and it can help to teach an individual how to control his/her body effectively. This reduces the occurrence of injuries caused by poor coordination amongst elderly.
Zumba Health Benefit # 5 – Body Toning
If you want to give your body a good shape, then you should get involved in Zumba. Zumba engages a lot of upper and lower body muscles; this encourages the development of stronger muscles and tones up the entire body.
Zumba Health Benefit # 6 – Other Benefit
Aside from these health benefits, a Zumba class is a great place to socialize and meet new people from different backgrounds. A typical Zumba class has about 40 people, this means that you will make a lot of new friends and get to talk a lot. | <urn:uuid:a8b8fbb4-86a7-49a8-a7e6-68e7448330e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kfgo.com/health-news-details.php?pageNum_rsNews=3&totalRows_rsNews=387&ID=5008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941281 | 678 | 2.09375 | 2 |
In the past few years QR codes have become very popular in consumer advertising. QR Code Reader is a basic application that allows the user to read these codes and take action depending on the information stored in them. There are many good applications available that are capable of this function, but this one doesn't seem to be one of them.
Once QR Code Reader has been downloaded it opens quite sluggishly. On the Samsung Galaxy Nexus it took 15 seconds to open the application. For such a small application this delay seems unexplainable. The user interface features no … Read more | <urn:uuid:6270f0db-c2aa-47e0-8795-4d837cd6fbcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/8300-5_3-0.html?keyword=readers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968023 | 115 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Halfway between the Drakensberg and the sea (The Midlands), nestling in a green valley of bougainvillea's and azaleas, is Kwazulu/Natal's capital city, Pietermaritzburg. Here, as in many places in South Africa, the strength of Africa is in tandem with the architectural refinement of the British Empire. The Voortrekker settler and Indian culture are very obvious too.
Colorful parks and gardens, jacaranda-lined streets, ("city of flowers"), gabled red-brick Victorian and Edwardian mansions, museums and old churches, all combine to give it a peaceful colonial and country character.
The city is a good base from which to explore the rest of the Midlands.
The golden beaches of the north and south coasts, the game reserves of Zululand, and the battle sites of the interior are within half a day's drive of the city. The Drakensberg Mountain Range is two hours away and offers spectacular terrain for climbing and walking.
In 1838, the Dutch-speaking Voortrekker Boers trekked from the Cape in their wagons. They clashed with the Zulu's of King Shaka's domain and settled in the Msunduzi Valley.Here they established a village, as their new capital. Pietermaritzburg was named after two of their leaders, Piet Retief and Gert Maritz.
WHERE TO GO AND WHAT TO SEE
The British turned the hamlet into a military garrison town five years later, and laid the foundations of the British Colonial style
As a traveller, your best bet is to acquire a copy of "Pietermaritzburg Town Trails" from Publicity House in Commercial Street, telephone no. 0331 - 451348. Enumerated trails start at the City Hall. Built in 1900, on the site of the original Voortrekker council hall, it is the largest all-brick building in the Southern Hemisphere.
It was declared a national monument in 1969. It houses an enormous organ, still used for recitals and concert recordings.
Church of the Vow, a Voortrekker Museum, is also on Churchill Square. The Natal Museum in Loop Street has impressive displays of Natal history and natural history, African ethnology, bushmen paintings, a dinosaur gallery and fascinating display of ships wrecked on the South African coast. Since Pietermaritzburg was home to the famous Gandhi, the museum houses a collection on Gandhi as well.
The miniature chapel, complete with altar, is one of the highlights of Macrorie House, a Victorian museum in which early British settler life in depicted. The Tatham Art Gallery, across the road from the City Hall, is a "must" if you're interested in local ethnic and leading South African artists. European artworks by Degas, Picasso, Matisse, Hockney and Renoir are on display too.
Other attractions in Pietermaritzburg are its lovely gardens, notably the Botanical Gardens, Alexandra Park and Queen Elizabeth Park. Alexander Park is the venue for "Art in the Park," the country's largest outdoor art exhibition, and "Cars in the Park," the most popular gathering of vintage cars and enthusiasts. At the end of September/early October Pietermaritzburg comes alive with the sound of music at the Hilton Festival of art and craft, cabaret and theatre. The Natal Witness Garden Show takes place at the same time.
Annual sporting events, festivals and outdoor shows draw some 300 000 people to Pietermaritzburg annually. Best known is the Comrades Marathon in June and attracts no less than 13 000 long-distance runners. The Duzi Canoe Marathon (in January) is three days of hard paddling, which starts in Pietermaritzburg and ends in Durban's Blue Lagoon.
The Midmar Mile, held on the Midmar Dam, attracts some 10 000 swimmers. It is held in February and is the world's largest inland ultra-swim. | <urn:uuid:daa2a43e-d580-4a62-80a6-810955a16c2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.encounter.co.za/article/60.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94287 | 840 | 2.1875 | 2 |
adj. cra·zi·er, cra·zi·est
1. Affected with madness; insane.
2. Informal Departing from proportion or moderation, especially:
a. Possessed by enthusiasm or excitement: The crowd at the game went crazy.
b. Immoderately fond; infatuated: was crazy about boys.
c. Intensely involved or preoccupied: is crazy about cars and racing.
d. Foolish or impractical; senseless: a crazy scheme for making quick money.
n. pl. cra·zies
One who is or appears insane: "To them she is not a brusque crazy, but 'appropriately passionate'" (Mary McGrory).
And a quote by Anthony Robbins that is quite convincing: don’t feel bad if you’re slightly mad, it’s OK, it’s cool, it’s the thing to be:
“Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”
Do you consider yourself crazy? | <urn:uuid:1841ebd7-fcc7-4e99-98ae-7147e8d82cf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sasucaaa.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html | 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 | 0.934014 | 292 | 1.84375 | 2 |
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Posted on 26 Mar 2010 11:24 am
Local Settlements are not complaints upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman. They are complaints that have been settled before a full and proper investigation has taken place. Local Settlements are agreed between the Local Government Ombudsman and the Authority concerned the complainant has no say in the matter.
The only complaints upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman are those which result in a formal report of maladministration. Authorities do not consider a Local Settlement as a complaint upheld against them.
A truthful answer to the question would have been less than 1% of all complaints submitted to the Local Government Ombudsman are upheld in full or in part. Whilst a further 15% or so are buried as local settlements to save the Local Government Ombudsman work and the Authority from the embarrassment of having a complaint against them upheld.
Government minister should not resort to smoke and mirrors to cover up the in effectiveness of the Local Government Ombudsman.
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By Margaret A. Wissman, DVM, DABVP
We have two bearded dragons, a male and a female, approximately 8 years old. They have always been in very good health. Recently the female has developed puffiness under her chin. She has a good appetite and looks healthy, though she is very inactive. I noticed the change after she ate an outside plant last week. We have varied her diet and she gets plenty of fruit, greens and calcium supplement, crickets and mealworms. Her cage is kept clean. They get the required heat also. We leave the lid open to the cage and they climb out and down to the floor. It is possible she may have injured herself. We took her to the vet. He wasn’t very educated on herps. He felt her belly, looked in her mouth and said he thought something was wrong but couldn’t say what. That was a week ago. She doesn’t seem to be terribly ill, but something is definitely wrong. I am enclosing a picture to help.
The male has also been trying to mate with her and she usually lays eggs in the spring, up to 20 at a time. She has not laid any eggs yet this year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We live in an area that has no herp specialists.
As I have mentioned in many of my previous columns, please ask your herp vet to contact the veterinary diagnostic lab that he uses and set up a consultation to speak with an experienced herp veterinarian regarding your beardie. This service is offered at no charge to vets using the lab. I would recommend blood tests (CBC and chemistry panel), fecal parasite examination and radiographs (X-rays) in order to attempt to determine what is wrong with her. If your herp vet is not familiar with these procedures, the consultant can offer advice on how to draw blood safely and where radiographs may be sent for evaluation by a specialist. There are several sources that have a data base of “normals” for the different blood values for bearded dragons.
I recommend that you separate your two lizards at this time, as your female does not need the stress of the male trying to breed with her. Also, you will be better able to monitor her food consumption and behavior without having the male pestering her. Soak her in a clear, warm sports drink for 10 to 15 minutes twice daily for now, so that she can drink the fluid, which will provide her with sugars, electrolytes and other carbohydrates. Make sure that you can monitor her the entire time she is being soaked and make sure the fluid is shallow enough so that she cannot drown.
I’m not sure why you keep the lid to her habitat open, so that your lizards can wander around your house and garden. This means that you don’t have control of their environment at all times. She could have easily ingested a toxic piece of something or injured herself in a fall. Also, beardies require a habitat with a focal hot spot of up to 110 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit for basking in order to properly maintain themselves in optimal health, and to digest their food properly. You also didn’t say if they have a full-spectrum light that is placed at the correct distance and is changed at the manufacturer’s recommended intervals. Please check my archived answers for detailed information on bearded dragon husbandry.
I recommend that a portion (about one-third) of the diet be composed of a name brand bearded dragon pelleted diet, in addition to offering insects, the occasional pinkie and healthy veggies (with fruits offered sparingly as a treat or top-dressing to entice it to eat). Gut-loading or dusting insects is always a good idea.
Beardies may develop increased pigmentation to the skin, especially of the beard, as a response to anger, fear or some illnesses. From what I can tell from the photos that you sent, it looks like the beard is pigmented and swollen. This is most likely cellulitis or edema, two conditions that can cause the tissue to swell. An experienced herp vet can advise you on what this could be, based on hands-on palpation, examination of the oral cavity, fine needle aspiration of fluid and tissue from the area, and from other tests. I recommend that you ask your herp vet to consult with a more experienced herp vet through his diagnostic lab to assist him with your case.
If the vet that you took her to doesn’t feel comfortable in performing the diagnostic tests that I have recommended, perhaps you can ask him for a referral to a more experienced herp vet or larger veterinary referral center so that your lizard can be properly diagnosed. Your vet should not be upset if you request a referral.
I hope this is helpful.
Need a Herp Vet?
If you are looking for a herp-knowledgeable veterinarian in your area, a good place to start is by checking the list of members on the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarian (ARAV) web site at www.arav.com. Look for DVMs who appear to maintain actual veterinary offices that you could contact. | <urn:uuid:037ee91d-1226-4f47-919b-121d909a8110> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reptilechannel.com/lizards/lizard-care/bearded-dragon-swollen-beard.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974344 | 1,075 | 2.078125 | 2 |
A report in the March 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine (a journal from JAMA/Archives) indicates that in the United States from 1994 to 2004, the average blood levels of vitamin D seem to have decreased.
In the past, the most important health conditions linked to vitamin D deficiency were poor bone mineral content in adults and rickets in children. The report indicates those problems were treated by fortifying food with vitamin D. Lately, the lack of vitamin D has been linked to heart disease, cancer, infections, and poor health in general. Data indicates that to reach optimum health, levels of 30 to 40 nanograms per milliliter may be considered necessary.
The authors say, “Vitamin D supplementation appears to mitigate the incidence and adverse outcomes of these diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality.” Still, the present recommendations for supplement levels concentrate mostly on gaining bone health, with 200 international units per day from birth to age fifty, 400 international units per day from age fifty one to seventy and 600 international units from age seventy one and up. Moreover, less outdoor activities and campaigns urging to reduce sun exposure have lead to vitamin D deficiency, given that sunlight exposure is an important determinant of vitamin D in humans.
Adit A. Ginde, M.D., M.P.H., University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora, and his team did a comparative study on levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D, a measurement of the amount of vitamin D in the blood) collected from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) between 1988 and 1994, and those collected during NHANES between 2001 and 2004. Full records of the participants were available (18,883 in the first survey and 13,369 in the second survey).
The authors write: “Overall, the mean [average] serum 25(OH)D level in the U.S. population was 30 nanograms per milliliter during the 1988-1994 collection and decreased to 24 nanograms per milliliter during the 2001-2004 collection.” Between the two periods, the incidence of levels below 10 nanograms per milliliter increased from 2 percent to 6 percent. Fewer individuals had levels reaching 30 nanograms per mililiter or higher (45 percent compared to 23 percent).
Throughout both surveys, racial and ethnic variations remained: the prevalence of 25 (OH)D levels of less than 10 nanograms per milliliter increased from 9 to 29 percent and levels of more than 30 nonograms per milliliter or higher decreased from 12 to 3 percent, for non-Hispanic blacks.
“These findings have important implications for health disparities and public health,” the researchers write. “We found that the mean serum 25(OH)D level in the U.S. population dropped by 6 nanograms per milliliter from the 1988-1994 to the 2001-2004 data collections. This drop was associated with an overall increase in vitamin D insufficiency to nearly three of every four adolescent and adult Americans.”
The authors conclude: “Current recommendations for dosage of vitamin D supplements are inadequate to address this growing epidemic of vitamin D insufficiency. Increased intake of vitamin D (1,000 international units per day or more) – particularly during the winter months and at higher latitudes – and judicious sun exposure would improve vitamin D status and likely improve the overall health of the U.S. population. Large randomized controlled trials of these higher doses of vitamin D supplementation are needed to evaluate their effect on general health and mortality.”
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169:626-632.
Archives of Internal Medicine
Editor’s Note: Senior author Dr. Camargo was supported by the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for D-receptor Activation Research, and he and co-author Dr. Liu were supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.) | <urn:uuid:a2ac807b-ccb5-46e8-8b06-c1037e45bbaf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mediconews.com/2009/03/24/insufficient-vitamin-d-levels-in-americans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927941 | 853 | 3.515625 | 4 |
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Kirchner raises Falklands with Pope
Pope Francis's diplomatic skills have been put to the test by his political nemesis Argentine president Cristina Kirchner asking him to intervene over the Falklands Islands.
The Vatican did not say if Argentine-born Francis would accept her request, which was made during his inaugural audience with a visiting head of state on the eve of his installation as pope.
Francis and Mrs Kirchner are long-time rivals: As leader of Argentina's Catholics, he had accused her populist government of demagoguery, while she called his position on gay adoptions reminiscent of the Middle Ages and the Inquisition.
But where the Falklands are concerned, Francis has been quoted as saying that Britain "usurped" the islands. Earlier this month, the islanders voted overwhelmingly to remain a British Overseas Territory.
Mrs Kirchner said she had asked for Francis' intercession to "facilitate dialogue" with Britain over the islands.
Just last week British Prime Minister David Cameron said he did not agree with Francis' views on the Falklands.
In asking Francis to intervene, Mrs Kirchner said she recalled how Pope John Paul II averted war in 1978 between Argentina and Chile over three tiny islands in the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of South America.
Mrs Kirchner also gave the new pope a gourd and straw, to hold the traditional Argentine tea that Francis loves, and he gave her a kiss.
"Never in my life has a pope kissed me!" she said afterwards.
Mrs Kirchner called on the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires at his temporary home, the Vatican hotel, a day before she and other world leaders attend his installation Mass in St Peter's Square which could bring a million people to Rome. | <urn:uuid:3d359956-9017-46ed-b5a4-80893d71395f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hillingdontimes.co.uk/uk_national_news/10297103.Kirchner_raises_Falklands_with_Pope/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97723 | 390 | 1.539063 | 2 |
"A few fundamental tenets of sound financial judgment appear to have been violated."
That's the typically understated view of the Bank for International Settlements, in its first official review of the havoc wreaked on the financial markets by wanton abuse of credit risk transfer instruments.
The central bankers bank first reviewed the CRT market (defined in the context of credit derivative-related transactions) back in March 2005. It observed a market characterised by significant product innovation, an increasing number of market participants,
growth in overall transaction volumes, and perceived continued profit opportunities for financial intermediaries.
It concluded that "continued development of the CRT market offers potential benefits in the form of more liquid and efficient markets for the transfer of credit risk" and finished with a series of recommendations for market participants and supervisors in
the areas of risk management, disclosure, and supervisory approaches.
So where did it all go so badly wrong?
"The originate-to-distribute model created incentives that resulted, in some cases, in weak origination standards for products such as subprime mortgages," states the BIS in today's review. "Some investors placed excessive reliance on credit rating agency
ratings, doing minimal or no in-house due diligence on the CRT products employed. Firms also appear to have had few, if any, risk management processes in place to address risk exposures associated with off-balance sheet entities such as structured investment
These are fairly fundamental failings. Unsurprisingly, the BIS has updated its recommendations from a few years back. You can read the full report | <urn:uuid:a165203e-cda5-4d2a-a621-90969870cf43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.finextra.com/community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=1141 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00068-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961739 | 320 | 1.882813 | 2 |
The surprisingly complex ‘The Mountain’, 33 000m2, is green in the first degree. The apartments are from 80m2 up to 150m2, each has a garden and terrace. The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has used the volume occupied by the parking lot to elevate the apartments. The program, however, is 2/3 parking and 1/3 living.
The Mountain Dwellings are the 2nd generation of the VM Houses – same client, same size and same street. What if the parking area became the base upon which to place terraced housing – like a concrete hillside covered by a thin layer of housing, cascading from the 11th floor to the street edge? Rather than doing two separate buildings next to each other – a parking and a housing block – we decided to merge the two functions into a symbiotic relationship.
The parking area needs to be connected to the street, and the homes require sunlight, fresh air and views, thus all apartments have roof gardens facing the sun, amazing views and parking on the 10th floor. The Mountain Dwellings appear as a suburban neighborhood of garden homes flowing over a 10-storey building – suburban living with urban density.
The roof gardens consist of a terrace and a garden with plants changing character according to the changing seasons. The building has a huge watering system which maintains the roof gardens. The only thing that separates the apartment and the garden is a glass façade with sliding doors to provide light and fresh air.
The residents of the 80 apartments will be the first in Orestaden to have the possibility of parking directly outside their homes. The gigantic parking area contains 480 parking spots and a sloping elevator that moves along the mountain’s inner walls. In some places the ceiling height is up to 16 meters which gives the impression of a cathedral-like space.
The north and west facades are covered by perforated aluminum plates, which let in air and light to the parking area. The holes in the facade form a huge reproduction of Mount Everest. At day the holes in the aluminum plates will appear black on the bright aluminum, and the gigantic picture will resemble that of a rough rasterized photo. At night time the facade will be lit from the inside and appear as a photo negative in different colors as each floor in the parking area has different colors.
The Mountain Dwellings is located in Orestad city and offer the best of two worlds: closeness to the hectic city life in the centre of Copenhagen, and the tranquility characteristic of suburban life.
One Response to “Mountain Dwelling by Bjarke Ingels Group”
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Q: Is there an easier way to get rid of weeds? I’m tired of pulling them by hand.
Beverly – Richfield, WI
A: Who doesn’t love tools? They’re cool to look at, fun to play with – and, the best part, they help make chores easy. When it comes to maintaining your pond or lake, tools of all shapes and sizes will come in very handy, particularly these four must-haves, below.
A pond rake pulls, gathers and removes dead debris from the surface or the bottom of a pond.
Debris on the surface of a pond, like algae or fallen leaves, can sink to the bottom and start to decay, adding to the muck and detritus that’s already there. All that debris degrades water quality, compromises fish health, provides a nutrient source for nuisance plants, and can even affect chemical treatments’ ability to work.
A floating/sub-surface pond rake, like the Pond Logic® Pond and Beach Rake, or a sub-surface pond rake, like the Jenlis Weed Raker™, lends a long helping hand. Elongated by rope so you can easily get the deep-water growth, both rakes work by removing submerged lake and pond weeds by their roots, slowing their spread.
The 28-inch, double-sided Pond Logic® Weed Cutter features a two-piece, rust-proof, powder-coated aluminum handle that’s 11 feet long. It’s great for removing floating aquatic vegetation, marginal weeds and cattails that extend past the pond’s edge.
The V-shaped Jenlis WeedRazer™ clears a 4-foot-wide path in pond weeds by sinking to the bottom and slicing through submerged weeds like watermilfoil, cattails and lily pads as you pull it across the pond. The razor-sharp tool weighs just 8 pounds, making it light enough to toss 30 feet or more yet heavy enough to sink straight to the bottom.
A sprayer makes pond chemical application easy. Most liquid chemicals are more effective when they’re sprayed over the target weed, and a tank sprayer, like an Airmax® Specialty Pressurized Pond Chemical Tank Sprayer, is designed just for this purpose. The 2.75-gallon pond tool features a wide-mouth fill top that minimizes accidental spills, a brass corrosive-resistant handle, and a high-pressure tank that allows you to spray hard-to-reach weeds.
Invest in a separate sprayer just for pond chemicals. If you use lawn and garden chemicals in the same sprayer that you use on your pond, doing so can be toxic to fish and other aquatic life as residue could be left behind. Keep your fish and pond plants healthy and happy: Use a different tool for the job.
The final must-have tool is a granular spreader, which helps you disperse granular herbicides evenly over your target area – and that means a more effective weed kill-off. The rust-proof Earthway® Granular Hand Spreader holds 10 pounds of material in a large hopper and features an application adjuster that lets you control how much product is released with its smooth-action hand crank.
Pond Talk: If you could only have one pond-care tool in your toolbox, what would it be? Why?
Filed under: Algae Control, Cattails, Chara (Algae), Duckweed, Emergent Weeds, Muck, Phragmites, Pond & Lake, Pondweeds | Tagged: airmax, algae, cutter, maintenance, Pond Logic, rake, spreader, Tools, weeds | Leave a Comment » | <urn:uuid:3a4e07fb-8844-4238-8014-be1a383c7447> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.thepondguy.com/category/pond-lake/muck-pond-lake/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900036 | 777 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Archive for the 'Tom Collins' Tag
Today marks the 37th anniversary of the homecoming of our POWs from Vietnam — still the longest-held group of POWs in our nation’s history. No other POWs from any other conflict have been held as long as these 600+ men were. Surprisingly, despite their unprecedented ordeal, only four percent of them have experienced long-term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, according to a study conducted by the Mitchell Center for POW Studies in Pensacola, Florida, and the Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute. By comparison, the general Vietnam veteran population experienced a rate of PTSD of more than 30 percent. Why is that? Despite being held in isolation for months or years at a time, despite being physically tortured on a regular basis, despite not knowing when they would be released — if ever, these men returned home mostly intact physically and psychologically.
It is instructive to note that the POWs’ average age was over 30, much older than the average soldier serving in Vietnam. They were also more educated and more specially trained. These factors do not predetermine mental health, but age and maturity can provide better mental “shock absorbers” against life’s traumas. In addition, this group of men was given an unusual amount of attention upon returning from Vietnam. Most of the soldiers, sailors and Marines returning from Vietnam did not receive homecoming parades, keys to their hometown cities or a White House dinner in their honor. But the POWs did. Many of them were thrust into the spotlight and became their hometown heroes. This undoubtedly aided their healing process. However, after the parades and parties were over, these men returned to relatively “normal” and private lives — as fathers, sons, husbands, neighbors and co-workers…not unlike the soldiers, sailors and Marines who are coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq today. How will these returning servicemen and women fare physically and emotionally over the next few decades? The experience of these POWs and their long-term health may be a helpful indicator and could be a source of advice for those responsible for the long-term care of our recently returned warriors.
According to a number of studies, the human body is amazingly resilient and copes well with trauma — both physical and emotional. In a November 2004 New Yorker article, best-selling author and cutlure watcher Malcolm Gladwell analyzed the survivors of World War II combat trauma and compared them to the victims of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and to those who had recently lost a spouse or a child. He found that the majority of victims of severe trauma like that experienced in bloody combat, the betrayal of CSA or the loss of an immediate family member usually get on with their lives and do not experience long-term negative effects of PTSD.
Tom Collins, a former Air Force pilot who was held as a POW in North Vietnam for more than seven years, has also survived the untimely loss of a child. A medical doctor, his son died of hepatitis contracted at work at the age of 34. Asked which was harder to endure — the loss of his son or the POW experience, both Tom and his wife Donnie say the loss of their son was the hardest experience of their lives. But these multiple hardships have not destroyed them or their marriage. They seem to enjoy retirement, their grandchildren and each other.
Gladwell summarizes human coping mechanisms in this way: “By far the most common response [to trauma] was resilience: the majority of those who had just suffered from one of the most painful experiences of their lives never lapsed into serious depression, experienced a relatively brief period of grief symptoms, and soon returned to normal functioning. These people were not necessarily the hardiest or the healthiest. They just managed, by one means or another, to muddle through.”
Indeed, there is a phenomenon called “post-traumatic growth” that psychological experts are only recently recognizing and defining. This is a condition where victims of trauma actually experience a type of psychological enhancement as a result of the experience. While hard to articulate and rationalize — given the plethora of research on the devastating effects of PTSD, post-traumatic growth is evident in anecdotes cited by combat veterans from many wars, including our current conflict. In a Washington Post article from November of 2005, staff writer Michael Ruane reported on this trend: “Eighteen months after [Hilbert] Caesar’s right leg was mangled by a roadside bomb near Baghdad, and after weeks of coming to terms with what he thought was the end of his life, the former Army staff sergeant believes he has emerged a richer person — wiser, more compassionate and more appreciative of life. Asked whether he would endure it all again, he replied, ‘The guys I served with were awesome guys….I would go through it again — for the guys that I served with. Yes. Absolutely. I wouldn’t change it for the world.’”
This sentiment is echoed repeatedly by the Vietnam POWs. They experienced a different type of trauma. After their violent shoot-downs during aerial attacks over North Vietnam, these men — most of whom were combat aviators — were largely shielded from field combat, as they were isolated in a decripit prison in downtown Hanoi. However, the uncertainty of when they would next be tortured and when they would be released — if ever — brought its own psychological horrors.
Most of them say they would not like to repeat the experience. But would they trade the experience? No. The same Washington Post article cited a 1980 study of the Vietnam POWs, indicating that 61 percent of those surveyed “believed their experience was ultimately beneficial. Tom McNish, a former Air Force pilot who was a prisoner in North Vietnam for six years, said, ‘There is no question in my mind that the experience I had in Vietnam has had an overall very positive effect on my life. But I don’t recommend it for anybody else. And I don’t want to have to do it again.’”
So, what does this teach us? Given time, good physical and mental health care, and continued appreciation for their service and sacrifice, most of our returning veterans will not just survive, but they will thrive. This generation of veterans is only beginning to show us their mettle. We need only look at the generations before us for examples.
To read more about how the Vietnam POWs rebuilt their lives after those prison doors opened and more accounts of their resiliency, go to www.opendoorsbook.com.
- Midrats Episode 168: “USCG and the Arctic” – Sunday 24 Mar 13 5pm
- Sequestration killed Tuition Assistance… Perhaps it’s a good thing (Update)
- Midrats this Sunday, May 17 2013 – Episode 167: Intellectual Integrity, PME, and NWC
- Remembering our Fallen Coast Guard Shipmates and their Families
- On Midrats 10 Mar 13, Episode 166: “Expeditionary Fleet Balance” | <urn:uuid:14639992-aa2f-49ff-8aef-e07f564154c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.usni.org/tag/tom-collins | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00049-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977197 | 1,469 | 2.75 | 3 |
He has been frequently associated with the Beirut barracks and US embassy bombings, both of which took place in 1983 and killed over 350, as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was indicted in Argentina for his alleged role in the 1992 Israeli embassy attack in Buenos Aires.
One of his highest-profile attacks took place in the early 1980s shortly after the establishment of Hezbollah. Mughniyah is thought to have killed more United States citizens than any other militant before the 2001 US attacks.
Although information about him is limited, he is reported by the US FBI to have used the alias of 'Hajj' and to have been called 'Abu Dokhan', meaning "smoke-bearer" in Arabic or "father of smoke" due to his ability to vanish from the scene of the crime.
Mughniyah was placed on the European Union's list of wanted terrorists including that of the FBI Most Wanted with a massive reward bounty of US$5 million.
Imad met his end on February 12, 2008 after a bombing assasination. The explosive, planted on the drivers side, detonated as he walked past leaving enough remains to be able to identify him.
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Shantung Panama straw hats are made from a high quality paper which is rolled into a yarn to imitate straw. This paper is very similar to natural panama straw that is harder to come by. It was also very durable, light weight, and cost effective. You will see that the paper comes in degrees of quality that are usually expressed with an X scale – the higher the X the better the paper. Shantung panama is by far the largest segment of the straw hat market. | <urn:uuid:475c5e65-7751-4c20-b292-9653131ee615> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smithbilthats.com/products/panama-cattleman-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980604 | 98 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Farm and Forest
History of Forestry
A History of Forestry in the Ozarks
Missouri's forests are one of the state's most important
assets. Ranked seventh in the 20 forested states of the Northeastern U.
S., nearly one-third of the state is forest covered, much of it in the
southern Missouri Ozarks. The forest cover makes for a healthy ecosystem
as well as a healthy economy, protecting hillsides from erosion while
adding to the area's recreation and tourism base, and providing a diverse
resource of plants, animals and other denizens of the natural world. As
beautiful and vast as Missouri's forests are, they were once much bigger
and held far more resources, both plant and animal. Between then and now,
the vast timberlands of the Ozarks warmed hearths, made shelters, built
cities, and were, at one time, almost destroyed.
The first Europeans to tour the territory that would become Missouri found a rich land with few human inhabitants, vast herds of elk and buffalo, and a forest that covered 70 percent of the area. Settlers arrived by the rivers, and cut wood for houses, fuel, and to sell. Timber was cut and floated downstream to mills in larger settlements, where it might be used for lumber or as cordwood to fuel the boilers of steam-powered riverboats.
Building, and Rebuilding, a Nation
Harvesting the Forest
By 1920, the pine forests, and the mill, and the jobs, were gone. Those who had come to work the woods tried to stay and eke out a living from the thin soils of the deforested hills. But their efforts only produced meager crops and more erosion, and by 1928, large areas of the once rich timberland had become wasteland.
The National Forests
Traveling Picture Shows
"The pictures were shown outdoors, in crossroads stores, at country churches and schools, [bringing] movies to people who had never seen one in their lives. This mobile entertainment operated for 12 years, continuing even through World War II." (Missouri Forests in the Past)
Once people understood and private landowners began to cooperate, fire prevention programs began to work. Federal and state foresters planted seedlings and improved woodlots, and taught landowners to do the same. Today, Missouri's forests are healthy once again. Less than one-tenth of one percent of the forest burns each year, and deer, turkey and other wildlife now exist in record numbers.
Missouri Forests in the Past, a history of Missouri's forests, published
by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Photos from American Lumberman
magazine, May 1903. | <urn:uuid:0037b97d-24f9-4708-9015-d5fc6b720733> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watersheds.org/farm/hforestry.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967111 | 557 | 3.296875 | 3 |
One of the most anticipated tours of our Southern California tour series was to Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs (ADP), otherwise known as Skunk Works. Being a Michigan student, we are engulfed into the legend of Kelly Johnson. Going into our 5 x 7 wind tunnel building is always a stark reminder of why I chose to go to Michigan for my aerospace engineering studies. So as you can imagine, this was a dream come true.
Our destination was a close one. We departed from your hotel in Lancaster and made the 15 minute drive through the desert to Palmdale. With blues skies, sand, and mountains all around us, it was easy to spot the beautifully plain white and blue building that housed the Skunk Works. The entire group was excited for a trip that seemed very impossible.
The Legend of Kelly Johnson
I don’t think anyone in the group could of ever imaged being able to see such an icon of american aviation. The SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, and the Lockheed U-2 spy plane were just a few of the many secret aircraft to be designed here. This moment had an especially large effect on me because of my profound interest in Kelly Johnson. I’m still awe struck that we were able to go inside…
Enough reminiscing… At 7am we passed a few security check points to make sure there were no terrorists on board. After everything checked out and we parked the vehicles we made our way to our first event of the morning. A group picture in front of Skunk Works! The 16 students and our host posed for a couple shots as we braved the apparently uncommon chilliness that Southern California was experiencing.
Our second activity for the day was to gather in one of the Skunk Work’s meeting rooms. As we walked through the hallways down to our destination we were surrounded by amazing pictures on the wall of past and current projects. In one of the larger entrance rooms we were presented with one of the coolest displays of the day, the six Collier Trophies, which is awarded annually ”for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year.” My particular favorite was their most recent trophy, which was won due to Pual Belivaqua’s design on the F-35 JSF engine design.
During our time in the meeting room we had some great talks with leading engineers at the company, including one of my favorite aircraft designers, Leland Nicolai. We got a taste for what the Skunk Works looks for in new graduates as well as some rich history of Lockheed Martin.
Our first big tour of the day was especially amazing! The group was guided though the hallways to one of the large hangars, were we were getting an up close look at some new work that was being done to the F-22 Raptor. I’ve been on the production line at Mariette, GA for the F-22 (which was amazing, by the way), but this was a completely different experience. Instead of a bunch of F-22′s everywhere, there were only three, but intricate work was being done to them on the inside. Like no brain surgeon could ever image, panels from this beautiful bird were taken off and the Raptor’s intricately detailed interior was exposed. The room we were in was insanely clean, and unlike production lines, this room was relatively quiet.
P-791 Hybrid Airship
After spending some time with the Raptors, we moved on to an area, which was much more accessible and less “secret” than the F-22s. It was time for the P-791 Hybrid Airship! Most people may think that blimps are dead, but I can assure you that their resurgence into the aviation field is in full swing. Using the principles from buoyant lift and aerodynamic lift, this aircraft is ultra-efficient… as long as you’re going under 100 mph. I’ll talk more about the P-791′s applications in a later post, for now check out the great video below.
X-55 All Composites Cargo Aircraft
After spending a healthy hour all with the P-791, we were off to the X-55 ACCA. I was excited to see yet another experimental airplane on the same day! The Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) is an experimental twin jet engined transport aircraft. Its primary role is to demonstrate the new cargo-carrier using advanced composites. On this part of the tour we didn’t get to just stand behind some hefty red tape, no we were going inside! I think the coolest part of being inside the ACCA was seeing and touch all of the composites on board as well as being able to see the pulley system, which controls all the flight flight
controls. We learned that during flight tests the inside of cargo area gets extremely loud. We definitely noticed this, while we were exploring this beauty.
Being able to be at the Skunk Works was great! A trip that I never thought possible. We learned one important thing from the Skunk Works that day, and that was a quote:
I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution. -Wernher von Braun | <urn:uuid:fcd5467d-0060-40de-8e00-a42738613ec0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aeroscholar.com/tag/p-791/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981067 | 1,129 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The SRAM-2 air-launched ballistic missile was a replacement for the SRAM stand-off weapon that allowed American bombers to penetrate Soviet air space. SRAM-2 was to be smaller, so that more missiles could be carried per bomber. New rocket motors and a different nuclear warhead would remedy problems with the original missile. SRAM-2's fortunes were tied to that of the B-1 bomber, which was cancelled in 1978, but then resurrected and put into production in 1981. So although design work began in 1977, Boeing did not receive a development contract until 1986. The missile was to become operational in 1993, but was cancelled in 1991 after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union eliminated its mission. A B-1B bomber would have carried 36 of the missiles, and a tactical version was in test for the F-15.
Maximum range: 390 km (240 mi). Number Standard Warheads: 1. Boost Propulsion: Solid rocket. Initial Operational Capability: 1993.
Historical Essay © Andreas Parsch
Boeing AGM-131 SRAM II
The SRAM II (Short-Range Attack Missile) was intended as a replacement for the AGM-69 SRAM, but it was not produced in quantity.
In 1977, the USAF planned to develop an upgrade of the SRAM for the forthcoming B-1A bomber as AGM-69B SRAM B. When the B-1A was cancelled in 1978, the AGM-69B was dropped, too. After the resurrection of the B-1 program (as B-1B) in 1981, it was decided to develop an entirely new weapon, the SRAM II. In 1986, Boeing was finally awarded a development contract for the AGM-131A SRAM II. The AGM-131A was planned to have only about 2-3 the size of an AGM-69A, so that 36 missiles could be carried by the B-1B, as compared to 24 AGM-69As. One new feature of SRAM II was a lighter, simpler, and more reliable rocket motor by Thiokol for increased range. The SRAM II also used a new W-89 thermonuclear warhead, which was much safer to operate than the W-69 of the AGM-69. Initial Operational Capability for the AGM-131A was planned for 1993, but after flight tests in the late 1980s, the program was cancelled in 1991. Stated reasons include technical (difficulties with the rocket motor) and political (nuclear arms reduction) ones.
The AGM-131B SRAM-T (SRAM-Tactical) was a version intended for use by the F-15E Eagle tactical strike aircraft. The SRAM-T reached the flight-test stage, but was eventually cancelled, too.Specifications
Note: Data given by several sources show slight variations. Figures given below may therefore be inaccurate!
Data for AGM-131A (except where noted):
|Length||3.18 m (10 ft 5 in)|
|Diameter||39 cm (15.3 in)|
|Weight||900 kg (2000 lb)|
|Range||400 km (250 miles)|
|Propulsion||Thiokol solid-fueled rocket|
|Warhead||W-89 thermonuclear (200 kT)|
AGM-131B: W-91 thermonuclear (10 kT, 100 kT)
James N. Gibson: "Nuclear Weapons of the United States", Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1996
Christopher Chant: "World Encyclopaedia of Modern Air Weapons", Patrick Stephens Ltd., 1988
AKA: AGM-131A; SRAM II; SRAM T.
Gross mass: 877 kg (1,933 lb).
Height: 4.27 m (14.00 ft).
Diameter: 0.40 m (1.31 ft).
Span: 0.61 m (2.00 ft). | <urn:uuid:17f7ea4c-7b20-46e8-9edd-cec4776be447> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/sram2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00064-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94199 | 847 | 3.40625 | 3 |
And there you have it: in the span of a few hours tonight, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly made more progress on Marcellus Shale legislation than it has in the last three years combined.
The Senate passed a broad bill imposing an impact fee and strengthening environmental regulations on a 29-20 vote. It’s the first time the chamber has voted on any sort of natural gas levy. (The House passed severance tax legislation in 2009 and 2010, but the Senate never acted on either bill.)
Republicans defeated a series of Democrat-sponsored amendments before the final vote. The most high-profile challenge came from Allegheny County Democrat Jim Ferlo, who offered an amendment wiping out the bill’s restrictions on local zoning.
Ferlo’s language failed on a 22-27 vote, leaving in place a section requiring municipalities to keep drilling ordinances in line with their zoning regulations for other construction and manufacturing projects within their boundaries. Under the Senate bill’s scheme, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General would be the arbiter of whether or not a municipality’s ordinances are “reasonable.” If a driller appeals to the AG’s office and wins, a municipality wouldn’t be eligible for its share of a $50,000-$10,000-per-well impact fee.
Meantime, the House debated late into the night on a dueling impact fee bill. The chamber eliminated the measure’s most controversial section, language “superseding and preempting” all local drilling ordinances, by approving a Republican leadership-backed amendment on a 110-85 vote. The new language adopts a plan similar to the Senate bill’s, where the Attorney General rules on whether or not specific local ordinances are “reasonable” or fair to the drilling industry.
(We’ll have a more detailed look at the amendment on the StateImpact website tomorrow.)
The House vote comes just four days after Governor Corbett urged lawmakers to support the local preemption language, arguing the section would help grow the drilling industry within the commonwealth.
It’s not clear when the House will hold a final vote on the measure. Leaders initially hoped for a vote by Wednesday, but a spokesman says that timetable has now been nixed. What happens when the House does send its bill over to the Senate? A lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations. | <urn:uuid:0748e161-6893-4304-8a8f-172aef8cb638> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2011/11/15/senate-passes-an-impact-fee-house-drops-local-preemption-language-in-its-marcellus-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9196 | 499 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Birth surge 'means 450,000 more primary pupils'
More than 450,000 extra primary pupils will need places in England by 2015 as schools face a surging birth rate, government figures reveal.
This will place intense pressure on schools, particularly in urban areas.
In Barking there is a forecast for the primary school population to increase by more than 40% - the equivalent of dozens of new schools.
But a spokesman for the Department for Education says there are no plans to remove infant class size limits.
The government has released its latest figures on school capacity - including local authority forecasts for how demand for places is set to change between the school years 2010-2011 and 2015-2016.Population boom
This shows a picture of soaring demand for primary places in some areas, within a projected national increase in the number of primary-age pupils of 454,800.
This reflects a sustained population boom - with the birth rate in 2010 20% higher than in 2002.
London already faces a squeeze on places, with temporary "bulge" classrooms being erected in some schools - but this is set to intensify.
Barking will need to accommodate more than 8,000 extra primary pupils; Brent and Newham more than 6,000.
County councils, often with more pupils than urban authorities, also face big increases - Lancashire is forecasting demand to rise by 13,000, Hampshire by 11,000 and Kent is expecting to need places for more than 9,000 extra pupils.
As well as the shortage of places in some areas, there are still large numbers of unfilled places elsewhere - either because of demographic changes or because parents are not sending their children to unpopular schools.
The latest figures show that nationally there are more than 444,000 empty primary places - but not necessarily in the places where there is the growing demand.'Acute need'
This will be a tough planning challenge for national and local government, against a background of spending constraints and growing numbers of schools moving outside of local education authority control.
End Quote Lord Hill Schools minister
We're creating thousands more places to deal with the impact of soaring birth rates on primary schools”
The rapid rise in the birth rate in some areas is going to require a substantial increase in capacity - with implications for buildings, playgrounds and staffing.
For example, the north London authority of Brent faces a primary school population increase of more than 25% by 2015.
Building company Wates said that in terms of the time needed to open a new school, it required an urgent response if places were to be ready in the next three years.
"While that might seem like a long way off, it typically takes at least two years from the time a decision is made to build a school before it is ready to open as a school," said Steve Beechey, head of education at Wates.
"So there is an acute need for new school building projects to get under way now to avoid a potentially critical shortfall of places in densely populated areas within the next few years."Extra funding
As schools face this population surge, the school system is under tough financial constraints.
Capital spending was cut by 60% for the period of the comprehensive spending review.
But the government says that it is targeting extra funding at areas that are most under pressure.
Schools Minister Lord Hill said: "We're creating thousands more places to deal with the impact of soaring birth rates on primary schools.
"We're more than doubling targeted investment at areas facing the greatest pressure on numbers - to over £4bn in the next four years.
"We are building free schools and letting the most popular schools expand to meet demand from parents."
Breaking down this £4bn figure, the Department for Education says this represents £800m per year plus £500m extra for 2012-13 and a further £600m for 2013-15, announced in the Chancellor's autumn statement.
In terms of the demands on this money, the department suggests that a 400-pupil primary will cost in the region of £4m to £5m.
Steve Reed, executive member for children and young people at London Councils, said he welcomed the recognition that schools in the capital faced a "dramatic surge in numbers".
But he said: "The government announced before Christmas that London would receive extra funding, but this will still be less than we actually need."Planning challenge
Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide places for children - but they are also facing major structural changes in planning local education services.
Academies are their own admission authorities - operating outside of the local authority system - and it is expected that in the course of this year a majority of secondary schools will have become academies.
More primary schools are also set to become academies - adding another dimension to strategic planning for places.
The Local Government Association, responding to the new figures, called for better forecasting methods for future demand, to identify where the big increases are likely over five and 10 years.
This rise in demand is also likely to raise questions about the maximum class size limits for infant classes.
This was a flagship policy of the Labour government - setting a legal upper limit of 30 pupils for infant classes in primary school.Class size limits
The Department for Education commissioned a study of the evidence of the importance of class sizes - with the results published on 22 December.
The findings echoed international reports which have questioned the link between class size and standards.
It concluded that "class size reduction policies are not the best option in terms of value for money to raising pupil attainment, compared to others such as increasing teacher effectiveness".
"Broadly evidence suggests that class size reduction policies have an uncertain and diminishing effect on pupil achievement in the long run."
But it noted that a "smaller class size has a positive impact on attainment and behaviour in the early years of school".
And it also acknowledged the strong parental support for smaller classes.
In terms of the international context, the report says that schools in England already have unusually big primary class sizes for a developed country - but suggested that there was no clear correlation between average class size and attainment.
But a Department for Education spokesman emphasised that there were no plans to remove the maximum class size.
"No parent wants their child taught in huge classes - so it's right local authorities create extra places to keep sizes down and relief pressure on places," said a department spokesman.
"It remains illegal for infant classes to exceed 30 pupils per teacher. We take a tough line with any breach and pretty much every class remain below the statutory limit - a level that has remained steady for the last few years." | <urn:uuid:1e2a35b4-b278-4861-a473-6c3a90467f20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16486747 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954702 | 1,365 | 2.34375 | 2 |
Business-to-Business Advertising in the Current Environment, Blast Announcements
Blast Announcements – this category used to be referred to as direct mail because, at one time, the mail system was the only way to reach a large audience directly and on an individual basis. Then blast faxing became popular for a short time only to be strictly limited by laws that restricted the opportunity to send faxes to companies with no interest in receiving them. In fact, the recipients were bothered by the faxes as a nuisance and a waste of their own fax paper and electricity.
Then came blast e-mails that are currently very popular. Most of this kind of communication can be referred to as spam, a new millennium annoyance. Companies go to great detail to put disclaimers at the end of their otherwise-normal-and-harmless e-mail messages in order to protect themselves form anti-spamming regulations. Even with all of this said, blast e-mail is still a favorable form of advertising to many companies because of the very low cost of doing it. | <urn:uuid:4748ce4b-7628-4cf7-a6cc-5a0f10ca2e74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/print/blog/business-business-advertising-current-environment-blast-announcements?group_id=8422 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975104 | 215 | 2.078125 | 2 |
Time: 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Place: Duquesne Club
When H.J. Heinz Co. announced it would be changing how it makes its iconic plastic ketchup bottles, Chairman, President and CEO William Johnson said the food manufacturer would rely on digital media to get the word out.
Specifically, he noted the company would include a small code on the labels of some 20 oz. ketchup bottles that could be scanned by a consumer’s smart phone and would open up a mobile website that would further explain how the company is using sugar cane to make plastic.
With Johnson’s side note, he announced the company is jumping into a marketing strategy that more and more brands are adopting — the use of quick response, or QR, codes.
QR codes, those square black and white blocky looking images, are gaining in popularity in the United States, popping up on business cards, catalogues and in stores. According to Forrester Research Inc.’s 2011 interactive marketing predictions, QR codes are one of the “exciting” opportunities becoming available to marketers.
Furthermore, the Canadian online payment start-up Mobio Identity Systems pulled information from its servers in 2010 and found that QR code use increased 1,200 percent from June to December. “We have been using QR codes here at Alcoa for about a year and a half now,” said Mark Kasperowicz, manager of digital marketing and communications. “The first good example was dating back to last year. We put a QR code in the 2009 annual report; it linked to a mobile version of the Alcoa.com website.
“The nice thing about QR codes is they are measurable and trackable. We saw a 40/40 split between analysts and investors (using the code) and about 20 percent from media and students.”
Malia Spencer covers technology and manufacturing at the Pittsburgh Business Times.
Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.org or (412) 208-3829.
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The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals. | <urn:uuid:3cf10045-f2ab-48ba-8334-5f104af658fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/print-edition/2011/03/04/businesses-qr-codes-marketing-method.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939467 | 516 | 1.679688 | 2 |
It is a day of reckoning for the government and the main Opposition, the United National Party (UNP). Since the conclusion of the war, the government lived in denial of military excesses during the final phase of the war and the civilian cost.
Though not the best of reconciliation processes, the report by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) does indicate serious human rights anomalies that require urgent rectification. The coming year is going to be one of extensive deliberations at the human rights front, and the government will do well to be ready, complete with a thick hide.
As for the UNP, after months of intense bickering and pussyfooting, the appointments to the party’s decision making apex body, the Working Committee will be a process completed today(18). The delays in making these appointments further polarized the Ranil and Sajith camps and brought in its midst, a third party in the name of Karu Jayasuriya who will now contents for the party leadership.
But the week’s top story was the releasing of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report. With its presentation to the House on Friday, Pandora’s Box has indeed been opened. From the very beginning, the report was expected to be a cautious presentation of information which is already public knowledge with liberal edits on the ‘truth’ aspect of it.
The LLRC report is essentially that- a liberally whetted document that offers no startling revelations. The report finds itself in direct conflict with both the international and local human rights’ community’s shared belief that gross human rights violations were committed during the final phase of the war that concluded in May 2009.
It does record certain aspects of the war the administration has repeatedly denied- the civilian suffering directly as a result of both government and LTTE shelling including schools and hospitals- yet, vehemently rejects the possibility of civilians being targeted by the Sri Lankan armed forces and appears to downplay the civilian populations affected by the final military onslaught.
While recording many aspects of the political question that finally resulted in violence that consumed the northeast for nearly three decades, it significantly fell short of even remotely resembling a credible truth and reconciliation process, as in South Africa or in Peru, which vastly contributed to the healing of their nations.
To reach that end result, (the LLRC report being the visible output) it needed to be a process designed to uncover the truth complete with honesty of purpose. The South African government in 1995 used the process to unite the people by uncovering the truthful situation relating to the human rights violations committed during the period of Apartheid. It gathered evidence to analyze and present truthful findings of both victims and perpetrators in a process designed to reconcile a deeply divided people on the basis of colour.
The LLRC Report in contrast, has exonerated the military of targeting civilians during the final phase of the war, and while acknowledging serious human rights problems in Sri Lanka, fails to fully address the issue by delving into allegations of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. Instead of offering crucial insights, it has effectively brought closure to the vital debate on the possibilities of war crimes.
LLRC has clearly acknowledged that some isolated allegations of civilian abuses by security forces needed to be investigated further but has attributed such to their non-adherence to given orders. It has also reiterated the duty of the State to investigate and disclose any incidents of wrongful misconduct and to prosecute the wrongdoers.
No deliberate killings
While admitting to a number of limitations in ascertaining the truth, the Commission concluded that it found no evidence of deliberate killings of civilians in the "no-fire zones" but admitted that despite the absence of targeted killings, civilian casualties had in fact occurred in the course of crossfire.
The UN so far has adopted a policy of cautious engagement with the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon declaring that the UN was studying the LLRC report. He has set the tone for the coming months with a hint of warning with his call to all the member states to treat the report by the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka seriously. In contrast to the LLRC findings, Darusman’s report made references to grave human rights violations including aerial bombing of civilian populations during the final phase.
Responding to a request for a UN response to the LLRC report posed by the Inner City Press on Friday(16), Moon's associate spokesman Farhan Haq said: "We'll need to study" the LLRC report. He said, "We are continuing with our efforts at accountability... We hope and trust that member states will look to the contents of the[e] report led by Marsuki Darusman."
In contrast to the UN diplomacy, the international human rights defender, Amnesty International (AI) faulted the report for “ignoring the serious evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of the laws of war by government forces, even though the report highlights the serious and systematic violations committed by the LTTE”.
Issuing a strong indictment on the process itself, Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director in a statement on Friday critiqued: “There is a clear sign of the bias we had feared and already detected in the LLRC’s composition and conduct. It does however offer some interesting recommendations about how to improve the overall human rights situation in Sri Lanka that the government needs to take seriously”.
Setting the backdrop for the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session scheduled for March 2012, AI said: “The Sri Lankan government must now address the findings included in this report. It should report to the UN Human Rights Council at its next session in March 2012 on its measures to implement the report’s recommendations, including the need for further investigation of alleged violations of the laws of war, taking account of the findings and recommendations of the report of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka.”
It added: “Although the Sri Lankan authorities should take seriously the LLRC’s recommendations, Amnesty International believes that given Sri Lanka's long history of impunity, lack of apparent political will to address ongoing violations and enormous backlog of unresolved cases of violations, effective investigation and prosecution of all wrongdoers (including commanding officers) is very unlikely without the active support of the international community.”
In this backdrop, the international community is likely to reiterate its call for an international war crimes probe arguing that a self reflective process could not be expected from the government on its own behaviour in ending the war.
Having postponed her visit in December due to the LLRC Report not being finalized, the UN Special Reporter on Human Rights, Navy Pillai is now expected to visit Sri Lanka in February.
Besides, the local human rights activists and organizations are expected to drum up support for any call for an independent inquiry into human rights violations during the final phase of the war. The LLRC findings, does provide them with a significant base to clamour for a process that is result-driven and eventually delivers justice.
Meanwhile, a lobbying campaign has been launched by multiple groups to mobilize people to demand for the release of former Army Commander and common opposition presidential candidate, Gen. Sarath Fonseka.
Fonseka, used by the United National Party(UNP) to as a cover during the presidential elections, is now serving a three year sentence. His appeal against the military court’s verdict was rejected but a defiant Fonseka continued to announce that his political life is far from over.
His family as well as a faction of the UNP are taking some action to keep the momentum. His daughter Apsara who resides in the US has introduced an electronic petition to be submitted to US President Barack Obama to pressurize the Sri Lankan State to release Fonseka unconditionally.
While she is drawing nearer her mark w of 25,000 electronic signatures (already over 17,000 signatures have been gathered), it is unrealistic that exertion of international pressure would lead to such a decision. The US has played a cautious role, unlike in other instances of human rights, with regard to Fonseka as well as on the war crimes issue.
Besides, the former Commander’s wife Anoma has clearly rejected the possibility for appealing for a presidential pardon to secure her husband’s release. In the present legal context, if Fonseka is to secure his freedom, the available option is the use of presidential powers to grant a pardon. It is a course of action the Fonseka family is strongly averse to.
However, Apsara Fonseka’s campaign for her father’s freedom is being ridiculed by the government. Several key ministers have already made comments about Ms. Fonseka’s electronic campaign, pointing out that President Obama was not in a position to deliver freedom to the retired General, suggesting a discussion with the President himself.
Amidst government criticism for launching an international and local campaign, Anoma Fonseka recently explained to a few faihftuls the reason for the online petition available on www.wh.gov/jmb. “the objective is to gather 25,000 signatures to be presented to Obama. Our efforts are being ridiculed by the government. But this is only a simple attempt to draw global attention to the injustice caused to my husband,’ she said.
As the online petition has a deadline of December 23, the officer’s wife also joined in the campaign by launching a signature campaign in Colombo and outstations. Anoma started her own to ensure the 25, 000 are achieved many outstations with the hope of supplementing the number of online signatures.
Meanwhile, the UNP also launched a campaign to demand for human rights protection in Sri Lanka on December 10, the international human rights day with a signature campaign to demand Fonseka’s release.
The UNP commended gathering signatures for a petition to be submitted to the UNHRC during the Council sessions in Geneva scheduled for March, 2012. The target is to secure 100,000 signatures to be gathered in 90 days. A copy of the petition is available at the Opposition Leader’s Official Residence at Marcus Fernando Mawatha and The Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya Headquarters housed at Sirikotha. The UNP is to circulate the petition for signature-gathering through the party’s many international branches.
In a display of quiet defiance, Anoma Fonseka also opened to the public a photographic exhibition on the life and times of Sarath Fonseka titled “The Moment of Truth” at the Public Library Auditorium. The exhibition will conclude tomorrow(19).
While the Fonsekas design advocacy campaigns to lobby for Fonseka’s release, the vegetable traders and vendors collectively demonstrates people’s power last week by protesting against a rule with regard to transportation of vegetables in plastic baskets.
The traders and small time farmers gathered in various cities and smashed their vegetables on the asphalt roads, protesting against a decision announced by trade Minister Johnston Fernando. The Minister instructed a new regulation making it compulsory for all types of vegetables being transported should be packed in plastic baskets only.
To this, vendors from Colombo’s congested Manning Market to the Dambulla economic center displayed the same defiance- with roads being closed to traffic, vegetables being thrown on to public roads.
As the vegetable protests gathered momentum, among those who suffered with impoverished meals were the parliamentarians. The legislators did not take kindly to their regular sumptuous spread being reduced to a couple of vegetables at the Members’ Dining. They were serviced with two vegetables, beetroot and sweet pumpkin one day. The vegetable shortage led UNP frontliner Ranjith Maddumabandara protesting during the budget debate that parliamentarians were served a village delicacy, ‘jack seeds’.
The shortage created by the continued protests led to hospitals and Parliamentarian being short-supplied. In places where supplies were limited, prices immediately skyrocketed. Learning of the gravity of the situation, President Mahinda Rajapakse immediately dispatched senor politician Sarath Ekanayake to bring the dispute to some closure. Ekanayake travelled to Dambulla on Monday night to speak to the vegetable traders, associations and the police to bring about some settlement.
He saw roads strewn with vegetables, rotting vegetables and roads made impassable by the parked lorries laden with vegetables. Dambulla resembled a mini battlefield.
While holding discussions with the parties, Ekanayake quickly summoned the Dambulla Mayor to order a quick clean up of the city of rotting vegetables.
Beetroot and sweet pumpkin Ranjith Bandumabandara even protested about jack seeds being serviced in parliament for lunch.
In the meantime, an angry President summoned Trade Minister Johnston Fernando along with Ministers Basil Rajapakse, Duminda Dissanayake and officials, Dr. P B Jayasundera and Lalith Weeratunge immediately to Temple Trees on Wednesday to end the vegetable war. He also invited the vegetable traders and their organizational representatives to attend the meeting.
The President was in no mood for arguments. He demanded from the vegetable vendors and trade representatives whether they were going to protest for another year or for six months, demanding that the rule be withdrawn. “If you continue in this manner, creating shortages and causing artificial price hikes, I will create a corporative to buy vegetable directly from the farmers. Don’t take the law into your hands or try to take political advantage out of this situation. I know how these things happen. Don’t forget am also a villager,” he said, expressing deep dissatisfaction.
But the President was able to strike a deal with the vendors. He asked them how long they required to implement the rule and there was agreement that one month was adequate. The traders also requested green chilies, frill beans and brinjals be exempted from this rule and that too was agreed to. It has now been estimated that a stock of 1.4 million kgs of vegetables were wasted due to the venders’ protests.
While the vegetable drama delayed the scheduled meeting on Wednesday, it also reached the polit bureau of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) last Wednesday. The JVPers also discussed matters connected to the vegetable traders’ protest. One polit bureau member pointed out that the President was taking advantage of the situation to reinforce his popularity with the people and a just image that he did not enjoy. “In fact, this was a Cabinet decision. Johnston is only being used as a scapegoat amidst rising public protests”, one said.
D Day for UNP
December 18th is an important day for the United National Party (UNP). Divided into many factions over a leadership battle and factionalized politics, the working committee appointments will be completed today, hopefully putting an end to deeply disturbing state of affairs with the main opposition party.
On December 9, UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe summoned a meeting with a group of seniors to discuss the pary’s agenda for December 18. The attendees included Ravi Karunanayake, Managala Samaraweera, General Secretary Tissa Atanayake and John Amaratunge. Wickremesinghe reminded the need to mobilize the grassroots in 2012 and professed that people would suffer economic hardships.
In the above light, Samaraweera was entrusted with the task of designing a training program for key party politicians through which strategies of public engagement and mobilizations could be addressed.
With eight vacancies already filled unanimously, there is some hop that the 18th will cause any political bloodshed within the UNP. As Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya paid courtesy calls at the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters followed by the Catholic Church in Kandy and the Mosque, Wickremesinghe was heard quipping that he would to politicize places of worship though he would respectfully seek their advice and blessings. “I will not do politics at the Maha Viharas or the Bishop’s House,” Wickremesinghe told a few loyalists.
Wickremesinghe has also announced his candidature for the party’s top slot. If there is no consensus, a secret ballot is to be the method of selection. However, with Jayasuirya pitted against Wickremesinghe, it now appears that dislodging the incumbent will not be an easy task, despite the divided lines. It is now the thinking among some of the key UNPers including those at the Working Committee level, Sajith Premadasa has converted Jayasuriya into a sacrificial lamb. While Wickremesinghe is no winning candidate, pitted against Jayasuriya, it is now believed that Wickremesinghe will indeed emerge victorious in the crucial leadership battle. (Ceylon Today Online) | <urn:uuid:f50c09c6-220a-4f99-a865-d27f3e33ecb5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ceylontoday.lk/2810-print.html | 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 | 0.95915 | 3,533 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Australia, Indonesia complete joint naval operation
The Australian Defence Force says an annual joint operation with the Indonesian Navy off the coast of northern Australia is improving maritime security.
Two Indonesian Navy boats have docked at Darwin's patrol boat base on Friday after an eight-day joint operation with the Australian Navy.
The boats have been patrolling the economic exclusion zone on the Indonesian maritime border with Australia looking for illegal fishers.
It is the third time the annual joint operation has been held as part of an agreement to improve maritime security, including patrolling for boats illegally entering Australian waters.
While no illegal fishing was detected during the operation the boats had an opportunity to exchange crew members and to learn how their counterparts conduct patrols.
The two Indonesian fast attack boats are due to leave Darwin harbour on Saturday. | <urn:uuid:21a8740b-e6b9-45fe-9348-ea3fa0c174d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcasiapacificnews.com/stories/201204/3490472.htm?site=sydney | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968917 | 159 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Dreaming of designing and teaching a Web-based psychology course? For some faculty, what may be a pipe dream now, could be a reality by next fall.
Universities and colleges across the country are experimenting with Web-based courses, establishing distance-education policies and considering whether to invest hundreds of thousands, even millions, in multimedia software and other technology. In one example, the Kentucky Virtual University--the state's official virtual campus--has earmarked $1.5 million to provide interest-free loans to schools and professors who develop Web-based courses.
But the real challenge may be making the shift from class-based to Web-based teaching, say faculty who are testing the waters of online learning. "The learning curve is steep," says Margaret Bly Turner, PhD, a professor of psychology at Edison Community College who has been teaching Web-based courses for more than three years. "Professors need to really want to do this."
Among the challenges, say Turner and others, are learning how to write course material and objectives to fit the Web format, sorting and organizing the deluge of e-mail such courses generate, and keeping up-to-date with technology.
But by following some advice from seasoned faculty--such as finding a technology mentor and learning ways to build a Web-based community, exchanging the classroom for a chat room can be a smooth and exciting quest.
"Faculty have to readjust their thinking about their roles," says Brian Austin, PhD, dean of the School of Psychology at Capella University, a distance-learning university based in Minneapolis. "Most faculty think of themselves as information dispensers in the classroom. Here, they must be learning outcome managers."
Be an online student
A great way to prepare for teaching an online course, say faculty, is to take a course or workshop on Web-based teaching or Web-based course design.
That's how psychology professor Sheryl Hartman, PhD, prepared for her first Web-based introduction to psychology course. The how-to class, offered at Miami Dade Community College, covered the nuts and bolts of how to use an instructional software platform--a Web-course management system--to design the course, how to create online tests, manage students and monitor their progress.
A similar course is a requirement for all faculty at Capella University, which offers master's and doctoral programs in psychology. The course teaches beginners how to design Web-based learning activities, encourage interaction at a distance and gauge students online learning. For faculty without a course at their institution or at nearby community colleges, other options include workshops offered by Web-based teaching software companies such as WebCT, www.webct.com, and Blackboard, www.blackboard.com.
Those companies and others also offer newsletters and discussion boards where faculty can pose questions and share ideas with other e-educators.
"Definitely dialogue with people who have done it," advises Jill Caire, PhD, who participated on listservs to prepare herself for teaching at The Fielding Institute, a distance learning university that offers the first APA-approved doctoral program in clinical psychology that includes distance learning.
Find a tech expert
Just as car lovers appreciate a reliable mechanic, Web-based professors say it's essential to have a technology expert to turn to when hardware and software problems arise, a virus strikes, or the server is down.
"Don't be macho," says Kenneth Weaver, PhD, a psychology professor at Emporia State University who teaches statistics online. "You must have a connection with someone whom you have confidence can answer your questions quickly."
When he began teaching on the Web two years ago, Weaver quickly established a relationship with the chair of his university's department of instructional design and technology, who answers his questions quickly and offers onsite support. Another faculty member in that department helps Weaver with more conceptual problems, such as how he can make material more accessible, improve students' interest, and better integrate text and graphics.
Miami Dade's Hartman, who uses WebCT software for her course, regularly uses the company's 800 tech-assistance hotline when she needs support.
"There is always someone available who can help me," she says.
Librarians are another potential support system. "Librarians are closet techies," says Turner at Edison Community College. She sends her students to librarians for assistance in setting up e-mail accounts and Web access because they "tend to stay current with changing technology."
Lighten your load
Planning and teaching a Web-based class demands an enormous time commitment, say faculty. That may mean that it's not the semester to pick up another committee or activity.
"It requires far more time than teaching in a classroom," says Austin, who has been involved in graduate training for 33 years. "For an online class, I probably spend triple the time I spent per week when I taught in a conventional classroom." Weaver at Emporia State admits he was initially surprised and overwhelmed by the workload.
"I came to somewhat despise the course because I couldn't get away from it," says Weaver. "Everytime I turned around there was a question, a comment, a concern, or an issue for me to address--and I had obligated myself to a 24-hour turnaround."
He suggests faculty carve time into their schedule a full semester before the Web-based course to find and explore Web sites that can be resources for the course, learn the technology and craft assignments and course material. During the course, he says, make time for pulling material on and off the course's Web site, revising assignments, answering student e-mail, visiting chat rooms and monitoring discussion boards.
"And, above all, make sure you have the full support of your department chair," he says.
Cut and paste
Teaching a Web-based course doesn't have to squeeze everything else out of your life. There are tricks that can save time and help students, say faculty. Hartman suggests adding a Frequently Asked Questions section to the Web course for students to refer to--a tool that can trim down student e-mail.
For faculty who want to answer all student queries personally, another trick is to create a document with answers to commonly asked questions to pull from.
"Then, if you get the same questions over and over again, you can simply cut and paste your answers," says Deborah Briihl, PhD, a professor of psychology at Valdosta State University in Georgia. Another timesaving strategy is setting up online office hours by posting a block of time that you'll be available in the course's chat room, say faculty.
Briihl also learned that she could lessen her workload by being explicitly clear about her expectations for all assignments, activities and tests.
"That was something I learned the hard way," she says, "As an assignment, I asked a question that was too broad and I got everything from a three-page paper to a one sentence answer back."
Start small, start simple
While the jury is still out on what the ideal size for a Web-based course is, many say a class of less than 20 students is the easiest to manage. "Web courses are not the panacea to generate lots of credit hours," says Weaver. "I am department chair and at one time looked greedily at Web courses with enrollments of 40 and 50. Not any more."
Turner at Edison Community College recalls, "I had 21 graduate students at once and it was too many to give the proper attention to," she says. "You don't have that added facial element, and when you are trying to keep 21 people straight for 10 weeks, it can be a little hectic."
Along these lines, Turner warns faculty against using too many high-tech tools--such as Real Audio, group work functions, video and interactive self-testing--the first time they teach an online course. "Be comfortable with what you set out to do--don't let technology get in the way of what you are trying to teach."
Create a community
Just because traditional face-to face contact is absent in a Web-based course doesn't mean that a feeling of warmth and community needs to be, say faculty. In fact, seasoned Web instructors say students in online courses can actually generate more discussion, interaction and familiarity than those in a traditional classroom.
"I really like the written format, it allows for richer discussion and reflection," says Caire of The Fielding Institute. "Furthermore, someone who would be quiet in a classroom has to write in online courses, and it gives them a chance to be more involved in the discussion process."
Assigning group activities, asking students to post pictures, or planning "getting to know each other" icebreakers at the beginning of the semester are all great ways to foster community among students and reduce isolation, say faculty.
Weaver created a listserv for his online statistics course to encourage interaction, and plans to introduce a discussion board next semester.
"You really do connect with students," he says. "I have a knowledge of their abilities and aptitudes that I would not get from a traditional one semester class." Weaver adds, "This experience is going to help me be a better teacher in class and has made me want to reach out more to the psychology majors here."
Kardas, E. (1999). Psychology Resources on the World Wide Web. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (1999). Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. Jossey-Bass.
White, K.W., & Weight, B.H. (Eds.) (1999). The Online Teaching Guide: A Handbook of Attitudes, Strategies and Techniques for the Virtual Classroom. Allyn & Bacon. | <urn:uuid:5dbd0d50-1326-470b-a67a-ea6def3ab73e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan01/digital.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959834 | 2,034 | 2.328125 | 2 |
Written by PETA
Starting with Tricky Dick, every president in office has issued proclamations supporting America's "sportsmen and women," i.e. wildlife killers. President Obama recently followed suit by naming September 26 "National Hunting and Fishing Day."
In response, PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk has asked President Obama to declare a "National Wildlife Amnesty Day" in honor of the 95 percent of us who prefer to shoot wildlife with cameras, not guns. That's right: Only a puny 5 percent of Americans stalk, maim, and slaughter deer, bears, and other animals—and many former fishers have cast their rods aside after learning that fish sea kittens feel pain.
Folks, "wildlife management" and "conservation" are euphemisms used to describe programs that ensure inflated numbers of animals for hunters to harass, maim, and kill. If left alone, animal populations would regulate their own numbers. Those who truly care about wildlife donate money to save habitats—without expecting a dead body as a trophy in return.
Written by Karin Bennett
you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to
an animal, please click
here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the
animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local
police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA
immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:aa0c588a-8e4b-4034-a237-81af63d0a370> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2009/10/06/Declare-National-Wildlife-Amnesty-Day-Obama.aspx?PageIndex=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954572 | 390 | 2.15625 | 2 |
TSP art is a type of line art based on the Traveling Salesman Problem. An image is first discretized into black points on a white background. The points are then treated as “cities” in the TSP problem. An approximate solution to the TSP problem is calculated and drawn. The result is striking approximation to the original image. Remarkably, the path never crosses itself. Read more here. | <urn:uuid:4c6da567-3eb0-4988-be87-f1df569808d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://captcreate.tumblr.com/tagged/Mathematics | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949615 | 88 | 2.28125 | 2 |
Comptroller of the Treasury
The Comptroller of the Treasury was an official of the United States Department of the Treasury from 1789 to 1817. According to section III of the Act of Congress establishing the Treasury Department, it is the comptroller's duty to
- superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts; to examine all accounts settled by the Auditor, and certify the balances arising thereon to the Register; to countersign all warrants drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury, which shall be warranted by law; to report to the Secretary the official forms of all papers to be issued in the different offices for collecting the public revenue, and the manner and form of keeping and stating the accounts of the several persons employed therein. He shall moreover provide for the regular and punctual payment of all monies which may be collected, and shall direct prosecutions for all delinquencies of officers of the revenue, and for debts that are, or shall be due to the United States.
The first person to hold this office was Oliver Wolcott, Jr.. It was also held for a time by Gabriel Duvall, who would later serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. The office was later several times renamed. It was the First Comptroller of the Treasury (1817–20), the Agent of the Treasury (1820–30), and Solicitor of the Treasury (1830–1934), and is now the Office of the General Counsel.
|This United States government–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| | <urn:uuid:b9b9f0d9-af7d-488f-aa65-161015f12991> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptroller_of_the_Treasury | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964249 | 317 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Need more than one report? A Key Note subscription could save you over 50%. Call today for more details and a FREE online demonstration 0845-504 0452.
According to Building Contracting, a new Market Report from market intelligence provider Key Note, output in the construction industry fell by 0.8% between 2006 and 2010, to be worth £117.43bn in 2010 at current prices, including repair and maintenance work.
Private construction bore the majority of losses during the economic crises, with private commercial construction, private housing, and private industrial construction investment all suffering significant losses. With private commercial construction accounting for 32% of new construction work, and private housing accounting for 19.6%, losses in these sectors caused a major drop in output for building contractors. The relatively stable growth in construction for the public housing, infrastructure and other public work sectors was insufficient to offset those losses in the private sector.
A number of challenges are facing the construction industry, as well as the impact of the recession. Sustainability and carbon emission issues are increasingly important concerns to both the Government and consumers. The Government has introduced legislation to reduce carbon emission from homes to zero by 2016, with public- and private-sector non-domestic buildings following shortly after. The sustainable credentials of building materials and the waste produced by construction projects have also come under increased scrutiny in recent years
Despite these challenges, the UK construction industry is one of the largest industries in the UK and is a massive employer; as such, Key Note expects construction output to have recovered by 2013. In 2011 and 2012, public spending cuts are expected to offset any recovery experienced within the private sector. By 2013, public-sector spending is expected to have recovered somewhat and significant growth is expected to return in 2014 and 2015, buoyed by public-sector investment in energy infrastructure.
Press enquiries: Jack Sykes at Key Note at email@example.com or 0845 504 0452. Press/review copies of the report are available on request. | <urn:uuid:5634a5b6-73eb-43d2-8a4c-faa98d87d340> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keynote.co.uk/media-centre/in-the-news/display/building-on-growth%3A-the-construction-industry-begins-to-recover-/?articleId=703 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944837 | 410 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The University of Houston Law Center has launched an academic center focused on the intersection of U.S. and Mexican law.
Administrators billed the center as the first of its kind in the United States, and said that Houston's close proximity to Mexico makes the law school a logical choice to house the project.
"The creation of an independent research center on Mexican law at a U.S. university is long overdue," said law professor Stephen Zamora, who will head the center. "Trade and investment between the United States and Mexico continues to grow as our economies become increasingly integrated, thanks to our NAFTA partnership."
Zamora noted that 33 million people in the United States are either Mexican citizens or their descendants, yet Americans have little understanding of Mexican law or legal institutions.
The center aims to change that disconnect through research and analysis, and by promoting connections between students, judges and legal professionals in both countries and Canada. The center also will host symposia and residencies by visiting scholars. Thus far, Justice Jose Ramon Cossio Diaz of Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation has agreed to be the center's first jurist in residence. Miriam Grunstein, a law professor at CIDE University in Mexico City, has been named an affiliated scholar.
The center has agreements with the Mexican Foreign Ministry and the country's national oil company, Petroleos Mexicano, to provide scholarships to help lawyers from both entities obtain master of laws degrees at the Law Center. The Mexican entities will accept Houston law students as summer interns. | <urn:uuid:9ce4cdf7-0192-40c2-a0ea-60d132f0cf2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.com/jsp/law/international/LawArticleIntl.jsp?id=1202548101225&New_Academic_Center_Will_Study_Interplay_of_US_Mexican_Law_ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966233 | 316 | 2 | 2 |
GINSENG—DESCRIBED—Will you please give me a good description of the ginseng and golden seal plants? Do they die early in the fall and are they more valuable then?
The plant grows from eight to sixteen inches high, when in a wild state, a single stem, with usually only three branches, and each branch bears five leaves, the three end leaves being largest. In summer it bears a cluster of small yellowish flowers on a small stem branching from the top, and these flowers later give place to a bunch of berries which are red when ripe. The root looks like s small parsnip, but is usually less perfect in shape, and is frequently branched. The cultivated plant grows larger than the wild. The plants die late in the fall. The proper time to gather the roots is in late September or in
October, after the plant has commenced to dry. The roots are at their best then and do not shrink so much in drying. The wild plant grows on timbered ground where there is plenty of shade and the soil is rich.
Golden seal grows to about a foot in height, a single upright stem with two short branches at the top, one bearing a large leaf and the other a small one. There are usually only two leaves, but sometimes a third very small one, without a stem is found. The flower and the seed berry, if any appear, come on the stem bearing the smaller leaf. The leaves are irregular in shape, having from five to nine lobes, and the larger when mature will measure six or eight inches in diameter. The flower is small and greenish white and has only three petals which fall off as soon as the flower is fully expanded, leaving only the stamens, which later take on the form of a large raspberry, red when ripe. The roots of the plant are bright yellow, and consist of a thick, chunky center with a large number of smaller rootlets. It dies down late in fall, like the ginseng, and the roots should be dug only in the fall. It grows naturally on rather open wooded ground.
Harding, A.R.. 3001 Questions and Answers. Columbus, Oh: A.R. Harding, 1913.
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Order Online 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week, 365 Days a Year | <urn:uuid:fff6dd99-0ac2-46e4-8b30-d8d9df896e2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huntingblades.com/gi.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961657 | 523 | 2.6875 | 3 |
If the other party is not following the orders the court made, you can file a Petition for Contempt.
A. General Instructions for the Process
- "County" refers to the county where you are going to file your petition.
- "In the Matter of
" should be completed by inserting the full name of both parents.
- Please note that your signature on the petition must be notarized.
- You must also complete a Personal Data Sheet to file with your Petition. Make sure to mark the appropriate box under your name if you are concerned about your safety and do not want personal information disclosed to the other party.
- You should call the clerk's office for the amount of your filing fee and for further instructions regarding the next steps, including how the other party will be notified about the filing of the petition.
- You may be asked to complete a financial affidavit and you should be prepared to supply information regarding your income, employment, monthly expenses and life, health and dental insurance. You may be required to supply a copy of your latest income tax returns or your most recent pay stubs.
- After filing the petition, the court will send you Orders of Notice that contains important information for both parties. It is critical that you read this information carefully to understand the process.
- You will need to make arrangements for the other parent to be served with the Petition and the Orders of Notice. To do this, bring all of the paperwork to the sheriff's department. You will have to pay the sheriff to serve the papers. The sheriff will tell you the cost.
- Once the sheriff has served the other parent, the sheriff will send you a "Return of Service" that verifies the other parent has been given a copy of the petition and Orders of Notice. You must send in this return to the court immediately.
- If the sheriff cannot deliver the paperwork, the sheriff will let you know and you should call the court to find out what to do next.
If at this point, you both agree on all important issues, you may go ahead with a final uncontested hearing. The following documents will be required for a final hearing:
- An agreement that includes provisions for how the order shall be enforced.
- Both parties may also be required to file a financial affidavit. Be advised that some courts may require you to complete the affidavit on their own green form. There are instructions included on this form that you should pay particular attention to.
B. Contested Case
Your case is contested when you cannot agree on one or more important issues.
Once you have filed your petition, there are many ways you could attempt to resolve your differences. These include:
Contact an attorney (See the NH Bar Association "Need a Lawyer?" Section)
Contact a Superior Court Certified Marital Mediator
A combination of the above
You can proceed with the case on your own without professional assistance but you take the risk of not protecting your and/or your childrens best interest.
Court staff can assist you with procedures and forms but cannot give you substantive advice about what you should do in your particular situation.
In order to have contested issues decided by a marital master or judge, you will need to contact the court to request a hearing date. | <urn:uuid:7e46e26d-8118-4284-872b-9e6a09ed68b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courts.state.nh.us/superior/selfhelp/enforceorder.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941525 | 668 | 1.765625 | 2 |
This study examined the effects of IDA and ID without anemia on infant motor development by assessing motor skills that relate to brain areas and/or processes known to be altered by early ID, namely myelination and basal ganglia function, especially related to the dopamine system. Several tests that are sensitive to overall motor delays, which may be affected by impaired myelination, indicated linear effects of iron status, specifically, developmental milestones, Peabody gross motor (suggestive trend), INFANIB standing item, and the BRS Motor Quality factor. The threshold for the effects on developmental milestones, INFANIB standing item, and motor quality was ID with or without anemia, and scores for the NA ID group were significantly lower than the IS group. The toy retrieval task, where performance may depend on basal ganglia function, also showed linear effects of iron status, and the threshold for this effect was IDA. These results controlled for background factors that correlated with outcome. A few previous studies found motor effects of ID without anemia (e.g., (26
)), but most did not (see review (7
)). Our detection of such effects may be due to using a more comprehensive and more sensitive motor assessment.
We will first discuss how ID effects on impaired myelination and poor function of the basal ganglia could affect and impair motor performance. We will point to some limitations of our study and end with a suggestion for a future intervention, aimed at overcoming these effects.
Impaired myelination is one potential mechanism for ID effects on overall motor development. Iron is essential for oligodendrocyte function, which is crucial for myelin production. ID during gestation and lactation in the rat induces changes in myelin components (protein, cholesterol, phospholipids and galactolipids) and compaction in adulthood, despite an iron-sufficient diet beginning at weaning (8
). In the human IDA infant, slower transmission in the auditory and/or visual systems, both short-term and years after iron therapy (28
), suggests that effects of ID in infancy on myelination may be widespread and long-lasting. The corticospinal tract, in which motor commands traverse from the motor and sensory regions of the cerebral cortex to the spinal cord, is not completely myelinated at birth and thus may be particularly vulnerable to early ID effects. Impaired myelination in the entire brain and especially the corticospinal tract may delay and/or alter the normal development and refinement of motor skills.
Another potential mechanism for the effects of early ID on motor development is through altered basal ganglia function. In rodent models of diet-induced ID during gestation and lactation, severe IDA reduced D1
dopamine receptor densities in the striatum (8
), along with poor growth. To be more relevant to IDA in human infants, the rodent model in our program project produced ID with a more moderate level of brain ID than previous studies and avoided marked growth restriction (29
). Even in the more moderate ID model, deficits in a natural grooming sequence that depends on striatal dopamine function were observed in adulthood, despite correction of IDA and normalization of brain iron content in all areas but the thalamus (29
The basal ganglia play important roles in learning and execution of sequential movements (20
) and also control of bi-manual coordination, through motor inhibition of contralateral movements (21
). Thus, the difficulty ID infants showed on the toy retrieval task, which requires sequential movements during bi-manual coordination, may relate to IDinduced changes in striatal dopamine function.
Although postural control has not been traditionally considered a major function of the basal ganglia, a recent review emphasizes their important contribution to regulation of postural control (31
). Other outcomes with a threshold of ID with or without anemia (developmental milestones and INFANIB standing) depend on postural control at this age. Postural control may be sensitive even to ID without anemia because it involves more than one CNS process impaired by ID (i.e., myelination and basal ganglia function).
The study is limited by small sample size, and results may not generalize to other populations. Uncertainty concerning compliance with iron intake and the high proportion of missing hematology data at 12 months mean that the study could not assess the ability of iron therapy to improve infant motor development.
In sum, using a comprehensive and sensitive assessment of motor development, this study found poorer motor function in ID infants with and without anemia. These findings were independent of family background, suggesting that poorer development was not due to family factors, such as lack of maternal stimulation and encouragement/attention. The observed effects of ID without anemia are particularly concerning, since ID without anemia is not detected by common screening procedures and is more widespread than IDA. The observed motor deficits in early ID are consistent with impaired myelination and oligodendrocyte function, both of which appear to be sensitive to developmental experience (32
). Thus, future interventions for ID in infancy that include motor training or other environmental enrichment might help reduce long-term effects. | <urn:uuid:c5c1b35a-f7dc-42b8-882a-f0288e301520> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC3144491/?lang=en-ca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00053-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929242 | 1,060 | 2.1875 | 2 |
Two days of talks got underway amid low expectations for any real meeting of the minds of Presidents Bush and Putin in Kennebunkport, Maine. It’s been a rough ride for the two leaders, both of whom came to power as unknown entities unversed in diplomatic formalities. Though plenty of serious issues beckon, the informal talks - including the requisite speedboat ride with Bush and his father - showed as little more than a summer get together at first glance (BBC). Early reports speak of low expectations and little of diplomatic substance beyond polite dinner conversation (NYTimes).
Not long after Bush took office in 2001, he gazed into his Russian counterpart’s soul and famously liked what he saw. But relations deteriorated rapidly after Russia opposed the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq. Since then, what Moscow viewed as Washington’s meddling in elections in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004 irked the Kremlin. The latest sore spot to emerge is the U.S. plan to stage a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Given the litany of grievances, experts are not optimistic anything of substance will emerge out of the Kennebunkport meeting. Putin’s counteroffer to stage a missile system in Azerbaijan as opposed to Poland and the Czech Republic drew a lukewarm reaction from U.S. defense officials. Bush will also try to enlist Putin’s support for stricter sanctions against Iran, but Steven Pifer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies is doubtful (PDF) because “the Russians have a very different set of geopolitical and economic interests in Iran.” Finally, on Kosovo the two sides have also grown further apart, as the Kremlin digs in its heels in opposition to a UN Security Council resolution (AP) that offers phased-in independence for the Serbian province. “Domestically [Putin] cannot make a concession on Kosovo for fear of appearing weak and inconsistent,” (RussiaProfile.org) writes analyst Vladimir Frolov.
With all this in mind, some experts say the Kennebunkport summit is meant primarily to cement the outgoing presidents’ legacies. “I really don’t think that either of them want, as part of their legacy, a trashed U.S.-Russian relationship,” (PDF) Andrew C. Kuchins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told reporters.
If this is the goal, an ongoing series of sharp comments by the Russian president won’t help. Putin recently took swipes at the United States for dropping atomic bombs on Japanese civilian populations in World War II (an earlier speech in May appeared to liken the United States to the Third Reich). Meanwhile, Putin has downplayed the extent of Stalin’s purges and accused Western academics of hyping Soviet-era atrocities to distort Russian history (GulfNews.com). Yevgeny Kiselyov, a political analyst, writes in the Moscow Times that Putin sounded “like a caricature of the Soviet polemicists.” This new Backgrounder examines Russia’s uneasy attempts to come to grips with its Stalinist past and how they continue to shape relations with the West and its “near abroad.”
Some experts, like Dmitri Trenin of the Carnegie Moscow Center, suggest that Russian foreign policy is “adrift” and “lacking in strategic priorities.” Others, including Joshua Kurlantzick, suggest an alternative world order, with China and Russia at center, may be in the offing. Similarly, Azar Gat of Tel Aviv University, writing in Foreign Affairs, warns of a rise in authoritarian capitalist regimes that would pose a challenge to the liberal democratic global order. Or as Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation writes in the Washington Times, “The current elites define Russian strategic goals in a de-facto alliance with the Muslim world, particularly Iran and Syria, as well as with China [and] anti-status quo players such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.” | <urn:uuid:c2280f65-626c-425c-bc87-b7c91bbe952d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cfr.org/us-strategy-and-politics/soul-searching-kennebunkport/p13695 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00073-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947454 | 834 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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From the rise of a new private sector–and the billionaires that sustain and exploit it–to the beginning of a vast national identity database, articles in this series examine the messy and maddening road to progress in India.
This report on India from the journalists of The New York Times and a pool of talented writers in India and beyond provides unbiased, authoritative reporting on the country and its place in the world. India Ink also strives to be a virtual meeting point for discussion of this complex, fast-changing democracy – its politics, economy, culture and everyday life.
Corruption is common in some Southern and Eastern European countries, as well as in India, the Middle East and Africa, Ernst & Young survey shows.
A round-up of news from across India.
The New York Times magazine examines the circumstances that led to the partnership between the former head of McKinsey and Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire head of the Galleon Group hedge fund.
A group of men removing a high-voltage underground electric cable in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Policies for the so-called middle class end up benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor, the author argues.
A number of conferences are drawing attention to issues of women's rights and development. | <urn:uuid:5dd90d2c-578e-46b0-bd56-f3c4d792fee9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/image-of-the-day-may-18/?ref=congress | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92038 | 282 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Change for Kids
Santa Rosa businesses and residents can help Recreation and Parks provide safe places for kids! Support the CHANGE FOR KIDS program and benefit after school activities!
City of Santa Rosa Utility customers, including businesses, are encouraged to “round up” their monthly utility bill (water & sewer) payment to the nearest dollar with the extra “change” going into an after school fund for Santa Rosa kids. This program helps to raise funds so more after school programs can be provided in Santa Rosa in areas where services are most needed. Gang issues in our community are serious and require a community wide response in order to have a long-term, positive effect. After school programs are a key component in keeping kids active, involved, safe and secure.
We have Three easy ways you can enroll in this program:
The CHANGE FOR KIDS Program is one small way that every household and business in Santa Rosa can participate. Currently there are 49,000 Santa Rosa Utility customers. If 10,000 households gave $3.00 per year, we could provide an additional after school program for 100 children. If every business gave a fixed amount of $5.00 per month, several additional programs serving 200 children per year could be provided! What a difference this could make in our community. Please help the Recreation and Parks Department by enrolling your business and/or your household in the program.
For more information, please call 707-543-3737. | <urn:uuid:a2fb082c-f3ec-4c77-b558-44a32282ee82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/DEPARTMENTS/RECREATIONANDPARKS/BUSINESS/Pages/ChangeforKids.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953322 | 301 | 1.65625 | 2 |
This weekend I finished Pascal Quignard’s utterly bizarre, sui generis The Roving Shadows. It took a while to get into it, and suspect that a good many will not be willing to extend the patience, but believe all the more that those who do will be rewarded in ways they’d not expected.
Perhaps my affection for it stems for my search for a way to articulate a kind of contemporary, romanticism that is not sullied (justifiably, in many instances) by its 20th-century association with fascism and the like. Quignard never identifies as ‘romantic’ his aesthetic ruminations on life lived in the half-light of dusk & dawn, his preferred color of eroticism and creativity, so I don’t want to belabor the association; but his search for ways to evoke that which is unspoken (but not silent) in that which is spoken — or, the shadows that give color to the lighted, often quite horrific, world around us — taps into some of my previous thoughts on the importance of style. Read the rest of this entry » | <urn:uuid:aae15664-84ea-479d-9248-2d24afc255e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itself.wordpress.com/category/pascal-quignard/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00047-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965351 | 233 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Shawnee Public Library
Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 June 2013 09:44
The Shawnee Public Library wants its young readers to say “I Dig Books” and invites them to the library for a special Summer Reading Program storytime at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 27, in the Community Room of the library.
The program is geared to ages 3 and up, and will feature stories, rhymes, music, crafts and more, in keeping with this year’s Summer Reading Program theme “Dig Into Reading.”Add a comment
Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 June 2013 09:45
Stephen Fite’s high-energy songs and skits have entertained hundreds of thousands of children across the country.
And now, he’s bringing those musical sounds to the Shawnee Public Library at 2 p.m. Tuesday, June 25 for a chance for children to “Dive in and Dig It!” during this year’s Summer Reading Program.
Fite has performed children’s music since the early 1980s, with his work geared primarily to ages 3 to 7. While his start in the business wasn’t necessarily glamorous, he’s developed into an award-winning performer.Add a comment
The Steampunk genre brings Victorian style and science fiction together for a style of writing and subculture popular with many readers.
And Kiona Millirons has taken her love of art and Steampunk and combined them into a passion for designing Steampunk jewelry and accessories. She will share many of her ideas and methods with teens as part of this year’s Summer Reading Program. She will be at the Shawnee Public Library at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 26.Add a comment
“Step on Out” at the Shawnee Public Library at a craft program for tweens and teens. Participants will create a stepping stone using their own creativity.
There will be two programs offered – tweens ages 9-11 will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 22, while teens ages 12-17 will have their program at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 22, each in the Community Room of the library, 101 N. Philadelphia Ave.Add a comment
Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 June 2013 10:04
Shawnee teens and tweens received advice from OSU Extension Office representatives at a hands-on program, "Rethink Your Drink".
Information on what we really put into our bodies was accompanied by healthier recipes for making Ocean Water to Mudslide low-fat milkshakes.Add a comment | <urn:uuid:798db5aa-4e79-418a-8024-60edd45f128f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pioneer.lib.ok.us/home/shatop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951029 | 541 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Who among us has not been moved by the unspeakable tragedy that was inflicted upon the children of Newtown, our very home at the National Shooting Sports Foundation? What can possibly heal the wounds, silence the anguished outcries and make rational discourse out of such a horrific act? The answer is, we must come together and try.
To begin with, I submit that there are not two "sides" to this debate. There is only one side — the good people of Connecticut and America, on all points of the political spectrum, united in our common revulsion over this senseless attack on our most helpless. Yes — there is only one side — the good side — the "better angels of our nature," as Abraham Lincoln said, "opposing evil."
It was also Lincoln who said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." We all must recognize that those who don't agree with us do in fact share a common goal of a safer Connecticut and a safer America. We all must recognize that there are changes we can and should make now to prevent misuse of firearms in the future.
Also, we all must recognize, especially here in Connecticut, that firearms and the firearms/shooting sports industry is a vital part of our history, our economy and — yes — our culture. To deny or act in defiance of that fact will prevent us from achieving workable, meaningful and long-lasting change. As we come together to seek solutions, I think the one thing most of us can agree on is the need for more effective background checks.
The central issue involved in violence where a firearm is misused is the unauthorized access to the firearm. The National Shooting Sports Foundation believes it is critical to first focus on the unauthorized access to firearms by irresponsible persons and those not legally qualified to possess them. We support immediate improvements to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS. This would bring all appropriate mental health and other records, such as restraining orders, into the NICS system.
Fixing NICS must be among the highest priorities in order to help further prevent illegal purchases of firearms from federally licensed retailers.
It's also critically important to understand that the semi-automatic modern sporting rifle has been unfairly mischaracterized as an "assault rifle." An assault rifle by definition is a fully automatic firearm. Automatic firearms were severely restricted from civilian ownership under the 1934 National Firearms Act.
Semiautomatic firearms — one shot for each pull and release of the trigger — are the most popular types of firearms in America, and have been for many years. The most popular hunting and clay target shotguns are semi-automatics. So are the most popular target pistols, including those used in the Olympics. The most popular .22-caliber rifles used to hunt small game are semi-automatics.
The overwhelming choice of both law enforcement and civilians who wish to have a pistol for self-defense is a semi-automatic. Semiautomatic rifles came into widespread use after World War II, and they are overwhelmingly the most popular rifles being sold today — for hunting, target shooting and other lawful sporting purposes as well as home protection.
To arbitrarily ban the modern sporting rifle for essentially cosmetic reasons would be insulting and unfair to millions of Americans who have purchased them legally, use them responsibly and store them safely.
Finally, let me say that as Connecticut lawmakers search for answers, the firearms and sporting industries are committed to being a resource for enhanced gun safety and reviewing all reasonable proposals with an open mind. We want to be part of the solution for the shared goal of a safer Connecticut.
Our hope is that decisions will be made based on fact. But as I was quoted as saying in a recent Hartford Courant news article, " I think people make bad decisions when they are angry, when they are fearful and when they act in haste and I worry that this situation has the making of all three."
After all the pain and with all that is at stake, this time we have an obligation to come together, think it through and take the time to get it right.
Steve Sanetti is president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, based in Newtown. | <urn:uuid:6ce5f444-3c9d-4fb6-b1da-3b154ba76a6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctnow.com/opinion/hc-op-sanetti-end-misuse-of-firearms-for-gun-contr-20130222,0,3579075.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967381 | 847 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I’ve only scratched the surface of the 220 pages, but here are some lowlights:
- No public insurance option, of course. Looks like not even a trigger for a public option to be created if private insurers don’t bring their premiums down.
- The New York Times is reporting that Baucus “envisions middle-class American families having to pay” 13 percent of their family income “in health insurance premiums before co-payments, deductibles and other cost-sharing.” That’d be $1200 a month in premiums alone for a couple making $100,000 a year combined. Worse yet, what the bill actually says is that “individuals between 300-400 percent of [the federal poverty line] would be eligible for a premium credit based on capping an individual‘s share of the premium at a flat 13 percent of income.” If I’m reading that right, that means that insurers could still charge even more than 13 percent of income — just if they do, the government will pay anything above that limit. This is cost reduction?
- The standards for health plans would be divided into Gold, Silver, Bronze, and (I am not making this up) “Young Invincible” levels, with varying degrees of coverage required for each. This is apparently based on Massachusetts’ Commonwealth Connector plan, and I’m still not clear how it’s supposed to represent real standards: If your plan doesn’t cover 90% of the average person’s health costs, for example, all that happens is that it gets tagged as Silver instead of Gold. Not that any of it is likely to matter anyway, as in Massachusetts nearly half of all Connector participants are choosing the cheapest Bronze plans, with a mere 7% coughing up for Gold — no surprise, given that insurance premiums there are still sky-high.
- Even with the plan watered down to near-tincture levels, Baucus still couldn’t get a single Republican co-sponsor. This is working so much better than trying to pass a real reform bill in the first place.
UPDATE: Just saw that CJR has another good article up today on the failures of the Massachusetts plan and what it means for the nation as a whole if a Baucus-type plan passes. Required reading. | <urn:uuid:c66a8cb6-4ade-4aec-b311-cba7d047258a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://demause.net/2009/09/16/264/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948977 | 490 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010 in the EU/EEA
Reporting protocol for influenza data submission to TESSy
Overview of Surveillance of Influenza 2009/2010 in the EU/EEA
ECDC has a mandate to operate and integrate EU surveillance networks and to identify, assess and communicate current and emerging threats to human health from communicable diseases.
In the context of the current pandemic influenza A(H1N1) 2009, disease surveillance based on reporting of the number of confirmed cases has become unsustainable in some of the most heavily affected countries, as their numbers rise exponentially. In response, and together with the EU/EEA Member States and WHO, ECDC has developed plans for how Europe can maintain an acceptable level of surveillance of the influenza A(H1N1) 2009 during the expected autumn wave of the pandemic.
On 14-15 July, ECDC held the 4th meeting of the Working Group on Surveillance and Studies in a Pandemic to discuss their experiences and plans for dealing with the expected autumn wave. This meeting brought together experts from ECDC, WHO and US-CDC, as well as experts from the equivalent bodies in Canada and Australia and from EU Member States. This work was originally initiated following ECDC’s review of all the national influenza pandemic plans in the EU, completed last year, which concluded that a common approach to disease surveillance in a pandemic would be highly desirable.
The document “Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010 in the EU/EEA, August 2009” provides an overview of the surveillance activities and methods to be implemented by ECDC and the Member States in early autumn 2009. This document is supported by the “Reporting protocol for influenza data submission to TESSy”, which provides detailed guidance for national surveillance contact points on how to implement the surveillance components.
The proposed surveillance activities and methods reflect the importance of monitoring the demographics of the most severe cases, which will rely on surveillance of severe and fatal cases. For countries that are too overwhelmed to count cases, measuring qualitative indicators to understand the intensity of the geographic spread of the virus is suggested based on WHO guidelines.
Summary of Proposed Surveillance Activities
Four components are suggested for the quantitative monitoring of the pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009. These are:
- Surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI) or acute respiratory infection (ARI), to collect and provide timely information on influenza activity and estimate the ILI/ARI incidence in the population.
- Virological surveillance, to collect and provide detailed and timely information on circulating influenza virus strains.
- Surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and fatal cases related to the pandemic influenza, to better monitor the severity of the pandemic so as to detect indications of changes in the population groups affected by severe outcomes which may justify more robust public health measures and to monitor deaths
- Aggregate reporting of cases and deaths, to monitor the geographic spread, intensity and severity of laboratory confirmed pandemic influenza infections in Member States that are still counting individual cases.
- Qualitative monitoring of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus
Even in the absence of hard figures, most countries in the EU/EEA will still be able to make an assessment of the pandemic situation. The objectives of qualitative monitoring would be to monitor the geographic spread, trend, intensity and impact once the quantitative monitoring systems are no longer functioning. When country surveillance systems are overwhelmed, these more subjective assessments would be the only way of knowing how much countries are affected and whether the situation is improving or getting worse.
Mortality monitoring is another important indicator of the pandemic which can be monitored. Monitoring of all cause mortality and excess mortality is being set up by the EuroMoMo project. In response to the current influenza (H1N1) 2009 pandemic, EuroMoMo is providing an “emergency” mortality monitoring system which provides standardised indicators for comparison across Europe (http://www.euromomo.eu/).
The main output of these combined surveillance activities will be a weekly influenza surveillance overview that will include not only the information covered by the current weekly bulletin, but will also provide a more comprehensive picture of the pandemic’s epidemiology and impact. | <urn:uuid:5dcc1f95-7107-4ec7-a732-dd0be872bfd5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/press/news/Lists/News/ECDC_DispForm.aspx?List=32e43ee8%2De230%2D4424%2Da783%2D85742124029a&ID=308 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914943 | 873 | 2.375 | 2 |
"QUALIFICATIONS FOR ACTIVITY DIRECTORS"
The Federal regulations states:
The activities program must be directed by a qualified professional who --
(1) Is a qualified therapeutic recreation specialist or an activities professional who -
(A) is licensed or registered, if applicable, by the State in which practicing, and
(B) Is eligible for certification as a
therapeutic recreation specialist or as an activities professional by a
recognized accrediting body on or after
(2) Has 2 years of experience in a social or recreational program within the last 5 years, 1 of which was full-time in a patient activities program in a health care setting or
(3) Is a qualified occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant; or
(4) Has completed a training course approved by the State.
The Activity department must be directed by a qualified professional who:
1. Is a qualified therapeutic recreation specialist (CTRS) or an activities professional who
- Is licensed or registered, if applicable, by the state in which practicing; and
eligible for certification as a therapeutic recreation or as an
activities professional by a recognized accrediting body on or after
October 1, 1990; or
2. Has two years of experience in a social or recreational program, approved by the state within the last five years, one of which was full time in a resident activities program in a health care setting; or
3. Is a qualified occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant; or
4. Has satisfactorily completed, or will complete within six months, a ninety hour training course approved by the division and has at least a high school diploma or its equivalent current employment as an activities director who completed an approved activities director course prior to the effective date of this rule, shall be allowed to maintain a position as an activities director in health care facilities.
· A recreation therapist;
· An occupational therapist or occupational therapist assistant; or
· A person who has completed a state approved course and has two years experience.
The IADA does provide an accreditation test which is offered after 1 year of experience. . So get on board and work towards your IADA accreditation and national certification. The ending date for track five is June 30th.
Activity Directors Association offers an Activity Directors 90 hours course Approved by the
IADA office can assist in any help you need. | <urn:uuid:b90ee9e4-ec33-41d3-83c9-103e1d73177c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indianaactivitydirectors.org/pages/activity-director-regulations.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960412 | 488 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The open air, natural habitats and forest trees have a special fascination for the Eastern mind as symbols of spiritual freedom. The home life is regarded as a fetter (sambadha) that keeps man in bondage and misery. Renunciation is like the open air (abbhokasa), nature unhampered by man’s activity. The chief events in the life of the Buddha too took place in the open air. He was born in a park at the foot of a tree in Kapilavatthu; he attained Enlightenment in the open air at the foot of the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya; he inaugurated his missionary activity in the open air in the sala grove of the Malas in Pava. The Buddha’s constant advice to his disciples also was to resort to natural habitats such as forest groves and glades. There, undisturbed by human activity, they could zealously engage themselves in meditation.
Therefore among the Buddhists there is a reverential attitude towards specially long-standing gigantic trees. They are vanaspati in Pali, meaning “lords of the forests.” As huge trees such as the ironwood, the sala, and the fig are also recognized as the Bodhi trees of former Buddhas, the deferential attitude towards trees is further strengthened. It is well known that the ficus religiosa is held as an object of great veneration in the Buddhist world today as the tree under which the Buddha attained Enlightenment.
The construction of parks and pleasure groves for public use is considered a great meritorious deed. Sakka the lord of gods is said to have reached his status as a result of social services such as the construction of parks, pleasure groves, ponds, wells, and roads.
Thus several suttas from the Pali canon show that early Buddhism believes there to be a close relationship between human morality and the natural environment. This idea has been systematized in the theory of the five natural laws (pañca niyamadhamma) in the later commentaries. According to this theory, in the cosmos there are five natural laws or forces at work, namely utuniyama (lit. “season-law”), bijaniyama (lit. “seed-law”), cittaniyama, kammaniyama, and dhammaniyama. They can be translated as physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, moral laws, and causal laws, respectively. While the first four laws operate within their respective spheres, the last-mentioned law of causality operates within each of them as well as among them.
The point I wish to emphasize by citing this evolutionary legend is that Buddhism believes that though change is a factor inherent in nature, man’s moral deterioration accelerates the process of change and brings about changes which are adverse to human well being and happiness.
This means that the physical environment of any given area conditions the growth and development of its biological component, i.e. flora and fauna. These in turn influence the thought pattern of the people interacting with them. Modes of thinking determine moral standards. The opposite process of interaction is also possible. The morals of man influence not only the psychological makeup of the people but the biological and physical environment of the area as well. Thus the five laws demonstrate that man and nature are bound together in a reciprocal causal relationship with changes in one necessarily bringing about changes in the other.
Buddhism also prescribes the practice of metta, “loving-kindness” towards all creatures of all quarters without restriction. The Karaniyametta Sutta enjoins the cultivation of loving-kindness towards all creatures timid and steady, long and short, big and small, minute and great, visible and invisible, near and far, born and awaiting birth. All quarters are to be suffused with this loving attitude. Just as one’s own life is precious to oneself, so is the life of the other precious to himself. Therefore a reverential attitude must be cultivated towards all forms of life.
Buddhism expresses a gentle non-violent attitude towards the vegetable kingdom as well. It is said that one should not even break the branch of a tree that has given one shelter. Plants are so helpful to us in providing us with all necessities of life that we are expected not to adopt a callous attitude towards them. The more strict monastic rules prevent the monks from injuring plant life.
The Buddha and his disciples reveled in the silent solitary natural habitats unencumbered by human activity. Even in the choice of monasteries the presence of undisturbed silence was an important quality they looked for. Silence invigorates those who are pure at heart and raises their efficiency for meditation. The Buddha and his disciples regarded natural beauty as a source of great joy and aesthetic satisfaction. The Buddhist admonition is to utilize nature in the same way as a bee collects pollen from the flower, neither polluting its beauty nor depleting its fragrance. Just as the bee manufactures honey out of pollen, so man should be able to find happiness and fulfillment in life without harming the natural world in which he lives. | <urn:uuid:7ab53676-401d-40ea-8505-3b41bd11a6c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artofdharma.com/buddhist-attitudes-toward-nature/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959606 | 1,074 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Michelle Sale, The New York Times Learning Network
Tanya Yasmin Chin, The Bank Street College of Education in New York City
Subjects: Language Arts, Social Studies
Review the Academic Content Standards related to this lesson. Suggested Time Allowance:
1. Describe their plans for the future.
2. In small groups, research and analyze the college application process at specific institutions, and describe ideal candidates for each school.
3. Prepare a presentation for a "mock" college fair where students can learn about a variety of higher education options.
4. Learn about specific examples of the college admissions process through the experiences of three different New York City teenagers by reading "Different Lives, One Goal: Finding the Key to College;" create role-plays adopting a guidance counselor's perspective.
Resources / Materials:
-copies of "Different Lives, One Goal: Finding the Key to College" (one per student)
-resources about college admissions, colleges, and the Scholastic Aptitude Test(college catalogs, periodicals, library resources, computers with Internet access)
2. Divide students into pairs or groups of three. Explain that each group will choose a college or university to research, then develop materials for a "booth" that represents this institution at a future mock college fair. (Teacher should facilitate choosing schools, so that no school is chosen more than once.) Ask students to prepare a presentation about their college or university that includes an assessment of its qualifications and characteristics, as well as a profile of the ideal candidate to this school. Using all available classroom resources, students will research the following questions as they relate to American college admissions (written on the board prior to class for easier student access):
In a future class, allow students to present their findings in a mock college fair. Allow time for each group to set up their college fair booth, then invite other classes to attend. In addition, ask students to prepare questions to ask the college representatives. In order for all students to act as both presenters and college-bound students, have students rotate which role they play at the college fair. Encourage all students to take notes on the colleges and universities that might interest them. (For sake of this lesson, students must choose one of the choices presented in class.)
After the college fair is over, allow time for students to individually decide which college or university speaks most clearly to their interests and future goals. Each student should write a response, stating their choice for a college, and explaining what they will have to do to get there.
3. WRAP-UP/HOMEWORK: Ask students to read the article "Different Lives, One Goal: Finding the Key to College" while thinking about the discussions and research done in class, then respond to the following prompt (written on the board for students to copy): "Write a script for a role-play that accounts for the perspective of one of the guidance counselors in the article. Pretend you are seeking advice from that counselor about your future plans. What would you say to this counselor, and how would he or she respond with advice? What external factors in your life would this counselor consider? In what direction do you think this guidance counselor try to steer you?" Allow time in a future class for students to share their responses.
--Does it really matter which college you go to?
--How do guidance counselors affect the decisions of their students? Do you think this is fair? Why or why not?
--What is meant in the article by "packaging"? How do you feel about the kind of marketing the article claims is a necessary part of the college admissions process?
--What qualities make a good student? What qualities make a successful person?
2. Research the history of standardized exams. Write a position paper expressing whether or not you believe these tests are fair. Back up your opinion with facts from your research.
3. Interview a guidance counselor at your school about the college applications and admissions process, as well as the college acceptance history of your school. Write an article on the "inside scoop" of college applications for the school newspaper.
4. Research the history of affirmative action within higher education. Create a timeline of major events that illustrate how this action has affected college applications and admissions. Be sure to show how each major minority group has been affected by these policies.
5. According to the article, "In the lingo of the trade, Jed had no hook, unless they could parlay his theatrical talent." What is your "hook" for standing out in a sea of applicants? Explore your personal educational world, and create a work (a piece of writing, a slide show, a drawing, a screenplay, choreography, etc.) that defines your hook
Global Studies- Write an article comparing the American college application and admission process with the same processes in a foreign country. How are these processes similar? How are they different?
Mathematics- Create a graph showing the ratio of students applying to colleges to the number of open positions available. How have these numbers changed over the years? Why have the numbers increased?
Campus Tours: Virtual College Tours (http://www.campustours.com/) allows you to tour colleges nationwide, as well as to see some of their home pages.
U.S. Two-Year Colleges (http://cset.sp.utoledo.edu/twoyrcol.html) provides information about a wide number of two-year colleges.
This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed below. These standards are drawn from Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education: 2nd Edition and have been provided courtesy of the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning in Aurora, Colorado. In addition, this lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards of a specific state. Links are provided where available from each McREL standard to the Achieve website containing state standards for over 40 states. The state standards are from Achieve's National Standards Clearinghouse and have been provided courtesy of Achieve, Inc. in Cambridge Massachusetts and Washington, DC.
Language Arts Standard 1- Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process. Benchmarks: Uses style and structure appropriate for specific audiences and purposes; Writes expository compositions; Writes persuasive compositions; Writes in response to literature
Connect to State Standard
Language Arts Standard 4- Gathers and uses information for research purposes. Benchmarks: Uses a variety of resource materials to gather information for research topics; Determines the appropriateness of an information source for a research topic
Connect to State Standard
Language Arts Standard 7- Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts. Benchmarks: Identifies techniques used to convey viewpoint; Draws conclusions and makes inferences based on explicit and implicit information in texts; Differentiates between fact and opinion in informational texts
Connect to State Standard
Send feedback on this lesson.
Browse or search the lesson plan archive. | <urn:uuid:8d635064-ebb5-432a-a226-93bede5ce333> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20020506monday.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928371 | 1,451 | 3.78125 | 4 |
· Searching the Database
This collection consists of the names of 730 Jews resident in various parts of Baden, Baden Baden, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Konstanz, Mannheim, Offenburg and Pforzheim, as well as nearby towns who had not been deported as of October 22, 1940. Some of them were later deported. The fate of others is not clear and many names do not appear in the Bundesarchiv's Gedenkbuch.
This database includes 730 names of Baden residents.
The fields for this database are as follows:
The source of the material is the Adolf Loebel collection at the Leo Baeck Institute in the New York, a copy of which is held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The data were entered by volunteers in France, England, Israel and the United States.
In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible. Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy. Particular thanks to the Research Division headed by Joyce Field and to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.
This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database.
Copyright ©2008, JewishGen, Inc.
Last Update: 12 Dec 2008 by MFK | <urn:uuid:489d119f-b711-479f-a812-fbc5d16163ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/0177_Baden_Jews.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00046-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920837 | 279 | 2.046875 | 2 |
|Andrea del Sarto|
AKA Andrea d'Agnolo
Birthplace: Florence, Italy
Location of death: Florence, Italy
Cause of death: unspecified
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Executive summary: Florentine school
This celebrated painter of the Florentine school was born Gualfonda, Florence, in 1487, or perhaps 1486, his father Agnolo being a tailor (Sarto), hence the nickname by which the son is designated. There were four other children. The family, though of no distinction, can be traced back into the 14th century. Vannucchi has since 1677 been given as a -- according to some modern writers, without any authority. His true name has been stipulated as Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore. But this only gives, along with the painter's Christian name, the names of his ancestors for five generations, and is in no way his true surname. In 1494 Andrea was put to work under a goldsmith. This occupation he disliked. He took to drawing from his master's models, and was soon transferred to a skilful woodcarver and inferior painter named Gian Barile, with whom he remained until 1498. Barile, though a coarse-grained man enough, would not stand in the way of the advancement of his promising pupil, so he recommended him to Piero di Cosimo as draughtsman and colorist. Piero retained Andrea for some years, allowing him to study from the famous cartoons of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Finally Andrea agreed with his friend Franciabigio, who was somewhat his senior, that they would open a joint shop; at a date not precisely defined they took a lodging together in the Piazza del Grano. Their first work in partnership may probably have been the "Baptism of Christ", for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo, a performance of no great merit, the beginning of a series, all the extant items of which are in monochrome chiaroscuro. Soon afterwards the partnership was dissolved. From 1509 to 1514 the brotherhood of the Servites employed Andrea, as well as Franciabigio and Andrea Feltrini, the first-named undertaking in the portico of the Annunziata three frescoes illustrating the life of the Servite saint Filippo Benizzi (died in 1285). He executed them in a few months, being endowed by nature with remarkable readiness and certainty of hand and unhesitating firmness in his work, although in the general mould of his mind he was timid and diffident. The subjects are the saint sharing his cloak with a leper, cursing some gamblers, and restoring a girl possessed with a devil. The second and third works excel the first, and are impulsive and able performances. These paintings met with merited applause, and gained for their author the pre-eminent title "Andrea senza errori" (Andrew the unerring) -- the correctness of the contours being particularly admired. After these subjects the painter proceeded with two others -- the death of S. Filippo and the children cured by touching his garment -- all the five works being completed before the close of 1510.
The youth of twenty-three was already in technique about the best fresco painter of central Italy, barely rivalled by Raphael, who was the elder by four years. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes were then only in a preliminary stage. Andrea always worked in the simplest, most typical and most trying method of fresco -- that of painting the thing once and for all, without any subsequent dry-touching. He now received many commissions. The brotherhood of the Servites engaged him to do two more frescoes in the Annunziata at a higher price; he also painted, towards 1512, an Annunciation in the monastery of S. Gallo.
Andrea del Sarto appears to have been an easygoing plebeian, to whom a modest position in life and scanty gains were no grievances. As an artist he must have known his own value; but he probably rested content in the sense of his superlative powers as an executant, and did not aspire to the rank of a great inventor or leader, for which, indeed, he had no vocation. He led a social sort of life among his compeers of the art, was intimate with the sculptor Rustici, and joined a jolly dining-club at his house named the Company of the Kettle, also a second club named the Trowel. At one time, Franciabigio being then the chairman of the Kettle-men, Andrea recited, and is by some regarded as having composed, a comic epic, "The Battle of the Frogs and Mice" -- a rechauffé, as one may surmise, of the Greek Batrachomyomachia, popularly ascribed to Homer. He fell in love with Lucrezia del Fede, wife of a hatter named Carlo Recanati; the hatter dying opportunely, the Andrea married her on the 26th of December 1512. She was a very handsome woman and has come down to us treated with great suavity in many a picture of her lover-husband, who constantly painted her as a Madonna and otherwise; and even in painting other women he made them resemble Lucrezia in general type. She has been much less gently handled by Giorgio Vasari and other biographers. Vasari, who was at one time a pupil of Andrea, describes her as faithless, jealous, overbearing and vixenish with the apprentices. She lived to a great age, surviving her husband forty years.
By 1514 Andrea had finished his last two frescoes in the court of the Servites, than which none of his works was more admired -- the "Nativity of the Virgin", which shows the influence of Leonardo, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Fra Bartolommeo, in effective fusion, and the "Procession of the Magi", intended as an amplification of a work by Baldovinetti; in this fresco is a portrait of Andrea himself. He also executed at some date a much-praised head of Christ over the high altar. By November 1515 he had finished at the Scalzo the allegory of Justice, and the "Baptist preaching in the desert", followed in 1517 by "John baptizing", and other subjects. Before the end of 1516 a "Pietà" of his composition, and afterwards a Madonna, were sent to the French court. These were received with applause; and the art-loving monarch Francis I suggested in 1518 that Andrea should come to Paris. He journeyed there towards June of that year, along with his pupil Andrea Sguazzella, leaving his wife in Florence, and was very cordially received, and for the first and only time in his life was handsomely remunerated. Lucrezia, however, wrote urging his return to Italy. The king assented, but only on the understanding that his absence from France was to be short; and he entrusted Andrea with a sum of money to be expended in purchasing works of art for his royal patron. The temptation of having a goodly amount of pelf in hand proved too much for Andrea's virtue. He spent the king's money and some of his own in building a house for himself in Florence. This necessarily brought him into bad odour with Francis, who refused to be appeased by some endeavors which the painter afterwards made to reingratiate himself. No serious punishment, however, and apparently no grave loss of professional reputation befell the defaulter.
In 1520 he resumed work in Florence, and executed the "Faith" and "Charity" in the cloister of the Scalzo. These were succeeded by the "Dance of the Daughter of Herodias", the "Beheading of the Baptist", the "Presentation of his head to Herod", an allegory of Hope, the "Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias" (1523), and the monochrome of the Visitation. This last was painted in the autumn of 1524, after Andrea had returned from Luco in Mugello -- to which place an outbreak of plague in Florence had driven him, his wife, his step-daughter and other relatives. In 1525 he painted the very famous fresco named the "Madonna del Sacco", a lunette in the cloisters of the Servites; this picture (named after a sack against which Joseph is represented propped) is generally accounted his masterpiece. His final work at the Scalzo was the "Birth of the Baptist" (1526), executed with some enhanced elevation of style after Andrea had been diligently studying Michelangelo's figures in the sacristy of S. Lorenzo. In the following year he completed at S. Salvi, near Florence, a celebrated "Last Supper", in which all the personages seem to be portraits. This also is a very fine example of his style, though the conception of the subject is not exalted. It is the last monumental work of importance which Andrea del Sarto lived to execute. He dwelt in Florence throughout the memorable siege, which was soon followed by an infectious pestilence. He caught the malady, struggled against it with little or no tending from his wife, who held aloof, and he died, no one knowing much about it at the moment, on the 22nd of January 1531, at the comparatively early age of forty-three. He was buried unceremoniously in the church of the Servites.
Various portraits painted by Andrea are regarded as likenesses of himself, but this is not free from some doubt. One is in London, in the National Gallery, an admirable half-figure, purchased in 1862. Another is at Alnwick Castle, a young man about twenty years of age, with his elbow on a table. Another at Panshanger may perhaps represent in reality his pupil Domenico Conti. Another youthful portrait is in the Uffizi Gallery, and the Pitti Gallery contains more than one. Among his more renowned works not already specified are the following. The Virgin and Child, with St. Francis and St. John the Evangelist and two angels, now in the Uffizi, painted for the church of S. Francesco in Florence; this is termed the "Madonna di S. Francesco" or "Madonna delle Arpie", from certain figures of harpies which are decoratively introduced, and is rated as Andrea's masterpiece in oil painting. The altarpiece in the Uffizi, painted for the monastery of S. Gallo, the "Fathers disputing on the doctrine of the Trinity" -- SS. Augustine, Dominic, Francis, Lawrence, Sebastian and Mary Magdalene -- a very energetic work. Both these pictures are comparatively early -- towards 1517. The "Charity" now in the Louvre (perhaps the only painting which Andrea executed while in France). The "Pietà" in the Belvedere of Vienna; this work, as well as the "Charity", shows the strong influence of Michelangelo. At Poggio a Caiano a celebrated fresco (1521) representing Julius Caesar receiving tribute, various figures bringing animals from foreign lands -- a striking perspective arrangement; it was left unfinished by Andrea and was completed by Alessandro Allori. Two very remarkable paintings (1523) containing various incidents in the life of the patriarch Joseph, executed for the Borgherini family. In the Pitti Gallery two separate compositions of the "Assumption of the Virgin", also a fine "Pietà." In the Madrid museum the "Virgin and Child" with Joseph, Elizabeth, the infant Baptist and an Archangel. In the Louvre the "Holy Family", the Baptist pointing upwards. In Berlin a portrait of his wife. In Panshanger a fine portrait named "Laura." The second picture in the National Gallery ascribed to Andrea, a "Holy Family", is by some critics regarded as the work rather of one of his scholars. A very noticeable incident in the life of Andrea del Sarto relates to the copy, which he produced in 1523, of the portrait group of Pope Leo X by Raphael; it is now in the Naples Museum, the original being in the Pitti Gallery. Ottaviano de Medici, the owner of the original, was solicited by Frederick II, duke of Mantua, to present it to him. Unwilling to part with so great a pictorial prize and unwilling also to disoblige the duke, Ottaviano got Andrea to make the copy, which was consigned to the duke as being the original. So deceptive was the imitation that even Giulio Romano, who had himself manipulated the original to some extent, was completely taken in; and, on showing the supposed Raphael years afterwards to Vasari, who knew the facts, he could only be undeceived when a private mark on the canvas was named to him by Vasari and brought under his eye. It was Michelangelo who had introduced Vasari in 1524 to Andrea's studio. He is said to have thought very highly of Andrea's powers, saying on one occasion to Raphael, "There is a little fellow in Florence who will bring sweat to your brow if ever he is engaged in great works."
Andrea had true pictorial style, a very high standard of correctness and an enviable balance of executive endowments. The point of technique in which he excelled least was perhaps that of discriminating the varying textures of different objects and surfaces. There is not much elevation or ideality in his works -- much more of reality. His chiaroscuro is not carried out according to strict rule, but is adjusted to his liking for harmony of color and fused tone and transparence; in fresco more especially his predilection for varied tints appears execessive. It may be broadly said that his taste in coloring was derived mainly from Fra Bartolommeo, and in form from Michelangelo; and his style partakes of the Venetian and Lombard, as well as the Florentine and Roman -- some of his figures are even adapted from Albrecht Dürer. In one way or another he continued improving to the last. In drawing from nature, his habit was to sketch very slightly, making only such a memorandum as sufficed to work from. The scholars of Andrea were very numerous; but, according to Vasari, they were not wont to stay long, being domineered over by his wife; Pontormo and Domenico Puligo may be mentioned.
Father: Agnolo (tailor)
Wife: Lucrezia del Fede (m. 26-Dec-1512)
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Today at Getting Kids Reading Joyce Grant has an article that summarizes and expands upon ideas from one of my very earliest blog topics: Why You Should Read Children's Books as an Adult (Joyce's post, my original post). I hope that you'll take a few minutes to check out the new post and admire Joyce's snazzy new look for her blog. Here's a snippet from her post:
"When kids see adults reading they’re more likely to read, themselves. It isn’t just a theory, there’s been research done on this. When a kid sees an adult reading a children’s book, he’s even more likely to read."
I think it's true (not to mention all of the other excellent reasons to read children's books). What say all of you? Have you found that by reading children's books, you've helped to encourage your students and/or your children to read themselves?
For more on ways to encourage kids to read, check out part 1 of the January Children's Literacy and Reading News Roundup at The Reading Tub. Among other interesting news tidbits, Terry links to a podcast interview between Franki Sibberson and Donalyn Miller at Choice Literacy on Modeling Literate Lives. Two of my favorite literacy champions, talking about how to let kids know that reading is worthwhile. Don't miss it!
I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2 of the January Literacy Roundup. Thanks for reading! | <urn:uuid:6d7ab936-a15e-4d0a-9925-4fd993c32b04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog/childrens_books_for_adults/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957128 | 307 | 2.28125 | 2 |
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EU leaders have finally pulled it together to save the economy for the time being.
Markets are soaring after European leaders decided to use European bailout funds to directly recapitalize troubled banks.
They also enacted two smaller measures—an important alteration to the Spanish bank bailout that will encourage investors not to be scared of it and €120 billion in funds devoted to growth.
Regardless of whether or not investors feel that EU leaders have done enough to adequately address growing concerns about the sustainability of Europe's economy, they have made one major change to their crisis response tactics with this EU summit: they have finally addressed short-term concerns about the shaky European economy.
At previous summits in the last year, EU leaders have talked about long-term measures that might help Europe survive way down the road, at this summit they finally admitted that Europe is on the edge of disaster.
Bank recapitalizations, nonetheless use the European bailout funds—the European Financial Stability Facility and the coming European Stability Mechanism—as they were meant to be used: for directly recapitalizing banks. That is something that EU leaders—in particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel—have resisted doing in the past, shying away from further bailouts for Southern Europe.
The plan is already depressing borrowing costs for the troubled Spain and Italy by supporting their governments' primary creditors, and it promises to relieve funding pressure for banks. Admittedly, such plans are in a way counterproductive as they don't adequately fix the fundamental problems of the EU financial system. Nonetheless, the imminent establishment of a stronger European bank regulator is an important step towards breaking the feedback loop between banks and sovereigns.
Last but not least, the time frame for implementation of this plan is ambitious by European standards, as EU leaders hope to kick in bank recapitalizations by the end of 2012.
In contrast, the fiscal compact EU leaders enacted late last year was an important step towards creating a financially stable monetary union in the long-term, but in the short term it did little but assure investors that austerity would continue.
Clearly, EU leaders are nowhere close to fixing the problems of the eurozone, and these measures are at best a temporary fix. That said, EU leaders have finally done something significant in the short term without waiting for help from the European Central Bank. This is something to be thankful for.
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Business Insider: The Worst Economies in the World | <urn:uuid:4465e3ce-195e-49d4-97f0-602db2835533> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/debt-crisis/120629/eu-summit-bank-bailout-europe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928525 | 553 | 1.820313 | 2 |
In a bowl mix yeast and water and let stand. Mix other ingredients (except
flour) in a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and water mixture. Mix together.
Add flour. Set to rise. Divide dough and knead with extra flour. Shape into 3 loaves and put into greased standard loaf pans. Brush top of loaves with egg white mixture and oats before baking. Let rise. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. (This bread recipe is from the Green Mountain Inn, Stowe, Vermont. Inn in existence since 1833). | <urn:uuid:84e8756e-5a91-4d0d-968f-bb5f82dd6a39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.desktopcookbook.com/recipe/90046/Honey-Oatmeal-Bread.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00043-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.922468 | 114 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Seemingly every major media publication has already weighed in on what the teaching of intelligent design ID could mean for the future of the nation, especially when it comes to religion, science and education. Well, nowhere will the teaching of intelligent design have a more pronounced and lasting effect than in the corridors of Corporate America.
While ID was dealt a setback this week in Pennsylvania -- as a judge tossed out an effort to force it into public schools -- ID is still gaining favor in Kansas and elsewhere. If Intelligent Design gains further momentum, corporate PR and marketing machines across the nation will have to retool their press releases, marketing brochures and advertising campaigns to include principles of intelligent design, rather than corporate Darwinism.
Think about it. With the exception of the sports metaphor (e.g. the "slam dunk," "two-minute drill," "level playing field"), Darwinian terms and principles have probably transformed corporate jargon more than any other field of human endeavor.
Cute. Mr. Basulto's column, of course, was written with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. Yet, behind the humor lurks a serious question: Are corporations grown pursuant to a coherent plan or do they grow organically and haphazardly?
A Finely Crafted Swiss Watch?
INTELLIGENT DESIGN, or creationism in sheep's clothing, goes something like this: If you examine a finely crafted Swiss watch, you immediately assume someone smart made it (presumably someone Swiss, but don't rule out the Chinese). Now you apply this premise to human beings and the known universe. How could entities so intricate and marvelous as you and I -- and the other heavenly bodies -- have just happened along without the deft hands of Intelligent Design, who shall henceforth be referred to as Mr. ID?
-- Boston Globe
In my experience, very few corporations bear sufficient resemblance to "a finely crafted Swiss watch" that one would infer a Mr. ID lurked in the background planning their every step.
An intelligently designed corporation, for example, presumably would make optimal use of hierarchy. Yet, we know that hierarchical organizations, including nominally profit-maximizing corporations, tend to create excessive layers of bureaucracy.
Managers have well-known incentives to prefer empire-building to profit-maximization. In part, this phenomenon is driven by the psychological rewards of empire-building, but in many organizations the compensation regime reinforces these tendencies by adding pecuniary rewards for those who build large sub-enterprises around themselves. Because this tendency is only partially constrained by the familiar arsenal of legal and market forces directed at all forms of shirking, firm expansion is difficult to reverse.
Layers of bureaucracy therefore tend to grow over time in a process only weakly constrained by external forces. As I observed in Participatory Management Within a Theory of the Firm, Peter Drucker once offered the impressive anecdotal example of a self-evaluation by one large defense manufacturer revealing that as many as 6 out of 14 management layers had no useful purpose.
Whether business decisions will be correct obviously depends on the accuracy and speed of information flows within the corporation. Unfortunately, the virtues of hierarchy become vices as firm size increases. Various inefficiencies arise as firms get larger, of which the most important for present purposes is the effect of unnecessary hierarchy on the transmission of information within the firm. Because of the inherent tendency for excessive growth in corporate hierarchies, the process of funneling information upwards and decisions downwards can break down in large corporations. Drucker made this point quite forcefully, arguing that "whole layers of management neither make decisions nor lead. Instead, their main, if not their only, function is to serve as relays -- human boosters for the faint, unfocused signals that pass for communication in the traditional pre-information organization." Unnecessary information relays threaten to substantially distort the flow of information within a firm. Each additional layer of bureaucracy increases the average path information must follow in order to reach the proper decision makers. Because the amount of systematic distortion to which messages are subjected is directly proportional to the length of the average path they follow, as is powerfully illustrated by the childhood game in which a secret message is whispered down a line of players, longer paths inexorably lead to poorer corporate decisions.
Sometimes corporations are smart enough to realize that they have to hack away at this deadwood, but even then their response often lacks evidence of intelligent design. As I detailed in Privately Ordered Participatory Management, restructurings often have strongly negative morale effects, especially when the restructuring includes a significant down-sizing of the workforce. Retained workers frequently experience a survivor's syndrome, whose symptoms include risk aversion, demoralization, loss of commitment, and high stress levels, which is a major reason the expected economic benefits of a restructuring often fail to materialize.
Restructurings can also disrupt internal information flows. The most obvious effect of the layoffs associated with a down-sizing restructuring is the loss of the departed workers' expertise and knowledge, but their more subtle effect is to break up the informal mechanisms by which managers and workers bypass hierarchy. One party (or both) to an informal bypass may be laid off. Lost trust and enhanced risk aversion may result in a communication breakdown even if both parties remain with the firm. Once severed, these informal links are slow to heal. Informal relationships of the sort at issue here typically develop around social interactions such as company sporting events, outings, car pools, and break rooms. By one estimate, a strong internal organization can take three to seven years to evolve.
In sum, corporate success all too often is a matter of survival of the least unfit. So if courts ban teaching of intelligent design in public schools, maybe business schools should start teaching it.Stephen Bainbridge is Professor of Law at UCLA. His scholarship focuses on corporate governance and law. His website www.ProfessorBainbridge.com is a widely read blog covering business, law, and politics. | <urn:uuid:c67e5dcd-e191-42aa-88ef-cebb1541cc88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_daily/2006/01/intelligent-design-not-so-much.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951948 | 1,221 | 1.84375 | 2 |
NASA Reveals First Images from Chandra
News story originally written on August 27, 1999
NASA recently revealed a few of the many images that will come from its newest telescope. Since first being deployed July 23, the Chandra X Observatory has functioned perfectly. It first made a series of engine firings, before finally reaching its current orbit. The sunshade was opened, and now the images are starting to fly in.
The results are breathtaking. Included in the inaugural set are images of a gigantic exploding star and a lightning quick X-ray blast flying through outer space. Scientists are already reaping the results of this expensive project; a possible neutron star or black hole that has never been discovered was found inside the stellar cloud.
"When I saw the first image, I knew that the dream had been realized," said Dr. Martin Weisskopf, Chandra Project Scientist, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. "This observatory is ready to take its place in the history of spectacular scientific achievements."
NASA hopes this one discovery is just a glimpse of what's to come. They believe the powerful instrument will reveal black holes hiding throughout the universe. The Chandra takes images using X-rays instead of visual light. X-rays travel at a much higher frequency, and are usually released by extremely hot objects. Many of these objects cannot be seen with visual light, which means the Hubble Space Telescope cannot see them.
"Chandra will help to confirm one of the most fascinating theories of modern science -- that we came from the stars," said Professor Robert Kirshner of Harvard University. "Its ability to make X-ray images of comparable quality to optical images will have an impact on virtually every area of astronomy."
The Chandra has other characteristics which are different from Hubble. While the Hubble has a rather circular orbit close to Earth, Chandra follows an elliptical orbit, which sends the telescope to distances between 6,000 and 86,400 miles from Earth. Furthermore, it was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, an Indian-American physicist who won a Nobel Prize in 1983. | <urn:uuid:35390ede-17c5-4e97-94ba-16eedcefe330> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/chandra_first_images.html&edu=high | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96101 | 429 | 3.90625 | 4 |
Kids Low on Vitamin D
Reported August 04, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Seven out of 10 U.S. children have low levels
of vitamin D, according to a study of over 6,000 children by researchers at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
The striking findings suggest vitamin D deficiency could place millions of
children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart
Vitamin D deficiency was thought to be relatively rare in the U.S., but with
cases of rickets, a bone disease in infants caused by low vitamin D levels
on the rise, it became clear that many children were also not getting enough
of this essential vitamin, which is needed for healthy bone growth, among
other biological processes.
"Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
in specific populations of children, but no one had examined this issue
nationwide," study leader Michal L. Melamed, M.D., assistant professor of
medicine and of epidemiology & population health at Einstein was quoted as
The researchers analyzed data on more than 6,000 children, ages one to 21,
collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
2001-2004. They found 9 percent of the study sample was vitamin D deficient,
while another 61 percent was vitamin D insufficient. Low vitamin D levels
were especially common in children who were older, female, African-American,
Mexican-American, obese, drank milk less than once a week, or spent more
than four hours a day watching TV, playing video games, or using computers.
The researchers also found vitamin D deficiency was associated with higher
parathyroid hormone levels, a marker of bone health, higher systolic blood
pressure, and lower serum calcium and HDL (good) cholesterol levels, which
are key risk factors for heart disease.
"We expected the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency would be high, but the
magnitude of the problem nationwide was shocking," lead author Juhi Kumar,
M.D., M.P.H., a fellow in pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for
Albert Einstein College of Medicine was quoted as saying.
"We know from earlier NHANES data that vitamin D levels have declined over
the last 20 years," says Dr. Melamed. "Kids have more sedentary lifestyles
today and are not spending as much time outdoors. The widespread use of
sunscreens, which block UV-B rays, has only compounded the problem." The
body uses UV-B sunlight to convert a form of cholesterol in the skin into
Dr. Melamed recommends that children consume more foods rich in vitamin D,
such as milk and fish. "But it's very hard to get enough vitamin D from
dietary sources alone," she added.
Vitamin D supplementation can help. In the study, children who took vitamin
D supplements (400 IU/day) were less likely to be deficient in the vitamin.
However, only four percent of the study population actually used
supplements. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently updated its
vitamin D guidelines, now recommends that infants, children, and teens
should take 400 IU per day in supplement form.
Supplements are especially important for those living in the country's
northern regions where the sun may be too weak to maintain healthy vitamin D
levels. Supplements are also critical for infants who are breast-fed,
according to the researchers. Breast milk contains relatively little vitamin
D, while formula is fortified with the vitamin.
"The message for pediatricians is that vitamin D deficiency is a real
problem with consequences not only for bone health but also potentially for
long-term cardiovascular health. Pediatricians should be screening children
for vitamin D levels, especially in the high-risk populations," said Dr.
“As for parents,” said Dr. Melamed, "it would good for them to turn off the
TV and send their kids outside. Just 15 to 20 minutes a day should be
enough. And unless they burn easily, don't put sunscreen on them until
they've been out in the sun for 10 minutes, so they get the good stuff but
not sun damage."
SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 3, 2009 | <urn:uuid:ef0a8ddb-5ef9-4734-89f7-72624aee8a7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womenfitness.net/news/cardiovascular_health/kids_low_on_vitamin_d.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954046 | 916 | 2.6875 | 3 |
We started with a piece of property that had been relatively untouched by humans. We carefully selected the property using US Dept. of Agriculture soil maps, flood plain maps, aerial photographs and plant surveys. Our site contains an abundance of native trees, plants, grasses, and wildflowers. We preserved most of the site in its natural state and practice organic gardening principles to encourage biodiversity and wildlife. To read more about this process go to Four Cedars - The Land. The name Four Cedars comes from four large Eastern Red Cedar trees that form a diamond shape pattern near the house site.
We designed the house with four major goals: energy-efficiency, environmental friendliness, and low maintenance, and cost effectiveness. We chose a passive solar design with active solar water heating. To learn more about efficient house design review my presentation, then review the details of our specific design at The Westbrook House and see the results reflected in our low utility bills in the Utility Data section. | <urn:uuid:ed2f059c-a411-4843-b696-8b3ace7c66ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enerjazz.com/house/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925256 | 195 | 2.421875 | 2 |
This is the third in a series of reports on maritime security
prepared by The Heritage Foundation's Maritime Security Working
Group. This report addresses how to provide operational
recommendations to the group's previous proposals while making
the case that the United States, with its regional allies, must
develop the capacity to exercise "global maritime constabulary
Specifically, this report:
- Defines global maritime constabulary
- Identifies the roles and missions that are
related to global maritime constabulary power;
- Describes the role of friendly and allied
- Suggests how the private sector can and should
- Recommends a division of responsibilities for
maritime constabulary duties between the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast
- Identifies the budgetary, regulatory, and
legislative implications of the recommendations.
The Heritage Foundation's Maritime Security Working Group was
tasked to produce cutting-edge policy recommendations for
making the seas safer for the United States, its friends and
allies, and global commerce. In its previous two reports, the
group-composed of representatives from academia, the private
sector, research institutions, and government-addressed some of the
most pressing issues confronting maritime security.
In 2005, in its first report, "Making the Sea Safer: A National
Agenda for Maritime Security and Counterterrorism," the
group outlined the future threats to and gaps in U.S. maritime
security. Rather than focus on episodic, short-term issues like
inspecting containers, the group offered a broader and more
thoughtful assessment of the maritime challenges facing the
United States, including:
- Dependence on maritime trade. Maritime
commerce will be an increasingly important component of the global
economy. Modern maritime commerce is generally defined by large,
containerized shipping moving through megaports, which form the
backbone of just-in-time international trade.
- The economic impact of security in the developing
world. Developing countries may find it increasingly
difficult to meet the demands of international security regimes for
trade and travel. If this occurs, these relatively weaker economies
may become less competitive in global markets.
- Undersea infrastructure. Undersea critical
infrastructure, such as oil and gas pumping stations and
telecommunications cables, are fast becoming an increasingly
important part of the global economy.
- The potential for standoff attacks from sea.
State and non-state actors will be capable of attacking the U.S.
from their own territorial waters using unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), short-range ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles,
possibly armed with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The group
also recognized that terrorists could use small boats packed
with explosives, as was done in the attack on the USS
Cole, and employ floating improvised explosive devices
(IEDs) or naval mines against commercial shipping in U.S. waters
and overseas ports.
- The lack of visibility in noncommercial maritime
activity. Currently, the United States lacks
sufficient means to monitor maritime activity. Terrorists
could exploit this failing in many ways, such as by using naval
mines and other means to launch underwater attacks and using
private craft to smuggle small payloads into the U.S. outside of
ports and to attack targets in U.S. waters.
- Maritime criminal activity. Piracy, human
trafficking, and drug and arms smuggling will continue.
Terrorists could mimic or partner with criminal
- Internal threats from rogue actors and landside
attacks. The greatest vulnerability to maritime
infrastructure may be internal threats. These include
disgruntled employees who have an intimate knowledge of
operations and facilities with access to transportation and port
- The maritime domain as a target and facilitator of
threats against the environment. Opportunities for the
spread of infectious disease and other environmental threats
carried by seaborne traffic will increase as maritime commerce
- Anti-access strategies. An enemy might attack
vulnerable targets on U.S. territory as a means to coerce, deter,
or defeat the United States.
Overall, the report argued for a comprehensive, strategic
approach to making the seas safer, rejecting simplistic security
proposals that focus on inspecting containers and handing out
federal port security grants.
In 2006, the working group's second report, "Trade Security at
Sea: Setting National Priorities for Safeguarding America's
Economic Lifeline," made the case that, based on the nature of
existing and emerging threats, the United States' highest priority
in maritime security should be ensuring the resiliency of global
maritime commerce, thereby ensuring unimpeded trade and travel,
regardless of what terrorists might attempt in the maritime
environment. In order to protect maritime trade, the working group
focused on three essential enablers:
- Expanding the capabilities of the U.S. Coast
Guard by fully funding Coast Guard modernization and ensuring that
the service has the resources to perform all of its missions,
- Improving the sharing and use of commercial
- Enhancing international cooperation.
This report looks in greater detail at providing the enforcement
tools for making the seas safer. The principal recommendations
- Doubling the U.S. Coast Guard's active and
reserve end strength over the next decade and accelerating Coast
- Expanding the Navy's stated goal of 313 ships
by an additional 37 ships (the preponderance of which should be
nuclear powered, including additional nuclear-powered submarines)
and focusing Navy operations more on sea control and assured access
and less on maritime engagement and security missions; and
- Establishing a Common Maritime Security Fleet
Fund to bolster modernization.
Download Entire Report | <urn:uuid:5e500b34-f5c6-413a-87ea-9c4ad1cee4f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/03/securing-the-high-seas-americas-global-maritime-constabulary-power | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.900782 | 1,203 | 2.515625 | 3 |
How to Have a Happy and Healthy Cat
Cats depend on people for everything they need—food, fresh water, a clean litter box, veterinary care, and, most important, affection and love. Here are some essentials to keep your feline friend happy and safe.
Explore the Great Indoors
Cats may sometimes act cocky and independent, but they are as defenseless as toddlers in the concrete jungle. Cats allowed to roam outside unattended may be attacked by dogs, stolen by dogfighters to use as "bait" or by thieves who sell animals to labs, or shot or poisoned by neighbors who don't like them digging in the flowerbeds or climbing on their cars. Cats who roam outside are also exposed to deadly diseases like feline AIDS and feline leukemia, for which there is no cure.
Cats can adapt nicely to life indoors if they get plenty of playtime and other ways to exercise their agile minds. From paper bags and rolled up balls of paper to motorized "mice" and laser pointers, toys perk up even the laziest feline. All-time favorites are Cat Dancer and Cat Charmer.
Windows are cat "TV"—a birdbath or feeder placed near a window can provide hours of entertainment.
If window sills aren't wide enough, build or buy a cushioned perch (available from pet supply stores and catalogs) to attach to the sill. A screened-in porch or an enclosure accessible through a window is a great way for kitty to safely commune with nature. KittyWalk Systems makes enclosures in a variety of configurations that can stand alone or be attached to a cat door. If your yard is fenced, another option is Cat Fence-In, a netting kit that attaches to the top of the fence. No existing fence is necessary to install another escape-proof system, called Purrfect Fence, although it is advisable to supplement it with sturdy fencing of some kind to keep dogs and other predators out.
Cats can safely explore outdoors on a leash—just be sure to use an ultra-lightweight, retractable leash attached to a harness, not a collar. Let your cat get used to the harness for short periods indoors, then pick a safe outdoor area to explore. KittyWalk Systems also makes a "pet stroller" that allows for longer, brisker walks and provides a measure of safety from free-roaming dogs.
Five out of Five Cats Prefer a Clean Litter Box
Nobody likes to use a dirty bathroom, which is why it's important to scoop out your cat's litter box at least twice a day, preferably every time your cat uses the box, but especially after meal times. If you have more than one cat, a good rule of thumb is to have one box per cat. Avoid scented litters, since cats are sensitive to smells. Place the litter pan well away from the cat's feeding area and in a place that is quiet and feels "safe" to your cat.
Any cat who is urinating outside the litter box should be taken to a veterinarian right away to rule out a urinary tract infection, which is very common and can be fatal, especially in male cats, who can become "blocked" and die from a build-up of toxins very quickly. If a urinary tract infection is ruled out, your cat may be unhappy with the cleanliness of the pan (or lack thereof), the type of litter used, the location, or with the box itself (some cats prefer covered boxes and vice versa).
Dinner Is Served
It sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget to check Fluffy's water, clean her bowls, and feed her twice a day. Cats are finicky—they won't drink dirty water—but if they eat kibble, they will need plenty of water to prevent urinary tract infections. Kibble shouldn't be the cat's sole food, and it doesn't have to be in a cat's diet at all. Canned or homemade food is more palatable and will help add moisture to the diet to help prevent a urinary tract infection. If you want to sever your last link with the slaughterhouse, it is possible to feed cats a vegetarian diet, but it must be done carefully to make sure that it is nutritionally balanced and that the cat is thriving on it.
Decline to Declaw
Cats love to scratch. It helps to remove broken claws, stretch muscles, and mark "territory." Declawing is definitely NOT a good way to protect your furniture—in fact, it's the most expensive and painful one: Declawing is actually 10 individual amputations, since it involves chopping off the last joint of each one of the cat's toes. Declawing can make cats insecure, moody, and more prone to biting because they can't use their claws to defend themselves. It can also lead to litter box problems, proving that there's more than one way to ruin a carpet!
The best way to save your furniture is to provide lots of "approved" places to scratch. Sisal cat "trees" and posts, cardboard scratching boxes, and those ingenious "cat tracks" (a ball in a circular plastic tunnel surrounding a cardboard scratching pad) are big hits. Sprinkle catnip on them weekly to keep cats interested, and be sure to replace cardboard inserts when they get worn out.
Trim your cat's claws once every two weeks—you just have to remove the sharp "hook" at the end—and put double-sided tape on places that you don't want your cat to scratch—cats don't like the sticky feeling on their paws.
Making Fleas Flee
Fleas don't just make cats uncomfortable, they can also cause skin allergies and tapeworm infestations (when cats ingest fleas through grooming). Cats who stay indoors are less likely to get fleas, but they can still catch them from you if you accidentally bring fleas inside on your pants or shoes. Monthly treatments with flea killers aren't necessary unless you see fleas on your cat, nor are baths with hazardous insecticidal shampoos (since soap and water alone kill fleas). A nontoxic alternative to flea poisons is to use a flea comb, which catches the fleas in its fine teeth, and then dunk the fleas into a container of soapy water or put them in a container in the freezer.
Get to the Vet!
Spaying and neutering doesn't just prevent the births of unwanted kittens, it also prevents cancer of the reproductive organs and, if performed before the cat reaches sexual maturity (at about 5 to 6 months old), can also prevent other cancers, such as breast and prostate cancer.
Any cat who is acting lethargic or "grouchy," has diarrhea or frequent vomiting, isn't eating, or is having "accidents" outside the litter box should be taken to the vet right away. Even "minor" illnesses can turn fatal if not treated, and regular check-ups can prevent or catch diseases before they become serious.
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:af218e7a-64d5-49a1-ac41-63b5b707111f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/living/companion-animals/Caring-for-Cats.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00052-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952411 | 1,519 | 2.25 | 2 |
Solgar L-Theanine Description
L-Theanine is an amino acid which is commonly found in green tea. It plays a key role in mood support by helping to improve GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) levels in the brain. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter and its natural release in the body can lead to relaxation. Supplementation with L-Theanine can help maintain GABA levels, and research indicates it can promote a calm, relaxed state without causing drowsiness. This formulation provides Free Form, patented L-Theanine as Suntheanine® to promote optimal absorption and assimilation.
Gluten, wheat, dairy, soy, yeast, sugar, sodium, artificial flavor, sweetener, preservatives and color.
These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. | <urn:uuid:05f28273-2233-441b-ad8d-bd5e83652809> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vitacost.com/solgar-l-theanine | 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 | 0.902615 | 185 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Analysis: Jobs report will fuel both campaigns
CHARLOTTE – The eagerly awaited employment report released Friday morning wasn't good enough to significantly boost President Obama or bad enough to significantly help Republican Mitt Romney.
Instead, it was one more sign of a slow recovery that gives talking points to both sides, debating how best to create jobs.
"The August jobs report was disappointing, signaling that businesses remain very cautious," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, told USA TODAY. "But the numbers weren't disappointing enough to sway the election. The political optics of the report will also be significantly shaped by the decline in unemployment. Odds are improving that unemployment will be below the 8% rate by Election Day."
MORE: August employment report
Employers added 96,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, lower than expectations and well below the 141,000 created in July. A survey of economists by Bloomberg News predicted that the economy generated 125,000 jobs last month, and the ADP National Employment Report on Thursday said 201,000 private-sector jobs had been created in August.
Still, the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.1% from 8.3% in July because people dropped out of the job market, and labor force participation fell to its lowest rate in three decades.
"If last night was the party, this morning is the hangover," Romney said in a written statement quickly issued by his campaign. "For every net new job created, nearly four Americans gave up looking for work entirely. This is more of the same for middle-class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression. After 43 straight months of unemployment above 8%, it is clear that President Obama just hasn't lived up to his promises and his policies haven't worked."
Where we stand
Total non-farm employment
Difference vs. August
|Jan. 08 employment peak|
|Jan. '09 Obama inauguration|
|Feb. '10 employment low|
|Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics|
House Speaker John Boehner said the report "underscores President Obama's failed promises to get out economy moving again."
The jobs report came just nine hours after President Obama left the stage at the Democratic National Convention, where he formally accepted the Democratic nomination for a second term. He defended his record on the economy but acknowledged that many Americans continue to feel the sting of hard times. In his speech, he said the word "jobs" 15 times.
"When the house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent Americans lost their jobs, their homes and their life savings — a tragedy from which we are still fighting to recover," Obama declared, saying he was proposing "a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation."
The report could encourage the Federal Reserve to take more steps to spur growth when it meets next week.
Both presidential campaigns have cited jobs numbers to bolster their side. Democrats note that the number of private-sector jobs has risen for 30 straight months, including August. Republicans counter that the unemployment rate has topped 8% for 43 straight months.
On Friday morning, the Romney campaign released ads attacking Obama's economic policies, individualized for eight swing states. "Here in North Carolina we're not better off under President Obama," the ad airing in the Tarheel State said, focusing on the loss of manufacturing jobs. "His failed economic and trade policies with China have destroyed thousands of jobs. The Romney plan: Stand up to China, reverse Obama job-killing policies; create over 350,000 new jobs for North Carolina." | <urn:uuid:46990deb-b534-4388-88b1-141117050040> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-09-06/august-jobs-political-impact/57674476/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960523 | 748 | 1.765625 | 2 |
I want to write about Bert Bank but I wish I had known him before he died Monday. I knew who he was and knew his background as a radio legend in this state. But when I learned he was a survivor of the Bataan Death March in World War II, I viewed him with a sort of intimidated reverence.
And as a sports writer, that's an uncomfortable place to be.
It's just the nature of the job. You meet well-known, famous people. You develop relationships. You do your job as a reporter and that includes being unimpressed in situations that could easily be considered impressive.
Quite simply, meeting and dealing with famous people is no big deal.
Which is why I found myself being somewhat intimidated by Mr. Bank so unusual.
But when I would see him during my previous life as an Alabama beat writer, I would just look at him with a sort of awe. How could you not?
And if you wish to know more about Mr. Bank's struggles as a POW in the South Pacific as I did, allow me to recommend Ghost Soldiers, a fascinating book by Hampton Sides that tells in harrowing detail the struggles of those on the Bataan Death March -- including Mr. Bank.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, I don't think I've made reference to an athlete or a coach in a story in terms of being a "hero." Heroes aren't on football fields or basketball courts.
Bert Bank, however, was a hero. I just wish now I had, if nothing else, shaken his hand and thanked him for his service to our country.
And even though I never shook his hand, never even found the courage to introduce myself to him, he will forever remain a hero.
And having said that, it's a good place to stop typing. | <urn:uuid:400054d2-b184-42b0-a39c-6437fff92435> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.al.com/chatter/2009/06/an_overdue_salute_to_a_war_her.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990795 | 375 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Epidemics: Scientists to hunt down new viruses before they strike
Google backs 'predict and prevent' plans to track animal pathogens that could spread to humans
Robin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday June 15 2008 Article historyScientists are preparing to hunt down the planet's last remaining viruses capable of triggering new diseases in humans. Several hundred new varieties may still be lurking in the wild or in remote populations, it is believed.
In recent years, deadly outbreaks of diseases such as Sars and Ebola have caused major health scares and officials are anxious to use modern gene-hunting technology to pinpoint pathogens before they can get a chance to spread through populations.
Among those backing the project is the company behind web search engine Google, which has launched a 'predict and prevent' programme aimed at setting up a network for forecasting emerging threats 'before they become local, regional, or global crises'.
'Some of these viruses have very limited impact but others can trigger pandemics,' said Dr Mark Woolhouse, of Edinburgh University's centre for infectious diseases. 'The purpose of this initiative is to identify viruses before they get a chance to spread among humans.' Woolhouse has been invited to work with the US National Academy of Sciences, which will hold a meeting next week aimed at drawing up plans to tackle the problem of emerging diseases.
'We are in the middle of a revolution in gene technology,' said Woolhouse. 'For the first time, we have the means to trace any pathogen that has infected a human or is capable of infecting a person.'
In recent years, biologists have developed chips that can identify every known human virus from blood or tissue samples and have designed machines that can unravel the genetic make-up of new organisms in minutes. As part of the virus-hunting programme, scientists would study remote populations and test individuals to detect previously unknown viruses in their blood. Other researchers would study animals in order to test if any carry viruses capable of infecting humans.
'Viruses infect men and women if they carry pieces of protein capable of unlocking receptors on the surfaces of human cells,' added Woolhouse. 'Testing animal viruses to see if they have protein sections that could easily mutate and open up our receptors would be one priority for the project.'
In a recent Royal Society paper, a team led by Woolhouse calculated that since 1960 an average of two to three new viruses affecting humans have been discovered every year. Most are transmitted to humans from other mammals. A smaller but significant number come from birds and wildfowl.
Recent examples include the 2002 outbreak of Sars virus, which killed hundreds of people, the Ebola virus - linked to fruit bats - which has caused several disease outbreaks since 1976, and the Sin Nombre virus, linked to the deer mouse, which caused deaths in the US in 1993.
As roads are built across Africa and South America, more people are encountering animals with which mankind has had little previous contact. In addition, pets have been linked to disease outbreaks, such as the Gambian pouched rat that was blamed for an outbreak of monkeypox in the US in 2003.
In other cases, changes in farming practices have triggered unexpected outbreaks. In Malaysia in 1999, more than 100 people died of a form of encephalitis that was traced to the Nipah virus. This outbreak was attributed to a decision by pig farmers to plant fruit trees on their land to boost income. Fruit bats, which were subsequently found to carry Nipah, came to the trees for food, dropped excrement on pigs below and the disease was then transmitted to humans.
However, the worst known outbreak caused by such viruses - known as zoonotic organisms - is the HIV/Aids epidemic. Tens of millions of people could die of the illness, which scientists believe was caused by a disease in chimps that was passed to humans in Cameroon in the Thirties. Pinpointing another HIV-like disease before it reaches humans is the key motivation for the new project.
About this articleClose This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday June 15 2008 on p19 of the News section. It was last updated at 08:50 on June 16 2008. | <urn:uuid:788c5096-a945-43db-92ae-bc049685dc4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nutrimedical.com/announcements.jhtml?method=view&announcements.id=7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965631 | 853 | 3.734375 | 4 |
An ice cave in Austria was recently used as a test landscape for experimental spacesuits and instrumentation systems-including 3D cameras-that might someday be used by humans on Mars. The Dachstein ice cave was chosen, Stuff explains, "because ice caves would be a natural refuge for any microbes on Mars seeking steady temperatures and protection from damaging cosmic rays."
Many images available at the Dachstein Mars Simulation Liveblog-including this series of 25 images courtesy of the Austrian Space Forum-document the testing process, which ranged from the beautifully surreal, as a fully space-suited man rolls strange devices down slopes of ice inside the planet, to the nearly postmodern, as crowds of normally dressed tourist onlookers are revealed at the edges of the show cave, watching this odd performance unfold.
And all this is in addition to the "obstacle course" developed for wearers of the spacesuit-reverse-engineering terrain from a particular type of clothing, or landscape design as an outgrowth from fashion-in the parking lot and nearby paved spaces of a research center in Austria. "The course included four snow-mountain passages, almost 40 meters of rock climbing and more than 60 meters of slushy snow terrain amongst others"-including "drawing bright 'rocks' to make the simulation happen" accurately.
Walking amidst painted representations of geology, wearing a suit designed for the atmosphere of another planet, and temporarily moving below the surface of the earth to throw pieces of specialty equipment down ice slopes, attached to ropes, the team was able to, by means of props and in William L. Fox's words, "perform Mars on Earth."
This post originally appeared on BLDGBLOG. | <urn:uuid:679181a3-3035-4de4-a9ff-95e135289f00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://io9.com/5908533/in-austria-an-ice-cave-is-an-earthbound-stand+in-for-mars | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939213 | 349 | 2.875 | 3 |
Plenty of people come to Annapolis Valley looking for history, mainly because of all the historic sites here. This is Canada's birthplace, where it all started. Many important and interesting first in Canada and North America happened here.
There is plenty of history and interesting sites to be found here. National Geographic agrees with this and have created a wide variety of maps over the years with plenty of information about this area. If you are interested in seeing what National Geographic maps are available on this and other areas around the world check out my brother's very informative web site www.geographic-maps-search.com
Most historic sites here have been well preserved and kept up by either the government or the many historical societies and volunteers. Many buildings and homes have been designated Municipal and Provincial Heritage Properties. Annapolis Royal has the highest concentration of historic sites, buildings, and landmarks gathered in one area. The whole town has been designated as a National Historic Site.
This page will give you a list of the many historic sites and landmarks found throughout the Annapolis Valley.
If the title is highlighted then you can click on it to go to another page where you may learn even more about these historic sites.
Well we might as well start at the place where it all began back in 1605. The Habitation is a replica of the one Champlain built which was the first settlement north of St. Augustine.
The Port Royal Habitation is located a little west of Annapolis Royal on the north side of the Annapolis River. Turn off the 101 Hwy at exit 22 and follow Rt. 8 north to the traffic lights in Annapolis Royal. Turn right onto Rt.1 and cross the causeway. Take the first left after the causeway and follow the signs to the Habitation. It is approximately 10 kms. (6.5 miles).
Their hours of operation are:
Located in the center of Annapolis Royal is Fort Anne National Historic Site. This fort has much heritage value as it was here many battles were fought between the French and British to obtain control of the new colonies.
In the late 19th century the garrison had been empty for years and had started to decay. The townspeople, not wanting to loose this bit of history forever, appealed to the government to help save it. In 1917 Fort Anne became Canada's first Niational Historic Site.
Their hours of operation are:
Farther up the valley is another very interesting historical site, Grand Pre National Historic Site. Take exit 10 off highway 101 heading toward Wolfville. Continue on Rt. 1 following signs to Grand Pre.
Realizing the historical value to the Acadians, John Frederic Herbin bought the land in 1907 where the old Acadian church and graveyard had once been located. He erected a cross to mark where the old Acadian graveyard had been and donated the land as a memorial to the Acadian people who once lived there. The area was made famous by the poem about Evangeline and the deportation of the Acadians written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The grounds of the park are open year round and the interpretive center is open from May 17th to October 19th 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
About one kilometre east of the Port Royal Habitation and about 6.5 kms west of Annapolis Royal lies the Melanson Settlement National Historic Site. This was an Acadian community for four generations before the Acadian deportation, (c1664 - 1755).
In most cases all indication of the Acadian Settlements has been lost except for the miles of dykes they had built. Because of its close proximity to the fort at Port Royal, the Melanson Settlement was shown on several 18th century maps. This was a help to find the site of the settlement in 1984.
From the parking lot there is a short loop (193m) that leads to a lookout. From there you are able to observe the uplands, marsh and river where this settlement had once thrived. The admission is free. Hours of operation are:
New France, or "Electric City" was located beside the Silver River and Langford Lake, about 17 miles from Weymouth, Nova Scotia. This was a place way ahead of it's time.
In 1892 Emile Charles Adolphe Stehelin moved his family France to Nova Scotia and started up a logging community in the woods behind Weymouth. This community grew and were known to have one of the first railways in Nova Scotia and to have electricity in all their homes 30 years before any other community.
If you follow the Granville road farther north past the Port Royal Habitation you will come to the fishing village of Victoria Beach built along the hillside of the North Mountain. There will be more about Victoria Beach on another page. I want to mention the monument now for the Pony Express. It is found on the left side of the road a little before you get to the wharf area.
The Pony Express is said to be responsible for the start of the Associated Press. At the time, 1849, the telegraph lines were not yet finished to Halifax. Newspapers in New York wanted the news from Britain fast. So they decided to join together and set up a pony express. Men on horse back would carry the news packet the 232 kms, (146 miles) from Halifax to Victoria Beach. They used fresh horses every 19 kms and changed riders in Kentville. As they passed through Annapolis Royal a canon was fired. This was to signal the steamship that waited in Victoria Beach ready to take the news packet on to Saint John, NB. From Saint John it was telegraphed to the New York newspapers. It has been said that this ride could be done in only eight hours. The pony express ran from Feb. to Nov. 1849. it was stopped when the telegraph lines were finished to Halifax. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada have affixed a bronze tablet to a boulder here to commemorate the Pony Express.
On the Hwy 201 between Bridgetown and Annapolis Royalyou will cross over a little creek. Beside the creek on one side is a large monument with a fence around it. This monument recognizes the bloody battle that was fought along this little creek.
The creek was larger back in 1711 and there were several men from the garrison in Port Royal out looking for firewood who never made it back.
The battle of Bloody Creek is told in the ghost story by the same name. You may read about the history of the creek by following the link above in the title.
On your way back out Rt 8 to highway 101 stop off and take a look at the Lequille Grist Mill. Heading south, just past the Lequille Country Store take the next right, and then a right again. You will head down a fairly steep hill with a bridge at the bottom.
Notice the old building close to the left side of the road? No this is not the Grist Mill, but it did use to be a mill. It used to be the old Dargie Mill and it is a historic site itself. This building is all that is left of the several mills that used to gain their power from this brook. There is a record of eighteen different mills on the Lequille River, which was once called Mill River.
Now continue across the bridge, which by the way is called "Three Bridges" as there used to be three bridges crossing here. Just around the turn you will see the Grist Mill. This is the spot where the first mill in North America built by Poutrincourt in 1607 had been. For years the Historical Association wanted to have this spot properly marked as a historic site. Then in 1967 the Nova Scotia Light & Power Company built this replica as a Centennial Project. As there were no drawings or sketches of the original mill, they designed this one as a replica of an 18th century French mill.
On April 24, 1895 Joshua Slocum sailed out of Boston, Massachusetts on a 3 year voyage around the world in his worthy sea craft “The Spray”. He was the first one to ever make successfully this circumnavigation trip alone. He later wrote a book about his adventure.
Joshua was born in Mount Hanley, Annapolis county and attended the Mount Hanley School which has a special display about his life. He later moved to Brier Island, Digby County where there is a special monument erected honouring his circumnavigation trip. Joshua was lost at sea in November of 1909 while on another sole voyage in his ship "The Spray".
I bet you did not expect a whole town being listed as a historic site. In this case I think this town fits the criteria. Anybody who is interested in the history of the Annapolis Valley will want to spend at least a day in Annapolis Royal. You will probably need more than one day to fully take in all the town has to offer. Besides the Fort Anne, there are other museums, the O'Dell House Museum and the Sinclair Inn National Historic Site. Both very interesting and well worth the visit. There is also the Historic Gardens, which represent different eras of Annapolis history through the plants and vegetation.
Within the town of Annapolis Royal you will see some of the oldest wooden framed buildings in Canada. The oldest wooden house still occupied in Canada, the deGannes / Cosby House is located just past the Historic Gardens on St George Street. The house that stands there now was built in 1708 on the foundation of the previous one that had burnt.
There are 135 Municipal Heritage Properties in and around the town. Several more have been designated as Provincial Heritage Properties and others National Historic Sites. Annapolis Royal was awarded the Prince of Whales Prize for its commitment to preserving heritage by Heritage Canada.
During the summer the Historical Association of Annapolis Royal host several walking tours around town. There is the National Historic District Tour or the Acadian Heritage Tour. Both start from the lighthouse and cover several historic sites in the town. Then if you want a real treat try the Candlelight Graveyard Tour. This is held in the oldest English graveyard in Canada. In 2005 the Nova Scotia Festival & Events Council awarded Annapolis Royal first place as "Hometown Pride Event of the Year". Thanks to the joint initiative of the Annapolis Heritage Society, the Town of Annapolis Royal and Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture & Heritage you can take your own interpretive tour of Lower St. George Street. They have placed 12 very informative panels along this route, each full of interesting history of the town.
A religious movement called "The New Light Movement" began in New England and was introduced to Nova Scotia by early Puritan settlers who moved here after the American Revolution.
Israel Potter had been born in Massachusetts in November of 1763 and moved to Nova Scotia where he married Mary Rice. They lived in Lower Granville where he became involved in this religious movement. He was baptized in the Lower Granville Church which had been founded in 1780 and had recently became a Baptist Church.
Israel moved his family to his old family homestead at Clements (now Upper Clements) in 1810. Here he was instrumental in the revival in that area. He held services in the kitchen of his house for awhile until a new meeting house could be built. It is believed work on the new meeting house (now known as the Goat Island Church) was started in 1810 which gives this church the distinction of being the oldest surviving Baptist church building in Nova Scotia.
The Goat Island Baptist Church is located on Hwy 1 between Annapolis Royal and Cornwallis in Upper Clements. Watch for the sign.
Not far from Grand Pre is a place set aside to remember the horrible end of one era of our history beside another place to celebrate the start of another. This would be Horton Landing located alongside an estuary of the Minas Basin,
It was along these banks that 2,200 Acadians were forced from their homes and set on ships to take them away to unknown lands and hardships. For many this was the last piece of Nova Scotia soil they touched. For those that did make it back they would not be premitted to settle on these fertile lands again. Most of them ended up settling in Northern New Brunswick or along the French Shore in Digby County.
One reason they could not settle here was because the British Government at that time still did not trust them. They feared the Acadians would take sides with the French against them if a rebellion arouse.
The main reason they could not come back to their homes though was they were taken over. Shortly after the deportation of the Acadians the Nova Scotia government invited offered free land to the people of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. They wanted more British subjects settling on these lands so gave the New England Planters the Acadian farms. Eight thousand New England Planters came to Nova Scotia with many of them landing on these banks. Today Horton Landing marks these two occassions. The Deportation Cross was erected to remember the Acadians and their removal and beside it the Planter Monument is to remember the many New England Planters who settled these lands after.
Maude Lewis lived with her husband Everett in a small, brightly painted little house in Marshalltown, Digby County, NS. They were very poor and Maude started selling her folk art paintings in the local area. After they gained national recognition from magazines articles and TV shows her paintings became very vauable. Even though the original house is in the Art Gallery of NS; there is a monument at the original home and a replica of the house in Seabrook, Digby County.
Those are the main historic sites in Annapolis Valley but not all of them. I will add more information about these historic sites and other historic sites as I travel the valley and visit them again. This does not cover any of the fantastic museums found all through the Annapolis Valley. Each of these museums cover a different part of our history and culture so make sure you check them out as well. A list and write-up is found by clicking the Museums tag.
Click on the lighthouse to check out what type of weather to expect while here.
Click on the Ferry to find out how to get here.
Click on the King George Inn to find places to stay in the Annapolis Valley
Click on the lobster to find places to eat in the valley.
Click on us if you have stories about the Annapolis Valley to share.
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|What did you see here that was different from other places? Share with us how it was different! Better yet show us with pictures along with telling us.|
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|You have read about my experiences here, I would like to read about yours! Please send them in. I only ask that you make the story long enough to make it interesting for everyone to read. Fill a page! Include pictures!| | <urn:uuid:1d245482-3813-4996-9ee4-c8a1f41ee740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.annapolis-valley-vacation.com/historic-sites.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00060-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976043 | 3,351 | 2.75 | 3 |
All of us voracious readers have favorite books—book we re-read, books that encouraged us, inspired us, challenged us, and soothed us. Not always the same (the book and the character) there are those members of the cast who never leave us. I wonder, is there a difference between most memorable books, and the individual characters who stay with us far after we finish the last page?
I’m not an academic scholar who can deconstruct the ‘why,’ but perhaps these are the characters who (as well as having a role in a favorite book) represent the best or worst of who we think we are, who we may become, or maybe they have the qualities we want or fear the most.
Could they be a litmus test for our personalities? Do they have a role in forming who we are?
If you are a person in constant “Word Love,” all the above could be true.
Caroline, Ben, Judith, and Jacob Reiser, the family from Before and After by Rosellen Brown, showed me how a family can remain loyal to their love for each other, even as their own versions of the truth lead them in opposite directions.
Anne Frank. Of course, the book, The Diary of Anne Frank was incredible (please insert this sentence all the way down the list, and help me not be repetitive!) But Anne, a character I met when I was so very young, moved into my head and never left. Despite her tragic end, she provided a ruler for open-eyed (very different from wide-eyed) optimism, which became a measure I attempt to emulate, even if I can only hope for the tiniest fraction of her ability.
Karen Killea, the main character of a memoir Karen, written by her mother, Marie Killiea, Karen and her parents overcame the conventional wisdom of what a child with cerebral palsy could achieve. From Karen I learned grit.
Francie Nolan lives in all my favorite book categories. Brave Francie of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn taught me that a frightening childhood plagued many girls.
Calliope, later Cal, Stephanides, the narrator of Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides will forever stand out as an example of how a character suffering from the narrowest of problems (in Cal’s case, being inter-sexed) can become the most universal of role models in courage and significance.
Sissy Sullivan, the main character of Tin Wife, a novel by Joe Flaherty I read years and years ago, a worn paperback which still has a place of honor on my shelf of long-ago favorites, will forever represent an ordinary woman facing down a city wanting to bury her with lies.
This is just the tip of my particular iceberg of characters who will always live with me. Who’s living with you? | <urn:uuid:4345f245-70a5-4e26-8f24-41d4d801ba13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.randysusanmeyers.com/2013/01/characters-who-live-forever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00067-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963986 | 596 | 1.75 | 2 |
Strongly supported by western mining interests and farmers, the Bland-Allison Act—which provided for a return to the minting of silver coins—becomes the law of the land.
The strife and controversy surrounding the coinage of silver is difficult for most modern Americans to understand, but in the late 19th century it was a topic of keen political and economic interest. Today, the value of American money is essentially secured by faith in the stability of the government, but during the 19th century, money was generally backed by actual deposits of silver and gold, the so-called "bimetallic standard." The U.S. also minted both gold and silver coins.
In 1873, Congress decided to follow the lead of many European nations and cease buying silver and minting silver coins, because silver was relatively scarce and to simplify the monetary system. Exacerbated by a variety of other factors, this led to a financial panic. When the government stopped buying silver, prices naturally dropped, and many owners of primarily western silver mines were hurt. Likewise, farmers and others who carried substantial debt loads attacked the so-called "Crime of '73." They believed, somewhat simplistically, that it caused a tighter supply of money, which in turn made it more difficult for them to pay off their debts.
A nationwide drive to return to the bimetallic standard gripped the nation, and many Americans came to place a near mystical faith in the ability of silver to solve their economic difficulties. The leader of the fight to remonetize silver was the Missouri Congressman Richard Bland. Having worked in mining and having witnessed the struggles of small farmers, Bland became a fervent believer in the silver cause, earning him the nickname "Silver Dick."
With the backing of powerful western mining interests, Bland secured passage of the Bland-Allison Act, which became law on this day in 1878. Although the act did not provide for a return to the old policy of unlimited silver coinage, it did require the U.S. Treasury to resume purchasing silver and minting silver dollars as legal tender. Americans could once again use silver coins as legal tender, and this helped some struggling western mining operations. However, the act had little economic impact, and it failed to satisfy the more radical desires and dreams of the silver backers. The battle over the use of silver and gold continued to occupy Americans well into the 20th century. | <urn:uuid:17a7df1b-03ea-4e38-8257-adbbba18c0ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/silver-dollars-made-legal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974011 | 489 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Oakland is a fine town unless it rains too much. Then we have to worry about all the water.
All things considered, Oakland’s landscape would prefer to be steep, forested hills raised by tectonics along the Hayward fault and gentle coastal plains that absorb the sediment washed off those hills. It’s a rich recipe that produces redwoods in the heights and forage and fruit in the vales. But with impervious roads and homes carpeting the upper slopes, we increase the runoff and undermine our own infrastructure. People like the homeowners above Broadway Terrace run flexible plastic lines over the edge of their properties to put the problem out of mind. But if you walk the road, you’ll find fresh gullies that will work their way uphill to the source of the problem regardless. Landslides will probably follow. | <urn:uuid:d46d9378-33ba-4543-938f-4a5aa25a4ae3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oaklandgeology.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/drainage/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=0dd3db7641 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930164 | 172 | 2.25 | 2 |
Ms. Hyde says the UKPOM findings show that "most people claim not to be swayed by celebrity-fronted campaigns, but they do think that other people are swayed by them. Which suggests that celebrity campaigns are popularly believed to be popular – but falsely so."
This is indeed what the data show but they also show that, while less popular than we would think, celebrity endorsements are effective in some domains. For example, 14 out of 100 people report they give more money to a cause than they would have without the celebrity endorsement. That seems like a very high number to me.
It would be interesting to compartmentalise this result. Is this 14% number higher for wealthier people? Older people? Poorer people? Particular ethnic groups? A recent econometric study from the US found that the donations of certain groups responded much more highly to celebrity endorsements than others.
The article by Ms Hyde then goes on to say that the UKPOM data show that Kim Kardashian is the best celebrity to help a child in extreme poverty (although I could not find this in the report) and she "We're all poorer when we seek Kim Kardashian's take on poverty."
OK, first of all I did not know who Kim Kardashian was, and after 2 minutes of internet searching I can understand why she is not exactly a role model. This is certainly an example of Maureen Dowd's quote (she of the New York Times) "Celebrity distorts democracy by giving the rich, beautiful, and famous more authority than they deserve."
But some celebrities deserve respect for their charity work, surely. I'm sure there are many celebrities who know that celebrity is luck-fuelled and needs to be worn lightly but used weightily. They use their celebrity for the charity in an intelligent way--my sense is that there is not much box office in it (although that could also be researched).
Perhaps the main worry about celebrity advocates is that they might endorse the status quo, or not sufficiently challenge the systems that generate the need for charity giving in the first place. Again, I think it depends on the celebrity. The singer Billy Bragg (he of "A New England") certainly does not fall into this category.
So the answer seems to be: select your celebrity as carefully as you select your CEO.
The irony is that the UKPOM itself needs some help in staying funded. We are running it on fumes.
Would I mind if Billy Bragg gave UKPOM an endorsement? No. (Although I would need to do my due diligence!) | <urn:uuid:03cc887e-54fa-434e-8160-78278ca3d390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.developmenthorizons.com/2012/06/celebrity-squares-what-is-value-of.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972701 | 526 | 1.804688 | 2 |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Employees with the state Department of Commerce will be sewing and repairing stuffed toys to be donated to children in central Ohio.
The toys are left over from testing by a lab in the department's industrial compliance division. Commerce Director David Goodman says employees are donating their lunch hour to stitch up the toys.
The laboratory tests samples of stuffed toys to ensure the filler material is safe and is accurately labeled. The toys are then set aside until the holiday season. That's when state employees make the necessary repairs so the toys can be donated. | <urn:uuid:8fa099dd-3753-412b-94b4-b4bf802415da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://the-review.com/ap%20state/2012/12/05/ohio-workers-repair-tested-toys-to-donate-to-kids | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944714 | 115 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff
Welcome to The Not-So Private Parts where technology & privacy collide
Edward Saatchi, Aharon Wasserman, and Justin Lewis are the disgustingly young founders of NationalField, a company that has built private social networks for the Obama campaign, Kaiser Permanente and the UK National Health Service. Once the UK NHS, which signed a deal with the company eight months ago, gets all of its 1.3 million employees signed up with accounts, its NationalField account will be the largest private social network in the world.
Like Yammer, NationalField brings social networking to the work place, trying to transform work relationships the same way that Facebook has revolutionized friending.
“It’s not about chatting and friending each other,” says Edward Saatchi, the 26-year-old son of the advertising magnate behind Saatchi & Saatchi. “It’s about numbers and data.”
The three came up with the platform while working for the Obama campaign in 2008 as a way for volunteers and campaign staffers to share information in real-time through a private social network, to keep track of phone calls placed, doorbells rung, and voters registered. They’re signed on as the platform the campaign will use again in 2012. The company currently has 53 clients, which pay a monthly per user fee. The cost is usually eased by the elimination of the company’s Intranet, says Saatchi. NationalField also raised $1.2 million from angel investors this year.
The product looks just like Facebook — and counts Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes as an adviser — though displays focus not on how many friends you have or photos you’ve been tagged in, but on work goals that have been met, progress reports and documents you’ve been tagged with. A sales team might have a bar chart showing who’s in the lead for sales for the quarter. The “status update” field asks not “What are you doing?” as on Facebook but “What are you working on?”
OceanSky, a private jet company, uses the platform, for example, to keep track of where in the world its pilots are, sales data, problems with certain airports, time spent fixing plane parts, and the number of flights flown by each pilot. It creates a home base for a highly mobile set of employees, and ensures that data is easy to access rather than locked up in spreadsheets.
Another thing that is similar to Facebook: the creators see it as a tool for self-comparison and envy.
“It leads to lots of internal competition,” says Saatchi. (No poking, though.)
Saatchi says that National Field has tried to set itself apart from Yammer by introducing hierarchy into its social structure. Friending isn’t flat, so an update from your boss will be given greater priority than one from a colleague. Though part of the appeal of the network is that ideas will float up the hierarchy more easily as well, and lead to a greater amount of performance feedback from bosses.
Their next step? They want to make it easy for engineers to build third party apps that companies can use. So who wants to build the Farmville for corporate efficiency?
Check out others on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. | <urn:uuid:0b581cdf-7f53-4c2f-a881-3572f4172f71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/19/30-under-30-nationalfield-thinks-your-business-needs-its-own-social-network/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948367 | 703 | 1.523438 | 2 |
JJ Winters fabulous handbags are here
History of Handbag Fashion by AmandaKing
Early handbags ware more functional rather than being a fashion statement. They were typically small circular cut pieces of material that normally had a leather strap. The leather strap was sewn around the circumference of the handbag to maintain its' strength and security.
Ancient pouches were used by men to hold coins and other valuables. Frequently men tied this pouch near a sword on their safekeeping and added protection. These can be seen in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Pouches were more likely to be considered a man' item. Women had less need to carry pouches because they were not normally wealthy enough to require one.
Today handbags are a standard fashion accessory. Most women will normally have their favourite handbag and carry them with pride and are always wanting to show their handbag to others and have a chat about handbags generally. Even men will carry a form of handbag which they likewise take pride in.
Handbags began to become popular in the later part of the medieval and renaissance period of the sixteenth century. Handbags, which were larger in size, were worn by diagonally carrying them across the body by both sexes. These handbags were particularly considered important by travellers. The wealth or status of the carrier was normally shown by the adornment of jewelry. The seventeenth century saw more variety in handbags; they became smaller in size and took on a variety of complex shapes, embroidery made them more decorative.
The eighteenth century saw the use of reticules. Reticules was the name given to handbags. Reticules became a fashion statement. The functional element of handbags although remaining important started to give way to the design of the handbag in reasons why people chose a particular handbag for their wardrobe. Fashion magazines were primarily responsible for making handbags a fashion statement as they began to comment on the best handbags to use for specific events, occasions and locations. This led to the need to have different handbags for different conditions. Handbags remained functional but not just as travellers carry bag but to carry other personal items including a fan, perfume, smelling salts and make-up.
The term handbag rather than reticule began to be used in the early part of the twentieth century. Initially the term referred to a man's travelling bag but in time the term handbag referred to a larger bag used by women. Each decade of the twentieth century saw developments in the fashion of handbags. In the 1920s women carried a variety of handbags that did not necessarily match clothing. The war years of the 1940s saw the necessity to use a variety of materials due to lack of traditional resources and plastic and wood became popular. The 1950s saw the increase of designer fashion. Popular designers include Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Prada.
The last half of the twentieth century has seen progress in technology and the introduction of new materials and textiles for handbags including waterproof canvas, space age synethics and faux reptile skin. Improvement of manufacturing processes also meant that handbags could be produced at a lower cost, allowing people to buy beautiful handbags at affordable prices. Some designer handbags nevertheless can still cost in the thousands of dollars. A price some women will pay for the prestige of having a unique handbag that their friends and other potential admirers do not have.
The history of handbags comes full circle. At first handbags were used by men, and then women took handbags as a fashion statement. Now there has been a return to men's fashion and increasingly men are wanting to have a handbag that matches their male ego and at the same time their new age image.
Article Source: Articleated.com | <urn:uuid:0a5d7da8-afdf-4850-beb0-f1fb831597a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unusualthreads.com/historyofhandbags.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00072-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976135 | 775 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Most employers would tell you their operations would run a lot more smoothly if only they had ideal employees. And most employees would also say they are trying hard to fit into their bosses’ definitions of ‘ideal.’ So, how do most people define that capricious term? The Leader took to the streets to find out.
Roman Leshev, 25, manager
First and foremost, an employee should have an extended knowledge in his field. I would put professionalism as the most important of an employee’s qualities. The rest is based on human factors.
Yelena Pechurina, 20, student
Everything depends on the requirements of a particular job. You know, jobs are so different. From my experience, dealing with people takes craftsmanship and skill. There is always room for improvement.
Larisa Chernikova, 35, saleswoman
At my job, the main thing is cheerfulness. I can't speak for others. I'm a saleswoman and, from what I have seen, cheerfulness is the key to success in my profession. One needs to treat the customers with respect.
Larisa Sokolova, 47, state employee
First of all, they should have decency and honesty. Kindness is also a very good human trait that sometimes helps at work. Let's look at it from a human point of view: Some specialists are professional, but they lack compassion.
Yelena Mironova, 44, accountant
I think that if you really love your job, you will make progress. I know I did when I was younger, and it’s true for anyone who wants to achieve success in his career. You should always try to improve your skills.
Roman Lisichenko, 16, student
For a strong team to exist, it requires employees to be open-minded, communicative and possess team spirit. There are many important qualities, and they change depending on job requirements. | <urn:uuid:a2408149-4fc9-4a26-9818-81941fe7406b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.russiajournal.com/node/11614 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00056-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975111 | 403 | 1.851563 | 2 |
Published in Obesity and Diabetes Week, March 31st, 2003
According to recent research from Italy, "This experiment tested the effect of the sympathetic and thermogenic activation induced by orexin A on eating behavior. The food intake, firing rate (FR) of the sympathetic nerves to interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT), MAT and abdominal temperatures (T-IBAT and T-ab), and heart rate (HR) were monitored in 24-hour-fasting male Sprague-Dawley rats for 15 hours after food presentation."
"Orexin A (1.5 nmol) was injected into the lateral cerebral ventricle 6 hours before food presentation while FR, T-IBAT, and...
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Learn more about a six-week, no-risk free trial of Obesity and Diabetes Week | <urn:uuid:5e0e6119-7fa6-4ca2-be2e-fe6908412cee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsrx.com/newsletters/Obesity-and-Diabetes-Week/2003-03-31/0331200333330OD.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9139 | 184 | 2.171875 | 2 |
Paul Goble reports:
A group of Sakhalin residents, after a visit to Tokyo, are not only studying Japanese but also collecting signatures on a petition asking that Moscow hand over their island to Japan so that they can live and raise their children in a rich, modern country that is not fighting a war with anyone else.
This remarkable action surfaced today when radical Moscow commentator Valeriya Novodvorskaya reported in her Grani.ru column that one of the organizers, who she indicated had to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, had approached her to ask to whom he should forward their appeal.
Novodvorskaya said that she advised him to “send the signatures to the Japanese emperor” where they could serve as “compensation” for the harm that Japan has experienced at Russia’s hands given Moscow’s continuing unwillingness ever to return the four islands Soviet forces seized at the end of World War II.
The columnist pointed out that “typically supporters of a powerful state of the junior officer level point to Japan’s role in World War II as an aggressor and the seizure of islands from her as a former of punishment. But if this is so,” Novodvorskaya said, then she “knows another country which unleashed the second world war and thus should be considered an aggressor too.”
That country is “our Russia,” which despite that managed to seize not a small group of islands but “a good chunk of Poland in the form of Western Ukraine and Belarus and also Bessarabia, that is, Moldova” – areas that passed out of Moscow’s “pirate hands” only after 1991 when those countries became independent.
But if those territories now are in the hands of others, the Grani columnist continued, another war prize Moscow took in is not: Vyborg. That was land Stalin seized from Finland during the winter war, an action for which “the Soviet Union was excluded from the League of Nations! So why should Vyborg not be returned to Finland?”
These are not issues even Russian liberals have wanted to talk about, she said. Only Gennady Burbulis in the early 1990s was prepared to return the four islands to Japan, and after he was attacked by the nationalists and not defended by then-President Boris Yeltsin, no one else in that camp has shown much interest in taking the risk of backing the idea. But in the near future, Novodvorskaya suggested, they and other Russians may have to face up to more demands of this kind. Many in Kaliningrad have “long been dreaming about their return to the world of the first European economy, and they have an organization that is pressing for such that.
If Hitler and Stalin were each “half responsible” for the start of the war, she argued, then “why should Koenigsberg and the grave of Kant remain with [Russia}? For the ‘Philosopher boats?’” – a reference to Lenin’s expulsion by ship of the flower of the pre-1917 Russian intelligentsia in 1922. Moreover, she wrote, the Far East routinely looks toward America and as this case showed even toward Japan, pointedly noting that in contrast, “Alaska is not thinking about joining the Russian Federation.” The Caucasus is also looking for a way out, and it is even possible, she suggested, that people in Eastern and Western Siberia are thinking that way as well.
One indication that these are not entirely frivolous pursuits, she said, is that those considering leaving are to be found “in the holy of holies of the regime – in the military and defense sector,” where some senior officers “not having received the apartments they were promised sent a declaration to the US saying that they wanted to serve in the American army.” Thus, “the collection of signatures on Sakhalin is not a rarity. Soon they will begin to be collected in Moscow.” And according to Novodvorskaya, just one thing remains: “to divide up the territory and people of Russia among the United States, Japan and the European Union” so that the Russian people will be able to live better.
As for Putin, Medvedev and the chekists surrounding them, the outspoken Moscow commentator concluded, they and others like them should be put inside a special Moscow park limited to the territory of the Kremlin, the Lubyanka, | <urn:uuid:198b88a6-047d-4ba2-8674-197d64b31307> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/sakhalin-wants-out/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974693 | 939 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The Canadian government will introduce legislation to amend the Criminal Code to make it more difficult for offenders who are found not criminally responsible to gain their freedom.
The proposed changes were announced yesterday in Montreal by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Senator Pierre-Huges Boisvenu. Boisvenu's daughter was kidnapped, raped and murdered 10 years ago.
The government plans to make it harder for those offenders who have been found not criminally responsible (NCR) to be released back into the community.
Nicholson said the government is listening to victims of crime. He said, "We are committed to ensuring that our laws are strong and clear enough to protect Canadians in situations where high risk accused found Not Criminally Responsible on account of mental disorder pose a risk to the public."
The Senate of Canada
Senator Pierre-Huges Boisvenu
Boisvenu said, "Victims deserve to be better informed and be more involved in the process. Our Government is strongly committed to protecting the safety of Canadians and ensuring victims have a greater voice in our justice system."
Under s. 16 of the Criminal Code, every person is presumed to be criminally responsible for their acts. The burden is on the accused to prove on a balance of probabilities that he or she is not responsible for crimes that they would otherwise be found guilty of. A person can be found not criminally responsible if the judge or jury is satisfied the person did not appreciate the nature and quality of their act or omission or if they did not know what they did was wrong.
Persons who are found NCR are confined to psychiatric hospitals, not prisons or penitentiaries. Once a year a mandatory hearing is held before a review board whose members can decide to retain the status quo or allow the person to leave the institution on unescorted or escorted day passes, day parole, or release them back into society.
As CBC reports, many family members of victims strongly object to these yearly reviews. They feel compelled to attend the hearings and end up reliving the killing of their loved ones every year.
As the Winnipeg Free Press reports, there have been many high profile cases where offenders have been found not criminally responsible. One of these was Vince Li who killed and beheaded Tim McLean in 2008 while the two men were travelling on a Greyhound bus. Since then, Li has been granted passes to leave the institution he has been confined in.
Carol de Delley, McLean's mother, has been advocating for a "Tim's Law" that would require persons found NCR to be confined for a specific time. About yesterday's announcement, de Delley said, "Unless the government intends to change the Criminal Code to hold mentally ill killers responsible for a crime, I don't see it making much of a difference, except in the frequency of review board hearings."
But holding killers responsible for their actions would defeat the entire purpose of the not criminally responsible designation.
The government has not offered any details of the specifics of the proposed Criminal Code amendments. It is speculated the new legislation would make the safety of the public paramount to the rehabilitation of the patient and that reviews will not be required to be held on an annual basis.
The government intends to introduce a bill in 2013. | <urn:uuid:8c1df506-b415-4662-b73e-11168f260268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337513 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00062-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967777 | 660 | 1.921875 | 2 |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Your odds of winning Wednesday night’s Powerball jackpot are infinitesimally small. The odds are about 175,000,000 to one--the same as correctly guessing a coin flip 27 straight times.
But when someone at work comes around, asking if you want to throw your money in on a Powerball pool, why does it feel really hard to say no?
I posed that question to Dan Ariely, a prominent behavioral economist. He gave two reasons why Powerball pools at the office are hard to pass up.
“It's become socially normative,” he said. “Suddenly, everybody around you is doing it.”
The second thing?
“Anticipated regret,” said Ariely, “is the feeling that we think we're going to have regret later on. For example, when they ask you to buy the extended warranty on all sorts of appliances. You say to yourself 'How stupid would I feel if a month after the warranty expired, the TV is broken and I did not buy the warranty.'”
There is one indisputable fact, though: You cannot win if you do not play. | <urn:uuid:06fa6537-8d99-4c8d-b63c-577c03ab0348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcnc.com/video/featured-videos/Why-its-so-hard-to-say-no-to-office-Powerball-pools-181260551.html?ref=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963061 | 254 | 1.828125 | 2 |
America the Beautiful Quarters® Day in the Classroom Activities
Try these fun activities to bring the excitement of America the Beautiful Quarters Day right into your classroom!
- Be your own travel agent! Using the Internet, schedule a trip to your favorite national site. Price airline tickets, choose your lodging, and develop an itinerary for the days you are at the site, including what sites to see and what tours to take. Write a list of items to pack (be sure to dress for the weather!). Then imagine you took this trip and create a journal in which you describe the sites you visited and your sensory experiences. Accompany the journal with a photo album of the sites using photos or drawings.
- Join the conversation about America's Great Outdoors! One of the reasons national sites were created was to preserve and protect these sites. In 2010, President Obama launched a national dialogue to discuss what communities are doing to help conserve and protect America's outdoor spaces. As a class, make a list of things local schools can do to preserve and protect your community. Think about creating a compost pile, planting a garden for the school, organizing a ride-sharing program...anything that can get students working together and have a positive impact on the environment.
- Invite your students to create illustrations on a 6-inch square piece of paper that shows something important about your state's national site. Ideas may come from brainstorming sessions about the site and/or books about your state. Your class (maybe with other classes) can create a national site quilt that can be displayed in the hallway for all to see! | <urn:uuid:8c11d1b6-9adb-4c77-8e26-53ec29480e6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/ATBQuartersDay/activities/activities.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00065-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930789 | 327 | 3.015625 | 3 |
With thousands million populations, there are various opportunities for teaching English in China. You can be English teachers in a language schoool, primary, high schools or even universities because Chinese government encourage people to learn English and put English as an official subject in schools.
China is a big country. you can spend your holiday for the whole year travelling in different regions. It is a memorable experience, other than teaching, that you will never forget.
In the past, China may not be a good place to make money, especially for teaching job. Most people who went there for teaching English just wanted to explore the new world.
However, with a big growth nowaday, you can have new experiences and make much money in China as well from teaching English in China.
There are big gap for a living standard in China. You will find it very expensive to live in Shanghai or Beijing but moderate living in smaller cities so you will have a choice of living depending on your goals. I suggest you to gather as much details as possible before making the decision.
If you are interested to start your teaching English career in China, you can find information and opportunites from the Internet as the following.
- Go to job finder websites on the Internet and apply with them
- Try searching from online communities for foreigners in China
- Apply with language school which might have a headquarter in your countries and check if they have an English teaching opportunity in China.
- Check from English Forums. There are sometimes people looking for English Teachers oversea there.
Kinglishschool also have forums for English teacher job finders and for recruiters. You can try it. It is totally free.
Teaching English in China can give you great exotic experiences about Asian living and it does make a satisfied amount of money compare to normal living cost in China. | <urn:uuid:a7bad560-55f4-401c-9fad-c0cb5d95bdaa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kinglishschool.com/story/Teaching-English-in-China.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00058-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963837 | 373 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Tag Archives: Security
In my previous blog post on this topic, “Application Security Part I: Whose Responsibility is it?”, I explored the responsibility of security in the mobile app ecosystem. In this post, let’s take a little deeper look at the problem of security and code safety from a mobile app developer’s point of view and explore what […]
This is the first post in a two part series about security. In this post, I tackle the issue of responsibility. In Part II, we’ll explore some things that developers need to know to help them write secure apps. I sat on a panel recently at Sprint’s Open Solutions Conference in San Jose titled “Consumer […]
Learn more about code signing, why we do it and what benefits it has for developers.
In part one of our three-part series on BlackBerry® security, we discussed the nuances of enterprise IT policy. Today, we’ll discuss application control. In contrast to IT policy, which IT administrators use to manage and control employee use of BlackBerry smartphones, application control refers to a security setting that can be managed by the end-user and/or the […]
So you’ve had your stroke of genius, you’ve developed the BlackBerry® smartphone application that’s going to sell a million copies on BlackBerry App World™, and you’re ready for your final end-to-end testing on a live device. You put the application up on your web server, enter the URL into the BlackBerry® Browser, choose the option to […] | <urn:uuid:debe07c5-45fb-4b4e-bf0e-34c21c8ed77c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://devblog.blackberry.com/tag/security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909496 | 324 | 1.648438 | 2 |
CORNER BROOK — Corner Brook Regional High School teacher Gerald Ford was the one doing lessons this summer.
For a week in July, Ford took part in the Canadian Oil Sands Education Program where he learned about the Alberta oilsands.
"It was a great opportunity to see the other side of the oil industry as opposed to the offshore industry in Newfoundland," Ford said.
Ford applied to the program because it seemed a perfect fit for his "earth systems" course.
He also has an interest in the field, having worked as a geologist for 15 years.
He came home from the program with a briefcase full of resources, including maps, DVDs, and literature, to apply to his earth systems course and other science and technology classes he teaches.
Ford took over 2,000 photos to document all that he learned throughout the week.
The group of 40 teachers from across the country spent over half of their time in Fort McMurray, Alta. learning about oilsands production and technology.
The remainder of the "field trip," as Ford calls it, was spent learning about engineering and research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
The teachers, including others from Newfoundland and Labrador, heard from a wide range of people who work in the field — engineers, biologists and environmentalists.
A big focus of the program, Ford said, was explaining efforts to identify and reduce environmental impact of oil development.
"(Everyone) seems genuinely concerned," he said.
Ford said the concern for the environment was apparent when the group flew over the oilsands.
"No doubt there's a huge environmental impact," Ford said. "There's no denying when you fly over, there's a huge scar over the Fort McMurray area."
The sheer size of the oilsands shocked Ford.
Perhaps the biggest eye-opener was the amount of job opportunities for young people from this province.
For students with a science focus, Ford will enlighten them about opportunities in oil physics and research work that they can pursue after graduation.
The oilsands education program was offered by Inside Education, a charitable education society providing teachers and students with experiences related to natural resources.
The program comes with an all-expenses-paid trip funded by oil companies with a presence in Alberta.
This was the first year since 1985 it has accepted teachers from outside Alberta.
The oilsands program is not without critics however.
"It's always billed as being free, but what's being sold is a positive image of an industry that's controversial," Andrew Hodgkins, a University of Alberta researcher who has published on the issue of corporate involvement in education, told the Canadian Press in a recent article.
"They're selling an ideology," he said. "These tours are very technocratic — 'If there's a problem, we've got the technology to fix that problem.'
"What it precludes is critical questioning: Should we be mining? Where are the profits going?"
Inside Education director Steve McIsaac said the group is "providing background to these teachers so they can take a balanced look back to their communities," he said. "It's kind of a train-the-trainer kind of approach."
McIsaac is aware of the suspicion likely to accrue to industry-funded educational programs. Inside Education faces it head-on.
"The very first thing we do is we let our teachers know this is where the support came from," he said. "It's right up front. | <urn:uuid:10de7523-d89e-422e-ba3c-fbb7ba89f6a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thewesternstar.com/News/Local/2012-08-29/article-3062999/Teacher-raves-about-summer-field-trip-to-oilsands/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976932 | 715 | 2.390625 | 2 |
The Division of Water Pollution Control has announced the availability of the Draft 2012 303(d) list of impaired Tennessee waters. The 303(d) list identifies segments of streams and lakes that currently fail to meet designated water quality standards, or are expected to do so within the next two years. Both the 2012 Draft 303(d) list and the previous 2010 303(d) list are available on the Division’s web site.
Stream segments listed on the 303(d) list are considered threatened or impaired by pollution and become a priority for the Division’s water quality improvement efforts, including more stringent enforcement of existing permit limits and additional or more stringent limits in new and renewed permits.
The 303(d) public notice provides information on the public hearings that the Division will conduct during the month of August to solicit comments on the draft list. The Division will accept comments submitted on or before August 17, 2012. Once the Division responds to any comments received during the public comment period, it will submit a final document to U.S. EPA for review and approval. | <urn:uuid:e8845d19-7770-47fe-bc28-c85a6159adc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e3cd5af9-7eea-4785-aea9-2bb9ffc81048 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914111 | 218 | 2.234375 | 2 |
Sunday, November 13, 2011
It's a tiring process. Day after day and week after week, he struggles. He concentrates on his posture and fingering. He battles to hold the instrument in just the right manner. His fingers bend and contort. His hands cramp. His progress is measured in small increments.
And if he is lucky and persistent, he will improve. His practice will pay off. His notes will be more melodic and pleasing to the ear. He will graduate from one set of pieces and move to the next. The complexity and pace will increase.
Each time he studies a new composition, he will need extra hours of training. His arms will learn the exact twists and turns. He will repeat over and over until his mind no longer thinks of each separate movement, but learns to play as a whole.
But the violin is knowable. While there are some minor differences to each instrument, he will expect roughly the same sound from any violin he picks up. There are a finite number of sounds and notes to learn.
After countless years and thousands of hours of practice, he will approach mastery. Likely this will take decades of both persistence and luck. It is definitely possible. There are no short cuts. Some will reach mastery faster than others. Some will not reach it at all. But every one will have to put in the appropriate time.
I don't understand how we think we can short circuit medical education. Under the rubric of reform we are undermining our training programs.
Residents are being told that they must work shorter shifts and take call less often. As they finish their programs, they are entering their profession with less accrued experience. Their knowledge base is lacking and they learn to consult often, order more tests, and refer to the emergency room.
Primary care physicians are being replaced with nurse practitioners and physicians assistants without requiring the same requisite hours of training. While basic care is surviving, the art of the differential diagnosis and the treatment of the complex patient is being punted to specialists.
Yet my son continues to practice. In order to obtain mastery, he will be expected to study more them most residents and medical students, more then nurse practitioners and physician assistants. And he will learn this tiny instrument. With its four strings and single bow. With its countable number of pieces that move in finite and measurable ways.
No one would expect him to reach his goal without putting in the appropriate time.
Why don't we expect the same out of our medical professionals?
Posted by Jordan Grumet at 5:17 PM | <urn:uuid:4df51c00-dd08-4aa4-8595-77aaa8b4ff12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jordan-inmyhumbleopinion.blogspot.com/2011/11/practice.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00048-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970049 | 524 | 2.09375 | 2 |
Ciphertext is encrypted text. Plaintext is what you have before encryption, and ciphertext is the encrypted result. The term cipher is sometimes used as a synonym for ciphertext, but it more properly means the method of encryption rather than the result.
Contributor(s): Ramesh B Kothamasu
This was last updated in June 2007
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By submitting you agree to receive email from TechTarget and its partners. If you reside outside of the United States, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Privacy | <urn:uuid:db43a64a-6daf-4d39-a45a-601234ec9216> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/definition/ciphertext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960656 | 141 | 2.90625 | 3 |
A History about the Residents of McGuffey House
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson Publishes a History about the Residents of McGuffey House
To Dwell with Fond Reflection: Families Who Lived in the McGuffey House, 1833-1958 was published in 2009, the year that marked the 50th anniversary of Miami's decision to establish a museum in William Holmes McGuffey's former home. Thoroughly researched by Dr. Elizabeth J. Johnson, this illustrated work is exceptionally well documented and was published as a partnership project of the McGuffey Museum and the Smith Library of Regional History. Supplemental funding came from the W.E. Smith Family Charitable Trust.
Elizabeth Johnson holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of California at Los Angeles and has taught art history in California and in Wisconsin. She has been a Volunteer at the William Holmes McGuffey Museum for over ten years. Dr. Johnson also does historical research for the Smith Library on various subjects, including Oxford’s old houses and buildings.
The book can be purchased at Follett’s Bookstore, at the Miami University Art Museum and at the Smith Library, which is upstairs in Lane Public Library, for $15 including tax. There will be a book signing event and reception for the author on February 25 from 5 to 7 pm at Follett’s Bookstore, 110 East High Street. Books will be available for purchase, but if you already purchased a book you can bring it with you for Dr. Johnson to sign.
The McGuffey Historic House Museum on the Oxford campus is now managed by the Miami University Art Museum. The McGuffey Museum is open to the general public by appointment only. To schedule a tour of the McGuffey Museum, or for more information about Dr. Johnson's book and signing, contact the Miami University Art Museum at 513-529-2232. | <urn:uuid:5710bc8f-91bd-438e-ae05-f39c0e1475a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arts.muohio.edu/art-museum/pressroom/dr-elizabeth-johnson-publishes-mcguffey-house-history | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955095 | 392 | 2.3125 | 2 |
Wildlife Roundup: The Good News
Posted March 6, 2011 in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Well, it’s March…not quite spring, not quite winter, but time for some good news in wildlife conservation. Enjoy:
- Three bighorn sheep were just reintroduced to Colorado, southwest of Denver. They will join nine other sheep released into the Pike National Forest earlier this month. Bighorn sheep haven’t been seen in this part of Colorado since the mid 1960s. Good luck, guys! (hat tip: Legal Planet).
- The Lake Titicaca frog is a unique and incredibly endangered species. With loose skin in many folds, the frog can breath indefinitely underwater by extracting oxygen from its aquatic environment. Now scientists working with the Denver and Huachipa zoos have coaxed captive frogs into breading. While they haven’t figured out how to keep the resulting tadpoles alive yet, this is one of the first times biologists have been able to get a captive population to reproduce and may help in the eventual recovery to the species. (Hat tip: Extinction Countdown)
- The restoration of tidal wetlands in San Francisco Bay (at the site of former salt ponds) has already yielded big gains for local wildlife. Many kinds of fish, including northern anchovy, gobies, longfin smelt, and Pacific herring, have re-colonized the site and the number of ducks present in the wetlands has more an doubled.
- My colleague Sarah Chasis reports the great news that whales and dolphins have returned to return to waters off New York City in numbers that have surprised even veteran marine mammal experts. Over six different whale species alone can now be seen just off shore from the Big Apple. Check out Sarah’s blog for more details or watch this video:
- John Platt, over at Extinction Countdown, reports that “[f]ive ‘lost’ frog species, including one not observed by science in the past 136 years, have been rediscovered in India.” The results are part of a year-long project to find fifty species of frogs that have not been seen in India for decades.
- The coastal California gnatcatcher, one of the first endangered species I ever worked for when I joined NRDC, has returned to the Ballona wetlands. The wetlands, which are located right in the middle of coastal Los Angeles is something of an oasis for wildlife on southern California’s shore. Gnatcatchers had not been reported in the wetlands since the 1880s.
Comments are closed for this post. | <urn:uuid:f53d037a-2322-4b1f-ad47-25e872a63e3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/awetzler/wildlife_roundup_the_good_news_16.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00061-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953449 | 536 | 2.625 | 3 |
- Our Story
- In Memory
Study Shows Sleep Loss Linked to Increase in Alzheimer’s Plaques
They also found that orexin, a protein that helps regulate the sleep cycle, appears to be directly involved in the increase. Neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease often disrupt sleep. The new findings are some of the first indications that sleep loss could play a role in the genesis of such disorders.
"Orexin or compounds it interacts with may become new drug targets for treatment of Alzheimer's disease," says senior author Holtzman, the Andrew and Gretchen Jones Professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at the School of Medicine, and neurologist-in-chief at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. "The results also suggest that we may need to prioritize treating sleep disorders not only for their many acute effects, but also for potential long-term impacts on brain health."
Holtzman's laboratory uses a technique called in vivo microdialysis to monitor levels of amyloid beta in the brains of mice genetically engineered as a model of Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid beta is a protein fragment that is the principal component of Alzheimer's plaques.
Jae-Eun Kang, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow in Holtzman's lab, noticed that brain amyloid beta levels in mice rose and fell in association with sleep and wakefulness, increasing in the night, when mice are mostly awake, and decreasing during the day, when they are mostly asleep.
A separate study of amyloid beta levels in human cerebrospinal fluid led by Randall Bateman. M.D., assistant professor of neurology and a neurologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, also showed that amyloid beta levels were generally higher when subjects were awake and lower when they slept.
To confirm the link, Kang learned to use electroencephalography (EEG) on the mice at the Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology Laboratory at Stanford University with researchers Seiji Nishino, M.D., Ph.D., and Nobuhiro Fujiki, M.D. Ph.D. The EEG readings let researchers more definitively determine when mice were asleep or awake and validated the connection: Mice that stayed awake longer had higher amyloid beta levels.
"This makes sense in light of an earlier study in our lab where John Cirrito, Ph.D., showed that increases in synaptic activity resulted in increased levels of amyloid beta," Holtzman notes. "The brain's synapses may generally be more active when we're awake."
Depriving the mice of sleep caused a 25 percent increase in amyloid beta levels. Levels were lower when mice were allowed to sleep. Blocking a hormone previously linked to stress and amyloid beta production had no effect on these changes, suggesting they weren't caused by the stress of sleep deprivation, according to Holtzman.
Researchers elsewhere had linked mutations in orexin to narcolepsy, a disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. The brain has two kinds of receptors for orexin, which also is associated with regulation of feeding behavior.
When Holtzman's group injected orexin into the brains of the mice, mice stayed awake longer and amyloid beta levels increased. When researchers used a drug called almorexant to block both orexin receptors, amyloid beta levels were significantly lower and animals were awake less.
Miranda M. Lim, M.D., Ph.D., a neurology resident and post-doctoral researcher in Holtzman's lab, performed long-term behavioral experiments with the mice. She found that three weeks of chronic sleep deprivation accelerated amyloid plaque deposition in the brain. In contrast, when mice were given almorexant for two months, plaque deposition significantly decreased, dropping by more than 80 percent in some brain regions.
"This suggests the possibility that a treatment like this could be tested to see if it could delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease," says Holtzman.
Holtzman notes that not only does the risk of Alzheimer's increase with age, the sleep/wake cycle also starts to break down, with older adults progressively getting less and less sleep. Investigators are considering epidemiological studies of whether chronic sleep loss in young and middle-aged adults increases risk of Alzheimer's disease later in life. Holtzman also plans to learn more of the molecular details of how orexin affects amyloid beta.
"We would like to know if there are ways to alter orexin signaling and its effects on amyloid beta without necessarily modifying sleep," he says.
Additional studies will address the questions of whether increased amyloid beta during wakefulness is connected to increased synaptic activity and whether some aspect of sleep lowers amyloid beta levels independent of synaptic activity. | <urn:uuid:7682c0ba-d8c1-4845-998f-764a9a06e9e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://curealz.org/2009/12/study-shows-sleep-loss-linked-increase-alzheimer%e2%80%99s-plaques?page=71 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95659 | 987 | 3.03125 | 3 |
This course examines a full range of effective early childhood programs and curriculum. State curriculum documents, along with a variety of assessments, materials and teaching strategies are examined for their effectiveness in addressing the diverse cognitive, language, and developmental characteristics of young learners. Particular consideration is given to special needs of children with limited English proficiency, cognitive or language deficits, learning disabilities, economic or social disadvantage, etc. The administration and interpretation of informal and formal screening and evaluation procedures will be used to assess individual students. Assessment findings are used to plan instruction for young children with and without special needs.
PREREQUISITE(S): EDC200, EDC321, EDC317, PSY309, senior status | <urn:uuid:fb373cd0-cc1e-43d3-9fe8-306b8e9cdb8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aic.edu/academics/cd2?id=EDC395 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00044-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912383 | 142 | 2.46875 | 2 |
Click on any phrase to play the video at that point.Close
Well, that's kind of an obvious statement up there. I started with that sentence about 12 years ago, and I started in the context of developing countries, but you're sitting here from every corner of the world. So if you think of a map of your country, I think you'll realize that for every country on Earth, you could draw little circles to say, "These are places where good teachers won't go." On top of that, those are the places from where trouble comes. So we have an ironic problem -- good teachers don't want to go to just those places where they're needed the most.
I started in 1999 to try and address this problem with an experiment, which was a very simple experiment in New Delhi. I basically embedded a computer into a wall of a slum in New Delhi. The children barely went to school, they didn't know any English -- they'd never seen a computer before, and they didn't know what the internet was. I connected high speed internet to it -- it's about three feet off the ground -- turned it on and left it there. After this, we noticed a couple of interesting things, which you'll see. But I repeated this all over India and then through a large part of the world and noticed that children will learn to do what they want to learn to do.
This is the first experiment that we did -- eight year-old boy on your right teaching his student, a six year-old girl, and he was teaching her how to browse. This boy here in the middle of central India -- this is in a Rajasthan village, where the children recorded their own music and then played it back to each other and in the process, they've enjoyed themselves thoroughly. They did all of this in four hours after seeing the computer for the first time. In another South Indian village, these boys here had assembled a video camera and were trying to take the photograph of a bumble bee. They downloaded it from Disney.com, or one of these websites, 14 days after putting the computer in their village. So at the end of it, we concluded that groups of children can learn to use computers and the internet on their own, irrespective of who or where they were.
At that point, I became a little more ambitious and decided to see what else could children do with a computer. We started off with an experiment in Hyderabad, India, where I gave a group of children -- they spoke English with a very strong Telugu accent. I gave them a computer with a speech-to-text interface, which you now get free with Windows, and asked them to speak into it. So when they spoke into it, the computer typed out gibberish, so they said, "Well, it doesn't understand anything of what we are saying." So I said, "Yeah, I'll leave it here for two months. Make yourself understood to the computer." So the children said, "How do we do that." And I said, "I don't know, actually." (Laughter) And I left. (Laughter) Two months later -- and this is now documented in the Information Technology for International Development journal -- that accents had changed and were remarkably close to the neutral British accent in which I had trained the speech-to-text synthesizer. In other words, they were all speaking like James Tooley. (Laughter) So they could do that on their own. After that, I started to experiment with various other things that they might learn to do on their own.
I got an interesting phone call once from Columbo, from the late Arthur C. Clarke, who said, "I want to see what's going on." And he couldn't travel, so I went over there. He said two interesting things, "A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be." (Laughter) The second thing he said was that, "If children have interest, then education happens." And I was doing that in the field, so every time I would watch it and think of him.
(Video) Arthur C. Clarke: And they can definitely help people, because children quickly learn to navigate the web and find things which interest them. And when you've got interest, then you have education.
SM: And I asked him, "Do you send emails?" And he said, "Yes, and they hop across the ocean." This is in Cambodia, rural Cambodia -- a fairly silly arithmetic game, which no child would play inside the classroom or at home. They would, you know, throw it back at you. They'd say, "This is very boring." If you leave it on the pavement and if all the adults go away, then they will show off with each other about what they can do. This is what these children are doing. They are trying to multiply, I think. And all over India, at the end of about two years, children were beginning to Google their homework. As a result, the teachers reported tremendous improvements in their English -- (Laughter) rapid improvement and all sorts of things. They said, "They have become really deep thinkers and so on and so forth. (Laughter) And indeed they had. I mean, if there's stuff on Google, why would you need to stuff it into your head? So at the end of the next four years, I decided that groups of children can navigate the internet to achieve educational objectives on their own.
At that time, a large amount of money had come into Newcastle University to improve schooling in India. So Newcastle gave me a call. I said, "I'll do it from Delhi." They said, "There's no way you're going to handle a million pounds-worth of University money sitting in Delhi." So in 2006, I bought myself a heavy overcoat and moved to Newcastle. I wanted to test the limits of the system. The first experiment I did out of Newcastle was actually done in India. And I set myself and impossible target: can Tamil speaking 12-year-old children in a South Indian village teach themselves biotechnology in English on their own? And I thought, I'll test them, they'll get a zero -- I'll give the materials, I'll come back and test them -- they get another zero, I'll go back and say, "Yes, we need teachers for certain things."
I called in 26 children. They all came in there, and I told them that there's some really difficult stuff on this computer. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't understand anything. It's all in English, and I'm going. (Laughter) So I left them with it. I came back after two months, and the 26 children marched in looking very, very quiet. I said, "Well, did you look at any of the stuff?" They said, "Yes, we did." "Did you understand anything?" "No, nothing." So I said, "Well, how long did you practice on it before you decided you understood nothing?" They said, "We look at it every day." So I said, "For two months, you were looking at stuff you didn't understand?" So a 12 year-old girl raises her hand and says, literally, "Apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule causes genetic disease, we've understood nothing else."
It took me three years to publish that. It's just been published in the British Journal of Educational Technology. One of the referees who refereed the paper said, "It's too good to be true," which was not very nice. Well, one of the girls had taught herself to become the teacher. And then that's her over there. Remember, they don't study English. I edited out the last bit when I asked, "Where is the neuron?" and she says, "The neuron? The neuron," and then she looked and did this. Whatever the expression, it was not very nice.
So their scores had gone up from zero to 30 percent, which is an educational impossibility under the circumstances. But 30 percent is not a pass. So I found that they had a friend, a local accountant, a young girl, and they played football with her. I asked that girl, "Would you teach them enough biotechnology to pass?" And she said, "How would I do that? I don't know the subject." I said, "No, use the method of the grandmother." She said, "What's that?" I said, "Well, what you've got to do is stand behind them and admire them all the time. Just say to them, 'That's cool. That's fantastic. What is that? Can you do that again? Can you show me some more?'" She did that for two months. The scores went up to 50, which is what the posh schools of New Delhi, with a trained biotechnology teacher were getting.
So I came back to Newcastle with these results and decided that there was something happening here that definitely was getting very serious. So, having experimented in all sorts of remote places, I came to the most remote place that I could think of. (Laughter) Approximately 5,000 miles from Delhi is the little town of Gateshead. In Gateshead, I took 32 children and I started to fine-tune the method. I made them into groups of four. I said, "You make your own groups of four. Each group of four can use one computer and not four computers." Remember, from the Hole in the Wall. "You can exchange groups. You can walk across to another group, if you don't like your group, etc. You can go to another group, peer over their shoulders, see what they're doing, come back to you own group and claim it as your own work." And I explained to them that, you know, a lot of scientific research is done using that method.
The children enthusiastically got after me and said, "Now, what do you want us to do?" I gave them six GCSE questions. The first group -- the best one -- solved everything in 20 minutes. The worst, in 45. They used everything that they knew -- news groups, Google, Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves, etc. The teachers said, "Is this deep learning?" I said, "Well, let's try it. I'll come back after two months. We'll give them a paper test -- no computers, no talking to each other, etc." The average score when I'd done it with the computers and the groups was 76 percent. When I did the experiment, when I did the test, after two months, the score was 76 percent. There was photographic recall inside the children, I suspect because they're discussing with each other. A single child in front of a single computer will not do that. I have further results, which are almost unbelievable, of scores which go up with time. Because their teachers say that after the session is over, the children continue to Google further.
Here in Britain, I put out a call for British grandmothers, after my Kuppam experiment. Well, you know, they're very vigorous people, British grandmothers. 200 of them volunteered immediately. (Laughter) The deal was that they would give me one hour of broadband time, sitting in their homes, one day in a week. So they did that, and over the last two years, over 600 hours of instruction has happened over Skype, using what my students call the granny cloud. The granny cloud sits over there. I can beam them to whichever school I want to.
SM: Back at Gateshead, a 10-year-old girl gets into the heart of Hinduism in 15 minutes. You know, stuff which I don't know anything about. Two children watch a TEDTalk. They wanted to be footballers before. After watching eight TEDTalks, he wants to become Leonardo da Vinci.
This is what I'm building now -- they're called SOLEs: Self Organized Learning Environments. The furniture is designed so that children can sit in front of big, powerful screens, big broadband connections, but in groups. If they want, they can call the granny cloud. This is a SOLE in Newcastle. The mediator is from Pune, India.
So how far can we go? One last little bit and I'll stop. I went to Turin in May. I sent all the teachers away from my group of 10 year-old students. I speak only English, they speak only Italian, so we had no way to communicate. I started writing English questions on the blackboard. The children looked at it and said, "What?" I said, "Well, do it." They typed it into Google, translated it into Italian, went back into Italian Google. Fifteen minutes later -- next question: where is Calcutta? This one, they took only 10 minutes. I tried a really hard one then. Who was Pythagoras, and what did he do? There was silence for a while, then they said, "You've spelled it wrong. It's Pitagora." And then, in 20 minutes, the right-angled triangles began to appear on the screens. This sent shivers up my spine. These are 10 year-olds. Text: In another 30 minutes they would reach the Theory of Relativity. And then?
SM: So you know what's happened? I think we've just stumbled across a self-organizing system. A self-organizing system is one where a structure appears without explicit intervention from the outside. Self-organizing systems also always show emergence, which is that the system starts to do things, which it was never designed for. Which is why you react the way you do, because it looks impossible. I think I can make a guess now -- education is self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon. It'll take a few years to prove it, experimentally, but I'm going to try. But in the meanwhile, there is a method available. One billion children, we need 100 million mediators -- there are many more than that on the planet -- 10 million SOLEs, 180 billion dollars and 10 years. We could change everything.
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Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education -- the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.
Educational researcher Sugata Mitra is the winner of the 2013 TED Prize. His wish: Build a School in the Cloud, where children can explore and learn from one another. Full bio » | <urn:uuid:c8e1746e-53af-41c6-91fd-4a93c72358ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education.html?quote=808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983285 | 3,118 | 2.546875 | 3 |
April 12, 2007
HHMI Announces New Open Competition for HHMI Investigators
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will hold a national competition for investigators and plans to name as many as 50 new researchers by spring 2008. The initiative represents an investment of at least $600 million in basic biomedical research by the Institute.
HHMI seeks applications from outstanding scientists studying biomedical problems in a broad array of disciplines, including not only biology and medicine, but related areas of chemistry, physics, engineering and computational biology. This competition is open to early career stage scientists at approximately 200 eligible institutions.
“We see this as an opportunity to strengthen our community of researchers by adding investigators at an early career stage.”
Thomas R. Cech
“We see this as an opportunity to strengthen our community of researchers by adding investigators at an early career stage,” said HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. “This infusion of fresh scientific talent - and potentially new fields of inquiry unrepresented among our investigators - offers HHMI an extraordinary opportunity to refresh our commitment to original and creative biomedical research.”
HHMI values innovation and encourages its investigators to extend the boundaries of science. By appointing scientists as Hughes investigators — rather than awarding research grants — HHMI is guided by the principle of “people, not projects.” HHMI investigators have the freedom to explore and, if necessary, to change direction in their research. Moreover, they have support to follow their ideas through to fruition — even if that process takes many years.
| || A Video Introduction to HHMI|
Learn more about the Institute, its scientists, and what it means to be part
of the mission.
“We are looking for scientists who have demonstrated originality and productivity in biomedical research and who show exceptional promise for future contributions,” said Jack E. Dixon, vice president and chief scientific officer.
Candidates are being asked to apply directly to HHMI, an approach that HHMI used for the first time in November 2006 for a smaller, more focused competition for physician scientists. This new competition represents the first time that HHMI has opened up a general competition to the direct application process. In the past, faculty members had to be nominated by their institutions for HHMI investigator positions.
Successful candidates are expected to meet the following criteria:
* Hold a Ph.D., M.D. or equivalent degree.
* Hold a tenured or tenure-track position (or the equivalent) as Assistant Professor or higher academic rank at one of the approximately 200 eligible host institutions.
* Have at least 4 but no more than 10 years of experience since their initial appointment as an Assistant Professor (or equivalent).
* Be the principal investigator on one (or more) active, national, peer-reviewed research grants of at least three years duration, such as an NIH R01 award.
Applications must be filed by June 13. Candidates will be evaluated by panels of distinguished biomedical researchers with final selections expected to be made by spring 2008.
Detailed information about the competition - including the list of eligible institutions and access to the secure application site - may be found at the HHMI web site at
HHMI enters into long-term collaboration agreements with universities and other academic research organizations, where its investigators hold faculty appointments. Under these agreements, HHMI investigators, who are directly employed by the Institute, and their research teams carry out their research in HHMI laboratories located on various campuses. Through its flagship investigator program, HHMI has joined with more than 60 distinguished U.S. universities, hospitals, institutes, and medical schools to create an environment that provides flexible, long-term support for approximately 300 Hughes scientists and members of their research teams. HHMI investigators are widely recognized for their creativity and productivity: 115 HHMI investigators are members of the National Academy of Sciences and there are currently 11 Nobel laureates within the investigator community.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a non-profit medical research organization that ranks as one of the nation's largest philanthropies, plays a powerful role in advancing biomedical research and science education in the United States. In the past two decades HHMI has made investments of more than $8.3 billion for the support, training, and education of the nation's most creative and promising scientists.
HHMI's principal mission is conducting basic biomedical research, which it carries out in collaboration with more than 60 universities, medical centers and other research institutions throughout the United States. Approximately 300 HHMI investigators, along with a scientific staff of more than 2,000, work at these institutions in Hughes laboratories. In a complementary program at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Loudoun County, Virginia, leading scientists are pursuing long-term, high-risk, high-reward research in a campus specially designed to bring together researchers from disparate disciplines. The Institute's biomedical research expenditures at the close of fiscal year 2006 totaled $538 million.
The Institute also has a philanthropic grants program that emphasizes initiatives with the power to transform graduate and undergraduate education in the life sciences. Additionally, it supports the work of biomedical researchers in many countries around the globe. Through aggregate investments of more that $1.2 billion, the Institute has sought to reinvigorate life science education at both research universities and liberal arts colleges and to engage the nation's leading scientists in teaching. HHMI grants totaled $87 million at the close of fiscal year 2006.
HHMI has an endowment of approximately $16 billion. Its headquarters are located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. | <urn:uuid:cf2b57d4-a318-4fd6-bcca-9673d07bbd00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hhmi.org/news/20070412.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953995 | 1,144 | 1.703125 | 2 |
In larger cities one sometimes finds two or more Jewish clubs, the top one composed principally of German Jews who tend to find eastern European Jews unacceptable. To many Jews, German or Russian, the restricted country club represents perhaps the sorest symbol of social discrimination. A Jewish community leader in Elmira, N.Y. told Sociologist John P. Dean of Cornell: "They'll call on me to lead their Community Chest campaign or help on the Red Cross. But when it comes to the country club, I'm not good enough for them."
In January, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith issued the first report ever made on nationwide religious discrimination by social clubs. Of 803 country clubs surveyed, 224 were nondiscriminatory. Of the remaining 579, 505 were "Christian country clubs," 416 of which barred Jews completely. The other 89 had a quota. Seventy-four of the 579 discriminating clubs were Jewish. Seventy-one of these barred Christians completely, and the remaining three accepted them "in small numbers." | <urn:uuid:8b3175c0-ff30-483a-812d-65aee41ed928> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/no-allowed-in-our-only-club.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973422 | 216 | 2.234375 | 2 |
The health crisis of our time
By Meredith Lilly
Risky lifestyle choices face unjustified public scrutiny as healthcare costs rise.
The summer of 2011 has been a summer of mundane health crises. Free from the life-threatening pandemics of the past, we've shifted our focus to relatively benign unhealthy habits. The habits themselves are nothing new: smoking and tanning have been known to cause cancer since the 1940s and the 1960s, respectively, while overeating and other excesses has been condemned since Biblical times. The difference is that these once private vices are now considered public matters.
What pushed these vices into the public arena? In terms of public interest it makes little sense. With the exception of some second-hand smoke concerns, vices like obesity, tanning and smoking do not pose a threat beyond the health of the individual that engages in the risky behavior. Given the low chance of harm to others, limiting choice just to prevent informed adults from engaging in unhealthy behaviour would not only be illiberal, but also likely ineffective.
My skepticism of such policies stems from experience: North Americans are already subject to a great deal of soft paternalism, and the effectiveness of these measures remains questionable.
A 2010 study in the United States showed that soda taxes had little influence on purchases and even less effect on obesity, partially due to an existing preference for sugar-free soda among at-risk groups.
Another recent study released this year suggests that taxes on fattening foods would have to be increased to 25% to have any effect on consumption. Even if high taxes were levied, there is no guarantee that consumers would not simply shift their consumption to a more affordable high-caloric option.
The taxation of smoking has been comparatively well-received, but only recently, and only among some groups. The history of smoking bans, which dates back to the 1600s, is primarily a history of failure. A combination of price sensitivity, prevailing social stigmas and a desire to quit in the first place are all essential elements to the policy's success, making it a very difficult phenomenon to replicate.
Tanning is just beginning to feel the bureaucratic burn. Recently classified by the World Health Organization as a Group 1 Carcinogen, tanning salons are now subject to bans and extra taxes in both Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
Predictably, these taxes and regulations on tanning beds, known as "the cigarettes of our time," have been largely ignored by the public. More effective at diverting customers from the beds have been the increased number of spray-tan salons in the market. Apparently, customers who willingly pay for the very same UV rays to which one is exposed the moment one steps outside are not the most price-sensitive consumers.
Vice taxes and bans make even less sense in terms of reducing externalities. The premise itself is contrary to the intended purpose of public healthcare, which quite deliberately creates external costs by stipulating that no one ought to pay directly for their own care. With a mission statement like that, the argument that policy-makers ought to regulate risky behaviour because it may impose costs on others falls rather flat.
Even if these types of externalities were a valid concern, the economic burden of vice on the healthcare system is really very small. Altogether, obesity-related illnesses such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and coronary artery disease are estimated to account for a mere 2.2% of healthcare costs in Canada.
In 2008, economists in the Netherlands found that smokers and the obese cost less to care for overtime than individuals with healthy habits. A shorter life expectancy means fewer dollars spent on medical care. According to the Institute for Research and Public Policy, "smokers make a net overall contribution of $4.3 billion [per year] to the benefits of non-smokers."
These vices are not particularly dangerous to the general public, are largely undeterred by taxes and cost the healthcare system next to nothing. It is merely their prevalence that makes them a target for bureaucratic busybodies. The renewed public interest in the regulation of vice and the popularity of taxation as a recommended check on risky behavior belie the true health crisis of our time: the prohibitive cost of Canada's inefficient healthcare system and our stubborn resistance to change.
Meredith Lilly is a student intern at Frontier Centre for Public Policy. | <urn:uuid:4d24d852-abab-41f0-8714-01f99746ac17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0911/0911vice.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00045-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956276 | 884 | 2.59375 | 3 |
|National Consultation to develop the Food and Nutrition Security Regional Strategic Agenda|
The objective of the consultation was to facilitate the regional strategic agenda by exchange of information, experiences and inputs of the Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) Strategy development, at the political, organizational and local levels.
Participants included authorities and stakeholders on Food and Nutrition Security, civil society organizations, private companies and cooperation agencies.
The process of formulating the ARSAN includes as an essential aspect, conducting in-country consultations with multisectorial participation by national governing bodies related to FNS, who, from a national perspective, could make contributions to the regional process for the formulation of this Strategic Agenda.
The Pan American Health Organization, which is the Regional Office in the Americas of the World Health Organization, was founded in 1902, and works with all countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of their peoples. The PAHO/WHO Country Office in Belize was established in the 1950s. | <urn:uuid:ba9928b8-611b-4857-b20b-67fe999818e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://new.paho.org/blz/index2.php?option=com_content&task=emailform&id=141&Itemid=259 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935199 | 201 | 2.28125 | 2 |
In order to keep a lawn thriving and green, using a highly rated lawn sprinkler is critical. Finding an effective lawn sprinkler can be complicated so that it is most efficient. During the summer, a lawn should receive about an inch of water each week over the course of two waterings.
An impact sprinkler, or an impulse sprinkler, is one of the best sprinkler choices. The company Rain Bird sells this kind of sprinkler. These sprinklers should be purchased in either brass or metal. If there is low water pressure, however, then a plastic impact sprinkler may work better so that it turns appropriately. The water flow of impact sprinklers is adjusted using a screw on the arm of the fixture. Impulse sprinklers are great for the even water coverage of the lawn. A benefit to these sprinklers is that they ensure large water droplets that are distributed low to the ground, limiting evaporation and drifting. With larger water droplets, the sprinkler does not need to be left on for as long.
Another choice in lawn sprinkler is the oscillating sprinkler. These sprinklers generally cover a greater distance of the lawn, but will have to be left on about three times longer than an impulse sprinkler. Melnor makes effective oscillating sprinklers. Another setback of oscillating sprinklers is that the wind will affect the adequateness of watering a lawn. The water is often blown onto the sidewalk and neighboring lawns, limiting the efficiency of oscillating sprinklers.
A final, and probably least recommended, type of sprinkler is the stationary sprinkler. Although these sprinklers are usually fairly cheap, they cannot water large areas of grass and will often create puddles if kept in one place for too long. It is best to purchase a metal stationary sprinkler, as opposed to a plastic one, because the metal sprinkler will last longer. | <urn:uuid:480fcbd7-dcf7-480d-ae4c-2f8d220404e1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ask.com/explore/lawn-sprinkler-ratings | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930038 | 384 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Police arrest a man and a woman for conspiracy to murder
GUARAQUECABA, Brazil - On a trek across an Atlantic rainforest reserve in south Brazil, biologist Michel Garey recalled how on his birthday in 2007 he chanced upon a new species of tiny, three-fingered frogs.
"I was doing research with two friends on a hilltop in the reserve and I stumbled into this unusual frog with only three fingers," he told a small group of reporters this week on a tour of Salto Morato, a nature preserve owned by Brazil's leading cosmetic firm Boticario.
"It happened on February 14, 2007: My birthday. What a treat!" he said.
But it was not until June this year that the discovery of this new species -- Brachycephalus tridactylus -- was officially established. A report on his finding was published in Herpetologica, a quarterly international journal focusing on study and conservation of amphibians and reptiles.
"At the time I was doing some other work related to ecology and I figured I could wait as no one else doing frog research would have access to the area," Garey said.
"It took me 18 months from early 2011 to collect seven of the new frogs, go to museums to compare them with other species, realize that they were new, write my paper and have it published in the journal."
The tiny brachycephalus tridactylus was found at an altitude of around 900 meters (3,000 feet). Its most striking feature is the absence of a fourth finger, which Garey attributes to an evolutionary process rather than to environmental effects.
The frog, which measures less than 1.5-centimeters in length, is mostly orange with olive-gray spots and dots on its body.
Garey said the male frog makes around 30 mating calls a day, sounds he described as "a single short note that decreases in dominant frequency from beginning to end."
Garey said he could not estimate the frog population, but plans to do so in a future research project.
The frog is part of 43 amphibian species found in this 2,253-hectare (5,567-acre) reserve, located in Guaraquecaba, the easternmost city in the southern state of Parana.
Experts estimate around 950 amphibian species live across Brazil and more than 6,700 around the world.
Amphibians - cold-blooded animals such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts - are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, and the emergence of a deadly and infectious fungal disease, which has been linked to global warming.
One-third of the known species are threatened with extinction, according to the Global Amphibian Assessment, an extensive survey of the world's amphibian species. More than 120 species are believed to have gone extinct since 1980.
Frogs spend part of their life in water and on land, so understanding their complex life cycle is crucial because they can serve as "bioindicators of environmental quality", said Garey.
Frogs "have permeable skin which make them more susceptible to ultra-violet radiation and their body temperatures change with the environment," Garey said.
"As larvae in the water, they eat various organisms such as algae and as adults they eat insects. The larvae are also eaten by fish while the adults are eaten by cobras and mammals," he added. "So they are having a cascade effect in the food chain."
Garey is able to recognize different species by the male's distinctive mating calls.
During a night foray into the soggy forest, Garey suddenly bolted into a nearby pond and snatched an unsuspecting bright green frog known as phyllomedusa distincta after hearing its tell-tale call.
Garey's interest in frogs began 10 years ago, when he was 19 and studying biology.
Today he is a post-doctorate fellow at Paulista State University in Sao Paulo state. His research is funded by the Boticario foundation, a non-profit body which has already sponsored 800 conservation projects, including research and environmental education programs all over Brazil.
Salto Morato, created in 1994, protects a significant area of Brazil's dwindling Atlantic rainforest. In November 1999, the reserve was declared a natural heritage site by UNESCO. - Agence France-Presse | <urn:uuid:3fedf68b-2383-44a4-9a61-19f58c33776d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rappler.com/world/15377-biologist-makes-leap-with-three-fingered-frog-discovery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970326 | 911 | 2.875 | 3 |
Resolution of the UN Faith Coalition for LGBT Human Rights
Whereas, the international Yogyakarta Principles of 2006 state, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Sexual orientation and gender identity are integral to every person’s dignity and humanity and must not be the basis for discrimination or abuse.”
Whereas, many faith traditions support human rights, including freedom from imprisonment and execution for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
Whereas, more than 70 countries criminalize sexual orientation and seven allow the death penalty based on sexual orientation;
Whereas, countries in Eastern Africa are increasingly treating gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as criminals;
Whereas, fundamentalist Christians and Muslims are promoting discrimination and persecution of LGBT people;
Whereas, basic human rights such as the right to marry and maintain custody of children and inheritances upon death are just a few of the civil liberties denied to LGBT people in many areas of the United States of America;
Whereas, all of these realities create a climate of lies and fear that promotes hatred and violence against gender non-conforming people and against those who love someone of the same gender;
Therefore, Be It Resolved, this 18th Day of December, 2010, that the UN Faith Coalition for LGBT Human Rights fully affirms and supports the proposed action by Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations to amend the Resolution by the Third Committee on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions which excludes protection of people who are vulnerable due to sexual orientation.
Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador of the United States to the United Nations has publicly stated her intention to propose an amendment to the Resolution by the Third Committee on or before December 20 to the General Assembly to restore the prohibition of the violent targeting and extrajudicial killing of people who are vulnerable because of their sexual orientation.
While we understand and respect that there will always be differences in understanding of human sexuality within society, we unequivocally assert that laws that criminalize people for sexual orientation and gender identity do not just violate human rights, they hinder social cohesion, economic development and public health. These laws diminish the trust and cooperation among nations, among communities, among families and co-workers that is fundamental to progress in all human endeavors.
Be It Further Resolved, that the UN Faith supports the member nations of the United Nation who determine to vote affirmatively to include sexual orientation and respectfully call for those members who cannot vote affirmatively to abstain.
Be It Further Resolved, that we call upon the United Nations to adopt and affirm the Yogyakarta Principles to bind international legal standards with which all States must comply. We call upon faith leaders and institutions to support these principles and internationally agreed standards of human rights.
Be It Further Resolved, that we call for the United States of America to work with its fellow Core Group Members of the United Nations to urge Countries which still have laws criminalizing sexual orientation or gender identity to repeal them and to develop a sustained and serious plan of action to decriminalize LGBT people around the world.
Be It Further Resolved, that we call for a model similar to that of the Responsibility to Protect to apply to the lives of LGBT people.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) represents an important step forward in the long historical struggle to save lives and guard the wellbeing of people endangered by conflict. It holds that states have the responsibilities as well as interests and duty to shield their own populations from murder. This approach is bold and important.
Repeatedly, our consciences have been seared by the horrors of genocide and today we are challenged again by that possibility when protections are publicly and officially removed from a class of people
We are reminded of our shared responsibility for the international community’s failure to act in the face of genocide in the 20th century. Our new century can and must be better than the last—more deeply rooted in humane values, more committed to universal rights.
The Responsibility to Protect was adopted by all 192 UN member states at the world summit in 2005; the Security Council reaffirmed the commitment and the related principle of protection in Resolution 1674.
Be It Further Resolved, that we call for preventative diplomacy and internal mediation which prevents anti-LGBT violence. We call for strengthening of the United States and the United Nations to engagement in the internal human rights architecture and specific intervention in any country where fines, imprisonment and the death penalty are in place or being considered for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies.
We must not wait for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing before we act. The decision to implicitly and explicitly give a license to States to tolerate or implement atrocities against gay and lesbian people is a craven decision which disregards the dignity and worth of all persons.
Humanitarian policy concerns must build up the institutions that make a society resilient in the hour of crisis; including communities, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, schools, independent media, civil society organizations and governments. These institutions must not sponsor discrimination, persecution and genocide. | <urn:uuid:8a5fb2dc-2ae5-45b2-9264-3aeb1f45d1d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.soulforce.org/blogs/resolution-of-the-un-faith-coalition-for-lgbt-human-rights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942611 | 1,045 | 2.296875 | 2 |